The Reverend Al Sharpton, speaking out against the beating a black man in Staten Island, announced that he will organize a protest march in the next few weeks. He said, "New York is becoming worse than Louisiana. We're going to Staten Island, Jena, Washington - and we're going to bring out numbers like you've never seen before." On Tuesday, Skylar McCormack, who is black and had been with some white friends, was attacked by......

The Staten Island District Attorney's office has dropped hate crime charges against two young white men accused of beating a black man in Mariners Harbor. SI DA Daniel Donovan said, "At this point I believe the evidence provided to my office by the police is legally insufficient to support hate-crime charges." Skylar McCormick was allegedly punched, kicked, beaten and threatened with a baseball bat Tuesday night after he touched Daniel Avissato's Cadillac. Avissato and Mark......

The police arrested two white men in the the beating of a black man in Staten Island. The Reverend Al Sharpton appeared with the victim and said, "We cannot live in a city, state or nation where people cannot safely be in the streets or anywhere else because of the color of their skin." In Mariners Harbor on Tuesday night, 20-year-old Skylar McCormick and four friends - who are white - were having a foot......

Isn't it sweet (or cliché) when you go to a baseball game and the jumbotron flashes a marriage proposal? It's such a nice personal event that the couple is sharing with thousands of other people. While we secretly hope that someone says no, this prank proposal at Yankee Stadium takes things to a whole new level. Some background: two College Humor guys have been engaged in a "Prank War" starting earlier this year. The......

There's one member of the Mets that is up for the Hall of Fame today. The Mascot Hall of Fame, that is. The round-headed ball of a mascot is trailing by about 5,500 votes in the race for popularity on the Mascot Hall of Fame website. He trails The Coyote, the mascot of the San Antonio Spurs. The Post pulls out all the stops to make sure Mr. Met is the top vote getter.......

Yankees 12, Mariners 3: Chien-Ming Wang doesn't deserve the American League Cy Young award, but he should get some lower votes. In a game the Yankees needed to win to keep their wild-card lead, Wang pitched 7 1/3 innings and kept the Mariners under wraps. That came as a welcome development after the Yankees learned that Roger Clemens will need a cortisone shot in his pitching elbow. Why was he out there Monday anyway? Horacio......

Mets 3 Braves 2: Some people may question Willie Randolph’s managing, but they had better give him credit for this weekend. After a dismal sweep at the hands of the Phillies, the Mets responded in a huge way, sweeping their archrival in Atlanta. Tom Glavine contributed at both ends, driving in the first run of the game and allowing only one run in six innings. David Wright added his 25th home run of the year,......

Yankees 5, Red Sox 3: This game wasn't important in the American League East race. If a miracle occurs over the next three weeks, it may be looked upon as signifcant, but right now it simply helps the Yankees in their quest to make the playoffs as the wild card. Andy Pettitte threw seven innings of three-run ball, and the Yankees broke a 3-3 tie when Johnny Damon homered off Daisuke Matsuzaka in the seventh......

With unseasonable weather descending upon much of North America, schools getting ready to reconvene, and sports seasons getting exciting, it's a busy time of year for us here in the Ist-A-Verse. Luckily, even with all the things we have to do, we still managed to get together to let you know what we've all been up to. After cooling down from a hot weekend of many badass Sunset Junction Street Fair photo dispatches, LAist asked......

Mr. Met's hat may be cocked, but he's not cocky after being nominated for the online entity that is the Mascot Hall of Fame. Mets organization officials said the usually mute mascot remained speechless at the honor. Induction is not a sure thing. Other candidates, which will be voted for online, include the Coyote for the San Antonio Spurs, Hugo the Hornet for the New Orleans Hornets, the Oriole bird for the Baltimore Orioles,......

A three block section in the Graniteville was evacuated when federal authorities found 2,500 pounds of "potentially explosive" chemicals in a home and a storage facility. The initial fear was that the chemicals were being using for terrorist activities, but now it seems that Miguel Serrano had been buying chemicals in bulk to resell for a profit online. Capitalism! From the Staten Island Advance:Potassium nitrate, sulfur, mercury and peroxide were among the 21 different......

Nets 96, Cavaliers 85: "Kidd was obviously a monster." That's what Cavaliers Coach Mike Brown said about Jason Kidd, who had a triple-double to lead the Nets in a must-win game at home. The goods -- 23 points, 14 assists and 13 rebounds -- helped the Nets stay alive in this series, which has one more game in the Meadowlands before going back to Cleveland. The media have been all too happy to declare series......

Mets 5, Brewers 4: Too bad the Mets couldn't hit like this off Jeff Suppan in last year's playoffs. They got three home runs -- from David Wright, Carlos Delgado and Damion Easley -- and beat the pitcher who shut them down while with the Cardinals last October. They have to feel happy that Wright and Delgado hit their third homers of the year, but who would have guessed that Easley, whose homer was......

Mariners 3, Yankees 2: Matt DeSalvo -- he who reads Camus and writes unpublished novels in his spare time -- threw seven innings of one-run ball for the Yankees before turning it over to the bullpen with a one-run lead. Second base umpire Gerry Davis blew a call and hurt the Yankees in the eighth. With two out, pinch runner Willie Bloomquist appeared to be caught stealing second. Davis called him safe, and Kenji Johjima......

With the news that Roger Clemens is returning to the Yankees, reactions from the local media and Yankee fans are generally positive. Clemens made the announcement during the 7th inning of yesterday's 5-0 win over the Seattle Mariners. After the singing of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame," Bob Sheppard directed the crowd to the owner's box for a special announcement. Only then did the public find out that Clemens would be returning to......

Yankees fans can now rejoice, because Roger Clemens is returning to the New York Yankees. The 44-year old right-hander, who last pitched for the Houston Astros last season, announced his plans to the crowd during the 7th inning stretch of today's Yankees-Mariners game (audio from WCBS), "Well, they came and got me out of Texas. I can tell you, it's a privilege to be back. I'll be talking to y'all soon." How surprising was the......

The Seattle Mariners are in town for a four-game stand against the hometeam Yankees, but Seattle's relief pitcher Julio Cesar Mateo may be asked to stick around or eventually be invited for a longer stay. Something transpired following the Mariners' win over the Yankees Friday night that resulted in Mateo's wife at St. Vincent's hospital, where she arrived bleeding and received stiches in her mouth.Police wanted Mateo to surrender himself to Manhattan's midtown north precinct......

Senators 3, Devils 2: Scott Gomez's pair of goals couldn't save the Devils, who went out of the NHL Playoffs with a whimper by losing the conference semifinals series in five games. New Jersey just couldn't light the lamp enough in this series, and Martin Brodeur wasn't the best netminder. That title belongs to Ray Emery, who made 27 saves Saturday despite being in a car accident the day before. Ask any Devils fan if......

Sabres 2 Rangers 1: The Rangers were eight seconds away from winning this game and taking a 3-2 lead in the series when Chris Drury netted the game-tying goal. Up until that point, the Rangers had played a great game, but anyone who watched the final minute of regulation has to wonder why Jaromir Jagr was on the ice? After taking a 1-0 lead with just over three minutes left, the Rangers needed to play......

We'd like to start this week's run-down by wishing a very happy birthday to parent blog Gothamist, which turned four on Friday. If it wasn't for them, the rest of us wouldn't be here. They celebrated their birthday by nabbing an interview with Entourage star Adrian Grenier, who misses NYC public transportation when he's working in LA. They also reported on NYU students protesting a band whose name is also known as a slur,......

A terrible, brutal robbery on Staten Island: A group of teenagers beat a man to death for $60 on Saturday night. Richard Salinas, a 33 year old father of two, was headed out to buy a phone card for his wife when teens John Messiha, Daniel Betancourt and Travis King attacked him on Van Pelt Avenue. The three teens were charged with crime. One neighbor in Mariners Harbor told the Daily News, "I've lived here......

-Mets 6 Cardinals 2: If this is a preview of the NLCS, the Mets have nothing to worry about. New York completed its sweep of St. Louis by jumping out to a 3-0 lead and then adding some insurance right after the Cardinals made it close. Carlos Delgado continued his hot streak with his 32nd home run and Shawn Green started off his Mets career with a 1-3 night and a RBI. -Seattle 4 Yankees......

The Staten Island Advance had an interesting tale of pet ownership and living in city housing. Patricia Leonardo, a tenant in the Mariners Harbor Houses, complained about roaches in her apartment, only to be evicted for owning two dogs in the apartment. A building manager also accompanied the exterminators, and since the New York City Housing Authority prohibits more than one dog or cat (though many pet owners do have more than one dog or......

-Mariners 3, Yankees 2: After Melky Cabrera's game-winning home run Tuesday, fans didn't have long between games. Maybe the Yankees could have used more rest. Mariners starter Gil Meche allowed only five hits, and Alex Rodriguez had two of them. With the Red Sox cashing in their "Free Sweep" coupon over the lowly Royals, the Yankees are now 1 1/2 games behind. -Reds 7, Mets 4: A rain delay of over two hours only put......

Not as fun as sabermetrics, but still fun: Quinnipiac University conducted a poll asking New Yorkers about their NYC basebal loyalties. Not surprisingly, the Yankees are favored over the Mets - 46% of New Yorkers would want the Yanks to win a Subway World Series, whereas only 37% would want the Mets to win (we assume the remaining 17% are people who think a subway series involves actual subway cars or who don't want a......

-Yankees 4 Mariners 2: Chien-Ming Wang makes it look easy. Get on the mound, throw sinker after sinker and leave the game after seven or so innings and a lot of ground balls. Monday he won his tenth game of the year as he held Seattle to seven hits and two runs over seven innings while producing nineteen grounders. An interesting subplot to the evening was Alex Rodriguez’s three errors. A-Rod made three bad throws......

DCist is screwed in the event of an oil crisis. Not that we're not all screwed in the event of an oil crisis, just D.C. is more screwed. Don't sell your car yet, District resident, a cabbie can kick you to the curb if he doesn't like your address. Not even Metro can save you now. Londonist experiences the London of the future through the wonders of 3D modeling, but while the 3D guys are......

Shanghaiist probably knows a little more about China than the Chicago Sun-Times. Giving them the benefit of the doubt on that one. The city does to have a music scenei. Don't even front like they don't. They also have Dorrito bananas and white guys shopping for wives. What they don't have is any more tolerance for jaywalkers. Bostonist sees Boston and Somerville each whip out their art and face off. A plagarized novel is the......

Phillyist notes a fistfight between local pols that leaves one man down for the count. Jehovah's Witnesses get a Philly contributor out of bed, things get a little geeky with a film festival and geeky gets taken to a whole new galaxy when they talk with the Dragon Queen of the Dark Kingdom. Shanghaist gets all excited this week over a new nightclub in the city unfortunately named "Snatch" and Mike Tyson is scheduled to......

In a sad turn for Dwight Gooden, the former pitcher for the Mets and Yankees, admitted in a Florida court yesterday to using cocaine. Gooden was on parole for a DUI incident last August and told his parole officer last week that he was using cocaine. After taking a drug test and testing positive, Gooden was arrested. It is expected that Gooden will face some prison time after his sentencing on April 5th. He faces......