Extra, Extra

Photograph of Rolf's French-Bavarian Brasserie by conormcdonough on Flickr

• From the Gothamist Newsmap: An armed robbery at Columbus & W 71st in Manhattan, a fire at Island Ave & Fordham St in the BRonx, and an unusual fight at 221st St & Jamaica Ave in Queens.
• NYC to DC in two hours? The federal government is looking for contractors to build a high-speed rail line (cost: $30-40 billion).
• Mets GM Omar Minaya says that even though Mets owner Fred Wilpon has lost untold millions (possibly in the hundreds of millions) in the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme, Wilpon's losses won't affect Mets' dealings.
• Madonna is paying $92 million to ex-in-the-making Guy Ritchie as part of the divorce settlement; her spokeswoman said, "It's one of the largest payouts ever."
• Tomorrow, the fate of the Little Room preschool at the Brooklyn Heights Montessori School will be decided. The BHMS doesn't feel it can keep the preschool in its building, so the board of trustees will vote on whether to move it or shut it down.
• A wall collapsed at a building under renovation near 36th Street and Lexington Avenue in Manhattan, causing another building to be evacuated and subway service to be slowed.
• The electoral college has made it official: Barack Obama is our 44th president. But your little popular vote is still cute.
• Zen Burger, the vegetarian fast food offering from the folks behind Zen Palate, is now closed, due to "extremely high rent."
• And there's nothing like the wife of former Lehman Bros. chairman Dick Fuld dropping $5K-10K at Hermes each week—and making sure to ask for her purchases in a discreet, plain (non-Hermes-branded) shopping bag.