• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an officer struck on 42nd St. and 8th Ave. in Manhattan, a bomb threat on 76th St. and Amsterdam Ave. in Manhattan, and a shooting on Mayfair Dr. in Brooklyn.
• Don't speed (108 m.p.h.), at night (2:30 a.m.), while drunk (.113 BAC), while tailgating and driving erratically, on an urban highway (Staten Island Expressway.) One young Brighton Beach resident didn't get the memo it seems.
• Councilman Leroy Comrie's efforts to halt the branding of soft and alcohol-based drinks "OG Nation," was recently successful, with the renaming of Larry Johnson and Jim Brown's snack and beverage company "Hall of Fame Beverages." No word on what the fate of the"Thug Chips" snacks brand is.
• After Hillary Clinton put her own money on the line by loaning $5 million of her own cash to her campaign, backers have ponied up $7.1 million in additional funding. The beauty of democracy: it brings a tear to our eye.
• Unfortunately, as police arrived at the Staten Island 9/11 Memorial today, a man shot himself in the head and died.
• The FDA is now questioning the safety of a widely used Botox [botulinum toxin] in injection as a beauty treatment. Thousands of New York women would love to express outrage at the revelation, but simply can't.
• Grub Street points out that one can do more than just eat at IHOP, one can now wear IHOP. And that means much more than just throwing up a half-stack of flapjacks on yourself at 5 a.m. after too much "syrup." We're talking IHOP apparel.
• Good question: New York City has its Bravest, Finest, Strongest, and Boldest, but what about the lawyers employed by the City. Do Jack McCoy and the legions of actual city attorneys who've served as his inspiration deserve an appellation? Suggestions welcome.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: shots fired on 103rd Rd. in Queens, a double stabbing on Amsterdam Ave. in Manhattan, and an armed robbery on 94th St. in Queens.
• Get paranoid!: Not only is your nanny not nurturing your kid to the best of his or her abilities, she's probably beating her mercilessly. Not really, most babysitters love your kids and take good care of them.
• Set your watch by it: the Williambsurg Savings Bank clock tower is accurate.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a stabbing on 20th Ave. and the Whitestone Expressway in Queens, a slashing on Van Siclen Ave. and Linden Blvd. in Brooklyn, and three people were shot (one homicide) on Hoe Ave. in the Bronx.
• Just when you thought crime in Newark could not possibly get worse, a witness in a major drug trial was murdered before he could testify. Cops believe that his killing was facilitated by a defense lawyer, who is a former Newark prosecutor.
• The neighborhood of Fort Greene, Brooklyn is getting 72 new bike racks for cyclists.
• Marble Hill residents fought to keep their neighborhood part of Manhattan as it was being geographically separated from the island and made contiguous with the Bronx. Now a Marble Hill woman is fighting to get her Housing Court lawsuit heard in a Bronx court, which tends to be a much friendlier venue for tenant claims.
• Preservationists are grasping at straws to prevent the imminent destruction of the Brooklyn Navy Yard's Admirals Row. The federal government will have a small say in the matter.
• An apartment on 79th St. and Amsterdam Ave. on Manhattan's Upper West Side was robbed today, when two men posing as delivery workers forced their way into an apartment.
• The Week in Pictures from the Times blog City Room. That will be the last you'll hear from them until the 26th, as Gothamist staffers soldier on.
• The Mexican government was required to open a mini-consulate at JFK to deal with its citizens attempting to fly home for the holidays without proper documentation.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a power outage on Country Club Rd. in the Bronx, an abduction on 89th St. and Amsterdam Ave. in Manhattan, and a stabbing on Decatur St. in Brooklyn.
• A buyer spent $54,000 to purchase a bottle of 60-year-old Macallan scotch at auction, bottled in 1926.
• Police responding to an accident call in Washington Heights were themselves the victims of a hit-and-run, when rear-ended by a speeding sedan. The driver of the car that rammed them from behind abandoned his car and took off running on foot.
• A gang of thieves linked to the rapper Fabolous have been robbing people at night time hotspots. The more famous the victim, the more conspicuous the target.
• Broadway stagehands voted overwhelmingly in favor of a new contract.
• Forget menorahs, nativity scenes, and trees; Hindus have brought the Himalaya mountains to Queens.
• Chelsea Clinton's out in public, but not being recognized because she's not the gawky kid everyone knows.
• Madison Square Garden has taken to blasting music in an attempt to drown out hometown fans' booing.

• 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.

The Mermaid Inn, that inviting East Village bistro beloved for its rich seafood entrees, has moved on up to the west side with a mostly new menu. Their second Manhattan outpost is appointed with old nautical maps, dark wainscoting and roll-up doors that will surely suck in the crowds during warmer months. (Alec Baldwin must be pleased about the eatery boosting Amsterdam Avenue’s cachet.) The Inn’s famous lobster sandwich survived the move, but there’s now... more ›

The Critical Mass Halloween Ride is tonight! If you go, get some good pictures! more ›

Elected officials, including U.S. Congressman Jerrold Nadler, are speaking out against the proposed expansion of Fordham University's Lincoln Center campus, directly south of the performing arts complex. The school wants to add 1.5 million square feet of building space to the midtown campus, which includes an undergraduate college and its law school, between Columbus and Amsterdam Aves., nearly tripling the complex's size from the current 800,000 square feet. Fordam gets to avoid complicated issues of eminent domain and displacing current residents, since it already owns all the property that it would like to build on. more ›

EVENT: Join a slew of artists, bid on their work and enjoy complimentary cocktails tonight at a benefit for the Seed Project. Artwork from Swoon, Lisa Dahl, Todd Deluca, Troy Dugas, Lee Everett, Midori Harima & Annysa Ng, Fumiko Toda, Sarah Trigg and a whole bunch more will be auctioned. The Seed Project asks that you buy basil seeds and after planting them: more ›

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an unusual sexual assault on Broadway in Brooklyn, an unstable building on Sutphin Blvd. in Queens, and a shooting on West 142nd St. and Amsterdam Ave. in Manhattan.
• Central Park's Sheep Meadow was the first park location to upgrade its wifi Internet connection to high speed. The new 15-megabits-per-second service is five times faster than the previous connection.
• Madame Tussauds wax museum in Times Square wasted no time in dressing its likeness of Lindsay Lohan in prison stripes, after the young star was arrested for drunk driving and drug posession shortly after leaving rehab.
• Former NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason is in talks to fill the morning time slot on WFAN left vacant by the abrupt departure of Don Imus.
• Williamsburg! The Musical will premiere August 11th as part of the 11th Annual Fringe Festival.
• Gridskipper has a guide to NYC record stores for vinyl enthusiasts.
• Turning Long Island City into a giant sundial, with the Citibank tower as the shadow-casting spire.
• The City Council is thinking of revising its cell phones-in-schools policy, to allow kids to bring them to school, but not use them there. Schools would be required to set up cell phone storage facilities to secure the devices during the day.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a shooting on Elliot Ave. in Queens, a pedestrian struck on West 86th St. and Amsterdam Ave. in Manhattan, and a stabbing on Cozine Ave. in Brooklyn.
• The brother of murdered Councilman James Davis decried the threats of assassination against another councilman from Charles Barron's chief of staff.
• A man robbed a sunbathing woman in Central Park of her iPod and wallet, then also demanded a kiss before departing.
• The Times looks at a New York multi-millionaire who's shelling out a lot of cash for stimulating dinner conversation.
• After leaving office Mayor Bloomberg will 1) Attend his successor's inauguration 2) Go visit his Mom 3) Play a week's worth of golf.
• Council Speaker Christine Quinn wants to limit the amount of money individuals and organizations doing business with the city can give to politicians.
• Summer is officially upon us as New York experiences its first power outage of the season.
• New York magazine has a piece on where New York's top chefs shop for their food.

The Claremont Riding Academy on West 89th St. between Columbus and Amsterdam Aves. is closing this Sunday after the weekend's riding is done. Opened in 1892, Claremont is the oldest continuously operated horse stable in the U.S. It was initially used as a livery stable, but was turned into a riding academy in the 1920s. Riding lessons are given in a small ring on the main floor, while stables occupy the basement and upper floors, which horses reach via ramps. Owner Paul Novograd said he was closing the business because pedestrian traffic was becoming too congested along Central Park's bridle trails, making it difficult to ride. Homes will be found for the roughly 45 horses that currently stable on 89th St. more ›

A Ghost, by Squid Ink. more ›

Average wait time: 45 minutes more ›

PARTY: Disorient & Kostume Kult invite you to The Black & Light Ball; a Black-Lit Burner Formal. It's like a rave, in your dorm room...but in a gallery, with a lot more blacklighting than you could afford in college. With lighting art on display and blacklight flooding the space - we think it's okay if, just this once, you wear your sunglasses at night. Much more art, craziness and music (er, of the "techno" and "house" variety) will be a backdrop to the ball, a summer fundraiser. There will also be a blacklight sensitive fashion show by PHil's PHads and Caitlin Stolley at 10 pm. more ›

BBQ: The BBQ season has officially begun. Luckily, there's always an option for the non-carnivores in town. Today that option is the Annual Summer Vegan BBQ Extravaganza run by Books Through Bars. This organization is a volunteer group that donates reading material to prisoners all over the country. Not an organization geared towards drinking and reading in bars. more ›

We all know that people in this city go crazy for cupcakes. We're not going to engage in a huge debate over which bakery makes the best cupcakes, because during the week of Passover, we can't eat them anyway. Except for the ones at Crumbs. more ›

A familiar brunch institution to those on the Upper West Side, the lines outside Good Enough to Eat can seem endless on Sunday mornings. Gothamist recently stopped by, for dinner, sat right down, and patted ourselves on the back for coming at an "off" hour. Inside, the tables are set like at a Vermont farmhouse, each with a unique cloth napkin, mismatched plates and knick-knacks abound. On the breakfast menu, apple and banana walnut pancakes, pumpkin french toast, and a plethora of hearty omelette and egg options are sure to entice. For lunch, dinner, and in-between, the grilled cornbread is a must-have, while hearty entrees like homemade meatloaf, and organic roast chicken with seasonal vegetables come besides mounds of mashed potatoes. For solos on Valentine's Day, Good Enough to Eat puts the back in "comfort food" so you can wallow in a pool of gravy. But, for happy couples wanting to feed each other bites of Red Velvet cake, there is also a special Valentine's Day Menu for the occasion. more ›

So far we've found nothing funny about the month of January, hopefully things will change starting this week. Check out our comedy picks: more ›

PARTY: Neighborhoodies is having a dance party at Rififi this Saturday. Wear that clever t-shirt you made and get ready to dance, dance, dance. Click on the flyer to the right for more info. more ›

I know it may be too much to ask this question of a New York blog, but are there any Red Sox-friendly bars in New York? I want to watch them play in the World Series with some like-minded Sox fans! more ›

Now here's something you don't see everyday. On the Upper West Side there's a little mom-and-pop restaurant serving what they call "Tibetan Home Cooking". Gothamist wasn't sure what to expect - yak cheese and steamed vegetables, maybe - but we tried it out anyway. We were pleasantly surprised to find that not only was the menu broader than the bill of fare at a Buddhist monastery, it included some real winners. Chief among these are Momo: little dumplings similar to Chinese pot stickers. more ›