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Extra, Extra

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Rest in peace and honor, by Frank Lynch at flickr
  • Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an aircraft alert at JFK Airport in Queens, an unusual animal rescue at 182nd St. and Crotona Ave. in the Bronx, and a pedestrian was struck on the Brooklyn Bridge footpath.
  • Big Brown hasn't trained in a few days so as not to exacerbate a crack discovered in the colt's foot. The Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner should be ready for his shot at Belmont and Triple Crown honors.
  • After undergoing two eye surgeries to treat previously undetected glaucoma, Gov. Paterson will have a third surgery to correct a cataract in one of his eyes.
  • Two cases of federal law enforcement being heavy handed and totally inept--almost criminally so--when arresting two men who weren't even close to being who the feds were looking for. Who cares about easily avoidable mistakes, however, when agents can cowboy up and knock down doors with guns drawn?
  • Yonkers native James Blake has already improved on last year's disastrous 0-for-9 performance by American men at the French Open by advancing past the first round.
  • A Bronx man was killed by his son-in-law after the former attacked his wife and daughter with a samurai sword. The son-in-law strangled the Bronx man to death.
  • Every day at 10 a.m., Lord & Taylor precedes the opening of its doors with the playing of the Star Spangled Banner over its PA system. It's a tradition dating back to 1979 and the Iran hostage crisis.
  • The dog tags of Long Island native Bernard Ray were returned to his family after they were discovered in Germany's Hurtgen Forest, where Ray was killed during WWII. Lieutenant Ray was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously for blowing a hole in the German lines while wounded, at the expense of his own life. He was 23 years old.
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  • Peter

    an aircraft alert at JFK Airport in Queens

    According to airliners.net, a Virgin Atlantic aircraft suffered a cracked windshield when it struck a bird right after takeoff and had to return to the airport.

  • Dave Hogarty

    For those interested, flickr member Sheena 2.0 looked up Bernard Ray's Medal of Honor citation, which reads as follows:

    He was platoon leader with Company F, 8th Infantry, on 17 November 1944, during the drive through the Hurtgen Forest near Schevenhutte, Germany. The American forces attacked in wet, bitterly cold weather over rough, wooded terrain, meeting brutal resistance from positions spaced throughout the forest behind minefields and wire obstacles. Small arms, machinegun, mortar, and artillery fire caused heavy casualties in the ranks when Company F was halted by a concertina-type wire barrier. Under heavy fire, 1st Lt. Ray reorganized his men and prepared to blow a path through the entanglement, a task which appeared impossible of accomplishment and from which others tried to dissuade him. With implacable determination to clear the way, he placed explosive caps in his pockets, obtained several bangalore torpedoes, and then wrapped a length of highly explosive primer cord about his body. He dashed forward under direct fire, reached the barbed wire and prepared his demolition charge as mortar shells, which were being aimed at him alone, came steadily nearer his completely exposed position. He had placed a torpedo under the wire and was connecting it to a charge he carried when he was severely wounded by a bursting mortar shell. Apparently realizing that he would fail in his self-imposed mission unless he completed it in a few moments he made a supremely gallant decision. With the primer cord still wound about his body and the explosive caps in his pocket, he completed a hasty wiring system and unhesitatingly thrust down on the handle of the charger, destroying himself with the wire barricade in the resulting blast. By the deliberate sacrifice of his life, 1st Lt. Ray enabled his company to continue its attack, resumption of which was of positive significance in gaining the approaches to the Cologne Plain.

  • AvenueHebrew

    "A Bronx man's son-in-law killed his wife's dad ..."

    Oh good grief. It's like that statement was convoluted intentionally. For what possible reason did it not seem prudent to just say, "A Bronx man was killed by his son-in-law"?

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