A huge crowd fathering in Washington Square Park last night to hear Senator Barack Obama speak. He mentioned that he "used to hang out in Washington Square Park" and that he knew "a little something about Greenwich Village." His speech touched upon issues like making college more affordable and how his relative lack of experience didn't matter, "Longevity does not guarantee good judgment. A long resume says nothing about your character.” And there was love:......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a home invasion robbery on Lincoln Ave. in Brooklyn, a hostage situation on Duane Ct. on Staten Island, and a sexual assault on West 153rd St. and Macombs Pl. in Manhattan. "Live Free or Die Hard" director Len Wiseman is slated to direct a remake of "Escape From New York," with Gerard Butler ("300") assuming the role of Snake Plissken, who was originally played by Kurt Russell. The Bronx......

- New, slightly stricter, rules for oversize street advertecture went into effect yesterday. - Twenty years after the "Preppy Killer," Dorrian's patrons drink on. - An NYU econ professor thinks we are heading towards a nasty recession in the next year. - A Westchester man was killed and his wife critically injured in a hit and run in Manhattan last night. Police say the car had Florida plates and the license number T062HN. -......

The things freshmen think of! An NYU freshman, Richard Lockhart, was arrested for constructing a fake bomb - and leaving it outside a fellow student's door. Apparently it was part of a film project, which makes us wonder if Tisch professors are willing to bail students out, and the bomb was so realistic looking that the NYPD spent 45 minutes at the East 2nd Street dorm, evcauating the dorm and checking out the bomb. The......

An NYU student group convinced NYU to postpone withholding striking grad students' stipends until tomorrow. Today was originally the school's deadline for grad students to stop striking before NYU would have cut off grad students' stipends. The students have been picketing since November 9, in an attempt to unionize but NYU no like that. A student group has called on the Graduate Student Organizing Committee to end the strike today at 5PM to bring the......

A woman looking to see if a train was coming was hit by a D train on Saturday afternoon. From the Daily News' account, it seems that the woman was looking in the "opposite direction of the oncoming D train" and that she was swaying "dangerously," with the front of the second-to-last car hitting her in the head. Then, "The train roared by, knocking her down about 20 yards from the southern tip of the......

Some people. An NYU graduate who was pushed into a kiddie-pool full of Jell-O in May 2004 is now suing the school (for $1 million) for failing "to prevent the Jell-O wrestling event" and for disregarding "its duty to maintain its premises in a safe condition." Yawn. On the one hand, it does sound like this guy had a bum deal. There Avarm Wisnia was, well into his Junior year, hanging out on May day......

An NYU senior with a major in math was arrested in his family Pound Ridge, NY home when bank and postal officials discovered he had been shuffling about $43 million in fake, certified check between banks in Greenwich, CT, and Switzerland, where there are many, many banks. Hakan Yalincak opened up a number of fake corporations and deposited fake checks into the bank accounts here and overseas. With millions in "phantom money" in each, he......