Ha! Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa wants to take John Gotti Jr. on his offer. Gotti Jr., who was unsucccessfully tried three times for allegedly shooting and kidnapping Sliwa, told reporters on Tuesday that he'd take a polygraph test "on national TV" if the FBI agent who spread rumors that Gotti was becoming a government informant was charged. Last night, Sliwa said on NY1's Inside City Hall - holding a bunch of cash, "John Gotti,... more ›

Yesterday afternoon, a worker took a fatal fall from the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. Manuel Pereira, 48, had been working on a catwalk next to the lower level of the bridge; the Staten Island Advance reports the concrete barrier "apparently...tipped over" onto the catwalk.

An excavator vehicle was placing "Jersey barriers" -- 8,500-pound, 10-foot-long concrete slabs that separate traffic from a construction area -- along the bridge at the time. more ›

- Grub Street reports that the Frying Pan rumors are true -- it will, in fact, be closing, at least at its current location. Their lease at Pier 63 has expired, but accoring to the owner's wife, there's no need for despair quite yet. "Pending recently commenced negotiations, the John J. Harvey fireboat, the Frying Pan, the kayak storage shed, and the recently opened Cafe du Soleil will tie up at Pier 66A, an old float bridge, and the Pan will serve food at another newly installed section of the park as early as next spring." more ›

Should John Gotti Jr.'s nickname be "Teflon Jr."? Because, for the third time in a year, a mistrial has been declared in the federal government's racketeering case against the infamous mob family figure. The jury sent Judge Shira Sheindlin a note saying, "We have been unable to come to a unanimous decision on all counts." From the NY Times:

The hung jury represents a significant loss for the government, which had been intent on convicting Mr. Gotti, not just for his crimes — but because of his notoriety — which has increased after he avoided conviction in the first two trials, which ended in September 2005 and March 2006. The first jury to hear the Gotti case deliberated for eight days and the second for one and a half days. more ›

MeFi yesterday pointed us towards one of those great 9/11 stories that was already slipping from our minds: In 1931, as the George Washington Bridge and the Empire State Building were being completed, the FDNY christened its fastest, bestest water-pumping fireboat, the John J. Harvey. Able to pump nearly 20,000 gallons per minute, the JJH was the definition of the modern fireboat ("Her output is equal to about 26 [or five alarm's worth] of land fire engines."). Sadly, as the piers around Manhattan were shuttered or repurposed, the JJH fell into disrepair. Removed from regular service in '95 and sold as surplus property in '99 she was luckily lovingly restored by her new owners. more ›

The Transport Workers Union president Roger Toussaint will kick off his ten-day jail sentence - for last December's three-day transit strike - by having a rally outside King's County Supreme Court at 4PM. Then Toussaint and his supporters - including the Reverend Al Sharpton and John J. Sweeny of the AFL-CIO - will march across the Brooklyn Bridge and head over to the Tombs, where he needs to report at 6PM. But supporters will also hold sit-ins outside the jail. Toussaint tells the NY Times that his jail sentence is stupid, "It's one thing if you threaten a jail sentence while a strike is on. t's another thing to send someone to jail three months afterward." And he tells the Daily News that he's not worried about jail, but he's worried about his family worrying about, like his 10 year old son. The Post's reporter got threatened when he observed Toussaint's "last day of freedom" while eating in Boerum Hill ("curried chicken, accompanied by rice and beans and spicy cabbage at the West Indian home-style favorite Stir It Up on Atlantic Avenue"). more ›

the guys paying them, which is probably why Ja-Rule told reporters that the charges were "bogus" and that the authorities just "don't like hip-hop." Prosectors are trying to connect Murder Inc. with druglord Kenneth McGriff, also known as "Supreme," and that McGriff used Murder Inc. to launder a million dollars (in shoeboxes and garbage bags!). more ›

Remember back in May when with some fanfare the city started using the first new large SI Ferry in decades? Or at least you remember when it was christened two years ago out in Wisconsin (above). Yeah, well, that brand spanking new ferry broke yesterday. more ›