Today marks the 75th Anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition, so expect to see the city's bars packed with rowdy drunks tonight...kinda like every Friday. Only tonight, it's debauchery with an eye on history! For on this day in 1933, the 21st amendment to repeal prohibition was ratified by Utah, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, achieving the three-fourths of states necessary to ratify Constitutional amendments proposed by Congress. Try remembering this fun fact tonight in the sodden......

Yesterday afternoon, a 16-year-old boy was stabbed by another student on the third floor of I.S. 49, which is on Graham Avenue in Williamsburg. The school was on lockdown for over 2 hours and a suspect was arrested. NY1 reports, "After parents were allowed to pick up their children, they still remained concerned about their long-term safety in the school, claiming that the school lacks basic security measures like metal detectors." However, the school tried......

With police looking for the shooter who killed a 14-year-old in Bedford-Stuyvesant Tuesday night, his family and friends begged the community for answers. Apparently Mario Smith (also referred to as Mario Avilaz) was caught in the gunfire after a someone fired "in response to" an argument between two women. A friend said, "If you know something say something, and let's get to the bottom of this," and community activist Anthony Herbert said, "Let's go and......

Yesterday, police arrested a 20-year-old man for fatally stabbing a bus driver aboard a B46 bus in Brooklyn on Monday afternoon. Horace Moore reportedly confessed to police "that he stabbed the driver, Edwin Thomas, 46... after an argument on the bus." (Thomas is pictured at left.) The police now give a somewhat different narrative of what happened: The NY Times says Moore "sneaked onto the bus through a rear door about 12:30 p.m. and sat......

Last night around 8:30 p.m., Mario Avilaz "died in a hail of gunfire" between "at least two shooters in front of a Bedford-Stuyvesant apartment building," the Daily News reports. Avilaz, described as a good studentl, had been hanging around outside his building at Kingston Avenue and Herkimer Street. The police have not disclosed what the motive was, but a community activist told the Post he thought Avilaz was "hit by a stray bullet from a......

A reader emailed us: "I was walking down Washington Avenue...this morning at around 9:30 (a well-populated area not far from Prospect Park) and was stopped by a shooting about a half a block ahead of me, on the corner of St. John's and Washington. The shooter was a young guy who ran out of a bodega, shot a young man in the leg three times then ran north on Washington. The victim got up after......

A man is being questioned in connection to the murder of a B46 bus driver yesterday afternoon in Bedford-Stuyvesant. The driver, Edwin Thomas, was fatally stabbed by a passenger over an argument about a transfer. 1010 WINS reports, "A tip led police to the [28-year-old] man, an alleged drug dealer, who was taken into custody at a friend's house in East New York." He is being questioned at the 81st Precinct. Witnesses say that Thomas......

Photo via D.Billy. Earlier this year balloon art was popping up all over the place, courtesy of artist D.Billy. Above is a new piece from him sans ballons: "a rusty welded metal cover for a window air conditioner turned into a TV set." Again, something you'd think Michel Gondry would be putting up all over Orient Avenue. Check out AndIAmNotLying for more new pieces (as well as D.Billy's flickr), including a fire/police call box......

The Brooklyn man who last spring struck a 73-year-old man in an altercation that would eventually prove fatal has gotten off merely with a sentence forcing him to go to anger management counseling. 29-year-old Ernest Cappello was only charged with misdemeanor assault for taking down Maris Veyberman after Cappello's girlfriend claimed that the Russian immigrant had groped her. Authorities believed Cappello's remorseful story that he had no intention of hurting the old man, but Veyberman's......

Drivers, it's the last Friday in November—do you know where your car is? The day after Thanksgiving was the most-ticketed day of the last fiscal year, according to an extensive analysis of parking tickets conducted by the Times. The study concluded that parking tickets issued citywide have surged 42 percent since Mayor Bloomberg took office. During the last fiscal year, the city raked in $624 million in parking fines, which is more than the city spends to run the entire Department of Transportation. Officials, maintaining a straight face, insist the parking enforcement is not driven by revenue goals....

Hey, have you had that "Single Ladies" song by Beyoncé in your head? No? Well consider yourself immensely fortunate, and then get ready to have it lodged in there until well after the end of days. The recently-married performer was on the Today show in her spandex unitard belting it out bright n' early this morning. Enjoy! Not too long ago she was in Williamsburg portraying a police officer in her video for a (less......

Want to live in New York City but can't afford Manhattan rents? Guess again! The Daily News is reporting that Brooklyn is now more expensive than Manhattan, and they have reports and data and stuff to back it up (via StreetEasy). Allegedly "the median rental prices in DUMBO, Park Slope and Fort Greene were higher than those in the East Village, Lower East Side, Upper East Side, Midtown East and Murray Hill." (Sales prices were......

This week Frank Bruni at the Times reviews Double Crown, the new bi-level restaurant and bar in the East Village that, in his words, "ponders the glories of culinary cross-pollination, making a promise of 'British-Indio-Asian' fusion that sounds more like a threat, given that it’s a two-hyphen fusion and that one of the words bumping up against one of the hyphens is 'British.' And isn’t India in Asia? Note to self: bone up on world......

[UPDATE BELOW] Is a recently installed bike lane on South 4th Street in Brooklyn—yards from the northern pedestrian/bike entrance to the Williamsburg Bridge—misguiding cyclists onto the sidewalk and into the waiting arms of ticket-writing cops? A reader writes:"As I reach the corner of South 4th Street and South 5th Place, just one short block away from one of the Brooklyn entrances to the Williamsburg bridge, I see that the bike lane arrows turn and......

It seems the taxpayer-funded Keyspan park—where baseball games alternate with rock concerts—isn't good enough for borough president Marty Markowitz; he's still pushing for a new taxpayer-funded amphitheater to replace the existing one at Asser Levy Park, to the tune of $64 million. (When originally proposed two years ago, that number was $40 million.) Markowitz says the new 5,000 seat venue, which would replace the current bandshell, "would make our borough a natural stop on the......

A missing 12-year-old's grandparents tell the Daily News that they fear she was "lured into a trap" by someone on MySpace. Apparently Juliana Carrozza claimed she was 17 on her MySpace profile and grandfather Vinny Carrozza, who has custody of Juliana, said, "She went on MySpace a lot, fooling me and my wife. She knew how to delete it without us picking it up. The language on there was disgusting for a 12-year-old. There was......

OH: Don't expect the Times's Frank Bruni to review it—Portfolio theorizes he HATES going to Harlem—but for everyone else, this three story restaurant/bar seems worth a try. Well, maybe not everyone; the top floor is a member's only club where $500 gets you "top notch service" and discount food and drinks. ($1000 gets you "full VIP access" to the cigar terrace.) Greasy Guide has a full review and reports that the menu features mini catfish......

Now that hipsters have gentrified the neighborhood, the Times is reporting that a new group is moving into Williamsburg and undoubtedly endearing themselves just as much to longtime New Yorkers--immigrating Europeans. Europeans have accounted for one-third of those who have scooped up the 2,000 new condos in Williamsburg in the last two years. Europeans say the neighborhood resembles the areas they left behind--like Brighton in England and Marais in Paris. They also find its residents......

In September, the band Phish (assumed to have still been disbanded at the time) reunited at friend/former road manager Brad Sand's wedding, giving hope to the hemp set that the foursome would soon have a proper reunion. Miracles do happen, and it was announced soon after that the band would play three concerts in Hampton, Virginia next March. Well, for those of you who haven't hit up Jambands.com in a couple days, you may have......

In 2005, the city approved new upzoning laws for the Greenpoint waterfront, allowing up to 30 stories (pictured: the city's rendering of what the waterfront could look like). Now the Brooklyn Paper reports that developer Dean Palin (the man behind this monstrosity) wants to build a 40-story, 422-unit rental tower as part of a 620-unit development at his 155 West Street property. Brownstoner points out that he "paid a whopping $84,750,000 for the site a......

The Brooklyn shopkeeper, who, while being held up by armed robbers, managed to wrestle away a gun and fatally shoot two of the men earlier this week, told his wife, "He's sorry he could not take out everybody." The Daily News reports that Youssouf Drame, who was shot in the stomach, is still in critical but stable condition. His wife says he wants the store to reopen and also recounted what he told her about......

As previously mentioned, the Knitting Factory will soon be moving from its current Leonard Street location to the old Luna Lounge in Williamsburg. The change will take place early next year, and the venue will have its last Manhattan night on New Year’s Eve. The NY Press is now reporting that "the whole staff—65 people in all—is losing their jobs." Well, not all of them; "two of the 65 staff members—both managers—are being kept on.......

When Sam Buffa, co-owner of the Freemans Sporting Club Barber Shops, went on his first impromptu date with his bride-to-be Jean Adamson, who was then head chef at Freemans, their night ended in Vinegar Hill, the quaint little neighborhood bordering DUMBO. So it's kind of sweet that their new labor of love is opening in a 19th century carriage house right where they started, and now reside. They've spent the last four and a half......

A few more details in the attempted robbery turned shoot-out in Crown Heights. The store's owner, Youssouf Drame, was unarmed; the NY Times reports he "wrested a gun away from one of the men and fatally shot two of them." Employee Drummond Bignott, who was pistol-whipped (Drame was also pistol-whipped but grabbed the man's gun), told Newsday, "He took the guy's gun. Everyone started shooting. He saved my life." Drame, who was shot in the......

The incident that took place on Bedford Avenue on Election Night (you know...riot gear, arrests, etc) lived on last night at the 94th Precinct Community Meeting. NewYorkShitty has a rundown (with video), reporting back that Captain Fulton was on hand to field questions and concerns, as well as locals (both young and old). "Overall it was a pretty ugly meeting. The reason for this had little to do with Captain Fulton. Rather, it had to......

Police believe three robbers confronted a shop owner in Brooklyn's Wingate neighborhood and the situation ended with two of the robbers dead. The Daily News reports that Youssouf Brame managed to fire at the armed robbers, leaving "one bandit...dead" and "another [running] from the store bleeding from a fatal chest wound" (a third suspect escaped). Brame was shot in the stomach, and it's unclear who may have fired first. Brame's store, at 1051 Nostrand Avenue......

According to police, a mugger has been targeting women for their purses-- many of the victims are in their 60s and 70s-- in Brooklyn's Starrett City development. WABC 7 has a list of the attacks, which started in September: Frequently mugger will follow the victim into her building lobby or elevator and then strike in the back of the head or shove her. Police describe the suspect as an African-American man, 25-35 years old, 5'8"......

Dardanel: Salt crusted fish is the star of the reasonably priced seafood menu at this new midtown east restaurant (pictured), named for the strait that connects the Black Sea to the Mediterranean. As such, the high number of seafood dishes are complemented by Turkish classics like halvah pie. The fish is imported daily from the Mediterranean, and entrees include Brook Trout Casserole with grilled vegetables ($19); brick oven baked Black Sea anchovies with rice, pine......

Earlier this morning, the Fire Department responded to a fire at 474 Greene Avenue in Brooklyn. Brownstoner has some more details, as a neighbor explains many residents have been concerned about the brownstone, "a well known crack house that has been in operation for at least 3 years," even trying to work with the Brooklyn DA's office, NYPD and community leaders "to no avail." The neighbor says there had been a late night party and......

The NYPD is defending Officer Dawn Ortiz, who shot and killed a homeless man in Coney Island Thursday, saying that she was justified in firing at the man who was coming at her while swinging a chair. Paul Browne, spokesman for the department, explained, “Basically, was there an imminent threat to life or serious injury? That is the defining statement.” More information has been released about Gilberto Blanco, the victim whose identity was at first......