September 19, 2006

A ROBUST CPI MEANS A LITTLE MORE SOCIAL SECURITY

UNLESS the rapid decline in the price of gasoline screws it up, the raise coming to Social Security recipients should be a nice-sized one. On Friday, the government's Labor Department...

$1B PARK AVE. DEAL IS A STEAL - L&L WINS BID WAR

A long, complex negotiation has brought a new landlord to 425 Park Ave., raising the rare prospect of an entirely new development on the flourishing avenue between Grand Central Terminal...

VIDEO 'FOE'PLAY - WARNER, YOUTUBE INK DEAL

The music industry can't decide whether YouTube, the online video phenomenon, is a blatant copyright stealer a la Napster or an upstart Internet company with vast commercial potential. Yesterday, Warner...

KOHL'S INSIDERS CASHED IN BIG

Kohl's board members have sold more than $114 million worth of the company's stock in the past month, as shares of the mid-priced department store chain have soared. These are...

YAHOO! LAUNCHES BIGGEST AD BLITZ IN YEARS

Battling stiff competition from archrival Google and upstarts such as MySpace, Internet stalwart Yahoo! is launching its biggest ad blitz in years. The "Do You Yahoo!?" ads are aimed at...

FUND FLAMEOUT - GAS BET GONE BAD TORCHES HEDGIES IN A $5B INFERNO

Hedge fund giant Amaranth Advisors was clinging to life yesterday as its traders scrambled to sell holdings after a harebrained wager on natural gas cost the firm roughly half of...

FACE-OFF AT REVLON BAGS ANOTHER CEO

Ron Perelman is hoping to cure the ills of his struggling Revlon empire by installing his fourth CEO in just six years. The recent flop of Revlon's latest gamble -...

MORGAN STANLEY'S NEW LOOK

Morgan Stanley unveiled a redesigned logo that returns the Wall Street giant to its white shoe investment banking roots. The new logo - the Morgan Stanley name stated in a...

MORGAN STANLEY RETURNS TO ITS ROOTS

Morgan Stanley unveiled a redesigned logo that returns the Wall Street giant to its white shoe investment banking roots. The new logo - the Morgan Stanley name stated in a...

DIRECTORS AT KOHL'S CASH IN

Kohl's board members have sold more than $114 million worth of the company's stock in the past month, as shares of the mid-priced department store chain have soared. These are...

MOTLEY CRUE AND TYLER, TOO

IT was a crank-the-amps duel between hair-metal heroes Motley Crue and Boston's formidable rock giants Aerosmith when the two squared off at Jones Beach for the first of their two-night...

SOLO PEA EXHIBITS ATTITUDE

LET's get it out of the way. "London Bridge" is a love-it or hate-it tune with moronic, semi-sexual lyrics that anyone should be embarrassed to admit liking. Unfortunately, you just...

MAHER 'FREE' TO SPEAK: CBS

BILL Maher and CBS continue to disagree over a "Free Speech" segment featured on Katie Couric's "CBS Evening News." Maher claimed on his "Real Time" HBO show last Friday that...

STARR REPORT

Jay Leno announced last night that he's looking for another "Tonight Show" correspondent. Viewers can submit videos of themselves for the chance to join the show's other in-house correspondents (including...

DOG'S DAY - 'BOUNTY HUNTER' CLAIMS ARREST WAS GOVERNMENT'S SECRET DEAL WITH MEXICO

BOUNTY hunter Duane "Dog" Chapman says U.S. officials may have sold him out to Mexico in exchange for a convicted drug lord. Chapman, the star of A&E's "Dog the Bounty...

DOUBLE SHOT OF CAFFEINATED TALK

WILL Ferrell made his entrance dressed only in briefs, while Diane Sawyer made hers fully clothed. And that was just one of the differences between "The Megan Mullally Show" (featuring...

HEARTS OF STEAL - SLICK 'SMITH' A FAMILIAR HEIST

CBS's cool heist show, "Smith," is as slick as Dean Martin's hair, but as "been-there" as "Ocean's 14" - the one where you know Steve Guttenberg will play the George...

SPA-CE AGE TREATMENTS - LATEST IN FAT, WRINKLE FIGHTERS

IF the latest in spa miracles is to be believed, you can chew the fat with friends while a machine chews an inch of fat off your midsection. That's thanks...

THE FAST LANE - DO THE ROAD TRIP OF YOUR DREAMS - IN HALF THE TIME; FLY AWAY!

Just booking the trip was reward enough. After all that sound and fury about rising airfares and airport chaos, who wouldn't be thrilled to discover that for just $550, they'd...

N.J. SCORES STADIUM

The newest stadium for a New York-area sports team - a $200 million soccer and entertainment complex - breaks ground today across the Hudson River in tiny Harrison, N.J. The...

ANDY GIVES PIRRO POUNDING IN POLL

ALBANY - Andrew Cuomo has widened his lead over Jeanine Pirro in the race for attorney general to 17 percentage points, according to a poll released yesterday. The Siena College...

THE GREAT SPINACH MASSACRE - CRISIS EXPOSES ANOTHER SECURITY HOLE

'A typical U.S. city has less than a week's food on hand. What happens if the delivery chain breaks?' POPEYE ain't happy: Packaged spinach tainted with E. coli bacteria has...

EYE SPREAD OF FERTILIZER

The federal government should track sales of ammonium nitrate, an explosive fertilizer used to make truck bombs, Sen. Charles Schumer said yesterday. Last week, it was revealed that NYPD officers...

APPLE CHEERS QUIET HEROES - MEDALISTS HAVE DAY AT STADIUM

The winners of the fifth annual New York Post Liberty Medals usually hit their home runs far from the spotlight - but at Yankee Stadium the other night, a crowd...

ELITE APPLE CORPS - 500G GRANTS BOON FOR 7

It can't just be the water: Of the 25 winners of a MacArthur Foundation "genius" award to be announced today, seven are from New York City. "It's just the way...

SECURITY LEAK

He didn't use the bathroom, so now a Peruvian man who admitted to being in the country illegally is going to the can. David Rivera Cruzado, 39, who was kicked...

P.A. CHIEF SOUR ON NEW TOWER - WOULDN'T FORCE WORKERS BACK

The head of the agency building the Freedom Tower said he would rather resign than force his Port Authority employees to go to work in the soaring iconic tower at...

GOING TO MATTRESSES

A bill to ban the sale of used mattresses in a bid to counter bedbugs got no support yesterday from insect experts and the Bloomberg administration. Despite increased bedbug complaints,...

H'WEEN PERV GUILTY

A former Brooklyn Hospital medical resident pleaded guilty in Manhattan yesterday to a grotesque sex attack - during which he and his unconscious victim were wearing costumes after a Halloween...

USHER'$ RAZZLE DAZZLE

"Chicago" is Usher's kind of town, all right - the R&B star's stint has been so successful that the Broadway show has extended his stay by two weeks, through Oct....

IT PAYS TO BE GOOD - PLAN TO REWARD POOR

In an unprecedented move to battle poverty, Mayor Bloomberg an nounced yesterday that the city plans to copy a program that has worked in developing countries - and pay poor...

RACIST 'ANIMAL' GETS LIFE - KILLED WHITE MOM

A Westchester judge yesterday denounced a convicted murderer as "the face of evil" as he hit him with a 25-years-to-life sentence for the stabbing death of a woman - "because...

THE MANY MAHMOUDS OF NEW YORK

SO MANY Jews, so little time. Let all good citizens of this city give a rousing welcome to our distinguished guest, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Extra credit for saying that five times...

ROAMING MENACE - COP-DAD 'SLAYER' HAS VIOLENT PAST

The man accused of killing the elderly father of three New York City cops was menacing his Queens neighborhood despite a lengthy rap sheet filled with convictions for violent assaults...

FATAL HIT-RUN ON W. SIDE

A pedestrian was killed by a hit-and-run driver early yesterday as he crossed the West Side Highway in the Meatpacking District, police said. The unidentified victim, described as in his...

BUSH'S LITERAL ADVICE

President Bush yesterday promoted literacy to overcome the "hopelessness" that fuels radicalism in the Middle East, as he readied to push the United Nations today to stand up against Islamic...

CHANGING GUARD AT THE INTREPID

A change in command has been announced for the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, where Arnold Fisher announced he is stepping down as chairman of the board at the...

'LAW' BOOK FUROR - INSULTED ATT'Y SUES

A former Bronx prosecutor wants to make a defense lawyer-turned-author pay for calling her "sleazy," "mean" and "dowdy." Sarah Schall says she was slimed in David Feige's tell-all tome "Indefensible:...

RUDY N.H.-BOUND

Potential 2008 White House hopeful Rudy Giuliani will travel to politically crucial New Hampshire next month to headline a fund-raiser, officials said yesterday. It's the first political trip Giuliani has...

VACATION BRAVEST RESCUES MD. GIRL

A vacationing New York City firefighter showed that the Bravest know no boundaries - pulling a drowning girl from choppy seas in Maryland moments before rip tides claimed the lives...

NYPD DAILY BLOTTER

BROOKLYN * Police last night busted Gibson Winters (above), 20, and charged him with murder and criminal possession of a weapon in a Crown Heights slaying. Andrew Clennon, 27, was...

CLASSES AT WEST SIDE SCHOOL END WITH BANG

Parents of children at a Manhattan elementary school pulled their kids out of class yesterday, as workers building a high-rise condo across the street used dynamite to clear a foundation....

TWU RULE CHANGES SLAMMED

Transit-workers union President Roger Toussaint changed union election rules just weeks before members cast their ballots - a move opponents charge is a ploy to maintain his leadership. The new...

DISGUSTING HS MUGGING

Two Queens high-school freshmen have been charged as adults in the perverted mugging of a classmate - whom they allegedly stripped naked and urinated on right outside the school, police...

EX-PRODUCER'S DEMAND$ TICK OFF ASHANTI - ROYALLY

Ashanti testified in federal court yesterday in an effort to fend off a lawsuit by a former producer who knew the pop diva as a teen and who now is...

KILLER 'DWI' MOM - DAUGHTER'S PAL DIES

A self-described "roccer" mom got so boozed up at an East Village punk rock show that she attended with her underage daughter and the teen's pal that she drove the...

OFFICIALS: SAY NO TO SPINACH

Federal and state health officials are warning consumers to stay away from fresh spinach and products containing it until it has been determined what exactly sparked the current E. coli...

NETS' N.J. DEAL

The Nets, ready for any possible overtime in their battle to build an NBA arena in Brooklyn, have signed a five-year lease extension that allows them to play in New...

TRUMP DEAL IS ATTAX-ED

A Long Island official is slamming Donald Trump and state officials over a new catering-facility deal on Jones Beach - calling it an "obscene" arrangement that will allow the developer...

PENIS PATIENT IS RE-'MEMBERED'

Chinese surgeons performed the world's first penis transplant - but the patient couldn't mentally rise to the occasion and they had to remove it. The patient was a 44-year-old man...

STONE AGE TO SPACE AGE - ASTRO ANGEL IS ROCKETING OFF INTO HISTORY ... AS CAVEMAN LANDS IN THE CITY

He's an Iranian stuck in the Stone Age - she's an Iranian soaring straight into the Space Age. Rogue Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who infamously banned fast food and "indecent"...

FEDS LIST WHY GOTTI IS GUILTY

A federal jury will soon begin its deliberations in the trial of John "Junior" Gotti - after prosecutors yesterday borrowed from David Letterman and listed the "Top 20" reasons why...

DOG-HORROR SUIT - ADOPTED BEAST A KILLER

A New Jersey woman paid $300 to an animal shelter to have her Doberman pinscher destroyed after it bit her on the face and head, inflicting terrifying wounds that required...

BROOKE'S 'CHASE' ON HOLD - JUDGE DENIES BANK'S 'POWER' PLAY

A judge yesterday balked at allowing a bank to investigate whether Brooke Astor's son improperly siphoned off $18 million of her money - at least for now. Manhattan Supreme Court...

LANDMARK ABORT SUIT IS SETTLED

A Long Island woman who gave birth to a developmentally disabled boy after doctors allegedly botched her abortion inked a groundbreaking $4.2 million settlement yesterday. The agreement in Brooklyn Supreme...

ASHANTI TESTIFIES

Singer Ashanti testified in federal court yesterday in a bid to fend off a lawsuit by a former producer who knew the pop diva as a teen and who now...

FEDS' 20 REASONS TO CONVICT 'JUNIOR'

A federal jury will soon begin its deliberations in the trial of John "Junior" Gotti - after prosecutors yesterday borrowed from David Letterman and listed the "Top 20" reasons why...

ABORT 'BOTCH' PAYOFF - $4.2M FOR MOM

A Long Island woman who gave birth to a developmentally disabled boy after doctors allegedly botched her abortion inked a groundbreaking $4.2 million settlement yesterday. The agreement in Brooklyn Supreme...

BEATING BURNS BRAVEST - PALS FLOCK TO L.I. COURT TO FACE 'THUGS'

More than 200 seething firefighters packed a Long Island courthouse yesterday morning for the arraignment of three men charged with beating a decorated FDNY veteran unconscious on the fifth anniversary...

KILLER CANINE - SHELTER LET DOG ATTACK AGAIN, EX-OWNER CHARGES

A New Jersey woman paid $300 to an animal shelter to have her Doberman pinscher destroyed after it suddenly - and unexpectedly - bit her on the face and head,...

QAEDA'S PAPAL PREYERS - VOW WORLD WAR VERSUS CHRISTIANS

Muslim terrorists proved Pope Benedict XVI's point yesterday - vowing to fight Christianity and spill blood until Islam conquers the world. "You infidels and despots, we will continue our jihad...

GETTING CLOSE - BATTLIN' BOMBERS SURVIVE SHAKY 9TH, INCH TOWARD CLINCH

Yankees 7 - Blue Jays 6 TORONTO - If Mariano Rivera were wearing cleats last night, Joe Torre and Ron Guidry would have had a fight on their hands. Sitting...

METS LIVIN' IN CROWN TOWN - WAIT OVER AS AMAZIN'S CLINCH NL EAST

Mets 4 - Marlins 0 Billy Wagner and Paul Lo Duca hugged on the field. The mob of Mets surged to the infield, players racing in from the bullpen to...

IN A HURRY - NO-HUDDLE A WINNER FOR JINTS

There is a natural question to be asked after seeing the Giants struggle mightily for any kind of offensive flow against the Eagles on Sunday, then see them make the...

GAMMONS RETURNING TOMORROW

Peter Gammons will return to ESPN tomorrow night. Gammons, who has been off the air since suffering a life-threatening brain aneurysm in late June, will appear on tomorrow's 6 p.m....

RALLY NOT ENOUGH

JET REPORT CARDQUARTERBACK: B Chad Pennington (22-37, 306 yards, two TDs, one INT, 92.8 rating) was sharp in comeback, but it took him too long to get there. He had...

HE'S THE MANNING

GIANT REPORT CARDQUARTERBACKS: A+ First-half frustration didn't get Eli Manning (31 of 43, 371 yards, three TDs, one INT) down. Took a licking and kept on ticking, which is his...

UPON FURTHER REVIEW, A GREAT 'COTCH'

JET NOTES Enough, says Jerricho Cotchery. Just how many times can a guy watch himself make the greatest play of his life? "I saw it so many times tonight and...

AKERS SCUFFLE STILL IRKS LUKE

GIANT NOTES There was an immediate tip-off that Giants 30, Eagles 24 in overtime was going to go above and beyond in terms of physical play. On the opening kickoff,...

MAKE POSTSEASON WILDER

THE Yankees should not be able to sleepwalk through a late-season series against the Red Sox. For dominating the National League, the Mets should gain more of a reward than...

FIELD OF SCREAMS SURE HAS CHANGED

THERE is little chance that the younger fans could appreciate the irony in Willie Randolph's words late yesterday afternoon. "I'm sure our fans appreciate the fact that we can do...

JETS RUN DOWN - DOMINATED ON BOTH LINES BY PATS

On the first losing Monday of the Eric Mangini Era, the coach who preaches consistency to his players stayed predictably and cantankerously true to his principles. "He was the same...

PHILLY FANS TRASH TRUCK

Those civilized Eagles fans did a number on the SportsNet New York truck parked outside of Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday. After the Eagles' big meltdown, the truck was vandalized,...

SHEFFIELD LOOKS FIRST RATE

YANKEE NOTES TORONTO - The idea that Gary Sheffield could be the Yankees' starting first baseman in Game 1 of the ALDS is very real. After watching Sheffield go through...

THIS CELEBRATION YEARS IN MAKING

THE ball was heading precisely where it should have been headed on such a festive night, in such a stardust-frosted year. Deep left field at Shea Stadium is sacred ground...

CLIFF HANGER - FLOYD UNHAPPY ABOUT PREMATURE PREPARATIONS

When Cliff Floyd strolled into his clubhouse yesterday afternoon, four TVs and a music system were already wrapped in plastic. The Mets were obviously anticipating a wet and wild playoff-clinching...

METS PLAN TO PARTY HEARTY - AMAZIN'S WAIT FOR CHAMPAGNE SPRAY AT SHEA

They were going for it again last night, trying again to wrap it up. The NL East title is going to reside in Flushing this season, and the Mets were...

GLAVINE FEELING GRATIFIED

MET NOTES Tom Glavine hadn't been to the playoffs since arriving with the Mets. He's now headed for October. "It's hard to put it into words or into emotions, but...

SHEFF FIRST-RATE - GARY COULD START AT FIRST BASE IN ALDS

TORONTO - The idea that Gary Sheffield could be the Yankees' starting first baseman in Game 1 of the ALDS is very real. After watching Sheffield go through a prolonged...

WINGIN' IT - SHANAHAN AWAITS POSITION

Brendan Shanahan spent nearly 20 years playing left wing until moving over to the right side last season with the Red Wings. Rangers coach Tom Renney said that one of...

THE POST'S TOP 25

Rank (prev) TEAM RESULT NEXT 1 Ohio State (3-0) beat Cincinnati, 37-7 vs. Penn St. (1) So, do the Buckeyes recruit players of shaky character, or don't they? 2 USC...

REYES SLOWING ON PATHS

MET NOTES Jose Reyes has tried a few times. But over the last 12 games, he has only one stolen base. "No way," Reyes said when told of that yesterday....

FIRST TASTE - LO DUCA, DELGADO FINALLY REACH POSTSEASON

In the middle of a wet and wild clubhouse, Paul Lo Duca found Carlos Delgado and gave him a gigantic bear hug. Lo Duca and Delgado exchanged whispered words in...

LO DUCA DROPS F-BOMB ON TV

During the post-game excitement, Paul Lo Duca used the f-word last night in a live interview with SNY's Chris Cotter. Lo Duca quickly corrected himself and said he was "freakin'...

RIVERA 'ANTSY' FOR FRIDAY RETURN

YANKEE NOTES TORONTO - Mariano Rivera flexed his right forearm to show a visitor at his locker that there is no discomfort remaining in the area. "It feels good,'' Rivera...

GRIMALDI COMES OUT FIGHTING

YARMOUTH, Nova Scotia - Long Island native Joe Grimaldi always dreamed of wearing an Islanders jersey, but yesterday that sweater was speckled with his own blood. "I guess I'm kind...

WEIRD BUT TRUE

The mayor of Gallatin, Tenn., said he "didn't have a clue" when he gave a filmmaker permission to shoot scenes for a new movie in his office. The flick, "Thong...