February 23, 2006
GABELLI MULLS ISLAMIC-FRIENDLY FUND
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amVeteran investor Mario Gabelli is looking to tap the vast Middle Eastern oil wealth by launching a new hedge fund that strictly adheres to Islamic, or Shariah, law. Such a...
NEWS CORP. PLANS NETWORK
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amNews Corp. said yesterday it will launch a new broadcast network to supply shows to its 10 local TV stations that will lose programming this fall after the WB Network...
TOUGH STAKE AT TW - MALONE SEEKS SAY
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amTime Warner's Carl Icahn problem is resolved, but it might have a new dilemma on its hands in the form of John Malone. Malone, the cable and media mogul who...
HELMSLEY EMPIRE LEASE UPHELD
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amIn a big win for Leona Helmsley, her former company Helmsley-Spear can continue to act as leasing agents for the Empire State Building and four other properties, the state's highest...
LOVE DOCTOR - 'SCARSDALE DIET' MURDER STILL RESONATES 25 YEARS LATER
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amJEAN Harris died for our sins. Yes, it's true. The woman who shot and killed "The Scarsdale Diet" doc, Herman "Hy" Tarnower, and may have even ghosted his best-selling book,...
ADVANCE FILM REVIEWS IN CRITICAL CONDITION
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amHOW do you keep a movie from being savaged by the critics? Don't let them see it. Fuhgeddaboud opening-day reviews for two new movies this weekend, "Tyler Perry's Madea's Family...
LADIES' CHOICE: HDTV
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amIF given the choice, most women would pick an HDTV set over a new pair of pricey Manolo Blahnik shoes. The findings, which run counter to the notion that women...
SONG & DANCE - OLYMPICS SKATE AROUND 'IDOL'
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amAgainst bobsledding and speed skating, "American Idol" won. Against women's figure skating - who knows? Most of the women's figure skating - traditionally, the most highly anticipated of all the...
STARR REPORT
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amVonzell on the stage Former "American Idol" contestant Vonzell Solomon tells Tyra Banks tomorrow (5 p.m./Ch. 9) that she's won the lead in a New York stage production of "The...
THE UNCOUNTED VOTES
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amFOX fixed a glitch yesterday on its "American Idol" Web site that may have been tapping into fans' wallets. After some "Idol" viewers complained that they believed their text-message votes...
THE BONE COLLECTORS - STARS GO WYLDE FOR DESIGNER'S SKULL STYLING
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amTHE Grateful Dead skull has gotten a makeover. You may not have heard of Thomas Wylde yet, but you've seen the edgy wares on every fashionable starlet from Lindsay Lohan...
SLAVES TO FAME - STAR ASSISTANTS SACRIFICE ALL TO 'FRIEND' CELEBS
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amYOU don't know their names, but you know who they are, because you'll see them in Us Weekly or In Touch or Page Six. They're the unnamed celebrity assistants, remaining...
RAPIST'S COURT SHOCKER
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amA defiant rapist stunned his outraged victim yesterday by standing up in court and declaring that like him, she had been wronged by the system - and he revealed her...
RAPIST COURT TAUNT - BARES VICTIM'S ADDRESS
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amA defiant rapist stunned his outraged victim yesterday by standing up in court and declaring that like him, she had been wronged by the system - and he revealed her...
RECOVERING GOV AT WORK IN HOSP
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amALBANY - Gov. Pataki spent yesterday in Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital recovering from his second emergency surgery in less than a week while attending to his state duties, a spokesman said. Pataki,...
'MISERY' DISPLAY IN THE PARK
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amComing soon to beautiful, bucolic Central Park - a sprawling tent city featuring ugly plastic tarps and rickety makeshift huts designed to make New Yorkers experience feelings of devastation and...
DEAD TOT FOUND IN LAUNDRY
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amA worker at a Long Island laundry company made a horrifying discovery: a dead newborn tangled in a delivery of soiled hospital sheets, cops said yesterday. The dead girl had...
'WHY KEEP MURDERER ALIVE AT TAXPAYER EXPENSE?'
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amJUDGE Anne Feldman yesterday assured New York that monster Marlon Legere will die in prison - but frankly, under the circumstances, I hope his veins get fitted for a needle...
YANKEES' STADIUM PITCH WINS
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amPlans to build a new Yankee Stadium are rounding the bases toward home. The city Planning Commission approved the $1.1 billion project yesterday by a 12-0 vote, with one abstention....
HOG-WILD WINNERS - 8 HAM-PLANT WORKERS CARVE UP $365M POWERBALL POT
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amEight workers at a Nebraska ham-processing plant can start living high on the hog - they've won the $365 million Powerball jackpot, the biggest lottery prize in history. That means...
DOCK WORKERS DU-BIASED AGAINST DEAL
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amThe men who load, unload and haul cargo to and from giant seagoing ships at Port Newark said yesterday they don't like the idea of going to work for people...
TRAGIC OARSMAN'S KIN SUE OVER DEATH CRASH
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amThe family of a rower killed in a predawn collision with a motorboat on the Harlem River last fall is suing the groups that provided the scull, along with the...
DOUBLE DEAL BEHIND THE TRUMP-DIVA 'FIRE'STORM
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amOnly the producer of "Survivor" could have come up with a better back-stabbing reality-show plot. Mark Burnett - whose TV blockbusters include "Survivor" - approached Martha Stewart before she went...
SLUM LORD $HOCK - TAX BREAK FOR VIOLATOR
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amA notorious Queens slumlord was blasted yesterday for racking up a staggering number of violations at his filthy, rundown buildings - while he gets hundreds of thousands of dollars in...
NAVY STAR 'RAPIST' - QB ATTACKED ME IN DORM: GAL
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amThe Naval Academy's star quarterback has been charged with raping a fellow student in her dorm room. In the latest of a series of scandals at the nation's prestigious military...
GIRL CLEARED IN H'WEEN EGG TOSSING
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amLess than a week after three high-school students pleaded guilty to nearly blinding a boy in a Halloween egg-tossing prank, a fourth teen avoided charges when a Long Island grand...
ARREST LOOPHOLE FREES GUN-TOTING THUG
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amThe state's highest court's decision to toss out the conviction of an armed man because cops didn't follow protocol when approaching him left many senior police officials puzzled yesterday. "I...
UNION BIG WEEPS AT WRIST-SLAP
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amA former International Longshoremen's Association bigwig who admitted to steering union contracts to a pharmaceutical company with reputed mob ties cried as he was sentenced to two years' probation yesterday....
NATALEE'S CAD ADMITS SEX LURES
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amThe prime suspect in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway admits he was a beachfront lothario who methodically picked up young tourists for sex on the resort island of Aruba, but...
NYPD DAILY BLOTTER
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amQUEENS * Police say Michael Ballister (above), 50, masquerades as a store manager to rob consumers hoping to get an under-the-counter bargain. He allegedly hangs out in Queens and Manhattan...
MIKE: TIME'S A-WASTE-IN'
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amJust as President Kennedy vowed we'd reach the moon before the '60s ended, Mayor Bloomberg has promised to get the stench out of Brooklyn before his term expires. Bloomberg told...
10 CITY TUITION AMNESTY BIDS
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amJust two days after the city Department of Education launched an amnesty program for its non-resident employees who improperly send their children to city schools for free, 10 people have...
'CYBER SWINDLERS' SHIPPED $21M TO EASTERN EUROPE
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amHundreds of Ukrainian spammers, Latvian "phishers" and Russian "spoofers" used a crooked Midtown Manhattan father-mother-son team to wire a whopping $21 million in stolen cyber-dollars back to Eastern Europe, prosecutors...
GOP: ELIOT'S $$ TAINTED
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amALBANY - The head of the state Republican Party yesterday called on Eliot Spitzer to return nearly $84,000 in donations to his gubernatorial campaign from a prominent law firm reportedly...
PREZ PIER-OUETTE - 'MISTAKE' NOT TO TELL CONGRESS SOONER
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amWASHINGTON - White House officials admitted yesterday they should have briefed Congress sooner about the administration's approval of a deal to let a United Arab Emirates-owned company oversee operations at...
DONALD HAILS MY 'WRITE' CALL ON LIAR MARTHA
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amI'M NOT big on I-told-you-so's. But I told you so, Donald. "You were right about Martha," the man called The Donald conceded to me yesterday. "You called her right. She...
JAILED FOREVER - COPS' KILLER GETS TWO LIFE TERMS - AND THEN SOME
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amA Brooklyn judge threw the book at convicted cop killer Marlon Legere yesterday, slamming him with two consecutive life sentences, plus an additional 25 years to life, for gunning down...
TOURISTS CAUGHT UP IN MOB SCENE
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amMiami real-estate agent Claude Attia wanted to do something meaningful during his few days in New York. So he wandered into the Manhattan federal courthouse - and smack into John...
STUBBORN BUSH OWN WORST ENEMY
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amPRESIDENT Bush is now putting his entire presidency at risk, thanks to incompetence by his staff - and his own I-know-best stubbornness on the port furor. Bush has landed fellow...
'KIDNAP VICTIM' A FUGITIVE: COPS
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amA mute mystery man who indicated he had been abducted, tortured and left in Times Square is wanted by cops in his upstate hometown, sources said. Investigators determined that he...
B'KLYN MAN GETS ANTHRAX - FAMED CHOREOGRAPHER HANDLED DRUM SKINS
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amA well-known city choreographer who founded a an African-themed dance troupe has been infected with anthrax, most likely from raw animals hides he used to make drums in a Brooklyn...
UNFRIENDLY FIRE - MA SUES CITY & OFFICER WHO SHOT HER COP SON
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amThe heartsick mother of slain Police Officer Eric Hernandez is filing a $50 million wrongful-death suit in the tragic "friendly fire" shooting of her son in The Bronx. Cynthia Salichs'...
BABY-SLAY DAD GETS 20 YRS.
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amWhen a 3-month-old boy died of battering and starvation two years ago in a Harlem shelter, nearly every bone in his tiny body was broken, prosecutors said yesterday - as...
HOME AIDE GUILTY OF TORTURE-SLAY
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amA money-hungry home-health aide faces 25 years to life in prison for the 2003 fatal torture and robbery of her frail former patient - an 85-year-old great-great-grandmother from East Harlem....
QUINN TAPS KEY COUNCIL AIDES
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amCouncil Speaker Christine Quinn said yesterday that she has tapped a White House alum and several politically connected operatives as aides. Elizabeth Fine, who had worked for President Bill Clinton,...
COLUMBIA CHANGES POLICY ON 'GUINEA PIG' KIDS
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amWASHINGTON - Columbia University says it will institute mandatory training for faculty members whose research involves children so it complies with federal rules protecting vulnerable youngsters from becoming "guinea pigs."...
RESERVOIR DOG'S RIP-OFF
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amA crook broke into a Department of Environmental Protection employee's vehicle on Staten Island and swiped a laptop computer with a disk containing information about the city's water-distribution system, police...
'TAMALE' MA'S TOT TAKES OFF
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amA 3-year-old Brooklyn boy was found wandering the streets yesterday after his mother left their apartment to sell tamales from a cart, police said. Bazan Guadulope, 36, was charged with...
VILLAGE MAN GETS ANTHRAX - FAMED DANCER HANDLED SKINS
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amA well-known city choreographer who founded an African-themed dance troupe has been infected with anthrax, most likely from raw animal hides he used to make drums in a Brooklyn warehouse,...
GANGLAND RAT 'SCARS' SCORES A HIT VS. OLD PAL JUNIOR
February 23, 2006 | 5:00am"Nobody was closer to John than me." Those were the words uttered by mob turncoat Michael "Mikey Scars" DiLeonardo as he jabbed a dagger into the back of former best...
WEB CHRONICLE OF 9/11 TRIBUTES
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amHeart-wrenching tributes to the victims of 9/11 will be collected in a new "digital repository" and accessed via a Web site launched by the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation yesterday....
CADAVER 'CREEP' TURNS SELF IN - INDICTED BODY-SNATCH 'HEAD' FACES DA
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amThe head of a biomedical firm accused of running a body-snatching ring turned himself in last night after a Brooklyn grand jury indicted him on charges of stealing bone and...
JACKO GETS DUMPED BY HIS LAWYERS
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amSANTA MONICA, Calif. Tom Mesereau, the legal eagle who saved Michael Jackson from jail in last year's child-sex trial, has moonwalked out of the singer's life and withdrawn from his...
35 IMMIGRANT HOODS GET BOOT
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amDozens of legal and illegal immigrants, convicted in the last year on drug and fraud charges, are being booted out of the country, authorities said yesterday. The 35 people were...
TAMALE MA'S TOT TAKES OFF
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amA 3-year-old Brooklyn boy was found wandering the streets yesterday after his mother left their apartment to sell tamales from a cart, police said. Bazan Guadulope, 36, was charged with...
L.I. EGG-TOSS TEEN CLEARED
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amLess than a week after three high-school students pleaded guilty to nearly blinding a boy in a Halloween egg-tossing prank, a fourth teen avoided charges when a Long Island grand...
HERO COPS SAVE FAMILY IN QNS. FIRE
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amThree plainclothes cops rushed into a burning home last night and rescued a Queens family, authorities said. Sgt. Joseph Mullahy and police officers John Roberts and Keith Ehrhart, of the...
HAMPTONS 'HOMING' IN ON RECORD - $62.5M ASKED FOR BEACH MANSE
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amHigh-profile entrepreneur Linda Wachner (left) is listing her oceanfront estate for a sky-high $62.5 million, the highest price ever asked for a Southampton Village home. The ocean- and bay-front property...
MARC MAY BE JOINING BOBCATS
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amNET NOTES The Nets appear likely to make a trade before today's deadline, after all. Marc Jackson was on the verge of being dealt to Charlotte, several league sources said....
NETS WORK SOME MAGIC - BARELY UNDO HORRID START
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amNETS 96 - MAGIC 93 It was halftime last night and the Nets, a team some forecast to win 50 games, were losing by 10 to Orlando, a team some...
CUTS, CURTIS HELP JET CAP
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amThe salary-cap-strapped Jets made some anticipated cuts to their roster to improve their cap problems yesterday. Veteran tackle Jason Fabini is gone, as are incumbent fullback Jerald Sowell and injured...
DEVS' LOU STAYING PUT
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amTed Nolan and anyone else interested in coaching the Devils can stop updating their resumes. The coaching search has been put on hold for the foreseeable future, and Lou Lamoriello...
SPOTLIGHT WON'T DAUNT DELGADO
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amPORT ST. LUCIE - Considering how pressurized and drama-filled New York City baseball can be, it wouldn't be surprising for a New York City ballplayer to want to live anywhere...
AUSTRIA'S SKI BOSS AWAITS TEST RESULTS
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amOLYMPIC NOTES TURIN, Italy - Austrian Ski Federation president Peter Schroecksnadel says the IOC still has not released doping results for 10 of his athletes because he believes they are...
THE GOAL: TO FINISH 2ND
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amPORT ST. LUCIE - You can believe that Brett Boone, almost 37 years old and a 13-year major league veteran, either knows something or is simply deluding himself when he...
SHANI, HEDRICK IN SHAKY TRUCE
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amTURIN, Italy - It should have been a beautiful moment - two Americans on the podium together. Instead it was another reminder of how ugly these Olympics have been for...
PEDRO'S ON COURSE
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amMET NOTES PORT ST. LUCIE - Pedro Martinez threw again yesterday and remains on schedule to perhaps throw off the base of the mound this weekend. "Hopefully during the weekend...
KRSTIC: DARKO BRIGHTENING UP
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amNET NOTES Nets center Nenad Krstic felt for friend and fellow Serb Darko Milicic. The No. 2 overall pick in 2003, Milicic was buried on Detroit's bench - sniffing only...
FRAN-BURY JUICE - KNICK DEAL PUTS STEVE IN STEPH'S BACKCOURT
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amThe guard known as "Stevie Franchise" proclaimed yesterday he's ready to save the Knick franchise. On his first day aboard Team Titanic, Steve Francis said he does not see the...
TREVOR'S 'EXCITED' AT ESCAPE
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amTrevor Ariza was in a barber's chair yesterday getting his waves tightened up when his cell phone started ringing. First his agent called, then Knick president Isiah Thomas. They called...
RANGERS SAY IT'S ICE TO BE BACK
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amWritten in blue marker on a dry-erase board outside the Rangers locker room was a message from absent coach Tom Renney: "Welcome Back Guys. 24 to Go." The dozen healthy...
HEAT WAVE HITS GARDEN
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amHeat 103 - Knicks 83 The most poignant moment in last night's 103-83 blowout loss to the Heat came as Nate Robinson glided in for a fast-break slam dunk. The...
STEPHON: NEW DUO CAN WORK TOGETHER
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amAfter last night's 103-83 Knick loss to Miami, a media member accidentally called Stephon Marbury "Steve." Marbury corrected him, but many basketball experts think he and new acquisition Steve Francis...
GUARANTEED: YANKEE TITLE - BOLD BOSS: WE ARE GOING TO WIN IT
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amTAMPA - George Steinbrenner sent a dazzling challenge to every major league team yesterday. "We haven't won it in a while," The Boss said of the World Series. "We are...
FIRST ORDER FOR GIAMBI
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amYANKEE NOTES TAMPA - His body feels strong and his mind is clear. Now Jason Giambi would like to be known as a full-time first baseman. "Joe [Torre] and I...
SASHA SHOOTS FOR GOLD TONIGHT - COHEN'S METTLE WILL BE TESTED
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amTURIN, Italy - Sasha Cohen is 4 minutes, 9 seconds from becoming the next American Superstar. That is how long her program is tonight, and that's how long it could...
IT'S A COLD WAR BETWEEN U.S., RUSSIA
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amTURIN, Italy - Irina Slutskaya does everything higher, everything faster, than every female skater in the world. Because some prefer dainty and elegant, not everybody thinks she does everything better,...
FRAN-BURY JUICE - KNICK DEAL PUTS FRANCIS IN MARBURY'S BACKCOURT
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amThe guard known as "Stevie Franchise" proclaimed yesterday he's ready to save the Knick franchise. On his first day aboard Team Titanic, Steve Francis said he does not see the...
CLYDE-PEARL II? IN THEIR DREAMS
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amLARRY Brown, good company man, was the first to seize the historical carrot. The rest of Basketball New York was wringing its hands over another senseless maneuver, but the men...
NETS WORK SOME MAGIC
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amNets 96 - Magic 93 Hey, sometimes, it's better to be lucky than good. And the Nets were a little bit of both last night. Actually, a lot of both....
VINCE PLAYS LIKE HE'S SEEING RED
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amJust in case anyone didn't hear about Vince Carter's post All-Star break message, he gave everyone a chance to see what he was talking about the other night in Milwaukee....
JAMAL'S DEAL SCARED MAGIC
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amKNICK NOTES The Magic were scared off by Jamal Crawford and his long-term deal two days ago, according to sources. As a result, Crawford likely will remain a Knick after...
BIG MIS-SKATE - U.S. TEAM KNOCKED OUT
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amTURIN, Italy - If it's any consolation to you, we're better that Kazakhstan. That's not worth much, just like in the end there was no value in the U.S. Olympic...
JOLICOEUR ENJOYING BIG FINISH
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amCHSAA HOOPS: Holy Cross 62 - Loughlin 53 Laurence Jolicoeur has been playing the best basketball of his life over the past month and he knows why. "There's a sense...
EARLY CHALLENGE FOR TORRE'S CREW
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amTAMPA - They began at the end. The Yankees gathered en masse for the first time in 2006 and the theme was established immediately and with all the subtlety of...
HUGHES HAPPY NO MATTER WHAT
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amTURIN, Italy - The day after skating to a personal best on the Olympic stage, Emily Hughes was all smiles. The 17-year-old from Great Neck is in seventh place with...
STEPH KEEPS FIRST IMPRESSION TO HIMSELF
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amStephon Marbury wasn't in a talking mood before last night's clash with the Heat, so his opinion on the Steve Francis trade wasn't immediately clear. "I don't know why you...
WEIRD BUT TRUE
February 23, 2006 | 5:00amKelly Rued is a soft-spoken Minnesota mom who attended Catholic school and invents games - but not the kind the nuns and priests who taught her would approve of. They're...