The Brooklyn resident whose name caused him $2.1 million of trouble is still being held at Rikers, but a judge lowered his bail from $1 million to $10,000. Benjamin Lovell, a Keyspan Energy salesman with a bank account of $400, was dubious when a Commerce bank teller told him he had a $5 million account. But he withdrew $2.1 million after bank officials insisted the money was his. Of course, what really happened was Commerce......

After talk of flight caps to help ease airport congestion that leave many travelers very irritable, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced another policy to help ease airport woes. The DOT will let airports charge airlines based on the time of day and volume of traffic their planes are landing in. Previously, aircraft was only charged based on plane weight. The hope, per the USDOT, is that "airports would be able to spread traffic more......

On the heels of the recent fare increase approval, it has come out that the MTA has spent about $2.5 million on changing the uniforms of New York City Subway token booth clerks, or as the MTA calls them "station agents". That breaks down to $738 per employee for white shirts, grey pants or skirts, grey and black ties or ascots, and a burgundy vest, sweater and coat. A MTA spokesperson told the Daily......

A look at some noteworthy television this week: Art in the Twenty-First Century (Sunday, 10:00 p.m., WNET 13) Four artists - Robert Adams, Mark Dion , Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle Ursula von Rydingsvard – who explore the intersection between nature and culture. Billy Crystal: The Mark Twain Prize (Monday & Thursday, 9:00 p.m., WNET 13; Saturday, 7:30 p.m. WLIW 21) Billy Crystal receives the tenth annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at the Kennedy Center in......

Lauren Weedman's memoir, A Woman Trapped in a Woman's Body, isn't the standard memoir. It's not about getting addicted to drugs and going to rehab or about living on the streets and selling her body. It's about what happens when you start doing stand up for ten minutes every night at the dinner table when you're eight because you don't want your adopted parents to send you back to the adoption agency because you didn't......

Mayor Bloomberg announced that the city was prepared for the possible two-day taxi strike that some taxi driver groups have threatened for tomorrow morning, starting at 5AM. About 7,000 of the city's 44,000 taxi drivers (there are about 13,000 cabs in total) have reportedly promised to strike over new technology that the Taxi and Limousine Commission wants to install in all cabs. Some drivers' issues with the technology, which includes GPS tracking systems and......

The NY Times has a slide show of assorted items that could be perfect wedding gifts for book lovers. Suggestions range from whimsical bookshelves to personalized book plates. We were most intrigued by Levenger's Thai Book Rest - we suppose you could get a pair of two for a wedding couple. Or one, plus some massage oils and a copy of the Kama Sutra as a cheeky bridal/bachelorette party shower gift. Anyway, on with this......

The other day, Mayor Bloomberg unveiled a new way the city will be able to monitor streets and make sure they are in good repair: The Street Conditions Observation Unit (SCOUT). SCOUT inspectors will "drive every City street once per month and report conditions that negatively impact quality of life to 311." The inspectors will use their Blackberrys to report things like graffiti, clogged sewers, potholes, damaged bus shelters, and more. Mayor Bloomberg explained,......

The NYCLU and ACLU are suing the Transportation Security Administration and Jet Blue over an incident where a passenger was forced to cover/change his shirt, which had Arabic lettering. Last year, Reid Jarrar, an American resident of Iraqi descent, was taking a JetBlue flight at JFK when a TSA official asked him to over his shirt, which read "We Will Not Be Silent" in both English and Arabic. The shirt's message is taken from the......

The city continued clean-up at the site of Wednesday's Midtown steam pipe explosion at East 41st and Lexington Avenue. Vanderbilt Avenue has been reopened, and Third Avenue was scheduled to be reopened today. Clean up of 42nd Street between Third and Park should be done by Monday, while clean up of Lexington between 42nd and 43rd should be done by the end of the weekend. Here's what the city said about the asbestos samples:The......

As we know, Con Edison and the New York City Department of Environmental Protection have confirmed that asbestos was found in debris after the steam pipe explosion at 41st Street and Lexington, but that there is no airborne asbestos. If you were in the area of the explosion and have contaminated clothing, Con Ed is actually accepting clothes and will dispose of them:Anyone who was in that area around 6 p.m. who has dust or......

We'd give you a review of the iPhone's capabilities - if we could get the damn thing activated. Yes, the ultimate irony: Activating the phone take much longer than waiting on line for one! Apparently AT&T underestimated the number of phones that would be bought - and the number of people who'd try to activate them - and various systems weren't able to handle activation requests. No, it's not the end of the world......

With lines of potential customers snaking around the block, New York's Apple Stores on Fifth Avenue and in SoHo opened their doors at 6PM for the launch of the iPhone, the unbelievably hyped multi-functioning personal accessory. Overall, the lines moved pretty quickly, as Apple employees just focused their efforts on letting customers buy iPhones and move out. The early customers couldn't use the iPhone demos, though later customers were able to try them out......

Everyday at 5 PM EST, Peabody award winning journalist Gary Baumgarten sits down with the likes of Arianna Huffington, Dr. Keith Ablow, and Mia Farrow for a one on one discussion. But this isn't for TV or the Radio, it's for Paltalk's News Talk Online , a web based talk show that allows listeners from all over the world to get the answers they want by asking the questions themselves. How did you get involved......

In a town whose worst pork chop might come with a $75 price tag and a perfunctory heirloom vegetable, but whose best tamale might come from a guy in Sunset Park with an Igloo cooler tied to his BMX, it may also come as no surprise that food purveyors like to have as much control over their raw materials as possible. Long suffering menu copy words like fresh and house-made actually still mean something......

Queens based discount carrier JetBlue is starting to reimburse passengers who were affected by the implosion of JetBlue operations late last week after an icy storm. According to the NY Times, passenger woes will be addressed in a variety of ways, from "$25 toward a future flight to a round-trip ticket," depending on how bad the passengers had it. The Times and CNN received different numbers, so WABC 7 tried to consolidate all the......

Yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg unveiled the first new bus shelter from the billion-dollar street furniture contract with Cemusa. The shelter, located at Queens Boulevard and 82nd Avenue, is made out of stainless-steel and tempered glass (both the walls and the roof) and was designed by Grimshaw Architects. Some more details from Cemusa:- Each bus shelter will include bench seating. The bench is vandal-resistant and designed to prevent reclining. - The bus shelters display the name......

December 7: Alex Prud’homme at O&CO. Join Alex Prud’homme, Julia Child's grandnephew, as he recounts stories about Julia and reads from her memoir, My Life in France, which he co-authored. He will also be available to sign books, which might make a great present for someone on your holiday shopping list. O&CO. store, Grand Central Terminal, Graybar Passage--Lexington Ave & 42nd St. (212-973-1472), 6:00 pm, Free. December 8 - 17: Gingerbread Homes for Animals Pastry......

You might envy the charm of brownstone life, but apparently one pitfall is that the some mail carriers don't like to deliver the mail to them. The NY Sun examines the situation after some Brooklyn residents realized their mail wasn't coming. Mail carriers feel stoops are dangerous especially in winter weather, and lately some residents' mail has been "rained upon, blown away, and destroyed." You'd think the mail would have to be delivered at the......

There's a bizarre, perhaps "only in the skies," story in this New Yorker's Talk of the Town. During aan American Airlines filght from Paris' Charles de Gaulle to JFK Airport, a gay couple was asked to stop kissing/touching by a stewardess. The stewardess claimed that the purser wanted George Tsikhiseli and Stephan Varnier to stop "the touching and the kissing." The couple was shocked, as were neighboring passengers and fellow New Yorkers. Tsikhiseli and Varnier,......

The government is asking Americans not to eat spinach as it continues to investigate the E.coli outbreak related to the leafy green. Spinach - and other vegetable - supplier Natural Selection has been cleared of contamination, but the FDA hasn't lifted the recalls on Natural Selection brands. But some restaurants and grocery stores are still featuring spinach, as the Post reports seeing "spinach soups, spinach pizzas and even bunches of fresh spinach." Now, spinach soups......

Ooh - NY1 got "exclusive" access to 311 telephone records and found that thousands of calls were made complaining about the Queens blackout. Which seems to fly in the face of City Hall's claim that they had no idea of the severity of the blackout. From NY1:Beginning on Monday, July 17, 819 calls were placed, and calls spiked at 3,497 on Wednesday the 19th, with residents reporting power problems in Queens and other parts of......

British intellgience says they have stopped a plot involving bombing flights bound for the U.S. today. British authorities have arrested over twenty people connected to the plot. Apparently the bombs would be carried in "hand luggage," leading airports to cancel flights and start screening passengers by hand. As a result, the Department of Homeland Security has raised the aviation sector's threat level for flights between the US and UK; further, "Due to the nature of......

Most of the city got to enjoy yesterday's cooler weather - except for Queens residents and business owners. For the second day in a row, homes and businesses had little or no power and subway service was limited, with many commutes that would take 30 minutes tops taking 90 minutes. The MTA blamed Con Ed, saying, "Because of the low-voltage problem, not enough power is available to power subway signals in the area." And Con......

According to our friends at Curbed, Broadway Panhandler will be moving to 8th Street (at Mercer) in August. It's one of Gothamist's favorite kitchen supply stores. You can't beat their Le Creuset sale every January, their customer service is terrific and they offer knife sharpening each weekend (call in advance to confirm times: 866-266-5927). This move will complete a troika of kitchenware store openings and moves within the past year. Among our other favorite sources,......

December 8-16: Give the Gift of Cooking at 5% Off So you want that special someone in your life to cook you a nice dinner, but they need a little help? Give them a gift certificate for the Institute of Culinary Education and receive 5% off from December 8-16. Gift certificates can be purchased in any dollar amount over $75. They have a two year limitation and can be used toward the purchase of any......

We are giving you fair warning: For better or for worse, in the next two months you are going to hear a lot about the plight of the modern transit worker and the incompetence of the MTA. Why? Because the last-mintue three-year contract that the Transport Workers Union signed with the MTA in 2002 expires at 12:01 a.m. on December 16. Isn't that still a bit off? Yes, but negotiations started yesterday. What is......

Gothamist loved the NY Times article about how the new Commerce Bank in Chinatown has 7500 safe deposit boxes (while the usual branch will only have 500) because it basically tells people all they need to know about Chinese people: - They like money - They like safe deposit boxes - They like feng shui - They like dim sum - They like the number 8 - Lion dances are essential The article also notes......

Jonah Peretti, Director of R&D, Eyebeam...

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