Photograph of David Furnish, Elton John, Chelsea Clinton and Bill Clinton, via Wireimage Yesterday, Senator Barack Obama told 200 fundraisers that he had made a $2,300 personal check to Senator Hillary Clinton's campaign to help her retire her campaign debt. Clinton also appeared at the Mayflower Hotel (yes, where Eliot Spitzer had his rendez-vous with Kristen), where the focus was on the Democratic presidential contender and his one-time rival. The Washington Post described the......

Photograph of Bill, Chelsea, and Hillary Clinton on Tuesday night by Carolyn Kaster/AP Yet another example of foot-in-mouth syndrome due to the hours of punditry on TV, followed by an apology and suspension! Yesterday, while referring to Chelsea Clinton's campaigning on behalf of her mother, MSNBC correspondent David Shuster commented, "Doesn't it seem as if Chelsea is sort of being pimped out in some weird sort of way?" Yes, he totally said that. Or,......

Cordell Lochin is a bit of an enigma. The well-connected scenester, subject of an indulgent profile in the Observer last spring, presented himself as a partner in the obnoxiously affected nightspots La Esquina and The Box. Now the other entitled owners are distancing themselves from Lochin and the enigma will soon be wrapped inside a prison cell; Guest of a Guest has news that Lochin’s gotten sent up on a 3-year bid for involvement in......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a power outage on Country Club Rd. in the Bronx, an abduction on 89th St. and Amsterdam Ave. in Manhattan, and a stabbing on Decatur St. in Brooklyn. A buyer spent $54,000 to purchase a bottle of 60-year-old Macallan scotch at auction, bottled in 1926. Police responding to an accident call in Washington Heights were themselves the victims of a hit-and-run, when rear-ended by a speeding sedan. The driver......

Oprah Winfrey introduced one of her favorite things people at what the NY Times called "the largest spectacle of the campaign cycle" - the Oprah for Barack Obama rally in Des Moines, Iowa. Winfrey said, "For the very first time in my life, I feel compelled to stand up and to speak out for the man who I believe has a new vision for America," and told the audience of 15,000 said, "I am......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an unusual elevator rescue on Washington Ave. in Brooklyn, a pipe explosion on Richmond Terrace on Staten Island, and a person fatally struck by an A train at Van Siclen and Pitken Ave. in Brooklyn. NYC already has 91,000 practicing attorneys, but we can expect a lot more. Nearly 11,000 freshly minted JDs sat for the bar this summer and more than 70% of them passed. A 63-year-old man......

Former President Bill Clinton may love to eat foods like osso bucco, but he's not so happy with the restaurant Osso Buco. Clinton's lawyer sent owner Nino Selimaj a letter demanding that a photograph of Selimaj and Chelsea Clinton, which had been featured in the University Place location's window, be taken down. The AP reported that lawyer Douglas J. Band (apparently using letterhead from "the office of William Jefferson Clinton") noted the young Clinton's status......

Hilarious: The NY Times' election blog, The Empire Zone, reports that Chelsea Clinton's name wasn't found in the book of registered voters at the West 20th Street polling place: "The book containing her name was apparently forwarded to the wrong district, denying her the ability to enter a polling booth." D'oh! So she - and probably the other people in that book - had to fill out an "affidavit vote," ensuring that she would be......

Jason Eaton, Children's Book Author...