Two Rikers Island guards have pled guilty to felony assault charges for running a violent "Fight Club" like enforcement system that pitted gang members against inmates and resulted in the death of one 18-year-old prisoner. 33-year-old Michael McKie is expected to receive a two year sentence in January, while 37-year-old Khalid Nelson will receive one year. Department of Investigation Commissioner Rose Hearn said in a release that the two guards "fittingly…face prison sentences themselves. As inmates, they will appreciate the importance of Corrections Officers' maintaining integrity and safety in the City jails." more ›

Oh to have been a fly on the wall when Mayor Bloomberg heard about this! Today the FBI arrested the top official in charge of new affordable housing construction in New York City, along with six developers, on charges including federal racketeering, conspiracy and bribery. According to court papers [PDF] Wendell B. Walters, the 49-year-old assistant commissioner for new construction of the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development, collected approximately $600,000 in bribes and kickbacks on about $22 million in moderately priced housing projects he oversaw in the Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn between 2002 and 2011. more ›

New York's restaurant letter grades have been around for a year now, most restaurants have been graded and a majority have gotten themselves A's. But along with the rise of letter grades (and the increase in fines for the city's coffers that have come with them) something else has been on the rise: attempted bribery. Yesterday the police arrested a restaurant owner in Queens for trying to pay off an inspector with $500. His was by no means the first such case this year. more ›

Yesterday's Knicks practice was cancelled so that the entire team could attend the funeral for Don Marbury, father of Knicks captain Stephon Marbury. Don Marbury died during the Knicks' Sunday night game. Despite being a team often criticized for lacking chemistry, they all stood together at the Coney Island Gospel Assembly on Neptune Ave. to support their point guard during his difficult time. Malik Rose spoke on behalf of the team to the 600-plus... more ›

Former Westchester County District Attorney - and one-time Attorney General candidate and potential Senate candidate - Jeanine Pirro and her husband Al Pirro have announced they are separating. Their statement to the press: "We have agreed to amicably separate. As always, our priority remains our two wonderful children. We ask that people respect our privacy. There will be no further comment." The couple has been married 32 years and have weathered through many years of... more ›

Democratic presidential frontrunner and New York Senator Hillary Clinton is feeling bruised from the Tuesday night debate, where the big moment was when Clinton gave meandering support of Governor Eliot Spitzer's controversial driver's license plan for illegal immigrants. more ›

A welcome break from the "what is this growing on my [insert body part here]" type of questions we're used to, Gothamist Health is happy to answer what all of our friends have been asking us for weeks: "Do I need a flu shot?" more ›

The most powerful suggestions in this week's NY Times Weddings & Celebrations? If you write about dating or a hapless love life, all is not lost! Actually, we got that idea from Candace Bushnell's Sex and the City, too, but not everyone can end up with Mr. Big or marry a hunky principal dancer at the NY City Ballet. Anyway... more ›

The pseudonymous Lux Nightmare burst onto the alt porn scene as a college student at Columbia where she launched the naked-guy-and-girl site That Strange Girl, featuring stills and video of herself and numerous other models who looked like they could be her fellow classmates. At a time when Suicide Girls and Burning Angel were coming to prominence, That Strange Girl (who, full disclosure, this interviewer posed for) was a homegrown, indie entry in the genre. Cut to the present, where Nightmare has since folded her XXX business and is a member of Gotham Girls Roller Derby, teaches sex ed to teenagers in East Harlem, and runs the smarty-pants sex site Sexerati, where she conducts interviews, explores Dating 2.0, and explains terms like "the pink ghetto." (Warning: many of the links in this interview are NSFW.) Currently, the "non porn star" is working on a book proposal about her time in the alt porn trenches. more ›

The story about Wesley Autrey jumping into the subway tracks yesterday afternoon to save a fellow straphanger at the 137th Street downtown 1 platform gets more amazing. It turns out that Autrey and two other women had helped 20 year old Cameron Hollopeter right before the fall - Hollopeter had a seizure and Autrey used a pen to keep his mouth open. They called for a station agent's help, but Hollopeter got up and stumbled into the tracks before help came. more ›

It's so funny, we were watching WNBC 4 yesterday and there was a segment about engagement rings. If a woman receives an engagement ring on a holiday (Christmas, birthday, etc.) and then later breaks off the engagement, she can keep the ring because it was be considered a gift. So experts suggest that women request their engagement rings on holidays and that men not give them on holidays. more ›

Finally, Al Pirro speaks! The wheeler-dealer, who wife and Attorney General candidate Jeanine Pirro suspected of having an affair and found herself under federal investigation after discussing possibly bugging Al's boat, gives an interview to New York magazine, and boy, it's like "The Shaming of the Shrew." He really goes off on her! The Post and NY Times gives bits from the interview. For instance, Big Al says he wasn't having an affair - he was just looking for a friend! From the NY Times:

Mr. Pirro said he was looking only for companionship from the other woman. “There’s no harm in having a female friend. I think there’s a difference between being charming and holding yourself out as being available,” Mr. Pirro said, denying that he had done the latter. more ›

The man stabbed on an uptown 2 train early Saturday morning tells the Post what happened. A strange man was "throwing potato chips at a passed out drunk woman," and when the chips hit Antonio Ramirez, who was headed back to Washington Heights after working at Il Buco, Ramirez asked the man if he was all right.

"Do I look OK?" the maniac snarled back at him. more ›

It's starting to look increasingly likely the Hillary Clinton has made a pact with the devil, because all of her opponents' campaigns seem to go down in flames before they even get started. We all remember what happened last month with Jeanine ("Do I Have Page 10?") Pirro-- things were looking so bad that Pataki forced her to pull out of the race. Now it looks like a similar fate is about to befall KT McFarland, the new Republican hopeful. Earlier this week the papers began asking if she's been padding her resume. That would probably have been survivable, but today it looks like her campaign has officially jumped the shark. The Post has the story: more ›

The MTA forced transit beat reporters to a very special New Year's Day press conference to explain that, yes, their settlement with the transit workers union was good. With reports of a pension refund to union members that would total somewhere around $100 million (give for take tens of millions here and there - the reports totally conflict on that point) and an "extremely upset" Governor Pataki (props to the NY Post for supplying this great "extremely upset" picture him) over that refund, the MTA sought to explain that the deal was not "bought." The MTA's lead negotiator, Garry Dellaverson said that he felt the governor knew about the agreement, saying, "Do I believe he was fully briefed on the costs associated with the collective-bargaining agreement? I believe the answer to that to be yes. Was he engaged in the process? I believe the answer to that to be yes." Hmm, maybe the governor was too busy planning his next trips to New Hampshire and Iowa to read the briefing about the strike settlement! But Pataki also implied he would consider asking MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow to resign. Dunh dunh dunh! Given that Pataki will be out after this year (huzzah!), we wonder who will be next in line to lead the MTA. more ›

Gothamist is fond of wine in its many forms, flavors and frangrances. (Do I taste tobacco? I think I smell freshly cut grass!) And, we don't discriminate based on birthplace. Heck, we're happy to partake in a glass of wine with its roots - literally - in Queens. more ›

I am the only name on the lease and after 8 years my roommate situation is ending up VERY ugly. What right do I have to ask my roommate to move out? Do I need to give him 30 days to move out? He is making things very difficult and being extremely difficult. He is being very rude and argumentative! What are my legal rights? more ›

My friend is in a band, and he thinks they�re really going to �make it� but I think they�re awful. Of course, he�s always inviting me to go see them play live and I keep having to think of excuses not to go see them. Do I just tell him that his band is great, or do I tell him that I think they blow? more ›

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