Entries from Gothamist tagged with 'bebetomatthews'
February 26, 2008
Photograph of Mayor Bloomberg proclaiming a counterfeit foods store closed in a raid of counterfeit good sellers by Bebeto Matthews/AP Nothing says press conference like raiding a 32 stores in what the city dubs "Counterfeit Triangle" and hauling away over a $1 million worth of brand-name products. The raid, taking down stores in the area bounded by Canal Street, Walker Street and Centre Street, occurred in the early morning, with cops using bolt-cutters to......
Continue Reading "Bloomberg Doesn't Want You to Fake Purse It"August 24, 2007
Yesterday, firefighters and the community were in Bay Ridge to remember Joseph Graffagnino, one of the firefighters who died while fighting last Saturday's 7-alarm fire at the Deutsche Bank building. The building, which was in the process of being dismantled, has been described as a deathtrap, what with the contractors using flammable materials, a broken standpipe (which couldn't deliver water to the fire), and a lack of FDNY inspection. Graffagnino and fellow Engine 24,......
Continue Reading "Firefighters Mourned As Anger Builds Towards Deutsche Bank Contractors, City and State"July 26, 2007
Yesterday, the three men charged with first-degree murder of police officer Russel Timoshenko all pleaded not guilty in Brooklyn court. However, Dexter Bostick, Robert Ellis, and Lee Woods, who were also charged with a number of other crimes related to the July 9 traffic stop shooting, did not ask for bail. The Post and Daily News had the varying statements the men gave investigators:Woods, 29, told detectives "I ain't going to jail for something I......
Continue Reading "Brooklyn Cop Shootings: Guns and Not Guilty Pleas"July 21, 2007
Animal rights protesters held a rally outside the National Football League's Park Avenue headquarters yesterday to ask for quarterback Michael Vick's suspension from the league. Earlier, the Atlanta Falcons star was indicted on federal felony charges for dogfighting. Here's what the Department of Justice's press release (PDF) said:According to the indictment, the defendants were involved in an ongoing animal fighting venture based out of a property located in Smithfield, Virginia, from early 2001 through......
Continue Reading "Protesters Demand That NFL Sacks Michael Vick"July 19, 2007
This morning, thousands of police officers and members of the community attended the funeral of Russel Timoshenko, a 23-year-old police officer shot during a traffic stop of a stolen SUV. Timoshenko, who died a few days after the shooting, was posthumously made a detective; Mayor Bloomberg explained it was "a small measure of our appreciation for the supreme sacrifice that Russel made, and to honor his life." Hundreds of people attended the wake, from......
Continue Reading "Community Attends Funeral of Slain Police Officer"June 21, 2007
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......
Continue Reading "Bloomberg Loves Being Mayor & Thinking About 2008 "June 17, 2007
Despite having been defeated in a City Council vote, where his chief of staff heckled Council Speaker Christine Quinn and threatened a black councilman with assassination, Councilman Charles Barron renamed a street in Brooklyn "Sonny Abubadika Carson Avenue" anyway, declaring that the renaming "is official whether they [presumably the city] take that sign down or not." Sonny Carson's name was struck from a list of people who would get honorary street signs earlier this spring.......
Continue Reading ""Sonny Carson Ave." Official Because Councilman Barron Says So"June 1, 2007
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn struck Sonny Carson's name from a list of of New Yorkers to be honored with a street named after them because she thought the political activist was too divisive a figure. Carson was a proponent of black economic empowerment and was distemperate in his views of other New York groups (e.g., whites, Jews, Koreans). Councilman Charles Barron, who shares Carson's past as a radical activist, thought Carson's exclusion from the......
Continue Reading "Carson Street Fight Gets Serious"May 31, 2007
Things got heated in the City Council yesterday as former Black Panther and Council Member Charles Barron squared off against Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who had removed the name of Sonny Carson from a list of people to be honored with having streets named after them. Sonny Carson was an activist who railed against Korean grocers and, not wanting to limit himself to an accusation of anti-Semitism, said he was anti-white in general. Quinn feels......
Continue Reading "Sonny Carson Battle in City Council"April 7, 2007
Yesterday was Good Friday, and Christians in the city remembered the day that Jesus Christ was crucified. One group, Communion and Liberation, carried a cross across the Brooklyn Bridge to St. Peter's Church on Barclay as part of the Way of the Cross reenactment. One of the Christian organization's members told NY1, "It always has a special significance that we commemorate that day also as part of Good Friday, because it's the idea of......
Continue Reading "Yes, That May Have Been Jesus Walking By"March 17, 2007
Yesterday, a grand jury decided to indict three detectives in the shooting of Sean Bell, an unarmed black man who had been celebrating the night before his wedding day at a Queens nightclub. The charges were manslaughter for Gescard Isnora and Michael Oliver and reckless endangerment for Marc Cooper. Isnora fired the first shot, one of 11 he eventually fired, while Oliver fired the most, 31 rounds. Cooper fired 4 times; in total, the......
Continue Reading "Bell Shooting Grand Jury Seemed "Careful""March 9, 2007
Today, Mayor Bloomberg met with the Bronx fire victims' families and later held a press conference about the tragedy, which is the deadliest fire (aside from September 11) since 1990 . The Mayor has been under fire for leaving the city yesterday - after a Thursday press conference about the fire - for a scheduled appearance in Miami, where he made jokes about "Mayors Gone Wild" in South Beach. In Miami, Mayor Bloomberg explained he......
Continue Reading "Mayor Meets With Bronx Fire Victims' Families"February 24, 2007
It's pretty funny when a story about over a dozen rats scurrying around a West Village Taco Bell-KFC location is the leading story on the local news (okay, there was a mention of an off-duty police officer shooting a neighbor, too). The footage (see here at WNBC), while totally repelling, is also amazing. And that rat dangling from the chair? No wonder everyone is swarming to 6th Avenue and West 4th Street to catch......
Continue Reading "West Village Rat Peep Show Mesmerizes All"January 2, 2007
If you see a cab with horns and fake brown-and-white fur, hail it! The Professional Bull Riders are offering free rides in special "bull taxis" to promote their invitational at Madison Square Garden this weekend. The Versus Invitational will showcase the "world's top 45 bull riders will clash against the best bulls in the industry," according the PBR website. All right, but those bull taxis are sort of awesome. There are five bull taxis......
Continue Reading "No BS Here: Bull Taxis Offer Free Rides "October 31, 2006
Yesterday the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene held a public hearing about banning trans fats in city restaurants. Overall, most people said it was a good thing, with health and diet experts noting the "historic nature of these hearings" and that 22% of heart-related deaths are due to trans fats consumption. However, there was opposition - and not just from fast food restaurants. The Food Bank for New York City pointed out that......
Continue Reading "Much Support for Trans Fats Ban"October 13, 2006
Investigators have spent the hours after a plane, carrying Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle and his flight instructor Tyler Stanger, crashed into an Upper East Side building gathering evidence from the street. Federal transportation investigators believe that the single engine Cirrus SR 20 was trying to make a U-turn when it turned left over the East River, based on something either Lidle or Stanger told an official at Teterboro Airport. According to radar, the plane......
Continue Reading "Lidle Crash Investigated, NYC Flight Rules Debated"August 10, 2006
As delays snarled Laguardia, JFK, and Newark with news that British authorities had stopped a terrorist plot to blow up airliners flying the U.S., New York City's security level remained at "elevated" - which is where it's been since September 11, 2001. Governor Pataki increased state police, Port Authority police, and National Guard presence at the airports, and said, "I want to assure all New Yorkers that we have and will continue to provide......
Continue Reading "City Reacts to London Airplane Bomb Plot"April 15, 2006
Amy from Newyorkology woke up at 5am to get the money-shot of the Queen Mary 2 arriving at the Brooklyn Cruise Ship Terminal. She reports: The ship arrived at its new New York home port around 5 a.m. and tour buses could be seen streaming into the gated terminal area. The streets in the surrounding industrial neighborhood had been cleaned of trash and at least one heavily-potholed street showed off a quick-and-dirty repaving job.......
Continue Reading "Queen Mary Arrives in Red Hook"March 8, 2005
Yesterday afternoon, the jury deliberating the manslaughter case of Officer Bryan Conroy's fatal shooting of African immigrant Ousmane Zongo announced they were deadlocked again, declaring a mistrial. In May 2003, Zongo had been restoring art in one of the storage rooms at the Chelsea mini-storage; Conroy was working a sting operation there as well. They confronted each other in the dark, twisting warrens of the storage facility and what exactly happened has been at the......
Continue Reading "Mistrial in Zongo Manslaughter"October 26, 2004
As part of the centennial celebration of NYC subways, the MTA brought back the Ms. Subways competition, which had been Miss Subways and dormant since 1976, and crowned Caroline Sanchez-Bernat, an actress from Morningside Heights, the new Ms. Subways. The Post says Sanchez-Bernat takes the C train, and part of her duties will include riding the special centennial train at City Hall Station with Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Pataki tomorrow as well as being......
Continue Reading "Ms. Subway 2004 Crowned"August 18, 2004
Gothamist did an interview with the Associated Press about local blogs (which has turned up in a couple newspapers and websites). Since the AP decided to run a photograph with the story, we met up with AP photojournalist Bebeto Matthews in Midtown, near Rockefeller Center. After learning that Gothamist likes to blog about most anything we find interesting (and in order to avoid looking too posed), Matthews suggested taking a picture with David Combs,......
Continue Reading "Finding Things To Blog About"
