The NY Times reports on Mr. New Jersey's ties with the political elite. With it being common practice for high-ranking politicians to attend his concerts, it's seems it's a two way street, with Bon Jovi also showing his support at their functions.He calls her “Mrs. C.” And she calls on him to add a little celebrity gloss to her presidential campaign. Jon Bon Jovi and Hillary Rodham Clinton have been friends for more than a......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a death investigation on Dekalb Ave. in Brooklyn, an unstable building on Cherry St. and Robinson Ave. in Queens, and a homicide on East 29th St. and 5th Ave. in Manhattan. Rudy Giuliani and John McCain have different views over torture. Texting and talking on the phone are about to be banned in the Garden State. It's possible that news of a sniper on the Saw Mill River Parkway......

Hundreds of subway cars will be sleeping with the fishes - and much more aquatic life - as the MTA approved a plan to send old cars from the C and E lines to the Garden State for artificial reef-building. NYC Transit assistant chief of operations Mike Zacchea explained, "They create a cave-like structure that let young hatchlings mature. Within 30 days, marine life attaches to the car body." Earlier this month, NJ environmental officials......

There's no session scheduled for the State Assembly Monday in Albany, but state senate leader Joseph Bruno took a break from barking back and forth with Governor Spitzer to draft a bill in an effort to lay claim to a half-billion dollars in federal funds targeted at improving transit. Senate Majority leader Bruno had the bill drafted and urged fellow lawmakers to convene in an effort to get the state's hands on $500 million in......

Oh, the dangers of the interwebs. Recently crowned Miss New Jersey Amy Polumbo held a press conference yesterday to announce that she was being blackmailed into stepping down after someone sent packages of photographs where she's in possibly compromising positions to her and pageant officials. The pictures had once been posted on Facebook. Polumbo, who is a senior at Wagner College on Staten Island, said tearfully, "Being crowned Miss New Jersey was a dream come......

THEATER: The ever-diminishing returns for theater producers have conditioned many playwrights to pre-emptively cut costs by keeping their character census down. So it's nice to see Tribeca's Flea Theater making room for Mark Greenfield's new play, I.E., In Other Words. "Using highly stylized language, this Boy Meets Girl/Horatio Alger tale-gone-wild" involves thirty-three characters played by a cast of fourteen. Greenfield's sprawling canvas, which is still in previews, is stretched to accommodate "adventure, love, songs, and......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a cyclist struck on Fresh Meadow Lane and 67th Ave. in Queens, a water rescue north of the GW Bridge in Manhahattan, and someone fatally jumped from a building on West 15th St. in Manhattan. The NYPD will boost efforts to get citizens to respect their authority by mounting Big Wheels Segways at beaches and parks this summer. Satellite radio duo Opie and Anthony have been suspended for laughing......

The Ex (directed by Jesse Peretz): A Zach Braff movie wherein shlubby Zach learns how to be a real husband and a real man—haven't we seen this before in The Last Kiss, Garden State or even on Scrubs? Though The Ex might seem like retread city, with the help of a strong supporting cast, a deft script and mostly tuning out on Braff's most Braffiness, it's actually quite an entertaining flick. Braff plays Tom Reilly,......

If there's one NY Times Weddings & Celebrations write-up you read this week, read the one for Claire Israel and Oren Silverstein. Not only did the couple get married at Cupid’s Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas (but they'll have another service in Brooklyn next month), they also described how their initial online courtship had its roadblocks:When the couple met online in April 2005, Ms. Israel was as concerned about where Mr. Silverstein lived (New......

The Daily News reports that "scarecrow cars" are being used by the NYPD to deter crime, much to the dismay of the police union. Scarecrow crows are empty radio cars that are stationed on highways in hopes of scaring drivers to straighten up with their driving. The Patrolmen's Benevolent Association sees the cars as a sign of short-staffing and poor recruiting the NYPD has had lately, due to the low salaries offered. The Daily......

When NJ Governor Jon Corzine was critically injured in a car accident two weeks ago, a commenter wrote, "Obviously, God wants Codey to be governor," referring to Richard Codey, the NJ Senate majority leader (pictured) who has served as acting governor under the three past NJ governors. And, apparently, so does Corzine himself: The NY Times has an article about how Corzine was often not in NJ before being injured.:In the 450 days between his......

Governor Jon Corzine expects to be discharged from the hospital next week. Corzine has been at Cooper University Hospital where he has been recuperating after severe injuries after the SUV transporting him (where he sat seat-belt-less in the front passenger seat) crashed on the Garden State Parkway. NJ Acting Governor Richard Codey and State Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts visited Corzine at the hospital, and Roberts said, " “I think that he views this, very literally,......

NJ Governor Corzine showed the Associated Press that he's doing pretty well, sitting up (in red track pants, which is rather Fidel-ish) and reading his many get well cards. These are the first photographs of Corzine since he was in a car accident that left him critically injured and with 15 broken bones. Earlier this week, Corzine was still stuck in bed, but now he's able to leave bed and sit up. The cards......

Gothamist became acquainted with Kristen Buckley after reading her book, The Parker Grey Show, which is about a New Yorker who is not only a waitress and aspiring musician, but she also decides to negotiate with her friend's kidnappers. When not writing screenplays (the upcoming Accidental Husband with Uma Thurman; she also co-wrote 102 Dalmatians and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days) on the Left Coast, Kristen has been working on a memoir......

NJ Governor Jon Corzine has been moved from intensive care as his condition improved to stable. The governor continues in his second week of recovery after a car crash on the Garden State Parkway which revealed his SUV (a state trooper was driving) was going 91 MPH while Corzine was not wearing a seat belt in the front passenger seat. However, the governor's chief of staff Tom Shea said that Corzine will not be getting......

With the NJ State Police confirming that NJ Governor Corzine's SUV was going 91 MPH on the Garden State Parkway during a crash that left a seat-beltless Corzine critically injured, it was only natural for reporters to ask Mayor Bloomberg his thoughts. And the NY Times' Diane Cardwell says that his "nanny tendencies...were on full display" First the Mayor revealed that his car has signs reminding people to buckle up. (What, no audio recording of......

How much of an emergency is getting back to the Governor's mansion for a meeting between Don Imus and the Rutgers women's basketball team? Because the NJ State Police confirmed that Governor Corzine's SUV, which crashed last Thursday along the Garden State Parkway, was going 91 MPH, well over the 65 MPH speed limit. Further, NJ State Police Superintendent Joseph Fuentes said that the speed of the state trooper-driven SUV probably contributed to the accident,......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a large sinkhole at University Ave. in the Bronx, a carjacking on Foch Blvd. in Queens, and a hanging on Park Ave. in Manhattan. Not only was Gov. Corzine not wearing his seatbelt, his state trooper driver was doing 91 m.p.h.(!) right before the crash. The speed limit on the Garden State Parkway is 65 m.p.h. Nine people were injured this afternoon when the Staten Island Ferry made a......

NJ Governor Jon Corzine may taken off a ventilator that has been helping him breathe since his Thursday night car accident on the Garden State Parkway. Yesterday, doctors removed fluid from his lungs (considered a routine procedure) successfully, and today, they will be performing another surgery to continue to clean up wounds from his left leg - when the femur broke, it punctured his skin. Corzine remains in critical but stable condition. His family......

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An SUV carrying New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine crashed on the Garden State Parkway in Galloway Township. After undergoing extensive surgery, Corzine has a broken leg, twelve broken ribs, a broken collarbone, and a broken breastbone; he also has numerous facial lacerations. He is in stable condition and remains in the ICU, but faces many months of rehabilitation. State Senate President Richard Codey, who took over for NJ Governor James McGreevey when he stepped......

I saw Zach Galifianakis(Comedy Central Presents, Comedians of Comedy, Dog Bites Man) at the UCB theater a few months ago and he was going some crowd work. Some lady said something, I don't remember what, but Zach's response was, "Don't get me farted." From that, you can gather two things: Zach Galifianakis is a comedic genius and you should definitely see him at Irving Plaza on the 24th of February. Your long awaited DVD has......

The Big Apple Mystery of the Week: Why did NYC have bad CO (city odor) of natural gas with mercaptan yesterday? The malodorous bouquet freaked out people from all over Manhattan (even parts of Brooklyn) and parts of eastern New Jersey. The city's various agencies determined it was not a terrorist attack and that the odor was "not dangerous." So most of the blame fell to our neighbor, New Jersey. The city's Department of......

Score: Gecko, 0, and People Tired of Ads, 1. Last week, it was announced that the Port Authority and Geico had worked out a $3.2 million deal for the insurance company to place signage and marketing goods at the George Washington Bridge toll plaza as well as at other Port Authority facilities and on other Port Authority collateral. Think costumed geckos at the bus station or Geico logos on Port Authority mailers. But now......

grubbykid takes the time to consider how much space a Soho Mall would have if in fact Soho were put under a glass roof. Why? Well, to find out the "theoretical maximum leasable square footage," after news of the sharply increasing commercial rents in the neighborhood. And the square footage would be: 1,338,750 square feet! grubbykid has more details about how that number was developed, but that makes SoHo a small mall. The Garden......

Yesterday, there was an interesting NY Times article about new trends in retail store design. Namely, how some stores are eschewing big windows for more secretive look - and how Ruehl, an off-shoot of Abercrombie & Fitch for the post-college consumer, looks like a city townhouse. While there is Ruehl on Bleecker Street that sells accessories, most of the stores are in the suburbs. From the article:Intrigued by a store they cannot see into, consumers......

- A Brooklyn girl was killed by a bus this afternoon; right now, it seems another student may have released the emergency brake - Senator McCain thinks New School students need a lesson in courtesy - The Empire State Building will be open until 2AM this summer (and then you can head to the 24-hour Apple Store on Fifth Avenue) - Former NJ Governor McGreevey's tell-all book is pretty explicit about what the Garden......

Where would you go if you only had a few weeks to live? Hawaii? Europe? How about New Jersey? This might not be an unreasonable option for New Yorkers suffering from debilitating illnesses such as cancer as the Garden State may (someday) legalize the use of medical marijuana. We applaud Senator Nicholas Scutari, a Democrat senator from Middlesex County, New Jersey who has long proposed legislation to legalize medical marijuana in the Garden State. The......

Way back in 2004, the city announced its super duper special NYC Tax Credit Program for film and TV producers (as well as commercial, music video, etc.) in order to motivate productions to happen here, versus Los Angeles or (gasp) Toronto. And it worked really well: Lindsay Lohan made a movie, Martin Scorsese shot a set-in-Boston movie mostly here, CBS brought us Love Monkey (then cancelled it), there's another Dick Wolf TV, plus countless......

Watch it when you love NY! NY State is trying to enforce its claim to the love by setting its lawyers on people who use the logo without the permission of the Empire State Development Development Corporation. The latest incident seems to be a NJ man's use of the logo on various tchotchkes (he's sold 15,000 of them); Ray Maniaci tells the Post NY State should be flattered people love the logo so much. Gothamist......