A group of emotionally scarred commuters who were trapped on an A train for eight hours overnight during last year's Christmas weekend blizzard are suing the MTA. Nearly 500 souls were stuck aboard the train when it ground to a halt between the Aqueduct and Rockaway Boulevard stations around 1 a.m. on December 26th, as three feet of snow piled up around them. Desperation quickly set in: Twitter user OMJohnnyG wrote, "Son!!! I wanna go home!!! Dudes on the train talking about cannibalism lol I want out!!!" more ›

Former Secretary of Defense and closet flesh-eating lizard Donald Rumsfeld once said, "You go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want." The statement can be applied to the Department of Sanitation's lack of tire chains during last year's blizzard that kept everyone's block nice and smelly. But it appears that Sanitation will attempt to wing it on the cheap again this year: instead of buying new ones, they're going to instruct workers how to make better use of the old ones. more ›

Yesterday, the Department of Investigation released their long-awaited report on the alleged sanitation "slowdown" during last winter's Blizzageddon. And they ultimately found that there was no conspiracy to purposefully slowdown as revenge for department budget cuts. You can get the full report here. Thanks to it, one local politician may be facing contempt charges. more ›

Remember this past winter when everything wrong happened and the city said EMS and Sanitation teams couldn't do their jobs because everyone had abandoned their cars in the middle of the streets? That sucked, so the NYPD is now training a dozen officers to use tow trucks in case civilian drivers get snowed in. They'll also be learning how to break into locked cars. We feel safer already! more ›

Total of lost revenues incurred by the MTA due to last month's blizzard? $16 million. Cost of all that overtime? $14 million. Leaving New Yorkers stranded on the subway for hours? Priceless. All told, the blizzard ended up costing the MTA somewhere in the neighborhood of $30 million. But hey, act of God, right? City Council Transportation Chair James Vacca doesn't think so—he's says all that could have been avoided if the MTA only had its shit together. Vacca, you ask the impossible. more ›

And then there were two. Lawyer Sanford Rubenstein plans today to file a second wrongful death lawsuit related to the delayed EMT responses durring the blizzard. Last week he filed a lawsuit on behalf of the family of a 75-year-old woman who died after an ambulance took three hours to get to her. And today he's at it again, telling the Daily News he will file a wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of Robert Davis, whose 63-year-old wife Claire Reed also died of a heart attack before ambulances could arrive in the blizzard's aftermath. more ›

Mayor Bloomberg has largely scoffed at accusations that the Sanitation Department engaged in a purposeful "slowdown" during the Blizzaggedon, as retaliation for budget cuts in the department. But after one of the blizzard blame hearings in Manhattan Beach on Wednesday, Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes ripped into Bloomberg for "blowing off" the public hearing. more ›

The family of a 75-year-old Corona woman who died of a heart attack on December 27th is suing the city for $20 million, claiming Yvonne Freeman could have survived if the ambulance hadn't taken three hours in the storm to get to their house. Freeman's daughter, Lauren, told the Daily News, "She never had a chance. I felt so helpless. I can't believe they wouldn't plow the streets. The city can't let this happen again." more ›

The next round of Blizzageddon blame hearings have inspired a fresh round of mea culpas: today, MTA officials admitted that mistakes were made during the Blizzard. In particular, transit officials told the City Council Transportation Committee that they failed to stop trains and buses, hundreds of which were later stranded in the storm, frustrating powerless commuters for hours. Five more public hearings about the blizzard response are scheduled in each borough over the next two weeks. But while some are admitting blame, Mayor Bloomberg is continuing to stick up for the Sanitation Department. more ›

The NY Times has cracked the mystery regarding Mayor Bloomberg's whereabouts during the Christmas weekend blizzard. Although the Mayor has steadfastly refused to answer questions about his "private" time, the Paper of Record seems to have pretty definitive evidence about the main guy's location—and the answer will shock you about as much as the identity of Luke Skywalker's father or the gender of The Crying Game guy. In other words, sources say Bloomberg was in Bermuda, which isn't nearly as surprising as the fact that it's 2011 and we're still using The Crying Game for our rote plot twist references. But why won't Bloomberg just admit what everyone already knows? more ›

During a five hour hearing yesterday to get to the bottom of the Bloomberg administration's inadequate response to the December 26th blizzard, Deputy Mayor Stephen Goldsmith told the City Council, "We owe you and all New Yorkers for that lack of performance our administration’s apology and my personal promise not to let it happen again." Promises, promises! The Times reports that back in 1994, when Goldsmith was mayor of Indianapolis, he was blasted for being in NYC "while his city was struggling with the snow. But his administration opted not to declare a snow emergency, which would have prohibited parked cars on snow emergency routes." more ›

As the City Council hearing over everything the city did wrong during Blizzageddon continues, Councilman Charles Barron accused City Hall of being too Manhattan-centric (well, duh). CityRoom reports he said, "They cleaned the bike lanes in Manhattan before they got to Brooklyn." To be fair, neither got much attention immediately after the storm, but the Post did note that some Manhattan bike lanes were clear even before side streets. Won't somebody please pay attention to Brooklyn?! Fortunately it looks like everything is clear now, so the city can (God willing) start on Queens. more ›

The City Council is continuing to grill city officials about just what happened during the Blizzageddon catastrophe, and they're actually getting a few apologies! Emergency Management Commissioner Joseph Bruno said, "I should have moved more quickly," and Deputy Mayor Stephen Goldsmith admitted, "We owe you and all New Yorkers for that lack of performance our administration's apology and my personal promise not to let it happen again." Now, Mayor Bloomberg has released a full report on just what happened, and his action plan for the future. more ›

Medics are claiming that they may have been able to save people like a 75-year-old Queens mother who died during the storm had the 911 lines not been clogged with prank or just plain stupid phone calls. EMS units claim one man called complaining of a stomach ache, but later admitted that he had eaten a whole pizza about 20 minutes earlier. Other units responded to a call of a sick child in Brooklyn only to find that his parents were just hoping EMTs could make him finish his homework. more ›

It turns out that baby Addison Reinoso-Xoyatla did not "suddenly lose consciousness" on December 30th, but in fact had been shaken to death by his babysitter. Reinoso-Xoyatla's family initially claimed that emergency services were delayed because of unplowed streets, and their child died on the way to the hospital. But prosecutors now say babysitter Ana Delarosa allegedly shook the 3-month-old child, demanding "What is wrong with you? Why are you crying?," and his body went limp. Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said, "In severe and fatal cases of abusive head trauma, symptoms are unfortunately immediate and oftentimes irreversible." Delarosa faces 25 years in prison for second degree murder. more ›

South Brooklyn was particularly hard hit after last week's blizzard, from lack of snow plowing to the Sanitation Department's reckless dumping of snow that toppled 30 gravestones at Washington Cemetery. Now, as city officials try to win back the trust of New Yorkers, much criticized Deputy Mayor Stephen Goldsmith has said sorry to City Councilman David Greenfield. Greenfield, whose district covers Midwood, Boro Park and Bensonhurst, told the Daily Politics, "We went through everything over the past 10 days: From the late clean up, to gravestones to carbon monoxide poisoning to cars getting crushed to the fact we were the last community to be dug out on Saturday night. We covered it all, and he genuinely apologized." more ›

When he wasn't not denying his morbid fascination with making a second presidential bid, Rudy Giuliani spent much of his time on MSNBC's Morning Joe this morning criticizing Mayor Bloomberg for the city's poor response to the Blizzageddon, calling it a "big mistake." (You can see the video below) more ›

Mayor Bloomberg spoke to reporters today about the city's snow preparations for this weekend's predicted snowfall. Desperate to prove that the city won't screw up a non-blizzard snow event, he promised, “We plan to do a great job, the kind of job the public has come to expect us to do.” But just in case he's making a few changes. Like the city will be sending out "Street Condition Observation Unit Teams" (SCOUTs, get it?) to look for problem areas and adding GPS to to 50 Sanitation trucks in Brooklyn. Also, a few Department of Sanitation chiefs were demoted. more ›

We've likely seen the last of the blizzard deaths, but blame game is just beginning. Last night Chief John Peruggia, head of the Emergency Medical Services Command, was sacked by Fire Commissioner Salvatore Cassano. Peruggia, who will stay on with the FDNY in a "new role to be determined," is being replaced by 25-year FDNY veteran Abdo Nahmod. more ›

Some snow is headed to the New York City area starting tomorrow, and this is what Mayor Bloomberg had to say: "You can rest assured we’re going to go out there just like we did the last time. The public has a right to expect us to clean the streets and that’s exactly what we’re going to do.” Um, thanks but no thanks? And where's the suggestion to see shows on Broadway?! more ›

The Sanitation Department is still getting reamed over toppling gravestones at Washington Cemetery in Brooklyn. Trucks apparently were piling up snow into big mountains, but the mounds were so huge, the snow fell against a fence, which then buckled under the weight and collapsed into gravestones. One man whose aunt is buried there was irate, telling WCBS 2 that workers had to immediately dig out the gravestones, before he had to break the bad news to a relative, “How do you tell a 91-year-old woman that her sister’s grave was destroyed? What do you say?” more ›

Queens resident Miguel Mena got some good news and some bad news after last week's blizzard. The good news is that his car had not been towed, and was parked right where he left it in Mapleton, Brooklyn (near his job). The bad news is that plows weren't able to see it under a pile of snow, and crashed it into an unrecognizable hump of scrap metal. Sadly, no one seemed to be there to videotape it. more ›

As part of the residual blizzard-related-news trickle, the Daily News asks whether or not New Yorkers should be raising their pitchforks in anger at Mayor Bloomberg, because he may not have even been here. He might have been in Bermuda! And not left a Deputy Mayor in charge! Anarchy! (Snownarchy?) Except City Hall spokesman Jason Post told us, "There was no confusion; the Mayor was in charge." Resume your angry mobbing, please. more ›

The Boxing Day Blizzard of 2010 can add two more lives to its list of victims: An unidentified 66-year-old man died after being found nearly frozen to death on an unidentified subway platform the Monday after the storm, and a three-month-old infant—who was left brain dead when EMS couldn't get to his door in time because of snow drifts two days after the storm—succumbed to his injuries yesterday. Authorities would not release any information regarding the dead man other than his age. We sincerely hope these are the storm's last casualties. more ›