There are more answers and questions regarding the disappearance of a NJ woman from a cruise ship. The Norwegian Cruise Line company said surveillance videos show 46-year-old Mindy Jordan alone in her room and falling from her cabin's balcony, and the FBI said, "The information that we have acquired does not suggest a crime, but that is not definitive," and said it would continue with the investigation (the FBI did seize the cruise's railings). Jordan's......

While bad weather stopped the search for a New Jersey woman who disappeared from a Norwegian Dawn cruise ship off the coast of Atlantic City, the FBI is now investigating her disappearance. The ship had left NYC for Bermuda on Sunday, and the 46-year-old woman went missing around 7:50 p.m. on Sunday. The woman's mother, Louise Jordan, told a TV station her daughter's boyfriend called her from the ship, "What he told me on the......

Last month, word on the Boardwalk was that two former Atlantic City hotels (the Howard Johnson and Holiday Inn) would morph into a boutique hotel named the Chelsea (no relation). Further bringing a Manhattan feel to the has-been Jersey destination is the oft-celeb-drenched scene of Manhattan's Beatrice Inn; the club's operators, Paul Sevigny and Matt Abramcyk amongst them, have been charged with creating "a vibe." The collaboration had AC's Visitors Authority declaring, “The New York......

A Queens native who once made $500,000 as a New York City lawyer is now suing a number of Atlantic City casinos for $20 million, claiming they didn't notice her gambling addiction. Arelia Margarita Taveras owes $1 million from her gambling losses, but thinks the casinos enabled her. Taveras, who represented victims' families in the World Trade Center attacks and Flight 587 crash, grew up in Corona, went to Cardozo Law School, and was, at......

This morning's water vapor satellite image, complete with dry tongue of air from Georgia to Maryland, from the National Weather Service You might think that today's forecast, warm with a chance of a thundershower, is a harbinger of spring. You would be wrong. Mother Nature lives up to her cruel mistress moniker by dangling spring in front of us while all the while holding another cold snap in a gloved hand behind her back.......

A tour trying to turn left onto Broome Street from Bowery struck a 76-year-old woman yesterday morning. The bus, operated by Skyliner, was on its way to Atlantic City. The woman had been walking south on Bowery with her son when the bus hit her. Witnesses said the woman was hit hard by the bus, flying 15 feet. One witness told the Daily News, "I guess she wasn't paying attention." Maybe - but buses (one......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a shooting on 126th St. in Manhattan, another shooting on Intervale Ave. and East 163rd St. in the Bronx, and a stabbing on Rockaway and Pitken Aves. in Brooklyn. Atlantic City's Borgata casino was in flames this morning. Connecticut's Governor suspended parole for inmates convicted of violent crimes after NYC cops shot a convict who drove a car stolen at knife point into the city. A Norwegian Cruise Line......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an unusual trauma at Pennsylvania and Flatlands Aves. in Brooklyn, a church robbery on West 31st St. in Manhattan, and a found DOA on Furman St. at the piers in Brooklyn. State officials are now thinking that the best way to reincarnate the glory days of the old Penn Station is not to build two office towers on top of the Farley Post Office building. They've arrested the man......

Yesterday Merv Griffin lost his battle to prostate cancer at Cedars Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles at the age of 82. He received his first treatment for this in 1996 and in late July of this year it was publicized that the cancer had come back. In a statement on Merv.com his son Tony said: "My father was a visionary. He loved business and continued his many projects and holdings even while hospitalized. We take......

As many people wonder about the state of the bridges in the New York City region, in the wake of I-35 collapsing in Minneapolis, the city's Department of Transportation is trying to reassure residents that our bridges are safe. Though many bridges meet the definition of "deficient" - 19% of bridges are in "fair" or "poor" condition, 15% meet the federal definition of "structurally deficient" - a DOT first deputy commissioner Lori Ardito says,......

We've got a stack of tickets over here for you, and all you have to do is email us telling us which pair you want, and answer a little question. First up is Interpol, playing this Friday (with Calla) in Atlantic City! The show is in support of their new album Our Love to Admire. Who doesn't want to spend a day on the boardwalk, hit the slot machines and see Carlos D's mustache up......

Traffic through the Holland tunnel was stalled this morning after two buses collided, with many passengers winding up in the hospital. The Daily News reports that an Atlantic Express bus slammed on its brakes after a car veered into its lane (drivers are not allowed to change lines while in the Holland Tunnel) and a following bus crashed into it. The second bus was from BTC Transportation and headed from Atlantic City to Chinatown. The......

Likely scenario: you're sitting in your office or at home and check your inbox. Someone's sent you a message. Subject: You Gotta See This. Body: This movie is ridiculous. A guy falls in love with a girl and she's in a wheelchair and they make it all about how they're from totally different worlds and I think at the end he ends up in a wheelchair. You just gotta see it. It's called Wheels......

It's nice and exciting when your friends announce their engagements, but it seems like it's also a cue for you to start saving up. Forget buying them some congratulatory drinks and a wedding gift, as well as a shower gift - the real bank breakers are the bachelor/bachelorette parties and destination weddings. To get ready for this summer's wedding season, the Sun offered some disturbing yet not that surprising quotes:- For her many bachelorette parties......

An SUV carrying New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine crashed on the Garden State Parkway in Galloway Township. After undergoing extensive surgery, Corzine has a broken leg, twelve broken ribs, a broken collarbone, and a broken breastbone; he also has numerous facial lacerations. He is in stable condition and remains in the ICU, but faces many months of rehabilitation. State Senate President Richard Codey, who took over for NJ Governor James McGreevey when he stepped......

Fox News Channel blowhard Bill O'Reilly and fellow Foxie Geraldo Rivera were in a heated argument on last night's edition of The O'Reilly Factor. The tiff was about a drunk driving illegal alien in Virginia killing someone and devolved into yelling and actual finger pointing with Geraldo starting out by pointing out to Bill that he was wrong. Since we usually avoid cable "news" like the plague, we were tipped to this morning, saw a......

Black Lips Trash Bowery One of the nice things about being a music fan in New York City is that you rarely have to wait very long to see a band you're recently missed. The Black Lips famously played about 6,000 shows at SXSW this year, yet despite our interest in checking them out, we managed to catch them exactly zero times (with our final chance being cut short by that whole collapsing balcony thing.)......

We were just introduced to The Forms music recently, and once we were we immediately booked them for our show in Austin last week. Singer Alex Tween kept a log of his trip for us, which you can read below. Listen: Stravinsky.mp3 3/9 Brooklyn, NY. I reset the trip meter to 0.0 and after the first mile have the thought that there's only 1,956 more to Austin. I am accompanied by pal/tour photographer Andreas, as......

Borscht Belts were so last year! On an otherwise quiet President's Day, Governor Spitzer announced that he was authorizing the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe to build a casino in the Catskills. The tribe has been planning a casino in Monticello in Sullivan County for many years and the Mohawks agreed to "comply with applicable tax, labor, and health laws (so, things like cigarettes, alcohol and gasoline would be taxed). The deal would give NY......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: A truck vs. building in Staten Island, a hazmat situation in Queens and a child was stuck in an elevator in Times SquareThe 50 day protest over the Sean Bell shooting ends today - his family and friends held a daily rally, one day for each bullet fired by the police copyranter dares you to put some sizzle on your wrist with a bacon wristband The down side of......

The Daily News received renderings of what Coney Island may look like, if developer Thor Equities has its way. Thinkwell Design & Production designed a 6-acre plan for "Coney Island Park." Thinkwell creative director Chris Durmick said, "Whatever you come looking for at Coney Island, it's all going to be there." What happens in Coney Island, stays in Coney Island? The centerpiece of the plan is the "Leviathan, a 100 foot roller coaster with loop-de-loops......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: pedestrian struck by vehicle on 34th Street and 11th Ave, a school hazmat condition at 103rd and CPW, and an all hands fire in Soho on Thompson Street. Soho residents and shoppers want to trade parking spaces for wider sidewalks. If you've ever been on Prince Street on a Saturday, you know why. Chase Bank has agreed to turn off those annoying sidewalk projection ads-- about two dozen branches......

Police in NJ have released images of tattoos from one of four murdered women in hopes that someone can identify her. Last week, the women's bodies were found in a ditch behind a motel in Atlantic City, and investigators believe they were killed at different times in the past month and a half. All women had blond or dyed-blond hair and were positioned similarly; two of the women were prostitutes. Police swarmed the boardwalk, looking......

A quiet day on the Gothamist Newsmap: a stabbing in Inwood, a few fires in Brooklyn, and a number of traffic accidents. Are we damned to hear Adam Sandler's Thanksgiving Song every year from now on? It's become the Alice's Restaurant of the 21st Cenutry! The Times has a sad background piece on one of the women found dead in Atlantic City on Monday-- she had been working as a prostitute in the area.......

A private bus headed to Atlantic City crashed into a light pole in Sheepshead Bay. The 1987 Omnibus had been traveling west on Avenue U, but crossed into the eastbound lane yesterday evening and then crashed. The 66 year old driver and owner of the bus, Clyde McPhater, died from serious injuries. The police suspect he may have had a heart attack. Democratic district leader Lew Simon's group, Good Government Regular Democratic Club, had sponsored......

The NY Sun looks at the $1.5 billion Coney Island plan Thor Equities is looking to bring to Brooklyn. Thor, which has bought 10 acres of Coney Island and has already told some tenants to go and others that they'll be able to stay another summer, is looking to remake the stretch into a "into a year-round destination, and [give] it the feel of Las Vegas, Orlando, or Atlantic City.":New designs drawn up by the......

The cool and wet weather we've had for the first half of June should soon be coming to an end. Although today is only the 12th there's already been more than six inches of rain this month. Currently there's quite a bit of rain as close as Baltimore and Atlantic City. The rain is mostly moving toward the east but may nip us later in the day when an upper-level disturbance pulls it northward a......

This refrain has become sickeningly familiar : A child died in the Bronx, and his family was being investigated by the Administration for Children's Services. Authorities believe that little Quachon Brown was "thrown like a rag doll" by his mother's boyfriend for knocking over a TV set. and he was found with a smashed skull in his Norwood apartment. Alicia Brown (called Aleishia Smith in the Daily News) and Jose Calderon were questioned about the......

A.J. Daulerio, Oddjack...

Gothamist was reading the Columbia Daily Spectator, trying to recapture our youth (we are getting OLD), when we stopped at this headline: "New Policy Will Hurt Columbia Fanbase." Forget what the new policy is... Gothamist was surprised that Columbia's sports team actually had fanbases. There are alumni, yes, but fans? In our day, Gothamist would call them "fellow students." Anyway, the new policy is that Columbia is not allowing tailgating at football games, and making......