More detalis about the Rikers Island jail guard who is suspected of giving a handcuff key to a man accused of killing a cop during a traffic stop. Kadessha Mulgrav was transferred to another jail after investigators found that not only she gave him a key, but also gave him a SIM card for a cellphone and took him to the shower room for no apparent reason. The Post reports she is being investigated for......

The crane inspector arrested for falsely claiming he had inspected the crane that eventually collapsed at East 51st Street on March 15 has been tied to additional false reports. Edward Marquette pleaded not guilty to the charges, which included tampering with public records. It's unclear which cranes he is accused of faking reports for, but the Department of Buildings has been trying to crack down on crane and construction safety after the March crane collapse......

The Department of Buildings suspended Michael Carbone, a senior DOB crane inspector, for "neglect of duty." The Post actually contacted the DOB, noting he "had cleared several complaints last year that claimed unqualified operators were working in the industry and that some of their licenses were fraudulent." In fact, a caller or callers kept complaining about crane operators not having licenses or obtaining them fraudulently. Last month, a top DOB official was arrested for giving......

As the Department of Buildings, Manhattan DA's office, and OSHA investigate the fatal May 30 crane collapse at East 91st Street and First Avenue, the crane's history continues to be a focus. Immediately after the collapse, it was suggested and later confirmed the crane was the same one that had been damaged at a West 46th Street construction site in 2007. The NY Times looks at the crane's "second life," reporting that the crane's turntable......

Photograph of building cranes by digiart2001 on Flickr Yesterday, the assistant chief inspector for cranes was arrested and charged with accepting bribes "to falsify inspection reports and overlook unqualified operators." Upon leaving court, James Delayo, 60, who is a 26-year veteran of the Department of Buildings, did not respond to when a street sweeper asked him "if he felt responsible" for the fatal crane collapses in recent months. Delayo allegedly gave a copy of......

While no one wants corruption in the public school system, hearing that four Department of Education officials were arrested for taking almost $1 million in bribes from private school bus companies. All the officials were in the DOE's Office of Public Transportation. According to the NY Times, the three supervisors and one inspector "accepted cash payments ranging from several hundred dollars a year from some companies to tens of thousands of dollars a year from......

A four-time State Assembly member representing East New York in Brooklyn was convicted of third-degree bribe-receiving and official misconduct yesterday. When a developer was interested in acquiring city land back in 2004 and 2005, Assemblywoman Diane Gordon asked for a home in a Queens gated community, worth $500,000. When the Brooklyn DA's office discovered evidence of bribe taking, they offered her a deal that would have let her off if she quit. But she ran......

Two years after the FBI raided his offices, a former State Assemblyman and labor leader pleaded guilty to racketeering. Brian McLaughlin was charged with over 40 crimes, using his power as a seven-term Assemblyman, division head of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, and head of the NYC Central Labor Council to bribe and steal. In court yesterday, he admitted, "I took funds illegally, basically from three areas: employees in the electrical industry, campaign funds,......

New York State Senate leader Joseph Bruno is still under FBI investigation for possibly improper ties to unions that deal with state pension agencies! In 2006, Bruno said of the FBI's look, "I have nothing to hide. They are going into background over the past five or six years," but the NY Times describes the feds' current investigation as widening. At issue are tens of millions of dollars paid by Albany labor unions in fees......

The hits keep coming for the NYPD. Yesterday, federal prosecutors accused a Brooklyn detective of drug trafficking. The indictment (you can read it here) claims Batista would leak law enforcement information to a cocaine ring that also engaged in violence. Another cop, Sergeant Henry Conde in internal affairs (!), was indicted for telling Batista that he was being probed. Batista, who worked out of the 90th Precinct in Brooklyn, pleaded "absolutely not guilty" and his......

At the direction of Gov. Spitzer, state inspector general Kristine Hamann (who handled the Troopergate investigation) is looking into allegations of "misfeasance and nonfeasance" at The Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor. The commission was formed in 1953 to root out corruption and mob control of the docks in New York. Ironically, it's now the waterfront watchdog that has come under scrutiny for misdeeds that include that it "hired unqualified police officers, inappropriately spent agency......

A grand jury voted to indict former police commissioner Bernard Kerik on federal corruption charges yesterday and, this morning, he surrender to the FBI in White Plains. The indictment was sealed, but the 16 counts include charges of "conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud, tax fraud and making false statements." The U.S. Attorney's office, which sought the indictment, and the FBI are giving a press conference now; U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York......

The U.S. Attorney's office will be asking a grand jury to indict former police commissioner Bernard Kerik on tax evasion, corruption, and conspiracy charges. Kerik has reportedly made arrangements to surrender tomorrow, instead of being arrested by U.S. marshals. Kerik's dealings have also been questioned, even back when his friend Rudy Giuliani was mayor, but his past became a big story when President Bush nominated him for Secretary of Homeland Security in 2004, only for......

Former FBI agent Roy Lindley DeVecchio has been on trial for four counts of murder, as prosecutors have accused him of being a mob informant. And the trial is being described as a "blockbuster" because it's "one of the worst law enforcement corruption cases in U.S. history." But DeVecchio wasn't centerstage yesterday - news about former Mayor - and former U.S. Attorney - Rudy Giuliani riveted the court. DeVecchio worked with mob informant Gregory Scarpa......

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn gave a speech at an Association for a Better New York event yesterday that seemed to be a preview into Quinn's 2009 mayoral campaign. According to CityRoom, the speech "seemed to be steered toward showing Ms. Quinn to be a responsible, knowledgeable fiscal heavyweight who would be an effective watchdog of New York City’s financial health." Quinn presented five ideas, including stronger oversight of independent agencies like the NYC Transit......

It's turns out that a dirty tricks campaign - even if it's not quite criminal - can be pretty damaging. A new Quinnipiac poll shows that Governor Spitzer's approval rating has dropped to a new low of 47%. Of course, that's the low after nine months in office, so there's still room for improvement - or to find a new low. Most intriguingly, more than three-quarters of voters want Spitzer to testify about the scheme......

READING: Rosemarie Tichler, casting director and artistic producer at New York's Public Theater, and playwright Barry Jay Kaplan have put together a written work called Actors at Work. Tonight they'll be discussing this quintessential, and inspirational, resource. 7:30pm // Barnes & Noble [1972 Broadway] // Free THEATER: Writer/director Peter A. Campbell works his multimedia magic on Euripides’s Iphigenia in Tauris (not to be confused with Iphigenia at Aulis, which Charles Mee has re-imagined in a......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a shooting at Quincy St. and Classon Ave. in Brooklyn, a homicide on 76th St. in Queens, and a missing child on East 174th St. in the Bronx. Martin Scorsese sold his four-story, five-bedroom townhouse on Manhattan's Upper East Side for $6.15 million, after cutting $500K off the price. Someone at Fox News is allegedly fooling around with Wikipedia entries to make itself look better and competitors worse. The......

The Invasion (directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel) Stylish, political, visually arresting and darn right freaky, The Invasion is a horror movie that taps into what really horrifies us today—namely that the people in our lives could turn into personality-less automatons influenced by some evil alien virus. It may sound like a totally fantastical premise, but in the context of the movie it really works. Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig star in this remake of Invasion of......

MOVIE: The new Hairspray has set up special Sing-A-Long screenings! They begin nationwide today, and there will be three right here in New York. If you don't like rowdy theaters, skip this one! All Weekend // Various Times // Regal Union Sq 14; Clearview Chelsea 9; AMC Empire 42nd 25 MUSIC: Head down to the Seaport for an evening of Billie Holiday tunes. Turntables on the Hudson will be celebrating the release of Billie Holiday......

WNBC’s investigative reporter Jonathan Dienst is a native of the tri-state area, originally from Teaneck, New Jersey and is a graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He has worked behind the scenes at Newsday, and got his start in television at WSAV-TV in Savannah, Georgia where he worked for about half a year. He then had the opportunity to return to the city as NY1 was starting up and eventually moved to......

Former Brooklyn political boss Clarence Norman Jr. and former Justice Gerald Garson appeared separately in a Brooklyn courtroom yesterday, but both left in handcuffs and headed off to prison after sentencing on corruption charges. Actually, Garson received a stay on his imprisonment while he appeals his conviction. The two disgraced public officials were sentenced in successive hearings, but both cases are related and part of the Brooklyn DA's office five year investigation into governmental......

Columbia University has agreed to let its financial aid office monitored for five years as well as pay $1.125 million to a national fund aimed at financial aid education for students and families in a settlement with the NY State Attorney General's office. In April, AG Andrew Cuomo revealed that financial aid officials at universities had recommended with one student loan organization, as the same officials held stock or other advisory positions at the loan......

A 17-foot motorboat called "Bite Me" was capsized by the wake of a passing tugboat yesterday afternoon and a group of six people were thrown into the water. The boat's owner was taking a friend and his family, including his wife, two daughters and a nephew, for a cruise around the Statue of Liberty. On the return trip, their boat was swamped by the passing tug and all six people were in the water for......

The Washington Square News has brought the scandal involving now-former NYU College of Arts and Sciences Student Council president Meredith Dolgin to a new level with a Flash Scandal at CAS interactive. Want to know the timeline? Or background on the players? Or what's even being investigated (election impropriety, financial malfeasance)? It's there! And the WSN reported that Dolgin stepped down and tried to install a new president to the Student Council, which the......

The 22nd Annual April Fools' Day Parade is today. Did you go? We hope not, because this is a long running joke itself. During its 15th year the press was fooled and showed up to find no parade. From the Museum of Hoaxes: In 2000 a news release was sent to the media stating that the 15th annual New York City April Fool's Day Parade was scheduled to begin at noon on 59th Street......

Not only do rats like gorditas, they like faux French food too! Just after the Health Department announced new restaurant inspection measures in the wake of the rat-infested, yet-Health Department-passed Village Taco Bell-KFC, WNBC found rats at an Au Bon Pain at Third Avenue and 40th Street. Rats like Midtown, too! WNBC spoke to an ABP representative who "expressed surprise over the findings." (The last time the location was inspected was last August.) A......

In less than a year and a half, former Brooklyn Assemblyman and Democratic party boss Clarence Norman was found guilty on corruption charges. This time, a jury found Norman guilty of five counts of coercion, grand larceny by extortion, and attempted grand larceny by extortion related to, as the Daily News put it, "shaking down court candidate Karen Yellen for $10,000" back in 2002. Norman's threat was that she would lose his support if she......

THEATER: Should we be trying to protect our children from the man in red? That’s the premise of Jeff Goode’s much-performed The Eight: Reindeer Monologues, in which Santa’s vices are exposed by those on the receiving end of his lash. A scandal erupts when Vixen accuses Santa of sexual harassment; in the subsequent media frenzy, the other members of the sleigh team demand to share their perspectives, and a sordid tale of corruption comes to......

32-year-old artist, illustrator, and writer Dan Goldman may hail from Miami, but his current "Brooklyn-blessed" status is evident in his work, whether depicting subway scenes he's meticulously researched or in the guise of 2011 Williamsburg hipster turned Iraq blogger in his breakout collaboration with journalist Anthony Lappé, Shooting War. Shooting War was serialized earlier this year by SMITH Magazine, and will see an expanded hardcover release next fall from Warner Books. Goldman already had one......