Yesterday, Queens residents in the City Council district represented by City Councilman Dennis Gallagher went to the polls to decide who will replace him until a November election. Right now, it seems like Republican candidate Anthony Como is leading, but only 70 votes separate him from Democrat Elizabeth Crowley. more ›

Dennis Gallagher, the married City Councilman representing Queens who was accused of raping a constituent in a drunken encounter last year, announced his planned resignation after pleading guilty to sexual abuse and forcible touching. Last summer, a 52-year-old woman alleged that she met Gallagher at a bar in Queens and after a night of drinking went with the Councilman to his district office, where he raped her. more ›

Yesterday, the Post reported City Councilman Dennis Gallagher, the Queens politican accused of raping a woman last summer, was offered a plea deal that would "keep him out of jail and off the sex-offender registry" and possibly force him to resign office. more ›

Queens City Councilman Dennis Gallagher, whose office was raided last July after rape allegations and was indicted by a grand jury in August, is smiling - for now. A judge dismissed the indictment, believing the defense's claim that the "grand jury process was compromised." The jurors had complained the prosecutors were trying to make Gallagher look "foolish." more ›

Not everyone got an over-hyped "I'm Not A Plastic Bag" when it hit Whole Foods last year, so the powers that be had to step in and put an end to the bag's nemesis: The Plastic Bag! more ›

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a police-involved shooting at 149th St. and 3rd Ave. in the Bronx, an attempted sexual assault on 55th St. in Brooklyn, and a bank robbery on West 52nd St. between 7th and 8th Aves.
• Kenneth Eng, noted earlier this year for his controversial essay "Why I Hate Blacks", was arrested again by the Feds shortly after pleading guilty to harrassing his neighbors and threatening them with a hammer.
• The New York Post reports that rumors of white people fleeing the city in a "white flight" are an urban myth, and that the latest census data supports the opposite conclusion. This is the first we've heard of any "white flight" rumors, and we probably would have correctly guessed the opposite over the last ten years.
• NYU is expanding across the East River, with the announcement of its first dorm in Brooklyn. The Brooklyn Paper reports that the school is opening a dorm for students in Brooklyn Heights, previously used as a dorm for the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society.
• Chris Noth signed on to the movie adapation of the HBO / NYC-centric series Sex and the City. He played the character Mr. Big, who flew to Paris to sweep protagonist Carrie off her feet in the series finale.
• Queens Crap has a round-up on what people are saying about the indictment of Queens Councilman Dennis Gallagher after he allegedly raped a 52-year-old woman in his Queens office.
• Martin Scorcese's Rolling Stones concert documentary has been pushed back seven months, to April, 2008. A Viacom spokesman said that the company needs more time to set up proper promotion for the movie.
• The Queens man who caught Barry Bonds' 756th homerun ball may just hang on to it, for sentimental reasons.
• A collection of spoof SubTalk transit posters.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a large fight on Fordham Rd. and Jerome Ave. in the Bronx, police activity in the employee parking lot at JFK Airport in Queens, and a pedestrian was struck on East 57th St. and Madison Ave. in Manhattan.
• Donald Trump owns almost 20% of Brooklyn's Starrett City that his dad bought for him when he graduated from business school. He now advises lower-income residents of the development that "This is not Communist China," in response to protests against a proposed sale and probable eviction.
• New York magazine's Daily Intelligencer points to the obvious conclusion of recent trends: two Duane Reade drug stores directly across the street from one another. What, no Chase banks nested inside?
• CSI: Egypt. The Brooklyn Museum catscanned a mummified body from Egypt and analysts determined that it died a completly normal and uneventful death.
• A former East Village drug kingpin is now busy getting West Village residents high on endorphins as a personal trainer.
• New York tap water may be proclaimed as the best by Mayor Bloomberg, but the city still pays $1 million annually for Poland Spring and other delivered water.
• The city is re-opening the bike-only lane on the north side of the Manhattan Bridge. Only The Blog Knows Brooklyn notes that it's been closed since October 2006.
• And a City Council member wants Councilman Dennis Gallagher, indicted on rape charges, to resign.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a person under a train at New Utrecht Ave. and 62nd St. in Brooklyn, a man overboard approximately 23 miles south of Floyd Benett Field (lower bay), and a shooting on East 13th St. and Ave. B. in Manhattan.
• A grand jury is deciding whether the off-duty cop who shot a man during a fender-bender will be charged.
• A 23-year-old former aide of Councilman Dennis Gallagher testified before a grand jury that he sexually harassed her 2 1/2 years ago when she volunteered at his office.
• The widely lauded August Aichorn Center for Residential Care on West 106th St. in Manhattan is under fire after workers at the facility for seriously troubled young people allegedly sexually preyed on the inpatients, repeatedly raping them.
• Everyone knows the eternal NYC burger institutions, but New York magazine points out some good burger joints new to the scene.
• Passengers headed back to New Jersey after a night in Manhattan were delayed for several hours after a train became stuck in one of the tunnels leaving Penn Station. The train got stuck about 200 feet from the platform and approximately 900 passengers had to evacuate to another train.
• Yankee A-Rod has hit his 500th HR; now let's root for Mets pitcher Tom Glavine pitching his way to win #300 tonight.
• Martha Stewart's daughter is paying almost $30K a month to get pregnant.

Queens Councilman Dennis Gallagher was arraigned yesterday on charges that he raped a 52-year-old woman in his district office. Gallagher maintains that the sex he had with the woman after a night of heavy drinking was consensual. The councilman faces ten criminal counts, including rape, assault, and sex charges, and could face up to 25 years in prison if found guilty. He was released after his arraignment on bail of $200,000. Gallagher's office was raided by police in July searching for DNA evidence of a sexual assault. He provided a DNA sample shortly thereafter to police. more ›

NY1 is reporting that City Councilman Dennis Gallagher has been indicted on rape charges by a Queens grand jury. Yesterday, the Queens City Councilman told the grand jury the sex was consensual. more ›

A Queens woman is telling police and the New York Post about an alleged sex attack she was the victim of that was supposedly perpetrated by Queens Councilman Dennis Gallagher. The Post even prints photographs of the woman's visible bruises. The 52-year-old victim was having dinner with a friend early one evening in a Queens restaurant named Danny Boy's, when they were approached by Gallagher and introduced by her friend. She claims that three hours later she was approached by the Councilman after leaving the Irish Pub and he was visibly drunk. The Post says that the victim was unwilling to discuss what exactly happened next under the advisement of prosecutors, but police are saying that she got into Gallagher's car and the pair drove to his office nearby. more ›

City Councilman Dennis Gallagher gave a DNA sample as the NYPD investigates claims that the Queens Republican raped a woman at his Kew Gardens office on Sunday. more ›

The police raided the office of Queens City Councilman Dennis Gallagher yesterday - and they were looking for DNA evidence of a sexual assault. The Juniper Park Civic Association President Robert Holden told the Sun he saw police officers taking evidence, "They just had boxes they were carrying. Bags and boxes of their tools." The Post got details of the alleged crime:

Gallagher met the woman at Danny Boy's, a bar where he's a regular, on Dry Harbor Road near both his district office on Metropolitan Avenue and his family's home, according to several sources. The sources said the two had apparently noticed each other on earlier visits to the bar. more ›

In light of the sad fate of St. Brigid on 7th and B, Fortotten-NY points our attention to the beautiful church in the above photo, St. Savior's. Where is this looker? Would you believe Maspeth, Queens? more ›