The NY Times is reporting that the Nets won't be playing in Brooklyn for the 2009-2010 season because the arena won't be finished until 2010. The Times attributes the delay to legal challenges. The most publicized lawsuit is the federal case brought by 13 property owners and tenants. The suit alleges that the taking of their property via eminent domain was unconstitutional. In June, a US District Court judge dismissed the case, finding that......

The Supreme Court essentially upheld an Appeals Court ruling that said New York City must pay the private education of disabled students. The twist is that the students and their parents don't even need to try to see if the public school programs are adequate for them. Actually, there's another twist: The lawsuit against the city was filed by former Viacom CEO and co-founder of MTV, multimillionaire Tom Freston. Freston's son Gilbert has learning disabilities,......

After years of legal wrangling, the Appellate Court has backed the College of Staten Island and says that the CUNY school can deny official status to fraternity Chi Iota. But the battle may not be over, as the brothers want to fight this at the Supreme Court. Chi iota had applied for official status at CSI in an attempt to be the first Greek-letter organization on campus, but CSI denied their application, finding that the......

Former NJ Governor and onetime EPA head in the Bush administration, Christine Todd Whitman, initially refused to appear before Congress to testify about the agency's post-9/11 assurances that air quality was safe in downtown Manhattan. A day later, she changed her mind and now says that she'll testify before a committee if its members insist upon it. "I am extremely proud of the EPA's work in response to the terrorist attacks on our nation on......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a bomb threat at New York Law School on Worth St. in Manhattan, shots fired on New York Ave. in Brooklyn, and a person in the river off of Manhattan's 59th St. and 12th Ave. The former head of the NYPD's forensic crime lab, Deputy Chief Denis McCarthy, was transferred to a patrol division by Chief Ray Kelly after allegations of falsified lab reports were substantiated by investigators. Debra......

When we hear about the city's scuffles with foreign countries, it usually involves diplomats and scofflaw parking. Well, this time, the scuffle does involve diplomats, but now the city will be arguing why foreign countries should pay real estate taxes in front of the Supreme Court. The NY Sun sheds light on the city's case versus the Department of Justice: The city wants India and Mongolia to pay millions in real estate taxes because their......

While divorce these days is all too common, divorce papers filed by Jennifer Swindal on Tuesday in Hillsborough County Circuit Court involve a less than common family. Jennifer Swindal, the daughter of Yankees principal owner George Steinbrenner, cited irreconcilable differences when she filed for divorce from Steve Swindal after 23 years of marriage. Is the reason truly irreconcilable differences, or are Steve Swindal's February 15th arrest for driving under the influence and The Boss' incessant......

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a ruling that allows people between 18 and 21 years to buy spray paint and broad-tipped markers. Yes, the city has been trying to block the sale of things that might lead to graffiti for over the year, but the law was so nutty that District Judge George Daniels stopped the city's ban until the issue could be further looked into. Well, the 2nd Circuit wrote that......

Last December, Judge Richard Berman ruled that subway bag checks were constitutional. Naturally, the NYCLU appealed that decision, but today, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the constitutionality of bag checks. From the AP: In its written ruling, the appeals court noted that New York's subway system is an "icon of the city's culture and history, an engine of its colossal economy, a subterranean repository of its art and music, and, most often,......

A Utah artist's right to make naked Barbie photographs (okay, naked Barbie in a blender...naked tortilla wrapped and salsa covered Barbie in a casserole, baking in the oven) was upheld by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. The matter was brought to 9th Circuit Court by Mattel after a lower court's decision that satirizing the Barbie was all right. Mattel feels that Tom Forsythe's images of naked Barbies being attacked by kitchen......

"The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last Tuesday that Web loggers, website operators and e-mail list editors can't be held responsible for libel for information they republish, extending crucial First Amendment protections to do-it-yourself online publishers... 'One-way news publications have editors and fact-checkers, and they're not just selling information -- they're selling reliability,' said Cindy Cohn, legal director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. 'But on blogs or e-mail lists, people aren't necessarily selling anything,......