Results tagged “lawrence”

Yesterday afternoon in Lawrence, a man on a Yamaha personal jet ski with his 5-year-old son crashed full speed into a dock in Crooked Creek. Witnesses say the man appeared to lose control of the water bike. The man, 42-year-old Roopnarine Gopaul, was unconscious in the water while the boy was still on the jet ski; a witness told WCBS 2, "We had to lift the [broken, splintered] dock, break it apart to lift it off of them and get child out first." Gopaul was pronounced dead yesterday at St. John's Episcopal Hospital in Far Rockaway, while his son was pronounced dead this morning at Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow. According to MyFoxNY, some residents say the creek is dangerous and "isn't meant for high-speed boating" while Newsday reports that, according to a neighbor, the "dock was built a few years ago and is longer than other docks in the area."

The 19-year-old former volunteer firefighter who is now suspected of setting a building fire that left four dead was apparently suspended from the Lawrence Fire Department because he set a fire in May 2008. Newsday reports that Caleb Lacey lit a fire in a Dumpster behind an exercise club he went to and "told police about the earlier blaze during questioning" about the fatal fire last month. Lacey's lawyer said that his client just burned garbage and leaves, "It's really irrelevant to the allegations. It doesn't prove anything," and insists his client is innocent. However, police believe that Lacey wanted to play the hero, and doused a stairwell with accelerant, set it ablaze, and went back to the firehouse to wait for the 911 call. With their only exit blocked (the fire escape was removed earlier), a mother and three children were fatally trapped.

Police believe that arson suspect Caleb Lacey set fire to a Lawrence, Long Island building because he, as a volunteer firefighter, wanted to play the hero, but the relatives of the four family members who died in the blaze say Lacey had another motive. Saul Preza, 19, his mother, Morena Vanegas, 46, and her daughters Susanna, 9, and Andrea, 10 were fatally trapped in their second floor apartment, with the fire set in the stairwell and the building's fire escape removed. Newsday reports that relatives say Lacey, who lived 100 feet from the building, was "jealous" because his girlfriend was interested in Preza: Preza's brother said that Lacey "felt threatened by Saul. That's why he did it. That's the only reason," adding that his brother wasn't interested in the Lacey's girlfriend. Lacey's father, an evangelical pastor, told his church, "The tears that I shed today are not tears of sadness - they're tears of joy because I decided that I was going to turn my issues over to Jesus."

A volunteer firefighter was charged with arson and four counts of murder for allegedly setting a fire that killed a mother and three children in Lawrence last month. WCBS 2 describes Caleb Lacey, 19, as a former volunteer firefighter, but Newsday says he was a volunteer with the Lawrence/Cedarhurst Fire Department at the time of the fire. The fire occurred in the stairwell of a building with a laundromat on the first floor and apartments on the second; officials had found traces of accelerant at the scene. Some tenants survived by jumping out of the apartment's windows, but others died—and it was discovered the building's fire escape was removed in 2003. No details were given for a motive.

Earlier this morning around 5:45 a.m., a fire broke out in an apartment above a laundromat in Lawrence. WABC 7 reports that two people are dead and that "at least four children were rescued from the apartment." There may be other occupants still missing: "One Nassau County fire official told Newsday that, due to what was termed 'a language barrier' on scene, it is unclear nearly two hours after the blaze started if those occupants had been trapped in the building or if they had escaped." The location of the fire, which is being battled by fire departments from Lawrence-Cedarhurst, Inwood, Meadowmere Park, Woodmere, Lynbrook, Long Beach and Elmont, is near the Lawrence LIRR station. Update: Newsday now says four people were killed in the fire: A 46-year-old woman, 19-year-old man, a 10-year-old girl and a 9-year-old girl.

The defense for the man on trial for murdering his 7-year-old stepdaughter Nixzmary Brown opened its case by presenting a DNA expert. The Daily News says Dr. Lawrence Koblinsky, who teaches at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, "attacked the investigation but seemed to bore jurors."

Everyone is abuzz about the latest art world scandal, and here's what is known about the life of the Warhol painting at the center of the controversy.

1981: Andy Warhol creates a number of his "Dollar Sign" pieces, using the same theme with different colors and sizes. Medium: polymer paint and silkscreen ink on canvas.

Continue reading "New Woes Over Stolen Warhol"

Update: Here are some of our photographs from the parade route - it look us a few hours to download the photos and decompress/shake out the confetti from the parade. We'll be adding a slideshow later.

In early 2007, The New Yorker writer George Packer published an enthralling article about the desperate plight of Iraqis who had assisted the American effort in their country and were being hunted down as a result, with little or no U.S. protection. Betrayed, Packer's first play, is based on interviews conducted while in Iraq for the sixth time to research his article; the fictionalized account concerns three young Iraqis – two men and a woman – whose willingness to risk their lives to help the Americans is rewarded with an indifference bordering on contempt. Following tonight’s performance, Pulitzer Prize winner (and My Trip to Al-Qaeda playwright) Lawrence Wright will join Packer for conversation about the war in Iraq. Betrayed continues through March 16th at Culture Project; ticket prices vary.

THEATER: Lisa Kron’s solo play 2.5 Minute Ride, which won an OBIE when it premiered at the Public Theater in 1999, is currently being revived with Nicole Golden as the autobiographical “Lisa.” The play concerns Lisa's attempts to make a documentary about the life of her father, a German Jew who survived the Holocaust but lost his parents at Auschwitz. 2.5 Minute Ride finds him, in his later years, a blind diabetic with a heart condition and a passion for roller coasters. Allison Taylor deems it as comical as it is intense; a “patchwork of anecdotes about Kron's family, including memories of her Midwestern mother; an annual trip with her embarrassing relatives to the Cedar Point amusement park; and her brother's Orthodox wedding… genuinely poignant and simultaneously funny.” - John Del Signore

Before getting back to his grueling practice schedule* today, Giants kicker Lawrence Tynes stopped in to the Late Show last night. David Letterman and Tynes chat about his family and when he learned to kick (as a senior in high school). Tynes, the 29-year-old father of twins, who missed two 4th quarter field goals in the NFC Championship before kicking the game winner in overtime, was not able to escape ribbing from Letterman, "Everybody I know had the same reaction after the second missed kick in the 4th quarter, 'Please don't send him in again! For the love of God! If there's an ounce of mercy in your soul! Don't send him in!!'"

Sean Avery, placed on the top line with Gomez and Jagr got things started with a goal at 12:12 of the first period. Brandon Dubinsky scored a few minutes later and the Rangers never looked back. Jaromir Jagr capped the scoring in the third period with some hard work and a nice assist from Martin Straka who handed Jagr a replacement stick after he broke his original one.

If there's one thing to warm up New Yorkers - and New York newspaper editors thinking about a holiday issue - today, it's the Giants' NFC Championship win over the Green Bay Packers. Let's look at how they touted the big win.

The Giants won the NFC Championship in overtime, beating the Green Bay Packers 23-20 in overtime and overcome the frigid, below-zero conditions. They are now headed to the Super Bowl where they will meet the New England Patriots, who beat the San Diego Chargers 21-12.

Prefab housing isn't just for the..."thrifty" anymore! Yesterday Wired featured a selection of twelve modular, prefab housing units -- from lofts to place atop city skylines to 60 square-foot cabins with "cathedral ceilings".

Two hit and run drivers were arrested late this week; one through the actions of a horrified but brave bystander and the other through a successful effort by the Brooklyn Accident Investigation squad. Cops arrived at Sergey Satyr's Mill Basin home Thursday to arrest the 20-year-old for the hit-and-run death of 71-year-old Grace Smith of Sheepshead Bay. The Brooklyn Accident Investigation squad used debris from Satyr's Nissan and a partial license plate number to track the suspect down. Satyr allegedly ran down Smith December 21st on Ocean Parkway near Avenue X.

Clear skies and rain will alternate through New Year's Eve. A weak high pressure system has pushed out yesterday's dreary drizzlyness. Clouds will start building in later in the day but not before we reach a high in the low 50s. Rain, associated with a low pressure system moving up the Ohio and then St. Lawrence Valleys, should arrive around midnight. New York is at the eastern boundary of the expected rainfall. It is kind of a tossup as to how long the rain will last. Maybe just a few hours but we may be in store for a good soaking that lasts well into tomorrow morning.

Did anyone go see destructo-porn blockbuster, I Am Legend, this weekend? Apparently New Yorkers who saw the movie up close and personal when it was being filmed gave it two thumbs down, or rather -- one middle finger up! amNewYork reports on Will Smith's run-ins with disgruntled locals.

"I would say, percentage-wise, it's the most amount of middle fingers I have received in my career. I'm used to people liking me… [all those] middle fingers, I was starting to think F-U was my name."

It seems like just yesterday that the Brooklyn Bridge was being blown up by Hollywood. How time flies. I Am Legend, the movie for which this post-apocalyptic craziness occurred, is opening today (get your promotional survivor kit ready!). In the 100 minutes of watching it, you'll meet three main characters: Manhattan, Sam the dog, and Will Smith ("Robert Neville"). The combination is apparently a winning one, as the reviews have been frighteningly positive...it will scare you, and it will especially scare New Yorkers (particularly if those future gas prices are accurate). You can watch the 3-minute opening scene, here.

Last year WNBC got up close and personal with the Civic Fame statue atop the Municipal Building, and this week The NY Times looks at the woman who modeled for that statue, and many others -- Audrey Munson, "a long-forgotten New York celebrity whose face and figure continue to grace the contours of statues all around Manhattan."It was Ms. Munson’s eyes that stared stoically from the marble forms of the Firemen’s Memorial on Riverside Drive,...

Gross! A former assistant principal at I.S. 72 in Staten Island is accused of asking a 12-year-old student for massages - and then trying to buy her and her mother's silence with promises of private school payment! Lawrence Siegel was put in a district office job - not his usual gig at Rocco Laurie Intermediate School - while the Department of Education investigated him after a DOE parent support coordinator, per the Staten Island Advance,...

ART: Last night the works of ex-Guided By Voices frontman Robbert Pollard were unveiled at an invite-only opening, and today it's a free-for-all. Come by and check out his debut art exhibit, which "will consist of more than 50 collages that date from 1990 through 2007. Using elements from 1950's -70's era magazines, pamphlets and obscure pictoral paperbacks as his primary tools, he portrays allegorical personas and hallucinogenic-type environments to create small, almost random synapses...

Last night, the Nets lost a rare game to their cross-river rival in which both teams were without key players. Normally, the story would be Marbury missing the game to grieve his father's death and Curry embarrassingly spraining his ankle during a walkthrough, but instead, the Nets troubles were the talk of the town this morning. Jason Kidd missed the game last night due to what he said were migraines, but several people at the...

The low-slung Port Authority bus terminal will be getting a heady addition: The Port Authority will announce a deal for a tower to be built at its north end. The NY Times reports that Lawrence Ruben Company and Vornado Realty Trust is buying air rights for $400-500 million, which the Port Authority will then be used to add 18 bus platforms, give the terminal a "major face-lift" and overall refurbishing. Well, finally - commuting to...

It took all of 45 seconds on Sunday to tell you that the Giants were in trouble. Lawrence Tynes sent the opening kickoff out of bounds and Minnesota scored on a 60-yard bomb on their second play of the game. It was a harbinger of things to come as Minnesota thrashed the Giants 41-17 on Sunday. You can blame the entire team for this one, but the quarterback deserves special consideration. Eli Manning was terrible...

Devils 6, Flyers 2: After three failed bids to get Martin Brodeur his 500th career win, the Devils finally provided him some margin of error. They played stingy defense and lit the lamp six times en route to an easy milestone win. Brodeur joins Patrick Roy as the only netminders with 500 wins. Dainius Zubrus got the party started and added an assist. As happy as the Devils are for Brodeur, they're probably happiest that...

The Manhattan District Attorney's office announced that the Reverend David Ajemian was arrested on charges of stalking and threatening Conan O'Brien. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston placed Ajemian, a 46-year-old priest in Stoneham, Massachusetts, on leave. The DA's office says that Ajemian had sent letters (some on parish letterhead!) to O'Brien's offices at 30 Rockefeller Plaza and home, contacted his parents, and tried to attend tapings of Late Night with Conan O'Brien. He was...

The Giants escaped London with an ugly 13-10 win on an ugly day on an ugly field. The Wembley Stadium turf was not made to handle our brand of football in the rain and it rapidly turned into mud, leaving the players struggling for footing and resulting in sloppy play on both sides of the ball.