If you're applying for a mortgage, you're willing to give up your personal details. Unfortunately, for some first-time applicants, their mortgage manager stole their identities - and $1 million. Jacob Milton and his sister Nira Niru were arrested for identity theft, grand larceny and scheming to defraud after investigators at the 115th Precinct received many complaints of ID theft. The police found one common thread: They had all applied for mortgage at Griffin Mortgage's Jackson......

This morning, NBC News President Steve Capus appeared on the Today show to discuss the immediate ending of radio shock jock Don Imus's MSNBC simulcast. Per TVNewser, Capus said:There's no question that his program has had provocative conversation and interesting conversation, deep conversation with thought leaders and political leaders through the years. But it's also had the other element. At some point you have to say 'enough is enough.' This went so far over......

A month and a half ago, a young woman lured her ex-boyfriend to the dumpy Chelsea Inn - where her new boyfriend and another man grabbed him, tied him up and then branded an "R" onto his butt. Kristina Caban, 21, and Robert Testagrossa, 25, were arrested and charged with kidnapping, robbery and assault for the attack on Samir Sara, and now it turns out that they were trying to brand "rapist" into Sara's body......

A police arrested a man who allegedly used dead people's credit cards for purchases, and the twist is that the man is a police officer. Officer Eduardo Saillant apparently would take the credit cards investigating the elderly people's deaths. Back in May, gas and Home Depot charges appeared a dead man's Visa bill, so his sister contacted the police. The investigation led to Saillant, who didn't do anything unusual until this past week, when he......

Manahattanites, you'll have to put off getting 5 gallon containers of olive oil - but you will get your cute Isaac skirts! Target will be leasing a 130,000 square foot space at East River Plaza, a "long delayed" mall at the FDR and East 119th Street. Costco was originally thought to be the second floor tenant (there's a Home Depot on the first floor), but Target's apparently to shell out more cash. What's cute......

-- Good news: a New York judge stayed the possible demolition of St. Brigid's Church in the East Village until after Labor Day. -- It's funny because it's true: "Sometimes I Feel Like I'm The Only One Trying To Gentrify This Neighborhood." -- Charlie Todd organized an astounding 215 people to conduct his latest prank: "Slow-Mo Home Depot." Deliciously pointless! -- In related news, Time Out NY devoted their entire issue this week to......

Golf has always had somewhat of an "upper crust of society" feel to it, but sometimes that feeling goes even farther than one could even imagine. Case in point: Liberty National Golf Club. Liberty National, just across the Hudson River in Jersey City, just opened last month and has some of the most ridiculous member benefits that Gothamist has ever heard of. How ritzy, you ask? When construction is finished, the waiters will deliver......

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn showed her anti-Wal-Mart colors during a Crain's business breakfast forum. Though she may be overruled, should zoning allow the retail behemoth to move in, Quinn said:"I don't want Wal-Mart in the City of New York unless they change their corporate behavior...It is well documented across the country that Wal-Mart frequently uses the public insurance programs of the cities they are in as their own health insurance programs. We can't put......

- Man fatally stabbed at the Mill Basin Home Depot this morning - Curtis Sliwa took the stand during the Junior Gotti trial today: "I figured I had seconds, maybe minutes to live." - Other mob news: John Gotti secret family gets their 15 minutes - Former deputy mayor Marc Shaw, who was replaced (to his surprise, perhaps) by Patricia Harris will now work for real estate concern Extell; we expect Extell to milk Shaw......

Ooh, beware the dangerous intersection of PR, home decor and your crappy NYC apartment! A publicist was sentenced to jail for duping the Home Depot and other companies out of goods that he used to improve his West 76th Street apartment. David Chass had asked the Home Depot if they would renovate his apartment as part of a publicity move, and even though the HD said no, Chass still billed them for $363,000. Too bad......

- Informal talks between the Transport Workers Union and the MTA - Ken has another makeover to win Barbie back, but, ladies, will carrying a messenger bag and listening to Norah Jones really change things? - When your loved one loves Anderson Cooper - Mayor Bloomberg's other old man fight: Larry Silverstein's press release is a hoot - Johnny Damon thanks his former city with a full page ad in the Boston Globe -......

I need a few large pieces of plexiglass for a project I'm working on. Don't ask, but I'm talking big. Short of hauling my butt out to some godforsaken suburban Home Depot, do you know of any place in the city where I could get something like this? - Pat, Battery Park City While many people are aware of places such as Restaurant Row or the Garment District, not too many people realize that......

Landlords for a Bronx apartment building have agreed to pay $800,000 to the family of a little girl who was bitten by a rat in their apartment. Now, steel yourself for how the rat attacked then three year-old Camille Fernandez in 2001: It crawled through a broken tile, as Camille was waiting for her mother to get a towel. When mother Christina Fernandez turned back, Camille was unconscious in the tub, because she tried to......

It's the backdoor retailing maneuver! Wal-Mart is trying to make its NYC inroads by getting a store approved in Staten Island, and one of the reasons it may actually succeed is because the borough is more Republican than the others. But the most telling thing in this NY Times article is that many residents, in spite of loving Wal-Mart's low prices and even traveling to NJ for them, is that they don't want Wal-Mart in......

After the city has decided to revoke the permit for the launch party of his new graffiti video game, designer Marc Ecko is doing the next best thing: Suing the city. And the NYCLU is getting involved, joining Ecko in a press conference yesterday asking the mayor to reinstate the permit. Animal Magazine publisher and graffiti enthusiast Bucky Turco was at the press conference gave us his report, with including Ecko's invitation for the......

This is an unlikely endorsement for the animated film, Robots: A three year old in Queens managed to dress himself, take an Q5 bus to the local multiplex and sneak into a screening of Robots - by himself. The Post reports that Clarence Ricky Davis, Jr. managed to slip out of his house for the afternoon journey, triggering a "massive boyhunt." His father had fallen asleep and his stepbrother was out - buying a new......

Forget online dating or even meeting cute on the subway - the next wave of hookups could be coming from the aisles of Home Depot. The NY Post suggests that the city's Home Depots are perfect places for people of both sexes to be totally confused and overwhelmed, making them bait for others or giving them more reason to seek out cute customer service reps. A writer says:"I spied a very cute actress-model-student-with-a-day-job helping out......

Tonight is the last episode of NYPD Blue. Once upon a time, NYPD Blue was known as the "other cop show" against fellow newbie (it had been one season) Law & Order, but quickly, NYPD Blue emerged as a sadder, more complicated, and even more intimate companion to creator Steven Bochco's Hill Street Blues. Gothamist had watched NYPD Blue in the early days, from David Caruso's naked butt to Jimmy Smits (always Victor Sifuentes in......

A number of indicators is saying that the city's economy is getting back on track, with the creation of new jobs in retail and tourism. The Daily News compiled some facts from a number of sources: - City will add 50,000 jobs this year - the first annual increase since 2000 [Crain's NY Business] - Economists expect NY to add 70,000 more jobs next year. [The 2005 total would be 3.65 million; the peak was......

Downtown Brooklynites - hurry up and scour the proposed Nets arena neighborhood for endangered plants (maybe an apartment mold of some kind) or animals (a little known species of rat or pigeon?) so you can stall Bruce Ratner's development plans. A $100 million Staten Island development, one with a Home Depot, Target, and Bed Bath & Beyond, has been blocked due to an endangered mint plant! Yes, mint - in Staten Island! Apparently, the Torrey's......

While Bruce Ratner is in the news because of his Brooklyn Nets project, he's got a new Manhattan project: Forest City Ratner Companies is the new partner in developing East River Plaza, a project that would bring a "big box" shopping center to East Harlem. The NY Times reports that FCRC took over the interest in the development from a Beverly Hills based real estate group; Blumenfield Development, the other partner in the project, told......

Wouldn't it be nice to have a kitchen herb garden, so the next time you had a craving for a Mojito, or an insalata Caprese, you wouldn't have to trek over to the grocery store for a tiny bunch of overpriced herbs? Gothamist certainly thinks so. April is a good month for starting seeds, and, after a few anxious moments during these gray days, Gothamist's seeds are finally in effect! (Squint your eyes. They're at......