Results tagged “aids”

Today is World AIDS Day, and while there are many events planned around the city, there is currently a 24-hour vigil at City Hall, with volunteers reading of the names of people who had been lost to HIV or AIDS at City Hall. And just now, during Mayor Bloomberg annual breakfast at Gracie Mansion in honor World AIDS Day, 10 Housing Works activists were arrested for protesting outside.

Doctors at St. Vincent's Hospital exposed a Washington Heights woman to the HIV virus when they used dirty medical equipment, a lawsuit alleges.

The first New York revival of Tony Kushner’s Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning two-part epic work, Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, will be staged by Signature Theatre Company as part of their 20th anniversary season in 2010-2011. Signature, which devotes an entire season to a single playwright's work, announced that part one, Millennium Approaches and part two, Perestroika, will run in repertory; the theater also plans to have performance days where the plays (each three and a half hours) are presented back to back. As usual with Signature, all tickets for the initial run will be sold for $20, thanks to a grant from Time Warner.

Former Mets second baseman and perennial All-Star throughout the '90s has called the lawsuit filed against him by his ex-girlfriend "full of lies." The suit filed by longtime girlfriend Ilya Dahl claims that he insisted on having unprotected sex with her while having "full-blown AIDS." His lawyer called it "a frivolous lawsuit," but that Alomar wishes to keep his health status private. In Alomar's own statement, he called it a "private, personal matter" and added, "I am in very good health and I ask that you respect my privacy during this time."

Former Met Roberto Alomar, the great second baseman with 10 Golden Gloves and 12 All-Star appearances, is being sued by a former girlfriend for $15 million. The charges? The Daily News reports that Queens resident Ilya Dall claims "Alomar has full-blown AIDS but insisted on having unprotected sex."

Suffolk County DA Thomas Spota is concerned that convicted sex offender Robert Musmacker has exposed a 16-year-old boy—and potentially other victims—with the virus that causes AIDS. Musmacker was pulled over for speeding two weeks ago and, Newsday reports, the "trooper took note of the driver's 16-year-old passenger, along with Musmacker's undone belt buckle on his pants." The tropper then found that Musmacker was a high-level sex offender and the boy "revealed not only that he'd had sexual contact with Musmacker on several occasions, but also that Musmacker has AIDS." Spota told the AP, "This is a very, very tragic case. We believe he definitely had sexual contact with other young males. This could possibly develop into a significant number." He urged other possible victims to contact the New York State Police Major Case Bureau at 631-756-3390. And Musmacker was charged committing a criminal sex act, endangering the welfare of a child and several traffic violations.

After twelve years, 5,124 performances and a haul of $280 million, Rent's Broadway run has come to an end. The musical closed yesterday after a final sold-out performance packed with diehard fans (the "Rentheads") and a smattering of celebrities (a couple Gossip Girl cast members). Just before the curtain came down for the final time, members of the show's original company joined the current cast on stage to "Seasons of Love," one of the show's most famous songs, the Associated Press reports.

Kids who weren't even born when AIDS was an epidemic that ravaged the American gay and IV drug-using communities are apparently oblivious to the potential toll it can take on its generation. New York City's Dept. of Health reported that the number of HIV infections among city high schoolers (between the ages of 13 and 19) rose 29% between 2004 and 2006. Current figures are not yet available, but Rep. Anthony Weiner is proposing a program to curb the spread of the virus.

Banksy, the cheeky street artist/prankster turned multimillionaire art star, was in town last week, presumably for the Damien Hirst-coordinated auction at Sotheby’s to benefit the (Project) RED campaign, which works with corporations like the Gap to raise money for the treatment of A.I.D.S. patients in Africa. The $48 million raised at the event – through the sale of works by Hirst, Banksy, Jeff Koons, Jasper Johns, Willem de Kooning and others – will be distributed by the Global Fund.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: shots fired and a large crowd at 98th St. and Rockaway Blvd. in Queens, a carjacking on Ave. Y and Nostrand Ave. in Brooklyn, and an overturned auto on 28th St. and 7th Ave. in Manhattan.
• The New York Post continues to discover the brave new world of "twisted sex play," commonly known as BDSM.
• The gentrification of Harlem is colorblind, to the consternation and frustration of many newcomers and long-time residents.
• A Bronx man and his son, who were bound, robbed, and shot in the alley next to their home, may have been followed all the way from Brooklyn by their assailant.
• QueensCrap notes some less-than-professional tree pruning after the Parks Dept. improperly issued permits to a notorious company. There's a difference between pruning and just lopping off most of the tops of trees.
• Ironic Sans was included in a new book titled Ultimate Blogs; masterworks from the wild web. Congratulations!
• The persistence of gay bathhouses in what only seems like the post-AIDS era.
• TreeHugger wonders about the carbon footprint of a bloated Gmail account.

Sure, you could go to a traditional sports bar to watch the Super Bowl, but that would just be so . . . traditional. We've rounded up a few more options for you -- find one to suit your mood.

When you're found to be making pipe bombs amidst an apartment arsenal of weapons and then confess to painting swastikas in your Brooklyn Heights neighborhood, expect the book to be thrown at you repeatedly. Ivaylo Ivanov was charged with over 100 criminal counts for his activities.

Yesterday we mentioned that a cache of weapons - including a number of pipe bombs - were found in a Remsen Street apartment in Brooklyn Heights. Now it turns out the apartment was shared by an ex-con and a professor at Columbia University!

RENT, the surprise smash hit musical that premiered in 1996 and went on to become the seventh-longest-running Broadway show in history, will close June 1st, producers have announced. Over the years the show cultivated a fanatical army of young repeat viewers (“Rentheads”) whose ardor has translated into profits of $280 million on Broadway, four Tony awards and a Pulitzer. Productions have been mounted on six continents, while an ill-conceived movie version of the show, filmed in San Francisco, opened in 2005 to widespread derision. And the musical was also famously parodied by the South Park creators in their film Team America, which depicts the faux-hip cast of the Broadway show LEASE belting the show’s climactic chorus, “Everyone has AIDS!”

Singer-songwriter Elvis Perkins has steadily cultivated a loyal following with his warm and thoughtful catalog of tunes. Subdued but soulful, and sometimes swinging, Perkins's debut album Ash Wednesday won critical raves for what Pitchfork called his "ability to merge instrumentation and lyricism to create a romantic's sense of atmosphere." Rolling Stone's review observed a somewhat sombre tone in the album and attributed it to Perkins's unique and rather traumatic family history: His father, actor Anthony...

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: serious trauma on 51st St. in Brooklyn, a missing person on 90th St. and Amsterdam Ave. in Manhattan, and a large fight at 1087 Broadway in Brooklyn.
• A Brooklyn high school student was stabbed to death yesterday after school. The fatal injury occurred as he was attempting to rob another kid on a playground.
• Don Imus will be returning to the air with a "sidekick," who is black.
• The police are taking her at her word, but it appears that a woman may have faked a violent attack against herself as an excuse to not repay her mother $800. The allegedly faked assault involved using "Krazy Glue" to seal her eyes and mouth shut.
• Today is World AIDS Day, with demonstrations last night and this afternoon emphasizing prevention to halt the spread of HIV.
• Barack Obama tipped his waitress almost 60% on the $17 check he covered having lunch with Mayor Bloomberg.
• Customers who are owed refunds by the furniture chain are not lovin' it at Levitz. The company filed for bankruptcy and checks are bouncing.
• Some tourists are booking expensive rooms on the Upper West Side only to arrive and find out they've just rented space in some woman's apartment, and she has no idea what they are talking about. NYC scams are alive and well apparently.

Evidence continues to be collected and associates continue to be questioned as the police try to solve the murder of "broker to the stars" Linda Stein. Stein, who managed the Ramones back in the day and had many famous friends, was found bludgeoned to death in her exclusive Fifth Avenue apartment on October 30. So far, the police have spoken to former business associates, her family, construction workers and building residents, as well as removed...

The Brooklyn Paper has a sad tale of some Prospect Heights kittens. The ferals wandered into the back yard of the Pond family, who immediately fell in love, had them spayed/neutered, called them their own and named them Inky, Blinky, Mookie and Clyde.

The Ponds grew so attached to their backyard kitties that they began treating them as if they were their own. They had the cats spayed and neutered. They fed them daily. When the Ponds vacationed, they had a cat-sitter watch over their frisky charges.

“When I saw five stray cats living in my backyard … I did extensive research to figure out how I could bring them to be sterilized,” said the neighbor. "All anyone could offer was to come and sterilize the cats. But I would have to first trap the cats and provide a space for them to recover from the surgery. I was not willing to do that. It was too laborious. I personally don’t think cats should be allowed outside to be exposed to cat AIDS, or to get maimed by other cats,” she said. “If I wanted a cat, I would have a cat and I would keep it in my house. “I didn’t destroy it,” she said. “I didn’t hurt it. I just wanted to lower the population of cats. I thought I was doing a service to the neighborhood.”

The Health Department released preliminary data that shows HIV infections increasing among gay men under age 30.

The police arrested the boyfriend of a woman found murdered in a Soho apartment. The victim, Denise Deperrie, was found by her roommate on Wednesday and police immediately suspected Juan Rios, her boyfriend who had slashed her with a samurai sword in July.

Police are investigating the death of a woman found in her apartment. A roommate of the 36-year-old woman found her alone in the Crosby Street (at Grand) apartment - with two stab wounds. The roommate had been away over the Labor Day weekend and apparently neighbors had noticed a smell.

A look at some noteworthy television this week:

TOMORROW!: (Due to expected rain, this event will take place tomorrow.) It's that time again...Shakespeare in the Park is back and kicking off its season tonight. Want to add some tragedy to your summer sunset this evening? Then head over to get tickets starting at 1pm today for Romeo and Juliet.

FILM: A tribute to Jean Genet on film begins tonight at BAM. The focus will be on films inspired by the French writer, as well as Genet's own Un Chant D'Amour. BAM describes the festival further:

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a stabbing at Utica and Atlantic Aves. in Brooklyn, an overturned auto with passenger ejection on the LIE in Queens, and a report of a suspicious device on 43rd St. and Lexington Ave. in Manhattan.
• NJ police located the driver of the red pickup truck that initiated the chain reaction car crash that's left the state's Governor John Corzine seriously injured. The 20-year-old driver will not be ticketed.
• Hoping to regain some of the luster lost during the Imus-"Hos" fiasco, CBS Radio will be replacing the shock jock with Mike & The Mad Dog in the station's morning timeslot.
• Hardly a surprise, but the failed-pitcher-turned-actor who beat his girlfriend's cat to death doesn't limit himself to hurting animals. The NY Post reports that he roughs ups the ladies as well, once slamming a girlfriend's fingers in a metal door.
• AIDS activists are upset that City Council Speaker Christine Quinn won't support a housing program for HIV-positive New Yorkers. They feel she's attempting to appear more mainstream in advance of a run for Mayor.
• A Brooklyn woman who joined the Peace Corp after an earlier career in journalism has gone missing in the Phillipines.
• A litany of complaints from an inmate at the Metropolitan Detention Center suddenly ceased when he started having sex with his jailhouse therapist.
• A private plane rolled right off the runway at Teterboro Airport early yesterday evening.
• Yankee pitcher Carl Pavano's arm hurts, so the team is reorganizing its pitching rotation.

After the NY Times reported the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene wanted to encourage adult men at risk for HIV/AIDS to get circumcised, Mayor Bloomberg distanced himself a bit from such a program. According to today's NY Times, Bloomberg officials "cautioned that [a campaign to promote circumcision] was still in its infancy and not yet something the administration had decided to pursue."

Asked about the approach at a news conference, Mr. Bloomberg expressed support for seeking new ways to combat the disease, but suggested that he was unconvinced that government should be involved in promoting or providing circumcisions.

Continue reading "Mayor Circumspect About City Suggesting Circumcision "

In a Department of Health and Mental Hygiene two-fer, the DOH announced that 5 million NYC Condoms were given given away between February 14 and March 14, while the Times reveals that the DOH is also working on a campaign to promote circumcision.