Through some strange stroke of Manhattan Supreme Court scheduling, Ja Rule, Remy Ma, Lil Wayne and Busta Rhymes all appeared in court yesterday (at different times) to face various charges. Ja Rule and Lil Wayne faced gun possession charges from separate incidents on July 22. The pair, who collaborated on a song "Uh Oh," also shared the same attorney, Stacey Richman. Richman said that Lil Wayne couldn't be guilty, because when his tour bus......

Mayor Bloomberg spoke out about the various lawsuits alleging that his company, Bloomberg LP, discriminates against women. He believes that he was personally named in one of lawsuits "because I’m so visible, that obviously I’m a target." He added, "We think there's no substance to it whatsoever and the company will vigorously defend it and that's that. The Mayor has things more interesting by seemingly equivocating on his role at Bloomberg LP. After last week's......

Tenzing Bhutia, a 21-year-old Baruch College student, is being held on $75,000 bail after fatally driving into a young woman crossing Bowery near East 4th Street in Lower Manhattan. Bhutia did not stop after hitting Julia Thomson early Sunday morning, and when police found him - and his father's damaged Mercedes Benz in Queens - hours later, his blood alcohol was 0.087, above the 0.08 legal limit. The Post reports that Thomson (pictured), a Scottish......

Why is it that things are hotter in Albany with the Legislative session over? The brouhaha between Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and Governor Eliot Spitzer has, as the Sun put it, "reached a new low." Bruno had a press conference yesterday, saying Spitzer's alleged State Police surveillance on Bruno's activities was "espionage." From the Times Union:"I've been in government 31 years and I've never experienced anything like this," said Bruno. "I was stunned to......

Albany seemed to be its usual stagnant self, as the legislative sessions closed on notes of rancor, versus happiness and optimism on the job well done. Many issues were left unresolved, and Governor Spitzer and Senate Majority seem to be rarin' for a fight. Baruch College professor Douglas Muzzio notes that "There's been bad blood" between Spitzer and Bruno for a while, which has now turned into a "full frontal assault on Joe Bruno."......

At a ceremony that was supposed to tout the 50 millionth call to 311, Mayor Bloomberg faced the media, who were eager to embrace the maybe-maybe not presidential candidate. Mayor Bloomberg remained steadfast in his conviction not to run for president, heartily proclaiming, "I've got the greatest job in the world," and that he would stay on as mayor for another 925 days. But, the NY Times says ahem, reporting Bloomberg aides have working......

In this week's New Yorker, Lauren Collins has a funny bit on the popularity of "Fuck Frank Gehry" T-shirts. Popular, that is, with Frank Gehry himself! The T-shirts first were a hit with Europeans who opposed the Bilbao project. Then they were sought after by critics of the Atlantic Yards. Then Gehry's driver saw the T-shirt at a super bowl party and soon a sample batch landed at Gehry's office. The architect explained, "Somebody......

Congratulations to everyone graduating this month! As NYU's commencement was today, with speaker jazz musician Wynton Marsalis, we decided to list the many NYC commencement speakers, with help from The Chronicle of Higher Education (if we've missed any or gotten it wrong, let us know in comments): Barnard College: Anna Deveare Smith, playwright-actress CUNY Lehman College: Representative Charles Rangel CUNY Brooklyn College: Roberta S. Matthews, provost and vice president for academic affairs at Brooklyn......

Can't a guy change his website without people suddenly asking questions about it? Well, if you're the billionaire mayor of the country's largest city who may or may not have presidential/gubernatorial leanings, then no. And not when he announces to to the press, either. Mayor Bloomberg's mikebloomberg.com website, which had most recently been his mayoral election and re-election site, underwent a makeover that emphasizes all of his initiatives. The mayor told the press, "This......

Tody on the Gothamist NewsMap: a carjacking in Staten Island; a missing patient at Woodhull Hospital in Brooklyn; and a fatal accident in Queens. The Staten Island carjacking, which included a police chase, injured three people, including a child and a police officer. One suspect is in custody and police are on scene looking for a possible 2nd suspect. The fatal accident in Queens was a small school bus striking a 23 year-old woman......

Update: WNBC reports that Cho Seung Hui sent a "box containing a manifesto of sorts, photographs and other material" (including videos) to NBC News. NBC News received it today and president Steve Capus turned the box over the FBI, but MSNBC says that the box was sent between the two shootings. The package included a long, “rambling, manifesto-like statement embedded with a series of photographs,” Capus said. The material is “hard-to-follow ... disturbing, very......

Tired of your job and want to strike out and open up a coffeehouse, even though your friends think you're crazy? Jonathan Rubinstein and his successful Joe coffeehouses were profiled in the Jobs section of the Times, $14,000 espresso machine and all. Rubinstein prices his java similarly to Starbucks and his customers will wait for his beautifully brewed coffees and espressos (the image is from the Joe website). With three locations (Waverly Place, East 13th......

Congressman Charles Rangel is in the news again, but this time he's not upsetting Southern states - he's scaring the bejesus out of young Americans! He told CBS's Face the Nation that he will will propose legislation to bring back the draft. Why? Because it might act as a war-deterrent, as well as fulfill the need for more troops. There's no question in my mind that this president and this administration would never have invaded......

The Mayor won a ruling from the state's highest court - the Court of Appeals - that says he's allowed to, er, ignore certain laws the City Council might pass against his wishes - if he thinks they violate state and federal law. The case they ruled on was the 2004 City Council law that required city contractors to offer domestic partner benefits; the Mayor vetoed it, saying it didn't hold up with state and......

A man who tried to rob a Harlem Dunkin' Donuts shot its manager to death yesterday. The attempted robbery was during broad daylight at 1PM, with the Post reporting that the robber waited in line until his turn and announced a stick up. The 20-something manager, a student at Baruch College, tried to flee, but was shot in the back, and then shot two more times as he tried to leave the store. The robber......

Ellen Friedrichs, Sex Educator...