A Long Island grandmother has been charged with driving under the influence of drugs—and she faces a felony charge because she was driving with her two-year-old grandson in the car. more ›

Chris Simms, son of beloved NY Giant Phil Simms, was arrested earlier this morning: The Post says the 29-year-old Tennessee Titans backup quarterback "was busted early this morning in the West Village driving high on marijuana with his 8-months pregnant wife in the passenger seat," while the Daily News reports he was "pulled over at a DWI checkpoint on W. Houston St. at 1:30 a.m., the sources said." more ›

The mother of 18-year-old Kayla Gerdes who jumped a curb and drove a passenger van into a Hempstead home— fatally striking the home's 69-year-old owner—defended her daughter yesterday. Tara Gerdes told Inside Edition, "It's your worst nightmare as a parent to have this happen. They're portraying her as a horrible teenaged girl who doesn't care, could care less. It's so not true." more ›

The 18-year-old who was allegedly high on Oxycontin and Xanax when she drove a passenger van into a Hempstead, Long Island home, fatally striking the home's owner, was hysterical when taken out of the police station yesterday. Kayla Gerdes screamed to reporters, "No, I didn't [purposely aim for her.] Listen, stop -- listen, it was an accident! Please leave me, alone it was a mistake! Stop it was a mistake! No, I was on prescription drugs, it was a mistake! Stop! Leave me alone!" (Video below.) But she reportedly told police investigators, "The thing that made me feel not so bad was she was old," referring to victim Rebecca Twine-Wright, "I mean, 70 years is a long time to live." more ›

A Staten Island man accused of stabbing a 54-year-old to death told reporters he was on drugs when he committed the crime. While waiting to enter court for his arraignment, 23-year-old Jahaad Chesson tried to tell his "side of the story," stating: "I was high as a mother [expletive] when I did it." Here's footage of the bizarre exchange from the Staten Island Advance: more ›

Shocking. Con Ed reportedly charges the highest residential rates of any major utility in the 48 contiguous states. The only people who pay more live in Alaska, Hawaii, Fishers and Block Islands. more ›

The family of Diane Schuler continued their media push, in an attempt to dispute findings that she was drunk and high when she crashed a minivan carrying five children into an SUV carrying three adults on the Taconic State Parkway while driving from a Sullivan County campground back to Long Island two weeks ago. She killed herself, her daughter, three nieces, and the SUV's driver and passengers. Her husband Danny said, "She is not an alcoholic and my heart is rested every night when I go to bed." And today, his lawyer, sister-in-law and a private investigator appeared on the Today show: Lawyer Dominic Barbara said, "We all have to accept certain facts. When she left the campground, she was absolutely sober," while Danny Schuler's sister said, "We just can't explain what happened to Diane," and emphasized her sister-in-law did not drink heavily, only socially. more ›

Early Saturday morning, Suffolk County police arrested a woman who, while traveling north on East Manor Drive (in Manorville), drove into the southbound lane and crashed into an oncoming pickup truck. Newsday reports that Ebony Herrera was "apparently driving drunk and high" on marijuana at the time—and her three-year-old daughter Johnnaisa Harvey was in the backseat. Herrera and the pickup's driver were treated and released for their injuries, but little Johnnaisa remains in critical condition with brain swelling after surgery. Herrera was arraigned yesterday and said, sobbing, "I'm really sorry what happened to my baby," and is being held on $250,000 bail. She was charged with child endangerment and DWI; she pleaded not guilty, though she reportedly told investigators she drank and smoked pot about an hour before the crash. Her daughter, who still hasn't regained consciousness, was transferred to Stony Brook Hospital. more ›

Residents of the 1,003-unit Roosevelt Landings complex on Roosevelt Island are used to paying for their electricity as part of their rents, but come April they'll start receiving separate bills for the first time. Last week the managers of the complex handed out sample electricity bills based on the readings of submeters installed in apartments, and now residents are shocked to learn that electricity is freaking expensive. One tenant who lives in a three-bedroom unit got a bill for $1,050.43, which was about half of what she pays in rent. Another tenant, Missy Feliciano, tells the Times, "I almost died when I opened the package." Assemblyman Micah Kellner wants officials to re-examine the submetering plan; he contends that "this is a de facto rent increase on this building," which used to be part of the state’s moderate-income Mitchell-Lama housing program. But the COO of the complex, Douglas F. Eisenberg, says, "They haven’t been responsible for their electric bills. Now they are. I think at the end of the day, I feel pretty good that we’re doing the right thing here." more ›

Those high natural gas and oil prices have raised the prices for wholesale electricity that Con Ed buys from power-generating companies, and naturally the company is passing those expenses along to us. The company says that residential customers will pay 22% more for electricity this year than they did last summer – almost a quarter of that spike is due to a Bloomberg-approved rate hike. more ›

“It’s horrible. I don’t know what we’re going to do,” Arye Lewkowitz, owner of Daniel’s Bagels on Third Avenue, recently told Metro. “We’re going to have to sell a bagel for over $1.” Lewkowitz isn’t alone; bagel and bread prices are soaring nationwide due to the skyrocketing cost of wheat, which more than doubled in the past year in New York, from $5.31 a bushel to $14.22. more ›