News

The Bloomberg camp is hoping some offensive remarks made by a disgruntled restaurateur about Council Speaker Christine Quinn will do some damage to city Comptroller Bill Thompson, a mayoral hopeful. Thompson—not Quinn—was present during an intimate meeting with small business owners at a Village restaurant on Wednesday morning. According to audiotape provided by the Bloomberg campaign to Politicker, Sean Kavanagh-Dowsett, the co-owner of the restaurant Tea and Sympathy, called Quinn "a whore, and you can quote me on that!" Okay! And during the ensuing laughter, Kavanagh-Dowsett added, "I'll drop my trousers, and she can kiss my ass." The tape does not record Thompson saying anything to denounce the remarks, and one witness tells the Post that "Thompson laughed with discomfort and shook his head while looking at an aide, and covered his ears for a brief moment." Kavanagh-Dowsett insists he won't apologize because he thinks Quinn, who works closely with Bloomberg, is anti-small business (and pro-prostitution?). Thompson's campaign issued a statement saying, "Bill has great respect for Speaker Quinn and believes the comments made yesterday—at a forum open to the public—were inappropriate and offensive." more ›

Happy Friday—the Pentagon has released more photographs from the Presidential Airlift Group's NYC flyover. You remember that day back in late April, when the Boeing 747 (known as Air Force One when the President is on board) and fighter jets zoomed near Lower Manhattan building, prompting building evacuations, panic, front page marvels and annoyance. The White House released one underwhelming photo in May, but now, on a slow summer Friday, we've got more to peruse—here's the PDF. more ›

A delivery man for Brooklyn restaurant Sushi Tatsu on Franklin Avenue (in Crown Heights? Prospect Heights? Discuss.) was in the wrong place at the wrong time last night—right outside his restaurant. Police say Lin Jun, 21, was in front of Sushi Tatsu around 7:30 p.m. when he got caught in the crossfire between warring drug dealers. Jun took at least one bullet in the stomach, staggered into the restaurant and collapsed in a pool of blood. Sushi Tatsu manager Helen Wong tells the Daily News, "It took the ambulance 15 minutes to get here, I can't believe it." Jun's currently in critical condition at Kings County Hospital. An unidentified second man, whom police say was the intended target, was shot in the shoulder and is listed in stable condition at the same hospital. And the perpetrators are still at large. more ›

Now that beers have been had by Henry Louis Gates Jr, James Crowley and President Obama, now we've entered the post-beer summit phase. Such as brewery Sam Adams being thrilled that the Harvard academic chose its beer (founder Jim Koch said, "After all, Boston is our home and home to both of the president’s guests. I’m honored that the president chose to serve Professor Gates an American craft beer"), funny headlines (“TOUCH OF GLASS” — New York Daily News) and an expert analyzing the body language of the three men plus Vice President Biden (Crowley: defense; Gates: conciliatory; Obama: relaxed; Biden: odd man out). more ›

After Gawker was tipped off by Tionna Smalls about Governor Paterson hanging out at a Chelsea club Taj on Wednesday night, the Post and Daily News jumped to find out more. The News reports, "Paterson arrived around 10 p.m. Wednesday with staffers who are friends of Rhonda Cowan, a veep for music at BET Interactive, who was celebrating her birthday at the club. He stayed three hours - and didn't attempt to dance." Taj's co-owner added, "He wasn't partying hard. He was having a civilized, chill dinner." more ›

The divorce is happening, kids. The MTA has confirmed that the rumored B61 split will take place in January next year, with one half running from Red Hook to Downtown and another from Downtown to Queens. In a statement we received, NYC Transit President Howard H. Roberts, Jr. also noted: “We recognize that there are rapidly growing new residential areas along the Williamsburg waterfront. The B62 will also provide convenient bus and subway connections for these customers to the Williamsburg Bridge Plaza transit hub which is served by six bus routes and the Marcy Avenue JMZ subway station.” The 9.7 mile long route split into two shorter ones will, allegedly, make for less delays; last year there was a 74% increase in ridership on the line, with only a 7% boost in frequency. And the MTA confirmed for us that the transfer will be free, so the trip will still "only" cost $2.25. more ›

Peter Cammarano, the 32-year-old recently elected to mayor of Hoboken and even more recently accused of taking a $25,000 bribe by the feds, has finally resigned, just days after saying he'd stay in office. Protests, not to mention some prodding from NJ Governor Corzine, apparently wore him down; Cammarano issued a resignation letter today, "I apologize to the residents of Hoboken for the disruption and disappointment this case has caused...Regrettably, it has turned out that the controversy surrounding the charges against me has become a distraction to me and an impediment to the functioning of Hoboken government. I would like to reiterate that I am innocent of any criminal charges and I intend to fight the allegations against me." City Council President Dawn Zimmer succeeds Cammarano. more ›

A Queens man says cops roughed him up in a holding cell at the 103rd precinct earlier this month, following a late night DWI arrest. 21-year-old Imran Ali was intoxicated when police allegedly slammed him into a brick wall and cell bars—which is the last thing he remembers before waking up at Jamaica Hospital handcuffed to a bed, with multiple staples and stitches on his forehead. He was arrested on July 17th around 4:54 a.m. after crashing his vehicle head-on into a parked car in Jamaica. But Ali insists he wasn't even the one driving the car (was it Harvey?) and his attorneys are demanding the Queens DA review video from the holding cell cameras. The NYPD maintains that Ali became combative and either fell or jumped from a cell bench. In a statement, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne says, "Contrary to his lawyer's assertion that Ali was a passenger in a car driven by someone else who was also arrested, Ali was alone and he was the only individual arrested." Well, somebody's fibbing, but regardless, you probably shouldn't click on this link to the 1010 Wins story unless you enjoy close-up photos of stapled skull wounds. more ›

If you were caught in this morning's rain and thought it was heavy wait a few hours! A warm front is slowly making it's way northward today. Showers and thunderstorms ahead of the front should arrive this afternoon and last through the evening. The expected rain is heavy enough to warrant a flash flood watch but not enough to make 2009 the wettest June-July on record! Unless three inches of rain falls, 2009 willl have to settle for second place behind 1975. Less than six inches of rain is needed by the end of August for Central Park to have its rainiest summer ever. Hip hip hooray! more ›

Dun dun dun duuuuun: composer Philip Glass recently came home to find his apartment had been broken in to. While someone took the time to shatter a window to get in, the only thing that was taken was a cell phone. The Villager reports that his 2nd Avenue home is just around the corner from the 3rd Street Men's Shelter, where it's suspected the thief resides. The paper notes a broader issues with the shelter, saying that muggings, car break-ins and drugs are becoming more rampant problems in the area. One community board member, Elinor Tatum, was recently at the Marble Collegiate Cemetery and "was shocked to see all the 40-ounce beer and vodka bottles littering the graveyard, which she is sure were tossed out of the shelter’s windows." She told the paper: “I don’t want to see it going back to the way it was in the late ’80s.” more ›

If you haven't heard of the Rat-Squirrel House in Cobble Hill, Lost City has a complete history of the 149 Kane Street residence, with a brand new update. The home was built in 1901 but lost its grandeur and is now an eyesore for locals—housing "squirrels, pigeons, (maybe rats) and one old woman who would not leave and would not fix the place up" (despite DOB complaints and vacate orders). On Wednesday, authorities busted down the front door to find a squatter amongst mountains of trash; the old woman, Arlene Karlsen, was allegedly living in another building she owns in the neighborhood. According to a witness, she was "given the choice of being arrested or taken to the hospital. She left in an ambulance." Sad, indeed. The future of the building is uncertain, as it's part of the Cobble Hill landmark district which makes it difficult to tear down even though it may be beyond repair. Hey gutter punks, now that the heat's on you in Williamsburg, maybe it's time to head to Brownstone Brooklyn. more ›

State Senator Hiram Monserrate (D-Queens), the once turncoat-then-turnaround again Democrat, will now have to stand trial for the assault he allegedly committing on his girlfriend last year. His lawyer tried to get the charges dismissed, but a judge said certain evidence could stand and that a trial would begin on September 14. more ›

The 33-year-old man who was struck by a falling tree branch in Central Park appears to be recovering: Sasha Blair-Goldensohn's mother Gwenda Blair told CityRoom, "He finally started responding when they said, ‘Raise your hand and open your eye.'" She also said to the Daily News, "He's slowly improving. We think that he's going to be okay." more ›

New York taxpayers will soon become the first in the nation to pay women to donate their eggs for stem cell research. The plan was approved last month by the Empire State Stem Cell Board, which helps administer the state's $600 million allocation for 11 years of stem-cell studies. Starting next year, donors will be paid at least $5,000 and up to $10,000 for their eggs. And even women with health problems which would normally exclude them from egg donation will get a piece of the action because researchers want to study the genetics of various diseases. The process involves hormone injections, producing more eggs per cycle than would be considered normal and retrieval with anesthesia—all of which makes bioethicists like Debra Mathews uncomfortable. Mathews tells AP, "We don't really have good data on the risks. You're asking women to undergo this unknown risk for unknown benefit." But donors like Hanqi Miao know of one nice benefit; she's being paid $5,000 to donate her eggs at a fertility center and asks, "Who doesn't want money in your hand?" more ›

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo released a report on bank bonuses, which he had previously sent to House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chair Eldophus Towns, yesterday, and in it, Cuomo continued to criticize Wall Street's compensation methods. The Wall Street Journal says the report gives a "rare window into the pay culture" of Wall Street:

Nine banks that received government aid money paid out bonuses of nearly $33 billion last year -- including more than $1 million apiece to nearly 5,000 employees -- despite huge losses that plunged the U.S. into economic turmoil... more ›

Now we may have some insight as to why Mayor Bloomberg isn't exactly, um, fond of answering questions on term limits. Throughout the mayor's gradual reversal of his term limits stance last year, he made it clear that he was for the concept, but had begun having doubts on whether the limit should be two or three. Yesterday, when asked whether he would guarantee not running for a fourth term, the mayor gave a standard answer of the law not allowing it...and then responded to a follow-up pushing him this way, "But it does now. It permits only three terms, so I don’t know. Talk to your City Council. Let me point out that I had no intention of running for a (third) term up until near the end, as you know. The City Council changed the law. It’s up to the voters whether they want four more years." Is it time to cue The Price is Right Ciffhangers yodeling music? more ›

Police are investigating the death of a 90-year-old man whose beaten and bound body was found in his apartment on East 65th Street near York Avenue. NY1 says "the man had trauma to the head, and his hands were tied behind his head." And WCBS 2 reports that the super had checked on the apartment of Felix Brinkmann, because " someone, possibly a neighbor, called to say he hadn't seen the elderly gentleman who lived alone there for days." more ›

According to 1010 WINS, six people, ages 18 to 39, were arrested for trespassing on the ground of the old Essex Country Hospital Center in Cedar Grove, NJ. The building, once a mental hospital, is being razed for parkland; it has also attracted many trespassers and/or ghost hunters, thanks to being mentioned in Weird NJ (here's the entry, plus video). However, Essex County Sherriff Armando Fontoura was adamant in saying there were "no ghosts, goblins or boogeymen [on the site]. What you will find, however, are uniformed officers on patrol and plainclothes detectives conducting surveillance of the property. Trespassers, vandals and mischief makers will be arrested and charged to the fullest extent of the law. We strongly advise individuals to keep off the property as it is being renovated and it can be dangerous." more ›

• Mets 7 Colorado 0: The Mets blew things open with a five-run second and Johan Santana took it from there. Santana had eight K’s and only allowed four hits as he pitched seven shutout innings before turning it over to the bullpen. David Wright and Angel Berroa both had two RBI’s to lead New York’s offense.
• Colorado 4 Mets 2: They couldn’t complete the sweep, but the Mets showed some heart against Colorado. Jon Niese pitched well enough and Fernando Tatis combined a great catch with a home run, but they still fell a bit short. It snapped their winning streak at five, but they may have found their offensive stride during that streak.
• Chicago 3 Yankees 2: Nick Swisher saved the Yankees with a two-out home run in the top of the ninth to tie the game, but it was only a temporary reprieve. Phil Hughes got into trouble in the bottom of the ninth and Phil Coke couldn’t handle a bullet off the bat of Dewayne Wise that proved to be the game winner. The loss and the Boston win leaves the Yankees 2-1/2 games in front of the AL East.

The most-eagerly awaited executive office beer/photo op/cherry-on-top- of-a-controversy -that-spurred-a- discussion-about- race-relations has happened. President Barack Obama welcomed Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Cambridge Police Sergeant James Crowley, two men whose last meeting was much more fraught. Vice President Joe Biden joined in for a (non-alcoholic) brew as well. According to the Caucus, "What are they drinking? Well, for those who believed Bud Lite would be the drink of choice for Mr. Obama, they are in luck, as are those who thought Sgt. Crowley would stay with Blue Moon. Mr. Gates drank Sam Adams Light (a Massachusetts-based brew), and Mr. Biden chose a Bucklers, a non-alcohol beer. Maybe Mr. Biden has to drive home." more ›

Rudy Giuliani sure didn't sound like someone on the verge of making a run for governor while speaking at a Crain's New York breakfast this morning. Giuiani joked about the state GOP, “There’s no question that if you have to rely on George Pataki and me, you’re in big trouble." He said that he wasn't paying close attention to state issues and added, "I got elected mayor, I believe, on the theory of — it can't get worse. So if it gets to that point, maybe I'll decide [to go for it]." (But he does NY's got big problems!) Meanwhile Governor Paterson was shrugging off speculation about Democrats this week who gathered and talked about how poor his chances were of getting elected. He said, "A lot of people are voicing concerns when they should be focusing on the fact that this state overspends, that this state has unfortunately paid more attention to personal interests than the interests of the entire group of people that live here in this state." The governor also made a personal appearance in town this morning—partying at the nightclub Taj while Funkmaster Flex Dj'd until 1 a.m. A Gawker tipster spotted the governor said, "He need to get his blind ass home." more ›

On Tuesday the city was not gripped by reports that two drifter goats were wandering along the New England Thruway by the Hutchinson River Parkway junction. The city's Animal Care and Control agency rushed to the scene, but by the time they arrived the goats had mysteriously vanished. But yesterday they appeared again, and the NYPD’s emergency services unit helped take them into custody. But where did they come from? A spokesman for Animal Care and Control tells City Room, "Typically, when you have goats or farm animals, they’ll have a tag on them or there will be a number spray-painted on them." These goats—one male and one female, both about a year old—had no numbers, though they are "pretty friendly and pretty used to people." They're being held at Animal Care and Control’s shelter in Manhattan, and if no one steps forward to claim them (are you listening, Cabrito?), they'll be taken in by Farm Sanctuary's 150-acre shelter in upstate New York. But really, how are they gonna keep 'em down on the farm once they've seen the Hutch? more ›

When will people learn that when they are meet a minor in an online chatroom it might very well be an undercover detective? On the heels of the Monday arrest of a Goldman Sachs compliance lawyer who thought he was chatting with a 15-year-old girl (really a Westchester DA's office investigator), now the Queens DA's office has announced a number of charges—including attempted use of a child in a sexual performance, second-degree attempted rape and second-degree attempted criminal sexual act—against a financial analyst Joseph Sulker. According to the DA's office, a male NYPD Vice detective had posed as a 14-year-old girl while chatting with Sulker, 26, between January and July 28 of this year: "The defendant’s messages allegedly were sexual in nature and expressed a desire to meet for a sexual encounter, and included offers by the defendant to pay the undercover persona to perform oral sex on him and to have sexual intercourse and oral sex with both a male and female while he watched." The Daily News says Sulker, currently a temporary worker at a financial firm, was arrested when he arrived at a Wendy's to meet the "girl" on Tuesday. He was released on $15,000 bail and faces up to seven years in prison if convicted. more ›

A report came over the newswire this afternoon that cops in Brooklyn were investigating "multiple animal tongues nailed to various trees" in Prospect Park. Could it be related to some sort of ritual sacrifice going on in the heart of Brooklyn? Last month, a Parks ranger spoke to the Post about areas in Queens such as Forest Park and Highland Park being hotbeds of animal sacrifice performed for reasons such as "devil worship to voodoo to offerings for good luck." A man in Forest Park had recently come upon a rooster and a goat head while walking his dog, but there had been no reports at the time of any activity in Prospect Park. Today's wire said that the tongues were found in the Lincoln Road and Ocean Avenue area—seems like no way to christen the park's new giant Dumpster. more ›

Here's another update about Bernard Madoff's condition in federal prison, courtesy of the lawyers representing the investment faker's victims. Only this update paints a less rosy picture; while attorney Joseph Cotchett told ABC News, "[Madoff] looked pretty good and seems to be working out. He looked a lot better than he has in some months since I've seen photographs of him," today Cotchett told the CBS Early Show, "Look, it's a prison. He's suffering the immediate throes of being thrust into this. It's a new world to him. It's not pleasant, as it shouldn't be. The man is distraught." That sounds about right, but Madoff has time to adjust. more ›

During a visit to New York City, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said that the public needs to be more involved in the fight against terrorism. In a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations, Napolitano said, "The challenge is not just using federal power to protect the country but also enlisting a much broader societal response to the threats that terrorism poses...[These days] the tools for creating violence and chaos are as easy to find as the tools for buying music online or restocking an inventory...If 9/11 happened in a Web 1.0 world, terrorists are certainly in a Web 2.0 world now. The terror threat to the homeland is persistent and evolving." more ›

While the Parks Department's solution to the city's garbage is a giant Dumpster amongst the trees, the same thing can't quite help our water. The Daily News has a report card on our beaches, and of the 13 rated in the annual "Testing the Water" guide... things aren't looking so good. more ›

The Curse of the Bambino has got nothing on steroids. The New York Times has revealed two more names that appear to be on the 2003 list of 104 major leaguers who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs—David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez, both of the Boston Red Sox at the time. The list is the same one that dragged A-Rod's off-season through the mud this February when he was outed as testing positive. While names on it continue to trickle out, its legal status is being fought over in the courts. The Times says multiple lawyers connected to the litigation "spoke anonymously because the testing information is under seal by a court order." There is no word on what specific drugs were tested. When Ramirez tested positive for a banned substance in May, he defended it as a fluke stemming from a recent prescription. Ramirez and Ortiz were at the heart of a Boston lineup that led the team to its first World Series victory in over eighty years in 2004, and then another in 2007. more ›

Earlier today there was a report over the newswire about a "vicious hawk at the library" of Fordham University. The blog Fordham Notes has an update clarifying things, reporting that there was an injured red-tailed hawk and the vicious hawk was actually the injured bird's mate! The NYPD was called to the Rose Hill campus and has now taken the hawk to the vet. "We are still awaiting word on its condition, but we understand that officers had to wear protective gear to shield themselves from the bird's mate, which was not allowing anyone to get close to its injured counterpart." more ›

The Rev. Frederick J. Eikerenkoetter II, a materialistic multimillionaire evangelist better known as Ike, died Tuesday in Los Angeles at the age of 74. He had been residing there since 2007 following a stroke, but he spent most of his life in New York City, where, in 1969, he paid $600,000 for the massive old Loew’s 175th Street theater and made it his headquarters, calling it the Palace Cathedral. For the past several years, the ornate Washington Heights theater has also been used for rock concerts, featuring such acts as Arcade Fire and Sonic Youth. But the Christ Community United Church continues to worship at the theater, albeit without Reverend's Ike's famous "Blessing of the Cadillacs," nor his exhortations to his flock to "close your eyes and see green. Money up to your armpits, a roomful of money and there you are, just tossing around in it like a swimming pool." We expect to see plenty of swim trunks and inflatable armbands stuffed with dollar bills at the next United Palace concert. more ›

Polllsters at Quinnipiac checked in with New Yorkers on some quality of life issues that have been in the news lately. A couple months into the Broadway pedestrian mall experiment, city residents are still supportive of the mayor's initiative—though they like it best from a distance. The mayor seems to generally be in good shape on the issues asked about—New Yorkers stood behind him on control of the schools as well. The city's real enemy, not surprisingly, is the MTA. Here are some of the results from the poll taken last week: more ›

Glenn Beck needs to get his house in order. Only a day after the Fox News Channel host identified President Barack Obama as a white people-hating racist who doesn't not like white people (got that?), he confesses in a YouTube video promoting his latest book that his daughter hopes to attend that august institution of radical Islam and communism, Columbia University. Admits Beck in the video: "My middle daughter, she wants to go to Columbia. Do you have any idea the price of Columbia? Please, buy the book! Buy two! Buy three!" And it gets worse—not only does Beck's daughter want to matriculate at the same school that launched arch-superliberals like Eric Foner, Eric Holder, and Barack Obama, she is also a devoted follower of pagan lit! Says Beck: "My daughter is a huge reader—Harry Potter changed her life." So let this be a lesson to all you parents out there: letting your children read books about godless, spell-casting teen wizards will convert them into snobbish intellectuals with effete Ivy League aspirations. It's almost enough to make you cry. FWIW, one notable Republican's daughter attended Columbia—gay marriage-supporting Meghan McCain. more ›

It's such a pretty day today that it's a little hard to believe that yesterday was practically apocalyptic with the big afternoon-into-evening thunderstorms. Now the National Weather Service has confirmed that the funnel cloud seen in Wantage, NJ did touch the ground and is in fact a tornado. According to WCBS 2, there was a lot of havoc from the tornado, whose winds were up to 120 mph: "Officials say an EF2 tornado tore through the town of Wantage, ripping roofs of some houses, destroying barns, and causing extensive damage to roadways in its path... Two barns were ripped apart; their walls tossed around like pieces of paper. Then there was the silo that tumbled like it was a toy. The silo was made with about 40 tons of concrete and steel all meshed together." more ›

A second witness has come forward to corroborate claims that a subway train operator on the No. 4 line allowed an 8 or 9-year-old boy into the motorwoman's cab and maybe even let him drive the train a little. And the witness, Nessa Hampton, 53, says that not only was the boy in the cab with the female operator, but he was left to hang out there by himself while the unidentified woman exited the train at Union Square. According to her report, the motorwoman was gone for several minutes as she chatted with a colleague operating a No. 6 train across the platform. Hampton tells the Daily News, "He was right next to the controls. Suppose he touched something and the train started moving. There was no way this woman could have ran back to the train and stopped it." But not to worry—the motorwoman has explained to MTA officials it was physically impossible for the boy to operate the train because it requires 20-pounds of pressure. (Or a cinder block to override the dead man's switch!) Still, as Hampton told her daughter at the time, "somebody's going to get in a lot of trouble for this." Both the motorwoman and the conductor—who is believed to be the boy's relative—are currently suspended without pay. more ›

It's not just the suits looking out for their money in the Financial District these days. The artist behind the Charging Bull sculpture near Wall Street is suing Random House for using an image of his work for the cover art of a book about the fall of Lehman Brothers. 1010Wins reports that Arturo Di Modica was filing the lawsuit in federal court yesterday, and seeking unspecified damages. He is also asking the picture be removed from the book, titled "A Colossal Failure of Common Sense." Indeed, he had the sculpture copyrighted in 1998, 9 years after its creation. Maybe Sad Panda can go on the new cover! more ›

Those pushovers at the Parks Department have accepted the apology of MIHventures, who trashed Prospect Park during their annual illegal Heatwave BBQ. The Brooklyn Paper notes that everyone is getting along, and the Parks folk say they "will also ensure that they [MIH] fully comply with our rules and regulations when considering any future events at Prospect Park or any other park." more ›

On Tuesday night, Kester La Roc was killed in gunfire near his East Flatbush home. LaRoc has been taking his son Kessai home around 10 p.m.; according to the Daily News, the "2-year-old Brooklyn boy was splattered with his father's blood when the dad was ambushed and killed." LaRoc was hit twice in the chest while a friend was hit in the thigh; apparently the friend was able to bring Kessai inside the house. Police have not found a motive for the shooting; LaRoc did have a criminal record (marijuana possession, disorderly conduct). LaRoc's girlfriend and the child's mother told the News, "He was a good dad. He spent time with his son, picked him up from day care, watched him. A very loving person," while LaRoc's mother said, "He was not perfect, but no one deserves this, to die like he did. He wanted to get his life straight." more ›

With his family keeping vigil at the hospital, 33-year-old man remains in a coma after being struck by a tree branch in Central Park yesterday morning. An uncle of Sasha Blair-Goldensohn, an Upper West Side resident and an engineer at Google, told the Daily News, "I'm not worried about Sasha because he has IQ to spare... He hasn't really woken up. He's young and healthy, we're hopeful." more ›

Some morning subway commute madness: A downed power line has caused problems with the 4 and 5 subway lines. According to initial reports, a subway entering the Wall Street station hit a low hanging power line. The wires sparked and fell next to the train car. The train's passengers need to be evacuated, but power needs to be cut off first. Additionally, when the wire fell, smoke filled the station, which was also evacuated. Here's the MTA's alert: "Due to hanging cables at the Wall Street Station, there is no 4 and 5 train service between the Nevins Street Station and the Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall Station in both directions. Please expect delays in 4 and 5 train service at this time." more ›

You know that ATM scam where four friends from NYU were busted for repeatedly claiming their ATM cards were stolen when they were actually taking in $422,000? Well, the Post reports that it went on for so long (between 2003 and 2008) "because bank officials thought it was easier to just pay up, according to one of the investigators who helped break the case." Former NYPD detective Harry Houck Jr. says that he questioned one of the suspects, John Tluczek, who claimed his ATM card was stolen and account looted—Tluczek's excuse: "I was planning to go on vacation, and I had a piece of paper in my car that had all my PINs written down. I just left it in my car." Houck was suspicious and found out that Tluczek wasn't even on vacation! "But Houck said that when he called other banks to ask them about Tluczek, they had also heard of him, but decided to just pay him off rather than fight. The banks paid because Tluczek and his cohorts were taking advantage of a part of federal banking law that allows people to get money back within 10 days if their ATM cards are stolen and used to make withdrawals." Investigators think Tluczek and his cohorts' haul could tally up to $1 million. more ›

After years of discussion, the City Council voted 44-2-1 in favor of rezoning Coney Island per the Bloomberg administration's plan for the 27-acre area, which includes hotels, retail shops, and a new roller coaster. And it looks like the city is working out a deal with Thor Equites' Joe Sitt, the developer who bought much of the land at Coney Island in hopes of his own ambitious hotel-amusement park plans. more ›

The FBI is investigating a number of hateful letters sent to the Hispanic owners of business in Washington Heights and Inwood. NY1 reports that the "barrage of hate mail" contains "threats such as 'Stop wrecking my USA,' 'Speak english' and 'We don't want you in our community.'" Jesus Hernandez, who owns Mama Sushi, told WCBS 2, "I don't have just Latin people coming here. I have black, I have white I have all kinds of people as customers so I can't point out anybody who would do such a thing." Hispanics Across America's Fernando Mateo is worried the letter writer may act out, which is why he has given the letters to the FBI, "That somebody may come with a machine gun and shoot-up the area, shoot-up the patrons, you know? We don't want to wait until it escalates into gunfire." more ›

A four-alarm fire at an apartment building on Third Avenue near 68th Street in Brooklyn's Bay Ridge section has left dozens of families homeless. The fire started before midnight in the first floor deli; WABC 7 reports, "Flames spread through all four floors, finally shooting through the roof in an inferno that lit up the night sky. Officials say dozens of residents were forced to flee, many with young children." And according to WCBS 2, "Fire officials say the fire ripped through all 15 apartment, causing significant damage... Deputy Fire Chief James Leonard says the heat and humidity, and a costly delayed call to 911, made for a difficult night fighting the flames." The Red Cross is assisting families with shelter. Additionally, a number of firefighters were injured and the FDNY will be investigating the blaze. more ›

Yankees 6 Tampa Bay 2: Joba Chamberlain pitched another great game and the Yankees hit three homers to back him as they took two-of-three in Tampa. Chamberlain allowed only three hits, while striking out five over eight innings. Robinson Cano, Melky Cabrera and Mark Teixeira all went deep, part of a 12-hit attack for the Yankees. The win combined with a Boston loss, puts the Yankees 3-1/2 games into first. Fun fact: Yankees owner George Steinbrenner was at the game; Chamberlain said of the Boss's presence, "It's great he came here. It's definitely good to get a win when he's in the house. I heard stories about when he was here. It was a little nerve-racking. I got a little nervous knowing he was in the house." more ›

After a little speed bump, the City Council has passed Intro. 871, the Bicycle Access Bill, which requires commercial landlords to allow office workers to bring bikes inside office buildings (with freight elevators) as long as their employers have space for the bikes. The bill passed 46-1; Transportation Alternatives' executive director Paul Steely White said, "No other city in the country has a policy like the one City Council passed today. When we open the doors of New York City's workplaces to cyclists, tens of thousands of commuters are going to get on two wheels." Transportation Alternatives also points out that though biking is the fastest growing mode of transportation in the city, many people don't bike to work, due to fear of their bikes may be stolen on the street. more ›

A wake was held on Long Island today for five victims of Sunday's deadly crash on the Taconic Parkway. Diana Schuler was driving the wrong way before crashing into an SUV; Schuler, her daughter and three nieces died while three people inside the SUV were also killed. Autopsy results yesterday ruled out any signs of alcohol, drugs or a medical condition such as a stroke or an aneurysm, or even just sleepiness for 36-year-old Schuler. But today police say that during the phone call to her brother 30 minutes before the crash—when Schuler said she wasn't feeling well—she revealed that she was disoriented and was having trouble seeing. Schuler's family, who held a wake for their loved ones, issued a statement, "We extend our condolences to the Bastardi and Longo families [of the SUV victims] and regret the grief this tragic accident has caused." They also said that 5-year-old Bryan Schuler, the only survivor of the crash, is expected to make a full recovery. Police now await the results of further blood and toxicology tests, available in 4-6 weeks, saying, "We made sure that they’re going to test for everything because we don’t have an answer.” more ›

Summertime really sets the stage for street fights, and BushwickBK points us to one they say recently took place between two men in their 60s (though they look younger to us). The weapon of choice: aluminum rods. more ›

The afternoon thunderstorms, which turned the sky above some parts of the city pitch black, have wreaked a bit of havoc: Not only was there flooding that closed certain Staten Island streets, over a thousand Con Ed customers on Staten Island are without power (before, the outage hit 2,500 customers). As for the mass transit commute, PATH service between the World Trade Center and Newark is suspended as is service between Newark and Journal Square, due to signal problems (according to the PATH, "Passengers in New York can take NJ Transit at Penn Station New York. Passengers in Newark Penn Station can take NJ Transit into New York Penn Station NJ Transit is cross honoring"). And for a little more weather fun, check out this video of a funnel cloud; it was taken in Wantage, NJ (according to Wiki, "If a funnel cloud touches the ground it becomes a tornado). more ›

Just yesterday city officials were bitching about how the Justice Department wasn't giving NYC a dime from the $1 billion economic-stimulus money intended to help cities avoid laying off cops. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder explained that, "These officers will go to where they are needed most, based on crime rates, financial need and community policing activities." In other words, crime is relatively low here, and other places (like the mean streets of Caribou, Maine) need help more. Mayor Bloomberg fumed to reporters, "To punish our Police Department because they have driven down crime with fewer resources shows the backwards incentive system that is sometimes at work in Washington." more ›

Why is a Bay Ridge man hanging the Confederate flag from his terrace in a dreary 30-story co-op tower at 65th Street? It's NOT because he's racist, y'all, it's to send a message to those "sophisticated snotnoses in the north." You know, the region where he lives. Brooklyn Paper spotted the flag flapping in Union territory recently, and tracked down the rebel yeller, who would only identify himself as Mike. But he was happy to clear up any confusion over why he's displaying the Stars and Bars so far above the Mason-Dixon line: "I do it is because I’m against political correctness. People who are politically correct don’t agree with that flag — it’s my one-man protest. The left likes to say they celebrate diversity. I guess that’s what I’m doing.... [Northerners] make Southerners into bumpkins — and that’s not the case." Absolutely not, but Cletus Mike is kind of scaring the neighbors with that thing, and one nearby resident says, "I want to stay far away from those people [who have Confederate flags]. We’re free to fly any flag we want, but I’m not crazy about it. We won the war." Well, for now, at least. more ›

Former Giant receiver Plaxico Burress testified for three hours in front of a grand jury today, then followed his time on the witness stand with the first words he's spoken to reporters since the day he shot himself in the leg inside a Manhattan nightclub eight months ago today. Burress said, “I was truthful, I was honest and I am truly remorseful for what I’ve done, what happened and what I did. I just want to thank everybody — family, friends and fans — for their support.” more ›

Earlier this morning, around 8 a.m., a 30-year-old man was hit by a large tree limb in Central Park, near West Drive and 63rd Street. The branch hit the man's head— he was struck unconscious and had severe bleeding. My Upper West adds, "Paramedics and police promptly arrived to the scene, and after about 15 minutes, took him to a hospital, where he seemed to be in serious condition." On Sunday, strong thunderstorms downed numerous trees in the city. Update: The Parks Department tells WCBS 2 "the limb is from a Pin Oak Tree, approximately 4 inches in diameter." Update 2: The man is now in a coma (it's unclear if it was medically induced) at Cornell Medical Center. The Post says first responders found him "unconscious and in cardiac arrest," while WCBS 2 reports, "The scene was such a mess it took nearly two hours for crews to clean up the debris and blood from the pavement." more ›

A plump cob roller just flew by our window, and some New York City police officers actually defended a photographer's rights. Carlos Miller reports that recently a witness reported seeing a Japanese tourist toting an SLR getting harassed by a man who told him he was not allowed to take photos in the subway system or in Yankee Stadium (the origin of the report is at SubChat, where it's noted this took place at Rockefeller Center's northbound side). When the tourist stood up for his rights, the man got "slightly physical" and drew the argument out. The tourist found two NYPD officers to ask them the rules, "and was shockingly told that it was legal. In fact, the officers even walked downstairs with him and informed the man that photography was indeed legal." Score one for photographers, seems some in the NYPD actually got the memo! more ›

Two citations issued to arrested pug owner Chrissie Brodigan were dismissed today in a hearing at the MTA's Transit Adjudication Bureau. Hearing Officer Alexander Fox ruled the citations—one for failure to provide identification and another for failure to have dog in a container—were invalid because they had been "materially altered" by Officer Joel Witriol, who was absent from the hearing. Copies of the tickets given to Brodigan list 3:51 p.m. as the time the citations were issued, but official copies turned in by Officer Witriol to the Bureau showed the time was crossed out and changed to 4:51 p.m. more ›

With the legal battle over the constitutionality of Richard Ravitch's appointment as lieutenant governor heading back into a Brookly court tomorrow, Governor Paterson has filed papers stating just how essential it is to have Ravitch around as all of this is being decided. Paterson says that Ravitch is "needed as a 'credible bridge' to business and labor." He also filed an affidavit from former governor Hugh Carey, who supported the choice of Ravitch as "a stellar and dedicated public servant." PolitickerNY sums up Paterson's position: "The crux of it is: You should uphold Richard Ravitch's appointment because Richard Ravitch is great." Senate Republicans have said that nothing Paterson has put forth addresses his constitutionality in making the appointment, something that has been criticized by everyone from Andrew Cuomo to Donald Trump. After getting secretly sworn in at Peter Luger's, state courts have gone back and forth as to whether Ravitch can stick around. more ›

Since the crystal clear footage of Ringling Bros. workers beating animals isn't going to be brushed under the circus tent anytime soon—and since the Feds are now investigating—the company has released their second statement. In it, they call the PETA footage "deceptively edited," but unless the animal rights organization got their hands on some of George Lucas's CGI experts, that seems a ridiculous accusation. more ›

With sand being a danger to beachgoers this summer, many might be seeking their sun-kissed glow from one of the many tanning beds around the city. But wait, those aren't safe either! 1010WINS warns they are now in the top cancer risk category, "deeming them as deadly as arsenic and mustard gas" and pointing towards a new study that says "the risk of skin cancer jumps by 75 percent when people start using tanning beds before age 30." What's most surprising is that we are hearing this in 2009. Anyway, since experts have now found that all types of ultraviolet radiation are carcinogenic (previously, only one type was thought to be lethal), what will it mean for tanning salons? The new classification places them alongside tobacco, the hepatitis B virus, chimney sweeping, and other things that can definitely cause cancer. Find out what else will likely kill you, tonight at 11. more ›

The sorry state of the Mets isn't just a local issue at this point. Last night on The Tonight Show, Conan O'Brien got in on the fun showing just how deep dysfunction runs within the organization right now. more ›

Because the cost of housing homeless families in shelters is so high, the Bloomberg administration has been quietly funding a $500,000-a-year program to buy one-way plane tickets for indigent individuals if they agree to stay away. Well, the program was quiet until it was featured in today's Times, so who knows how many New Yorkers will now start posing as transients for one-way tickets to Burning Man. So far the city has paid for more than 550 families to leave since 2007. more ›

Because the brouhaha over Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s arrest will never end, it's time for former Secretary of State Colin Powell to weigh in. While on Larry King Live last night, Powell, who said Gates is a longtime friend, said, "When you're faced with an officer trying to do his job and get to the bottom of something, this is not the time to get in an argument with him...I was taught that as a child. You don't argue with a police officer." He did suggest Gates was tired from his flight from China through NY and also wondered about the Cambridge police, "Once they felt they had to bring Dr. Gates out of the house and to handcuff him, I would have thought at that point some adult supervision would have stepped in and said, OK, look, it is his house. Come on. Let's not -- let's not take this any further. Take the handcuffs off. Goodnight, Dr. Gates." [Here's a transcript and video is after the jump.] Powell also discussed being racially profiled a few years ago—"You just suck it up"—and endorsed Mayor Bloomberg—"I think Mike Bloomberg should be given a third term. And yes, I would say, reelect Mike Bloomberg." more ›

Ugh. On mornings like this, with a dew point of 74 degrees, we wish Morningside Park had a funicular. After climbing all those steps we're a big, stinky, ball of sweat. Today will remain disgusting with a dose of danger this afternoon. A host of factors: heat, extreme humidity, unstable air, an approaching cold front, etc. all point to heavy rain, and potentially severe thunderstorms this afternoon. High winds, hail, flash flooding, frequent lightning, and possibly even a tornado are not out of the question. At present it appears that the most severe weather will hit slightly north and west of the city but it is still wise to keep an eye on the sky later today. more ›

A number of Park Slope residents have been up in arms over a developer's plans to build three townhouses in addition to a previously announced project. Brownstoner reported that owner Ashwin Verma's admission that he's "no Donald Trump" and blaming "his inexperience for not knowing there was a Con Ed substation on 580 Carroll's site" sent residents at a rally against his project into a frenzy. Various neighbors' homes have been damaged by the construction work—one said, "My foundation was cracked. My retaining wall was cracked," while another complained about the aesthetics of the future building, telling the Daily News the apartment building by noted architect Enrique Norten "is actually ugly, and what it's going to look like doesn't belong here. It belongs in New Jersey." In the meantime, the Board of Standards and Appeals has delayed its decision on whether to give Verma a variance to build the additional structures. more ›

Former MTA worker (he already quit!) and new multimillionaire Aubrey Boyce would probably like to take his lotto winnings and buy a new name. The Queens resident finally picked up his $133 million from the Mega Millions folks at Grand Central yesterday—a nearly $55 million (post tax) lump sum payment—on a giant check made out to the mysterious "Archibald Trust" (a fund Boyce created and appointed himself trustee of). more ›

Jack Shaw, the Jersey City political consultant who was arrested last week in the massive federal corruption probe of NJ elected officials and others, was found dead in his Jersey City apartment yesterday. The Star-Ledger reports an autopsy is pending but "Three officials with knowledge of the investigation said multiple bottles of pills were found near Shaw's body. One of the officials said that while investigators suspect suicide, they did not want to jump to conclusions because Shaw suffers from an unspecified medical condition." Shaw, 61, was accused of taking a $10,000 bribe from a government informant and apparently gave that money to Jersey City mayor Jeremiah Healey. The NY Times says Shaw "was a longtime Democratic operative who cut his teeth working for Mayor Richard J. Daley of Chicago and later was a campaign aide to Gov. Jim Florio...He also worked on Robert G. Torricelli’s 1996 Senate race, Robert E. Andrews’s 1997 bid for the Democratic nomination for governor, and Jon S. Corzine’s election to the Senate in 2000." more ›

• From the Gothamist Newsmap: A jumper down at 101st St in Queens, a water rescue at East 34th Street & East River in Manhattan and a power outage at Tinton Ave & Westchester Ave in the Bronx.
• Someone(s) made two pre-dawn bomb alerts, alleging there were bombs at the Long Beach bridge and LIRR station, causing shutdowns. The threats were unfounded and simply caused a terrible morning commute.
• A 17-year-old Staten Islander was arrested for stealing cars. Police caught onto the plan when they noticed a 13-year-old sitting behind the wheel of a car—the boy was waiting for his older brother, the car thief.

The Queens man whose wife dumped boiling water on his genitals as he slept Monday morning says he doesn't want his spouse of 21 years to be incarcerated, he just wants a divorce. Speaking to CBS2 from the hospital where he's recovering from 2nd and 3rd degree burns, Emmanuel Ojofietimi insisted he hasn't cheated on her... lately: "Maybe 20 years ago, 15 years ago." (He also tells the Post, "She kept nagging and nagging me all the time.") Oyindamola, his wife, is currently being held at Rikers in lieu of $100,000 bail. Yesterday nightly news crews hit the streets to gauge public reaction, and it's interesting how many people couldn't help but laugh a little, while simultaneously condemning this particularly gruesome act of revenge. Bellport resident Jessie Maldanado even admitted to CBS2 that she's considered mutilating her boyfriend's genitals if she caught him cheating. Her boyfriend, who was standing right next to her, sagely added, "I need to get that thought out of her head." What do you think? Is burning, biting, or gluing a man's rod or johnson acceptable punishment for infidelity? And for scorned ladies contemplating vengeance, the Frisky has a thorough roundup of history's most infamous paybacks. more ›

It's another report of how Bernard Madoff is doing behind bars! This time, instead of an inmate, we hear from a lawyer representing some of the victims in Madoff's $65 billion Ponzi scheme. Attorney Joseph Cotchett says he and an associate met with the scammer for four and a half hours at Butner Federal Correction Complex in North Carolina. And Madoff told them, "There were several times that I met with the SEC and thought 'they got me'" Of course, the SEC didn't! more ›

A few more details on the resignation of Lee Landor from her position as deputy press secretary to Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer. The Post reports that the 24-year-old, whose Facebook postings about the arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr. included calling Gates a racist, President Obama "O-dumb-a," and more, "resigned under pressure... from the $45,758-a-year job Monday after being told 'jump or be pushed,' according to a source." more ›

A train operator did indeed allow a boy into the cab at the front of a Lexington Avenue 4 express train on Sunday, NYC Transit has confirmed. The 8 or 9 year old boy was apparently a relative of the conductor, who along with the motorwoman has been suspended without pay, pending further investigation. It's still unclear whether the unidentified motorman actually let the boy drive the train, but the witness who prompted the investigation claims he heard her saying, "It's green, speed up...Yellow, slow down." Speaking to the Daily News, a co-worker described the motorwoman, who's been on the job since 1993, as "cautious and attentive... I don't think the kid was driving the train. I think at most she was just showing him [how to drive]." Oh, that's all! But what if this kid had seen the new Taking of Pelham 123 and decided to pull a Travolta? (Or even a Luis Guzman?) Transit officials are taking this one very seriously, and the motorwoman could very well be fired because letting unauthorized visitors into the cab, regardless of age, is against the rules. And letting them drive the train is kinda frowned upon, too. more ›

It turns out that the Manhattan DA's office, while investigating the 2007 deaths of two firefighters during a 7-alarm blaze at the former Deutsche Bank building (the fire was started by a construction worker's cigarette), found evidence of a huge check cashing scam. The NY Times reports, "Investigators examined the financial records of the John Galt Corporation, a subcontractor hired to remove asbestos from the building and dismantle it... The investigators discovered that Galt"—later charged with manslaughter for the firefighters' deaths— "was one of 389 construction-related companies that had participated in an unlawful check-cashing operation that lasted from October 2006 until July 2008 and involved about $40 million." Manhattan DA Robert Morgenthau said, "They could avoid paying taxes and they could use the cash for a number of illegal purposes, and that’s the subject of a continuing investigation. Why did they want to generate this cash and conceal it?" The owners of two of the check cashing companies were charged with falsifying business records. And for more examination of what a mess the former Deutsche Bank building demolition has been, check out Wayne Barrett's Village Voice cover story from last week, "Even Bloomberg's Department of Investigations (DOI) found last month, in a report barely noticed by the press, that it was a case of death by official dereliction." more ›

While smoking is already banned inside hospitals, the NY City Council is considering a bill that would prohibit puffing away outside hospital entrances and on hospital grounds. The AP reports, "The measure seeks to ban smoking on hospital property and within 15 feet of any hospital entrance or exit. It would apply to public and private hospitals, as well as residential health care facilities and diagnostic and treatment centers." However, if the bill passes, those 15 feet from hospital grounds should get some ashtrays ready: When smoking was banned on a Buffalo health facility's campus, the smokers moved across the street—and in front of residential houses. One smoker admitted he was going to throw his cigarette butt in the street; when a TV station reporter asked, "Why can't you throw butt in garbage can?" the smoker answered, "I will. I didn't think of that." more ›

A corporate lawyer for Goldman Sachs thought he was making online overtures to a 15-year-old but it turned out it was just a sting, culminating in the 33-year-old being charged with "trying to disseminate indecent material to a minor" yesterday in a Westchester County court. According to the Daily News, Upper West Side resident—and married father of three— Todd Genger was apparently "caught in a sting operation aimed at perverts who solicit young girls for sex." Genger had allegedly been chatting with a 15-year-old girl—who turned out to be an investigator in the Westchester DA's office—since April and went to Westchester this week, in an attempt to do the deed. The News also reports that the DA's office said that Genger "admitted to participating in the online conversations about the intended tryst, which included 'specific explicit sexual acts.'" Genger was released without bail and faces up between 15 months and four years if convicted. more ›

• Mets 4, Rockies 0: Mike Pelfrey showed a knack for working out of trouble. The Mets' bats scored single runs in four separate innings. Jeff Francoeur continued to contribute, going 1-for-3 with an RBI. He even got hit by a pitch, so his Mets on-base percentage is now higher than his batting average. Congratulations, Jeff. Pelfrey walked three and struck out five and got out of two bases-loaded jams. Staten Island's Jason Marquis took the loss.

Eight months after accidentally shooting himself in the leg (with his own gun) at a Manhattan nightclub, Plaxico Burress is going to testify in front of a grand jury tomorrow. According to the Post, his "attorney, Ben Brafman, hopes that his client can convince the grand jury assembled in Manhattan Supreme Court to forgo an indictment." Brafman said, "Mr. Burress is going to ... tell the truth about what happened that night... He's [also] going to ask [the grand jury] to believe that this unfortunate incident should not be used to ruin his life." The Manhattan DA's office, which wants the former Giants player in to go to jail, is also going to seek charges against Burress's teammate Antonio Pierce, because Pierce took Burress's unlicensed gun back to Burress's NJ home. Giants co-owner John Mara called charges against Pierce "unwarranted." more ›

Like most agencies out there, the MTA is making cuts, and NYC Transit is eliminating around 360 jobs. According to the Post, the jobs span cleaning, maintenance, painting and management: "63 of 1,201 subway-car cleaners and 25 of 1,515 station cleaners will be gone next year, Howard Roberts, the MTA's subway and bus chief said yesterday. Between 2009 and 2010, 308 of 2,420 managerial positions at NYC Transit will be cut." more ›

Dennis Elwell, mayor of Secaucus, NJ, announced that he will resign today, after being charged with corruption—he allegedly took a $10,000 bribe from a government informant— in the massive federal probe that netted 44 arrests last week. His lawyer issued a statement, "Effective today, July 28, 2009, Dennis Elwell will resign his position as mayor of the town of Secaucus. After careful deliberation, Dennis determined this action is in the best interest of both his family and the People of Secaucus. Those who perceive this action to be an admission of culpability as to the pending criminal allegations are gravely mistaken." Elwell had been mayor since 1999. Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano, who was also arrested and accused of taking $25,000 in bribes, and Ridgefield Mayor Anthony Saurez, arrested and accused of taking $10,000, have refused to resign, in spite of outcry. more ›

A new Quinnipiac poll shows that City Comptroller Bill Thompson, the likely Democratic candidate for mayor, has erased some of the gap between himself and Mayor Bloomberg: PolitickerNY reports, "Thompson trails Bloomberg 47 to 37 among city voters, compared to the 54-to-32 spread in Quinnipiac’s June 16 poll," also noting that Bloomberg was ID'd for the first time as a "Republican and independent." Howard Wolfson, spokesman for Bloomberg's campaign, said, “This shows that when you change the wording of any poll, no matter how good, you get a different result. The fact is NYers know that Mike Bloomberg is an independent who governs in a nonpartisan way, which is why roughly two thirds of New Yorkers consistently approve of his job performance and why he has double digit leads over both of his opponents," while Thompson campaign spokeswoman Carly Lindauer said, "Mike Bloomberg has spent nearly $40 million to see his poll numbers decline. It’s clear that after eight years of a Republican mayor who’s been focused on those at the top, New Yorkers want change in City Hall." more ›

Is Queens screwing the pooch when it comes to giving dogs access to parks? Last year residents were begging for a dog run at Yellowstone Blvd, and now Long Island City dog owners are being told their pups are banned from Gantry Plaza State Park, which has long allowed them. more ›

A son of state Senator Pedro Espada Jr. has pleaded guilty to harassment against 76-year-old blogger Rafael Martínez Alequin at a campaign rally last September. According to Martínez Alequin, several people, including Alejandro, began shoving him and trying to grab his camera as he approached Espada. And when he begged Pedro to call off his son, he answered, "He's trying to teach you manners papa. He's trying to teach you manners." (Here's video.) Alejandro, who's the director of one of his father's controversial health clinics, agreed to a restraining order and must pay $432 for the broken camera. But Martínez Alequin wants a stiffer punishment and tells the Daily News, "I was attacked because I was asking questions. I asked [Sen. Espada] to stop [his son]. I said they were hurting me. I was traumatized and I fear for my life." In other Espada dynasty news, our new state Senate Majority Leader is getting "dramatically" larger office space! Espada's spokesman tells the Post, "We have more responsibilities so we'll have more employees and we need more space." As Martinez Alequin can tell you, Espada really needs his space. more ›

Today's not a good day for Bank of America. In the Wall Street Journal, there was a report saying CEO Ken Lewis told investors that BoA will "shrink the company's 6,100-branch network by about 10%, a pullback from the two-decade expansion that took the bank from coast to coast. The driving force for the closings is changing customer preferences...as online and mobile banking take transactions away from traditional branches," according to sources. more ›

In what Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes describes as "really a beaut of a scam," four friends from the NYU finance school are accused of ripping off Brooklyn banks for $422,000. Exploiting a regulation that requires banks to repay customers who claimed their ATM cards were lost or stolen within 10 days, the four allegedly made large withdraws from their accounts repeatedly over five years, then claimed that their cards had been stolen. "The scheme was as simple as it was brazen," Hynes told reporters today. The defendants were allegedly captured by video cameras when taking the money out, but they almost always wore motorcycle helmets or other covering to hide their identities. The accused are lawyer Eric Manganelli, 36; financial consultant Lam Dang, 37; bank employee John Tluczek, 37; and his wife, Marzena Tluczek, 35. They face multiple counts of grand larceny, falsifying business records and other charges, and each faces 2 1/3 to 7 years in prison for the top counts. The scheme was finally discovered after one bank investigator called another bank and they began comparing notes. more ›

Exactly 64 years ago today, a U.S. Army B-25 bomber crashed into the Empire State Building between the 78th and 79th floors (remember this image?). NYC Aviation looks back at the incident, saying "an engine plunges down an elevator shaft, sparking a fire in the basement. Eleven people in the building are killed, in addition to the three man bomber crew. Elevator operator Betty Lou Oliver survived a plunge of 75 stories inside an elevator, which still stands as the Guinness World Record for the longest survived elevator fall recorded." The ESB notes that the pilot and two other passengers were killed, as well eleven people in the Catholic War Relief office. more ›

A new rendering by the Municipal Art Society suggests that Bruce Ratner's $4.9 billion plan to build a Nets basketball arena and mixed-use towers in Brooklyn is a far cry from what was originally proposed, duh. No official renderings of the 22-acre site have been provided to the public since Ratner revealed that starchitect Frank Gehry's ambitious arena designs had been scrapped to cut costs, so MAS has stepped in to show what the area will look like in the coming years. more ›

Sharks, monsters, and now whales are washing up on shore. This morning in New Jersey (Monmouth Beach, to be exact), a 20 to 30-foot long humpback whale was discovered. WCBS reports that "...the stomach was distended. The smell was not terrific, as you could well imagine." Allegedly the heat had destroyed the whale's insides, so scientists were unable to take samples from it. However, because of bruising they believe it may have suffered injuries after being hit by a boat. Later today it will be cut into pieces for burial somewhere on the beach, until then beachgoers are advised to stay at least 100 yards away. More depressing images here. more ›

Well, it's pretty apparent that Mets general manager Omar Minaya's press conference to announce the firing of VP of player development Tony Bernazard did not go as planned. The NY Times wrote, "Three and a half months into a season marked by bile and buffoonery, the Mets added to the chaos Monday, when they turned a news conference announcing the dismissal of a high-ranking executive into an almost surreal confrontation with a reporter who regularly covers the team." more ›

Bronx Judge Joseph Dawson is fed up with the overly casual attire worn by defendants in his courtroom, and he's putting lawyers on notice that their clients need to class it up. On Monday he schooled a man for wearing shorts and a T-shirt, explaining, "I'm not saying you have to wear a suit. You don't. Just wear something appropriate." And he berated lawyer Edward McGowan: "Your client comes up in a T-shirt and sweatpants, chewing gum? This court deserves more respect than that." The fashion lesson sent defendant Mirabel Aquino—who was awaiting her drug-case sentencing in purple shorts, a tank top and gold flip-flops—scrambling to the ladies room to swap outfits with her better-dressed sister. After the quick change, she got five years' probation, and her lawyer admits, "In the Bronx, things can get a bit lackadaisical." But is judge Dawson demanding too haute couture from indigent defendants? A lawyer with the nonprofit Bronx Defenders tells the Daily News, "All of our clients are poor. What may be the best clothes they have might be considered by others to be disrespectful to the court." more ›

To man cave or not to man cave —that's the question Attorney General Andrew Cuomo will face. His office is investigating the use of a workspace off the State Capitol's parking garage as a lounge/drug den, complete with board games, rolling papers and drug scales—allegedly created by two state employees. Cuomo is reportedly showing evidence to a grand jury. more ›

Guess you can't just win millions upon millions of dollars and expect to keep a secret. The mystery man or woman behind the winning Mega Millions ticket is unveiling him or herself today and picking up the winning July 7th pot. The ticket, purchased in Jamaica, Queens, was the only one to have all 6 matching numbers, giving the winner the entire $133 million payout. The NY Post reports that the winner "will get a lump-sum check for nearly $83 million, before taxes, from New York lottery officials at Grand Central Terminal." The employees at Shiv Convenience, where the winning ticket was printed out, are anxious to find out which of their customers has been keeping their fortune a secret. Store manager Bharat Patel said, "It's going to be a surprise. But I'll know the person as soon as I see them." The store also gets a $10,000 bonus for selling the ticket. If this story is giving you lottery fever, tonight's Mega Millions jackpot is $60 million—if you win that's a $2,307,692 annual, or $35,210,000 lump-sum payout. Decisions decisions. UPDATE: The Daily News reports the winner is 49-year-old MTA worker Aubrey Boyce, who works (worked?!) as a collections agent making around $50K a year. He'll take home the lump-sum of $56.7 million after taxes. more ›

The MTA is investigating an allegation that a young boy, approximately 8 or 9 years old, was allowed into the train operator's compartment for a little driving tutorial. On Sunday, Jules Cattie, a 41-year-old lawyer, was in the first car of an uptown Lexington Avenue express train when he witnessed "the craziest thing I've ever seen." First he heard the female train operator talking to someone, saying "It's green, speed up...Yellow, slow down." He assumed she was teaching a new MTA worker, but then he saw a child emerge from the compartment. more ›

The NY Times reports that the Department of Homeless Services is enacting a new policy giving shelters more power to evict homeless families: "Homeless families can be kicked out of city shelters for repeatedly breaking rules like staying out past curfew or for refusing apartments offered to them." While DHS Commissioner Robert Hess claims it'll be used only in "egregious situations," pointing out some families use the shelters as permanent housing, Legal Aid's attorney in chief Steven Banks said, "With all of the problems that the state has and all of the problems that the city has right now, in the midst of this economic downturn, it’s shocking that the state and the city are prepared to invest the resources to put innocent children and their families out of safety-net shelters onto the streets." But one shelter operator said, "There’s not a caseworker alive that wants to realize that threat, and as an agency, we don’t want to move people to the streets. That’s not what we’re in business to do. But if you enter the shelter, if you know there’s a threat of being put out of the shelter, you’ll be more likely to follow the rules." more ›

The National Transportation Safety Board released pre-flight transcripts from Flight 3407, the fatal flight from Newark that crashed near its destination of Buffalo in February, and it turns out that co-pilot Rebecca Shaw was in fact sick. She told pilot Marvin Renslow, while sniffling, "I'm ready to be in the hotel room. This is one of those times that if I felt like this when I was at home there's no way I would have come all the way out here. But now that I'm out here," to which Renslow said, "You might as well [fly]." Forty-nine people on the plane were killed; one person on the ground was killed. more ›

Yesterday morning a Queens man was awakened by the unenviable sensation of boiling water poured on his genitals by his wife. Emmanuel "Ojo" Ojofeitimi, 67, sustained second and third degree burns over 30% of his body; his wife Oyindamola Ojofeitimi told cops she was motivated by the discovery that her husband of 20 years had been unfaithful. Speaking to the Post from his hospital bed last night, Ojofeitimi explained that "I didn't know what had happened. By the time I woke up, the skin was falling off." A neighbor says, "It sounded like a woman screaming," and tells the Daily News that Ojofeitimi, a Nigerian immigrant and nurse like his wife, was carried out on a stretcher. But he insists he wasn't cheating, telling the Post, "She does not know how to forgive and forget; she doesn't let anything go by. If I come home late from work, she's always assuming that I'm with a woman." His wife was charged with assault and harassment; her lawyer maintains that Ojofeitimi "had a history of abusing her both physically and psychologically." If so, they can probably call it even now. more ›

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer's deputy press aide resigned, due to a series of Facebook posts and comments she made related to the arrest of Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. Lee Landor, who had been working in Stringer's office since May, complained, "You know what, I am really getting SICK of hearing about how white people are evil racists. Black people, Hispanic people, Indian people, Asian people, whoever, are being over-the-top racists in recent weeks, as highlighted in the media since the Sotomayor-New Haven issue," and also called President Obama "O-Dumb-a" while saying that Gates was the racist. more ›

Perhaps taking a cue from the chicken that was on the loose in Queens, today's weird report over the police wires is that two goats are on the New England Thruway. More specifically, they are on the southbound NE Thruway at the split to the Hutchinson Parkway—there's a highway unit "trying to herd them off the road." Pressing question: Was there a third goat involved and were they looking for a bridge with a troll under it? And last year, a pygmy goat escaped a slaughterhouse and was wandering the Bronx before being taken to Farm Sanctuary in Watkins Glen, NY. more ›

New York - which had applied for upward of 800 cops under the program but had expected to receive money for about 200 - has neither, so it's being passed over." more ›

In the Wakefield section of the Bronx, a homeowner managed to shoot one of the men apparently attempting to rob his house. The suspect was killed (in the doorway), while another was wounded—but two other suspects fled. According to WABC 7, "The four suspects burst into the man's home on Bussing Avenue just before 12:15 a.m. this morning. They held up the occupant of the home, until he grabbed the gun from one of the suspects." Two guns found at the scene are believed to be from the suspects. A neighbor spoke WCBS 2 and said of the neighbor, "Wow. Very brave. He's hard working, quiet, hard working guy." more ›

• Mets 8 Colorado 3: Let’s start on the field and give credit to the Mets who have won three-of-four and found some punch at the plate Monday night. Fernando Tatis hit a grand slam in the eighth to break a 3-3 tie and F-Rod took it from there pitching a 1-2-3 ninth. Unfortunately, the on the field stuff will be overshadowed by the circus created this afternoon. While announcing the firing of Tony Bernazard, Omar Minaya decided to mix it up with Daily News writer, Adam Rubin, seemingly accusing Rubin of writing the original story about Bernazard's conduct to gain a job of his own with the Mets. A few hours later, Minaya apologized for how he made the remarks, but not for the substance of them.

The NY State Department of Transportation has 511, which gives updates about traffic and transit (plus has a trip planner and ride share info)—and which makes it a natural to put the information on Twitter. You can choose from a number of regions besides NY State— from the Adirondacks to Albany/Saratoga, from Long Island to Catskills/Hudson valley area—and for NYC, you can follow subways: 123, 456, 7, ACE, BDFV, G, JMZ, L/S, and NRGW. more ›

All sorts of cats have been coming out of the woodwork to ring in the quadricentennial of the Hudson River. But up in the Palisades, things might be getting out of control if there's any validity behind multiple sightings of panthers along the Hudson town of Sneden's Landing. The Times reports on a town meeting that took place at the end of last week to address the reports coming in since March of the 100-plus pound cats that "have no history of ever existing in the wild in New York." Despite there being no photographic evidence or even confirmed footprints of a panther, the Rockland community is vowing to pay for "more comprehensive cameras and perhaps tracking expertise." Our own Joe Schumacher, who does his virtual stormtracking nearby the potential panther pad, told us that he is disappointed to say that he has not seen the Palisades Panther, but does report back sightings of "a large black feral housecat." more ›

One week after news surfaced that Tony Bernazard, Mets VP of Player Development challenged the Mets' AA farm team to a fight and is generally out of control, the Mets fired the hot head. The Post is reporting that Bernazard has been fired and that the move will be announced at the team's 3:30 press conference. No news on whether Minaya has plans to announce his own firing at the press conference as well. more ›

The Cambridge, Massachusetts police released the 911 call that prompted the arrest of Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr.. It turns out the caller Lucia Whalen said, "I don't know if they live there or they just had a hard time with their key." You can listen to the tape here, and Whalen was apparently upset she was being depicted as a racist in the media; her attorney said, "She has worked in Cambridge for more than 15 years, about 100 yards from where Mr. Gates resides, and was aware of several recent break-ins in the area." The Boston Globe reports that in the recordings, "The dispatcher asked officers to 'respond to a possible B and E in progress,' saying the caller had reported they 'barged' into the house, but also noting, 'They have suitcases.'" Gates was eventually arrested for disorderly conduct, upset that the police arrived. Cambridge Chief of Police Robert Haas said, "July 16 is a painful moment for all of us. We need to move on. If we focus back on July 16, we are not going to make any progress." The incident became more of a flashpoint when President Obama waded into the discussion—now he has invited Gates and the police officer who arrested Gates, Sergeant James Crowley, for a beer at the White House this week. more ›

Last year the Bloomberg administration made a big deal about reducing the number of parking placards issued to city employees, slashing them by over 25,000. At the time, the cutback on permits, which allow cops, civil servants, and other lucky bureaucrats to park almost anywhere, was heralded by Paul Steely White of Transportation Alternatives as “a good first step. But the final analysis will be weeks and months from now, when we see how actively these plaques are enforced." more ›

The woman who drove a minivan full of her children and nieces the wrong way on the Taconic yesterday was feeling ill, but there is no indication of drugs or alcohol being involved in Westchester's worst accident in 75 years. Diane Schuler of West Babylon was on her way home from a weekend camping trip upstate when she called her brother on Long Island to say that she felt sick—apparently so ill that he offered to come get her if she would pull over. However, she didn't know where she was exactly and two hours later, she veered onto the other side of the highway. Schuler, 36, apparently had been on the wrong side for 2 miles before crashing head first into an SUV, killing all three Yonkers men inside it—father and son Michael and Guy Bastardi and their friend Daniel Longo. Schuler, her two-year-old daughter Erin and her three young nieces—Emma, Alison and Kate Hance— all died in the crash. The only survivor was Schuler's five-year-old son Brian, who is amazingly in stable condition. A secondary collision with a Chevy Tracker left a Freehold couple with minor cuts that they were treated for. Police now await autopsy and toxicology results to learn more details of Schuler's condition. more ›

Though math nerds may not be the first demographic you'd expect to turn out in droves for an afternoon spent outdoors walking block after block, mathematician Glen Whitney has begun leading guided tours of Manhattan. Whitney, who quit his job at a hedge fund, has attracted a nice following: This week's New Yorker carries a dispatch from writer Nick Paumgarten on one of Whitney's tours, which that day took a group from 66th Street to Columbus Circle while stopping for all sorts of hidden math-yness along the way. When the group reached 64th Street, for instance, Paumgarten describes how "a Philip Johnson clock just off Columbus Avenue led to a disquisition on Pythagoras, octaves, calendars, eclipses, and time." Whitney is using the tours in hopes of building demand for a math museum in New York, and—for a city that already has museums devoted to sex, comic books, and creepy wax statues—why not? After all, for those who want nothing to do with any of that complicated number-learnin', there's always the Gossip Girl bus tour. more ›

Manhattan DA Robert Morgenthau made it clear today that his office has no plans to let former Giant receiver Plaxico Burress off lightly for the pending gun charges from his November shooting incident. The DA told the Post, "We've always taken the position that he's going to have to go to jail, whether by trial or by plea." more ›

Even though Mayor Bloomberg struck a deal with the State Senate over mayoral control of schools legislation, the high-fives might have to wait: Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said the amendments—which the Senate tacked onto the mayoral control bill the Assembly already passed— weren't a done deal. He told the Post, "The only guarantee that was given was that we will take them up with our conference and let them decide what they want to do with them, probably sometime in September. It's possible all will pass, possible none will pass, or some of them [will] pass with various amendments." According to the Daily News, "The Senate is expected to be back sometime next month to pass the Assembly bill. At that same time, the chamber was expected to separately pass the amendments agreed to with the city," but now that seems in jeopardy. State Sen. Shirley Huntley (D-Queens) said, "If the Assembly doesn't vote on our amendments, we're not bringing up the main bill... Why should we?" And it's a reminder again that Albany is a huge clusterf*ck. more ›

Bored, itinerant law interns are the latest side effect of the recession. The NY Times takes a look today inside the summer internship programs at Brooklyn's district attorney's office and finds packs of unpaid law students roaming the hallways, struggling to find desks, chairs, and jobs. As an anonymous intern tells the Times, "It’s much harder for them to find stuff for us to do...Definitely some people feel they haven’t done anything." At least they're getting a chance to brush up on their puzzle skills, though, as the Times notes "other interns pass the hours doing crossword puzzles or playing games on the computer." (To be fair, that happens with interns regardless of the economic climate.) What's causing this epidemic of lawyerly lassitude? The reduction in summer hires by private firms, which has shifted swarms of students into a public sector that can barely absorb them. As a result, competition increases for everything from assignments to eventual job offers to even intramurals—in the one of the few bright spots to a down economy, the Brooklyn DA office softball league now has plenty of intern talent to pick from. more ›

In case you were worried, weather conditions today promise to be a lot quieter than yesterday, when several storm cells blasted their way through the city.. Lightning, hail, a funnel cloud in Queens and lots of downed trees and urban flooding were the rule across the region. While the city will see plenty of heat and humidity, and perhaps a late-afternoon shower, there's nothing around to kick off severe thunderstorms. If today's high reaches the Weather Channel predicted 87 degrees it will be the first warmer-than-average day this month. more ›

Besides his pitiful poll numbers, Democrats are concerned about another 2010 matter of Governor Paterson's—his campaign money. According to the NY Times, they "worry that Mr. Paterson has not shown discipline in managing his campaign spending or his overall strategy"; the governor has just $5.4 million while Attorney General Cuomo has basically double that. The Times lists many expenses, such as the consultants: Entertainment lawyer and friend "Lisa E. Davis...pulls in $5,000 a month. The governor paid $15,000 to Global Strategy, a consulting firm also used by Eliot Spitzer, before severing his ties with the company. He briefly turned to Judy Smith, a Washington consultant, whose firm was paid $30,000; they parted ways after Ms. Smith was linked to the Paterson administration’s smear campaign against Caroline Kennedy following her aborted Senate candidacy, an episode that damaged the governor’s image." Shouldn't Paterson get a refund on that? A recent hire, Tracy Sefl, "whose firm is paid $20,000 a month, said Mr. Paterson’s new team is committed to keeping expenses down." Expenses like "$1,600 for lodging two staff members on two nights at the Beach House Inn on Shelter Island"? more ›

Officer Rodney Lewis and his partner Mark Bublin were responding to a domestic dispute in Ridgewood early Sunday morning when a suspect's handgun accidentally discharged during a scuffle, wounding Lewis under his left arm. According to WABC, it all started around 11 p.m. Saturday during a family party, when Marcello Campana, who identifies herself as a woman named Hazel, got into an argument with her reportedly violent boyfriend Carlos. more ›

While it's probably not too unbelievable that American Apparel has a certain aesthetic they like to portray to their legions of customers donning mesh v-necks, it may be more surprising to hear that... actually this isn't that surprising either. According to a Gawker tipster, Dov Charney "is demanding the firing of employees he deems unattractive and thus detrimental" to said aesthetic. more ›

Merce Cunningham, the influential American choreographer, died at age 90 yesterday. The NY Times' Alastair Macaulay writes Cunningham "was among a handful of 20th-century figures to make dance a major art and a major form of theater...Mr. Cunningham ranks with Isadora Duncan, Serge Diaghilev, Martha Graham and George Balanchine in making people rethink the essence of dance and choreography, posing a series of 'But' and 'What if?' questions over a career of nearly seven decades." And the Washington Post notes "he created a body of work that looks like none other -- plotless, spacious and often leisurely paced works, characterized by the clarity, calm and coolness of the dancing" with "an elegant and rigorous dance technique based on ballet's pulled-up stretchiness, the weightedness he absorbed from Martha Graham, with whom he danced before striking out on his own, and his own ways of twisting, folding and releasing the body." His bio on his dance company's website says besides being hailed as the "greatest living choreographer," "earlier in his career he was also one of the greatest American dancers" and "before he was a modern dancer, Merce was a hoofer." Cunningham also collaborated with his life partner, John Cage, until Cage's death in 1992. more ›

While the fate of a proposed Whole Foods in Gowanus Brooklyn remains an open question, a group of Upper East Siders are hankering for their piece of the Whole. NYC the Blog spotted this desperate entreaty on Lexington Ave between 86th and 87th Street. Did you know it's tough out there on the mean streets of the UES? It's true; the sign says so: "I'm sick of eating out! We need to take action! They have taken away many of our amenities, making it hard to live in this area! We should have a say in what stores are welcome in our neighborhood." The community urgently needs a tiny violin shop, for one thing. According to an article in Crain's last year, a Whole Foods on 57th and Second Ave is expected to be completed by 2012, so that's a start. Hang in there Upper East Siders! more ›

Yesterday afternoon, a deadly crash unfolded on the Montauk Highway when a 2009 Mitsubishi crashed into a Ford Windstar minivan in Copiague. According to the Suffolk County Police, Damian Dudkiewicz, 25, lost control of the Mitsubishi while driving eastbound; he "slid into oncoming traffic at 4:28 p.m." and struck the westbound minivan driven by 50-year-old Rosanna Attaguile. Two of the passengers in Dudkiewicz's car were killed while Attaguile's mother was killed. Dudkiewicz suffered non-life threatening injuries while another passenger was badly injured; Attaguile and her father were treated for their injuries—both had broken ribs and collapsed lungs. A volunteer firefighter told Newsday that Dudkiewicz "was conscious, but at the same time, we didn't know if he had brain damage or something. He kept asking: 'Where am I? Where's my fiancee?'" (The fiancee was killed.)The Daily News suggests the crash may have been "sparked by a possible drag racing contest." more ›

Jeffrey and Michelle Feig's charming Central Park West apartment has gone from urban oasis to noisy nightmare, and someone's got to pay. In a $4.5 million lawsuit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, the Feigs accuse the neighbor, Michel Kadoe, of turning his backyard into a "shantytown," by renting out the garden apartment in his brownstone to unruly tourists. more ›

New York magazine's cover story this week is titled "Is Goldman Sachs Evil? Or Just Too Good?", giving the once-over to the investment bank that just reported $3.44 billion in second quarter profits less than half a year after receiving $10 billion in TARP money from the government. The feature by Joe Hagan examines the bailout, the culture, and the firm's relationship with D.C. Then there are quotes like this one from former "Sheriff of Wall Street" and Love Gov Eliot Spitzer—"If all we are getting are newly empowered and capital-rich hedge funds that benefit from market volatility, then we are not only rebuilding the same edifice, but we’re contributing to the underlying rot in our economy"—as well as one from GS's communications director, "The cult of the individual, which I think has been a disadvantage to so many of the firm’s competitors, really doesn’t exist here. The more you have acceptance, the easier it is to be effective." And another Wall Street veteran puts it this way: "The god is Goldman. You subjugate yourself to that god, and in return we will make you a gazillionaire." more ›

Yesterday's afternoon thunderstorms claimed the life of a NJ man in Newark while a cricket player in Brooklyn was seriously injured. In Marine Park, Brooklyn, Patrick Gibson had been playing cricket when the storm broke out: The Daily News reports that he may have lagged to collect equipment. A witness said, "His pants were burned. His tongue was out of his mouth and his eyes were rolled back in his head." Gibson had a heart attack and is currently in critical condition at Beth-Israel Medical Center. And in Newark, according to the Star-Ledger, four men were seeking refuge from the rain in a wooded area behind an apartment complex. All were struck by lightning: One died, while another remains in critical condition; the other two men suffered burns but are stable. more ›

• Mets 8, Astros 3: Nothing like a pair of games against Russ Ortiz and Brian Moehler to boost a team's confidence. The Mets' performance in their last two games has been nothing short of an offensive explosion. They overcame Livan Hernandez's three-run adventure in the first to record their first road series win since early June. Every starter -- including Livan Hernandez -- had a hit. The Mets had 13 of them. Oliver Perez will start Monday when the Mets return home to take on the wild-card-leading Rockies in the opener of a four-game series.

Earlier this evening, the skies opened up offered a torrent of rain—not to mention some strong winds that have left downed trees in all the boroughs. Then there were rainbows—and now there's more thunder and lightning! There's still a severe thunderstorm warning in effect; according to WCBS 2, the National Weather Service "has issued the alert for Queens, Kings (Brooklyn), Richmond (Staten Island), New York (Manhattan), and Bronx Counties in New York until 9:45 p.m." more ›

Gawker has a doozy of a Craigslist rental nightmare. Apparently someone rented an apartment out to America's Next Top Model winner CariDee English (cycle 7) and her boyfriend for two weeks. And two weeks was more than enough time for the couple to make their mark. The tenant shared the e-mail she sent to the pair with Gawker; highlights: "There was fake orange tan dust all over everything: the pillows, the sheets, the towels, the bathmat, the walls, everywhere. The icing on the cake were the short black hairs all over the entire bathroom, as well as an unidentifiable black sludge and lipstick smeared along walls. Fruit flies formed a thick cloud in the kitchen. Band-Aids stuck to the floor...Both puzzling and sickening... I was shocked...to find a hole in the middle of my living room wall that was made during your stay. Coincidentally it's about the same size as the remote control, which is also broken." Not surprisingly, the tenant is keeping the deposit—it's unclear whether she was tempted to enter the dirtiest apartments in the USA contest. more ›

Gawker has a doozy of a Craigslist rental nightmare. Apparently someone rented an apartment out to America's Next Top Model winner CariDee English (cycle 7) and her boyfriend for two weeks. And two weeks was more than enough time for the couple to make their mark. The tenant shared the e-mail she sent to the pair with Gawker; highlights: "There was fake orange tan dust all over everything: the pillows, the sheets, the towels, the bathmat, the walls, everywhere. The icing on the cake were the short black hairs all over the entire bathroom, as well as an unidentifiable black sludge and lipstick smeared along walls. Fruit flies formed a thick cloud in the kitchen. Band-Aids stuck to the floor...Both puzzling and sickening... I was shocked...to find a hole in the middle of my living room wall that was made during your stay. Coincidentally it's about the same size as the remote control, which is also broken." Not surprisingly, the tenant is keeping the deposit—it's unclear whether she was tempted to enter the dirtiest apartments in the USA contest. more ›

About 100 protesters stood outside the home of Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano yesterday and called for his resignation, joining a public plea the day before from NJ Governor Jon Corzine. Despite being arrested as part of the massive corruption bust Thursday, the mayor has insisted he will stay in office continuing "business as usual." Corzine said if Cammarano and other officials refuse to step down, he will seek measures to force them out of office, adding, "If they want to get back into politics once they are proven innocent, I think that's fine." Cammarano was busted for taking $25,000 in bribes and his ambitious climb to become Hoboken's youngest mayor last month lead many to believe he will not go down lightly. A longtime NJ legislator said of him, "Some kids grow up and want to be the center fielder for the Mets. Some grow up and want to be mayor of their town. That was him. He was reveling in it." Meanwhile one spot getting a boost from the scandal—Hoboken's Malibu Diner, the scene of the crime. A manager told the News, “It’s not the kind of publicity we want, but business has picked up." more ›

It’s deadline time and while the Mets and Yankees are going in very different directions, it is clear that they both need to do something at the deadline. For the Yankees, currently in first place, they have one clear and pressing need, adding another starter to the rotation. C.C. Sabathia and A.J. Burnett are a formidable tandem, but behind them are serious questions. Joba Chamberlain has been great his last two times out, but his overall work this season has been inconsistent. Andy Pettitte has a 4.67 ERA, a slightly below-average number in 2009. And with Chien-Ming Wang most likely gone for the season, the Yankees are using Sergio Mitre as the fifth starter. Mitre may have won his first start, but he has a 5.35 in over 300 innings in the National League. Brian Cashman doesn’t have to get Roy Holliday, but he needs to find someone who can give the Yankees some innings while keeping them in the game. more ›

The BearVault canister is touted as being "bear resistant" (not to mention "grizzly & black bear-approved") but there's one bear who appears to have mastered opening the container: Yellow-Yellow, a 125-pound bear upstate. According to the NY Times, with word of her prowess spreading, "she has emerged as a near-mythical creature in the High Peaks region of the northeastern Adirondacks." Even though the BearVault has two tabs that need to be pushed in order to turn the lid, Yellow-Yellow (so-named for her two yellow tags) "apparently depresses one tab with her teeth, turns the lid, uses her teeth on the second tab, and then opens it." The Times even has a graphic! State wildlife technician Ben Tabor, who says Yellow-Yellow is shy, said, "I don’t think she’s smarter than most bears. I think she’s had more time to learn." But this means a career as a product tester—BearVault creator Jamie Hogan has a new canister model lined up: "State officials have agreed to test it by filling it with aromatic food and depositing it on Yellow-Yellow’s turf." Aw, we hope they give her a treat for all her hard work! more ›

A nurse is suing Mount Sinai Hospital, claiming the institution "forced" her to assist with an abortion, despite her pleas. The Post reports, "The hospital even exaggerated the patient's condition and claimed the woman could die if the nurse, a devout Catholic, did not follow orders, the nurse alleges in a lawsuit." more ›

If you glanced at the Daily News' cover today, you might think the tabloid was saying a kiss between Yankees' third baseman Alex Rodriguez and Hollywood starlet Kate Hudson will make you sick. Actually the "Sick" headline refers to a disturbing look at city hospitals, while A-Rod and K-Hud's canoodling has its own feature: According to sports writer Rich Shapiro, the pair "put on a very public display of affection for the first time, locking lips during the team's annual family picnic." And A-Rod's two daughters, Ella, 1, and Natasha, 4, were also present. Yankees manager Joe Girardi may give Rodriguez a day off, since he's "4-for-22 with no homers and three RBIs in his last six games, and he's whiffed six times in his last three games." Newsday points out it could be "preventive," since "A-Rod turns 34 Monday and had a big birthday bash planned for last night in the city, thrown by Hudson, with all his Yankees teammates invited." It's unclear what the overall Hudson effect on A-Rod's performance is; a few weeks ago, it seemed mixed. more ›

A police officer is in stable condition after being shot by a stray bullet while responding to a domestic dispute call in Ridgewood early this morning. According to NY1, Officer Rodney Lewis was reporting to a call around 5 a.m. of a domestic dispute involving a gun inside a Queens apartment on Menahan Avenue. When cops arrived on the scene, they spotted a bald man who appeared to fit the description of one of the men involved in the altercation. Police noticed a gun in his waistband and apprehended him, only to have the weapon go off and strike the 40-year-old Lewis in the side of the chest. Lewis was rushed to Wyckoff Medical Center while police arrested 33-year-old Edwin Santana, who was wanted for parole violations and is believed to have obtained the gun illegally. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and Mayor Bloomberg have already visited Lewis at the hospital where he is recovering and reportedly in good spirits. Bloomberg told reporters, "I joked with him that we had a budget crisis and we wanted him back on the job." more ›

While some of you have been enjoying a lazy Sunday morning, thousands of people spent their early morning starting the Nautica NYC Triathlon—a 1500 meter swim in the Hudson River followed by a 40KM bike race (in Manhattan and the Bronx), ending with a 10KM run in Central Park. Though the race was delayed by rain, there are already winners: Greg Bennett of Australia won the men's competition, with a time of 1:45:50 (swim: 12:34; bike: 58:37; run: 31:12), while Rebeccah Wassner of New York won the women's, with a time of 1:58:25 (swim: 13:40; bike: 1:06:01; run: 34:36). And in the ParaTriathlon competition, Aaron Scheidies won with a time of 2:02:15. Last year's competitors faced obstacles like jellyfish and the heat and humidity; the NYC Tri website says, "This year, the rain certainly slowed athletes’ final times, while the humidity made the race seem to last too long for some," but the participants were undeterred. One said, "Running through one of the best landmarks in the world… it was a privilege." more ›

Yesterday morning, the decomposing body of a Vietnam War veteran was found in his Brooklyn apartment—apparently after months of neighbors' complaints about a foul smell. However, WABC 7 reports, the body of 60-year-old James Gales was only discovered because "A man who just happens happens to work the for the medical examiners officer, according neighbors, saw the apartment window open. When he passed the opened window, he apparently knew immediately that there was a dead body inside." more ›

A church carnival in the Bronx turned into a house of horror when a roller coaster overturned and injured eleven people. Witnesses at the thirteenth annual St. Theresa Festival in Pelham Bay Park say that something was not right with the "Dragon Wagon" all day long, with reports that there was a clicking sound coming from the kiddie ride that stood no more than four feet off the ground. At around 9:30 p.m., the ride finally gave and ran off the tracks. Seven children were taken to Jacobi Hospital and one of the two adults injured was a pregnant woman, but all of the injuries were not considered serious, described as bumps and scratches. One elderly woman told the News, "I thought it was dangerous from the beginning," and when the ride finally did tilt over, the woman said that she thought "someone was shot." Police shut down the carnival for the night after the accident and continue to investigate what caused the malfunction. more ›

A few more details on Governor Paterson's reimbursement for using a state-owned plane to fly to Washington D.C. for President Obama's inauguration. Paterson's campaign cut a check for $3,600 after the Times-Union wondered why that reimbursement wasn't included in campaign filings, which had included other inauguration-related travel. Now the Times-Union reports that the $3,600 estimate, apparently from the State Police, may be too low: " State officials using state aircraft for non-state business are required to reimburse using charter rates, which are more than just cost of the plane. Profit and airport fees also must be included. The requirement was part of an ethics opinion embraced by Gov. Eliot Spitzer in the summer of 2007, who made it state policy." A "charter" estimate would be around $8,000; Paterson's campaign says it is prepared to pay more for the reimbursement. more ›

The Yankees' winning streak was snapped at eight, with a loss to the Oakland Athletics. However, the Mets won over the Houston Astors, thanks to seven innings from rookie Jose Niese. more ›

A week that saw Mayor Bloomberg and Democratic state senators comparing each other to Nazi appeasers and plantation owners respectively ended with an announcement that the two sides had finally come to an agreement on Bloomberg keeping control of New York's schools. New Democratic Majority Leader Pedro Espada Jr. announced that a deal had been reached with most terms of the original 2002 mayoral control law kept in tact. However the new agreement will work to foster more parental involvement with a $3 million parent training institute run through CUNY and schools being mandated to have safety meetings with parents. The Times says that City Hall officials were careful not to gloat at news of the deal, that will likely be voted on when senators return from vacation before the new school year gets under way. The additional provisions will also require an anotherl vote from the Assembly, but word is that Assembly Leader Sheldon Silver was kept abreast of negotiations. Not all state legislators were forcing a smile though, with Senator Hiram Monserrate saying, “The mayor can really be a mensch when he wants to be.” more ›

Yesterday, the MTA asked for the public's help is finding a trio of men who managed to steal $120,000 worth of jewelry from two salesmen traveling through Grand Central Terminal. According to the Post, "The ruse involved one con man following a salesman for hours on the day of the crime, tailing him for miles on his regular route from Chinatown to Midtown. Once at Grand Central, the thieves used two distractions to swap one of the jewel-laden bags with one of equal heft and appearance." Yes, just like in the movies! Here's how the MTA describes the diversion: "MTA Police believe that on the lower level of the Terminal at about 6 p.m. on June 24, the jewelry company employees were transporting about 800 pieces of gold and diamond jewelry including rings, neck chains, bracelets, earrings and pendants, and about $2,000 in cash, in a black duffel bag. The employee with possession of the bag set it down momentarily to discard some garbage..." more ›

The man who is suing the NYPD for $220 million after alleging that cops at the Prospect Park subway station sodomized him with a police baton has been involved in another altercation that left him with a knife wound in his left arm. 24-year-old tattoo artist Michael Mineo was stabbed in Downtown Brooklyn yesterday after telling the suspect to leave Mineo's girlfriend alone. A witness told the News, "The girl let it be known she was bumped and upset. The guy she was with wanted to be chivalrous and went back and forth with the first guy." 41-year-old ex-con Alejandro George was allegedly drunk when he took out a knife and took a swipe at Mineo's kidney but ended up stabbing him in the left forearm. George was arrested and charged with assault. A lawyer for Mineo suggested that George indicated he knew who Mineo was and "threw a couple of epithets" during the altercation. Mineo was treated and released from Kings County Hospital. more ›

As the dust still settles from the massive FBI sting operation that brought down three New Jersey mayors, rabbis from Brooklyn and saw a total of 44 suspects arrested, more details are emerging about the one charge among the fray that really turned heads this week—organ trafficking. more ›

The Triathalon spirit seems to be spreading all over town this weekend. A 65-year-old man had to be pulled out of the Hudson last night after he dove in and attempted to swim out onto the Intrepid. He made it 50 feet off of shore before firefighters caught up with him and assisted him onto a ladder leading to a rescue boat. An FDNY source told the News, "He felt like he had to go and touch the Intrepid, so instead of paying for admission and going on board, he decided to jump in the water. He was intoxicated. ... You could smell it." The man was taken to Roosevelt Hospital for observation and treatment for minor injuries. Where will the Dutchman's celebratory Quadricentennial festivities lead next?? more ›

It's been over a week now since Dash Snow was confirmed dead from an overdose, and today the NY Times sheds some light on what exactly happened to the artist, who would have turned 28 on Monday, during his last hours. more ›

The Astor trial, which features the late philanthropist's son accused of looting his mother's fortune, has been going on for weeks—but that's not a problem for Judy Natkins and another woman named Gladys, who have been attending almost every day of the trial. The NY Times casts a spotlight on these devotees of the judicial system: "Gladys, who said that the trial has been a needed distraction after several deaths in her family, acknowledged she was among those curious about the celebrity witnesses, saying she paid particular attention to 'how they dressed, how they spoke, how they looked.' She confided: 'Barbara Walters looked terrific. Henry Kissinger looked fat.'" On one day, Natkins even joined reporters in questioning one witness, "Have you ever considered writing a book about your experience?" Gladys has attended the trials of Joel B. Steinberg, John Gotti Jr., and Robert Chambers while Natkins has been to Martha Stewart's trial and, in order to "see what evil looked like," spent a day at the trial of the police officers accused of abusing Abner Louima. As for the slow pace of the trial, the women are sitting tight, though Gladys said, "I’m leaving as soon as the Gotti trial starts up." more ›

Last night was another dangerous one in Jersey City as five people were shot on a street corner just after 12:30 a.m. this morning. All five are in stable condition and details behind the shooting remain unclear as police are searching for suspects. A police spokesman said that when cops arrived onto the scene near the corner of Bergen and Claremont Avenues, they discovered a chaotic scene, describing it to reporters, “When we showed up, everybody was fighting and nobody was talking." The victims included two men in their 30s (shot in the chest), a man in his 20s and a woman in her 50s (both shot in the arm), and a 16-year-old girl (in the leg), none of whom were related. The shooting comes just days after Jersey City's police chief called the recent outburst of crime there (that included a fatal police shootout) "an aberration" and insisted it was a safe city. more ›

The Times Square Alliance has started rolling out the upgraded look of the pedestrian malls that have taken over the center of the city with brand new seating and even some greenery to really get tourists in the true lounging spirit. The Alliance said that the new seats were "more typical of outdoor furniture" and the Post is calling them "classy." And what screams classy more than sitting inside a giant baseball glove chair? (Let's hope that Beetlejuice doesn't find his way over to the Theater District!) Also arriving at the closed-off sections of Broadway to replace the original eyesore, death trap lawn chairs are silver benches made for two, so get ready to catch some PDA in your periphery while averting your eyes from the Naked Cowboy. The center of the roadway also now will have a Zelkova or oak trees surrounded by "dozens of other small plants." Not everyone loves the new European look though, with one woman from Austin telling the Post, "I wanted to see taxi-to-taxi gridlock and grittiness. I didn't expect to see trees in the middle of the street." Great, now even tourists want the nasty old Times Square back. more ›

According to MyFoxNY, police were investigating a break-in on a Marlboro Township, NJ street—when they discovered four alligators in the basement! And MyFoxNY is ready for the doubters: "Alligators living in the basement of a huge, fancy house on Deerfield Street in Marlboro Township? It does not sound possible, but Fox 5 EXCLUSIVELY obtained photos of the alligators police discovered." more ›

A couple of young men in the Bronx had the head start on their weekend ruined in the wee hours of Friday morning when cops rolled up on them and hit them with summonses for drinking in public and disorderly conduct. That prompted the pair to strike back at police with a vengeance, trading in their hooch for some genuine hard stuff, purchasing motor oil from a nearby BP gas station in Bedford Park. The two then poured the oil on a cop car in front and tossed a lit match on it. The problem for 18-year-old Michael Bower and 22-year-old Carlos Ortiz is that the BP wasn't the only station nearby—the 52nd Precinct was right across the street. A lieutenant heading in spotted the melting bumper and the two were promptly put on the wrong side of the law for the second time of the night. Police sources said to the News, "Braniacs these boys are not," and, "They are pretty stupid...They did it right on camera." The squad car ended up with only minor damage and a police source said that with a new paint job, it should be back on the streets in no time. more ›

Last month Staten Island EMT Frank Musarella, 46, a retired NYPD detective, was arrested for posting on his Facebook page a crime scene photo of a murder victim taken with his cell phone. If convicted of official misconduct, he could face up to a year in jail. But victim Caroline Wimmer's parents, who found their daughter's strangled and beaten body in March after not hearing from her for a few days, are filing a notice of claim in state Supreme Court to hold the city, the NYPD, the FDNY and Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta accountable. more ›

James Dolan, chairman of Cablevision and Madison Square Garden, has been reviled for years for running the Knicks into the ground. And now rumor has it he wants to get rid of a beloved part of New York City—the Radio City Hall Rockettes! Dolan also owns Radio City Cityfile reported, "Much like other pricey productions—ticket sales [for the Christmas Spectacular] have fallen flat given the state of the economy," leading workers to worry. A former cast member told Cityfile, "I've spoken with people who work at the Radio City box office and they say they've never seen it this bad." Plus, "The temperamental Cablevision chief has intimated that he's prepared to scrap the Rockettes altogether and install an entirely new show in the famed venue during the holiday season. One idea he's reportedly batted around: Bringing a version of Cirque du Soleil to Radio City." Egads! Dolan's spokeperson later caught up with Cityfile, "This story is fundamentally false. We anticipate 2009 will be another successful season and look forward to creating memories for families for many years to come," but didn't say how well tickets were selling. more ›

• Yankees 8 Oakland 3: Joba Chamberlain had his second dominant start in a row and the Yankees’ offense blew the game open in the eighth. Chamberlain allowed only two hits over seven-plus innings while striking out six to earn his sixth win of the season. Johnny Damon and Derek Jeter combined for five RBI’s while Melky Cabrera had three hits and two runs scored. The win keeps the Yankees 2-1/2 games in front of Boston.
• Houston 5 Mets 4: New York needs Johan Santana to get a victory every time out and that is an impossible standard for Santana to live up to. Friday he wasn’t his best, allowing 12 hits and the Mets blew a golden chance to tie the game on a play at the plate. For some reason, Jeff Francoeur was sent home on a grounder to right in the 7th and he was thrown out by a mile ending the Mets’ rally and sending them to another loss.

The huge corruption and money laundering investigation that has ensnared 44 people, including NJ mayors and elected officials, was addressed by Jersey City Mayor Jeremiah Healy today, who said, "Based on review of the complaint , it is clear that I am Jersey City Public Official 4. I did nothing wrong at anytime. Right now we are going to continue to conduct open and honest government and are focused on moving the city forward." Among those arrested were Jersey City Deputy Mayor Leona Beldini and political consultant Jack Shaw—who are accused in the complaint as being middlemen for "Jersey City Public Official 4." more ›

Yesterday, it was revealed that City Councilman Bill De Blasio was kicked off the ballot for the Public Advocate primary. Why? The Daily Politics' Elizabeth Benjamin, which calls the city's petition rules "infamously archaic and exacting," explains, "One false move - a misplaced numeral or missing period - and you're dead, which is why campaigns spend so much money on election attorneys. In this case, the problem was that de Blasio's cover sheet claimed there were 131 volumes of petitions, when in reality there were 132. This may seem trivial, but it was sufficient grounds for the rejection of all the Brooklyn Democrat's 125,000+ signatures." De Blasio's campaign believes that the issue can be resolved with the Board of Elections, and all three of his Democratic opponents told PolitickerNY that he should be on the ballot: Norman Siegel said, "Technicalities should not prevent a candidate from being on the ballot," and Mark Green chimed in with, "This super-technical violation shouldn't keep him off the ballot - but should lead to reforming ballot access laws," and Gioia said, "If he met all the requirements he should be put back on the ballot. Regardless, our campaign will continue to move ahead at full speed no matter what the courts decide." more ›

President Obama attempted to quiet down the intense discussion over his remarks about Harvard academic Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s arrest by making a "surprise" appearance during a press briefing and telling reporters that he called Cambridge police sergeant James Crowley, who arrested Gates, "I have to tell you that, as I said yesterday, my impression of him is that he was an outstanding police officer...and that was confirmed in the phone conversation... In my choice of words, I unfortunately gave the impression that I was maligning the Cambridge Police Department or Sergeant Crowley specifically." He also apparently invited Crowley to the White House for a beer—with Gates as well. more ›

Fat cats live! According to Bloomberg News, "JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s investment bankers will begin getting more of their pay in salary next year and less in bonuses as the bank shifts the weighting to remain competitive with rivals, a person familiar with the firm said." The plan, which will go into effect next year, will affect employees "who earn half or more of their total compensation in year-end bonuses." However, total compensation won't change, because bonuses will go down. Bloomberg further explains, "JPMorgan... is seeking to keep pace with rivals that boosted salaries amid restrictions on bonuses, and make its compensation costs more predictable... Citigroup will raise base pay as much as 50 percent. Morgan Stanley said in May it will increase base pay for some executives, while UBS increased banker salaries by half." A pay consultant added, "Most of the major financial firms have suppressed base salaries for the last 10 years, so they were unduly low compared to where they were 15 years ago." Well, unduly low without bonuses. more ›

Stop it, John Strong. Just. Stop. It. The Coney Island freakshow proprietor is hell bent on getting his 5-legged puppy, even now that it has undergone a procedure to remove the extra limb. He declared, “I’m going to get it back on the dog. I don’t like people cutting off my puppy’s leg. When it became personal, and she’s (Siegel) being made out as a hero, and I’m being out as a bad guy, that’s not fair to me … (I’m) not going to be portrayed that way, at least not without a fight.” Mr. Strong, sometimes bad press is bad press. And that is certainly all it will be if you re-attach a 5th leg to a cute little innocent puppy. The HSUS's Patrick Kwan told us, "I think what's important for the dog is a loving, caring, permanent home and no animal deserves to be made into a spectacle. I doubt anyone would consider a Coney Island freak show to be the best home for an animal, especially considering Coney Island's future is often up in the air." Indeed. But at least he's no longer showing his two-headed baby (or maybe he is, photos aren't allowed inside his show). more ›

Two female assistants to a hedge fund financier are suing for sexual harassment because he made one of them develop topless photos of his wife and, when she delivered the racy pics, allegedly gave her "a perverted smirk" and asked, "You liked them, didn't you?" Danielle Pecile, 26, and Cristina Culicea, 27, filed a joint lawsuit with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission—Culicea says she was harassed when Titan Capital CEO Russell Abrams tasked her to develop a photo of him and his newlywed Sandra in a bathtub. more ›

Dan Patrick interviewed former Mets outfielder and currently financially challenged Lenny Dykstra; here are some of tidbits: "Dykstra says his magazine The Players Club is going on as strong as ever," "Dykstra said that people came for job interviews just so they could sue him and make some money," and "Dykstra said that he still has the house and the plane. But then Dan asked why was there no furniture in his house when HBO showed up with cameras. 'Just remember dude, everything isn't what it appears,' Dykstra said." Dealbreaker listened to the interview and added these gems, "If I have to live in the street I would," "If I have to eat grass I will" and "I only sleep twice a week. You caught me on my sleep day." Oh, Nails! Plus Dykstra said he's "absolutely" doing a reality show—we pray it's like I'm With Busey, with lots of Twizzlers. more ›

Hey, guess what? Over a year after missing the July 1, 2008 deadline to turn over the World Trade Center site to developer Larry Silverstein, now the Port Authority says the site will be ready! The Daily News reports, "Agency brass say that within the next two months, they'll turn over 'construction-ready land' to the developer - and stop paying him $300,000-a-day in late fees they've paid for more than a year. The handover of the World Trade Center parcel will start the clock ticking on a contractual deal that requires Silverstein to construct the Church St. buildings within five years - or else." more ›

Besides getting some great footage of State Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada Jr. essentially telling reporters to stop looking into his questionable activities, PolitickerNY's Azi Paybarah has a slideshow from yesterday's State Senators-against-Mayor Bloomberg event titled, "Anatomy of a Bloomberg-Bashing Press Event." Our favorites (and by favorites, we mean the photos and captions that make us cry): Sen. Espada saying, "Where on earth do you get the opportunity to spend hundreds of millions of dollars and not have the public know where its tax dollars are going?" (and Espada knows about pork) and Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr. proclaiming, "You can call us crazy. You can call us dumb. You can call us anything you want. It's not working. It is not working." more ›

A new city ordinance is set to take effect on July 31st requiring electronics companies to go door-to-door to pick up e-waste for recycling. Naturally, the industry is fighting it and plans to file a lawsuit against the city to stop the requirement; the Consumer Electronics Association says it will cost the industry $200 million annually. Companies would also have to pay fines starting at $50,000 if they don't recycle enough of their goods. ToteVision's president Bill Taraday tells Daily Finance he's "extremely alarmed" by the nationwide rise in electronic recycling laws, because if this kind of legislation is passed in all 50 states, "we wouldn't be in business." Some had expected a New York state bill to supersede the local mandate, but that died on the vine in Albany. City Councilman Bill DeBlasio, who sponsored the NYC bill, calls it a "national model," but the Wall Street Journal deems it "particularly controversial" because it requires companies to provide free, door-to-door pickup of e-waste, in addition to recycling costs. Here's more on electronics recycling, which will be mandatory for all city residents starting July 2010. more ›

Yesterday, federal agents arrested dozens of individuals, many of them NJ politicians and lawmakers as well as prominent religious figures in NJ and NY, in a probe that began as a money laundering investigation but then turned into a political corruption bust as well. The Star-Ledger reports, "The bribes went down in diners, living rooms and parking lots. New Jersey Assemblymen took them, mayors took them, and so did dozens of others. Orthodox rabbis, acting more like crime bosses than religious leaders, laundered millions through synagogues and yeshivas in Deal, one of the state's wealthiest towns. And a Realtor tried to sell an informant a black market kidney for $160,000." more ›

The DOT has been repainting many of the parking spaces on wide Queens streets so they're angled in the opposite direction of traffic, forcing drivers pull past them and back in. DOT spokesman Seth Solomonow tells the Daily News the new angles are being implemented because, "It's safer to back into an empty parking space than back out of one into oncoming traffic." But the change is apparently too disorienting for some Queens drivers, like Steve Goodman of Forest Hills, who tells 1010WINS, "They painted the lines in backwards. Why are they backwards like this? This is crazy!" And 61-year-old contractor David Graber complains, "I find it very confusing. The last time I was here, it was easy. You just pulled right in. They should've used someone less educated to make this decision." See, this mess wouldn't have happened if the State Senate was in charge of parking! Thankfully, the DOT is going to install large signs in Forest Hills instructing drivers how to back into the parking spots—in the meantime, it's chaos! more ›

Mayor Bloomberg and the State Senate (mostly the Democratic majority) have been locked in a bitter war of words over mayoral control of schools—the Mayor can't understand why the State Senate won't vote on the matter, the State Senate can't understand why the Mayor won't make amendments to it. Yesterday, Senators gathered at City Hall, saying, "Mayor Bloomberg hates parents. It's unbelievable how much disdain he has for parents" (Sen. Eric Adams), "There is no end to this debate. It will be ongoing" (Sen. Pedro Espada), and "What we have today is an out of control administration" (Sen. Carl Kruger). Now CityRoom reports, "It seems that the Senate Democrats have struck a deal on school governance with the Bloomberg administration... The Senate plans to approve the same bill the Assembly passed in the spring and will later add some provisions through amendments" including "an arts advisory council and five-borough parent training institute run by the City University of New York," as well as restoring power to district superintendents and requiring schools to hold annual meetings about safety. Of course, the deal could collapse. more ›

In case you missed the update, the 5-legged puppy that was saved from a life in a freakshow was brought under the knife ahead of schedule to have her extra leg amputated yesterday. Coney Island's John Strong had been threatening legal action to attain the pup, since he had put a down payment on the canine before the current owner Allyson Siegel stepped in. CNN has video of the dog prior to her operation: more ›

As many of our astute commenters suspected, it was a drug deal gone bad that sparked Wednesday night's wild car chase and fatal shooting in Washington Heights. It was originally reported that a man had flagged down a patrol car screaming that he was robbed and pointing to a silver Cadillac a few car lengths ahead, near West 170th street. And while police say it's true that the man and his buddy were robbed—of somewhere between $500 and $1,200 cash—it's now confirmed that the robbery was a pot deal gone bad. more ›

St. Albans, Queens is on high alert this morning as a fugitive chicken runs wild through the community. A report just came in over the wires that an Emergency Services Unit is on the scene and trying to "coral" [sic] the loose chicken somewhere in the vicinity of Linden Boulevard and 197th Street. It's unclear why the chicken is crossing roads in Queens, but residents are strongly advised to remain indoors and prepare for this weekend's avalanche of neighborhood fowl jokes. Developing... more ›

People, always check your bank statements. Eighteen-year-old Lydia Alcock was checking her Visa statement online when she saw that her off-peak Metro-North ticket from Grand Central to Goldens Bridge cost $23,148,855,308,184,500. Yesterday, the NY Times' Peter Abblebome wrote about the college student's amazement:

Ms. Alcock looked. She looked again. She gasped. She laughed. She shouted to her father: “Dad, you need to come here. Right now.” And then after realizing, to her chagrin, that she owed the staggering sum, not that she was the recipient of a tidy little windfall, she typed into Google: “How to say really big numbers,” and cut and pasted $23,148,855,308,184,500. It read: “twenty-three quadrillion, one hundred forty-eight trillion, eight hundred fifty-five billion, three hundred eight million, one hundred eighty-four thousand, five hundred dollars.”

Would-be Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner is getting so desperate to alleviate the debt burdening his $4 billion plan to build an ugly Nets stadium and other useless eyesores in Brooklyn that he's frantically trying to sell off most of the team. Officials at his company, Forest City Ratner, publicly deny the sales effort, but the Star-Ledger reports that last week Ratner flew to Moscow to meet face-to-face with billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, the chief financier for CSKA Moscow. Other potential suckers investors are rumored to include Terry Semel, former CEO of Yahoo and Warner Bros, and some other rich guys with money to burn. Meanwhile, according to Forbes, the Nets dropped 13% in value last season, and morale within the organization is reportedly abysmal due to layoffs, pay cuts, and the team's general habit of sucking. (Granted, not as much as the Knicks.) One former Nets employee tells the Star-Ledger, "They've really created an environment where you don't want to stay there anymore. It's gotten really bad, especially for those of us who have gone through five owners in 10 years. It's just so damn bleak." But bleakness being Russia's specialty, maybe Prokhorov's a perfect fit? more ›

After pointedly saying he believed the Cambridge, Massachusetts police acted stupidly to arrest Harvard academic Henry Louis Gates Jr. for disorderly conduct in his own home, President Obama only ended up fanning the flames of the controversy. The GOP and police officials criticized him while questions were raised about how much racial progress has been made in the country. Obama defended his remarks last night on Nightline, saying, "I have to say I am surprised by the controversy surrounding my statement, because I think it was a pretty straightforward commentary that you probably don't need to handcuff a guy, a middle-aged man who uses a cane, who's in his own home." more ›

A huge turnout, including hundreds of cops, is expected for the funeral of fallen Jersey City police officer Marc DiNardo. DiNardo, a father of three, was shot in the face over a week ago, when two shooting suspects fired upon the Emergency Service Unit cops staking out their apartment; four other police officers were wounded while the two suspects were killed. DiNardo's family, which decided to take the 37-year-old off life support on Tuesday and donate his organs, held a blood drive in his honor yesterday (which would have been his 38th birthday). The drive attracted hundreds—his widow Mary and mother were among the donors—and Jersey City Police Chief Thomas Comey said, "There's people here from every walk of life. It shows that people stand behind us." Today, a number of streets in Jersey City will be closed from 8 a.m. until the funeral procession passes through. more ›

• Yankees 6 Oakland 3: Today’s rain delayed the start of this game to almost 10pm and for awhile it looked like the Yankees had assumed the game was a rainout. Oakland jumped all over an inconsistent C.C. Sabathia for three runs in the first four innings, but Sabathia settled down and the Yankees battled back. Mark Teixeira belted a two-run homer in the fourth and the Yankees added two more runs to take a lead they would never relinquish. Phil Hughes came on in the eighth and pitched two perfect innings to get the first save of his career and put the Yankees 2-1/2 games ahead of idle Boston.

The big bad Big Box IKEA is the latest to ostracize breastfeeding moms from their establishment. One Brooklyn mom tells her recent story of being banished to the bathroom when she tried to feed her 6 1/2 month old something other than Swedish meatballs at the store:

On Wednesday I was in IKEA Red Hook in the middle of breastfeeding, fully covered, when I was told I had to stop doing "that" and go to the nearby family bathroom. The IKEA employee and security guards were extremely rude to us. I was hustled off to the bathroom and then had to wait because someone else was using it. I was humiliated, my daughter was upset from being interrupted in the middle of her feed. When eventually I gave up and headed for the car to finish feeding, the security guards who had seen the entire event insisted on checking my receipts. I'm putting together a formal complaint to IKEA. I was wondering if this has happened to anyone else?

After news that Manhattan is—relative to the rest of the NYC—the thinnest borough, with just 42% of its residents overweight, a NY Times reporter stalked the svelte, why. One Upper East Sider said, "My mom always says, 'The smaller the dress size, the larger the apartment,'" while a painter, "attributed his slim frame (5-foot-11, 160 pounds) to a combination of healthy and unhealthy habits: daily two-mile walks, weekly soccer, and breakfasts of coffee and cigarettes." Simon Doonan, creative director of Barneys, seen leaving the gym, said, "Our closets are filled all these expensive clothes that are like swords of Damocles, because we may not fit into them anymore." He also added he wasn't "fatist" but, referring perhaps to some in middle America, "I’m appalled by people my age who can’t get through the airport without a wheelchair. more ›

The litterbugs are speaking up. Following their annual Heatwave BBQ that left Prospect Park looking more like a landfill than a public oasis, hosts of the event, MIHventures has released the following "explanation": more ›

After the AP blew the whistle on Mayor Bloomberg's SUV idling away as he attends various events, Bloomberg's spokesman Stu Loeser says the mayor "made it clear" to his police detail that the administration "should set a better example." The administration being one that has supported laws for tougher restrictions on vehicles idling and touted reducing carbon emissions by 30% by 2030. The AP points out that "the city's three-minute idling limit ... does not legally apply to the mayor's SUVs, which are classified as emergency vehicles," but adds, "The mayor isn't just violating his own environmental agenda when he lets his SUVs idle. He's wasting fuel and money." We'll keep an eye on Idle-gate. more ›

Hey, the new Senate Majority Leader doesn't like it when reporters ask him about his questionable dealings! Seriously, when will the press learn that queries about repeatedly late, incomplete campaign filings or undisclosed donations are totally off-base. more ›

Just as Jaws did for the Great White, the giant dead basking shark on Long Island last week caused some confusion about just how dangerous the beast is. The NY Times clears it all up today, tracking the confusion to a few years ago when several basking sharks swam into shallow waters off New York and "some reports held that these generally peaceful sharks can lash out and pose a potential danger to surfers and swimmers when they are wounded, as they usually are when they come ashore." But the experts say that the beast's hundreds of teeth make it almost impossible to bite a human, which is why they prefer swimming with their jaws open and swallowing up plankton. However, one expert told them, “When you have an animal that’s 25 feet long that’s thrashing around, that would be detrimental. They have a lot of power and that could be dangerous to the public. We would always encourage to stay back and not try to touch it or get close to it.” So in conclusion, if you see a giant, thrashing, 5,000 pound shark while wading in the ocean this summer: get thee to shore. Also, don't walk into oncoming traffic. more ›

Yesterday, a federal court documents were unsealed and revealed that a Long Island resident had transformed from an altar boy and Boy Scout to Al Qaeda trainee. Bryant Neal Vinas, who pleaded guilty to trying to "conspiring to murder United States nationals"—by way of a rocket attack at an army base—"providing material support to Al Qaeda and receiving military training from the group," admitted to discussing a plan to bomb a Long Island Rail Road train at Penn Station and a subway—hence the terrorist threat last November. more ›

Don Mattingly might not ever find his way into the Cooperstown, but his family is sure guaranteeing their spot in the Hall of Shame. Taylor Mattingly, the 24-year-old son of the beloved Yankee, was arrested in Indiana for allegedly shoving his mother Kim to the ground and spitting in her face. The one-time Yankee draft pick says that he flipped out when his mother sent him a text message insulting him, his girlfriend and his father. A deputy wrote, "Taylor advised he snapped, pushed Kim down and spit on her." He also admits to shattering a patio table, breaking a door and a window and throwing other furniture against the walls of his mother's pool house. Don Mattingly divorced Kim (pictured) in 2007; last year she was arrested for disorderly conduct after drunkenly refusing to leave the former Yankee great's front lawn. She claims that her son became angry after she threatened to turn off the cable at the ranch where Taylor is staying. The Daily News has already dubbed him 'Spitman,' so hopefully there is a goobered up white pinstripe suit Photoshop job not far behind. more ›

Anyone who rides a bike regularly in NYC quickly realizes that the NYPD is pretty lax when it comes to keeping drivers from parking in bike lanes—hell, even the NYPD's own patrol cars are often seen blocking bike lanes. But according to the city's Department of Finance, some 70,000 tickets were issued for stopping in a bike lane last year, out of 10 million tickets issued citywide. One's inclined to dismiss that statistic as utter BS, but NY1 actually found a driver who claims he was issued a $115 ticket for blocking a bike lane on the Lower East Side. It sounds crazy, which is why it made the news! Shocked motorist Ernest Marshall says it all happened when he was picking up his wife:

As my wife was leaving the sidewalk to get into the car, a traffic officer pulled in front of me, blocked me in and then proceeded to give me a traffic ticket. There's parking, a bike lane and traffic on both sides of the street. It's impossible to load or unload passengers from a car without blocking a bike lane or traffic itself. It's unfair.

[UPDATE BELOW] Around 10:30 this morning, activists for the homeless cut through a fence and seized a vacant lot at 115th and Madison Ave in East Harlem; they say the property is owned by JPMorgan Chase, which is a "recent beneficiary of billions in taxpayer bailout money." The occupation, organized by the group Picture the Homeless, has drawn over 100 activists to the lot, and they've been busy turning it into a festive "tent village," with a casita, a stage, banners, barbeque grills, and two dozen tent structures—inspired in part by Depression-era Hoovervilles. On their blog the group says:

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The day after a State Supreme Court justice issued an injunction to block Governor Paterson's appointment of Richard Ravitch as lieutenant governor, an Appellate judge lifted the injunction. Paterson's office issued a statement saying, "We remain confident that the courts ultimately will confirm that Gov. Paterson’s appointment of Lieutenant Gov. Richard Ravitch was valid and legally correct," while State Senate minority leader Dean Skelos (R-Long Island) who filed the suit against the appointment said, "The Governor might have bought himself a little time by getting a judge to give him a temporary stay pending a full hearing next week, but like former Chief Judge Sol Wachtler, Lieutenant Gov. Stan Lundine and virtually every legal scholar of note, I believe the courts will agree that Gov. Paterson violated the state’s constitution by attempting to name his own lieutenant governor." Paterson has said if Ravitch's appointment is blocked, he'll introduce a bill allowing governors to appoint lieutenant governors. more ›

Yesterday the Mets held a press conference to say that GM Omar Minaya would be investigating allegations that VP of Player Development Tony Bernazard had ripped his shirt off and challenged minor leaguers to a fight. But much like the period of speculation leading up to Willie Randolph's firing last year, the situation has quickly snowballed, calling into question the way in which the entire organization is run. more ›

Congratulations John Strong, you are giving Ringling some competition in the cold-hearted, animal-hating, soulless human being contest. The Coney Island freakshow proprietor, who recently relocated here from California, is trying to get custody of the 5-legged pup that a North Carolina woman saved from a lifetime in sideshow hell. Strong had handed over a $1,000 down payment when Allyson Siegel convinced the seller (who was told by Strong that the dog would be going to an "amazing animal farm") to sell it to her instead. Her story touched so many that a Manhattan vet even offered to amputate the extra leg at no cost, an operation scheduled for next week. However, now Strong says he's the rightful owner of the dog, and is hinting that he'll take the case to court ("I'll get you my pretty and your little dog too!"). Our Hero, Siegel, declared: "over my dead body." UPDATE: The amputation was done early! This morning the pup went under the knife in part because of this threat by Strong. more ›

The man who once supported federal control of gun ownership is sticking to his most recent attitude toward firearms: let the locals decide. Former mayor Rudy Giuliani appeared on CNN's The Situation Room yesterday where he shared his views on the failed federal gun measure that would have legalized concealed weapons in 48 states, including New York. As Politico notes, when asked by Wolf Blitzer whether Rudy is happy the measure failed, Giuliani answered: "I think it's the best situation. I think we're left—by its not passing, we're left with cities and states within constitutional limits, making their own decisions. And I think that's better." Giuliani explained he believes local control of gun laws is necessary because of varying "conditions" around the country. Of course, that's not consistent with the position he had back in the early 1990s—when he helped President Clinton lobby Congress for a national ban on assault weapons and other gun control measures—but it is consistent with his plans to stay in the Republican limelight for a 2012 presidential run. more ›

Hoping to back up her brother's claim that he killed a motivational speaker to help him commit suicide, Kenneth Minor's sister Susan tells the Daily News, "This man, Locker, came to Harlem looking for a person to take him out. This man was asking everyone in Harlem to kill him." more ›

Don't you love the smell of larvicide in the morning? To pre-emptively combat West Nile virus and eradicate mosquito larvae before they eradicate us, the Health Department will be spraying "marsh and other non-residential areas of Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island." Because these mosquito hotbeds are inaccessible by ground vehicles, helicopters will be deployed to exterminate the brutes, who are believed to be breeding rapidly in these areas. The spraying is scheduled for Monday through Wednesday, between the hours of 6 a.m. and 7 p.m. But instead of just napalming the area and getting it over with, those bleeding hearts at the Health Department will be using VectoBac™ CG and/or VectoLex™ CG, which officials say contain "naturally occurring bacteria" and are approved by the EPA and state Department of Environmental Conservation. (Jeez, why not just give them a warm cup of soup and a blood transfusion, too?) And in a remarkable breach of security, the Health Department website has leaked the full list of targets for the strike, so at least you'll now how close you are to the kill zone. more ›

The feds' raids and arrests this morning didn't just capture the NJ mayors and officials (past and present)—there are rabbis, relatives and apparently an organ dealer! A total of 44 people were arrested in a "broad-ranging corruption and international money laundering investigation." more ›

This police blotter story in the Brooklyn Paper has it all: violence, Brooklyn, hipsters, the NYPD, puke, and lots and lots of alcohol. According to police reports, earlier this month a 28-year-old and his girlfriend were enjoying one too many drinks at the Bushwick Country Club. The young man started vomiting at the bar at 2:45 a.m., but refused to leave upon the encouragement of all those around him, including staff. But when the vomit landed on one employee's shirt, things went "from disgusting to dangerous" (or really just a hybrid of the two). After being forced out of the venue, "a female bartender doused the victim in water and struck him in the head with a plastic bucket—leaving a laceration that required seven stitches. Then a gang of drinkers from the bar roughed up the victim on the sidewalk in front of the venue." Can a plastic bucket really do that much damage? Anyway, the real story here is that the PBR-fueled hipsters turned on one of their own. Is this the beginning of the end? more ›

Following a press conference PETA held yesterday at which time they released footage of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus employees beating animals, the feds have now said they will investigate the matter. The Daily News reports they will try to find out if the circus has violated the Animal Welfare Act. With crystal clear footage of trainers beating on animals, one even punching an elephant in the face, you would think this investigation would be a short one. In response to all the unwanted attention, a spokesman for the circus sent us along this canned comment packed full of denial:

It is no surprise that PETA would once again release misinformation about Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey. Ringling Bros. believes that the recent video produced and distributed by PETA is questionable in its context regarding the portrayal of the animal handlers at Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey. Ringling Bros. is a fully licensed traveling exhibitor and from January through June of this year, the alleged time covered in the video, this particular Unit was found to be in compliance with federal, state and local regulations. more ›

A couple of things to keep in mind while taking part in a drug caravan running a hundred pounds of grass cross-country: One, driving at excessive speeds may attract the attention of law enforcement officers—these are the people you generally want to avoid. Number two: while tempting, it's probably ill-advised to keep some of that sweet herb next to you in the front seat. Such was the discovery made by a Nebraska state trooper who pulled over 42-year-old Long Islander Victoria Gregory for speeding on Interstate 80 Tuesday. The driver of a second car, 27-year-old Lonnie Walker, of Florida, was also pulled over, and according to Newsday the trooper became suspicious when he smelled marijuana in the second vehicle and saw a small amount of it on the front seat. A canine unit was called to the scene, and police say three "bales" of marijuana weighing 116 pounds were found in Gregory's trunk. Police believe the weed was headed from Phoenix to New York; now it's just going to that great gravity bong in the sky. more ›

ESPN is playing hardball with the NY Post and has banned the newspaper's reporters from appearing on ESPN channels or radio station because the tabloid published screengrabs of a videotape showing ESPN sideline reporter Erin Andrews naked in a hotel room. ESPN's VP of communications Chris LaPlaca explained, "Erin was grievously wronged here, and while we understand the Post's decision to cover this as a news story, their running photos obtained in such a fashion went well beyond the boundaries of common decency in the interest of sensationalism. This is not a decision we undertook lightly, but we feel it is an appropriate one." And according to TMZ's expert opinion—after reviewing "six videos shot by the Peeping Tom who secretly videotaped Erin Andrews [as she] walked around naked, not having a clue she was being watched"—the gossip site believes, "The videos raise the suspicion that the person who shot them may have been familiar with her work schedule and may have been traveling with her. Erin's people are on the hunt for the culprit," and adds, "We will not post this video, because it is a clear invasion of privacy." more ›

In April, Mayor Bloomberg signed a bill giving New York the toughest laws against vehicular idling; leaving your engine running for more than three minutes is punishable by fines ranging from $220 to $2,000 for repeat offenders. And the limit in a school zone is just one minute. At the bill signing, Bloomberg declared, "Those of us that want to leave a good life for our children, and want to have clean air for us to breathe, and clean water to drink... it's incumbent on us to really carry the fight." more ›

Earlier this week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton discussed North Korea on Good Morning America, saying, "What we've seen is this constant demand for attention... And maybe it's the mother in me or the experience that I've had with small children and unruly teenagers and people who are demanding attention -- don't give it to them, they don't deserve it, they are acting out." Well, North Korea didn't like that too much—and made a new bid for attention by slamming the Secretary of State calling her vulgar and unintelligent and saying she looks either like a schoolgirl or retiree. Wow, it's almost like primary season 2008 again! more ›

Whaddaya know, those oh-so-controversial cheap lawn chairs scattered through the Broadway pedestrian plazas are falling apart! WCBS was on the scene yesterday to report on the disintegrating seats, and confirmed that the plastic straps holding them together are frayed and snapping! Critics have been dissing the chairs, bought at Pintchik Hardware in Brooklyn, since they first appeared, for supposedly attracting the homeless, the lazy, and the European. And now the haters have new ammo, because these things are obviously a grave safety hazard. Floridian tourist Norma Frank saw a chair collapse under her husband Mitch yesterday, and pleaded with New Yorkers for help, "If anybody would like to chip in for a new pair of pants and possibly a new knee..." Mitch insists he wasn't "really" injured, but sometimes it takes a lawyer to show you where it hurts. The Times Square BID will be replacing the chairs with sturdier street furniture by the end of the month, so get over there now if you want in on the inevitable class action lawsuit. more ›

Last night, President Obama took to primetime to discuss health care reform—or as the Washington Post puts it, he "confronted increasing doubts about the impact of widespread changes to the health-care system, seeking to assure middle-class Americans on Wednesday that the landmark legislation he envisions would improve their quality of life and is essential to curing the nation's economic ills." However, that part of his remarks seemed "lackluster" and "cautious and choreographed" compared his sharper, more passionate thoughts on the arrest of his friend, Harvard academic Henry Louis Gates Jr.. more ›

It's Perp Walk Thursday for a number of NJ elected officials: The feds have arrested Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano and Secaucus Mayor Denis Elwell, as well as Jersey City Deputy Mayor Leona Baldini, Jersey City Council President Mario Vega and many others (such as rabbis and community leaders) in a money laundering and corruption (political bid-rigging) sweep. The Star-Ledger reports, "Nearly 20 people, including Cammarano, Elwell, and Vega, have already been led into the FBI building in Newark to face the charges." NBC New York, which has a photo of newly elected Hoboken Mayor Cammarano being hauled in, adds, "Arrests and searches are underway across Jersey City, Secaucus and numerous Hudson and Bergen county locations." The arrests are expected to take place until noon—stay tuned! more ›

Last night, police shot and killed a robbery suspect who they had been following on a wild chase that also left bystanders and police officers injured. A pedestrian told police that people in a car had just robbed him—of $1,200 cash—at West 177th near the West Side Highway. Police then chased the silver Cadillac throughout Washington Heights. According to WCBS 2, "The Cadillac struck a motorcycle rider, and the motorcycle got stuck under the car and was dragged. The Cadillac reversed, trying to dislodge the motorcycle, and hit a pedestrian." The cops came on the scene, identified themselves and then fired (one of the suspects may have had a gun). One of the suspects was shot dead while the three others were taken into custody. The Daily News reports, "Investigators said no weapon was found on the dead man, but noted that the weapon might have been tossed during the chase or hidden somewhere in the car. They were awaiting a search warrant Thursday morning." more ›

• Yankees 6, Orioles 4: Here are the Yankees' most recent for series: sweep of Twins, swept by Angels, sweep of Tigers, sweep of Orioles. Taking care of Baltimore is the least impressive of those -- well, maybe losing three straight to the Angels is less impressive -- but the Yankees will take it. They're now 20 games over .500 and looking better than they have in several seasons. Alex Rodriguez started the scoring with an RBI single in a four-run fourth. A.J. Burnett pitched seven innings of two-run ball.

A federal judge ruled that the FDNY's written exams "unfairly excluded hundreds of qualified people of color." Judge Nicholas Garaufis wrote, "These unlawful practices barred over a thousand additional black and Hispanic applicants from consideration for appointment as FDNY firefighters, and unfairly delayed the appointment of hundreds of black and Hispanic firefighters." Back in 2007, the Justice Department joined the Vulcan Society to sue the fire department because many more black and Hispanic candidates failed the exam; at the time, only 7.5% of the FDNY was black and/or Hispanic (while in LA and Philadelphia, fire departments were around 40% black and/or Hispanic). The AP reports, "Garaufis said he must consider remedies to end the discrimination which occurred in written exams given to thousands of firefighter candidates from 1999 to 2007." The city has not decided whether it will appeal the decision. more ›

Consider this a warm-up to the election! Yesterday, City Comptroller Bill Thompson accused the Department of Education of inflating graduation stats. His audit noted, "The permanent records of one out of every 10 graduated students sampled did not indicate that graduation requirements had been met," (90,000 students between 2003 and 2007 were in the sample) and "Schools routinely awarded students multiple credits for passing the same course two or more times." more ›

Yesterday, while announcing a plan to ban trans-fats in schools, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand released a report noting that almost 60% of New Yorkers are overweight or obese. And, in the five boroughs, 55% of the population is overweight or obese! You can read the study (PDF), but here's a breakdown: In the Bronx, 62.7% of residents (586,419) are overweight or obese; in Brooklyn, it's 58.6% (1,056,457 residents); Manhattan: 42.3% (541,135); Queens: 57.6% (990,809); and Staten Island: 57.7% (190,681). CityRoom spoke to epidemiologist Andrew G. Rundle who "said that at the neighborhood level socioeconomic and demographic factors were the strongest predictors of obesity rates"—wealthy neighborhoods have lower rates of obesity while poorer neighborhoods have higher ones. "[Rundle] has found that even when adjusting for poverty and race, at least three factors are associated with lowering obesity: proximity to supermarkets and groceries where fresh produce is sold; proximity to parks; and access to public transportation, which reduces reliance on cars." more ›

What do you do when you've knocked back a few beers, your husband's more soused than you are, and you've got five kids crammed into a mid-sized sedan to take care of? Why, you start driving everyone home, of course! At least, that's if your name is Susan Kristofferson. WCBS reports the 39-year-old Putnam County mother was arrested early Monday morning for drunk driving and child endangerment as she headed home with her family from a festival, making her the county's second DWI mom this week. A deputy sheriff pulled Kristofferson over because of her broken headlight, but things got complicated when he smelled alcohol. Kristofferson offered this touching explanation of her Solomon-like predicament: "My husband was 10 times drunker than I was. I had two kids left with me that weren't even mine that I had no intention of driving home in the first place. It was either let my husband drive and kill everybody or leave those two kids abandoned." That, or, ya know, call a cab. Still, even if she says she had no choice but drive drunk, Kristofferson's not going to let these charges stand because "the evidence against her is circumstantial." Sure, her blood alcohol tested above the legal limit and, sure, she failed sobriety tests in front of everyone in the car, but, pssht—what could that possibly prove? more ›

The nighclub Marquee is back in the news after a Queens construction worker was indicted today for kidnapping a passed-out woman at the club, taking her home and raping her. In March, Luiz Zambrano, 39, allegedly found the inebriated 23-year-old passed out on a couch in the Chelsea hotspot where DA Robert Morgenthau says, "(He) approached the woman and began kissing her." He added that Zambrano then began dragging her and dropped the woman where she "fell headfirst into a wall and crumpled on the floor," but no one at Marquee assisted her. Zambrano put her in a cab that took them to his car and then drove to his College Point apartment, where he allegedly sexually assaulted her twice. During the second assault, the woman regained consciousness; the victim was able to lead the cops to Zambrano's house. The police also found that DNA left on the victim matched the "DNA found on another woman who said she'd been assaulted (at Marquee)." Zambrano, who was convicted of harassing a woman last year, pleaded not guilty and is out on $30,000 bail. Marquee was in the news last year when a woman disappeared after leaving there with a convicted sex offender. more ›

It takes a lot of work to build the ultimate man cave, especially one housed off a parking garage at Albany's State Capitol by employees of NY State's Office of Government Services. There's upkeep on your card pyramids and the frequent updates to the message on your Lite Brite... it's no wonder that the two state employees who were busted last week for their drug den of board games and pot scales needed so much time to work on their lair that they've racked up a combined $28,400 in overtime over the last five years. more ›

When Red Hook residents were fighting to stop IKEA from opening up in their neighborhood, one of the deal-sweeteners offered by the Swedish retailer was a promise that locals (and all New Yorkers) would be able to take advantage of free Water Taxi service back and forth to Manhattan, even if they never spent a dime in the store. Well, it's been just over a year since the grand opening, and already the bait has been switched. The Brooklyn Paper reports that on weekdays the Water Taxi will start charging riders $5 each way, unless they spend $10 in IKEA. Manager Mike Baker says, "We have implemented this policy because our customers are using the Water Taxi service, but the cost is such that we cannot continue subsidizing it during the week as a commuter service for those who are not IKEA customers." Compare that with last summer, when an IKEA rep said, "We support mass transit, and if people are using our services and not going to IKEA, that's fine with us as well." Now they tell us the Water Taxi service will still be free on the weekends, but how can anyone ever trust Sweden again? more ›

The U.S. Senate voted 58-39 to reject an amendment "allowing a person with a concealed weapon permit in one state to also hide his firearm when visiting another state." The AP adds, "Opponents prevailed in their argument that the measure violated states rights by forcing states with stringent requirements for permits to recognize concealed weapons carriers from states that give out permits to almost any gun owner." Senator Chuck Schumer, who along with fellow NY Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand voted against the amendment, said, "This was a narrow escape. We just breathe a sigh of relief that we've kept to the principle of trying to keep America safer." Politico notes that essentially all the pro-gun Democrats voted for the bill and two Republicans—George Voinovich of Ohio and Dick Lugar of Indiana—voted against it; plus, "In some ways, this is also a victory of sorts for Majority Leader Harry Reid, who was able to make a pro-gun vote to please the 2010 voters in Nevada without really facing any consequences in terms of actual policy." You can see the geographic and party breakdown of the vote here. more ›

The summer solstice was a month ago, but around these parts it takes about a month for the annual temperature curve to reach a peak. July 23rd, on average, is a degree cooler than today. We're on our way to winter! Individual years don't necessarily follow that curve too closely and this year is no exception. The thermometer reached 90 degrees twice in late April and has failed to repeat that acheivement since then. more ›

The city building code requires that wires pass through a fireproof conduit made of metal collars between floors, but a licensed master electrician with contracts at four Midtown hotels was caught using wood instead. Each metal collar costs $350, so it's likely that electrician Robert Spallino was able to cut costs by using wooden versions. It's also likely that the collars were flammable, being made of wood and all. A DOB source tells the Post that Spallino even painted the collars "a dark color in the hopes that they would go undetected." Buildings Commissioner Robert LiMandri says, "This contractor was willing to put people's lives in danger in order to save a few dollars, and his actions must not go unpunished." You might think the punishment would end Spallino's career, but he's just been suspended for a year. And the suspension won't begin for another eight months so he can close out existing contracts. Way to send a message, DOB! The wooden fakes have all been replaced with metal collars; they were found at the Garden Chelsea Hotel, the Holiday Inn on West 26th Street, the Sheraton Midtown Hotel on West 40th Street, and the Fairfield Inn on West 40th Street. more ›

It's unsurprising that Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus has been called out in the past for abusing their animals, but it's another thing to see it all on tape. PETA went undercover this year and captured Ringling workers on video beating and whipping elephants. The organization announced their findings today at a press conference (NY1 has footage), calling upon Madison Square Garden to ban the circus, or at least the use of animals in their show. more ›

The 3,000 square-foot East Side apartment belonging to Marc Dreier, the once prominent attorney who pleaded guilty to a $700 million fraud involving fake promissory notes, was auctioned off yesterday—and the winning bid was Berkshire Hathaway executive Ajit Jain's $8.2 million offer. Bloomberg News notes that's "21 percent less than what [Dreier] paid two years ago" and that "The last recorded sale at Beacon Court was a 3,058 square-foot unit on the 49th floor," which sold at $12 million in May. Dreier's apartment is on the 34th floor and boasts a huge terrace. The proceeds of the sale are being split by personal bankruptcy creditors and the U.S. Attorney’s office—Dreier did have a $5 million mortgage after all. The $8.2 million sale includes items inside the apartment, such as nine pints of Haagen Dazs, "a half-eaten raspberry peach pie, a collection of Christian Liaigre furnishings and seven pairs of black Ermenegildo Zegna shoes, mostly size eight." While signing the paperwork, Jain reportedly said, "Right now, I'm having buyer's remorse." These days, Dreier is sort of familiar with remorse. more ›

An ostensibly win-win program to reincarnate old subway cars as artificial subterranean reefs off the eastern seaboard has proven largely unsuccessful because the damn things are just falling apart. The city has been paying millions to ship the cars to other states, who received them for free, and last April the program was said to be so successful off the coast of Delaware that marine officials were struggling to cope with the influx of fisherman drawn to the suddenly populous underwater metropolis. more ›

A couple more details and one sexy photo have emerged regarding the 25-year-old former Chase Bank financial adviser accused of siphoning over $100K from a millionaire's private account. While Robin Katz sits in Rikers Island on $50,000 bail, the Post is drawing from a bountiful stash of photos yanked from Katz's MySpace page. (It's unclear whether the Post grabbed the snapshots before Katz pulled her profile or if the tabloid's shared membership in the Murdoch family of companies yielded extra access.) A police source says that after arresting Katz, investigators found an ATM card and four withdrawal receipts connected to the account of Wall Street broker Dorone Ilan Farber. Auditors say Katz created the extra ATM card in Farber's name, making dozens of withdrawals from his account. Police think she used the money for shopping and partying, but a tipster claiming to be a friend of Katz's since 2005 tells us she saved up enough to put a down payment on a house! more ›

Police have made the first in what they hope will be a series of arrests connected to the murder of Long Island motivational speaker Jeff Locker. 36-year-old Kenneth Minor has been charged with second-degree murder after being identified as one of two people seen on ATM surveillance video while taking out money from Locker's account. The News says Minor can be seen "checking his face for blood splatters in the ATM reflection." Minor, who has a rap sheet dating back to 1991 on drug and robbery charges, admitted to cops that he was on the scene while Locker was stabbed with a screwdriver while parked in his car in East Harlem, but claimed that he was only assisting the North Woodmere father of two in committing suicide so that Locker's family could collect insurance. Police dismiss that notion and say they are now looking for the prostitute who appears to have set up Locker's murder. The News says that Locker was involved in seeing that woman during "a series of Wednesday night trysts." more ›

If you thought his troubles with designer Jack McCollough were resolved, you were wrong. Kiefer Sutherland had been waiting to find out if the misdemeanor assault charges against him would be dropped until just now. Good thing we weren't holding our breath. TMZ reports that Sutherland is totally in the clear for the incident that took place back in May. An incident that would have been way more interesting if the actor were more Jack Bauer in real life, or even if he channeled his previous Christmas tree attack. So let's get on to the juicier Kiefer news. Page Six reports that he was spotted making out in public! With his girlfriend! Stars, they're just like us but with headlines. He and Siobhan Bonnouvrier lost themselves in a "hot make-out session" on on the lawn of Hudson River Park near 12th Street this past Saturday. An eye witness told the rag, "They had their hands all over each other. They really got into it. One young mom breast-feeding her baby nearby was like, 'Go Kiefer!'" Our sources who were on the scene with said breast-feeding mom say there was even a thong-flashing involved. more ›

Apparently the Mets are not content to only embarrass themselves on the field, they need to do it off the field as well. According to the Daily News, VP for Player Development Tony Bernazard challenged the Binghamton Mets to a fight and called one player “a slang term associated with a woman’s anatomy.” At least Bernazard had the sense to take his shirt off first, no sense getting that ripped. Mets GM Omar Minaya told the News that Bernazard "spoke to them in a stern voice. But as far as what he was wearing, what kind of shoes he was wearing, I don't know anything about that." It's believed that underage drinking and the poor play by the B-Mets (they're 37-58 and in last place in the Northern Division) were causes for the "stern" talk. While it has been reported that Minaya and manager Jerry Manuel are safe for the season, one has to wonder if this will be the end for Bernazard. Challenging the players to fight is bad, but the lack of prospects in the farm system is worse. more ›

As his police force mourns the death of a police officer killed in the line of duty, Jersey City Police Chief Thomas Comey spoke about the recent number of violent incidents, "This department has suffered through several unusual occurrences over the last five days. These incidents are aberrations. This is a safe city." more ›

Despite objections from Save Coney Island and others, the City Council's land-use committee approved the city's controversial rezoning of Coney Island, putting the plan on track for full Council approval on July 29th. Some opponents were hoping the committee would send the plan back to the drawing board so that the proposed open-air amusement park be expanded and four high-rise hotel towers planned for the south side of Surf Avenue could be relocated. According to City Room, Councilman Dominic Recchia Jr. hinted that the city may expand the amusement area, but that will only happen if the Bloomberg administration can finalize a long-stalled deal to buy 10.5 acres of land from developer Joe Sitt before the full council votes. Sitt, who could probably best Bruce Ratner in a douchiest developer contest, told the Post yesterday, "I'm the guy who controls this—it's my sandbox." He added that he's willing "to share my sandbox with my friend Mayor Mike," but Mike wants to buy the land outright, and hasn't ruled out seizing the sandbox through eminent domain. more ›

Guess being secretly sworn in at Peter Luger Steakhouse doesn't guarantee anything: A judge issued an injunction blocking Richard Ravitch from serving as lieutenant governor. Newsday reports, "State Supreme Court Justice William LaMarca said the injunction was needed to give the court time to hear more arguments about the constitutionality of Ravitch's appointment." LaMarca added, "Were the governor to die, resign, or be removed from office, Mr. Ravitch, if allowed to remain in office, is next in the line of succession...For an illegally appointed lieutenant governor to act as governor of the state would clearly constitute irreparable harm." more ›

The MTA offered its plan for repairing the Throgs Neck Bridge, the Queens-Bronx crossing that was damaged by a three-alarm fire the other week. You can read the plan here; MTA Brides & Tunnels president Susan Kupferman said, "We certainly understand the public's frustration. Our goals continue to be to reduce traffic impact and move forward with the repair plan." The fire was started by a construction worker's blow torch and the MTA says that the NJ contractor EE Cruz has accepted responsibility for the damages and repair work. EE Cruz had subcontracted the steel work to a Bronx company, Imperial Iron Works, whose crew was on the bridge during the fire. Newsday reports, "The crew that was torching steel when the fire broke out has been prohibited from working on the bridge...However, E.E. Cruz and Imperial have been retained for the continuing work, officials said." more ›

The Department of Health has just issued a warning stating that six rabid raccoons have been found in Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx in recent weeks. As such, the DoH warns us all to stay away from not only the black-eyed beasts, but also skunks, bats, stray dogs, stray cats and other wild animals. more ›

Last week, noted Harvard academic Henry Louis Gates was arrested in Cambridge, Massachusetts, after a neighbor described a man trying to "pry" open a home's front door. It turned out that Gates had locked himself out his house; cops claim Gates was belligerent and refused to show ID while Gates claims he did show ID yet was still arrested for disorderly conduct (apparently for allegedly being belligerent, which he denies). The charges were dropped, but Gates wants an apology from the cop, "If he apologizes sincerely, I am willing to forgive him. And if he admits his error, I am willing to educate him about the history of racism in America and the issue of racial profiling." And the Reverend Al Sharpton was incredulous, "I’ve heard of driving while black, and I’ve heard of shopping while black. But I’ve never heard of living in a home while black." The Harlem minister added he would fight for Gates, "If this can happen at Harvard, what does it say about the rest of the country? Henry Louis Gates is the pre-eminent African-American scholar in the country. If they can do this to him, imagine what they can do to a kid in Roxbury." more ›

Yesterday afternoon, a 10-year-old fell through a sidewalk grate while walking with his family in Harlem. According to the Daily News, Aboubaca Meite had been running on Morningside Avenue near 125th Street: "The boy fell about 8 feet, hitting his head and landing awkwardly on his leg when he crashed onto the concrete under the former M&G's Soul Food restaurant." Yikes. A witness told WCBS 2, "I heard the father holler and jump down in there. They tried to get him out and everything. I went over, and we were going to get him out [but] he said leave him down there because he might be injured. So we left him down there till the paramedics come." Luckily, Aboubaca only suffered a sprained leg; the fourth grader told the News, "It just suddenly fell. It was dark in the hole [and] I was scared." The Department of Buildings hasn't determine whether the building owner will face violations. In May, 34 children were injured when grating outside a school collapsed (the children were posing for a photograph); the school was issued a violation for not maintaining the grate. more ›

Around 1:30 a.m. this morning, a Marriott hotel shuttle bus and a FedEx truck collided on the South Service Road outside Newark Liberty International Airport. The shuttle bus driver is dead and the truck driver and a shuttle passenger are injured. According to WABC 7, "The passengers on the airport shuttle, three flight crew members, told police the Fed Ex truck was in the wrong lane when it collided head-on with their jitney. They said the shuttle driver attempted to avoid the crash, but could not swerve in time." And WCBS 2 says, "The courtesy bus seemed to have absorbed the brunt of the impact. The FedEx truck was seen parked sideways in the high grass." The Port Authority Police are investigating. more ›

For well over a century almost a thousand acres of prime Manhattan real estate have gone to waste, as thousands of roustabouts loiter daily on that great green monument to squandered potential: Central Park. But at last a group of visionaries are trying to turn this urban void into something the city desperately needs: an international airport! But what about JFK, you say? Let the Manhattan Airport Foundation explain:

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• Yankees 6 Baltimore 4: Segio Mitre did just enough to earn his first win as a Yankee. New York fell behind 1-0, but quickly erased that deficit thanks to a RBI from Nick Swisher and two RBI’s from A-Rod. Robinson Cano added a two-run homer in a three-run fourth to make it 6-2 and it appeared that the Yankees would cruise to an easy win. But, Baltimore battled back against Mitre, scoring a run in the third and two more in the sixth to make it a two-run game. That’s where Aceves, Coke and finally Rivera took over and shut the door to preserve the win. With the victory, the Yankees moved into sole possession of first.
• Washington 4 Mets 0: Oliver Perez “only” walked six and the Mets couldn’t manage much against Washington's’s John Lannan. Lannan was brilliant, scattering seven hits to earn his first MLB shutout and the Mets fell another game behind the Phillies.

It's war of the Yiddish words! In recent days, Mayor Bloomberg has described the State Senate's refusal to vote on mayoral control of schools as "meshugeneh" while State Sen. Hiram Monserrate called Bloomberg a "yenta". The NY Times looked at the rich history of NYC politicians using Yiddish—former mayor Ed Koch suggested it's "to sound like citizens of the world." Michael Wex, who has explored Yiddish in books Born to Kvetch and Just Say Nu, analyzes Bloomberg's and Monserrate's uses to the Times: "I think that Mayor Bloomberg probably used Yiddish as a way of having his kugel and eating it, too. His use of meshugeneh — a not uncommon solecism, incidentally; the adverb should be meshuga — seems intended to strengthen his point at the same time as it gives his expression of it a heartfelt, rather than denunciatory. The idea that ‘this is crazy, pure and simple’ comes across all the more strongly by implying that English simply lacks the words to describe what he’s feeling — that in his guts, as they used to say, he knows it’s nuts... Senator Monserrate raises the stakes, though, by calling the mayor a yenta —'a female motormouth.' If the senator’s earlier uses of meshugeneh were meant to show that he could play the mayor’s game, yenta is his way of proving that he can even play it better." more ›

Recently a Starbucks customer witnessed a scuffle outside the store between an older gentleman and a bike messenger. The witness described the incident, on the the corner of Allen and Delancey, as such: "they ran into each other at the intersection. the old guy just wouldn't leave the bike dude alone, so the bike dude totally let him have it, POW! KRYPTONITE LOCK TO THE FACE LIKE 3 OR 4 TIMES!" Lucky for us, he filmed it: more ›

Now that the State Senate stalemate isn't occupying his time, Governor Paterson is directing this energy towards another mess: Ground Zero! World Trade Center leaseholder Larry Silverstein and WTC owner the Port Authority have been squabbling over who will finance planned towers—Silverstein wants the PA to foot most of the bill while the PA wants Silverstein to raise the money. Paterson said yesterday that public financing was out: "I think it’s unfair to the taxpayers, because you could go to the private equity firms, and they don’t want to extend that kind of credit. So I don’t think that the taxpayers should run a greater risk than what makes good business sense for a number of private institutions." He also floated the idea of public-private partnerships. The Port Authority said, “We appreciate Governor Paterson’s leadership and agree with his principled position on protecting public resources. In the meantime, the Port Authority will continue to make daily and visible progress on the Memorial, One World Trade Center, the Transportation Hub and the other public infrastructure," while Silverstein said, "I appreciate the governor’s direct involvement. I look forward to continuing these discussions.” more ›

Yesterday, a construction safety coordinator filed a $20 million lawsuit, accusing her employer of ignoring reports of sexual harassment while working at a Park Avenue JPMorgan Chase building site. Bianca Wisniewski, a 43-year-old widowed mother of two, says she repeatedly fended off lewd advances from elevator operator Steve Greco in 2007. According to the suit, Greco's overtures included grabbing her around the waist and cooing, "I just want to take you to dinner, no fu*king," and "Everybody kisses engineer Steve. This is a man's world, not a place for women to work." The suit accuses LIC's Total Safety Consulting of ignoring her complaints, offering her job back but then rescinding the offer and replacing her with a man. Her lawyer says, "What I find atrocious is that here's a woman who was working in a job where we have... crane accidents and people dying, and she was in a position of authority to ensure safety. But when she reports a guy vilely hitting on her, instead of protecting her safety, they protect a scoundrel." None of the defendants in the lawsuit—JPMorgan Chase, Total Safety, Greco, and his union—have formally commented, but Greco told a Daily News reporter yesterday, "I don't know [Wisniewski]. I don't know what you're talking about." more ›

We're sure everyone saw this coming: According to the Daily News, "Straphangers seeking relief from the overcrowded Lexington Ave. line may have to wait until 2017 for the arrival of the MTA's cure - the Second Ave subway, sources told the Daily News Tuesday... [After an analysis] The conclusion: the official completion date for phase one of the project should be pushed from June 2015 to December 2016, with possible future delays placing the opening in the summer of 2017, the sources said." Okay, so 2017 translated from MTA time should be sometime in 2020, no? more ›

JFK is the third worst airport to try and catch some shut-eye in, according to a newly released survey of 6,200 travelers by travel website The Guide to Sleeping in Airports. The airport's ranking is blamed on coldness, frequent P.A. announcements, TV monitors blaring CNN, bright lights, and overabundance of seats with armrests. Here's one thwarted sleeper's rough experience: "Our flight left at 7 a.m. and since the subway had crazy transport times during non-peak times we decided to stay at JFK. We went upstairs to the red carpet area next to BWIA check in and this security guard 'Agapita' ... told us to move. Then we went downstairs and fell asleep lying on the cold floor. We awoke to this horrid clapping of Agapita saying, 'You cant sleep here! Move now before I throw you out!' It was horrible! She told us we couldn't be on the floor. My witty friend then asked if we could stand on the floor and she said 'NO' she was a pain to everyone there! Thanks Agapita!" According to the poll, the worst airport for sleeping is Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris; second worst is Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport, where Agapitushka, the notorious Siberian security guard, keeps all her comrades alert. more ›

Air pollution from cars and cigarettes can lower a child's IQ. That's the finding of a new study that tracked mothers and their children living in Washington Heights, Harlem, and the South Bronx. more ›

To no one's surprise, Mayor Bloomberg, who is also founder of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, is criticizing the proposed amendment that would allow people with guns registered in states that allow concealed weapons to keep their guns concealed when in NY State. PolitickerNY reports that Bloomberg called the amendment, offered by Sen. John Thune (R-South Dakota), "a terrible piece of legislation": The mayor "said that there had been no public hearings on the amendment, and said it was being attached to a military spending bill, providing senators an excuse to vote for it. Bloomberg said if the amendment stood alone, it would not pass, and that 'the hypocrisy of tying it to the safety our young men and women who are overseas is just so outrageous.'" Mayors Against Illegal Guns also ran an ad in USA Today against the amendment today. more ›

As we know, the 4th of July left a huge mess in the city's public spaces, particularly Prospect Park. Nothing says independence like the freedom to trash your neighborhood! At the time, the Prospect Park Alliance had noted the challenge of cleaning after holidays, but the Brooklyn Paper reports that this Sunday the park was left in even worse shape. Allegedly a company called MIH Ventures held their annual Heatwave BBQ there, leaving behind hundreds of pounds of trash. more ›

After a 7.1% decrease in summonses for petty crime last year, the number of "quality of life" summonses is on the rise, according to an article in the NY Post that neatly credits the Post for the change. The NYPD issued about 297,000 criminal summonses for minor offenses during the first half of 2009; that's almost a 5 percent jump over the 283,000 summonses from the same period last year. And the Post claims credit for shaming the NYPD into action with an article last year calling attention to the drop in summonses—an unidentified "well-placed official" says, "It is fair to say there was a push... and [The Post's] articles did it." So next time you're busted drinking a beer on your stoop, it's only proper to send Rupert Murdoch a thank-you note. Of course the NYPD can't officially lionize the Post, and spokesman Paul Browne says the stat just seems dramatic in light of the previous decline. The biggest "quality of life" increase so far is in Chinatown's Fifth Precinct, where police have not been doing as little as possible; summonses have doubled from 2,344 to 4,708 as of last Sunday. more ›

Long-time readers of Gothamist may remember that we've applied for NYPD press passes a couple of times, and have gotten denied. The explanation we were given was that the NYPD only credentials traditional media— radio, print, and television— and that online reportage simply did not qualify. So it was with great interest that we attended today's public discussion of "Rules for City Issued Press Credentials" at New York Law School. more ›

The NY Times and Daily News speak to former students of NYC public school teacher turned bestselling memoirist Frank McCourt, who passed away on Sunday. One woman told the Times, "We all thought, ‘He’s such a genius, what’s he doing just teaching us?’ Everybody thought he was destined for bigger and better things. And when he became a global phenomenon, we felt it was justice." Another revealed to the News, "I was not a big reader back then, until he taught us 'Moby Dick.' I mean, the whale was in our classroom. I read everything ['Moby Dick' author Herman] Melville wrote after that. All of a sudden, I spent all my time in the library because of Frank McCourt." more ›

If you've ever queued up for a spin on Coney Island's landmark Wonder Wheel, you may have noticed that one of the cars is really going to the dogs. Well, one dog, at least: Sunny, a 12-year-old Rottweiler who guards the property by night and rides in car number four by day. Amos Crowley, who has worked at Deno's Wonder Wheel for the past 10 years, tells the Daily News, "Some people think it's funny, some people think it's cruel, but the dog thinks otherwise. We don't do it to be funny; we do it because she likes it. It's tradition. It's been going on for years and years." more ›

If swine flu makes a comeback this fall, city officials want to be prepared. They've been conducting a postmortem review of the spring's swine flu outbreak as they come up with plans for a possible "second wave," plans which the NY Times reports are focusing on preventing city ERs from being swamped. City Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley says the spring outbreak caught hospitals off-guard: "The thought that there would be large numbers of people in emergency rooms hadn’t been well thought through, so that’s one thing we need to address." So, in order to stop everyone with a stuffy nose from heading to the nearest ER, officials are considering a daily "public messaging system" that would give updates on vital swine flu information, not unlike the way winning lottery numbers are announced. Other swine flu countermeasures—like closing schools or even mandating staggered work hours—are also being readied in the event the virus comes back with a vengeance. At this point, Dr. Farley says it's basically a waiting game: "If you look at the history of new strains of influenza...almost all of them have had a second wave. It doesn’t necessarily occur within the next six months; it might occur a couple of years later. But almost all returned." more ›

A 25-year-old Chase Bank investment adviser is behind bars at Rikers Island after being charged with siphoning $110,000 from a millionaire's private account. Saucy Robin Katz worked at Chase's midtown headquarters until May, at which point she told employers she had to return to California for a family emergency. In April, one of Chase's clients realized that his seven-figure account balance had a six-figure shortfall, and auditors determined that an extra ATM card in the millionaire's name had been created in June 2008 and was used dozens of times to withdraw cash out of the account. Bank investigators traced the scam to Katz and asked her to return from California because she had some explainin' to do; she was arrested after arriving back in NYC last week. A police source tells the Post, "She just spent it... shopping and going out." The tabloid also pulls some choice quotes from Katz's MySpace profile, where she describes herself as a "rocket scientist by day, party fool by night," and lists her interests thus: "Politics: F-- Bush. Sex: F-- Me." more ›

Kyle Shaw, the 17-year-old suspected of setting off a crude explosive outside an Upper East Side Starbucks in May, made bail yesterday. The AP reports that the teen Fight Club enthusiast "was released on $300,000 bail last week after being arrested on charges of arson, criminal possession of a weapon and criminal mischief... Defense lawyer Adam Perlmutter suggested the electronic bracelet, and the judge said OK. Perlmutter said the monitoring device would be affixed before Shaw left the courthouse Monday." Shaw's peers have been discussing his future on Facebook, especially after Shaw appeared in court with a black eye, apparently courtesy a fellow Rikers inmate. Runnin' Scared noticed reactions like "omg this makes me so sad, i feel bad for him" and "You guys are worrying too much, knowing Kyle he's probably loving this." more ›

Bad Idea Underwear! The Naked Cowboy (real name Robert Burck) is tossing his Stetson in the ring and planning to run for Mayor against Bloomberg. His platform, The Post reports, is "Bringing transparency to a whole new level." Sounds just like something a long hair would say. Sure, Burck has made a nice little business for himself in Times Square, but can he parlay that into a smart stimulus plan for small businesses (something he says will be part of his Mayoral package)? He also plans to bring innovative ideas to tax breaks, tourism, gay marriage, transit and homeland security. He declares, "No one knows how to do more with less than yours truly, and that's the kind of thinking I plan on sharing with my fellow New Yorkers when you elect me." He'll be making his official statement tomorrow in Times Square at 11 a.m. Would you vote for Naked Mayor? more ›

A former NYPD narcotics officer who was shot in the back by a fellow cop during a drug bust eleven years ago has agreed to a $3.25 million settlement with the city, far less than the $31 million he originally sought. It's better than nothing, but Dexter Brown, who takes steroids every day just to get out of bed and needs a cane to walk, is, understandably, still pissed about the shooting—especially since the NYPD has not admitted any wrongdoing nor disciplined the cop who pulled the trigger: Detective Luis Lopez, who is still on the force. more ›

Earlier this month, a three-alarm fire shut down traffic on the Throgs Neck Bridge. (It turned out the fire was started by a construction worker's blow torch; the bridge has been undergoing a multi-year renovation project.) Though traffic has mostly reopened, there are still some closures on the roads and ramps and the MTA is set to discuss the immediate future for drivers on the crossing. Newsday reports that trucking groups are concerned that the bridge may restrict truck traffic: "Truckers favor the Throgs Neck because it allows for a heavier weight limit, unlike the neighboring Bronx-Whitestone Bridge. The Bronx-Whitestone Bridge has a 80,000-pound truck limit. With special permission, trucks can have a total weight of up to 105,000 pounds crossing the Throgs Neck." And with bigger loads, truckers make more money. However, a civil engineer explains that "bouncing, heavy rigs can make matters worse." The MTA is holding a webcast of the Throgs Neck Bridge plan press conference at 10:50 a.m. more ›

We thought our old roommate who left behind a used condom in a dust bunny after he moved out was disgusting, but he seems like a paragon of good hygiene compared to these revolting animals, who are competing for "bragging rights" (and $1,000) in a nationwide "Dirtiest Apartment" contest. Two of the finalists hail from right here in Brooklyn, and the Daily News gave one of them, 29-year-old Lisa Henderson, her 15 minutes of shame (photo #3). She wouldn't let the tabloid's photographer shoot inside, however, because her mommy had just arrived from Arkansas to clean up her adult daughter's mess. On the contest's website, Henderson explains the wretched squalor:

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Sigh. Yesterday afternoon, the Daily News reports, "A livery cab crammed with passengers crashed into a Washington Heights flower shop [at Broadway and West 157th]... when a van filled with seniors hit it." A delivery man for the florist said, "It was chaos out here, total chaos. A white van was coming toward the store to make a left or a U-turn. The van didn't wait for the light and the Town Car came down and hit the van, pushing him up the street, and the Town Car went straight into the store." The van ended up crashed into the center median. Seven people were injured, though not seriously. One lucky person was a female pedestrian, who wasn't hit but her shopping cart was "crushed". more ›

Mayor Bloomberg has been complaining about the State Senate's refusal to vote on the issue of mayoral control of the public school system—and the State Senate Democrats have been complaining about Bloomberg right back. And while the debate is not an Internet forum, we're going to say their dispute has officially hit Godwin's Law. more ›

Yesterday, the Jersey City police said that officer Marc DiNardo, who was shot in the face by a shooting suspect last week, was not expected to survive and that his "demise is imminent." The 37-year-old father of three is still on life support (his family decided to donate his organs) but is expected to be taken off life support some time today. A fellow police officer read a statement from DiNardo's family, "Marc was not a selfish man. He was a moral man, a man who gave of himself to those who could not care for themselves." And early this morning along Jersey City's Communipaw Avenue, three robbery suspects shot at police officers (at least nine times). No one was shot; the suspects were all arrested after ramming their car into a police cruiser. Update: DiNardo died at 9:35 a.m.; NJ.com reports, "DiNardo, who would have turned 38 Wednesday, is survived by his wife, two daughters, ages 4 and 1, a 3-year-old son and his parents. His father is a retired Jersey City police lieutenant." more ›

Yesterday morning, a woman was struck by a SUV as she was crossing Amsterdam Avenue near West 145th Street. The victim, identified as Debbie Evans, was initially reported as dead—the Daily News reported, "The impact - which knocked Evans out of her shoes - instantly killed the mother of two, police said." However, WABC 7 says the 48-year-old woman is in a coma (the NYPD just told us, per their latest update from yesterday, that Evans was in critical condition; they are still waiting for today's update). At any rate, police are searching for the driver of a gray or silver SUV. One witness told the News, "I saw an SUV hit her, a little old lady walking across the street... The car was going faster than it should be; she never saw him. It's a travesty." Related: We're hearing some reports that a pedestrian was struck at Amsterdam near West 143rd around 7:30 a.m. this morning. more ›

• Mets 6, Nationals 2: If only Livan Hernandez could face the Nationals every time he starts. Or maybe the Mets could face the worst team in baseball every time they played. Hernandez is 11-5 with a 3.67 ERA against the Expos/Nationals franchise in his career, and 3-0 with a 1.67 ERA against them this season. Jeff Francoeur had an RBI double and a solo homer and Daniel Murphy also had two RBIs. The Phillies also won Monday -- it was their ninth straight win -- and they lead the Mets by nine games in the National League East.
• Yankees 2, Orioles 1: Three straight wins, all by a 2-1 score. The last two have been won on the strength of two solo homers. Hideki Matsui hit a walk-off homer in the ninth to win Monday's game, the fourth straight win for the Yankees following the All-Star break. Eric Hinske also went deep behind Andy Pettitte, who took a no-decision despite working into the eighth inning and allowing only one run. With Boston's loss in Texas, the Yankees have returned to a tie for first place.

Ooh—feast your eyes on this idea proposed to Metropolis Magazine for its Next Generation design competition. Downtown firm GRO's idea was "Docking Stations, a system of modular floating docks that would harness clean energy produced by the tidal action of New York City rivers... According to the proposal—by Richard Garber, Nicole Robertson, and Brian Novello, of GRO Architects—Docking Stations would 'plug in' to the city’s existing piers, 'extending them further into the river to optimize clean energy generation while increasing public green space and tidal pools for wildlife.' The energy produced could be used to help power city streetlamps." more ›

Congresswoman and likely Senate candidate Carolyn Maloney may have stepped in some serious S-word. While giving an interview to the publication City Hall, Maloney was discussing Kirsten Gillibrand's stances being all over the map and relayed a story from a voter on the issue of language in the schools: "I got a call from someone from Puerto Rico, said [Gillibrand] went to Puerto Rico and came out for English-only [education]. And he said, ‘It was like saying n—r to a Puerto Rican.’” City Hall emphasizes that Maloney used the "full racial slur." Talk about bad PR! Well, if Jesse Jackson wasn't going to let Nas use the N-word, you knew Al Sharpton would waste no time in having words for Maloney. The Reverend, who has already endorsed Gillibrand, said the utterance was "alarming and disturbing at best" and wants her to out the person who said this "so we know that in fact this conversation did occur and the way in which it occurred." Maloney was quick to back away from the comment, saying, "I apologize for having repeated a word I find disgusting. It's no excuse but I was so caught up in relaying the story exactly as it was told to me that, in doing so, I repeated a word that should never be repeated." more ›

There's one thing certain about the future of Coney Island: there will be no 5-legged dog in John Strong's freakshow. A North Carolina woman named Allyson Siegel changed the pup's fate when she outbid Strong and paid $4,000 for the animal. more ›

With lots of attention being drawn lately to the overdose of Dash Snow and the strung-out gutter punks in Williamsburg, DEA agents are confirming just what you'd expect—cheaper, more potent heroin is majorly on the rise around the Big Apple. One addiction specialist at Flushing Hospital says he's seen the number of addicts there quadruple over the last decade. The News took a closer look inside the Bronx drug dens that were part of a massive bust over July 4th weekend, spots where each kilo of heroin is broken into 30,000 tiny glassine envelopes, many of which were stuffed into Build-a-Bears. The home base of leader Jeffrey Alba's operation was "a poisonous death mill” inside a non-descript residential building on Broadway in Riverdale, just across from the baseball diamond of Kelly Field. Authorities say that they hadn't encountered an operation of this scope since heroin's heyday in the '70s, but now these are no longer covering small territories around town. An agent tells the News, "This [Riverdale] group was like a corporation, supplying the whole metropolitan area, Long Island, New Jersey." more ›

The Post goes inside North Carolina's Butner Federal Correction Complex to get a sense of how infamous inmate Bernard Madoff is doing. Unsurprisingly, one source says, "Some of the guys were talking about smacking him around a little, just to get the notoriety of it." However, the source said Madoff has his admirers: "He got a lot of respect from other inmates because he didn't tell on anybody, he didn't take everybody down with him." Other tidbits: Madoff said that his wife was mad at him because the paparazzi won't leave her alone, he's working in the desk and door nameplate engraving shop, he's wearing t-shirts and sweats, and he's horrified about the state of his hair (Madoff allegedly said, "When I finally looked in the mirror, I scared myself, because I haven't seen myself in four months, and my hair was everywhere"). The source said, "He blends in. He's a regular dude. He's a really good guy, he's nice." more ›

You'll recall that the city recently agreed to pay $22,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by the NYCLU on behalf of a man who says cops ejected him from Yankee Stadium last summer when he tried to use the bathroom during "God Bless America" in the seventh inning stretch. And the Yankees, as part of the settlement, affirmed that there was no policy restricting fans’ movements. So the Times checked in on Friday night's Yankee game and found that although most fans stayed in their seats during the song, one Rich Popaduke defiantly proceeded to the men's room, declaring, "Freedom is what makes us American!" Why do sports fans with full bladders hate America? A security guard, Nicole Farrell from East New York, opined, "Everybody has free choice. You cannot interfere with that." But at least one fan is here to remind us the freedom to pee freely isn't free; Sue Coster, whose brother is a Gulf war veteran, vowed retribution against anyone exiting during God Bless America: "If they tried to do that in my aisle, I would have stuck out my leg." more ›

Cheyenne Jeudy's parents had been meticulously planning her $50,000 sweet sixteen birthday party for two years, but what they didn't plan for was the appearance of a group of drunken, unruly party crashers from a wedding reception held in another part of the catering hall. According to a lawsuit filed by Cheyenne's mother Denise, a NYC cop, the party turned ugly because Russo's on the Bay, a Howard Beach catering hall, didn't stop the party crashers from molesting young girls at the Sweet 16, nor from beating up her nephew outside. more ›

Jersey City police officer Marc DiNardo, who was shot in the face by a shooting suspect last week, is in "extremely critical condition." DiNardo, 37, is part of the Emergency Service Unit; he and other officers had been staking out the apartment of Hassian Hosendove (aka Hassian Shakur) and his wife Amanda Anderson. Hosendove and Anderson emerged from their apartment last Thursday, wearing hooded robes, and fired at police officers; the pair were eventually killed in the ensuing gunfight—an autopsy says Hosendove was shot 19 times and Anderson once. The other officer who had been in critical condition, Michael Camacho, was upgraded and able to leave the Intensive Care Unit. Camacho was shot in the neck and is now is "serious but guarded" condition. more ›

Like "everyman" Kimber VanRy before him, Marty Markowitz is standing up for stoop drinking. The Brooklyn Borough President was caught red handed with a glass of white as he sat on a Brooklyn stoop for an interview on NBC's "Talk Stoop" segment. VanRy, who became the poster boy for stoop drinking when he was ticketed for it last year, told the Daily News, "I just think there's a clear double standard. A law should be applied blindly to everyone, or it should be deemed ridiculous and we get rid of the law." more ›

A new poll from the Siena Research Institute reveals the unsurprising news: 77% of registered voters don't think the State Senate passed any new legislation and think "the senators wasted more than a month of valuable time accomplishing nothing." (Here's the PDF.) Siena's Steven Greenberg said, “Voters from every party and every region overwhelmingly reject the notion that it was good that Senators took the time to resolve their differences. Rather, there is real anger at senators - regardless of the voters‟ party affiliation or region. Although voters have long demonstrated particularly short memories, most feel that their fellow voters will remember the Senate fight next November and a plurality are already prepared to vote out incumbent senators.” Greenberg added, "Most voters in the state have an opinion about Senator Pedro Espada - and by a better than four-to-one margin it's an unfavorable opinion. Additionally, 21 percent of voters, a plurality, think Sen. Espada is most to blame for the Senate fight, followed by Senate Republicans (18%), Senate Democrats (15%) and Governor Paterson (12%)." more ›

Humidity is the weather word of the week. The Bermuda High, which has been mostly absent this summer, will make its presence felt for the next several days. A weak Canadian high pressure system is keeping ol' Bermuda at bay today. Look for mostly sunny skies, increasing humidity, and a high in the lower 80s. more ›

Just over a week after an undercover NYPD officer fatally shot 49-year-old Shem Walker, loved ones and community leaders gathered around his mother's Clinton Hill stoop, the site of the deadly altercation in which the details still remain unclear. Bitterness over the incident was clearly in the air yesterday with the harshest words coming from Councilwoman Letitia James, who said, “I say to the NYPD, get your lies straight." The Brooklyn DA's office is currently investigating the shooting as the identity of the officer remains unknown—just that he is a seven-year NYPD veteran and is also black. A minister at the vigil yesterday said, "Police officers are paid to protect and serve, but they are also paid for their judgment. Too often it is the case that their judgment is off with people of color." Tonight a funeral will be held for Walker at Full Gospel Assembly of God with Reverend Al Sharpton delivering the eulogy. more ›

What's the point of a suspended license again? Because some drivers who shouldn't be driving still are—with some tragic results. In Suffolk County over the weekend, a woman with a suspended license driving a minivan fatally struck a young man on his bicycle. Newsday reports, "With his father going blind, Daniel Mauricio Cornejo Carranza, 16, took a weekend job at a fast-food restaurant to help his family make ends meet"—the 16-year-old was biking to his early Sunday morning shift. Driver Karen Omara-Swett inititally thought she hit a deer but saw the clothing on the side of the road and called 911. She faces "third-degree aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle" charges and a fine; the police say the glare from the sun at the time might have been a factor. And on the LIE, Bronx resident David Nieves was arrested for allegedly riding his motorcycle at 120 mph; he was "charged with reckless driving, aggravated unlicensed driving and unlawful fleeing" (because he didn't immediately pull over). more ›

Senator Charles Schumer is speaking out against a bill that would allow people from states where concealed gun are legal to carry their concealed weapons in states where concealed guns are illegal. He said, "Right now you walk down the streets in New York or Nassau County or Westchester County, you can have the solace of knowing that if someone has a gun on them, they've gone through a rigorous background check. After this law, you can have no such comfort." The bill was proposed by Senator John Thune (R-South Dakota); the Washington Post has an editorial explaining, "It would make concealed-carry permits akin to driver's licenses. If you meet the requirements for concealed carry in your home state, your permit would be honored in another... Conservatives usually argue against the federal government telling states what they can and can't do. If approved, the Thune amendment would trample all over the rights of states and cities to enforce reasonable restrictions on gun ownership. There are already enough guns on America's streets. A vote for Mr. Thune's bill would make them that much more dangerous." more ›

On Saturday night, two men were shot to death while sitting in a car parked at Washington Avenue and St. John's Place in the Prospect Heights section of Brooklyn, just two blocks from the Brooklyn Museum. According to police, Vance Rock, 23, was shot in the head and Darrian Delk, 19, was shot in the torso; both were pronounced dead the hospital. WPIX reports the gunmen may have been on motorcycles. more ›

He's confessed to participating in a string of armed robberies in Queens, but the young model who made headlines because of his adolescent affair with a 37-year-old teacher insists there's no reason he can't go from perp-walking to cat-walking. Joshua Walter, now 20, seemed to be in denial when a Post reporter visited him at the Vernon C. Bain jail barge moored off The Bronx, where he's being held in lieu of $550,000 bail. After first telling the reporter, "I got nothing to say to you," he took the tabloid's bait when pressed about his modeling career, asking, "What do you mean? What happened? I still am modeling." Walter, along with three others, faces robbery and weapon-possession charges in connection with the June 14th through July 12th crime spree. And in May, Walter pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct for punching and choking his older lover, former teacher Gina Salamino. As for his career, one modeling industry publicist tells the Post, "I wouldn't count him out, but a lot will depend on how he reacts and what he does now that he's in trouble. America loves a great comeback story." True, but America loves a great thieving thug goes to prison story, too. more ›

Oh, it's on: After Mayor Bloomberg complained about the State Senators stalling on the bill that would give him control of the public school system, the Senators sounded off right back. On Friday, Bloomberg said, "The only thing I can think of is they want to ruin the schools," suggested the state troopers "drag them back" to Albany and saying the Senators' summer off was "Meshughena." This prompted State Senator Hiram Monserrate to say, "We believe it would be meshuganah not to include parents in the education of our children. As opposed to loosely using the word meshuganah, we would also say we don't need a yenta on the other side of this argument and this debate. Raising the issues that he has raised in the manner he has raised them is unfortunate." more ›

Defying the tired old cliche about cops loving their carrots and wheatgrass, a Brooklyn police sergeant is under investigation for loading up on donuts without paying at a Belle Harbor Dunkin' Donuts. A manager at the location called the cops on Sgt. Eric Turetsky after getting fed up with his behavior, which he claims included flirting with the adolescent workers and habitually underpaying for his donuts. The manager, who for obvious reasons asked not to be identified, tells the Post, "The girls here couldn't stand him. He was rude toward them. He was not professional at all." After reporting Turetsky, Internal Affairs watched him go into the store on seven different occasions, and on each of those trips he allegedly went behind the counter to help himself to the donuts. Turetsky, who was promoted to detective after blowing the whistle on fellow officer Justin Volpe in the infamous Abner Louima bathroom sodomy scandal, is currently assigned to the 100th Precinct in the Rockaways. If found guilty of accepting free or discount donuts, Turtetsky could lose 30 days of vacation time! more ›

Forty years ago today, NASA's Apollo crew went to the moon, with astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong setting down on the moon's surface while Michael Collins orbited above. NASA has various features on its website, like a real-time replay of the mission. The space agency has also released a montage of the mission (below) and enhanced footage (after the jump): more ›

[Update: Some reports indicate that the victim is in critical condition after the crash.] Early this morning around 3:15 a.m., a woman was struck by a vehicle on Amsterdam Avenue near West 145th Street. WABC 7 reports, "According to one witness, the victim never had a chance to get out of the way of a car that was moving rapidly on Amsterdam Ave. The impact was so powerful, it sent the woman flying 10 to 15 feet in the air." The vehicle didn't stop and the police are looking for the driver. Witnesses say the vehicle was a silver or gray SUV; one of its side mirrors fell off and was recovered by the scene. The victim, who was in her 50s, had apparently been at a nearby restaurant with a friend before the incident occurred. more ›

• Yankees 2 Detroit 1: Maybe some time off was all Joba Chamberlain needed. Whatever the reason the Yankees were thrilled to see their young pitcher dominate the Tigers on Sunday. Joba pitched 6-2/3 striking out eight and allowing only three hits. The two New York runs were provided by (what else?) solo homers from A-Rod and Mark Teixeira. Phil Hughes came in and pitched the eighth with Mariano closing the door in the ninth as the late-inning tandem performed spotlessly again. With a Boston loss, New York is now only one game behind the Red Sox.
• Atlanta 7 Mets 1: What can possibly happen next? Sunday night’s injury was Fernando Nieve hurting his quad while running to first. Nieve had to leave the game, Tim Redding came in and things fell apart from there. Add it all up and the Mets have dropped three-of-four coming out of the break and now head to Washington.
• Liberty 89 Atlanta 86: Shameka Christon scored 32 points, including the last five of the game as New York survived a late onslaught from The Dream.

Frank McCourt, the NYC public school teacher turned bestselling author of Angela's Ashes, a memoir about his harsh childhood, died at age 78 today in Manhattan. He had been ill with meningitis and his cause of death was metastatic melanoma. more ›

With space at Brooklyn's historic Green-Wood Cemetery at a premium these days, the Times tracks down the one man perhaps most responsible for the few remaining plots as they begin to expire. 54-year-old Lithuanian immigrant Kestutis Demereckas (known as Kestas) is Green-Wood's sole groundskeeper-turned-engineer, who will know for certain when the last body can be buried there, saying that after he is gone there will be no room, even for "Mr. Obama." He has been finding room for new bodies where there appeared to be none for two decades and tells the paper, “Sometimes I work three or four days, only to find no room. Nobody thought, ‘Someday Kestas will come looking for graves.’ ” More than half of Green-Wood's bodies date back over a century; these days plots where bodies are generally stacked on top of one another can fetch up to $60,000 for a family of nine. Kestas is exactly the kind of icy yet welcoming figure you'd hope for at a graveyard—he openly shares tales of his wife's desire to be buried in his workplace when she had a fatal illness (she survived) and the time he came across "The Hill of Graves" to wonder, "‘Why are these lots so small?’ And I find out. Babies.” more ›

Fresh off Bastille Day celebrations back home, France's first couple was in the Big Apple this weekend for a relatively social engagement. After a quick discussion of some global issues at the UN, French President Nicholas Sarkozy took some time to jog around the Central Park Reservoir. The Daily News says that Sarkozy "wore skimpy shorts" showing off the "chiseled stems" he needs in order to "keep up with his supermodel wife, Carla Bruni." The trip had been prompted by Bruni's performance at Radio City Music Hall last night's tribute concert to Nelson Mandela on the South African leader's 91st birthday. The French first lady took the stage in her American debut alongside Eurythmic Dave Stewart. Before her first ballad, Bruni told the crowd, "This one's not good for dancing. But it's good for dreaming." The concert also featured pop stars such as Josh Groban, Jesse McCartney and Li'l Kim, who said of the anti-apartheid icon, "He was very instrumental in my experience in prison." more ›

What Tom Watson did this week at the British Open was remind everyone what is great about sports. For four days we got to sit and watch as a 59-year-old man battled and bettered the best golfers in the world. While his quest ultimately fell short to Stewart Cink in a four-hole playoff, Watson’s performance will resonate loudly throughout the sports world for some time to come. more ›

Police continue to hone in on the woman that Long Island motivational speaker Jeff Locker contacted in East Harlem and is believed to be one of the suspects in the brutal murder that took place while he was being robbed inside his car Thursday morning. The woman along with two men, all described as black and in their mid-20s, were captured on surveillance video while they withdrew from Locker's bank account $200 each at seven different neighborhood ATMs. Yesterday the Post said that police believed the woman to be Locker's girlfriend; today the Daily News is quoting police sources that say it's a prostitute Locker had called from his cell and they're looking for. The paper also gets a graphic description from a mortician who arrived at Locker's body inside his car and tells them, "I knocked on the window to see if he was asleep or doped up or whatever. I saw his mouth open...His shirt had a bunch of holes and there was blood. The blood was dried. His head was back. His hands were tied behind his back. He was pale." more ›

It's almost the end of the road for those cheap lawn chairs scattered throughout the Broadway pedestrian plazas. After incurring enormous vitriol from likes of NY Post columnist Andrea Peyser, who condemned "the flimsy furniture that littered the streets like a going-out-of-business sale," the Times Square Alliance is finally taking action to appease the haters. Some new signs have been placed around the car-free sections of Broadway to explain what the future holds:

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This week's NY Times Real Estate cover story is about "accidental sellers"—people whose "life has gotten in the way — in the form of a job upheaval, imminent offspring, holy matrimony or the dissolution thereof." There are various anecdotes (like the couple who hasn't sold their Brooklyn place and are now in Switzerland where cost of living is really expensive), and the one that caught our eye was the dilemma of artist-art professors Elizabeth Demaray and Hugo Bastidas: They are expecting a baby next month and, if their two-bedroom condo at 116th and Lenox Avenue doesn't sell, they have outfitted the walk-in closet as a nursery. Why? Because Bastidas uses one of the bedrooms as a studio: "The 1,200-square-foot space is not big enough for the couple, his canvases, a baby and an exceptionally vocal Bengal cat that must be sequestered in its own bedroom at night if the humans are to sleep." Demaray says, "If we wind up staying, we’re going to have to find a studio space for both of us, probably somewhere toward Lower Manhattan or possibly Jersey City. But the cat won’t work in the closet." See the couple and their cat in this picture—looks like Bastidas is practicing his baby carry with the cat! more ›

The Post's front page story today is about the flourishing mail order bride business from Russia and Poland, noting "The Russian Advertiser...has an entire classified-ad section devoted to 'delovoy brak,' or 'business marriages'" A Post reporter, posing as someone needing a green card, learned it would cost $31,500—"$25,000 would go to the fiancée"—"$10,000 given up front and $15,000 paid after the green-card interview"—and "$6,500 would go to the agency for paperwork." The Post also has an amazing first-person account from "Ivan", a Sheepshead Bay construction worker who accepted $10,000 from a Polish woman who wanted a green card: "Her name was Yelena. She was really hot, in her 20s... Everything I told her to do, she did. I would scare her on purpose. I would say, 'If you don't do so and so, I am going to report you.' She was shoplifting like crazy from the stores. She was probably working as an escort... We had sex. I think she was cheating on me with other guys. I felt like she wanted to marry someone else...I've never seen anyone drink that much vodka. This girl partied like an animal. She went to the Tunnel, to the Underground, all the clubs. She knew everyone there." more ›

Joseph Pabon was denied bail after his arraignment on second-degree murder charges yesterday. Pabon is accused of killing Eridania Rodriguez, a cleaning woman who worked at lower Manhattan office building 2 Rector Street, where Pabon was a freight elevator operator. Pabon's lawyer said his client would plead not guilty and said of the police evidence, "I think there is a problem." more ›

Clubland may have shed a Visine-assisted tear upon news that the church that once housed the Limelight will soon be turned into a boring store, but at least partygoers are apparently able to turn to some familiar coping mechanisms making their first appearance in years—drugs like quaaludes that the DA's office says are back on the scene. Prosecutors tell the Post that recent busts have turned up "designer drugs rarely seen since the hippie era" that also include ecstasy-like BZP and the short-term trip-inducing DMT. A rep from the DA's office tells the paper, "We're seeing the emergence, particularly, of hallucinatory drugs. It's definitely related to the club scene, and targeted at selling to college students." The drugs have been particularly prominent at Asian night clubs and Flushing karaoke bars. Cops who busted a ring that sold at clubs such as Pacha, Rebel and Suzie Wong's say that the drugs from eras past have found their way into new packages, such as being disguised as Transformer figures and Obama campaign pins. more ›

So the divorcing TLC reality couple with eight kids weren't spotted together, but the NYC paparazzi is in a tizzy over the US Weekly/Star/People bait. According to People, Kate Gosselin traveled to the Big Apple with the eight kids for a TLC photo shoot: "Sometime after 3 p.m., Kate and her kids left the hotel and were followed by a pack of photographers...when the group arrived at the City Stage studio in the Chelsea neighborhood, security guards attempted to keep the photographers back using umbrellas, styrofoam boards and folding event tables, according to an eyewitness," and another said, "It must have been very upsetting for the kids." Jon Gosselin, the new Upper West Side resident, appeared separately for the TLC shoot. He was later spotted not wearing his usual uniform of Ed Hardy or Christian Audigier shirts with a "mystery woman" on the Upper East side—a "mystery" because it wasn't his new "wild" girlfriend, the daughter of the plastic surgeon who gave his estranged wife a free tummy tuck. more ›

With the budget hurting, the NY Times reports on how the police force "[hurtles] toward its lowest head count in memory: The New York City Police Department is set to shrink to 34,304 officers within a year, which is 16 percent fewer than the department’s high of 41,000 nearly a decade ago." (However, a graph suggests the number of cops has been in the mid 30,000 range for the past few years.) There are tense meetings on staffing police officers in certain neighborhoods, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly has to okay every promotion or transfer, there are fewer recruits and civilian employees are being laid off. And, in spite all of this,"there have been no obvious outward signs of problems." But the NYPD is using "predictive policing," which is using "crime statistics and other information to forecast where crime may pop up next," a lot more these days. One deputy commissioner explained, "It puts pressure on the need to be as precise as you can be, because you want to make the very best use of the limited resources you have." According to the latest crime stats available (PDF), 2009 crime is down 11% vs. 2008 and down 13.67% vs. 2007 for the year thus far. more ›

Many diehard dumpster divers would delightedly devote a down day to digging for a diamond in the disposable rough. But for 39-year-old Queens rubbish remover Nick DiMola, he was actually hired for a task that led him to discovering "treasure in another man's trash," treasure worth over $16,000 and all his to keep. DiMola was brought in almost five years ago to clean out the apartment of the late abstract artist Clinton Hill, who despite his name had lived in SoHo. After keeping one barrel of Hill's Mexican artifacts stored in a warehouse for years, DiMola recently decided to have it appraised and learned of the their high price tag. The Ridgewood man thinks that he'll sell the pricey art, telling the News, "I don't see the beauty in this, to be honest with you. I like things about history, but this pottery doesn't grab me." More surprising than the cleaner's good fortune is that the foundation formed by Hill's friends and family are not fighting him for possession of the goods. A lawyer for the group said, "If he is given a contract by the owner of property to remove and dispose of certain things, if the owner makes the mistake, that's the way it is. I'm not happy for him." more ›

Legendary CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite's death is still being mourned by the country. In a statement released by CBS News, President Obama said, "He brought us all those stories large and small which would come to define the 20th century. That’s why we love Walter, because in an era before blogs and e-mail, cellphones and cable, he was the news. Walter invited us to believe in him, and he never let us down." more ›

Earlier this year, the current and former owners of a Bronx apartment building whose tenants illegally subdivided their apartments and essentially created a maze that killed two firefighters in 2005, were found guilty of criminally negligent homicide and reckless endangerment. Now defense lawyers are trying to throw out the conviction, because one of the jurors contacted one of the witnesses. Newsday reports, "The social networking site Facebook took center stage in a Bronx courtroom Friday with the unsealing of gushing e-mails from a juror" to firefighter Brendan Cawley, who had testified. Apparently Karen Krell unsuccessfully tried to contact Cawley via Facebook during the trial; she continued to message him—"I'm awed at what you and the others went through, and what you yourself still continue to go through"— until he responded. She wrote, post-trial, to her fellow jurors, "So I finally found Brendon on facebook and we wrote some letters to each other (just about the trial, nothing else!! =( ...LOL)." A defendant's lawyer said, "You're entitled to 12, not 11 unbiased witnesses." more ›

Yankees 2, Detroit 1: CC Sabathia was able to pitch out of any jams he had gotten himself into yesterday afternoon, using double plays and a one-out infield fly in order to keep the Tigers scoreless for the seven innings he threw. Tiger ace Justin Verlander appeared to be outpitching Sabathia until the Yankees came up in the seventh. There A-Rod landed a short home run into the right field seats and Robinson Cano scored what ended up being the winning run on a Melky Cabrera infield single. The Yankees go for the sweep this afternoon in The Bronx. more ›

On the heels of former City Councilman Miguel Martinez pleading guilty to stealing over $100,000 from taxpayers via slush funds, word is that investigators are eying the records of other local legislators with the possibility of more busts to come. The News says that "Martinez's scheme has offered probers a blueprint for how corrupt pols have tapped into secret slush funds." Yesterday on his radio show, Mayor Bloomberg discussed Martinez's fraud case saying, "It's an outrage. I've always thought if you steal from the public, it's worse than stealing from an individual because you're stealing from everybody. Hopefully, the judge will [sentence] as a punishment and as a disincentive to others to not steal from the public trough." While Martinez is currently out on a $250,000 bond, other nearby politicians at the epicenter of the investigation are keeping a watchful eye. At a dinner for Bronx Democrats this week, the Post says elected officials were (half-) joking that their conversations were possibly being recorded. more ›

Yesterday, the MTA police revealed that, based on a witness's account, a Long Island Rail Road passenger was allegedly allowed to drive the 6:45 a.m. westbound train from Port Jefferson between Hicksville and Hunters Point Avenue. The engineer on duty, Ronald Cabrera, was suspended and that a criminal investigation was opened. Now the witness tells Newsday what he saw, "[The passenger] knocked on the engineer's door and the engineer let him in." When the passenger emerged from the engineer's cab, he asked another ride, "How'd I do?" more ›

The Queens teenager accused of killing WABC radio newsman George Weber was back before a judge inside a Brooklyn courtroom yesterday. John Katehis, the sixteen-year-old who allegedly responded to Weber's sex ad on Craigslist and the brutally cut him up inside Weber's Brooklyn apartment, was denied bail yesterday in Brooklyn Supreme Court. The East Elmhurst teen has apparently not toned down his act from the time of the arrest when his MySpace page revealed Katehis calling himself a Satanist and posing for self-portraits with knives. When he showed up in court yesterday, the prosecutor noted to the judge, "He has even written on his sneakers 'Satan' and 'Arch-enemy,' " to go along with tattoos on his arm of a pentagram, "666" and the word "Diablo." A lawyer for Katehis said that the writing on his shoes simply referred to a heavy metal band. more ›

Yesterday, the Post revealed that the "only living thing with any bite in Albany" is Governor Paterson's Maltese dog, Cheerio—because the 6-pound pup (picture here) bit the calf of state carpenter Thomas Keyser who was at the Governor's Mansion in Albany. Keyser was there to replace a stair rail and said he had to "repeatedly shake his leg up in the air because the goddamn dog wouldn't let go... I know plenty of these guys who got bit, and if they can't put this dog in a cage, I can't understand it." The Post says two other workers were bitten, leading its commenters to suggest, "How about turning Cheerio loose in the NYS SENATE??? At least those slugs would have to MOVE!" The NY Times investigates Cheerio's behavior: "He has sunk his teeth into a state trooper and run in furious circles around senior legislative staff members, barking at them scoldingly... Cheerio’s tendency to occasionally chomp on the help so concerns Mr. Paterson that he said...he will bring a dog trainer to the executive mansion next week to put Cheerio through obedience training." Cheerio is really First Lady Michelle Paige Paterson's pet; Paterson says his relationship with the dog is "strained." more ›

After monitoring him for a week, police arrested Joseph Pabon in connection to the murder of a cleaning woman in a lower Manhattan office building. Police spokesman Paul Browne said, "We have linked DNA of Joseph Pabon of Staten Island to the murder of the cleaning lady at Rector Street." The Post reports that DNA found under murder victim Eridania Rodriguez's nails matched Pabon's: "Police said Pabon tried to sexually assault Rodriguez, but she fought back so ferociously that she scratched his hands and arms and squeezed him so fiercely that she left a palm print." more ›

Now that the State Senate has adjourned for summer vacation, Mayor Bloomberg is participating in the time honored tradition of talking smack as soon as someone has left the room. On his weekly radio show yesterday, Bloomberg went off about the fact that the senators left Albany without addressing the issue of mayoral control of the schools, now back with the re-formed Board of Ed until senators return in September. Bloomberg said, "The only thing I can think of is they want to ruin the schools." He also suggested that Governor Paterson "send the state troopers to drag them back" to Albany and added, "Giving them the summer off is, as we say in Gallic (sic), 'Meshughena.'" Senator Bill Perkins referred to the mayor's rant as a "tantrum" and Senator Thomas Duane added that "the threat of troopers knocking on the door" was not the best way to coerce legislators into a vote. A spokesman for Paterson said the governor had no plans to call in state troopers to resolve the matter. more ›

As police continue to investigate the murder of a motivational speaker from Long Island found tied up and stabbed inside his Dodge Magnum discovered in East Harlem Thursday, two sides of Jeff Locker's life continue to emerge. The Post is now reporting that police believe a girlfriend of Locker's is behind the killing, that she and two friends are the ones who tied him up and tortured him in order to get his ATM pin code out of him. more ›

A little tidbit about our favorite teacher ass-tapping, teen model turned bodega robber, Joshua Walter. Now even though the 20-year-old runway model has confessed to holding up a number stores since June, the Post says he "was soon blubbering like a baby that he was afraid of what might happen to him behind bars," according to police sources. Well, if inmates at Rikers knew enough about alleged Starbucks bomber and Fight Club fan Kyle Shaw to punch Shaw in the face, we can—thanks to Oz—imagine what will happen to Walter. The Post adds that Walter's romance with his 17-years-his-senior girlfriend, Gina Salamino, "fizzled" but the Daily News suggested they were still living together. The News also reports today that he pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct for beating her up in May! Anyway, Walter and his accomplices are awaiting arraignment. more ›

In the latest round of World Trade Center developer Larry Silverstein vs. World Trade Center owner Port Authority, Reuters reports that the PA has "rejected the use of more public money to guarantee financing for two private office towers" at Ground Zero. Apparently Silverstein only wants to put $75 million in equity into the two towers, which are estimated to cost $4.2 billion. The PA released the letter it sent Silverstein, which includes, "You demand that the public take on the risk that you and the private sector will not take. It is unrealistic of Silverstein Properties to demand this extraordinary level of public subsidy, and it is not going to happen." Silverstein had previously rejected the PA's demand that he raised $625 million towards the project. The slow pace of progress—not to mention rising costs—have raised suggestions that some buildings be scrapped or drastically downsized and Silverstein has threatened to take the matter into arbitration, which could delay construction even more. more ›

A 26-year-old mother of two young boys and several months pregnant with her third child was found stabbed to death inside her Sunset Park apartment. Police spent several hours talking to Yorceli Flores's 22-year-old boyfriend who made the grisly discovery that Flores had been stabbed several times in the chest at 4 a.m. yesterday. Flores had moved to Brooklyn from Mexico at age 16 and had an order of protection against her previous boyfriend that led to his deportation—he is the father of her two children. Police have recovered a knife at the murder scene, but no arrests have been made. A neighbor in the 58th Street building Flores had lived in told NY1, "She was stabbed and it's terrible because to live around here you don't know what to expect anymore. It's just terrible and it's sad because she was so young." more ›

Howe Caverns may no longer hold the title as top spot for cavernous upstate recreation. That's because yesterday it was revealed that while state senators spent a good portion of the last couple of months showing up for work and bickering about legal semantics over a quagmire they themselves had created, a state janitor and his supervisor have been arriving at their Capitol jobs every day and wasting time in style. Louis Marciano and Gary Pivoda of the State Office of General Services have been busted for taking their workspace inside a Capitol garage and turned it into a drug-dealing "man cave." more ›

Yesterday, police arrested Juan Reyes, 19, in the killing of 13-year-old Miguel Saavedra. Miguel (pictured) was fatally stabbed with a screwdriver on Wednesday night in Sheepshead Bay around 7:30 p.m. According to police, "Mr. Reyes and two of his friends had argued with Miguel at a park earlier Wednesday... Mr. Reyes and Miguel, who both lived nearby, had also argued two days earlier." The nature of the dispute was not disclosed, but the Daily News reports "it apparently stemmed from a beef between the suspects and Miguel's brother." Witnesses tell the NY Times they saw a man on a bike chasing Miguel and another boy: "They initially thought that the bicyclist was punching Miguel. By the time [Vernon] Wade realized there was a long screwdriver in the attacker’s hand, he said, it was too late." Another witness who ran to help Miguel and started to call for help says the boy told him, "No police, no police. They were chasing us. They stabbed me. I have to go," before managing to walk half a block and collapsing. Reyes has a 2006 arrest for cocaine and knife possession. more ›

Walter Cronkite, known as the "most trusted man in America" as CBS News anchor, died at age 92 last night. The NY Times' obituary states, "From 1962 to 1981, Mr. Cronkite was a nightly presence in American homes and always a reassuring one, guiding viewers through national triumphs and tragedies alike, from moonwalks to war, in an era when network news was central to many people’s lives." His son told the Times that the cause of death was complications from dementia, while the AP reports, "Cronkite’s longtime chief of staff, Marlene Adler, said Cronkite died at 7:42 p.m. at his Manhattan home surrounded by family. She said the cause of death was cerebral vascular disease." more ›

After nearly simultaneous suicide bomb attacks rocked two American hotels in Jakarta, Indonesia earlier today, the NYPD has moved to beef up security at related hotels here in New York. Eight people were killed and at least 50 more wounded in the attacks at the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels; investigators say several of the suspected bombers were guests at the Marriott, and undetonated explosives were found on the hotel's 18th floor. Though officials here say there's nothing to suggest that terrorists may target NYC hotels, they're taking precautions anyway. In a statement, police Commissioner Ray Kelly says, "it's our standard practice now to take such precautions and to brief security directors in New York of what we learn." NY1 reports that critical response vehicles and members of the counterterrorism bureau have been assigned to the Marriott, Ritz-Carlton and dozens of other hotels. And a teleconference on hotel security is also being held in Downtown Manhattan today with a lieutenant on the scene. But will that be enough to keep hotel guests safe from another terrifying new threat: prank callers? more ›

Kyle Shaw, the 17-year-old who was apparently so inspired by Fight Club that he allegedly bombed a Starbucks in May, appeared at his bail hearing today—with a bruise near his left eye! The Post reports, "Shaw got the shiner while at Rikers Island this week after another inmate punched him," and the Daily News explains, "Before he socked him, the jailbird asked if [Shaw] was part of the lockup's own fight club - brawls organized by correction officers under the rubric 'The Program,' a source said." We wonder if Shaw's affection for the film (and book) is fading. Prosecutor Chris Ryan asked that Shaw remained in custody, because he was taped saying he wanted to plant another bomb before he headed off to Outward Bound this summer—"I'm going to ... camp. I think I need to do one more before I go." However, the judge allowed Shaw to head home for the weekend before he makes a decision on Monday. Ryan complained to the News, "I can't imagine that any New Yorker believes that someone who sets off a bomb ought to go anywhere but jail." more ›

David Beckham may not have been at his sharpest at latest night's LA Galaxy game against the Red Bulls, but know what was? His rock-hard abs. And apparently he indulged a fan, who was sitting behind a huge "BECKHAM PLEASE GIVE ME YOUR JERSEY" sign, 'cause he tossed off his top to her. TMZ also admires Beckham's chest, So long as he keeps taking his shirt off, everyone wins." more ›

Attention B61 riders and IKEA shoppers, Curbed reports that the bus line may be splitting up in the future. They say the line "will be split into two routes in an effort to improve service. One line run from Red Hook to Downtown Brooklyn, and the other from Downtown Brooklyn to LIC (dubbed the B62). The change would reportedly go into effect in January 2010 if it gets approved by the MTA." We spoke to Paul Fleuranges at NYC Transit and he confirmed the news, saying, "We have in fact had discussions with the community on rationalizing this route in the hopes of providing more consistent and efficient service for our customers while maintaining a high degree of operational reliability." Just like what parents say before you suddenly get two Christmases. more ›

David Friehling, the accountant who helped Bernard Madoff perpetuate his $65 billion Ponzi scheme by filing fake audit reports, has pleaded not guilty to fraud charges. However, he may be pleading guilty later down the road. Federal prosecutors and Friehling, who waived his right to a grand jury, are discussing a "possible disposition." Bloomberg News says Friehling's moves today are a "likely a prelude" to a guilty plea. A lawyer not associated with the case said, "There is nothing to be gained for Mr. Friehling to waive indictment except to placate prosecutors who are no doubt pressing him to plead guilty and cooperate with them in their investigation. It is the accountant who knows where the bodies are buried." Friehling, who is free on $2.5 million bail, and his family had accounts with Madoff (an SEC violation) and withdrew millions since 2000. more ›

A motivational speaker from Long Island was found dead in his car yesterday morning. Jeff Locker's stabbed and strangled body was discovered in his 2007 Dodge sedan, which was parked on Paladino Avenue, near 124th Street, in East Harlem. According to the Daily News, his "his hands [were] tied behind his back and a cord [was] wrapped around his neck and tied to the headrest. He had been stabbed in the chest and robbed, police sources said." more ›

It's believed that State Senator Pedro Espada Jr.'s central motivation for helping Republicans overthrow his fellow Democrats was his party's refusal to let him toss $2 million in pork to some dubious new non-profit groups with zero track record. So there's a certain grotesque poetry in the news that after paralyzing the State government for weeks, Espada was ultimately rewarded with that $2 million in pork-barrel spending, approved during a 3 a.m. session yesterday. Most of that money will be going to the New Bronx Chamber of Commerce, a "business advocacy group" that seems ill-prepared to distribute the largesse, considering its annual budget is usually $200,000. Espada says the money will go toward adult literacy classes, after-school programs, housing advocacy efforts, etc., but the group has never done anything like that before. The Village Voice made a noble attempt to figure out just what the hell the New Bronx Chamber of Commerce does, but all reporter Tom Robbins found was a brochure about their cocktail parties and golf outings. Reviewing Espada's allocation of the money, a Senate finance aide sent out an alarmed email to colleagues worrying, "I sincerely hope this doesn't come back to bite us." more ›

Hey, the gutter punks are back in the News today. Still panhandling, still smelling, still shooting up... but this time the focus is on how their habits are driving business away from shopkeepers in the Williamsburg area. One deli owner on Bedford Avenue says not only are they shoplifting, but "people see them and get disgusted, and then people don't bother coming into my store. They could take a nice hot bath. One kid comes in and the whole store will be smelling for hours." Pretty sure the jacuzzi baths at the stalled luxury condos they squat in haven't been installed yet. more ›

With the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings over, a few Republican Senators have indicated their support for President Obama's Supreme Court nominee, federal judge Sonia Sotomayor. CBS News reports that Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Indiana) said she was "clearly qualified to serve on the Supreme Court," while Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Florida) said he takes "great pride in her historic achievement." And Sen. Arlen Specter, the former Republican turned Democrat, said Sotomayor had "displayed intellect, restraint and judicial demeanor." Last night, The Daily Show's Wyatt Cenac visited the South Bronx native's high school, Cardinal Spellman, to "expose [her] gang ties and racist affiliations by talking to her former classmates." See video after the jump: more ›

If your basketball player fiance dumps you via email the day before the wedding, why not go out and take pictures with Tyson Beckford? Apparently that's what former Nets dancer Kesha Ni'Cole Nichols did after former Nets (now San Antonio Spurs) player Richard Jefferson basically stiffed her at the altar—the Post reports, "Nichols sported a bright pink party frock as she smiled and posed for pictures last Saturday with her would-be bridesmaids -- and model Tyson Beckford -- in Manhattan, where guests who'd been invited to the nuptials rallied to lift the former New Jersey Nets dancer's spirits." And TerezOwens.com has photographs of Nichols in her pink dress with her bevy of friends and Beckford. And during Nichols' outing, Jefferson, who took his side of the story to the media, was on his way to Europe with fellow NBA player Luke Walton and some other friends. more ›

Sometimes the weather can be aesthetically pleasing. Not just in a rainbow and fluffy cloud kind of way, but also in the way the jet stream and upper level disturbances interact with high and low pressure systems near the ground. more ›

Check it out, the State Senate did something! Look at them go up there in Albany, passing bills and not locking each other out of the Senate chambers: Just yesterday they voted 57-1, all by themselves, to pass a bill prohibiting drivers from text messaging or using any electronic devices—including iPods—while their cars are in motion. The bill's been a long time coming (a similar version was passed by the Assembly a while ago) and it will become law in November once Governor Paterson lowers his head to paper and signs it. Drivers caught violating the law will be hit with a $150 fine, but it could only be imposed as a secondary offense, when a driver gets pulled over for another violation. Still, some motorists approve; Dave St. Bernard tells the Post, "Sometimes I text and drive. I'm sure it is dangerous, but you get complacent sometimes as a driver. You think you can handle anything on the roads that comes your way." Lawmakers were motivated to pass the bill in part by a horrible accident in 2007, when an SUV driven by a texting teen collided with a tractor trailer in Ontario County. But when will government do something about texting while walking? more ›

Uh oh: Newsday reports, "A Long Island Rail Road engineer has been suspended without pay following accusations that he allowed a passenger to operate a train as it traveled west of Hicksville earlier this month and law enforcement authorities are investigating." The MTA Police Chief, Michael Coan, said they are working on developing a criminal case against the engineer and passenger, "We know somebody was in the cab. We don't know what happened there. We also know that it ran smoothly and nobody was injured." more ›

It's been almost a week since the bound corpse of cleaning woman Eridania Rodriguez was found in an air duct at the Rector Street building where she worked, and almost two weeks since the mother of three first disappeared. And though cops have been tailing the building's freight elevator operator, Joseph Pabon of Staten Island, investigators still don't have enough to actually arrest him. This despite the fact that Pabon left early from work the night Rodriguez disappeared and had scratches on his neck, hands and arms, plus bruises on his biceps and the inside of his elbows that looked like fingerprints. Oh, and a hand-shaped bruise on his waist! Last night investigators got a warrant to bring Pabon in for additional fingerprinting, and then they let him go. A DNA test was conducted on Rodriguez, but if the results are in they haven't yet been leaked to the press. Pabon's lawyer tells the Daily News, "My sources say they are having a very difficult time trying to tie him to this crime." Meanwhile, cops and reporters continue to monitor Pabon's every move; last night he went to Popeye's at 9 p.m., in case you were wondering. more ›

Last night, President Barack Obama spoke at the NAACP's Centennial conference, held at the Midtown Hilton, giving what the NY Times called a "fiery sermon to black America.. warning black parents that they must accept their own responsibilities by 'putting away the Xbox and putting our kids to bed at a reasonable hour,' and telling black children that growing up poor is no reason to get bad grades." He added, "It means attending those parent-teacher conferences, reading to our kids, and helping them with their homework...No one has written your destiny for you...Your destiny is in your hands, and don’t you forget that. That’s what we have to teach all of our children! No excuses! No excuses!" more ›

Remember Joshua Walter, the teen fashion model from Queens who made headlines last fall after his 37-year-old lover, a former teacher, sued the city for firing her over their affair? He's back in the news, and if you recall the way he dealt with tabloid reporters outside his house in November— "You want to see assault? Turn that thing off!"—you won't be too surprised by the latest turn of events. Walter, now 20 and a dad, was arrested late Wednesday night with three others and charged with robbing 15 gas stations and delis in Queens and Greenpoint. According to the Post, they all confessed. The spree began June 14th and ended on Sunday at a Dunkin' Donuts on Horace Harding Expressway, where Walter allegedly pistol-whipped one of the victims. Police spotted the crew around 1:30 a.m. Thursday in a maroon Chevy Astro van matching the description of the getaway car; after being pulled over the young men ran but were quickly apprehended, and a .380-caliber automatic handgun was found in the van. Approached by the Daily News outside her Queens home, Walter's poor mother shouted, "I got something to say: Leave my family alone!" more ›

A transsexual who spent two months working as a mail clerk for the Parks Department in Central Park says she was fired after she complained about her co-workers' cruel insults. Chanel Birden, who was born Andrew Birden and is on female hormones, also says her boss tried to bar her from the ladies' room and refused to call her Chanel. And when she used the ladies room anyway, workers called her nasty names and gasped, "What in the world is that?" So, unsurprisingly, Birden's suing the city for gender discrimination. She tells the Daily News, "There is no mistaking me when you see me—this is definitely a girl. It's not like you're looking at a messy man with a wig on. And I'm a gorgeous woman at that. I would always go to work looking very glamorous." Clearly the other mail clerk ladies in the powder room were just jealous. Birden's lawyer Derek Smith says that while his client has not yet had "a sex-change operation but she is, in fact, a woman... The genital appendage alone does not make her a man." more ›

After police surveillance of two robbery suspects turned into a bloody gunfight, leaving four Jersey City police officers and one Port Authority police officer wounded and the two suspects dead, Jersey City Police Chief Thomas Comey noted that one of the suspects, Hassan Shakur, had a pump-action 12-gauge shotgun "a combat weapon. It's got a stock that's retractable. It had a strap on it where he had numerous shells on it. He was ready to battle." Comey added, "I don't know how many times a big city chief has to stand here and say we need help to stop these weapons from hitting the streets. This weapon is manufactured for no other reason than to hunt man. So we should stop being afraid of the NRA and start being afraid of our own rights." more ›

Even though the Port Authority and World Trade Center developer Larry Silverstein are locked into a battle over funding for future towers at Ground Zero, now there are new possibilities for the World Trade Center Performing Center. According to the Tribeca Trib, Lower Manhattan Development Corporation officials "said they were studying the feasibility of putting the center across the street from the site, at 130 Liberty Street, where the remains of the former Deutsche Bank building now stand. The move, to the LMDC-owned property known as Site 5, could mean that the performing arts center gets built years sooner." Presently, the WTC PAC is planned—with "conceptual work" by Frank Gehry—for in between the Freedom Tower and PATH transportation hub. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver told the Daily News, "Clearly, it's a site that could be ready a lot sooner - and the cost would be a lot cheaper - than the current site," and even though money will be an issue, "there will be less funds to raise." more ›

On Wednesday evening, 13-year-old Miguel Saavedra was fatally stabbed with a screwdriver near his Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn home. According to WCBS 2, "The incident happened on East 15th at Avenue X. Investigators believe the screwdriver stabbing may have been the result of a weekend argument. Police say after the stabbing, the assailant hopped on a bicycle, and at least two other boys ran off." And a girl who attends I.S. 14 told the Daily News, "Some kids messed with his older brother, and the next day he went to the park alone. And that's when some kids stabbed him." The police are looking for "at least three young suspects." more ›

• Braves 5, Mets 3: That was not the start to the season's nominal second half that the Mets were looking for. Oliver Perez skated through six innings, walking four -- which is probably low for him -- and allowing three runs. The bats scored three runs in the fourth inning (Gary Sheffield, Jeff Francoeur and Daniel Murphy had the RBIs) to take a 3-2 lead but only got two hits the rest of the night. Philadelphia won, so the Mets now trail the Phillies by 7 1/2 games in the National League East. And they're in fourth place. And the injury news is mostly murky, too.
• Galaxy 3, Red Bulls 1: Even with David Beckham rusty in his return to the Galaxy, the Red Bulls still put forth a subpar effort. Juan Pablo Angel scored the only goal, and it was on a penalty in the 87th minute with his team down 3-0.

Mayor Bloomberg was running a tad late today when he flew down to Washington on his private plane in order to testify on behalf of Sonia Sotomayor. The mayor quickly livened up what have been my most accounts slow-going confirmation hearings with the early line, "I strongly believe that she should be supported by Republicans, Democrats and independents. And I should know because I've been all three." more ›

Yesterday, the Daily News reported that State Sen. Hiram Monserrate (D-Queens) was given back his committee chairmanship and the $12,500/year stipend—it had been stripped because of those felony assault charges for allegedly beating his girlfriend. The News' sources suggested Monserrate wanted them back in return to rejoining the Democratic fold, but he told the News, "Me getting the committee chairmanship back is news to me. I never asked to be reinstated as [head] of the ... committee. If that's what you're saying is occurring, oh well. If that's what leadership wants to do, that's their decision." But now the News reports that Monserrate requested to be given back the chairmanship and stipend—according to Sen. John Sampson (D-Brooklyn), head of the Democratic conference, and Sen. Malcolm Smith (D-Queens). In an interesting choice of words, Sen. Marty Golden (R-Brooklyn) said Monserrate's reinstatement was "a slap in the face to every woman and every citizen of this state." more ›

The new jobless numbers from the State Labor Department are not too good, not too good at all. New York City's unemployment rate increased to 9.5 percent in June (the highest level since July 1997), while the rate outside of NYC climbed to 8.2 percent, the highest since June 1983. Last month the number of unemployed state residents jumped to 854,200, the greatest number ever on record. Low-five? And the state's overall unemployment rate soared to 8.7 percent in June, its highest level since October 1992, the same month that Sinéad O'Connor ripped up a photo of Pope John Paul II on Saturday Night Live. It wouldn't really be fair to blame all our problems on Sinéad this time, so let's just ramp up the class warfare and note that today also marked the announcement that JP Morgan's profits were up 36%, with second quarter earnings ballooning to $2.7 billion. Surely some of that largesse will be trickling down any day now! more ›

Barack Obama's in town tonight, so that means you have precious few minutes left to get anywhere by car before the roads congeal with traffic and street closures. Beginning at about 5:15 this evening, the NYPD will close off streets surrounding the Hilton New York—where Obama is scheduled to speak at the NAACP's 100th anniversary convention—along with large chunks of FDR Drive in both directions. The shutdowns should last "for the duration of the event," which leads the NYPD to thoughtfully suggest that "drivers should avoid the Midtown area." If you're a pedestrian, though, break out the green plastic lawn chairs, because it looks like Midtown's going to be one big pedestrian mall tonight. more ›

Little alleged anarchist Kyle Shaw, who was arrested yesterday for bombing an Upper East SIde Starbucks in May, is being held on $100,000 cash bail or $300,000 bond. According to the Daily News, the 17-year-old's father "said the high bail was just a way to keep his son in jail" but prosecutors point out someone could have been injured by the crude bomb, though no one was. Shaw's friends tipped off the cops, worried that he would strike again. A teen neighbor of Shaw's told the News that Shaw pulled a hunting knife on him and claimed responsibility for the bomb, "I didn't believe him. He was always bragging," and added that Shaw bought sunglasses similar to the ones Brad Pitt wore as Tyler Durden in Fight Club off eBay. Another friend and former classmate told the Times, "I would never paint him in that way, as a domestic terrorist or anything. He never gave an inkling that he was into that. He is very funny. Very outgoing. Friendly with mostly everybody," but admitted that Shaw really loved Fight Club: "He saw the movie and he read the book. He wanted to watch the movie in our English class in the 11th grade. We were discussing existentialism in class, and he suggested we watch the movie as an example. We ended up watching ‘I Heart Huckabees.'" more ›

Last night on the Daily Show, Jon Stewart was perplexed by Fox Sports' camera angle for President Obama's ceremonial first pitch during the All Star Game—as well as Fox News personalities purposefully misinterpreting how it looked. So Stewart went to the vault for his ace: His October 2006 ceremonial pitch for the Mets. more ›

The first City Council member to resign as a result of a slush fund scandal wasted no time settling matters with the US Attorney's office. Today former Councilman Miguel Martinez pleaded guilty to money laundering and mail fraud, stealing in total over $100,000 intended for non-profit groups. In court today, Martinez said, "I received the money as a direct result of the conspiracy. I engaged in this scheme as a New York City Council member. I was able to engage in these schemes because I was a New York City councilman." Martinez copped a plea deal with prosecutors who recommended he be sentenced to around 4 to 6 years for charges that usually warrant up to 20, but the federal judge today noted that the court did not have to comply with that advice. The Times says Martinez had a "once-promising political career" while representing Washington Heights and Inwood, a seat that NY1 says will not have a special election because it would fall too close to September primaries. more ›

Yesterday, Cheyenne Cherry pleaded guilty to two charges— attempted burglary and animal cruelty—"in a six-count indictment" related to an incident where she wrecked a friend's apartment as well as baked the friend's kitten in a 500 degree oven. The Daily News explains that the 17-year-old "Cherry was granted a plea deal [from the Bronx DA's office] because her cohort was 'more culpable' for the crimes"—the co-hort, 14, admitted to putting kitten Tiger Lily in the oven in the first place while Cherry said, "I didn't let the cat out." The two teens then ran out of the apartment, so they wouldn't have to hear the cat's cries or attempts to get out. more ›

A day after news broke that former New Jersey Net Richard Jefferson left his bride-to-be at the altar in the eleventh hour, the one-time Olympian is hitting the press to clarify just what went down. He tells the Post that he gave former Nets' dancer Kesha Ni'Cole Nichols a full week's notice that the wedding was off after a contentious Fourth of July weekend in LA where they were at each other's throats. The engagement had already seen its fair share of disappointment—the pair had tickets to see Michael Jackson perform in London for their honeymoon. more ›

Last month, a Sonic Drive-In opened in Hasbrouck Heights, NJ, off Route 17. And apparently it's so popular that it's causing some problems. WCBS880 reports, "Just a couple of nights ago, an unruly customer who was turned away from the new Sonic restaurant sped off and dragged a police officer," who ended up with a broken leg and ankle. Oh, and the driver was unlicensed and is now in jail. Anyway, now the Bergen County prosecutor says "that drivers lined up for burgers will now get hit with a fine of $100 if they're blocking the highway." The Bergen Record reports, "Sonic officials said the company and its franchisee will continue to work closely with municipal authorities to control traffic around the drive-in. They also said that traffic volume typically levels off once a drive-in "becomes a more established part of community life." more ›

Queens resident Jimmy Hedin is feeling a different kind of sticker shock this week after a defective vehicle registration decal landed him two $65 parking tickets. As 1010 WINS reports, Hedin parks his car in Rego Park most of the week, "so a few days had passed before he realized he had been issued two tickets for the same offense—failure to properly display a current registration sticker." Hedin appears to have received one of 2.5 million registration stickers backed with defective glue. The adhesive loses its grip and causes the stickers to peel off—a flaw the DMV has acknowledged by offering to replace defective decals for free—so Hedin challenged the tickets in court. A judge dismissed the first ticket on account of the defect, but refused to dismiss the second ticket: "The claim that the sticker became unglued does not present a valid defense." Apparently, even some traffic tickets have more adhesive power than those registration stickers. more ›

The narcotics officer who lost his leg below the knee after getting pinned by a crashed car got a much-needed boost from a fellow NYPD amputee. Officer Eric Grimes was leading drug suspects into a police van in Brooklyn on Tuesday when two cars collided and jumped the curb, crushing his lower left leg and foot. When he awoke from surgery at Kings County Hospital later that night, a surprise visitor was waiting for him: Officer Rachid Elkadi, whose right leg was amputated below the knee in May 2006 after an off-duty motorcycle accident. Elkadi spent an hour with Grimes to show him that his amputation didn't have to be a career ender; Elkadi himself returned to work a year after his accident. Now a "field intelligence officer" in Queens, Elkadi spoke with the Daily News about his bedside visit: "[Grimes] let out a sigh of relief and said, 'You are a breath of fresh air. I needed to see you.' He asked me how my life has changed. I said, 'You are not limited to anything.'" more ›

Mayor Bloomberg is unhappy that the State Senate Democrats are stalling a vote on whether to continue mayoral control of the NYC public school system and he's ratcheting up the rhetoric. His spokesman tells the Post that the Senators are essentially breaking their promise to the public: "The pledge by the Senate leadership to allow a floor vote on the bill should be honored." The Senate Democrats claim that they would be fine with voting on the bill—as long as it has some amendments, like involving parents more. Sen. Eric Schneiderman (D-Manhattan/Bronx) tells the NY Times, "If the mayor’s people would just sit down at a table for an hour with a pencil and our amendments, this would all be over." The Daily News' editorial from Tuesday said there doesn't need to be amendments: "The Assembly...held public hearings in every borough and took voluminous testimony before fashioning a school governance bill. In contrast, the Senate held not a single official hearing on how the schools should be run..." more ›

Undercover cops have nabbed another would-be pedophile who thought he was meeting a minor for a sexual rendezvous. This time the alleged perv is an executive for the Gristedes supermarket chain, 59-year-old Michael Seltzer. Investigators say Seltzer, the chain's treasurer, had been exchanging salacious online messages with the "teen" for about a year and was finally supposed to meet her for the first time on Tuesday for a sexual encounter in Douglaston. But the 14-year-old girl didn't actually exist, and Seltzer, using the irresistible screen name LOVE775419, had been communicating with undercover cops the entire time. He was arrested when he approached an undercover female officer, and police have seized computers at his home and at Gristedes' Manhattan headquarters. Seltzer is being charged with attempted rape and could face up to four years in prison, the Daily News reports. And back in 1999, Seltzer was arrested for attempting to bribe a tax warrant investigator in return for eliminating nearly $200,000 in outstanding City and State taxes owed by the supermarket chain. more ›

Today is expected to be the final day of confirmation hearings for federal judge Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama's first nominee to the Supreme Court. Yesterday, Sotomayor was questioned about her views on abortion and the Second Amendment, and the Washington Post notes, "Like nominees of both parties before her, she declined to be forthcoming about a host of legal issues. Her demeanor was more relaxed, yet she took no chances, joking openly with Judiciary Committee members while increasingly avoiding their questions. By midafternoon yesterday, even two Democrats on the panel sounded frustrated by her long, legally detailed and often evasive replies." more ›

On Tuesday night, Brooklyn's Community Board 1 voted 23-12 to convert a 31-acre area zoned for manufacturing on the border of Williamsburg and Bedford-Stuyvesant into 1,895 low-rise apartments. But the highly controversial plan for the so-called Broadway Triangle still faces bitter opposition from community groups who say they were cut out of the planning process. Opponents complain that the city awarded housing contracts to non-profits tied to influential Assemblyman Vito Lopez—the United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg and the Bushwick Ridgewood Senior Citizens Council—without putting the sites up for bid. Marty Needelman, a Broadway Triangle Community Coalition lawyer, says the project excludes Hispanic and African-American groups, and his group will file a lawsuit accusing the city of violating anti-discrimination laws. Opponents actually want the buildings to be much taller than the planned eight stories; Needelman says the height cap is a sop to the area's Orthodox Jewish families, who can't use elevators on the Sabbath. He tells the Daily News, "The people who voted yes sold their soul to a corrupt deal." For more on the controversy, Brooklyn Paper takes an in-depth look. more ›

Joseph Pabon, 26, of Staten Island, has not been charged or even called a suspect in the slaying of 46-year-old Eridania Rodriguez, whose bound body was found stuffed in an air duct Saturday in the Financial District building where she worked as a cleaning woman. But plainclothes cops are still tailing him 24 hours a day, and so is the press. With no new developments in the investigation to report, the Post has been digging into Pabon's past, and today the tabloid airs some dirty laundry on the elevator operator's family. more ›

JPMorgan announced that its second quarter earnings grew to $2.7 billion, from $2 billion last quarter, thanks to investment banking and stock-and-bond underwriting. The NY Times reports, "The strong showing may put to rest some worries that the bank was allowed to pay back its $25 billion taxpayer investment too early, after it passed the Treasury Department’s stress test in May. But its quick resurgence in earnings, along with Goldman Sachs’s announcement of a $3.4 billion quarterly profit on Monday, is bound to raise fresh concerns about soaring pay levels and growing clout in Washington." That and now JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon "has recently been driving a hard bargain over the repurchase of warrants the government received last fall." Reuters also notes that the bank "said credit quality in consumer mortgages and credit cards is deteriorating faster than it expected" and Dimon expects to compete for banking talent (hello, big salaries). more ›

Okay, acrossair's New York Nearest Subway application is awaiting approval from Apple and is only for Apple iPhone 3GS users, but this video showing what it does is still pretty cool: It creates an "augmented reality" of your surroundings and transposes various subway routes into the phone camera's field of vision. Here's acrossair's description: "When you load the app, holding it flat, all 33 lines of the New York Subway are displayed in coloured arrows. By tilting the phone upwards, you will see the nearest stations: what direction they are in relation to your location, how many miles away they are and what lines they are on. If you continue to tilt the phone upwards, you will see stations further away, as stacked icons. Only available to Apple iPhone 3GS users." more ›

City Comptroller William Thompson released his campaign finance figures through July 11 and so far, he's spent $2.4 million out of the over $5 million he's raised. Drilling down further, the NY Post reports that Thompson "raised $200,711 and spent $637,147 between May 11 and July 11." PolitickerNY adds that "Thompson now has $251,836 in matchable contributions, just barely over the $250,000 threshold required before the city's Campaign Finance Board starts giving out money. Which won't allow much margin for error. If about $1,800 of those matching claims are rejected for whatever reason, it could delay Thompson’s ability to get money from the board." Last week, it was revealed Mayor Bloomberg had spent $36 million on his re-election bid so far, which outpaces his spending for his 2005 effort (so far). more ›

Earlier this morning, WPIX reports that "an armed black man and woman wearing long robes and black hoodies shot at officers for as of yet unknown reasons at 24 Reed Street in Jersey City." Four officers were wounded—"One of the officers was shot in the leg during the crossfire and another was injured due to shrapnel from a shattered window entering his body"—and authorities conducted a manhunt, with K-9 units and snipers. WPIX adds, "Unconfirmed reports state at around 6:45am the two suspects were 'neutralized,' which may mean they are in custody or dead. They were cornered in a building on the corner of Reed Street and Bergen Avenue, which was first searched and evacuated." Update: Five cops are now reported injured while the two suspects are dead. more ›

The latest round of campaign finance numbers do not look good for Governor Paterson. In the first half of this year, Paterson has raised $2.3 million—less than half of what has been banked by Andrew Cuomo, who denies that he even has any plans to run next year. Cuomo has raised $5.1 million over the same span and $10.1 million total to Paterson's $5.4M. Potential attorney general opponents must be shaking in their boots! In an attempt to spin the numbers as less embarrassing for the incumbent governor, a source connected to governor cited his being stuck in Albany during the Senate crisis as costing him over $1 million in events he could not attend while on Gang of Four babysitting duty. But Camp Paterson sees big things in his future—namely, hosting an event for Democratic governors in Saratoga next month. The source told Politicker, "It helps his street cred." Because nothing says street like a formal affair in Saratoga Springs, New York. more ›

American Airlines has added a creature comfort outside its terminal at JFK International Airport. According to the press release, the new "Pet Relief Area at the terminal's departure level" is for "passengers with pets [to] give their canine or feline friends a final chance to relieve themselves before packing them away in their kennels for the flight." American's Facilities Maintenance Manager at JFK, Joseph Daly, explained, "American Airlines is sensitive to the needs of passengers who travel with their pets. Pets that travel have comfort needs, too, so we wanted to provide a way for them to be comfortable before boarding their flight, just like the rest of us." Here's AA's traveling with pets policy. more ›

Nominated by Governor Paterson to lead the MTA, Jay Walder, who grew up in Queens and took the A train, said at a press conference yesterday, "The taxpayers and riding public need to understand and believe they are getting value for money in the way we operate the trains, buses, bridges and tunnels, and in the way we undertake the massive capital investments that are underway... That has to be an immediate focus. We must restore the public trust and confidence in this organization." The former MTA executive director and, more recently, Transport for London planning and finance director also admitted he'll have "to make difficult and sometimes unpopular decisions." Walder didn't indicate whether he'll bring a London Underground's Oyster-type swipeless smart card to the MTA (here's a comparison from the Times) but he's previously said NYC Transit would be ready for some kind of smart card. State Sen. Carl Kruger (D-Brooklyn) said there would be a long confirmation hearing process, "This is just not a game warden at the Adirondack Park. It's the MTA's chief operating office." more ›

Looks like they're going to need a cell with Kryptonite bars. After arresting a Bronx man dressed as Superman in Times Square last week, the very same Man of Steel was back on the streets last night, and cops quickly collared him in Columbus Circle. And once again, it's not exactly clear what Maksim Katsnelson did to initiate the arrest (police say he was playing in traffic) but after watching him squirm and shriek like a stuck pig in the videos below, you can see why he was charged with resisting arrest. A freelance photographer who snapped a great shot of Superman leaving court today with his mother and father tells City Room that during his court appearance, Katsnelson "was generally presenting himself as a civil rights-minded humanist, and he does these things to protest authoritarianism." more ›

Remember when State Sen. Hiram Monserrate (D-Queens) was charged with allegedly assaulting his girlfriend so badly that she had a black eye and stitches? That was last December, and the next month, the State Senate stripped him of the extra money he received for chairing the Consumer Protection Committee and of the chairmanship itself. Monserrate was later indicted on felony assault charges (also maintaining his innocence), but that doesn't matter to the State Senate: The Daily News reports that his chairmanship and $12,500/year chairman's stipend was "quietly reinstated...State Senate sources say the check was cut after Monserrate was secretly reappointed to his position as chairman of the Consumer Protection Committee. Sources said the move to reinstate him was likely part of the deal to bring the Queens Democrat back into the fold after he sided with Republicans in the June 8 coup that paralyzed the Senate for a month." Excuse us—we need to take a shower. more ›

Fresh off their annual Subway Shmutz Survey, the Straphangers Campaign is doing their best to be a buddy to local commuters with the release of "State of the Subways." (They sure do love those s's!) The group analyzes subway performances in a variety of different categories and then breaks them down by individual lines, something that the MTA refuses to do. more ›

While Williamsburg sits stagnant in a confused state of purgatory, the abandoned and stalled luxury condos have become a haven for one group: the gutter punks. The Daily News gives the group a two-story treatment today, saying the "heroin-addict hobos from around the country are overrunning" the area. And as with every other newcomer to the Brooklyn neighborhood, they're hated by those who came before them. more ›

Updated: Police have arrested 17-year-old Kyle Shaw in the May 25 incident where a crude bomb was set off in front of the Starbucks at Third Avenue and 92nd Street. And what's more, it turns out that Shaw was trying to emulate the film Fight Club—in particular, Tyler Durden. This is so not What Would Tyler Durden Do but it is what Gothamist commenter Rocknrope guessed on May 25 with his comment: "Project Mayhem." more ›

A former New Jersey Net dancer thought she was moving on up with a $2 million wedding all planned out with former Nets' star Richard Jefferson, set for last weekend at Mandarin Oriental in Columbus Circle. But RJ's engagement ring turned out to be a give-and-go when Jefferson told Kesha Ni'Cole Nichols in the days leading up the wedding that he would not be attending. That didn't stop Nichols from going ahead with spending her canceled wedding night in the Mandarin, where they upgraded her to a suite with a king-sized bed and a view of the park. But not only was the bride-not-to-be at the hotel, so were "(Jefferson's) boys" who claim they found out about the change of plans hours before, but apparently were already set with using his Black Amex card for the night. The Post says that according to friends, Nichols was "not entirely caught off-guard" and "just wants to keep this as quiet as possible and move on." Jefferson recently moved on up himself to San Antonio, where he joined the Spurs in a trade for Bruce Bowen. more ›

A brutal beating on Staten Island last month is being called a bias attack. Police are searching for three suspects who pummeled a 38-year-old Hispanic man with baseball bats. The confrontation began when the victim and a white man (pictured from surveillance video) had a confrontation at a BP Amoco station in Bulls Head around 4:30 a.m. on June 17th, the victim being harassed with what cops call "anti-ethnic remarks." The man yelling the remarks then got into a car with two other white males, who followed the victim, got out of the car and according to a neighbor "were cracking the hell out of him with bats." The neighbor also said he was surprised the victim lived, that there was so much blood he later thought the sidewalk was covered in red paint. Another neighbor told WCBS 2, "It's worse than a regular crime because anyone can be a victim. I can see myself in that situation, just walking down the street to go across to get a doughnut." The victim is recovering after suffering serious head wounds. more ›

The Great New York Times Company Fire Sale of 2009 continues this week as the media company announced Tuesday it has sold WQXR-FM, the last classical-only radio station in New York. In a deal worth $45 million, WNYC and Univision will take over operation of the station but won't change its format, pledging to continue its broadcast partnerships with the Philharmonic, Met, and Juilliard. What listeners are likely to notice is a change in WQXR's spot on the dial—105.9 will be the new home for the station. It's also going to be broadcasting a weaker signal, which will reach about 4.5 million fewer people. So, with its future a little more certain, now all WQXR has to do is find funding, and WNYC's already raising money on that front, having begun a campaign to pay for the station that concert pianist Emanuel Ax calls "the sonic equivalent of saving Carnegie Hall from the wrecker’s ball." more ›

Enjoy the sun today for tomorrow it will be gone. The high pressure system responsible for the recent streak of sunshine is moving offshore. We'll squeeze in one more pleasant day, look for a high around 80 this afternoon, before the clouds and rain return. more ›

Things are pretty bad when your 13-year-old daughter calls the cops on you because you're (allegedly!) drinking and driving: Over the weekend, Susan Rogge of Putnam County was arrested when police discovered her with a car full of teenage kids, including her daughter, and with a blood alcohol level of 0.22, almost three times the legal limit. WCBS 2 reports, "Mom was apparently in the parking lot drinking beer in the car -- a big problem since mom was the ride home. Moments after they left the daughter turned the mother in for DWI. 'Mommy's drunk.' she told the operator. 'We almost crashed.'" Rogge's car was in the oncoming lane—and in the opposite direction—according to police; Carmel Police Chief Michael Johnson praised the child, "The 13-year-old was very responsive. You can't fault her. Some people might say she turned her mother in, but they are better off for it." Rogge has a history of alcohol-related offenses and her lawyer said, "She recognizes she has a serious disease and will be seeking in-patient treatment immediately." She is currently in jail, awaiting $10,000 cash bail or $20,000 bond. more ›

Last night in St. Louis, the American League won its 13th MLB All Star game in a row, giving the AL team that makes it to the World Series home field advantage. Mariano Rivera closed the game (video); the Daily News reports this is his fourth All Star save, "moving him past Dennis Eckersley for the most in history," leading Rivera's teammate and fellow All Star Derek Jeter to say, "It's just another thing he can put on his Hall of Fame plaque, I guess." more ›

An unidentified NYPD narcotics officer had one of his legs amputated below the calf last night after getting pinned by a car that jumped the curb during an accident in Brooklyn. The plainclothes officer, a five and a half year NYPD veteran, was loading drug bust prisoners into a van at about 5 p.m. at the intersection of Avenue U and East 34th Street in Marine Park, when two vehicles traveling opposite directions slammed into each other and jumped the curb. The cop was rushed to Kings County Hospital and is listed in serious but stable condition. No one else was hurt in the incident, and according to 1010 WINS, neither of the drivers have been charged and police have ruled this an accident. more ›

Not so shocking: Queens DA Richard Brown said that a TSA officer and contract baggage handler at JFK Airport were arrested for stealing a Macbook Air laptop and a T-Mobile Sidekick from checked luggage. As part of an "integrity test," a suitcase with the laptop, two cellphones and an iPod were planted on a flight from Miami—and were apparently too tempting to TSA officer Brian Burton and handler Antwon Simmons. When the luggage left the check baggage room, the Queens DA's office alleges the two items were gone "and that the luggage tags had been switched - indicating a different passenger’s name and a destination of Los Angeles - in an effort to conceal the theft of property." Brown said, "When air travelers check their luggage with an airline, there is an implicit trust that their bags and their contents will meet them at their destination." Yeah, but that's also why people hate checking their luggage and insist on bringing too many carry-on items. Five years ago, Chevy Chase learned the hard way not to check his $10K watch in his suitcase. more ›

On Saturday morning, 86-year-old Betty Zengel, who suffers from Alzheimer's, managed to disappear from her caretaker's watch on the Upper East Side—and somehow ended up outside a Chelsea nightclub at midnight. M2 Ultralounge's owner and head of security contacted the NYPD, whose officers escorted Zengel away. But later the club's owner and security noticed Zengel wandering in the rainy streets a few blocks away—and now the club claims the NYPD abandoned Zengel. more ›

The boss is never going to believe this one: A report just came in over the police scanners about an "unusual occurrence" in a parking lot at East 128th Street between Park and Lex, where police have been summoned because "people are unable to get to their cars due to 10-15 very large rats in the parking lot." And so it begins; the day we've all dreaded when a master race of rats form organized battalions to take over the city once and for all. Well, Gothamist, for one, welcomes our new rodent overlords, and we look forward to seeing them show the current administration how real rats run a city. Viva la Rat! more ›

Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Paterson said that 9/11 victims' families will be able to descend to the World Trade Center and pay their respects, even though the site is under construction. It was originally thought that last year would be the final year to allow visitations. This year, the AP reports, "families will be allowed into a newly built upper level of the memorial site"; the ramp to the "pit" was removed to make way for a foundation. Rosaleen Tallon, sister of firefighter Sean Tallon who perished in the North Tower, said, "We totally understand that there would be no way to go down ourselves. But it would be nice to do something to symbolically connect us to the site." The 2,750 victims' name will be read by volunteers and victims' relatives. more ›

Early this morning, a collision between two vehicles in the Pelham Gardens section of the Bronx has left two dead and one critically injured. According to WCBS 2, "Police say a [livery] car driven by a 41-year-old man was struck by a sport utility vehicle at the intersection of Laconia and Waring Avenues in Pelham Gardens just after midnight." WABC 7 says the SUV "t-boned" the car and that witnesses tried to put out the fires from both cars. The livery car's 41-year-old driver died while his passenger, a woman in her 20s, was ejected from the car. Because her body landed beyond a fence, it wasn't detected for 30 minutes. The SUV's driver, 27, was taken to the hospital in critical condition. more ›

Mayor Bloomberg sounded off on some issues that came up yesterday. He was upset that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the State Department have reversed a policy where NYC collected taxes from foreign governments' diplomatic buildings. About $260 million in unpaid back taxes plus future revenue will be lost, leading the mayor to say, "Since 1873 they've been saying this is taxable... It's just patently unfair to New Yorkers and Americans and it contravenes established policy for 130-odd years and it just doesn't make sense." He also worried that foreign governments would buy properties, since they'd be tax-free, and rent them out. Even Senator Schumer thinks the policy sucks! As for news that the NYPD signed a $1 million contract for typewriters—used for police reports (and which are so cumbersome they may prohibit some cops from filing reports)—Bloomberg said, "Why are they using any is the question you should ask, and where do you find them? That was the thing that I thought about. I didn't think anybody made them anymore." more ›

Bernard Madoff took a prison bus from the U.S. Penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia to the Butner Federal Correctional Complex in North Carolina. It's about 45 miles from Raleigh and has a number of different facilities, including a medical center and minimum security area, but Madoff will be in the medium-security lockup. more ›

Since Michael Jackson coverage officially died on Sunday (R.I.P.), it's time for Janet to get some headlines. The Daily News reports that a Manhattan judge has finally ruled on a 2005 case involving a Bronx man who claimed to have been beaten by the singer's bodyguards at Marquee. The man, Leonard Salati, was attempting to give Jackson his phone number in February 2004 at the Chelsea hotspot, and that's when the alleged beating occurred. He promptly sued Jackson for $120 million and, in 2007, a judge had allowed the case to go forward and said Jackson had to give a deposition. Recently, a new judge told the man to "Beat It" (sorry) due to a lack of evidence. Now that his case has been dismissed, there's no word on if he'll attempt to sue the security company involved... but we're guessing Janet never called. more ›

Fancy that: State Senator Hiram Monserrate, Jesus-comparing, coup- and stalemate-causing Democrat from Queens, is using money donated to his campaign committee to pay off legal fees for his assault case. PolitickerNY reports that according to campaign filings, "Unions representing police and corrections officers contributed $2,450 to... Monserrate's campaign committee, which he in turn used to defend himself against felony assault charges stemming from" allegedly beating his girlfriend. While Monserrate denies the charges, he was indicted. Sen. Marty Golden (R-Brooklyn) said, "Sometimes elected officials have been known to use their campaign funds for legal matters because it's job-related. And then there are those that are arrested for criminal acts. He stabbed that woman in the face with a broken glass on his own time in his own apartment. It had nothing to do with government business. Anyone giving him money--especially law enforcement--for his defense should be appalled." Well, some of his fellow State Senators also gave him money! Monserrate had previously told PolitickerNY that "campaign committees routinely spend money on legal expenses that are related to the campaign, to the candidacy and to the candidate." more ›

The shark stories are finally starting to show up this summer. Reports are that a not-quite-dead-yet 20-foot basking shark washed up at Long Island's Gilgo State Park this morning. By the time the state parks department was notified it was already dead, and from the looks of it beachgoers and reporters were getting their photo ops in. And yes, if we had the time, we'd Photoshop a shark asking a washed up 1010WINS reporter for a comment. more ›

With all those stalled condo developments in Brooklyn, you'd think that business would be booming at companies like K9 Powerhouse, which provides guard dogs to property owners for $1,750 to $2,000 monthly, which breaks down to lower than a security guard’s hourly wages. But according to proprietor Angelo Biondo, some developers can't afford to pay for security and have decided to let squatters and transients run wild on their sites. Biondo had consulted on providing guard dogs at an unfinished residential development at 659 Bergen Street, but now there’s just a "Beware of Dog" sign—no dog. (FYI, copper wire scavengers.) Over on Third Avenue in Brooklyn, his Rottweilers still guard a future Marriott hotel, where construction is 10 months behind, and the company is three months behind on their payments to K-9. But Biondo's keeping his head above water because, as the tells the Observer, "there’s not a lot of people who do what I do." Biondo "wears five earrings, a Bluetooth earpiece, a gold necklace, and reading glasses on a cord," and has been a dog trainer since 1976. He declares, "I don’t want to have a gun in my house, but I do like to have an 80-pound dog." more ›

Last June police busted four people on prostitution charges at a massage parlor on City Island, but rumors persisted throughout the tight-knit community that tugs were still following rubs at the Sun Spa Massage Parlor, which happens to be two doors down from the home of Adolfo Carrión Jr., who was Bronx borough president until Obama chose him as the White House urban affairs director. Two days after a community meeting last month, during which some 70 islanders urged the 45th Precinct to firmly end the happy endings, cops moved in and once again made arrests: two for prostitution and another for unlicensed massage. Bill Stanton, president of the City Island Civic Association, tells the Daily News, "There is an up-and-running brothel four doors away from my church. When there's arrests for prostitution, I call it a brothel." He adds that residents have been reluctant to speak out because they were "worried about their property values." But just to be absolutely certain, last week the News assigned one lucky reporter to visit Sun Spa; he paid $70 for a massage, which ended without full or even partial release. more ›

Marc Dreier, the once high-flying lawyer with hundreds of employees and celebrity friends, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for his $700 million scam to "issue and sell fictitious promissory notes purportedly issued by companies in the United States and Canada." He pleaded guilty to duping investors out of $400 million in May and said in a letter to the judge, prior to his sentencing, "I have lost all my friends. I have lost my law firm, my law license and all that I ever owned. I have seen my family suffer the unimaginable. I have lost my past and my future. I have lost everything a man can lose. And now I will lose my freedom as well, and rightly so." more ›

A tipster from 119 West 23rd Street just wrote in saying the building was evacuated earlier this afternoon for over in hour in what was originally thought to be a gas leak. She writes: "So all us employees at Tekserve (and the offices above) were just evacuated for about an hour after a stinky rotten egg smell permeated the building. Thought it might be a gas leak, but it turns out that someone at the salon on one of the upper floors poured some heavy-duty professional-grade drain cleaner in the pipes. Incorrectly." Woops. The fumes aren't dangerous, but Sarah Lewitinn (aka Ultragrrrl) was also in the building at the time and panic-Twittered about some of the side effects: "My lips feel numb and weird as do my legs. Lightheaded. Not cool. TELL PPL THERE'S A GASLEAK!" UPDATE: Lewitinn says several people in the building are sick, and worries that it may have been something harmful leaking. And given that Con Ed might be involved, she may have reason to be! more ›

Earlier today, Transportation Alternatives held a press conference at City Hall to call on Mayor Bloomberg to "take control of New York’s streets and establish an effective deterrence against dangerous driving." A report released by the group finds the NYPD largely inadequate when it comes to enforcing traffic laws, and the study, which analyzed data from "known rates of driver infraction and summonsing by the NYPD," includes some troubling stats: more ›

More on the story of the Brooklyn army veteran who was killed by an undercover cop during a drug sting in Clinton Hill. The Daily News now reports that the "undercover cop was wearing earphones to keep in touch with his NYPD team and didn't hear an irate Brooklyn homeowner's command to get off his stoop until it was too late...When the undercover officer didn't budge from the Clinton Hill stoop Saturday night, resident Shem Walker kicked the man he thought was a vagrant in the back of the head, sources said." One source said, "With the earphones on, the cop just didn't hear anything. The next he knew, someone had kicked him, and the fight starts, with a tragic end." The police have contended that Walker grabbed the cop's gun; some witnesses say they didn't hear the cop identify himself as a police officer. more ›

[UPDATE BELOW] A not totally unsurprising rumor is going around that downtown artist Dash Snow has died of a heroin overdose. Snow is the maternal grandson of Robert Thurman (and nephew of actress Uma Thurman), and his lifestyle was well-documented in a sprawling New York magazine piece two years ago. That lifestyle at one point included making what he called a Hamster’s Nest with friends, where they would "shred up 30 to 50 phone books, yank around all the blankets and drapes, turn on the taps, take off their clothes, and do drugs—mushrooms, coke, ecstasy—until they feel like hamsters." more ›

This is what you get for not keeping up with the digital age! A Brooklyn grandmother rented a VHS copy of Austin Powers at the Borough Park library branch for her grandkids to watch, and someone had spliced it with "long pornographic scenes" during the credits, The Post reports. Esther Klein put in a call to assemblyman Dov Hikind about the x-rated rental, and he's now demanding local libraries ban VHS. Here we were worried about the sand when the real danger to our children is the local library! Hikind declared, "This is unbelievable. The bottom line is that the local library can be unsafe for young children. It's pretty sick stuff." He added that children can psychologically suffer forever from this type of exposure. But what about grandma renting a PG-13 movie (for nudity and sex-related dialogue/humor) with a character named Alotta Fagina (pictured) in it for her 7-year-old grandkid? Maybe there should be some scaremongering about the real enemy: grandmas! Meanwhile, the Brooklyn Library is all, "we have the problem under control and will remove the tape." more ›

City Councilman Miguel Martinez, who represents 10th Council District which includes parts of Washington Heights, Inwood, Marble Hill, has issued his resignation; CityRoom reports that his letter read, "Dear Speaker Quinn, Effective today, July 14, 2009, I am submitting my resignation to the New York City Council." Martinez has been under investigation by the U.S. Attorney's office for funding to a non-profit group; in March, the NY Times wrote, "The Upper Manhattan Council Assisting Neighbors, [which helps] small businesses and underserved Latino, immigrant and low-income people [in upper Manhattan]...received little city money until 2006, after Mr. Martinez’s sister, Maria Martinez, joined the board. Since then, the group has received more than $1.4 million in City Council funds including more than $400,000 sponsored directly by Mr. Martinez." Martinez has reportedly cut a deal with the feds to avoid prison time; the Post notes he is "the first elected official to be done in by the Council's slush fund scandal." more ›

A new report [pdf] from the NYC Health Department and Department of Education finds that physically fit students tend to outscore their less-fit peers on academic tests. During the 2007-2008 school year, students who scored in the top 5% on their fitness tests outscored the bottom 5% by an average of 36 percentile points on standardized academic tests. But it's also possible overweight kids score poorly on those tests because bullies are constantly kicking the backs of their chairs. The new report further examines childhood obesity in NYC and finds that 21% of kindergarten through eighth grade students are obese, and nearly 40% of all students are overweight or obese. In a statement, NYC Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley said, "When four out of 10 school kids are overweight or obese, the city has a problem." Part of that problem is that 14% of middle- and high-school students hadn't even been offered a physical-education class this school year, according to a recent survey cited by the Post. more ›

Goldman Sachs, which repaid a $10 billion TARP loan to the U.S. government, announced second quarter profits of $3.44 billion, which beat analysts' expectations. The NY Times says, "The results continue a robust turnaround for the firm since it rode out the final tumultuous months of last year with the aid of a federal rescue... [The bank] said in the first six months of 2009 it had set aside $11.4 billion for compensation and benefits. Analysts said this was up 33 percent from a year earlier and was enough to pay each employee $386,429 for the first half of this year." Bloomberg News notes that the firm is "reverting to a business model analysts deemed irretrievably broken after a crisis of confidence in Wall Street raised borrowing costs and led to the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. While rivals have pared risks, Goldman Sachs has increased them." more ›

The NYPD has no suspects in the murder of Eridania Rodriguez, a cleaning woman who was asphyxiated with construction tape last Tuesday night in an air duct at the building where she worked. But the building's freight elevator operator, 26-year-old Joseph Pabon from Staten Island, is still under surveillance by the NYPD, and last night investigators seized a Pontiac G6 belonging to his girlfriend, Lisa Marie Blumenberg, while the two were at a batting cage. (It's unclear if this is the same car Pabon threw a bowling ball through after allegedly punching and choking Blumenberg in a drunken rage.) more ›

During day 2 of her Supreme Court confirmation hearings, federal judge Sonia Sotomayor discussed her much-talked about 2001 remarks where she said, “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life.” Today, Politico reports that Sotomayor "publicly backed off the remarks... During the first day of direct exchanges between senators and the nominee at her confirmation hearings, Sotomayor said her statements were only intended to inspire women and Latinos pursuing careers in the law and were not meant to suggest they would make better judges than others." Sotomayor added that they were a "rhetorical flourish that fell flat... It left an impression that life experience commanded a result in a case but that’s clearly not what I do as a judge,” and said it was an unsuccessful play on former Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's statement ("I can't see that on the issues that we address at the court that a wise old woman is going to decide a case differently than a wise old man"). more ›

The 23-year-old FIT student found dead in her family's Queens home on Sunday night was asphyxiated and the police are investigating her death as a murder. The Post suggests that a recent Facebook message might suggest "a potential stalker": Carmen Saldana had written, "Ain't that a shame. The guy that does like me I don't like but won't leave me alone and the guy that I do like has no clue I like him lol. I think I'll survive lol." more ›

So, Bernard Madoff, the man behind the $65 billion Ponzi scheme, is headed to a federal prison in Butner, N.C.—according to unnamed prison officials—but he's currently in Georgia. Bloomberg News has the best angle: "Conman Bernard Madoff was moved to the U.S. Penitentiary in Atlanta, the same facility where Charles Ponzi was incarcerated, to begin serving his 150-year sentence." The prison has medium-security detention center for "holdover inmates" in transit. It's unclear when Madoff will head to N.C., but the AP listed his famous future fellow inmates: Adelphia Communications' John Rigas and his son, Tim who were "convicted on multiple charges of securities fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud and bank fraud," Jonathan Pollard, the American convicted of spying for Israel more than two decades ago," and "Omar Abdel-Rahman, also known as the blind sheik, who was sentenced to life in prison in 1995 for his role in a plot to kill Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and blow up New York City landmarks, including the United Nations." You can keep tabs on Madoff's whereabouts by using the Bureau of Prisons inmate locator—it lists his release date as "11-14-2139." more ›

The enraged driver whose appalling mile-long rampage through the Bronx Sunday left one father dead could be arraigned as early as today on multiple charges, including manslaughter, reckless endangerment, assault and child endangerment. NYPD spokesman Paul Browne tells the Times, "I know of no incident in which a motorist crashed into so many cars over so long a distance on city streets. It’s rare by any measure." more ›

Worse bank trip ever: A woman headed to her HSBC at 5 Penn Plaza and found herself in the middle of a bank robbery. So she tweeted it: "my bank was just held up- with me in it. HSBC 34 and 8. also my whole trackball is GONE!!! im locked in the bank still." She continued with updates: "they want to question us. i didnt even notice this gappenning while i was standing there," "cant figure out how to call work without a trackball... police just arrived. maybe theyll let me go now," and "they wont let us leave the bank." Her most recent Tweet: "Thanks Tmobile for providing help with my shitty phone while im stick in a bank hold up. thats sarcasm." Well, the upside is she's safe. The downside is that TV shows and Hollywood will have to incorporate Twittering hostages when depicting bank robberies. Update: Hopefully the witnesses can all leave now—Tweeting witness says "they totally got the guy. cop said he was lazy. walked right into several Penn station security cams." more ›

Governor David Paterson is expected to nominate Jay Walder to head the MTA. (Former executive director Eliot Sander resigned in May.) The Daily News calls him a "transit executive who has held high-level posts in London and New York" and City College's Robert Paaswell, director of the University Transportation Research Center at City College, says, "His knowledge of both the MTA and how to bring a large system well-planned into this century are without peer." more ›

Last Friday, the Throgs Neck Bridge was shut down due to a three-alarm fire that started on construction scaffolding beneath the bridge. Now the FDNY says the fire was started by a construction worker's blow torch: Newsday reports, "Work being performed under the bridge at the time of the blaze is part of a reconstruction project to replace about 140,000 square feet of roadway deck at the Queens approach." The contractor, E.E. Cruz & Co., a NJ company also doing work at Ground Zero, did not comment. The 48-year-old bridge's Queens-bound lanes are open while only two Bronx-bound lanes are open. more ›

The 2009 campaign season may have left us with the distinct impression that Congressman Anthony Weiner is a bit of a tease, but apparently Weiner was just playing Gotham's Democratic voters while he was actually doing groundwork on the sole endorsement he was aiming for—from girlfriend Huma Abedin. Weiner and Abedin, the Hillary Clinton aide whom the News calls "glamorous" and "a linchpin of Clinton's entourage," just went public, but it turns out the proposal happened right around the time Weiner backed out of the mayoral race with an allusion to wanting to "start a family." The pair got outed in a NYT piece on former Clinton strategist and current Bloomberg campaign mastermind Howard Wolfson who dropped the "f" bomb (the other one) when referring to the two. The possible future Huma Weiner has apparently been courted by John Cusack and George Clooney in the past, which we believe beats his links to foreign models. She also happens to be Muslim, to which Gawker says "maybe he will be less of an asshole now." How sweet! more ›

The Post reports that Bernard Madoff has left the Metropolitan Correctional Center, his home for the past few months, and it's believed he's headed upstate to begin his 150-year sentence at the federal correctional facility in Otisville, NY: "The [Bureau of Prisons] tends to place inmates in facilities that are within a reasonable distance of their family members, to promote visits. Otisville, which is near Middletown, NY, in Orange County, is only about 77 miles away from" NYC. Update: CNBC says Madoff is at a facility in Butner, North Carolina—does this mean Ruth Madoff is headed South too? more ›

Over the weekend, we had an up close and personal sighting of original Public Advocate Mark Green getting signatures for his petition at the Fairway on the Upper West Side (people seemed more focused on groceries than government). The Times was there as well for what Green's political director called "a humbling experience" for the candidate who was mistaken for Scott Stringer at one point and got the reaction from one woman, "It’s very sad. It’s like he can’t get another job." And she was a supporter! The campaign is a strange one for the man fighting the public's "Green Fatigue" after campaigns during his public advocate reign in the '90s and unsuccessful bids against Bloomberg and Cuomo this decade. Despite an early lead in the polls, Green has raised a fraction of his opponents' war chests. And there's even a humble tone coming from the man who is usually quick to tell you he came up with the idea for 311, saying, “Why would I have a press conference and have no one come? Who wants to come listen to the Mark Green economic development plan?” more ›

Remember how back in April how the MTA's $133 million project to connect the uptown 6 train at Bleecker Street with the B, D, F and V lines at Broadway-Lafayette had local merchants in a panic? They said their customers were being driven away by the massive construction ripping up Lafayette Street, and it really did look like an inconvenient eyesore down there. Well, the latest fly in the ointment is a three-story brick landmark building on Lafayette and Bleecker; dubbed the "Peace Pentagon," it's owned by the A.J. Muste Memorial Institute, where various progressive groups have their offices. MTA contractors couldn’t proceed with work because the scaffolding outside building is right where they need to dig. And the scaffolding can't be removed because, according to amNY, it's actually propping up the building. Officials now expect the project to be delayed two years because peace activists, not known for their spectacular wealth, need to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to fix the building. It's bad news for retailers like Jack Wu at the Adore Floral store; he says, "I have customers who call and ask if we are still open. They are trying to modernize the system, but it's killing me." more ›

Inevitably, video has surfaced of last week's altercation between the NYPD and two men in Times Square dressed as Superman and Batman. You'll recall that police approached the men to inquire whether they had permits to perform in public, and when they failed to produce permits or ID, the Bronx man dressed as Superman, Maksim Katsnelson, ran off yelling, "I'm not getting arrested!" The police routinely order buskers to disperse from popular tourist areas, although it is technically legal to perform in most public places without amplification, as long as one isn't disrupting pedestrian flow. more ›

City Comptroller Bill Thompson is releasing some economic data and it's grim. Here are some stats from his press release: "New York City unemployment rate is likely to reach 9.5% by early 2010," "More than one in seven New Yorkers were unemployed or underemployed in the first quarter of 2009," and "Overall unemployment rose by 72% between the first quarters of 2008 and 2009, but unemployment in the African-American community swelled by 167%. The unemployment rate among African-Americans during the first quarter of this year rose to 14.7% - four times faster than with other ethnic groups." The NY Times dives into African-American unemployment figures; one man who lost his customer service job said, "My department was mostly black and Hispanic. Management was mostly white and they didn’t get let go. You would think they would trim the fat from the top, not the bottom, because it’s the lower-wage workers that do the bulk of the work." more ›

The war on graffiti continues, and The Man is winning. According to the Daily News, police and Transit surveillance teams have cut in half the number of subway graffiti "attacks." Just last year graffiti was on the rise, and that's when the NYC Transit folks launched The Eagle Team (really), who have allegedly seen a 46% drop so far this year, with just 53 graffiti raids. Reportedly the team focuses on the railyards while NYPD squads keep their eyes peeled on tracks between stations. NYC Transit VP Vincent DeMarino declared, "The word is getting out. It's not so easy in New York anymore. You have a good chance of getting caught." Especially now that they've increased manpower; clearly the best way to utilize money and the NYPD labor pool. An interesting addendum: that subway window ad idea used to deter scratchiti was actually deemed unsafe, since officers couldn't see into cars from the platform. more ›

It's been over a day since news first broke that a man had been fatally shot outside his mother's Clinton Hill home by an undercover cop and there are still many more questions than answers. We know that 49-year-old Shem Walker stepped outside his mother's brownstone on Lafayette Avenue for a cigarette and discovered a plain clothes cop sitting on her steps. A witness says that he heard Walker shout, "Get out of here or I'll move you myself!" and that the two then tumbled down the steps. Walker is said to have had a reputation of shooing people off the family's steps with success. more ›

Foreign governments will no longer have to pay property taxes on some of their diplomatic buildings in New York after a change in policy by the U.S. State Department. The NY Post reports the policy reversal will cost the city "untold millions in future lost revenue" as well as $260 million in unpaid back taxes—including a check from the Hungarian consulate worth $32.5 million that was canceled only days after the State Department's policy change. Undersecretary Patrick Kennedy explains to the Post the decision was made because other countries don't ask the U.S. to pay taxes on its overseas property: "Those countries have come to us and said, 'Wait a minute. Why is New York taxing us when we don't tax you?'" But, besides the loss of potential income, what has some surprised about the new policy is the political U-turn it represents for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who previously championed the city's right to collect those taxes when she was a senator. Though the decision may not win her much popularity at City Hall, she'll no doubt have a few new friends at the Indian and Mongolian embassies, both of which are now off the hook after losing a federal court battle over $46 million in back property taxes last year. more ›

We are looking at a mostly dull weather scene for the first half of the week. Sun should dominate today and the high will be near 80, which is 5-10 degrees cooler than today's forecast high for Fairbanks. Temperatures will be cooler along the shore once the sea breeze circulation gets in gear. more ›

At the start of Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearings with the Senate Judiciary Committee, various senators had their say. While Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) said, "She is a judge in which all Americans can have confidence. She has been a judge for all Americans and will be a Justice for all Americans"±and told his fellow committee members, "Let no one demean this extraordinary woman, her success, or her understanding of the constitutional duties she has faithfully performed for the last 17 years"—Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) blasted President Obama's desire for "empathy" in a Supreme Court Justice. Graham added, "Unless you have a complete meltdown, you're going to get confirmed,"and he doubts she will have a meltdown. However, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama) continued to question her fairness, "I will not vote for—no senator should vote for—an individual nominated by any president who believes it is acceptable for a judge to allow their own personal background, gender, prejudices, or sympathies to sway their decision in favor of, or against, parties before the court." You can see the hearings live at MSNBC.com. more ›

If you think Windows Vista bugs are hurting your productivity, just be thankful you're not still struggling with typewriter ribbon and jammed keys. That's what the NY Post reports hundreds of city cops must do thanks to the NYPD's reliance on outdated technology, and it's slowing down policework. One cop tells the Post the typewriters are so archaic that, "We have to sneak around the rest of the precinct in search of a ribbon to steal." The Post also cites a retired NYPD officer and criminal justice professor who concludes the inefficient machines are hobbling the NYPD, discouraging officers from making arrests because filling out the necessary forms requires use of the dinosaurish typewriters and carbon-paper. So when will the city finally pull police office technology out of the 1970s? Well, since the city signed more than $1 million in new typewriter purchasing and servicing contracts last year, it's looking like robots could rule the subways before the NYPD ditches its last Selectric. more ›

This week NY Mag takes a harrowing look at the Williamsburg condo implosion—harrowing, that is, if you're a developer who's losing your shirt because nobody's buying the luxury units you started building before the economic collapse. The in-depth article highlights how the city's requirement that all new buildings, no matter how small, devote 20 percent of their units to affordable housing, backfired. more ›

[UPDATE BELOW] Central Park is filled with street performers and artists, but one has an entire Oscar-winning short documentary about him. Thoth, who performs at Bethesda Terrace, was arrested with another artist yesterday for what he calls "prayforming." He wrote:

"Today, I had my feelings hurt, because as much love and goodness as I have given to the park (the many uncounted times I have cleaned up dog poop in the tunnel while cleaning men passed by), they still do not respect the gift of my being there. How could they sanction the arrest of me and Pink Angel? We still have the handcuff burns on our wrists. Who are the real BUMS? more ›

Guess some State Senators weren't doing nothing during the 5-week State Senate—they actually gave staffers big raises! According to the Daily News, "Records released by state Controller Thomas DiNapoli show that 11 top staffers have gotten pay hikes of as much as 51% since the June 8 Republican-led coup." Here's some of the raises, all to Democratic aides: "Mortimer Lawrence, special counsel to the Senate majority leader and the highest-paid Senate staffer," got an increase of "16% to $177,231," while Senate Majority Deputy Secretaries Meredith Henderson and Patricia Rubens got 30.6% raises—"their annual pay skyrocket[ed] nearly $33,000, to $140,382. Legislative Analyst Despina Moraitou's salary climbed 51.1% to $75,787 - a $25,651 bump." A Senate Democrat tells the Post, "This is one of the most outrageous things I've ever seen. Frankly, I'm ashamed of it." Senate spokesman Austin Shafran claims the raises were scheduled before the coup. more ›

This Christmas, North Babylon's elaborate Christmas display at the Spadafora family's house on Kime Avenue isn't happening because it's gotten too expensive. Andrew Spadafora, who raised about $181,000 from onlookers of his million-light display (donated to a children's hospital), told Newsday, "Last year it cost me $41,000 to put Christmas together. We're still paying off last year's bills. After 20 years this thing has gotten bigger than Jones Beach." He's not kidding: Newsday counts "a 40-foot train, a manger with 100 sheep and a tree composed of 10,000 light bulbs," a total of 900 pieces, 30+ security cameras and a set-up time of 15 weeks (a crew of six, plus Spadafora). Spadafora also says he spent $175,000 on coloring books, candy canes, and toys to give to young onlookers, "Every year I get bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger, so what am I going to do, go backward?" You can see photographs of the "Christmas House" here—it's really amazing. more ›

More grisly details have emerged from an investigation into the murder of Eridania Rodriguez, a 46-year-old cleaning woman who vanished during her shift at 2 Rector Street Tuesday night and was found dead at the building Saturday morning. After futilely searching a Pennsylvania landfill for her remains, some 100 officers returned to the building Saturday to search the building from top to bottom. The corpse of a woman strongly believed to be Rodriguez was found in an air duct on the 12th floor, which was under construction and had restricted access. more ›

Miguel Colon was crossing East Gun Hill Road in Baychester with his 6-year-old son Sebastian early yesterday evening when he was fatally run down by an enraged driver with a history of drug and arson arrests. According to police, the driver of the Infiniti, Mark St. Pierre, had been arguing with his wife in the parking lot of a nearby Chuck E. Cheese and sped off furiously. Before hitting Colon, he had already slammed into two cars, and a witness tells the Post the vehicle was traveling "at least 85" when it struck Colon, who was able to push his son out of harm's way before his death. St. Pierre allegedly continued driving, hitting several more cars until his vehicle was too wrecked to continue. (The occupants of those vehicles escaped with only minor injuries.) St. Pierre then tried to stagger away, but witnesses chased him and he has soon arrested. Colon had been carrying Sebastian's bicycle when he was run over, and according to the Post, the boy was later heard saying, "I need two pieces off my bike. Can you give me two pieces for memories?" more ›

Federal judge Sonia Sotomayor will face grilling from the Senate Judiciary Committee today as she begins confirmation hearings for a seat on the Supreme Court. The Obama administration is confident that the Bronx native will become the third woman to sit on the nation's highest court: The Daily News reports, "The White House released a photo of a casually dressed Obama flashing a full-grill grin during a call to wish the Bronx-raised judge good luck" and notes that Senator Chuck Schumer said, "She has wowed people [on both sides of the political aisle]," even suggesting she may get more than 78 yea votes. more ›

Donald Trump had some choice words to say about newly appointed Lieutenant Governor Richard Ravitch. The Post prints some of a letter that the developer-bloviator sent to Governor Paterson; here's an excerpt: "His image as a 'Mr. Fix-It' is exactly that, an image... He is able to communicate well with reporters and the press, and his image has always been good and very clean despite his failures as a businessman and representative of state government... If you look at Mr. Ravitch's history with the unions, it will show one thing very clearly: that the unions will love having him at the helm because he will give them whatever they want, even though the deficit of New York has reached catastrophic levels." Trump adds that his dad worked with Ravitch, but "it became obvious to my father, Fred, that Dick Ravitch was very ineffective at getting the lowest price and overall best contract." Oh, and The Donald also blames Ravitch for the MLB strike in 1994 (Ravitch was lead negotiator). As for challenging Ravtich's appointment, that case will be heard on Wednesday. more ›

Last night, the body of a 23-year-old woman was found in her family's Queens home on 30th Avenue. WABC 7 reports, "Authorities say the lock on the front door was broken, and that it appears someone broke in" and "there were brusies all over the body" of Carmen Saldana, a student at FIT. Saldana's mother apparently made the discovery after coming home from cleaning homes in the Hamptons. A cousin told WCBS 2, "Her mother came in and saw the lights on in her room. She called her. She went into her room and touched her feet and they were cold." The cousin also suggested that she was sexually assaulted. And according to the Daily News, "Saldana grew up in the quiet neighborhood and recently moved back in with her mother after breaking up with her boyfriend." more ›

• Mets 9, Reds 7: The Mets are in fact capable of hitting home runs. After their team went 80 innings without one, Fernando Tatis and Brian Schneider went deep in the eighth inning to help the Mets enter the All-Star break on a two-game winning streak. And yes, the home run apple still works. Mike Pelfrey pitched seven innings of three-run ball and then chewed on his fingernails as the bullpen took over. The Mets are still 6 1/2 games out of first place as they go on a mini vacation.
• Angels 5, Yankees 4: A road trip that started so well ended so poorly. CC Sabathia got rocked around, allowing five runs in 6 1/3 innings. The Yankees, who were tied with Boston on Friday, are now three games back in the American League East but have a 2 1/2-game lead in the wild-card race. They have an extra day off and return to action Friday at home against Detroit.
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Early this morning, some sort of dispute led to gun violence on East 93rd Street in Brooklyn—and the gunfire continued at Brookdale University Hospital. According to the Daily News, a "17-year-old boy died at the scene" at E. 93rd Street near Avenue B, while a 22-year-old was shot in the leg managed to go Downstate hospital. However, a 32-year-old who was injured was driven to Brookdale, where "another vehicle rolled up and someone inside started firing. Police sources said he was hit at least once at the hospital. Emergency workers put him into an ambulance and carted him off to Kings County Hospital where he's listed in critical condition. Police said he was shot in the leg and groin." A police source told the News, "What a gun battle. They have been watching too much TV," while a resident near the scene heard the gunshots, "I rolled out of bed onto the ground to protect myself. Bullets penetrate windows, you know. We hear gunshots a lot in the summertime." more ›

After hoping and pledging that his same-sex marriage bill would come before state senators before their (official) summer vacation began, now Governor Paterson is backing off and saying that he will delay pushing the bill forward until the Senate returns in September. As the senators prepare to finish up their session Wednesday and Thursday, the new Majority Leader Pedro Espada said, “There was a general consensus that we wouldn’t take on extremely controversial bills in the next week.” A spokesman for Paterson said he would probably call a special legislative session in early September. The governor did some courting on the gay marriage issue while the Senate worked out their issues, even having the bill backed by former Republican Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno. But strong gay marriage opponent Democrat (and Pentecostal minister) Senator Ruben Diaz said, “We just got unity. Don’t start to un-unify us. Let us have some kind of honeymoon.” A honeymoon with 80% dudes. more ›

It has been almost five years since Omar Minaya was named General Manager of the Mets. In the four-plus seasons he has been in charge he has made the team competitive again, but he has also presided over two terrible September collapses and bungled the firing of Willie Randolph. more ›

The Post is ready for its readers to be outraged with an "Exclusive" on how some people abuse 911, the city ambulances and emergency rooms. Example one is "Ricky Alardo, a homeless alcoholic nicknamed Ricky Ricardo" who "swigs cheap vodka by day at his favorite corner in Washington Heights, then calls an ambulance to chauffeur him to the hospital for a free meal and a warm place to sleep, courtesy of taxpayers who fund his Medicaid benefits." (More details here.) He calls 911 "four or five times a week," which works out to $300,000 a year—or $3.9 million over the 13 years he's been running the scam. Alardo proudly says the medics "treat me like a king"—the Post explains,"By law, EMS workers cannot refuse to treat or transport any patient. And ERs have to at least evaluate and stabilize homeless patients." One medic said, "It's not always easy to pick up these guys and take them in. But our policy is: 'You call, we haul.' We have no other choice," while another admits, "When Ricky passes on, I'll probably even go to his funeral. I've seen him almost every day for the last 13 years." more ›

Police have arrested 24-year-old Terrance Villanueva and charged him with second degree murder and weapons possession after a shootout in Bushwick Friday led to the death of an innocent bystander, 44-year-old Jesselle Page. Villanueva allegedly has prior gun and drug arrests and police are searching for the other suspect who shot back at him. Jesselle Page is said to have immediately leapt up to protect her 8-year-old grandnephew when the gunfire began and amazingly kept running with the boy in her arms after she had been shot and was badly losing blood. The News calls her "an absolutely magnificent figure amidst the total horror that so suddenly invaded a perfect summer afternoon." The paper goes on to tell about the 8-year-old calling his mother on the way to pick him up and leaving the message, "Auntie dead!" more ›

Grab some quarters if you're crossing the East River today. The crossings run by the MTA—the RFK, Whitestone, Throgs Neck Bridges plus the Midtown and Battery Tunnels all go up 50 cents to $5.50 today. The toll hike is the last phase of the revenue being raised by the MTA in the face of their budget crisis. Of course at one point the plan involved tolls being introduced to the East River crossings, but that dream proposed by now (sort of) Lieutenant Governor Richard Ravitch was shot down by everyone's favorite state senators. Other tolls going up today include the Henry Hudson, Marine Bay, Cross Bay and Verrazano Bridges—the last of which is now up to a whopping eleven dollars. One Upper West Sider told WCBS 2, "I don't understand how you can get away with it, I mean it is better than the doomsday scenario. It was poorly advertised and a lot of people are going to be caught off guard." more ›

Yesterday, the body of a woman missing since last Tuesday night was found stuffed into the air conditioning vent of a Financial District buliding. The Post reports that Eridania Rodriguez's body was found "fully-clothed" and "face-down" in a 12th floor duct at 2 Rector Street, the office building where Rodriguez worked as a cleaning woman. And the Daily News has these grisly details: "Her head wrapped like a mummy in heavy-duty yellow and black construction tape, police sources said...[Her] hands and legs had also been bound with tape before she was shoved into an eye-level air-conditioning duct." more ›

A 49-year-old handyman who was up from Pennsylvania visiting his sick mother in Clinton Hill was shot last night by an undercover cop in a separate drug bust that went awry. Shem Walker had just finished cooking his family dinner when he told them that was going out to buy cigarettes in the Brooklyn neighborhood around 8 p.m. more ›

Earlier this morning, a fire engulfed a house at 3916 Avenue K in Flatbush, Brooklyn. Firefighters found two men dead inside, but 1010 WINS reports that the FNDY is "looking for more possible victims as it was reported there were other people living in the house." Two passers-by and a neighbor knocked down a door, but the flames were too great. They also tried to convince the home's residents to jump, but were unsuccessful. Anthony Deloid told WCBS 2, "They were screaming 'Lord please help me. Lord please help me.' It was him and a woman screaming. I told them to jump. They wouldn't jump. They had a chance to jump, but they wouldn't," while neighbor Kissoondial Bissoondial said, "I hear a lady was asking 'Help me. Help me.' So I kicked the door down. Me and another guy kicked the door down. We tell them to run out, that the door was open, but I didn't see anyone run out." more ›

According to police, a driver who ran a red light was busted for trademark counterfeiting after a Port Authority police officer did a little more inspection. The NY Post reports that Lin Librao and his wife were head to the Lincoln Tunnel when they were stopped at West 40th Street: "The traffic stop quickly turned into a nightmare for the Libraos as Reyes peeked into the back of their Chevy Suburban and noticed a stash that included 10,000 pieces of Tiffany-labeled jewelry, 3,000 purses with designer tags, and 2,000 wallets." It's estimated the goods were worth millions. Librao, who said he and his wife were headed to a flea market (hey, why not bring Canal Street to Jersey?) was charged with trademark infringement and possession of counterfeit goods. more ›