We thought it was pretty darn bad that several notable convicted politicians, including Alan Hevesi, Joe Bruno, Guy Velella and Clarence Norman, continued to receive taxpayer-funded pensions worth tens of thousands of dollars a year even after they were convicted of criminal charges. But it turns out that even the ones who haven't been convicted yet are doing their own dirty dealings: at least 11 politicians are double-dipping, taking advantage of a loophole that allows entrenched elected officials to collect pension checks while still in office. And by the love of Costanza, it's just not right! more ›

Jose Rivera, who shot at a car full of undercover cops, hitting one of them, was sentenced to 16 years in jail. In February, while driving in Park Slope-Prospect Heights, Rivera thought that the cops were giving him a dirty looks and yelled at them, "You got a beef?" and then fired. The police fired back and later, Rivera's police officer wife seemed to try to cover up the shooting by parking their bullet-ridden car far from their home. more ›

After a protest in East Harlem, baseball cap manufacturer New Era has agreed to pull Yankees caps from store shelves. A number of caps seem to refer to the Bloods, Crips and Latin Kings and became a controversy during a back-to-school shopping trip. more ›

The failure of congestion pricing (at least for this legislative session) has cast a pall on NYC-Albany relations. Not least because Mayor Bloomberg spent some time yesterday slamming state lawmakers. He said:

New York City is today poorer because of Albany's inaction yesterday, and I think, sadly, it appears that we jeopardized, at best, and probably lost, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do something with someone else's money. more ›

MOVIE: Last week Bryant Park was packed as Annie Hall played on the big screen. This week grab someone who's hand you'll be able to squeeze tight as the classic horror flick, The Thing, plays in the park. The timeless flick watches the sci-fi terror unfold as "scientists at an Arctic research station discover a spacecraft buried in the ice. Upon closer examination, they discover the frozen pilot. All hell breaks loose when they take him back to their station and he is accidentally thawed out!" more ›

Police officer Jacqueline Melendez Rivera was indicted on two charges related to the February 10 shooting of fellow cop Andrew Suarez. The shooter was Melendez Rivera's husband, Jose Rivera, who shot at Suarez and other undercover officers in an unmarked car while driving in Park Slope. (Suarez was shot in the arm.) more ›

Today, Mayor Bloomberg met with the Bronx fire victims' families and later held a press conference about the tragedy, which is the deadliest fire (aside from September 11) since 1990 . The Mayor has been under fire for leaving the city yesterday - after a Thursday press conference about the fire - for a scheduled appearance in Miami, where he made jokes about "Mayors Gone Wild" in South Beach. more ›

Families, neighbors, and others mourned Wednesday night's fire that gutted a 4-story Bronx home and claimed the lives of nine people, including eight children. Fire officials investigated the Highbridge section structure, which was home to twenty-two Malian immigrants and believed that a space heater on the garden floor bedroom overheated and caused the fire, which spread uncontrollably due to what the NY Times calls "the most basic of human oversights and seemingly innocuous events." The space heater apparently ignited clothes and mattresses. more ›

Police officer Jacqueline Melendez-Rivera offered her apology to Officer Andrew Suarez, who was shot by Melendez-Rivera's ex-con husband in a strange incident early Saturday morning. Rivera yelled, "You got a beef?" and allegedly shot at Suarez and other plainclothes police officers, even after Suarez flashed a badge. Melendez-Rivera, a 13 veteran of the NYPD, told reporters, "I'm very sorry for the injuries to Officer [Andrew] Suarez, and I hope he recovers as he was before... I feel horrible. A fellow officer - he's a father, a brother. I feel devastated. I'm very, very sorry. I pray constantly that he recovers." more ›

A veteran police officer and her husband were arraigned yesterday in connection to Saturday's bizarre drive-by shooting of a plainclothes police officer. Police officer Jacqueline Melendez-Rivera was charged with evidence tampering for trying to cover up that her husband, Jose Rivera, driving in her Acura SUV, had shot at an unmarked police SUV carrying four police officers in Park Slope around 4AM. Rivera was charged with attempted murder. more ›

A truly strange story unfolded yesterday after initial reports that a police officer had been shot at Sixth Avenue and Prospect Place in Brooklyn. It turns out that the husband of an NYPD officer shot at an unmarked police SUV carrying four cops. And the wife, police officer Jacqueline Melendez-Rivera, tried to cover up her husband's actions. more ›

With the massive arts listings in last Sunday’s Times, the new season officially got underway, although theatre fans have for some time been able to get at least some idea about the next year on stage, and not only the brand-name productions, via the estimable nytheatre.com. Still, poring over those inky pages and getting overwhelmed by the sheer bulk of what’s about to come our way has no real substitute, and we’re now particularly looking forward to October’s Massacre (Sing to Your Children), a dark psychodrama/mystery written by Jose Rivera and being produced by the LAByrinth Theatre Company at the Public; 4.48 Psychose, Sarah Kane’s very experimental final play which will be performed by Isabelle Huppert in French (also in October, it’s part of both the Act French festival and BAM’s Next Wave festival); the latest provocation from Les Freres Corbusier, Hell House, which from the Times’ description sounds like it will be a close reproduction of fundamentalist Christians’ method of scaring people into faith, though you probably won’t have to look too hard for the satiric element; and Douglas Carter Beane’s The Little Dog Laughed, a send-up of the pervasive celebrity gossip culture playing in December at Second Stage. We were also tickled to see that Martin McDonagh (writer of The Pillowman) and John Patrick Shanley (Doubt) will again go head-to-head with new plays next spring – Shanley’s Defiance at Manhattan Theatre Club and McDonagh’s The Lieutenant of Inishmore at the Atlantic. As the Times asks, why mess with success? The Pillowman’s imminent closing notwithstanding, both have been hits despite being singularly unsettling theatrical experiences, so maybe they offer each other mutual support, and maybe the new plays will find the same rapport. In any case, we’re excited. more ›

A woman passed out not once but twice during the Mayor's press conference about Summer Success Academy. During the woman's second collapse, Mayor Bloomberg actually "rushed to her side," perhaps concerned how it would look if a constituent, though a government employee in the Department of Education, fainted twice during his speech. And luckily the woman woke up a few seconds later - no need for CPR or anything! No word on whether or not the paramedics checked on other audience members (they could have been doing the "sleep with eyes open" thing), but the woman will be fine. [Related: The NY Times on how it has been hard for the Mayor's rivals to challenge him on education issues.] more ›