The territory controlled by the embattled Federation of Cigarette Smokers is being steadily whittled away like the formerly Grand Duchy of Luxembourg—it's only a matter of time before the city's last remaining smokers are reduced to a postage-size plot of land in a back yard on Staten Island, which they'll bitterly occupy on a time-share basis in dreary smoking shifts. Today Mayor Bloomberg is announcing the expansion of NYC's smoking ban to the city's 14 miles of beaches and more than 1,700 parks, playgrounds and recreation facilities, the Wall Street Journal reports. more ›

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a bank robbery at Union Turnpike in Queens, a fatal fall victim on Union St. in Brooklyn, and an infant water rescue at Mallow St. on Staten Island.
• What loud-mouthed inflammatory interrogator could MSNBC get to stand in for Chris Matthews? Tonight it will be Al Sharpton interviewing former DNC head Terry McAuliffe and one-time Presidential candidate Howard Dean. Set your VCRs, DVRs, Tivos, or whatever.
• A swimming pool in Hells' Kitchen is sprouting weeds as more than $3 million of private funds sits in the bank, waiting to be used. We imagine it will get sorted out around January.
• A self-described pacifist wrestled a shovel away from an attacker and started hitting the thief with it after the man went after his wife. The whole exchange occurred in a Queens cemetary and cops eventually arrested the initial shovel-wielding thief.
• The enforcement of a new city noise code is unsurprisingly lax.
• For the 130th year, the Fresh Air Fund is sending NYC kids upstate and further north for some summer recreation.
• Bookmark it: a GoogleMap of open WiFi spots around the nation.
• A downtown Manhattan pizzeria offers lapdances with its lunches. Employees must wash their . . . everything, before returning to work.

Sunday’s Opinionist columns are meant to be snippets and ideas about New York life, but you’ll permit me a slight diversion from topic to discuss something also fundamental to New York life – reading. Get on any subway or bus at any time of day and you’ll find about twenty people with their noses in books. I’d be willing to bet my meager earnings that there are more people that count reading as a daily activity in this city than other major cities in America, and most of that on public transportation. So, as I start my work here at Gothamist as the literature contributor, bringing New Yorkers all the news they can read about reading, I thought I’d start by reviewing a book about, well, reading. more ›

The latest on the Legere case: Legere pleaded not guilty on Monday and the D.A. said the death penalty will not be pursued (there's no capital punishment law in place). A funeral was held for Detective Patrick Rafferty yesterday; Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Kelly, plus thousands of other mourners, attended the service. Additionally, the two detectives were posthumously promoted to first grade detective. more ›

Gothamist is lucky because our readers will email us about many Law & Order related things, whether it's a sighting or a show or an idea. And we love you for it. Here's a round up of some that we've gotten over the past few weeks: more ›