According to witnesses, 17-year-old Jessica Williams got a powerful punch in the mouth after mouthing off to NYPD housing cop Desmond Nichols last Sunday outside the Tompkins Houses in Bed-Stuy. The trouble started when Nichols stopped Williams for riding her bike on the sidewalk and asked to see her I.D. When pressed for her apartment number, she reportedly dismissed Nichols as a "rookie." This struck a nerve with Nichols (who is, in fact, a rookie),......

Photo courtesy Mike Xinnachs / WCBS 880; image artwork by mattmolnar. Today's a worse-than-usual day to fly American; it’s being reported that the airline’s baggage system is “not functioning” at JFK. Flights were being delayed earlier this morning while workers struggled to fix the unspecified malfunction, but finally the airline just said the hell with it and resumed flights without checked luggage on board. This also means the TSA is manually screening bags. AA has......

Photograph by [phil h] on Flickr Commuters trying to buy Metrocards with credit or debit cards on Monday or yesterday morning faced problems at non-working Metrocard vending machines and, worse, money taken out of their accounts though they were told the transactions didn't go through. The NY Times spoke to NYC Transit, which described the systemwide outages (yes, pretty much all the machines) as unprecedented. NYC Transit spokesman Paul Fleuranges said there was "some......

A judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by a former NYU student against the university after he broke his hip in a Jell-O wrestling tussle gone horribly wrong. As a junior in 2004, Avram Wisnia was one of the organizers of what was supposed to be a totally awesome “Beach Bash” event, held in an NYU dormitory courtyard with water guns, water balloons, and a kiddie pool filled with the gelatinous snack. Wisnia sought a......