While friends and family mourn the deaths of a livery cab driver and passenger who were killed by a suspected drunk driver, they are also angry that the suspect was allowed to be driving at all. Daryush Omar, who is charged with drunken driving, criminally-negligent homicide, and driving with a suspended license, faces murder charges in a 2006 incident--and is apparently in the country illegally. Omar, whose blood alcohol was 0.176 (more than twice the......

The driver suspected of DWI when he crashed his Range Rover into a livery cab, killing the driver and passenger, actually faces murder charges from a 2006 incident. WCBS 2 reports that Daryush Omar's blood alcohol level was twice the legal limit. Police say Omar, who is charged with charges of drunken driving, criminally-negligent homicide, and driving with a suspended license, ran through a red light on 31st Avenue in Astoria and t-boned a livery......

Around 3 a.m. this morning, a 23-year-old driver in a Range Rover crashed into a livery cab in Astoria, Queens. WABC 7 reports, "Police say...the Ranger Rover t-boned the livery cab that was traveling on 34th street" and "the impact was so strong, the livery cab was sent 80 feet down the avenue." Two female passenger who were riding in the cab were killed. The SUV driver. who had been driving west on 31st Avenue,......

A group of about 40 young adults in Queens celebrating a girl's eighteenth birthday had their reveling come to an abrupt end when one of them was intentionally run over by a car filled with three others who had already gotten the boot from the party. The group had rented a bus to transport themselves back and forth from Bayside High School to a Long Island parking lot where they drank and smoked cigars. On......

The City Council voted to approve the Willets Point redevelopment plan 42 votes to 2, aided by critical Council member Hiram Monserrate's support. NY1 reports that while many Council members and Mayor Bloomberg are happy (Bloomberg said, "For nearly half a century, Willets Point has been an environmentally-degraded area in the heart of Queens, but today, it finally has a brighter future"), some business owners are against the plan--Bono Sawdust Supply Company's Jake Bono said,......

According to the NY Post, police are investigating whether 14-year-old Sabrina Matthews "may have been killed by a boyfriend she recently met over the Internet." Matthews was found by her father in their Cambria Heights home on Sunday; her throat was slit and she was naked from the waist down. The Daily News reports that her father was arrested last year for punching an older daughter; neighbors say the police had come to the Matthews......

Yesterday afternoon, a 14-year-old girlwas discovered by her father in their Cambria Heights home in Queens. Sabrina Matthews was "naked from the waist down, with blood gushing from a wound to her throat," in her bedroom, according to the Daily News. The paramedics were unable to revive her. A neighbor, VIncent Oakley, told the NY Times the father, who went to his house after calling for help, was "crying and...totally out of it," after finding......

Starting this weekend, Deitch Projects, which had a hand in the Keith Haring mural on Houston Street and Bowery, will host the late artist's famous The Ten Commandments series. This will be the first U.S. exhibit of the works; Deitch (PDF) notes that it is one of his "most powerful series of paintings. The works portray the Ten Commandments from Haring’s point of view, combining a traditional Biblical interpretation with the artist’s liberating spirit and......

Early this morning, WABC 7 reports that a "suspicious" two-alarm fire "tore through six businesses" in Queens this morning--in the Flushing section, on Roosevelt Avenue near Main Street. Heavy winds may have also helped spread the fire, which firefighters reportedly tried to battle from the inside of the stores (three suffered minor injuries). Additionally, "water used battling the blaze collected on the track of the nearby No. 7 subway line," which has caused some delays......

This weekend Sunnyside, Queens residents stood up for their local feline friends. NY1 reports that "Anita DiSarli organized a rally Saturday to alert the public to what she calls a problem of animal abuse by some area store managers. She says they house cats, but intentionally keep food away from them so they will be more eager to catch mice." The 99-cent store and National Liquidators on Queens Boulevard are allegedly slowly killing the cats......

A 9 months pregnant 25-year-old woman was found dead in a Queens house last night. Naisha Delaine was stabbed multiple times in the stomach (the unborn child also died) and slashed in the throat. According to the Daily News, Delaine's mother "had grown concerned when she could not reach her daughter for several days," so she went to her the Ozone Park apartment to check on her. Unable to get in, the mother contacted Delaine's......

A 60-year-old Con Ed worker and a 74-year-old great-grandmother were killed in hit-and-run incidents in Manhattan and Brooklyn, while a 69-year-old wheelchair-bound man was critically injured in Queens yesterday. Just before 7 a.m., 74-year-old Bridget Morrissey was crossing 75th Street at 14th Avenue in Bay Ridge when a car hit her. The car did not stop and Morrissey, who used to work at Lutheran Medical's kitchen and had Alzheimer's, was pronounced dead at the hospital.......

One Queens couple was busted by the ASPCA yesterday when it was discovered they were housing 33 poodles. The NY Post reports on the world's cutest infestation (with a photo gallery!), saying animal rescuers were called to the elderly owner's home and noted that the dog's conditions were "deteriorating quickly." One rescuer told the paper: "I can't even describe what it was like in there. This was 33 dogs in one home, they weren't going......

The Post has some statements that subway shooting suspect Raul Nunez made after his arrest. Nunez, an illegal immigrant (previously deported for a drug conviction) caught illegally using a student Metrocard, wounded two cops (pictured) with one of their guns and fired at another police officer, who wounded him. Nunez said, "I knew they were cops. They were trying to arrest me. I saw the [officer's] gun, and I grabbed it and went wild. I......

Lieutenant Gary Abrahall, who wounded a man who shot two police officers and fired upon him on Tuesday, said he wasn't a hero, "The two cops that took the bullets, they're the heroes." He added that Raul Nunez, armed with an officer's gun, "was coming full steam. Right at me. Popping off rounds ... . He obviously knew I was the police." Abrahall had been in plainclothes, as were Officers Jason Maass and Shane Farina,......

Yesterday, the NY Times reported that 10 day laborers who gathered at Broadway and 37th Avenue in Jackson Heights, Queens were arrested for blocking the sidewalk on Tuesday. Police said that members of the community had complained, "We responded and asked them to disperse. All but 10 of them did.” However, some laborers said the police didn't give them that chance. Today, the Times says all of the men were released and the charges will......

24-year-old Tyrell Garcia, who works in an animal hospital on Long Island, won $235,000 in a settlement with the city yesterday because of injuries sustained during his August 2007 arrest. It's a crazy story: Police wanted to question Garcia about his friend, murder suspect Rhian Taylor, who Garcia had driven to a lawyer to turn himself in. Cops tailed Garcia to the home he shares with his grandmother, chased him through the house and into......

Photo of plant via WCBS 880. Usually these stories involve the Virgin Mary on a piece of toast, but The Daily News is reporting that the Hindu god Ganesh has now appeared in a flower in Queens! They report that a 60-year-old "New York City man is convinced the elephant-headed god" has grown from his amaranth plant, blessing and healing him. Crazy right? But the Queens Botanical Garden is also mystified by the unusual......

Shortly after 5 p.m., during the rush hour commute at the 21st Street and 41st Avenue subway station in Queens, two plainclothes police officers were shot while struggling with a man illegally using a student Metrocard. As he was being handcuffed, the suspect, identified as Raul Nunez, 32, struggled with the cops, Shane Farina, 38, and Jason Maass, 28. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said, "All three went to the ground. During the struggle, one of......

Two police officers were injured in a confrontation with an armed suspect at the 21st Street and 41st Avenue subway station in Queensbridge around 5:00 p.m. WCBS 2 reports one cop was shot in the abdomen (his condition is critical; he is undergoing surgery) and the other was grazed by a bullet (he is stbale). the suspect was also shot in the leg. The F is currently bypassing the station and cops have flooded the......

A 5-year-old girl was shot in the back as she was trying to flee gunfire in the Ridgewood section of Queens, at Seneca Avenue and Stanhope Street. The child, who was apparently sitting outside when an argument broke out, was taken to the hospital and is in stable condition. A neighbor told the Daily News, "They hit this innocent little girl. These are gangbangers firing at each other like animals." The Post reports reports that......

After about a decade of delays, Kaufman Astoria Studios broke ground today on a $22 million expansion. The new building will be located diagonally across the street from Kaufman Astoria’s current building and will house an 18,000-square-foot sound stage, as well as an additional 22,000 square feet of offices, dressing rooms and carpentry shops, Crain's reports. Kaufman Astoria president Hal Rosenbluth had originally announced plans to expand in 1999, but put the project on hold......

Three "blockheaded" teenagers, as the Daily News puts it, were enjoying a good old fashioned romp in the sewage system yesterday when they got confused and lost their way. 16-year-old Schiller Milfort and 17-year-old Marvin Ottley were joined by an unidentified 15-year-old boy during the misadventure in Queens. An NYPD source mused, "These three idiots were playing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and wanted to go into the sewers." The News reports that the trio were......

A lawsuit against the MTA is about to go to trial surrounding the rape of a woman on a G train platform in Queens three years ago. And the victim, now 25, told the Daily News this weekend that she forgives her attacker ("I know he was sick in the head"), but not the token booth clerk at the 21st Street station, "I can't forgive those five seconds when I stared into his eyes, screaming......

The police are searching for a gunman who fatally shot 56-year-old John Bazemore. Bazemore was found in his Jeep in the Jamaica section of Queens on Saturday night, and the Daily News reports that he may have been "trying to flee from robbers when he was shot, sending his 1994 Jeep careening into several parked cars." The NY Times adds that Bazemore, a furniture mover who had two children and five grandchildren, may have been......

About 60 tenants at 8-29 Astoria Boulevard in Queens were evacuated after the city found their building full of safety violations. A tenant had initially complained about bedbugs, but then the Department of Buildings found (report) inadequate sprinkler system, illegal electrical and gas work, illegal plumbing, no fire escapes, and no emergency exits (gas and water were shut off) . WABC 7 spoke to residents who said the landlord for the building--which was zoned only......

Design by Grimshaw Billings Jackson with Systra/HNTB, photo courtesy MTA/Rob Wilson.. It's prototypelooza today! First ten possible prototype back racks of the future were revealed, and now the MTA has upstaged the DOT with their own street furniture prototype, installed in front of 151 West Broadway between Worth and Thomas Streets. The second of three multi-purpose prototypes, it's designed to prevent subway flooding while ventilating the subway system AND providing benches to sit on AND......

Those crafty stereo bike kids are back, and causing some noise complaints. The Queens Courier reports that "at the 106th Precinct’s last community council meeting, there were 'numerous people complaining about those bikes traveling up and down the street creating unnecessary noise,'" according to Officer Kenneth Zorn. Fingers point at the Future Shock crew, comprised of teenagers who are staking claim on the “stereo bike” concept they brought over from their homeland of Trinidad. The......

The Bloomberg administration's plan to transform the industrial Willets Point section of Queens was approved by the City Council's planning committee. But, the Sun points out, "the council vote will be its biggest hurdle." The $3 billion to make way for a hotel, convention center, offices, and stores, is supposed to generate 5,300 jobs and billions in economic activity, but about 200 small business owners, who would be forced out, have been bitterly opposing the......

Worst boyfriend of the week: A Queens man was arrested after shooting his girlfriend, who had been sleeping in bed in their Queens apartment. Police suspect Larry Smith had been cleaning his (illegal) gun when it went off and shot Felicia Crawford in the chest. A police source tells the Post that Smith had the firearm in bed because "He heard a noise and he got up to get his gun." Crawford is in stable......