Reporters questioned Mayor Bloomberg today about the recent AP report that the NYPD was keeping tabs on Muslims at universities like Yale and UPenn, and the Mayor unapologetically defended the practices. "We have to keep this country safe. This is a dangerous place. Make no mistake about it," Bloomberg said, according to a transcript by the Daily News. Asked to comment on the reports that an undercover NYPD officer went on a whitewater rafting trip sponsored by a Muslim Student Association, Bloomberg replied, "I have no idea. The only whitewater rafting I’ve done I did with my daughter. I don’t think she had a lot of information that I was interested in." more ›

With a vote on the measures looming, organizations like NY Tech Meetup—the organizers of today's protest—are moving at maximum Mbps and seem to be connecting with Congress; the bills are losing sponsors faster than MySpace is losing users. more ›

Following tomorrow night's worldwide candlelight vigil for Martin Luther King Jr., a group of African American faith leaders will join Occupy Wall Street in a march at 10 a.m. Monday from the Financial District to Madison Square Garden in an effort to "reclaim the dream" and further the slain civil rights leader's fight for economic justice. more ›

A Murray Hill resident facing eviction is threatening to file a class-action lawsuit against his landlord, who continues to complain about the "odor of marijuana" emanating from his apartment. Sebastian Rosario claims that he'll sue the owner of 340 E. 34th Street for harassment and threatening to kick him out. In court papers obtained by the Post, the landlord alleges that neighbors complain of "strong smoke odors, including the odor of marijuana" around Rosario's aparment. Wait, people smoke marijuana INSIDE their apartments? more ›

If you had a dream last night that ee cummings went around replacing all the street signs in your neighborhood, you may want to stop taking your medication: it's happening. An EV Grieve reader pointed out the first "signs" of the lowercase-ization of the city's 250,000 street signs as part of a $27.5 million federal program that is supposed to make the signs easier to read. As our scientific poll showed, most people think this idea is a waste of money, and the reader who sent the photo in feels that we'll all die a little inside when the changes are made: "They may not look like much, but I was still shocked by their ability to make a quiet corner of Greenwich Village look like…well, every other town in the US." more ›

That sense of dread you felt this morning on the subway wasn't just a nicotine craving or the desire to buy a handgun at a gun show: it was the black boot of fascism bearing down on your pallid, barcode-stamped, overtaxed neck. George Mason University's libertarian think tank the Mercatus Center has ranked New York State dead last in its "Freedom in the 50 States" index, calling it "by far the least free state in the Union." Granted the report didn't count Puerto Rico, Guam, or the other Micronesian state the US annexes, Hitlerville. more ›

President Obama has upset 9/11 responders, pissed off Rep. Charles Rangel, and enraged X-Box enthusiasts in the past, but this time he's gone too far: Last weekend, the President was given an advanced readers copy (A.R.C.) of the new Jonathan Franzen book "Freedom," which has been getting rave reviews for weeks (the NY Times calls it "a masterpiece of American fiction"). However, "Freedom" isn't available for purchase until next Tuesday! more ›

After being sentenced to life in prison in 1995, NYC native Lori Berenson has been freed in Peru. Her conditional parole (she must remain in the country for another five years) comes at the end of a long political and legal struggle, which transformed Berenson into a high profile left-wing symbol on par with Mumia Abu-Jamal. Berenson was arrested on a bus in Peru 15 years ago and convicted of collaborating with the Marxist rebel group MRTA in a foiled terrorist plot to take the Peruvian Congress hostage. Yesterday a judge in Lima ruled that she had "completed re-education, rehabilitation and re-socialization." more ›

Earlier this week it was announced that Foxy Brown would be released from prison after serving a drama-filled eight months behind bars. The first stop on her own personal freedom (publicity) tour, she said, was church, where "I've got to get on my knees." But what really came first was shopping in Harlem, followed by a trip to her mother's home in Prospect Heights. more ›

Mayor Bloomberg will be speaking at a United Nations conference in Indonesia, but he made a stop in Beijing first. He said to the audience at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, "Some people believe that by mid-century, as [much] as 75 percent of China's population may be city dwellers. Even an occasional visitor to China, like me, is struck by this rapid urbanization. It is one of the largest internal migrations by people in... more ›