If you're busting ass serving fashionistas all day at Marc Jacobs on Mercer Street, chances are you're familiar with a little drug called cocaine. And odds are you may have been personally introduced to it once or twice. But that doesn't mean that a giant box of the white stuff that was shipped to your workplace—addressed to you—means that you have a drug problem, right? Well, maybe it doesn't. more ›

Officials are honing in on the health care reform opponent who caused the anthrax scare at Rep. Anthony Weiner's Kew Gardens office two weeks ago. According to the Post, the letter came from the 11235 zip code, which includes Sheepshead Bay and Manhattan Beach (and rules out Jon Stewart). The note was written in block letters and included threats related to Weiner's health care vote, and the white powder turned out to be antacid. more ›

Yesterday, the Justice Department released tons of materials related to its investigation of the 2001 anthrax letter attacks as it closed the books on the case. According to the Washington Post, "The records offer substantial support for the FBI's contention that biologist Bruce E. Ivins single-handedly prepared and mailed deadly anthrax spores that killed five people and terrorized a nation still reeling from the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington... [The documents] starkly portray the mental unraveling of the deceased Army scientist accused of committing the worst act of bioterrorism in U.S. history." more ›

After three foreign offices received envelopes containing a suspicious substance on Monday night, three more received similar envelopes yesterday. First, the German Mission to the U.N. reported receiving an envelope, and later in the day, the British and Russian Missions also received envelopes. The NYPD expects more letters to be found in the coming days and Mayor Bloomberg said of the incidents, "Anybody that thinks that it's a joke is making a very bad mistake. If we apprehend you you're going to face criminal charges." more ›

The Lower East Side is about to get cool again, at least for a couple of days. On February 4th snowboarders will start taking practice runs down the ramp that's being built on the side of the East River (you can get a nice view from the Williamsburg Bridge right now). Then on February 5th they'll compete in an hour long contest, followed by a 7 p.m. Anthrax concert, followed by another hour of riding for the finalists. Here's a look at how the ramp (and snow making) are coming along—would you take a ride down this? more ›

Snowboarding in Manhattan? Whatever! It's really happening though (it's actually happened before), thanks to the caffeine-pushers at Red Bull who will debut their "Snowscrapers" on the banks of the East RIver next month. more ›

In the wake of the suicide of government biodefense scientist Dr. Bruce Ivins, the only apparent suspect in the 2001 anthrax letter attacks, the FBI and Justice Department says it will share case details once it has spoken to victims' families. The agencies consider the case closed, but Senator Tom Daschle – to whom one of the letters was addressed – said, "What troubles me is that Mr. Ivins wasn't indicted, and if he wasn't indicted, how confidant are they that they had the evidence and the information that they needed?" The Washington Post spoke to a friend of Ivins who said the scientist started to drink a liter of vodka and take "large doses of sleeping pills and anti-anxiety drugs" at night last fall, around the same time the FBI showed his daughter photos of anthrax victims, saying, "Your father did this," and offered his son a $2.5 million reward and a "sports car of his choice" to solve the case. more ›

While the FBI is being pressured to release evidence about why it believed government biodefense scientist Dr. Bruce Ivins was behind the 2001 anthrax letter attacks, salacious tidbits are being divulged. Like how he "maintained a post office box under an assumed name that he used to receive pornographic pictures of blindfolded women" (NY Times) and had a "decades-long obsession with a college sorority" Kappa Kappa Gamma (AP). Pretty much everyone wants answers from the FBI and Department of Justice--the former head of the biological-weapons section of Unscom writes in the Wall Street Journal today that anthrax spores sent to U.S. Senators had a lethality "far exceed[ing] that of any powdered product found in the now extinct U.S. Biological Warfare Program." more ›

Some more details emerge about why FBI investigators suspected government biodefense scientist Dr. Bruce Ivins was behind the 2001 anthrax letter attacks. They matched "specific DNA patterns to anthrax cultures" that Ivins was responsible for in his lab. The FBI enlisted the Institute for Genomic Research to analyze the samples, and J. Craig Venter said the evidence suggested the "[culprit] almost had to be a government scientist." However, someone briefed on the investigation said that the evidence gathered so far was "circumstantial"--plus there's no evidence that Ivins traveled to NJ (where the letters were mailed from). Still, the Justice Department is rumored to be shutting down the investigation this week. more ›

The LA Times, which broke news that government biodefense scientist Bruce Ivins committed suicide earlier this week as federal prosecutors were looking to charge him with the anthrax letter attacks of 2001, now reports that Ivins "stood to gain financially from massive federal spending in the fear-filled aftermath of those killings." Ivins shared two patents for a "genetically engineered anthrax vaccine" and had also applied, with another inventor, "to patent an additive for various biodefense vaccines." more ›

According to the LA Times, Bruce Ivins, a government biodefense scientist at U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, died in an apparent suicide. Sources say Ivins, who had aided the FBI with analysis in the anthrax-laced letter attacks in 2001, was going to be charged for the attacks. more ›