The new uptight airline security procedures aren't just affecting the insignificant, tweeting rabble—now even VIPs like Joan Rivers are being inconvenienced. Rivers, 76, was ejected from a Continental Airlines flight bound to Newark from Costa Rica on Sunday because her passport reads: Joan Rosenberg AKA Joan Rivers. (Rosenberg was her late husband's last name, or so she says.) Rivers was cast out by a "nasty and cruel" gate agent because the passport raised a red flag, and she was all alone with no ATM card and just $100 in her purse. Finally back in NYC Monday after spending a night in San Jose, Rivers described her ordeal to the Daily News: more ›

Two uniformed cops who ejected a Red Sox fan from Yankee Stadium last summer when he tried to use the bathroom during "God Bless America" have cost NYC taxpayers some $20,000 in settlement money. But the good news is that Yankee Stadium will now allow attendees relieve themselves during the Seventh Inning stretch! You'll recall that last August, one Brad Campeau-Laurion refused to obey an NYPD officer who ordered him back to his seat when he tried to use the bathroom as "God Bless America" played. According to Campeau-Laurion, two officers then forcefully threw him out, with one of the officers telling him to "leave the country if he didn’t like it." In the wake of 9/11, Yankee stadium began requiring spectators to remain in their seats during patriotic songs, in some cases extending chains to block the ends of the aisles. But after a lawsuit filed by the NYCLU over "enforced patriotism," a settlement was reached yesterday whereby Campeau-Laurion gets $10,001 from the city, the NYCLU gets $12,000 for legal fees, and baseball fans are granted the liberty to micturate at will. more ›

A witness has come forward to contradict the NYPD's assertion that Red Sox fan Bradford Campeau-Laurion was ejected for "standing on his seat, cursing... and acting in a disorderly manner while reeking of alcohol." Witness Pete Montenez tells CBS 2 that "as far as him hootin' and hollerin' and standing on the chair, no way." He doesn't know Campeau-Laurion, who claims cops ejected him when he tried to go to the men's room during the stadium's enforced moment of nationalism/"God Bless America". But Yankee officials have a witness, who says Campeau-Laurion "stuck his hand out and says, you know, 'I need to get by here,' and he used some profanity." Profanity at a Yankee game? It makes one blush just thinking about it. more ›

The NYCLU seems inclined to follow through with last year's promise to sue the Yankees over their policy of confining fans to their seats during the national anthem and "God Bless America," which is played during the seventh inning stretch. Yesterday Red Sox fan Bradford Campeau-Laurion, a Queens resident, told us about his rough ejection from Yankee stadium at the hands of the NYPD after he tried to go to the men's room during the seventh inning's moment of mandatory nationalism Monday night. more ›

From the inbox: Baseball fan Brad Campeau-Laurion says a uniformed police officer (perhaps off-duty but working security for overtime) forcibly ejected him from the stadium last night during the Yankees-Red Sox game. Why? He says all he did was try to go to the bathroom while "God Bless America" was played during the 7th inning stretch. His letter reads (plus some updates after the jump): more ›

An unidentified man was forcibly removed from a United Airlines at JFK before it took off last night because he wouldn’t sit down and stop praying. A San Francisco author named Ori Brafman, who was on the flight, told WNBC the Orthodox Jewish man ignored instructions from flight attendants to remain in his seat. During the minutes before take off, he walked to the back of the plane to pray, and when he continued to defy attendants' orders, they summoned airport security. more ›

A nine-year-old girl remains in critical condition following surgery yesterday at Long Island Jewish Hospital after an unregistered van carrying school children was struck by a city bus. The accident occurred Friday morning allegedly after the passenger van cut off a Q46 bus in Fresh Meadows, Queens. The bus clipped the van, sending it into a spin, shattering its windows, and ejecting a bench seat into the street. more ›