February 20, 2006

HOLY MASTHEAD! EDITOR SHIFT SHAKES GOTHAM MAGAZINES

Jason Binn, the CEO of Niche Media, has shaken up the masthead at the flagship of his celebrity-friendly magazine empire, Gotham magazine, and at its summertime sidekick, Hamptons Magazine. He's...

OILFIELD VIOLENCE RAISES MORE PRICE FEARS

Oil traders were nervous today as prices shot higher after kidnapping rampages and wild rocket attacks by rebels rocked Nigeria's oilfields. Trading in New York is suspended today for a...

WEB TRAFFIC - CARMAKERS PLAN HARD-DRIVING INTERNET AD PUSH

Carmakers are gearing up for a big shift to Internet advertising, a move that will cut into the billions auto giants spend with television networks, newspapers and other traditional media....

GAME ON - COMPETING FOR THE BIG PROMOTION

THIRTYSOMETHINGS Laura Hansen and Emily Starr (not their real names) were best friends ever since their days as sorority sisters at Boston University . . . until promotion time, that...

OFFICE READS

HOW TO REDUCE WORKPLACE CONFLICT AND STRESS By Anna Maravelas Career Press, $14.99 CONFLICT and stress; yeah, we've all got that. But few of us know how to - as...

'TODAY' READY TO LOSE KATIE

IT'S exactly 100 days until Katie Couric's contract on the "Today" show expires - and NBC seems to be preparing for bad news. Two news leaks over the weekend indicate...

NOTHING LIKE A DAME - ATKINS HAS NO 'DOUBT' IN OFFSTAGE COMMENTS

SHE may play a priggish nun - but get Eileen Atkins out of her habit, and she's one great dame. The woman The Post's Clive Barnes calls "one of the...

SHE SAID IT!

EILEEN Atkins has a way with words. Here are a few of her pithier pronouncements: * On marriage: "I think infidelity is the last reason for divorce. The top reason...

STARR REPORT

FX plays 'Race Card' FX is producing its firstever music video for "Black. White," which doesn't premiere until March 8 but is already causing a stir (cast was on "Oprah"...

MY THREE WIVES - 'BIG LOVE': NOT YOUR NORMAL NEIGHBOR

With a cast so sterling that it's breathtaking, "Big Love" is part daring TV, part "Desperate Housewives" WITH the publication in the last few years of two phenomenal books -...

ALL THE RIGHT MOVES - BIG TWIST JAZZES UP SPANISH 'DANCING'

WHILE you were watching "Desperate Housewives" last night, the biggest phenomenon in Spanish-language TV in years was dancing to a different beat a few clicks up the dial. "Bailando por...

PIMP MY CLOSET! - TAILOR TRICKS THAT MAKE YOU CHIC FOR CHEAP; HEM & HAUTE - OLD CLOTHES NEVER DIE - THEY BECOME 'RECONSTRUCTED VINTAGE'

JUST because skinny jeans are in and all you have are bell-bottoms doesn't mean you need to be out of fashion. With a little work - or a quick trip...

DOG-KENNEL HORRORS

A notorious dog dealer forced thousands of loving pets into filthy, freezing and overcrowded pens, where many died of starvation, sickness or injury while waiting to be sold for use...

GODFATHER FACING RAT INFESTATION

Call it the March of the Rats. When acting Bonanno boss Vincent "Vinny Gorgeous" Basciano goes on trial this week, he'll face an extraordinary number of Mafia turncoats. The Brooklyn...

CAPO'S RAT INFESTATION

Call it the March of the Rats. When acting Bonanno boss Vincent "Vinny Gorgeous" Basciano goes on trial this week, he'll face an unprecedented number of Mafia turncoats, sources say....

GROPING RAP AT 'SPECIAL TOUCH'

A female employee has filed a $100 million sexual-harassment suit against Special Touch Home Care Services - claiming the CEO took the Brooklyn company's name literally. Janice Worthen-Caldwell, 47, who...

WELD'S BID SET TO GET BIG BOOST FROM BRUNO'S BACKING

FORMER Mass. Gov. William Weld's bid to win the Republican nomination for governor will soon get a major boost: the backing of Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, GOP insiders have...

NASSAU DA RICE HARDBOILED

New Nassau County DA Kathleen Rice is no Denis Dillon - and to prove it, she's declaring war on every criminal he was soft on, she claims. Last week, Rice...

IRAQI POL HAILS OUR GI 'KNIGHTS' - MAYOR'S LETTER THANKS U.S. TROOPS FOR LIBERATING HIS CITY

WASHINGTON - An Iraqi mayor has written a dramatic letter to the commander of coalition forces, praising U.S. troops as "lion hearts" and "knights" for liberating his city from al...

I'M DA BOMB: MR. BRITNEY

Kevin Federline must already know his rap album is going to bomb - he compares its release to the devastation of war. "Sure, there'll be the initial shock and awe,"...

MIKE 'CALLS' FOR SCHOOL BUCKS

Mayor Bloomberg is taking his fight to get more money for city schools from Albany lawmakers to the people. During his weekly radio address yesterday, Bloomberg asked New Yorkers to...

ISRAEL SAYS 'NO MA$' TO HAMAS

JERUSALEM - Israel defiantly halted the transfer of $55 million in tax money to the new Palestinian government and its Hamas-controlled "terrorist" parliament yesterday. But the Israeli government held off...

'SPEEDING' DRIVER KILLS L.I. MAN

A Long Island man was struck and killed by a speeding car as he crossed a busy stretch of road in Lake Grove, police said yesterday. Errol Katz, 21, of...

BILL JOINS HILL IN POTSHOT AT VEEP

Former President Bill Clinton yesterday echoed his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, and blasted Team Bush's "enormous penchant for secrecy" and saying that caused the storm over Vice President Dick...

MUSLIM HACK ATTACK ON WESTERN WEB SITES

WASHINGTON - Muslim computer-hacker gangs have launched a massive attack on Danish and Western Web sites as part of the mass protests across the Arab world over the publication of...

FOWL-WARY FRANCE IS TOLD: BON APPÉTIT!

"Eat chicken!" That declaration was made by the French agriculture minister yesterday after France confirmed its first avian-flu case in a dead duck. "The first step consumers can take in...

WEINER POOPS ON $$ FOR DOG VESTS

The Department of Homeland Security throws away anti-terror money on bizarre projects in places that face far less danger than New York - like Columbus, Ohio, which got $7,000 for...

NYPD BRASS SLAP 100 BLACKS BOSS

The head of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement was slapped with disciplinary charges last week - one day after submitting his retirement papers - because he ripped Police Commissioner Ray...

CRASH KILLED 10

The Defense Department yesterday confirmed that 10 of the 12 members aboard the two Marine Corps helicopters that crashed off the Horn of Africa Friday were, in fact, dead. The...

RAGING BLAZE IN B'KLYN - DOZENS LEFT HOMELESS IN APT. DISASTER

An 80-year-old woman and several other terrified elderly residents were plucked to safety by hero firefighters battling a ferocious blaze that left dozens homeless in Brooklyn yesterday. "Thank God I'm...

WEALTHY & STEALTHY - SOLE $365M POWERBALL WINNER MUM

The power is with one lucky stiff in Nebraska today, as lottery officials revealed that a Powerball ticket sold in a Lincoln convenience store has the winning numbers for the...

PORT OF GALL: GOPER IN SPLIT WITH BUSH

House Homeland Security Chairman Peter King, a key Republican, yesterday said he fears al Qaeda could infiltrate the Arab firm in line to run New York's ports as he flatly...

GUN RING BUSTED - NYPD BLUE SMASHES BLACK MARKET

Cops yesterday dismantled a massive interstate gun-running ring - aided by eagle-eyed detectives who spotted one suspect stashing his arsenal of weapons in a Porta-Potty. Undercover detectives in "Operation Tripod"...

MARTHA'S DREAM WAS TO BUMP TRUMP

Martha Stewart had two words for Donald Trump: "You're fired!" But she never got to use them. The lifestyle diva reveals in Newsweek magazine this week that she was hoping...

KID HURT AS STAIRS COLLAPSE

A 13-year-old boy was injured after falling through a marble staircase that collapsed in a Harlem building yesterday, authorities said. Aaron Renee had been visiting his grandmother on the fourth...

DRIVER DIES IN CUSTODY

A Brooklyn man died of an apparent heart attack Saturday while in police custody after having been arrested for driving with a suspended license, sources said yesterday. Andres Otero, 49,...

REGGAE WAY - BOB MARLEY AVE. IS IN THE WORKS

A move's afoot to get the city to "Get Up, Stand Up" and rename part of a major Brooklyn street after Bob Marley. The motion to honor the Jamaican reggae...

ALARMING RACKET IN BROOKLYN - NO. 1 IN GRIPES VS. AUTO BLARE POLLUTION

More people in Brooklyn complain about car alarms than in any other borough despite the fact it has only half as many cars as Queens. Last year, there were 568...

SCALPEL POISED FOR STATE'S $ICK HOSPS

New York's financially ailing hospitals - operating with thousands of empty beds - face drastic surgery or closure under cost-cutting plans eyed by state officials, The Post has learned. New...

PERV TEACH CHEAT - HUBBY IN AFFAIR: SUIT

ALBANY - A prominent Albany-area banker did not lack for female companionship while his Catholic-school teacher wife was sleeping with a 16-year-old student, an explosive divorce filing charges. Thomas Geisel...

CLASSY PARENTS

The city Department of Education is standing behind its parent coordinators. Despite a city Independent Budget Office call to save $12.8 million by making the position of parent coordinator a...

ROGER RAI$ES HELL - FURY OVER SALARY

Transit-union boss Roger Toussaint treated himself to big raises during the same years bus and subway workers settled for meager ones - a move opponents say is not only improper,...

HORNY SEADOG HOWLS - DEMANDS NEW TRIAL

Long Island's horny harbormaster wants a new trial, claiming the judge who oversaw his losing battle against the Town of Huntington failed to disclose a conflict of interest involving her...

HALF-MILLION HOMES COULD GO DARK

Utility companies are scrambling to meet a projected power shortage in the New York metro area that industry experts fear could mean summertime blackouts for 400,000 to 500,000 homes by...

NYPD DAILY BLOTTER

THE BRONX (s, lcf) * A man was shot and killed in Unionport last night. The 43-year-old victim, whose name was withheld pending family notification, was standing on Gleason Avenue...

'BROKEBACK' RIDES HIGH AT BRIT AWARDS

Gay cowboys - and Yanks - ruled London last night, when Oscar favorite "Brokeback Mountain" scooped up four prizes, leading the American dominance of the British Film Academy awards. The...

WEINER POOPS ON ANTI-TERROR $$ FOR DOG VESTS

The Department of Homeland Security throws away anti-terror money on bizarre projects in places that face far less danger than New York - like Columbus, Ohio, which got $7,000 for...

NBC WAS RIGHT . . . AND IT WON'T HAPPEN AGAIN

BY losing a gold medal to mindless, perhaps commerce-conditioned showboating Friday, Lindsey Jacobellis has created a golden opportunity. Consider that Friday night NBC's Jimmy Roberts and then Bob Costas gently,...

JOE JOINS A-ROD DEFENSE

YANK NOTES TAMPA - It's the money. At least that's part of the reason Joe Torre believes the opposition continues to rip Alex Rodriguez. A few days after Derek Jeter...

INDY TALKS TO DECIDE CHAD'S FUTURE

One day he's renegotiating a new deal to stay in New York, the next day he's on his way out of the only place he's ever played. And yet another...

'NOVA CLAWS HOYAS

Villanova 75 - Georgetown 65 VILLANOVA, Pa. - It began innocently enough - a grab here, a hand check there, a push, a shove and suddenly Villanova had exactly what...

DECODING BODE - COACH CAN'T FATHOM SKIER'S FAILURES

TURIN, Italy - Even Bode Miller's coach can't figure the enigmatic skier out. "I've given up trying," said U.S. ski coach Phil McNichol in a phone interview yesterday with The...

INTROSPECT CAUGHT AT WIRE

In the $65,000 Hollie Hughes Handicap, Introspect, a speedy 6-year-old N.Y.-bred gelding off at 8-1 under Norberto Arroyo Jr., looked on way to first victory in 22 starts dating back...

ST. RAY'S WINS ONE FOR HODGE

H.S. HOOPS: St. Rays 84 - Cardozo 70 Julius Hodge hit a game-winning jumper with eight seconds left on Saturday night, the kind of dramatic play the 6-4 guard has...

EMILY'S EAGER TO GO

TURIN, Italy - Two days before the biggest competition of her young figure skating career, Emily Hughes proclaimed herself ready for tomorrow's Olympic short program. After going through a 40-minute...

AGOSTO AND BELBIN DANCE INTO SECOND

Turin 2006 Notebook TURIN, Italy - The American ice dancing team of Ben Agosto and Tanith Belbin moved closer to a medal last night, jumping from sixth place to second...

EAST BEST - LEBRON SPARKLES IN VICTORY

East 122 - West 120 HOUSTON - Maybe the key to winning an All-Star Game is assembling as many players from the same team as possible and let their familiarity...

BUS ON BOARD WITH NBC

Jerome Bettis will be a part of NBC's Football Night in America's studio show next season. NBC made the announcement last night during its Olympic coverage as it had Bettis...

BILLY'S SONG - WAGNER A NEW REASON TO PLAY MET-ALLICA

PORT ST. LUCIE - Billy Wagner is hardwired to succeed. He knows this because he fears failure so much. Before "Enter Sandman" comes blasting through the ballpark - yes, New...

NHL COULD USE OLYMPIC SPIRIT

TURIN, Italy - A rock named Peter Forsberg, in a very hard place, suited up for Team Sweden twice this weekend in spite of groin problems that have cost the...

TWO RIGHTS - NADY, DIAZ BOTH FEEL THEY HAVE LEAD RF ROLE

PORT ST. LUCIE - The deal happened in November, with the Mets moving Mike Cameron to the Padres for Xavier Nady. When it went down, it didn't take long for...

BITTER SWEDE - U.S. ANYTHING BUT GOAL-DEN AFTER ANOTHER LOSS

TURIN, Italy - It's a new, one-game elimination Olympic hockey tournament starting Thursday night and, thanks to an ever-widening 16-goal differential over Latvia, the U.S. hockey team is all-but in...

BIG UNIT DOESN'T KNOW THE DRILL

TAMPA - Exhibit A was on display yesterday morning at Legends Field in regards to the impossibility of teaching a mature dog fresh tricks. On a back field, Randy Johnson...

TOO EARLY TO 'TEL - OCTAVIO COULD BE STEAL, BUT NOT YET

TAMPA - Mariano Rivera leads the Yankees' veteran relievers through a pickoff drill on a back diamond at Legends Field while the player to be named later looks on from...

NATE SHOW - ROBINSON HOUSEHOLD NAME NOW

HOUSTON - When 5-foot-7 Spud Webb won the Slam Dunk Contest during NBA All-Star Weekend in 1986, it proved to be a blessing and a cruse. It was a blessing...

CANADA BLANKED AGAIN

TURIN, Italy - You think the Americans, coming here with a realistic shot at the bronze, are feeling the walls closing in on them while scoring only one goal a...

HUMBER REMAINS HUNGRY

MET NOTES PORT ST. LUCIE - Seven months to the day since Philip Humber had Tommy John surgery, the Mets' young pitching prospect sounds as if his recovery is moving...

WEIRD BUT TRUE

Luz Marrufo loved eating pinto beans - until last week. That's when the 28-year-old DeKalb, Ill., nurse's assistant opened a can of pinto beans as she prepared a meal for...