If you're applying for a mortgage, you're willing to give up your personal details. Unfortunately, for some first-time applicants, their mortgage manager stole their identities - and $1 million. Jacob Milton and his sister Nira Niru were arrested for identity theft, grand larceny and scheming to defraud after investigators at the 115th Precinct received many complaints of ID theft. The police found one common thread: They had all applied for mortgage at Griffin Mortgage's Jackson......

Eight friends, two cars, and one fatality. Early yesterday morning, friends, piled into a Chevrolet Blazer and a Honda Civic, were crashed at "dead man's curve" on the Cross Island Parkway. A 19-year-old passenger was killed while the others were injured, two critically. The drivers of the two vehicles were charged: 18-year-old Bolivar Camacho, driving the Civic, and 20-year-old Milton Flores, in the Blazer, were charged with manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and vehicular assault; Flores......

Menu Change: As previously reported by Nina Lalli over at Eat For Victory, Franny’s on Flatbush Avenue had added pastas to its menu. Right now the menu features three pastas, including a stellar penne with mint and zucchini ($15). In keeping with its mission statement of locality and sustainability, Franny’s sources mint from Long Island’s Satur Farms; zucchini comes from Hepworth Farm, located upstate in Milton. Pastas are selected by chef Andrew Feinberg from a......

Swedish rockers Peter Bjorn & John have won over the world with their brand of catchy indie pop. Last time they were in town their album wasn't even released yet and they sold out three shows. This time they've got two consecutive shows at Webster Hall (May 1st and 2nd)...and hopefully you got your tickets, as they are both (suprise, surprise) sold out already. This week Peter took some time to answer some questions for......

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Last night, a man carrying two handguns and over 100 rounds of ammunition shot and killed a pizzeria employee in Greenwich Village and fatally shot two unarmed auxiliary police officers, before responding police officers shot him on Bleecker Street. The slain counterman at DeMarco's Pizza is being described as Romero Morales or Alfredo Romaro (we will refer to him as Romaro). The auxiliary police officers were identified as 19-year-old Eugene Marshalik, a NYU student,......

With a new steamroller Governor in office, the Empire State Development Corporation is looking to put some new life in the "I ♥ New York" brand. The ESDC is looking for ad agencies to work on a marketing campaign to promote tourism to New York to the rest of the country. The state plans to spend $16 million on the campaign, which is a 45% increase over previous years. We hope that the ads......

A look at some noteworthy television programs this week: American Experience: The Berlin Airlift (Monday 9:00 p.m., WNET 13) A look at the use of airpower for good when the Allies supplied Berlin with food and other necessities via air to get around a Soviet blockade. The Power of Choice: The Life and Ideas of Milton Friedman (Monday 10:00 p.m., WNET 13) The life, work and legacy of the Nobel winning economist are looked into.......

Earlier this week, we reported on the 92nd Street Y event where New York magazine co-founder Milton Glaser attributed the low number of high-profile female designers to the fact that women who have children and stay at home with them are less visible professionally. First, some clarification (for The NY Times’ Tom Zeller, Jr. ): the comment came during the Q&A session following lectures by Glaser, Chip Kidd and Dave Eggers. An audience member asked......

Graphic designers tend to be an even-keeled lot, unless you mess with their precious Futura typeface plans. So at Monday night’s The Art of the Book: Covers With Dave Eggers, Chip Kidd and Milton Glaser, moderated by designer Michael Bierut at the 92nd Street Y, we weren’t surprised that book jacket designer and author Kidd made nice with Panelist Four – a man well into his senior years who boosted the show from the first......

First novels are dangerous, risky creatures. They’re a gamble for the publisher and the novelist, and for everyone in between. Perhaps that’s why truly daring first novels are so few and far between, and why they garner such disproportionate attention amongst their peers. For the almost irrelevant hullabaloo about Marisha Pessl’s literary debut, with the hefty Special Topics in Calamity Physics, it was difficult to know what the book was actually about. Bloggers from......

A pair of homeless man have been arrested for starting the fire that caused the NYC's biggest blaze (this side of the World Trade Center). Leszek Kuczera, a 59 year old Polish immigrant, and another as-yet unapprehended homeless man were attempting to burn the insulation off copper wire by setting eight tires on fire, but the fire got out of control. Kuczera was arrested and charged with arson, buglary, reckless endangerment and petty larceny;......

The family of Milton Rocano wondered why he hadn't come home after working at City Recycling in Greenpoint on Saturday. When Rocano's sister went to the plant to ask where he was, she found that his wallet and clothes were still there, but a supervisor told her he'd show up in a few days. Unfortunately, Rocano's body was found in a Melville dump - it turns out that another employee had dumped tons of scrap......

Watch it when you love NY! NY State is trying to enforce its claim to the love by setting its lawyers on people who use the logo without the permission of the Empire State Development Development Corporation. The latest incident seems to be a NJ man's use of the logo on various tchotchkes (he's sold 15,000 of them); Ray Maniaci tells the Post NY State should be flattered people love the logo so much. Gothamist......

We had kicked back to watch TV the other evening - live, not TiVo'd - when we started to see an "I ♥ NY" logo on screen. Awesome, we though, as the logo got bigger. But then the NY was replaced by...a freaking Honda Accord! Honda paid NY State $45,000 to use the logo in their ad which is appearing in the NY-area, and to us, that's getting peanuts. No wonder NY State has so......

New York magazine completed its transition to something new and different last week (the something new and different includes new sections, new layouts, and a new, aspirational, sidewalk fresh scent), and topped it off by introducing a reworking of Milton Glaser's logo. manyhighways thought it looks more like "New Vork" than "New York." It's certainly more flourishy than before; Gothamist isn't that thrilled with the logo falling off the edges of the cover, but as......

Reverend Billy, Street Preacher, The Church of Stop Shopping...

Sweet Serendipity: Delicious Desserts and Devilish Dish by Stephen Bruce with Brett Bara, Universe Publishing, 2004 Chocolate-tastic! Chocolate practically drips of the page in "Sweet Serendipity," a new dessert cookbook in which Serendipity 3's owner, Stephen Bruce, who founded the uptown shrine to sweets with two partners in 1954, reveals the secrets behind the restaurant's famous desserts. The cookbook commemorates the restaurant's 50th anniversary and the book's introduction details the restaurant's long history as sugar-peddler......

- You're not surprised and neither is Gothamist about news that the city's estimate of what the convention could bring revenue wise is much higher than a third party's estimate, because it seems that was the only way to really sell in the idea of a convention here. The Beacon Hill Institute says the convention will reap $160 million (not counting $19 million in security costs), versus the city's estimate of $250 million. While that......

Opening today is Fake Plastic Trees, a group art exhibition developed around the Radiohead song of the same name. The show, at Jeff Bailey Gallery, features drawing, painting, photography and sculpture by twelve artists (Ben Beaudoin, Paul Brainard, Deborah Brown, Andrea Champlin, Franklin Evans, J.J. Garfinkel, Chris Gentile, Robert Gutierrez, Lucas Knipscher, Jenny Laden, Jon Rappleye and Milton Rosa-Ortiz), addressing the culture of hype, idealization, and contemporary standards of beauty. There is a reception......

In recent years, the Yankees have always been a team some home-grown talent. A look at the current roster can confirm that - Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada and Bernie Williams were all brought up through the organization's minor league system. But one has to wonder, is that the end of it? Will there be more in the coming years? Doesn't look like it. The Times sees a team with a shallow talent pool......

It's easy to do a feature about this summer's eagerly anticipated movies (the summer actually began last weekend, with the opening of X2), but Patricia Vidal at Movie City News tackles how the summer movies may be appealing to women: No look at summer movie size can overlook The Hulk. That’s a Playgirl special edition waiting to happen. Hulk goes right into the Dolly Parton class of sexual celebrity. You almost don’t want to see......

Gothamist knows that there are people out there who are quitting their jobs, even in a time of 6% unemployment, but, still, it seems surprising when we come across articles like the one in yesterday's Post about like-aged New Yorkers leaving the cubicle life without a clear post-job game plan. Perhaps it's because Gothamist has been so battered by lay-offs and job insecurity that we find people who can quit to be a mythical combination......

Yesterday, the city announced that it was investigating ways to create, trademark and license an official New York City logo in order to generate more revenue for the city. This move also involved hiring the city's first chief marketing officer, Joseph Perello. The city is also looking into ideas for the Fire Department and other areas. Gothamist is glad that the city is thinking its marketing more seriously, but also finds the marketing rhetoric being......