A Virginia drug dealer faces 25 years in prison after DNA evidence led to his indictment for the 1993 rape of a 16-year-old NYC girl. Alberto Barriera, 46, has been charged with first degree rape, robbery and burglary after he attacked the teenage victim when she was returning to her LES home, took her money and jewelry, choked her and sexually assaulted her. District Attorney Cyrus Vance said in a statement, “It is impossible to overstate the importance of expanding the New York State DNA databank to include DNA collection upon conviction for all Penal Law crimes — felonies and misdemeanors, as this case starkly shows." more ›

Though he was initially arrested for jumping the turnstile at the 116th Street 6 train station, cops have charged Shon Holland, 40, for a slew of other crimes, including raping a 79-year-old woman in her apartment building in the Bronx. Holland was caught on Friday by anti-terror cops in the subway station, and when he was taken into custody cops discovered he was wanted for violating an order of protection issued to his old girlfriend. Later, detectives discovered his DNA matched a sample taken from the rape victim's clothing. more ›

Another year, another new fee that may drive productions filmed in New York to, well, Canada or someplace. According to the NY Times, the new charge of $3,200 would accompany each permit to film inside city owned buildings. Of the 54 buildings included, there were reportedly 190 requests to film in them last year. more ›

In addition to the Bicycle Access to Buildings Law, which requires commercial building owners to allow tenants to bring bicycles to their offices, another bike law went into effect recently: The Bicycle Access to Garages Law. It requires some commercial garages and parking lots to provide spaces for bikes at a specific ratio relative to their number of car spaces. But prices for the new bike parking have been left up to the market, and Streetsblog notices that at least one garage is taking cyclists for the proverbial ride. more ›

Yesterday police arrested a special education teacher for the Bronx School Of Science Inquiry and Investigation at M.S. 331, charging him with rape and sexual misconduct. Teacher Bill Agosto, 26, is charged with third degree rape and sexual misconduct for allegedly carrying on a year-long sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl, who was not a student at M.S. 331. Police sources tell the Daily News the relationship was consensual, and resulted in the girl getting pregnant. The affair allegedly began when he worked at a different school as a track coach. more ›

Starting today, extremely overweight passengers on United Airlines may be forced to buy an extra seat to accommodate their extra padding. A spokeswoman for the airline tells Bloomberg News the policy is being implemented in response to "hundreds" of complaints, and that until today more svelte customers had no choice but to "share their seat with the oversized guest." According to the new rules, an obese flier may be required to pay for an extra seat if he or she can't buckle the seatbelt (even using the seatbelt extender) or can't put the armrests down when seated. If the flight is not fully booked and two empty adjacent seats are available, flight attendants will relocate the passenger, free of charge. But if the flight is full, the passenger could be bumped to another flight or charged for an upgrade. Similar policies are already in effect at eight other domestic airlines, including Delta and Southwest. But up in ever-courteous Canada, the Supreme Court ruled that airlines must provide an extra seat for wide ends free of charge. more ›

With music and movie downloads prompting its customers to use loads of bandwidth, Time Warner Cable is testing out a controversial tiered-pricing plan for bandwidth usage in Rochester, NY, plus North Carolina and Texas: According to eWeek, "In addition to 5, 10, 20 and 40GB caps, the company said this week that it would offer a 100GB tier for heavy users. Prices (so far) would range from $29.95 to $75.00 a month, and users would be charged an extra dollar for every additional gigabyte they download, up to a maximum of $75. An 'unlimited' bandwidth plan, therefore, tops out at $150." more ›

more ›