August 25, 2005
FLEECING SENIORS - BENEFITS STRANGELY OMIT GAS PRICE RISE
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amIt's time to cheat old people again. This little scheme happens every year. The increase in payments that Socia-Security recipients wil-receive in January is based on the cumulative rise in...
HIT FOR BOSTON - FIDELITY'S ELECTRONIC EXCHANGE TARGETS NYSE
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amAnother New York-Boston rivalry is in the works, but this time the battle will be on the trading floor instead of the baseball diamond. Beantown's Fidelity Investments - long one...
NYC TARGETS FIRMS WITH SUDAN TIES
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amCity Comptroller William C. Thompson Jr. is launching a campaign designed to ensure that the stocks in New York City's pension funds don't have exposure to Sudan, a terrorist-supporting country...
WARHOL TO SOUP UP LEVIS
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amPerhaps life really does imitate art. Levi Strauss & Co. said yesterday that it will introduce a line of clothing imprinted with images from the works of Andy Warhol, who...
CONDE GETS WSJ STAR - LIPMAN TO LEAD STARTUP BIZ MAG
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amWith a head-turning hire of a star Wall Street Journal editor, glitzy publisher Conde Nast served notice yesterday that it is making a major foray into the risky world of...
A SPITEFUL SPAT - INDIE SAYS WARNER BAND'S GOLD IS ILLEGIT
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amNothing like a feisty spat to liven up the music industry's summer doldrums. The cast of characters include an indie label, a major record company, the Recording Industry Association of...
TIME TO CHEAT THE OLD PEOPLE
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amIt's time to cheat old people again. This little scheme happens every year. The increase in payments that Social Security recipients will receive in January is based on the cumulative...
BEAVIS SCORES AWARD SHOW
August 25, 2005 | 4:00am'BEAVIS & Butt-Head" are making a come back - sort of. MTV's slacker duo, who retired after their hit 1996 movie, will return to television as presenters on Sunday's "MTV...
DOWN GETS UP
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amNO matter how many times you listen to "Mezmerized," the oddball CD tour de force by System of a Down, it doesn't prepare you for the wild weirdness of these...
SPEECH-TO-TEXT CELLPHONE HAS HANG-UPS
August 25, 2005 | 4:00am'EXPERIENCE totalitarianism." "Wilson later." "Louisiana wonderment technique." This isn't a new secret-agent code befitting Jason Bourne, but some of gibberish I got when I tried out a new speech-to-text cellphone....
XENA TURNS INTO BUFFY
August 25, 2005 | 4:00am'XENA" star Lucy Lawless is going batty in a new CBS film. The brunette bombshell will reprise her role as Dr. Maddy Rierdon, a bug specialist and college professor from...
STARR REPORT
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amIt's all the talk You've heard of "niche programming"? The Weather Channel has a new talk show coming down the pike called "Weekend View." According to Weather Channel info, the...
LIGHTER SCALES OF JUSTICE - 'DIVORCE' JUDGE DROPS LBS.
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amHERE comes the judge - about 70 lbs. lighter than last season. "Divorce Court" star Judge Mablean Ephriam slimmed down over the summer, just in time for the seventh season...
A HIP HOPPER - MOVIE STAR'S LEAP TO TV
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amTHE first question for Dennis Hopper is obvious: What on Earth is he doing in a prime-time TV series? How Hopper - an iconoclastic movie legend who had avoided regular...
THE CULT OF RACHEL - FASHION'S MOST POWERFUL (AND UNKNOWN) STYLE TRENDSETTER
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amTHE most influential person in fashion right now isn't Vogue's Anna Wintour, Chanel's Karl Lagerfeld, or even pop star-turned-designer Gwen Stefani. She's an unknown stylist from Los Angeles who has...
DRESSED UP FOR VJ'S BIG NIGHT
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amTHERE'S no red carpet at this year's MTV Video Music Awards - the Miami event is using a white carpet. Which poses a problem for VJ Susie Castillo, who will...
TEARFUL TOT SLAYER GUILTY
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amThe Long Island man who pummeled his girlfriend's toddler to death because the child cried too much pleaded guilty yesterday to the heinous act - and cried himself when recounting...
DRIVER SHOT AFTER FATAL BIKER HIT
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amA driver struck and killed a motorcyclist on a Newark street last night - then was shot and wounded while he tried to help the dying man, police said. The...
WEIRD BUT TRUE
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amBulldozers and booze don't mix. Just ask the two Ohio cops who had to run for their lives when an allegedly liquored-up man tried to mow them down with his...
WELD WALLOPED IN HIS FIRST GOV POLL
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amWASHINGTON - Former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld starts out way behind in his bid to become New York governor, since Democrat Eliot Spitzer holds a commanding lead of nearly 3-1...
CORLEONES WOULD HAVE WHACKED THIS TRAITOR
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amTHE trouble with mob turncoat "Mikey Scars" DiLeonardo is that he is downright un- American. DiLeonardo was telling prosecutor Mike McGovern the reasoning behind mob shakedowns. "Like any other government,...
TEARS FOR N.Y. HERO - RANGEL JOINS WIDOW, TOT AT WASH. HTS. FUNERAL
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amHis life cut short in an ambush in Iraq, a soldier, father and beloved husband was mourned yesterday by his family and saluted by his community. Army Spc. Jose Luis...
NYPD DAILY BLOTTER
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amMANHATTAN * Police yesterday were asking for the public's help in finding a 14-year-old boy (above) who disappeared from a public pool on the Lower East Side. Edmond Tillman was...
GIANTS TO SALUTE 9/11 HEROES
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amSept. 11 falls on a Sunday this year - and 28 NFL teams will start their seasons on that sad day. Fourteen games are scheduled, with the Giants planning a...
DOING THEIR DUTY - DAD & 5 SONS IN IRAQ
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amWASHINGTON - President Bush yesterday spotlighted a brave military mom whose husband and five sons have served in Iraq - a clear contrast with anti-Bush protester Cindy Sheehan, who's demanding...
COURT KEEPS ST. PAT'S RECTOR FROM PAL'S KIDS
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amThe St. Patrick's Cathedral rector accused of cavorting with his married assistant has been barred from being around her kids when she visits them, sources said yesterday. Monsignor Eugene Clark,...
FALWELL FALLS IN NAME GAME
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amThe Rev. Jerry Falwell has lost his name. A federal appeals court yesterday denied Falwell's bid to wrest fallwell.com (with two L's) from a Manhattan man who used it to...
HILL'S HOME-FRONT JOBS BATTLE
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amWASHINGTON - All eyes are on Sen. Hillary Clinton as a federal commission mulls the fate of two upstate military bases - and nearly 3,000 Empire State jobs. Clinton has...
CITIES' 'LEAN' TIMES - MAPPING POLITICAL PERSUASION
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amSick of right-wing conservatives? Now you can tell them where to go - Provo, Utah. That's the capital city of conservative America, according to a report released yesterday by a...
NOW LISTEN UP - * MORE GOV AUDIO * BUG ON AIDE'S LINE * WASN'T GOV'T JOB
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amThere are more tapes! That's the conclusion of a top forensic audio detective after analyzing the 45-minute tape of secret conversations involving Gov. Pataki and others, excerpts of which were...
RING GAL SAYS EX IS A REAL KNEE JERK
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amTalk about an indecent proposal! A Queens college student has been ordered to return the $53,000 engagement ring given to her by her millionaire ex-boyfriend - who also allegedly gave...
DE NIRO PUTS RAP ON MAID
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amRobert De Niro's ex-maid is a few suds short of a full mop bucket if she thinks that she was so badly mistreated that she was driven to steal, the...
WHIRLING WEINER SPINS AROUND FROM 'NO' TO 'YES' ON TAX CUTS
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amANTHONY WEINER has done a dramatic turn about on taxes - at least according to his own words. He's pitching a middle-class tax cut now, but just three years ago...
FATAL SMACK SHOCK - GIRLS SIMPLY OD'D: ME
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amTwo beautiful coeds died last week from a heroin and cocaine overdose - and not from the effects of a poisoned batch of narcotics, the city Medical Examiner's Office announced...
AMAZON MIRACLE - B'KLYN CLAN CLIMBS FROM FIERY PLANE WRECKAGE IN PERU JUNGLE
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amSix Brooklyn family members waded through thigh-high mud while being pelted with hail to escape a burning plane that broke in half, killing 41 people, during an emergency landing in...
SCRAWL STANDS TALL - PRO-GRAFFITI BASH BESTS CITY LAWYERS
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amThousands of New Yorkers attended a multicolored block party devoted to graffiti art yesterday despite the city's unrelenting objections to the event. Although Mayor Bloomberg and City Councilman Peter Vallone...
COP DRAGGER HAD PILL STASH
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amA motorist who sped down Broadway with a police officer hanging out his window had enough painkillers in his SUV to open a rolling drugstore, prosecutors said yesterday. Hugo Palomino's...
BUSH IS HILL'S '08 WAR 'ALLY'
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amBIZARRELY enough, Sen. Hillary Clinton now seems to be counting on President Bush to help her win the White House in 2008 by succeeding in Iraq. Clinton has stayed pretty...
MIKE AND FREDDY IN CLASS WARFARE
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amA classroom brawl broke out between Mayor Bloomberg and Democratic hopeful Fernando Ferrer over the city's dreadful high school graduation rate. Bloomberg said Ferrer is a dunce for repeatedly using...
'PHONY' ILLNESS STIRS UP SOME REAL OUTRAGE FOR SURVIVORS
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amBreast cancer survivors were howling mad yesterday after mob matron Victoria Gotti backtracked and admitted she didn't have breast cancer - despite saying she did in a publicity-generating interview out...
'I KNEW IT WAS GOING TO LOOK LIKE PROMOTING MY SHOW. WHAT A COINCIDENCE!'
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amVICTORIA GOTTI unbuttoned her short-sleeved charcoal top and instructed me sternly, "I want you to feel this." Now, I realize that for many men on this planet, and at least...
HOOP TEEN'S DEATH PUZZLE
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amThe stunned and heartbroken family of a 14-year-old Brooklyn boy who mysteriously died on a basketball court said yesterday he had been healthy before the tragedy. Winston Travis Sewell, remembered...
MY DEVILISH 'KIDNAP' ORDEAL - BX. MOM TELLS HOW SHE FOUGHT OFF 'CRAZY' BID BY JUSTICE'S PERVY BEAU TO SNATCH 4-YEAR-OLD SON
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amNorva David thought the devil had come to snatch her son when Harlem minister Lawrence Craig burst into her Bronx apartment and tried to grab the 4-year-old, the traumatized mother...
D.A. FOE OUT OF 'ORDER' - 'LAW' STAR BACKS MORGY
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amLeslie Crocker Snyder's ad knocking Manhattan DA Robert Morgenthau for serving longer than all three fictional DAs on "Law & Order" combined might not have been such a good idea...
BX. DEM BIG SLAPS AT JEWS
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amBronx Democratic leader José Rivera has sparked a furor by saying Jewish legislators made a deal on a filtration plant in which "blood [was] taking care of blood." Rivera's startling...
TRICKY VICKI'S UNREALITY SHOW STIRS ANGER FOR CANCER WOMEN
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amBreast cancer survivors were howling mad yesterday after mob matron Victoria Gotti backtracked and admitted she didn't have breast cancer - despite saying she did in a publicity-generating interview out...
TEARY TOT-SLAYER GUILTY
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amThe Long Island man who pummeled his girlfriend's toddler to death because the child cried too much pleaded guilty yesterday to the heinous act - and cried himself when recounting...
BX. DEM BIG DRAWS 'BLOOD' WITH JEW RAP
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amBronx Democratic leader José Rivera has sparked a furor by saying Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and a fellow Jewish legislator made a deal on a hotly debated filtration plant in...
WELD GETS BIG WALLOP IN GOV POLL
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amWASHINGTON - Former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld starts out way behind in his bid to become New York governor, since Democrat Eliot Spitzer holds a commanding lead of nearly 3-1...
OLIVIA-BEAU PROBERS RIP DELAY
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amLOS ANGELES - Coast Guard investigators want to know why it took more than a week to report the disappearance of singer Olivia Newton-John's photographer beau, who vanished from a...
B'WAY COP DRAGGER PILL-ORIED
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amA motorist who sped down Broadway with a police officer hanging out his window had enough painkillers in his SUV to open a rolling drugstore, prosecutors said yesterday. Hugo Palomino's...
THAT &#$% GOTTI - JR. RAGED, CUSSED AT SLIWA-SHOOT 'MESS'
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amA mob turncoat who claims he still loves John "Junior" Gotti fingered him yesterday for orchestrating the sensational kidnapping of radio host Curtis Sliwa - but claimed his former pal...
BX. MOTHER'S 'KIDNAP' ORDEAL - RECOUNTS HORROR OF FIGHTING OFF 'CRAZY' BID BY JUSTICE'S BOYFRIEND TO SNATCH HER 4-YEAR-OLD SON
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amNorva David thought the devil had come to snatch her son when Harlem minister Lawrence Craig burst into her Bronx apartment and tried to grab the 4-year-old, the traumatized mother...
FOOTBALL GIANTS TO SALUTE 9/11 HEROES
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amSept. 11 falls on a Sunday this year - and 28 NFL teams will start their seasons on that sad day. Fourteen games are scheduled, with the Giants planning a...
SPECIAL TYREE CATCHING ON - MAKING PLAYS AT WIDE RECEIVER
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amALBANY - Some players rise, some fall during the demanding month of training camp. As the Giants bid adieu yesterday to this phase of preparation, there's no doubt David Tyree's...
INJURED STRAHAN IFFY TO FACE JETS
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amGIANT NOTES ALBANY - As Giants training camp came to an end yesterday, defensive end Michael Strahan missed a second day of practice with what the team was calling strained...
BAKER LIKES NEW ROLE - JETS' RECIPE INCLUDES TIGHT END
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amFew people were upset when the Jets let go widely unpopular offensive coordinator Paul Hackett this offseason. Tight end Chris Baker may have been at the top of the list...
BOSS' HORSE GETS EARLY TRAVERS NOD
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amSARATOGA SPRINGS - Despite not having raced in four months since finishing seventh as the favorite in the Kentucky Derby, George Steinbrenner's Bellamy Road was installed the 2-1 morning-line choice...
NO DEAL FOR ABRAHAM
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amJET NOTES Reports have circulated that John Abraham is on the verge of coming to terms with the Jets and reporting to camp, but yesterday one of his agents disagreed....
RAMON IN ZONE AT PLATE
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amMET NOTES PHOENIX - Doug Mientkiewicz has over 100 more at-bats than him. Kazuo Matsui has over 70 more. But the Mets' backup catcher has more RBIs than both players....
LIBS CAN'T STOP NOW
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amThe Liberty's place in the postseason is assured since they have clinched third place in the WNBA's Eastern Conference, but coach Pat Coyle still thinks there is something to be...
ARTEST LEAVES BRAWL BEHIND
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amCorporate America wants more than an apology. It wants total contrition from Ron Artest. It wants the Queensbridge native, who grew up in a world without white picket fences and...
NAUGHTY NEW YORKER SCORES
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amNaughty New Yorker took final leg of "Big Apple Triple" rallying wide on far turn, then wearing down Carminooch in long drive to win $150,000 Albany for NY-bred 3-year-olds by...
UNLUCK OF DRAW - OPEN PAIRINGS CRUEL TO SERENA & VENUS
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amWhen the women's draw wasn't as deep, when the Williams sisters were pictures of perfect health, Venus Williams and Serena Williams met annually in a Grand Slam Final. But entering...
YANKS' BUSH LEAGUE BATS
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amCombine a 91 mph fastball with a ridiculous 67 mph curveball and what do you have? Five measly hits off Toronto's Dave Bush over six innings. The Yankees were unable...
TOM GETS INSIDE INFO FROM SANDY
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amMET NOTES PHOENIX - Earlier this year when Tom Glavine was struggling, he got a phone call from another terrific lefty who wanted to help him out - Sandy Koufax....
MIKE'S WILD INNING SHOULD CHANGE GOAL
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amWILD card? The most renowned sports franchise in the history of mankind don't need no stinking wild card. Unless, of course, that's its only way into the playoffs. Then the...
YANKS STILL WILD FOR EAST RACE
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amWILD card? The most renowned sports franchise in the history of mankind don't need no stinking wild card. Unless, of course, that's the only way into the playoffs. Hey, the...
MORE MOOSE DROPPINGS - JAYS' BIG INNING BURIES MUSSINA, YANKS
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amBlue Jays 9 - Yankees 5 Mike Mussina didn't expect the spanking he received from the Blue Jays in the fifth inning. Yet, he had an inkling the first four...
DOC STILL FUGITIVE FROM LAW
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amYANKEE NOTES Like everybody else, the Yankees didn't hear from Dwight Gooden yesterday. Gooden was on the run from the police after being stopped early Monday morning in Tampa for...
TORRE KEEPS ON TINKERING - MATSUI MOVES TO NO. 2 SPOT IN LINEUP
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amJoe Torre continued to tinker with his lineup last night against Blue Jays righty David Bush when he elevated Hideki Matsui from fifth to second, gave Bernie Williams the night...
RAZING ARIZONA - JAKE, WRIGHT POWER METS' 18-RUN NIGHT
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amMets 18 - D'backs 4 PHOENIX - It might be impossible for a team to play better than this. That run for the playoffs, that charge to the postseason, that...
AMAZIN' RACE - ROAD WINS KEEP METS IN WILD-CARD HUNT
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amPHOENIX - The Mets have won two games here in Arizona against the Diamondbacks. But by not only winning but winning the way they have - never trailing, never losing...
GREAT ESCA-PE - FELIX GOES FROM UNKNOWN TO HERO WITH ONE SWING
August 25, 2005 | 4:00amBy the time most Yankee regulars arrive at the ballpark, Felix Escalona is already walking around in a sweat-soaked T-shirt. There are two reasons why Escalona, the utility infielder who...