Park Slopers had their chance to complain about plane noise over their neighborhood, and now Brooklyn Heights locals are expressing their concerns about that incessant helicopter noise overhead. The tourist choppers that are sonically torturing them are all coming from the Downtown Manhattan Heliport, and the Brooklyn Paper is fueling the fire by reporting that the noise could cause brain damage. more ›

In Serbia, prosecutors have finally caught up with and charged the former Binghamton basketball player accused of beating a fellow student into a coma. In 2008 Miladin Kovacevic jumped bail and fled for his home country after getting into a fight with Brian Steinhauer at an upstate bar. The towering 23-year-old is accused of kicking the student, causing skull fractures and severe brain damage. more ›

Cheap-o jewelry sold at Walmart, Claire's and at NY-area dollar-stores contains a dangerous metal that could harm children, according to recent investigations. After Chinese toys were outed for containing lead last year, overseas manufacturers were forced to find different building blocks for their products. Some settled on cadmium, a metal that is extremely toxic, even in low doses. And kids don't even have to swallow the jewelry to see its ill effects! more ›

A Mexican day laborer is hospitalized with brain damage after being attacked somewhere in Williamsburg or Bushwick by three black men shouting "wetback." Mario Vera was riding his bike back home to Bushwick with groceries from a lower Manhattan food pantry when the young men hit him in the back of his head "with something hard" while yelling anti-immigrant slurs. The assault happened on September 23rd, but wasn't reported until last Friday, because Vera is an undocumented immigrant afraid to go to the police. (NYPD policy prohibits officers from sharing law-abiding immigrants' status with the Feds, but it has been known to happen.) more ›

Charla Nash, the Connecticut woman who was severely mauled by a friend's pet chimpanzee, remains under sedation, according to her doctors at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. The Stamford Advocate reports that they revealed the extent of her injuries as well: Nash, 55, "lost her nose, lips, eyelids, hands and bone structure in her mid-face and suffered significant brain, eye and tissue injuries in the attack." The hospital said that while her injuries have stabilized, "critical issues still remain related to a significant traumatic brain injury and injuries to her eyes that threaten her vision." The Stamford, CT police say the toxicology results for 200-pound chimp Travis, who was shot dead after the attack, will be available in the next few days. The decision whether the police will charge Travis's owner, Sondra Herold, (the police's criminal investigation is continuing) will take weeks. Nash's brother Stephen told the AP, "She's tougn. I'm optimistic. I think she can do it." more ›

Hold onto your chopsticks; the Times recently commissioned a toxicology report on sushi from 13 local establishments and got back some rather unappetizing results:

More than half of the restaurants and stores surveyed sold sushi with so much mercury that eating just six pieces a week would exceed the amount the EPA says can be safely consumed by an adult of average weight, which the agency defines as 154 pounds, 70 kilograms. People weighing less are advised to consume even less mercury. more ›