Photograph taken from Ward's Island by jphillipobrien2006 on Flickr

• From the Gothamist Newsmap: A large crowd at Spencer St & Flushing Ave in Brooklyn, a scaffold incident/fall on 59 Ave in Queens and a hazmat at West 73 St & Amsterdam Ave in Manhattan.
• A multi-million elaborate sports betting ring was busted in Long Island and Queens; Nassau County Executive DA Kathleen Rice said, "It never ceases to amaze me the extent to which people will go to avoid an honest day's work."
• A tree from Hamilton, NJ is headed to NYC to be the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree! Bill Varanyak's tree is 77 years old, 72-feet tall and weighs 8 tons.
• The former director of a food agency was arrested for stealing over half a million dollars meant to buy food for poor children.
• A drunken man looking to do some cross-dressing went on a rampage through a clothing store in Borough Park. He was arrested after stomping on some belts.
• Gawker's tech gossip blog Valleywag is being folded into Gawker.
• Bruce Springsteen stars in an ad encouraging people to donate to a NJ food bank.
• Curbed goes gaga for more details about Julian Schnabel's West Village eden, Palazzo Chupi.
• This Saturday, the shortest parade will take place after the Cornell-Columbia football game--it goes down Fifth Avenue from 50th Street to 44th Street.