November 23, 2006
Not much to be thankful for
November 23, 2006 | 7:06pmBy MARC BERMANWhile the Knicks are amidst a crisis right now following their awful defeat in Minnesota last night, I still want to take Thanksgiving to thank the Knicks diehards...
N.Y. TIMES TO WELCH: HIT THE ROAD, JACK
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amThe New York Times Co. is rejecting Jack Welch's overtures to buy its struggling Boston Globe - but he's refusing to take "no" for an answer and may wage a...
PLENTY TO BE THANKFUL FOR
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amHERE are some facts to chew on this Thanksgiving Day. The average American will eat 3.4 pounds of turkey this year, with a good part of that amount devoured today....
WEEK-END SALES - RETAILERS STRETCHING BLACK FRIDAY WINDOW
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amCall it the Thanksgiving week sale. In an effort to extend the shopping frenzy that has traditionally been reserved for Black Friday, retailers are widening the promotional window to include...
TALKING TURKEYS
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amWHILE there were plenty of notable sales in the past 12 months - including a New York state-record $53 million transaction for an Upper East Side townhouse - there are...
'CANDLE' POWER - ALICIA SILVERSTONE STARS IN GLOWING HALLMARK SPECIAL
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amWHAT better way to hark back to holidays of yesteryear than with a tear-jerker of a movie set in modern times? Huh? Yup. "Candles on Bay Street," CBS's latest Hallmark...
NOW CLAY'S PLAYING SHUT-MY-MOUTH
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amCLAY Aiken is ducking public comment on the infamous Kelly Ripa-shut-up incident. He apparently turned down an invitation to go on "The View" to talk about the fallout from last...
'LOST' DAD
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amBELOVED "Lost" character Hurley's relationship with his dad could be going up in smoke. Cheech Marin has been cast to play Hurley's father in an episode slated to air in...
BRIAN SOUNDS FUN, FUN, FUN
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amTHE California girls and the surfer dudes here on the waveless shores of Manhattan heard the voices in Brian Wilson's head. Not the torturous voices of the mental illness that...
GOB-AWFUL - HONORS FOR THIS YEAR'S FILM TURKEYS; AWARDS FOR 2006'S CINEMA MOST FOWL
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amTODAY is the great American day of giving thanks for your friends, for your family, and for living in the kind of country that cannot force you to sit through...
BLOOMY'S NEUTRAL IN '08 RACE
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amMayor Bloomberg won't be picking sides in the 2008 presidential race. "I think what I'll probably do is stay out of the national elections in the same ways I stayed...
'GAMBLING' BIG'S $1M BAIL BET
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amThe suspected Las Vegas moneyman for a multibillion-dollar gambling ring busted up by cops last week posted $1 million bail yesterday. Monte Weiner, 56, was extradited from Sin City and...
MIKE'S NEXT CZAR TO HANDLE FOODIE DUTY
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amBelieving that it will take an expert to improve the way the city's nutrition programs work, Mayor Bloomberg announced yesterday that he'll soon be appointing the city's first food czar....
MIKE VOICES SAFETY PLEA
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amIn a bid to make working on scaffolds safer, Mayor Bloomberg has recorded radio ads in Spanish that call on immigrant laborers to report unsafe conditions to the city. The...
BEASTLY DOG ABUSER JAILED
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amA heartless Queens man will spend 16 months in jail after pleading guilty to intentionally starving his four dogs - one of which suffered so badly, he died. Keidel Guy,...
BRUNO VOWS NO NEW STATE TAXES OR FEES
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amALBANY - In a Thanksgiving gift to New Yorkers, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno yesterday vowed his house will not agree to any tax or fee increases next year. "During...
NYPD DAILY BLOTTER
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amTHE BRONX (lcf) * A correction officer was arrested in Soundview after she got into a fist fight with another woman over a parking spot, police sources said. Mary Lewis,...
LT. GOV.'S SON NAILED FOR 'DWI'
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amALBANY - Lt. Gov. Mary Donohue's 18-year- old son was busted for driving while intoxicated yesterday after he drove his father's 2005 BMW into a ditch and was found with...
MAYOR A HAPPY 'MILK MAN'
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amThe city's trial effort to get bodegas to sell more low-fat milk has proven so successful that Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday the program will be expanded five-fold to 1,000 stores....
TIPS FOR NFL SALOON-ATICS
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amYou may not be able to watch the football game at home tonight because your provider isn't carrying the new NFL Network, but here are a few of the bars...
RUDY: GIVE INDIAN PT. ITS 'FISSION' LICENSE
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amFormer Mayor Rudy Giuliani went nuclear yesterday - endorsing a plan to keep the reactors at Westchester's Indian Point power plant humming, while also throwing his support behind efforts to...
$6 MIL 'FLEECE & FLEE' - L.I. FUND GUY IN GREECE
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amA high-flying Long Island money manager has flown the coop, landing in Greece with millions of his clients' dollars, authorities charged yesterday. Fund manager Spiro Germenis told his wife that...
WHAT A TURKEY - 'FOWL' WEATHER FOR THANKSGIVING TRAVELERS
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amYesterday may have been billed as the busiest travel day of the year, but bad weather around the country caused such extensive delays that the hundreds of thousands of passengers...
N.Y. BLOWS AWAY COKE FIELD
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amMaybe "Scarface" should have plied his trade in the Big Apple. New York has emerged as the world's leader in cocaine consumption, according to a recent study. Researchers for the...
ARGIE BARBS AT W.'S BARBARA
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amWASHINGTON - Argentineans were reveling at the chance to poke fun at the U.S. Secret Service for failing to prevent a fleet-footed thief from pinching first daughter Barbara Bush's purse...
COPS EYE VERY 'VLAD' DUDE IN SPY POISONING
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amA mysterious Russian is the prime suspect in the poisoning of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko - a tale that has all the ingredients of a first-rate spy thriller. Litvinenko,...
REQUIEM FOR FALLING TOWER
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amCue the sad violin music for Tower Records, which is going the way of vinyl records and eight-track tapes. This is the last holiday season for the record stores that...
WIFE IN BED WITH ROTTEN HUBBY FOR SLEEP OF THE DEAD
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amAn elderly Brooklyn widow has told cops she slept in the same bed as her dead husband for three years, officials said yesterday. Joanne Iversen, 73, recounted her bizarre story...
PARADE MAY HAVE TO BLOW OFF BALLOONS
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amThe fate of the giant balloons at today's Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade was up in the air late last night. "They certainly will be buffeted about - if they're up,"...
BRADLEY LEFT WIFE MILLIONS
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amLongtime CBS newsman Ed Bradley's will leaves the lion's share of his estate to his artist wife. Patricia Blanchet will get $5 million, in addition to the proceeds of a...
KRAZY KRAMER WENT OFF ON A JEW RANT, TOO - HAD ANTI-SEMITIC TIRADE IN SPRING
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amMichael Richards spewed anti-Semitic rants during a show earlier this year, witnesses said yesterday, as sickening new details of the comic's recent racial tirade came to light. Two customers at...
EVIL STEPFATHER CONFESSES ALL - CHILLING TALE OF NIXZMARY ON POLICE TAPE
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amThis is the chilling moment when accused child-killer Cesar Rodriguez admits that he flew into a rage and abused 7-year-old Nixzmary Brown - because some yogurt was missing from the...
SCHOOL PRANK 'NETS TROUBLE
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amAs many as four students at a Staten Island middle school are facing suspension after phony Internet profiles mocking their principal and two assistant principals surfaced on Myspace.com, city education...
W'CHESTER WHACKER - LAWYER DECKS TV MAN FOR ASKING: DID YOU KILL HER?
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amThe wounded Westchester lawyer who was in the driver's seat during a roadside shooting that left his wife fatally wounded slugged a reporter yesterday when asked point-blank if he fired...
VICTIM'S FINAL MOMENTS - EATERY WITNESS TELLS OF 2:30 A.M. MEAL & ROADSIDE PICKUP AS 'SERIAL STRANGLER' FEAR GRIPS ATLANTIC CITY
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amStrangled streetwalker Kim Raffo was last seen alive early Sunday, leaving a diner to turn a trick on the seamy outskirts of Atlantic City - a short distance from the...
THUG STALKS GALS, ELDERLY
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amA ruthless mugger is being sought for more than a dozen attacks on women and elderly men in the Morris Heights and University Heights sections of The Bronx, police said...
WOMAN SHOT AT BUS STOP
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amA hospital worker was shot last night when she was caught in the crossfire during a fatal attack on a man standing near her at a Brooklyn bus stop, police...
BLOOMY PUSHES SCAFFOLD SAFETY
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amIn a bid to make working on scaffolds safer, Mayor Bloomberg has recorded radio ads in Spanish that call on immigrant laborers to report unsafe conditions to the city. The...
QUEEN NANCY - TWO DAYS OF GALAS
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amHouse Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi is planning swearing-in festivities fit for a queen - or a president - when she becomes the first woman to hold the top job in Congress...
POLICE SHUT DOWN JAY-Z PARTY CLUB
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amCops shut down a trendy Manhattan nightclub last night just 30 minutes before it was to host a party celebrating hip-hop titan Jay-Z's new album. Avalon, at 47 W. 20th...
ANIMAL WOMBS WITH A VIEW
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amYou've never seen baby pictures like these before. There's a dolphin swimming in its mother's womb (above), a beautifully formed unborn elephant (right) and a goldenretriever fetus opening its mouth...
HOOKER'S FINAL MOMENTS - EATERY WITNESS TELLS OF 2:30 A.M. MEAL & ROADSIDE PICKUP AS 'SERIAL STRANGLER' FEAR GRIPS ATLANTIC CITY
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amStrangled streetwalker Kim Raffo was last seen alive early Sunday morning leaving a diner to turn a trick on the seamy outskirts of Atlantic City - a short distance from...
NOT TOUGH ENOUGH - NETS CRUMBLE IN FOURTH, AGAIN
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amBlazers 100 - Nets 97 PORTLAND - The night was eerily similar to the previous game in Seattle, when the Nets eventually cracked and crumbled and went down in flames...
RETURN OF THE JED-I - ORTMEYER BEGINS PRACTICING WITH RANGERS
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amJed Ortmeyer certainly didn't look as if he hadn't practiced since last season's playoffs. On a two-on-two drill yesterday, the yellow-sweatered Ortmeyer, draped by a defender, snuck a nifty one-handed...
KIDD FEELS FOR JETER
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amNET NOTES PORTLAND - Nets captain Jason Kidd knows how Yankees captain Derek Jeter feels. You figure you're getting an MVP award, get all ready to accept, then another name...
EARLY BIRD SPECIAL AT BIG A TODAY
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amALERT: First post today is 11:25 a.m., with last race going off at 3:10 p.m. Traditional Thanksgiving Day feature is 93rd running of six-furlong Fall Highweight Handicap, first of six...
DAMON TO YANK FANS ... YOU DIDN'T SEE MY BEST
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amJohnny Damon's first year as a Yankee should have been better. At least that's the way the center fielder and leadoff hitter views it six weeks after the season ended...
NYRA MAY CUT SIGNAL TO OTB
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amAmidst all the other turmoil embroiling horseracing in the state, the New York Racing Association is considering cutting off its simulcast signal to New York City Off-Track Betting over $9...
CLIFF MAY NEED SURGERY
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amNET NOTES PORTLAND - Cliff Robinson ran a bit yesterday. The results were not good. And that could lead the Nets veteran forward to arthroscopic surgery on his sprained left...
STEPHON FREED TO BE 'STARBURY'
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amMINNEAPOLIS - Stephon Marbury confirmed yesterday that Isiah Thomas had agreed to let him be more aggressive and attack the basket. It was a chilling deja vu to last season,...
BUTLER SERVES UP STUNNER
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amPRESEASON NIT: Butler 56 - Tennessee 44 Sixth in the Horizon League preseason poll? Whatever. Butler may have been picked sixth in its conference, but the unbeaten Bulldogs are one...
CHUMP CHANGE - ISIAH SHAKES UP LINEUP; KNICKS GET SHELLED
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amT'wolves 107 - Knicks 89 MINNEAPOLIS - Well, that didn't work. Knicks president/coach Isiah Thomas executed his season's first shakeup before last night's game vs. the T'wolves, breaking up the...
NO. 2 HEELS TRIPPED UP BY GONZAGA
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amPRESEASON NIT: Gonzaga 82 - N. Carolina 74 Gonzaga's motto is, "Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime." Apparently that includes second-ranked North Carolina. Tar Heels coach Roy Williams proclaimed Gonzaga a big-time team...
THROWING KNIVES IS NO SHOCK
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amIF TIKI Barber should ever begin to harbor second thoughts in the coming weeks and months, if he starts to acquire a bad case of retiree remorse, he should realize...
TALKING TOUGH JEFFERSON: NETS NEED TO FOCUS
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amPORTLAND - Richard Jefferson thought for a moment, then let out a long breath. At the end of his exhale, he presented what he considers the cause of all the...
BARBER CHOP IS OPEN AGAIN - TIKI TEARS INTO COUGHLIN'S STRATEGY
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amWith the season heading south and his career now reduced to six regular-season games, Tiki Barber yesterday sounded the alarm, insisting the Giants will go nowhere unless he gets the...
SPLIT DECISION - ISIAH ELECTS TO BREAK UP BACKCOURT
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amMINNEAPOLIS - Knicks president/ coach Isiah Thomas executed his first shakeup of the season, breaking up the controversial Stephon Marbury-Steve Francis backcourt tandem after a dozen games. Thomas was planning...
NO DANGLINGCHAD - HE'S THE QB - PERIOD - MANGINI CLARIFIES
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amOn Monday, in response to questions swirling in the autumn air about Chad Pennington, his recent struggles and his job security, Eric Mangini said, "Chad is our quarterback ... right...
HEELS CHAMPING AT THE BIT
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amIt wasn't very long ago that you needed a Mack truck and a Caterpiller earth-mover to get North Carolina coach Roy Williams and his Florida counterpart, Billy Donovan, together in...
OSI SHOWING PROGRESS
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amGIANT NOTES At last, a shred of encouraging news from the Giants about their battered defense. Osi Umenyiora, the Pro Bowl defensive end who has missed the last four games...
ERIC AND KUBIAK COORDINATE THEIR COMPLIMENTS
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amJET NOTES Sunday's game between the Jets and Texans at Giants Stadium will pit two rookie head coaches against each other in Eric Mangini and Gary Kubiak. The two last...
'FRANCHISE' NOT STARTING TROUBLE
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amKNICK NOTES MINNEAPOLIS - Steve Francis was mum. He kept with his policy of not talking before the game, but Jamal Crawford commended Francis for taking his benching well. Crawford...
WEIRD BUT TRUE
November 23, 2006 | 5:00amWhen it comes to ill-gotten gains, you gotta look before you reap. That's what a masked gunman learned when he walked into a gas station in Shreveport, La., and demanded...