Mahender Sabhnani, who was convicted of enslaving two women in his and his wife's Long Island home, was sentenced to 3 years and 4 months in prison. A judge decided that while Sabhnani did not physically harm the women, but he did permit these "dreadful things..to go on." Sabhnani's wife Varsha was sentenced to 11 years; she allegedly beat, tortured, and starved the two Indonesian women who had been employed as maids. Next, the judge......

Varsha Sabhnani, who built a successful perfume business with her husband Mahender, was sentenced to 11 years in prison for enslaving and torturing two Indonesian women who told prosecutors they were beaten, starved and that their pay was withheld. Sabhnani's lawyer had suggested her near-200 pound weight loss impacted how her behavior. Mahender Sabhnani will be sentenced today.......

In violation of a ruling by New York State's Human Rights Division, the principal of W. Tresper Clarke High School stood in the schoolhouse doorway and refused entrance to 15-year-old John Cave yesterday, as long as he had his service dog with him. Cave is a deaf teenager with cochlear implants, and this week, the state's Human Rights Division Commissioner Kumiki Gibson declared the school violated two provisions of the Human Rights law (PDF) and......

A NY-based nonprofit called Breakthrough launched a video game yesterday called ICED: I Can End Deportation (also a play on the acronym for Immigration and Customs Enforcement Department). In the game, the player chooses one of five immigrant teens, each of a different ethnicity and immigration status, and walks through their shoes -- learning "how immigration laws deny due process and violate human rights to all immigrants." A collaboration between Breakthrough, community-based organizations and......

The announcement that six detainees in Guantanamo would be charged and tried for the September 11, 2001 attacks was welcomed by a number of parties, including the families of people who died on September 11. However, some would like to see a trial in New York and not in Gitmo. The Sun found some different reactions. Jim Riches a fire chief whose son died in the World Trade Center, said, "[T]hese people should be brought......

Mayor Bloomberg will be speaking at a United Nations conference in Indonesia, but he made a stop in Beijing first. He said to the audience at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, "Some people believe that by mid-century, as [much] as 75 percent of China's population may be city dwellers. Even an occasional visitor to China, like me, is struck by this rapid urbanization. It is one of the largest internal migrations by people in......

The NY Times has a slide show of assorted items that could be perfect wedding gifts for book lovers. Suggestions range from whimsical bookshelves to personalized book plates. We were most intrigued by Levenger's Thai Book Rest - we suppose you could get a pair of two for a wedding couple. Or one, plus some massage oils and a copy of the Kama Sutra as a cheeky bridal/bachelorette party shower gift. Anyway, on with this......

Rosie O'Donnell made an appearance at BEA this past weekend, though her involvement with the expo was toned down significantly after The View fued. Variety reports: Rosie O'Donnell was rushed in and out of a scheduled appearance at book confab BookExpo America this weekend even as fellow celebs like Stephen Colbert brought a touch of Hollywood glitz to the annual lit gathering. Insiders said that O'Donnell decided at the last-minute to overhaul plans for her......

The NYPD decided not to appeal a judge's decision that the NYPD should declassify its surveillance documents from the 2004 RNC, so it has set up a special NYPD RNC Documents website with the documents. Of course, you have to scroll down to the very bottom for a zip file of the 600 pages of documents. And what's above the documents is the NYPD's rather thorough explanation/ defense justifying why it did such extensive......

Congratulations to everyone graduating this month! As NYU's commencement was today, with speaker jazz musician Wynton Marsalis, we decided to list the many NYC commencement speakers, with help from The Chronicle of Higher Education (if we've missed any or gotten it wrong, let us know in comments): Barnard College: Anna Deveare Smith, playwright-actress CUNY Lehman College: Representative Charles Rangel CUNY Brooklyn College: Roberta S. Matthews, provost and vice president for academic affairs at Brooklyn......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an unusual rescue on Beverly Rd. in Brooklyn, a car vs. building incident at Myrtle Ave. and 74th St. in Queens, and a shooting at 125th St. and 1st Ave. in Manhattan. Matthew Goldstein, a CUNY alumnus and present chancellor of that school system, won the Carnegie Corp.'s Academic Leadership Award and will receive $500,000. Queens state assemblyman Rory Lancman wants an appointed member of NYC's Human Rights Commission......

Have you ever been at a foreign restaurant and gotten the sneaking suspicion that prices for native speakers and you are different? Well, it turns out that in one Chinatown restaurant, that's true! A discrimination complaint by the city's Human Rights Commission was filed against the Canal Seafood Restaurant for allegedly giving Chinese customers a menu with lower prices. Can't we all just get along...and order the same $3.99 lunch specials? The initial complaint......

Lawsuits claiming hostile work environments have now hit the gym. A group of janitors claim that while working at Equinox fitness club locations, the Post excitedly details, they were "exposed inappropriate, lewd, embarrassing and humiliating sexual behavior and activities occurring in the showers, saunas, steam and [men's] locker rooms." The group of janitors say had to clean up after encounters at the Columbus Circle, TriBeCa, East 63rd Street, Wall Street, and Greenwich Avenue locations. And......

On Friday, NYC freelance journalist Bradley Roland Will was killed while covering a protest in Oaxaca. Will had been reporting on the human rights violations in Mexico for IndyMedia, and it seems that plainclothes paramilitary opened fire on a crowd of protesters. Will was shot in abdomen and died at a Red Cross Hospital; two others were killed and Will's photographer Oswaldo Ramirez was injured. Oaxaca has been filled with protesters for the past five......

English film director Michael Winterbottom and the three subjects of his most recent film, The Road to Guantanamo, were on hand last night for a post-screening discussion about conditions inside the Cuban base sponsored by the ACLU. Hosted by the IFC Center as a part of their ongoing Q&A series, the panel led by ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero brought home the responsibility of all people who care about human rights to speak out against......

ART OPENINGS: Ann Craven's latest Deer and Beer, will most likely feature new repetitive paintings (that is, her shtick is to repeat the same painting in multiples) of Deer and ... um ... Beer? 6 to 8pm // Klemens Gasser & Tanya Grunert, Inc. [524 W 19th] // Free David Fox's Images of War, features recent monotypes part of an ongoing cycle of work. "Fox explores themes of war and human rights violations brought to......

Sure, you might think of Christopher Meloni as the always angry Detective Eliot Stabler on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, but he's also had some indelible roles in The Runaway Bride, Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, Wet Hot American Summer and, of course, Oz. We were perusing the official Christopher Meloni website when we found this great speech that Oz (and Homicide) creator Tom Fontana gave for him at a Human Rights......

The City Council is investigating the city's advertising agencies over their hiring practices, and will have a series of hearings on how the agencies are not very diverse. AdAge explains that what was originally a fact-finding mission based a complaint turned into an investigation last year, and 17 agencies have been questioned. The council's Civil Rights Committee chairman, Larry Seabrook, said that from what he's learned, "A secretary or custodian job is basically the......

Miriam Datskovsky, Sex Columnist, The Columbia Spectator...

Kerry Shapleigh,
Foreign Service Brat, maybe Lifer...

The United Nations has launched effort to say sorry to New Yorkers. But the U.N. is not apologizing for oil-for-food or for delegates who don't pay their parking tickets (it's city revenue!): They are apologizing for the gridlock that will come with next week's World Summit. And they want to let New Yorkers know that serious stuff is going to be discussed. Hmm, we wonder if the UN's consulting firm told them to make this......

Can you believe it's just about a year since Bush and his band of Republicans invaded Gotham with their rhetoric. It was quite a time, barricades, protests, mass arrests, etc. You can choose to mourn this anniversary and stay at home watching CNN or Fox News or you can put on your dancing shoes, sip a martini and join the masters of satire, Billionaires for Bush, for their "Drunk on Power" Ball. Just dust off......

Aaron Lubarsky,
co-director/editor,
Seoul Train...

Jonah Peretti, Director of R&D, Eyebeam...

The weekend is here, and unfortunately our run of nice weather has run out. The rains will be coming. Luckily the city is prepared with plenty of indoor activities to enjoy, and if you're not scared of getting a little wet there is some outdoor fun to be had as well. FILM: Hopefully the rain will hold off until after tonight. As the Tribeca Film Festival will be airing the comedic masterpiece Monty Python and......

Yesterday, there was a pretty interesting story about how the City Commission on Human Rights now allows transgendered people to use whichever bathrooms they want to use. Some incidents where transgender women felt they were being discriminated against when using the bathrooms at the Manhattan Mall and another office building led to the new ruling, and the Post took the opportunity to accompany Semaj Bogan, who considers herself to be a woman (even though she......

After years and years of attempts asking NY State to do so, the State has voted to reduce the harsh sentences from the Rockefeller drug laws. The laws won't be totally repealed, but the sentences for drug crimes will drop from 15 years-life to 8-20 years. A lot of the criticism towards NY's drug laws stems from the fact that many of the people sentenced were non-violent offenders, with their crimes being a first-offense (many......

Margaret Jiang, Falun Gong Activist...

- Subway crime is down, in spite of recent media coverage of shootings. The Daily News says the subway is averaging "three robberies a day and fewer than one assault a day" for the first five months of the year, which is down from previous years (subway crime is down 81% since 1990). But grand larceny crimes, like pickpocketing, are up 10%. So watch your wallets, purses, bags, and European carry-alls. - A man who......

- The New York Times is sponsoring a welcoming party for the GOP, which will be a "Salute to Broadway." Mayor Bloomberg said this would be instead of "bad cocktail receptions" that are usually held. The Times, emphasizing their commitment to the arts (especially near their Times Square office), will be giving the 13,373 delegates and their guests tickets to musicals like The Lion King, Wonderful Town, 42nd Street, Fiddler on the Roof, Bombay Dreams,......