• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an unsusual rescue on Laurel Ave. in Brooklyn, a school evacuation on Crescent Ave. in Queens, and an armed robbery on White Plains Rd. in the Bronx.
• A-Rod stays in NYC for 10 more years!
• Columbia University spares the Cotton Club.
• A City Council bill would make hanging nooses illegal, in addition to stupid.
• A teengager went stab-kill crazy on 13th St. when he assaulted three of his peers.
• Local service may be restored on Metro-North.
• If you're a New Yorker who needs to drive, here are some tips on how to do so more safely.
• Finger pointing in the UES scaffold plunge of two brothers.

Here's a story that just makes our blood boil. A City Council committee is preparing a bill that would raise the age for buying cigarettes from 18 to either 19 or 21! more ›

Gothamist rounds up interesting movement in some of the big city development projects: more ›

jpreardon has some more information about Provenzano's bike-related history and the bill. Gothamist wonders if bike license plating is a covert plan to crack down on bikers who participate in the Critical Mass rides, which are bigger than ever and more political. And we loved the response City Councilman John Liu, who chairs the transportation committee that will decide on the bill, gave, "When I was a kid, I had a license plate on my bike. I'm trying to remember which cereal box I got it from." Plus, the Department of Transportation's Bike Routes in NYC. And it is a good idea to your bike registered with the police, in case it gets stolen.
more ›

What do you think of the plan? Is this what Red Hook needed, or is it the end of the Hook? Gothamist on Ikea in Red Hook. more ›

Councilman John Liu of Flushing said that there is no proof the alarms work and that "there is an overabundance of evidence that blaring car alarms annoy the living daylights out of people." That's one astute council-member. Flushing residents be proud. more ›