If your dog poops, you must scoop. Most people understand that. But for those that don't, DNA testing is about to make it a lot more difficult to leave behind Fido's filth. The Freakonomics guys proposed dog DNA testing as a solution for NYC's streets being riddled with poop back in 2005, and now it's becoming a reality. more ›

Earth-friendly New Yorkers that drink beer at sporting events out of aluminum bottles are not only likely to yell at someone before the night is over, they also happen to be breaking the law. According to an obscure 1982 law, called The Bottle Law, aluminum bottles are technically illegal in New York. more ›

In a move that will no doubt have a far-reaching impact, federal officials have decided to cancel the deportation of Henry Velandia, a 27-year-old immigrant from Venezuela, who is married to another man, 30-year-old Josh Vandiver. more ›

At this point, we've heard a lot about teenagers and their propensity for seemingly nonstop sexting. Well, those crazy kids are at it yet again, this time as a naked snapshot of a 13-year-old girl makes the rounds of a New Jersey middle school. And the authorities aren't taking the sexts lightly, even in the wake of efforts to loosen the rules against teenagers and their wildly out-of-control hormones. more ›

Up until November 2010, if there was no obvious visible physical evidence of strangulation, prosecutors were forced to lower charges against the perpetrator to a non-criminal count of harassment. But NY State has improved its choking laws since then, adding a criminal count of obstruction of breathing or blood circulation to the law, which can be proven with other courtroom tools, including witness testimony. And since the new law has been implemented, over 2,000 people have been arrested under it. more ›

Up until this week, if a teenager was caught sending nude sexts to another minor in many states including NJ, they could have been prosecuted as sex offenders and risk years in prison, as happened earlier this year with one unlucky teen. But this week, the NJ Assembly voted unanimously to loosen the rules on sexting, and try to avoid saddling sexually precocious, probably stupid kids with criminal records. more ›

Now that we've banished smokers from our beaches, pedestrian plazas, parks, automobiles carrying children, dreams, bars, novels, restaurants, sidewalks, thoughts, and fantasies, one last hurdle remains: ridding ourselves of those untouchables who still light up behind closed doors. Today the Wall Street Journal reports that a number of co-ops and condos are planning votes to ban smoking inside private residences, man. more ›

Last month, when City Councilman Eric Ulrich (R-Queens) proposed a law that would require all adult cyclists in NYC get licenses and register their bicycles, some worried that the legislation didn't go far enough. For example, what happens when a law-abiding, licensed NYC cyclist crosses over the border line from Queens into Long Island, where unregulated, Mad Maxian bicycle gangs dominate the roads and run over thousands of puppies every day? Wouldn't the anarchic bicycle lawlessness across the state undermine NYC's quest for law and order? Just in time, here comes Assemblyman Michael DenDekker to the rescue! more ›

Should Facebook come with Miranda rights? With many recent legal cases hinging on information procured from Facebook and other social networking sites, lawyers are now debating under what circumstances that information can be gotten and used in court. Two recent opinions in NY courts agreed that lawyers can use the info as evidence, as long as lawyers draw within the proverbial lines...which are kinda complicated. more ›

There was a lot of attention, blame and heated sentiments exchanged last week over the little-dog-that-almost-could, Oreo. The pit bull mix survived being thrown off a six-story building in Red Hook last summer only to be euthanized last week. The abused dog was deemed to be too dangerous to live out her life in the company of other animals or humans by ASPCA, the organization that helped the dog recuperate after the fall. more ›

Will pedicabs become extinct before carriage horses? At the end of last month there were reportedly only 25 of 1,000 pedicabs who became licensed under the city's new regulations. The NYCPOA declared this was untrue, and we've contacted them today to confirm the latest Post report, which says that number is up to only 321. Peter Meitzler from the organization told us that "the current number of plates issued so far to inspected pedicabs is 349 as of 9 this morning." more ›

We all know that pedestrians are crazy about jaywalking, and bikers are outspoken about every single thing they can possibly be outspoken about, but what about drivers? Well, they're just rude. You knew that, but now Streetfilms has a scaremongering video, complete with subtle eerie soundtrack music, that assures the viewer they probably encountered death multiple times today. more ›

Because there were, miraculously, no injuries, that professionally-shot video of a street fight between a pedicab driver and a cabbie was an instant classic—especially that part where the pedicab driver rides off on the sidewalk after throwing a trashcan at his adversary (and missing). But Mayor Bloomberg was not amused, and told reporters yesterday that the traffic-stopping fisticuffs were "totally inappropriate." more ›

The war between photographers and police wages on, with the latest battleground being Coney Island. The Village Voice reports that Simon Lund, a Manhattan commercial photographer with a habit of hitting Coney 10 to 20 times each summer for personal photographic expeditions, was busted by the NYPD. The thing is, he didn't do anything illegal. more ›

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a person under a train at East Fordham Rd. and Jerome Ave. in the Bronx, a shooting on Henry and West 9th Sts. in Brooklyn, and a homicide on Roosevelt Ave. in Queens.
• New Yorkers found guilty of repeated incidents of ignoring recycling laws may be required to throw out their trash in see-through bags for easy inspection.
• Ads soliciting the perfect ass might not make it onto city buses, but the company that sells Georgi vodka will put its bikini ads on city taxis.
• A high-end steakhouse and retailers of luxury goods are on slate for Adams St. near the Brooklyn Bridge.
• That's not Che Guevara in Times Square; it's Rambo. John Rambo. A marketing exec at Lionsgate says "You have to scream loud when you're screaming."
• Scaffolding outside the offices of The Observer was dislodged by high winds. A block of Broadway was temporarily closed this afternoon.
• The Daily Show with John Stewart may return to the air as early as January 7, whether the writers guild strike is settled or not.
• Curbed surveys how "hip" Williamsburg, Brooklyn is in the eyes of a PR Newswire release. Its findings: Williamsburg is very very very hip.

Approximately 85 undocumented workers are being fired from the high-end grocery delivery company Fresh Direct on the on the eve of the holiday season because their status as U.S. residents is disputed. Dozens of workers filed out of the company's Queens warehouse. Fresh Direct blamed a federal probe for the axing of almost a hundred workers. According to the Daily News, "management insisted it carried out the purge under pressure from federal authorities to crack... more ›

Who knew thousands, if not millions, of New Yorkers would agree with presidential hopeful Fred Thompson on something? In this case, the former Senator and former Law & Order District Attorney was talking about Rudy Giuliani's reliance on touting his New York City credentials during a campaign stop in New Hampshire today. Thompson told a crowd at a gun store, Giuliani "relates everything to New York City. Well, New York City is not emblematic of... more ›

State Supreme Court Justice Helen Freedman has ruled that the Broadway production of How the Grinch Stole Christmas can and will proceed, despite the theater owner’s attempt to lock out the stagehands. “Grinch” producers dragged Jucamcyn, the third largest owner of Broadway theaters, into court yesterday seeking an injunction to let the show go on. Local One, the stagehands’ union, is on strike until a contract is agreed upon with the producers’ league, of which... more ›

D is for drunk and disorderly, not boobs and breasts. At least according to New Jersey State Senator Richard Codey. The Times first reported yesterday on the halftime events at Gate D at Giants Stadium during Jets games. Hundreds of fans gather on the exit ramp, chanting at women and encouraging them to expose their breasts. If they don't lift their shirts, the women are met with boos and sometimes are spit at or have... more ›

You know a story is going to be good (as in crazy) when it starts "It's a story as old as the drinking laws: A teenage girl convinces a man to buy her a bottle of alcohol." And that's how an article in the Staten Island Advance starts - and it keeps getting better. The leader of a S.I. civic association! Her 21-year-old son! A drunk 14-year-old - and the girl's angry mother! Frank Ammirato,... more ›

Mayor Michael Bloomberg was in Seattle yesterday to give a keynote at the United States Conference of Mayors. The Mayor, aka Mr. "I'm not running for president in 2008" Bloomberg, discussed NYC's efforts to be more sustainable and how governments need to invest and innovate to encourage energy efficiency. And one of the innovations would be to introduce pollution pricing. He said:

we have to stop ignoring the laws of economics. As long as greenhouse gas pollution is free, it will be abundant. If we want to reduce it, there has to be a cost for producing it. The voluntary targets suggested by President Bush would be like voluntary speed limits - doomed to fail. If we're serious about climate change, the question is not whether we should put a value on greenhouse gas pollution, but how we should do it.

A few days ago The Apiary suspected that someone was out to get Rififi after reading some new comments on an old post about the multi-purpose venue, and hearing their liquor license was about to expire. One of the managers, Karin Stanley, quickly responded -- confirming the site's suspicions:

Unfortunately you are correct, there is a smear campaign being perpetrated against Rififi by some of the tenants in the surrounding buildings. They are intent on ousting Rififi during this period of license renewal, soliciting surrounding tenants to make complaints, abusing the SLA complaint webpage, and invoking archaic and racist cabaret laws (please refer to this site for a history of the cabaret laws in New York City). Many of these people seem to believe it is illegal for people to eat, drink and make merry. more ›

City Comptroller William Thompson Jr. stated in an audit released Thursday that the New York had wasted almost $6 million attempting to develop a Scottish links-style golf course in the Bronx. That's not how much the city spent; that's just how much Thompson thinks the city wasted. Developer Ferry Point Partners has been working on the project for the better part of the last decade (since 2000), and in 2002 requested additional funds for environmental remediation. Of the $7.2 million the Parks Dept. paid Ferry Point Partners since then, an audit released by Thompson's office determined that $5.8 million did not go towards environmental remediation. more ›

FR.OG and P*Ong, two perfectly good Manhattan restaurants that opened earlier this year, have names that independently invoke two classic arcade video games, Frogger and Pong. Now, as the fall openings season draws to a close and the votes for worst new restaurant name have been cast, we’d like to draw your attention to the most incredibly iconic new restaurant name in New York: It's that of Roclantic Eatery, a soul food and oil drum “Bar-B-Que” place that opened just two weeks ago on the corner of Atlantic and Rockaway Avenue in East New York, coincidentally enough. Kind of rolls off the tongue. With a purple-painted exterior and booming, shadowed, all-caps signage, Roclantic’s owners have come up with a restaurant name so unique that as of right now, it doesn’t even return a single Google hit. more ›

Rensselaer County Clerk Frank J. Merola is unhappy with Gov. Spitzer's plan to issue drivers licenses to illegal immigrants. As an employee of the State, he has no legal discretion over whether he can ignore the plan once it's enacted, so he's filed a lawsuit to block the initiative in state Supreme Court in Albany. In a statement explaining his lawsuit. County Clerk Frank Merola alluded to a recent public opinion poll that showed widespread opposition to Spitzer's plan licensing plan.

“New York residents have stated loudly and clearly that we are not in favor of giving license to illegal aliens and all we get from the Governor are lectures on how we are wrong, and that if we were as smart as he was, we would understand and support this policy. Well, 72% of New York residents, including myself and a vast majority of County Clerks are not as smart as the Governor and I am filing suit to prevent this travesty of a policy from being implemented.”

More than a year and a half after the death of Nixzmary Brown, the Administration for Children's Services has hired 20 retired NYPD detectives to work as trained investigators consulting with ACS caseworkers. The ACS plans on eventually fielding 120 such investigators. more ›

Last night, a memorial bike ride was held in memory of Craig Murphey. Murphey, a 26-year-old who worked at the West Harlem Action Network Against Poverty, was biking when he was hit by an oil truck at Union Avenue and Ten Eyck Street in Williamsburg. more ›

A young man died when he fell from the roof of a C train last night. The 21-year-old had been riding on top of the southbound train car, "subway surfing" when he fell just north of the West 155th Street stop. more ›