The City Council's Transportation Committee meeting may have had grim news for straphangers yesterday, but it did have some good news for taxi riders. Though the MTA will most likely have fare hikes coming in 2013 and 2015, the TLC most likely won't be increasing the cost of a cab ride. Not in the next year at least. more ›

We suffered a heavy loss last month when caffeinated, alco-sugary backwash Four Loko was taken off the shelves after a ban on all alcohol-caffeinated drinks. But what happened to the last of the Loko supply? In a loathsome turn of events, it's currently being recycled into ethanol and other non-blackout-inducing products. Which means Four Loko will now be powering our cars! more ›

A New Jersey man has been arrested after attempting to light a man and a 10-year-old boy on fire with gasoline and a flare. A man was walking his son to school in Jersey City on Friday when 39-year-old Tracy Ferguson allegedly ran out from between two parked cars and threw gasoline on them. He then attempted to light a flare, but was unsuccessful. more ›

The Connecticut license plates on the SUV matched a Ford; according to WFSB, "The investigation led agents to a scrapyard in Stratford and a shoreline car dealership. Police said the Pathfinder could have been sold from Thomas Anthony Auto in Bridgeport at some point. The SUV's vehicle identification number led officials to the dealership... Police were also at Kramer's scrapyard in Stratford in a search to hunt down the license plates, which they said came off a pickup truck." more ›

The NYPD released a 19-second video of a man who was caught looking around in a furtive manner in the hours before a car bomb was found in Times Square on Saturday night. While Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said the man could be totally innocent, the police are hoping the public may be able to identify the figure, a white man in his 40s, who takes off a dark shirt (revealing a red shirt), puts it into a bag, and walks down Shubert Alley (which runs between 44th and 45th Streets), or that the man will come forward. The Nissan Pathfinder SUV that was found with M88 fireworks, gasoline, propane, alarm clocks and non-explosive fertilizer was parked on West 45th Street. more ›

A New Jersey woman narrowly avoided a fiery death in yesterday’s crash on the Long Island Expressway, thanks to an anonymous Good Samaritan. On Saturday morning a gasoline tanker clipped Marie Medina’s Dodge Neon when she stalled on the L.I.E. near exit 48. The truck flipped on its side and exploded into a giant fireball that killed driver Mujahid Shahin, a Brooklyn man in his fifties, according to the NY Post. But someone pulled Medina from her vehicle before she became the accident's second casualty. "He saved me. I kept thanking him," said the woman, who has only minor injuries. Just this morning, officials re-opened eastbound lanes on the expressway, reported AP. more ›

This morning at 8 a.m. a tanker hauling a cargo of gasoline sideswiped a car while changing lanes, causing the truck to roll and burst into flames. Its driver perished on the Long Island Expressway and another person was injured. The wreck occurred near the Nassau-Suffolk County line and as of this afternoon the road was still closed on both sides near Melville, reported the NY Post. The truck’s combustion caused a giant fireball that could be seen for miles, and also felled a large highway sign, blocking the road in both directions. This afternoon rescuers were still trying to pull the driver’s body from truck. more ›

There are many different strategies for ridding your apartment of bed bugs. Experts recommend dry cleaning your clothes and keeping them in sealed plastic bags, and hiring an exterminator. But there's one radical method for battling the parasites that has the FDNY rather alarmed: Some bed bug victims are pouring gasoline or kerosene on their mattresses. The FDNY says that's not only ineffective, but also dangerous, because mattresses really shouldn't be flammable. Yet it appears that Astoria residents are not only gassing up their beds, but their bodies, too. more ›

It's the unofficial start of the summer and the AAA projects that 1.5% more Americans will travel over 50 miles from home this weekend than they did last year. That translates to 32.4 million people on the roads While gas prices are not near last year's expensive prices, some drivers are wary of creeping prices. Gas prices have risen 27 cents/gallon this month (average: $2.36/gallon) and a cab driver, at a Manhattan gas station, told the AP, "Uh-oh. That's the first thing I say when I pull into this gas station each day. Right now it's not that bad, but it's a lot worse than two weeks ago." An energy analyst told the Christian Science Monitor that the prices will top out soon, "Prices usually peak after Memorial Day, perhaps sometime in June." more ›

A penny here, a penny there, pretty soon it adds up to driving right by a gas station because they've crossed a psychological barrier of asking more than four bucks for a gallon of gas. Area stations are trying hard to hold the line at $3.99 a gallon to keep from scaring the bejeezus out of drivers with the facts, which is that gasoline is the most expensive it's been since the invention of the internal combustion engine. more ›

Police are investigating the suspected robbery of a 26-year-old man who was found naked and badly burned in the lobby of a Polo Grounds building at 8th Ave. and 155th St. in Manhattan. Trevor Lyons' clothes were found on the 16th floor of the building, where it appears he was attacked at about 8 a.m. Saturday morning. more ›