The Port Authority announced that families of 9/11 victims will be able to descend into "the Pit" of Ground Zero briefly during this year's September 11 anniversary. Last year, the state and city waged an emotional, public battle with victims' families, who were upset that the 2007 anniversary events would not be near the actual World Trade Center, but at nearby Zuccotti Park instead. Then-governor Spitzer and Mayor Bloomberg explained the construction prevented families from......

Late Thursday, right before the long July 4th weekend, it was announced the Bush administration had declined to keep on the World Trade Center health czar. Dr. John Howard was the director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health within the Center for Disease Control and had much support--last Wednesday, Governor David Paterson asked President Bush to extend Howard's term, noting his "pivotal role" in 9/11 health efforts. The NY Times reported that......

In the ongoing battle between New York City and those suing it, claiming they got sick from working at Ground Zero after the September 11 attacks, the city now says 31% have mild illnesses, "like [a] runny nose or cough." Of course, the city would like to have as many of the thousands of lawsuits dismissed or settled as easily as possible, and the plaintiff's lawyers claim the city's review is skewed. The NY Times......

Last week, it was reported that Rudy Giuliani has been offering his support to Republicans up for re-election this fall, but with some strings attached, namely some money to help pay off his campaign debt. Now the Daily News reports Giuliani has "dished out $265,000 in PAC funds in recent months to keep his political options open." While Giuliani has now loaned a total of $800,000 to satisfy presidential campaign debt, he's still paying various......

Actually, accusing Democrats of having September 10, 2001 attitudes about the war on terror dates back to the 2004 election, but Republican presidential contender John McCain's campaign's claim that Democratic rival Barack Obama has a "September 10 mindset" appears to be the first use of 9/10 in this election year. On Monday, Obama had made remarks ABC News' Jake Tapper, regarding the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision to allow Guantanamo Bay detainees the right to challenge......

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who federal authorities accuse of proposing and overseeing the September 11, 2001 attacks on the U.S., appeared in a military courtroom today at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba. Mohammed said he would represent himself and, when told he could face the death penalty if convicted, "Yes, this is what I wish, to be a martyr for a long time. I will, God willing, have this, by you." Today was Mohammed's......

Though firefighter Kevin Prior died over six years ago when responding to the September 11 attacks at the World Trade Center in 2001, a struggle over his FDNY pension has gone to court. Prior's parents do not think his then-fiancee Doreen Noone should be entitled to half the $75,000 annual pension. They tell the Post it's not really about money, but have the "truth" "acknowledged:The Priors concede that the young couple was engaged, with a......

Federal officials at the Dept. of Homeland Security have agreed not to use information supplied by the spouses and children of 9/11 attack victims to deport them. The number of people this will affect numbers less than two dozen widows, widowers and orphans--all in the country illegally--who have feared cooperating with federal officials, or even lawyers and lawmakers fighting to give them asylum in the U.S., would lead to their deportation. The legal reprieve will......

Photo courtesy Mike Lewis. If you passed by St. Paul’s Chapel near the World Trade Center site yesterday you may have felt like you’d stepped back through time to the city’s raw, post-9/11 days, when the chapel’s fence was festooned with photos and tributes to the attack's victims. The new Nora Ephron movie Julie & Julia recreated the makeshift memorial, which was dismantled in November 2002. (Using a crane, the crew also pasted leaves to......

RepresentativeDarrell Issa, a Republican from California, played the spoiler during the city's attempt to get federal money for sick first responders. Issa said the planes that flew into the World Trade Center weren't weapons like a dirty bomb, "It simply was an aircraft, residue of two aircraft, and residue from the materials used to build this building." To which NYC counsel Michael Cardozo said, "Congressman, this was I believe an attack on the United States......

Colors, the feel-good restaurant on Lafayette Street owned and operated by Windows on the World employees who were spared on 9/11, is reportedly back from the brink of ruin. The fine dining restaurant opened two years ago as one of New York’s few cooperative restaurants, with everyone from busboys to chefs sharing ownership and a menu featuring international cuisine created by the multi-ethnic staff. Though Colors did well during the first burst of publicity, business......

Photograph of the fire truck donated to Ladder 101 by Triborough on Flickr Members of a marching band from South Carolina were still years from entering high school when the attacks of 9/11/01 occurred, but the band arrived in New York City this week to visit a Red Hook Engine and Ladder Company that received a replacement truck in 2002 purchased with funds raised by White Knoll Middle School students and the residents of......

A Long Island City concrete firm won a contract to provide $103 million worth of "slabs, decks, walls and enclosures" for the September 11 memorial at the World Trade Center site. According to the NY Times, Navillus Contracting will be responsible for 45,000 cubic yards of concrete for the memorial itself as well as "adjacent underground areas" and the Port Authority's executive director Anthony Shorris said, "This contract will move us to the next......

Before going for the gold, French actress and Oscar winner Marion Cotillard made some remarks in a 2007 interview regarding 9/11, and some aren't as charmed by her words as they were by her Oscar speech. Nonetheless, Cotillard sides with the conspiracy theorists when it comes to 9/11...and the moon landing! BBC News has a partial transcript:"We see other towers of the same kind being hit by planes, are they burned?" she asks. "There was......

Photograph of a squirrel in a Forest Hills house courtesy of the Parks Department It's a walk-up, but the price is right. City squirrels are enjoying the goodwill of concerned citizens and the Parks Dept., who cooperated to install squirrel houses in City Hall Park. Mark Garvin had five of the boxes, which measure about a foot around, built with soft pine for several hundred dollars a piece--city real estate insanity extends to the......

The Pentagon has charged six men accused of planning the September 11, 2001 attacks and will seek the death penalty (the Pentagon's terse press release was titled "Defense Department Seeks Death Penalty for Six Guantanamo Bay Detainees"). These would be "the first trials under the terrorism-era military tribunal system." The defendants will see the evidence and will have similar rights as U.S. soldiers accused of crimes. As for whether evidence and confessions gained through methods,......

An appeals court ruled that a doctor who had been missing before September 11, 2001 died during the World Trade Center attacks. The family of Dr. Sneha Anne Philip, last seen at Century 21 on September 10, had in courts for years trying to do so. Previously, a court-appointed guardian implied the 31-year-old doctor led a dangerous lifestyle, because she, per the Post, "frequented bars (including several bars that cater to women customers) and spent......

After intense speculation about why the masseuse who discovered Heath Ledger's body last Tuesday called actress Mary-Kate Olsen multiple times, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly spoke to reporters yesterday to clear the air. Kelly said, "We believe that of the three phone calls by the masseuse to Mary-Kate Olsen, only one got through. That call was 99 seconds long." Commissioner Kelly further emphasized, "There is absolutely no indication that investigators were going to speak to Mary-Kate......

New York City officials are planning for a Dunkirk-like evacuation of Manhattan island in the case of an emergency. In the early days of World War II, a "bathtub navy" was assembled between Dunkirk, France and Dover, England, in order to move hundreds of thousands of soldiers from the Continent to safer ground as the Nazis advanced across France. Hundreds of small craft were sent across the English Channel to ferry stranded and cornered British......

This ad for Pakistan Airlines is real. And in the history of advertising, it really takes the creepy cake. Even worse than babies endorsing cigarettes! Seriously, if Nostradamus ran an ad firm to warn the world about blowback, this would have been in his portfolio. It appeared in the March 19th, 1979 issue of Le Point (and surely countless other publications). Yes, the shadow is in pretty much in the same place as where......

For the past few years, the French game and humor site called Uzinagaz.com has been featuring an online video game which challenges players to prevent jetliners from flying into the Twin Towers. As the game progresses, the planes arrive with increasing frequency and eventually each tower collapses in a plume of digital dust. The tagline for the game, called New York Defender, says "Go beyond your powerlessness and use your mouse to fight back."......

It looks like the World Trade Center Memorial has hit a delay. Originally scheduled to open on September 11, 2009, the Port Authority said today that it won't be ready until 2011, the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks. The delays only came to light after construction began and the agency could give a more realistic timeline. A Port Authority spokeswoman said, "We see the reality, and want to operate on responsible timelines. We'll work......

Former mayor Rudy Giuliani visited Barrington, New Hampshire store The Christmas Dove yesterday during various campaign visits in the Granite State and bought a ceramic angel. Perhaps it was an angel of mercy, as he has begun to pull back NH-related advertising in order to concentrate on the Florida primary, implicitly acknowledging that he doesn't have a chance against Republican front runner Mitt Romney and Senator John McCain, who has surged into second place......

What is Rudy Giuliani getting for the new year? It looks like he's in for some campaign tactics from families representing firefighters that died on 9/11 that The Post is calling "Swift Boat" like. James Riches, a deputy fire chief who's son James Jr., a firefighter who died at Ground Zero, is organizing the campaign against the former mayor. Riches told The Post that things should be "up and running" for January 1st and......

Former New York City Mayor and Presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani is finding that his campaign for highest office is foundering in Florida--the state that his campaign has identified as a crucial crucible. The primary vote in the Sunshine State will occur on Jan. 29, and with approximately six weeks to go, Rudy's trailing competitors Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee. According to a survey conducted by pollster Scott Rasmussen, Romney is tallying 27% support, followed by......

Arno Herwerth, the Long Island man who the DMV rejected his GETOSAMA vanity plate, then sued them now wants to have a 9-11 commemorative license plate available to the Empire State’s motorists – something several other states have for their drivers. However, in New York then Governor George Elmer Patkai vetoed the idea in 2006 and put the brakes on any new optional license plates thanks to a pro-life groups suing states, including New......

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced that NY State filed papers with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission explaining why the license for the Indian Point nuclear power plant should not be renewed. In fact, Cuomo called the plant a "catastrophe waiting to happen" and said, "I believe Indian Point should be closed and it should be closed now." Here are some of the reasons Cuomo and Governor Spitzer gave (more here - the petition submitted to the......

What’s worth watching on food-TV this week? We're definitely setting our DVR to record The Martha Stewart Show. She’s got a three great New York Italian chefs on today: Odetta Fada of San Domenico, Lidia Bastianich of Felidia and Del Posto, and pastry chef Gina DePalma of Babbo. On Tuesday she’s got cookbook editor Judith Jones, and on Wednesday, New Orleans chef Susan Spicer (Monday-Friday, 1pm, NBC). But the prime time highlight might be a......

First responders gathered in front of the NYC Medical Examiner's office to protest how the ME has classified deaths seemingly related to Ground Zero illnesses. State Senator Eric Adams said he would introduce legislation making sure first responders who worked at Ground Zero will "get the same line-of-duty benefits" as September 11 victims. Recently, the ME's office has not named two rescuers, who worked at the World Trade Center site after September 11 and later......

President Bush submitted a budget proposal to Congress this week that involved dramatic cuts to the city's anti-terrorism funding. "The plan would eliminate programs for port security, transit security and local emergency management operations in the next budget year." Well, why would a low-priority target like NYC need all that money anyway? Oh wait, we remember! It was hard not to see this coming, though. The city already took a 40% cut in funding from......