December 6, 2008
PLAXICO NIGHTCLUB'S LOSING STREAK
The Midtown club where Plaxico Burress accidentally shot himself was close to being sacked long before his gun went off. The 17th Precinct cabaret unit has been targeting the nightspot,...
Mosley Has Explaining To Do
Seems like Shane Mosley has some explaining to do to his partners at Golden Boy Promotions. BY GEORGE WILLISLAS VEGAS--Richard Schaefer, the CEO of Golden Boy Promotions, isn't fully convinced...
BOMBAY MY LOVE
"Ay dil hain mushkil jeena yahan. Zara hat ke! Zara bach ke! Yeh hain Bombay meri jaan." - from the Bollywood musical "C.I.D.," 1956 "Oh dear! It sure is difficult...
Forrest J. Ackerman (1916-2008)
I never met the man, but the legendary Forrest J. Ackerman, who died in Los Angeles Thursday at the very ripe old age of 92, had a huge influence on...
OCD Archives: Who's That Girl Coming Out of the WB Logo?
Speaking of WB logos (see two posts below), here's one of the most imaginative uses of one, featuring a performer you may remember from the '80s. Unfortunately, like so much...
Sundance Shocker
Buried in next week's lead story about tough times facing next year's Sundance Sundance Film Festival, already posted online at Variety's website, is the revelation that Jeff Hill, NYC's top...
COP KILLED IN UPSTATE CAR CRASH
An off-duty NYPD detective was killed early yesterday when his car crashed into a state Department of Transportation truck upstate, cops said. Christopher Morelli, 30, was driving his 2006 Honda...
LILLO'S GUN CLAIM SHOT DOWN
Prosecutors yesterday blew a hole in Lillo Brancato's claim that he didn't know his junkie buddy had a gun until after off-duty Police Officer Daniel Enchautegui had been shot dead...
HOB-MOBBING WITH BEEP PAYS
Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz isn't about to let membership in the Mafia spoil a good friendship. Joseph Chirico, a soldier in the Gambino mob, yesterday dodged prison in his...
GOTTI BRO JAILED FOR FAILED HIT
The late John Gotti's brother was hit with an eight-year prison term yesterday for trying to whack a man whom he had accused of fooling around with his wife. Reputed...
CLUB GAL MISSING
A stunning young Brooklyn woman vanished from a posh Manhattan nightclub this week - and cops fear she may have been harmed by a convicted sex offender, officials said yesterday....
SPORTS SHORTS
MLB: Maddux to retire after 23 seasons Four-time Cy Young winner Greg Maddux will announce his retirement Monday at the winter meetings in Las Vegas. Maddux, who turns 43 in...
A CLASH OF STYLES FOR SEC
ATLANTA - It is as if Superman has been cut in half and the two remaining entities will take opposite sidelines today in the Georgia Dome in a test of...
WEB' SPINS SOME POSITIVE NEWS
Giants fans sick and tired of the Plaxico Burress mess and trying to focus on tomorrow's game against the Eagles can rest easier now that cornerback Corey Webster is back...
JINTS COUNT ON HIGH-CALIBER FILL-INS
The Giants receivers asked to fill the Plaxico Burress void easily can be distinguished from the banished receiver. "They are smaller guys, that's for sure," offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride said....
SOONERS MUST TAME TIGERS TO PLAY FOR CROWN
Oklahoma vs. Missouri in Kansas City, Mo. 8 p.m., ABC LINE: Oklahoma -17 - O/U: 79 ANGLE: If Oklahoma wins, the Sooners go to the BCS Championship game. If Missouri...
TRENDSETTERS: THE TOP PLAYS
GIANTS (-7) VS. EAGLES (1:00) Big Blue has covered five straight in division, four straight at home, five of six in December and 19 of 26 following a win. The...
VEGAS SEES JETS SHRINK TO COMPETITION
HERE'S a look at how the ever-changing NFL spreads are faring so far this week, according to our favorite Vegas insiders: JETS-49ERS The Manginis are 4-point faves, but if they...
COMFORT NOT HIGH ON PRIORITY LIST FOR ISLES ROOKIE
Josh Bailey will play in his 12th game for the Islanders tonight, just his third since he was told by the team that he was going to stick around for...
CUP PUCK IS RUPP'S MOTHER LOAD
It's always a good idea to visit Mom, sometimes even more than others. Devils' forward Mike Rupp popped in to visit his mother in Pennsylvania one summer day in 2003....
LUNDQVIST NOW A SENIOR AMONG BLUESHIRTS BRETHREN
Henrik Lundqvist doesn't need to take a look around the locker room for it to hit him. Now in his fourth year in the NHL, the goaltender is one of...
GUERIN'S FINAL KNICKS RECORD FALLS
Richie Guerin spends most of the year in South Florida, but still catches up on his Knicks news. And when he got last Sunday morning's paper, he realized the final...
DEVIN DEAL LOOKS LIKE ONE OF NETS' TOP SWAPS
The trade of Jason Kidd and stuff for Devin Harris and stuff, by the early returns, ranks as one of the best deals in Nets' history. There is no debate...
BROOKLYN GUARD MAKING 'ROUGH' TRANSITION AT PITT
WHEN you help lead a team to a 32-0 season as a senior, it's safe to say you played around and against some serious skill in high school. Such is...
OSCAR KNOWS MANNY WILL 'PACQ' A PUNCH
LAS VEGAS - Oscar De La Hoya shouldn't be mad at Freddie Roach. In fact, he should thank him for making people believe Manny Pacquiao has a chance to beat...
PROSPECTING
YANKEES Robinson Cano and Melky Cabrera aren't suiting up in the Dominican Winter League just to catch some sun and some extra at-bats. Both players are trying to correct whatever...
CASH EYES VEGAS MEET WITH CC
Brian Cashman likely will huddle with CC Sabathia tomorrow in Las Vegas if the free agent left-hander hangs around The Strip. "I might," said the Yankees GM. Cashman obviously will...
KENNEDY GETS TIPS FROM COLLEGE COACH
Ian Kennedy has grown up a bit this offseason. He also has improved his curveball. The two go hand in hand. Kennedy must have command of his curveball to succeed....
TIME TO CLIMB THIS HILL
A LOOK AT WHO TO START THIS WEEK, AND WHO TO SIT:BIG WEEKS Shaun Hill QB, 49ers Jets run defense is stout, which is bad news for RB Frank Gore,...
CONTROVERSIAL TRAINER HEADS ECLIPSE LIST
IF THE past 10 years are any guide, Steve Asmussen is odds-on to be crowned next month as America's outstanding horse trainer for 2008. But if the present year is...
ED FOUNTAINE'S STAKES SPOT PLAYS
MY CHARMER HANDICAP Calder, 8th race. Grade 3. Purse: $100,000. Mile-and-an-eighth, turf, fillies and mares, 3-year-olds and up. Post: 3:30 p.m. LOWDOWN: Wild Promises, based in northern California, has won...
NETS' ROUT MAKES UP FOR WIZ WHIPPING
The Nets were worried about energy, about sustaining themselves at home and about their play against teams with lesser records. And then the Minnesota Timberwolves showed up at the Meadowlands....
NEW BANK, NO BAGGAGE
With the future of big banks in question, tiny new start-ups like Heritage Bank are playing vulture to hobbled giants like Citigroup, UBS and Merrill Lynch. Boasting pristine balance sheets...
IT'S UP TO YOU, NY TAXPAYERS
"Property-Tax Cap - Or Bust" (Editorial, Dec. 3) puts the blame in the wrong places. Nothing in Tom Suozzi's commission's report caps the growth in unfunded mandates from the state....
PHANTOM JOBS
FORMER Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge was widely ridiculed for color-coding the nation's terror-alert status. The Obama administration wants to color-code the economy. Barack Obama promised during the campaign to...
CITI'S FIELD OF DREAMS: ANOTHER METS' LOSS?
It's time for Mets chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon to step up to the plate and change the name of the Mets' new ballpark to Gil Hodges Field ("Mets Say...
DOOMING DETROIT WITHOUT REMORSE
PUBLIC humiliation of corporate executives is Washington's favorite sport, but this week's forced road trip of Detroit Three CEOs across the Ohio and Pennsylvania turnpikes to grovel for money in...
JUDGE IN SLAP AT SEINFELD
Not everything said on late-night comedy shows is a joke, a judge warned Jerry Seinfeld's lawyer yesterday. During a hearing in Manhattan federal court, lawyer Orin Snyder said the funnyman...
GLASS HOUSE THROWS $TONES
WASHINGTON - Only in DC would the masterminds, enablers and cheerleaders of this economic catastrophe designate themselves to sit in grand judgment of those swirling down the drain. Yet that...
MURDOCH'S NEWEST ROLE
Rupert Murdoch, Chairman and CEO of News Corp., was elected Co-Chair of the Partnership for New York City yesterday. He joins Lloyd Blankfein, Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs, who...
NYPD DAILY BLOTTER
Brooklyn * Cops are asking for the public's help finding the thug pictured above who is suspected of killing a 14-year-old boy in Bedford-Stuyvesant. Marcus Cotton, 23, stands 5-foot-9 and...
635G 'SWINDLE'
A Queens woman swindled more than $635,000 from a UN Plaza investment firm - in part to jet-set to the Caribbean, prosecutors said yesterday. Vanessa Andrade, 31, a secretary and...
FRANKEN'S ON BRINK
Minnesota completed its recount of 3 million votes in its contested Senate race between GOP incumbent Norm Coleman and Democratic funnyman Al Franken - and one analysis gives Coleman the...
TOLERANCE & GAYS
LAST month, on the same day the California Supreme Court agreed to review a state ban on same-sex marriage, the online matchmaker eHarmony settled a New Jersey discrimination complaint by...
DRAG-NET FOR JEWEL THIEVES
A group of brazen gangsters raided the posh Parisian outpost of legendary New York jewelry chain Harry Winston's - dressed in haute couture drag. Staff paid little mind to the...
'I STAND... SORRY AND CONFUSED'
This is the complete transcript of O.J. Simpson's rambling statement to the judge yesterday before he was sentenced to prison: 'Your honor, I stand before you today sorry, somewhat confused....
BARACK WRITER A GROPE-A-DOPE
President-elect Barack Obama's top speechwriter reached out and touched a cardboard cutout of Hillary Rodham Clinton - and then he had to reach out to the real thing to apologize...
WELCOME BACK, ST. JOHN'S
Majesty restored. That's the fully reopened Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, the mother church for the Episcopal Diocese of New York. The historic edifice - severely damaged during...
PRIVATE-SECTOR PAIN
The pain is real. But is it being shared? The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics announced yesterday that the US economy shed 533,000 jobs in November - the worst single-month...
NEWSDAY LAYS OFF 100 STAFFERS, HIKES PRICE
Newsday is slashing 100 jobs, or 5 percent of its workforce across the board, in response to the deteriorating advertising market. Although the paper has been through numerous rounds of...
MTA TO UNION: ALL ABOARD
Straphangers, businesses and motorists are all expected to pay for the MTA's billion-dollar bailout - but whether the Transport Workers Union will make any concessions remains unknown. Former MTA Chairman...
$1M SLAP AT SPITZER DAD OVER RACIAL BIAS
The father of disgraced former Gov. Eliot Spitzer suffered his own disgrace yesterday, when a Bronx jury found he discriminated against four black employees and ordered him to pay more...
ALBANY'S PRISON LESSON
And just how, precisely, does government manage to protect itself from the effects of a contracting economy? Consider the fate of Albany's attempt to cut a hunk of fat from...
CANDYMAN CON'S BEEN SPREADING THE WEALTH TO JAILMATES
LAS VEGAS - Even behind bars, O.J. Simpson likes to live large and enjoy his wealth. With no shortage of money on his books, Simpson's been generously treating fellow inmates...
ANCHORS AWAY IN WNBC CUTS
WNBC-TV yesterday axed four senior correspondents - two months after staff was ordered to reapply for their positions. Sports anchor Otis Livingston, anchor Monica Morales, reporter/anchor Carolyn Gusoff and weathercaster...
NOW HE'S JUST AN AGING THUG DOING HARD TIME
LAS VEGAS - The long, national nightmare is over. Even if O.J. Simpson doesn't die in prison, he was sentenced yesterday to something worse: O.J. was thrown in the trash...
PATHETIC O.J. IS JAILED AT LAST
A Vegas judge read O.J. Simpson the riot act yesterday and sent the self-pitying, disgraced gridiron star to rot in prison until he's at least 70 years old for staging...
CITI'S CAPITAL IDEAS
Ailing banks such as Citigroup may need to boost their common equity despite recently nabbing boatloads of cash from Uncle Sam and private investors. At least one Citi official, speaking...
SEPT. 11 FAMILIES SET TO LOOK EVIL IN THE EYE
More than seven years after their hero firefighter son died at the World Trade Center, Maureen and Al Santora will take seats in a Guantanamo Bay courtroom next week to...
ATTORNEY GETS CAUGHT IN 'ACT'
The founder of a high-profile Manhattan law firm arrested in Toronto was locked up for allegedly sitting in on a multimillion-dollar negotiation pretending to be another lawyer. He was busted...
RON'S DAD CLAIMS 'CREDIT'
LAS VEGAS - Ron Goldman's family celebrated "bittersweet" justice yesterday, taking rightful credit for pushing O.J. Simpson into the armed-robbery plot that has landed him in the slammer. The DA...
S&M VIXEN'S SLAY TEARS
The Ivy League-educated dominatrix whose crazed client killed her boyfriend - a successful Manhattan lawyer who regularly accompanied her to underground fetish parties - said she is heartbroken over the...
PLAXICO TEAMMATE MEETS WITH COPS
Plaxico Burress' teammate Antonio Pierce met with police yesterday and told them he took the wide receiver's gun after Burress shot himself with it, sources said. Pierce met with investigators...
$15B 'BIG 3' DEAL
America's stalled auto industry is looking like it will get a $15 billion push out of the mud from taxpayers. Democrats and the White House reached an agreement last night...
HARRIS: I'M READY TO GO VS. NINERS
The Jets' already-stout run defense could get a boost with linebacker David Harris confident of returning to the field tomorrow in San Francisco. He was inactive the past five games...
ELLIS SORRY FOR 'MISTAKE,' DETAILS SKETCHY
Shaun Ellis and coach Eric Mangini addressed the Jets captain's arrest for possession of marijuana, the former expressing his remorse and the latter his disappointment, but details were in scarce...
INJURIES SLOW ISLES' YOUTH MOVEMENT
Coach Scott Gordon didn't necessarily expect the Islanders to contend for the Stanley Cup this season, but he thought they could take steps toward becoming that kind of organization. That's...
RANGERS SEEKING CRISPER PLAY
Blair Betts is questionable with upper-body issues for tomorrow night's Garden match against the suddenly famous Dion Phaneuf and the Flames, and Wade Redden is questionable with lower-body problems. And...
HOLIK EXPECTED TO PLAY VS. HABS
MONTREAL - The comebacks keep coming. That doesn't just refer to the Devils' latest victory - Thursday's 3-2 overtime triumph in Philadelphia after trailing with 91 seconds remaining in regulation,...
GETTING TO THE HEART OF THE MATTER
ATLANTA - Not a lot has gone well in Eddy Curry's Knicks career, except the one issue everyone thought would loom large: Curry's heart. It has been years since Curry...
AL GETS 27, BUT FADES IN CLUTCH
ATLANTA - When Jamal Crawford and Zach Randolph were shipped out of town two weeks ago, the Knicks lost much of their last-minute moxie. Crawford was best known for always...
WEIRD BUT TRUE
She wasn't loving it. A Florida man faces a domestic-violence charge for hitting his girlfriend in the face with a McDonald's cheeseburger. Amid an argument in his car, the woman...
WHAT'S UP?
TODAY UNWRAPPED: Don't bother with a bow - when you're giving "Presents to the Animals," it's the taste that counts. Watch polar bears feast on fishcicles, help keepers make edible...
SPLURGE OR SAVE
WE hear even Santa is tightening his big black belt this year. Happily, this city's big and bold enough to offer alternatives to those budget-busting winter spectaculars. Read on -...
MISLED' OH!
'TIS the season for work parties - and this year could be . . . interesting. While many firms have cut back on holiday parties or canceled them outright, official...
GRIFT RAPPING
There are more twists- per-episode than you might be able to keep up with. Abunch of renegades and mavericks, who mostly look like they fell out of the Abercrombie &...
BORROWING A BITE OF AFRICAN RHYTHM
VAMPIRE Weekend couldn't have been better named. Not only does this young NYC quartet - one of the year's biggest buzz bands - suck its lifeblood from Paul Simon's greatest...
Shoot the damn ball!
By MARC BERMANATLANTA - We took Jamal Crawford for granted, didn't we? A guy who had the cojones to take the final shot in the final seconds. You are born...
EATS: Dinner, the Kansas City way
If you've never been to Kansas City, well, too bad for you. What you're missing: Great architecture, fun people, jazz history, nice museums, one of the Midwest's coolest neighborhoods (Crossroads...
The Dream Match: Weigh-in Results; Pacquiao Complains
Oscar weighs 145. Pacquiao 142. Controversy emerges over how Oscar tapes his "fragile" hands.By GEORGE WILLISLAS VEGAS--Is Oscar De La Hoya too light? Is Manny Pacquiao heavy enough? Those were...