The Health Department is conducting tests to determine whether swine flu has found its way into our area after 75 students at a Queens high school turned up sick with potential symptoms for the virus. Students from St. Francis Prep in Fresh Meadows are being tested after dozens have reported nausea, fever, dizzyness, aches and pains. One student told NY1, "My chest is really tight, it feels like a 20-pound baby is sitting on my chest. I have shortness of breath, I can't even walk up the steps, and as you can hear I'm stuffy and my coughing is getting really bad." more ›

One of the NJ prisoners who escaped from a Union County jail by chiseling through cement blocks (hiding their progress by taping posters over the growing hole) three weeks ago was captured last night. Thanks to a tip, police found Jose Espinosa in an apartment just a few blocks away from the jail. more ›

Former president Bill Clinton announced the Clinton Climate Initiative during the C40 Large Cities Climate Summit yesterday. The CCI is an ambitious program to help 15 cities (Bangkok, Berlin, Chicago, Houston, Johannesburg, Karachi, London, Melbourne, Mexico City, Mumbai, New York, Rome, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Tokyo, and Toronto) renovate/retrofit buildings with more energy efficient products. Clinton has managed to get ABN AMRO, Citi, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan Chase, and UBS to each put up $1 billion "to finance cities and private building owners to undertake these retrofits at no net cost, doubling the global market for energy retrofit in buildings." From the press release:

As part of the Energy Efficiency Building Retrofit Program, cities have agreed to develop a program to make their municipal buildings more energy efficient and provide incentives for private building owners to retrofit their buildings with energy saving technologies. The retrofit program will be consistent with, and work within, city procurement and tendering rules. Participation in the program will be open to local banks and companies, who will be invited to contribute to the funding pool and to expand the list of green products used in retrofits. This is the first of many programs that CCI is organizing with partner cities in the C40 Large Cities Climate Leadership Group, an association of large cities that have agreed to work together to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a bank robbery at Victory Blvd. and Lester St. on Staten Island, a fall victim down a trench at Carlton and Park Aves. in Brooklyn, and a construction accident on West 30th St. and 10th Ave. in Manhattan.
• If you have Time Warner Digital Cable and are interested in transit issues, get NY1's In Transit on demand; the Daily News' Peter Donahue shared some interesting insights about the transit worker deaths with Bobby Cuza.
• Brooklyn photographer Spencer Tunick convinced 18,000 people to get naked in Mexico City's main square so he could photograph them. Yes, there is a slideshow after the link.
• Alerted by a foul smell coming from her daughter's closet, a Queens mother found the body of an infant stuffed into a bag. She took the infant to the hospital, but the child had been dead for approximately a week.
• A presumably former Mr. Chow waiter is suing the eponymous chain's owner for $5 million, after Chow allegedly kicked him and made him lie on the floor during a staff meeting as punishment for showing up late.
• The Bedford Police Dept. is following a trail of clues in the homicide of a homeless man found dead by the side of the road by impounding two police cars from neighboring Mt. Kisco in Westchester. The body of Guatemalan immigrant Rene Perez was found an hour after he had dialed 911 for the Mt. Kisco police. Responding Mt. Kisco officers said he did not have a police matter and left him, considering the incident closed.
• The NYPD is in the process of replacing Polaroid cameras with digital ones, in order to enhance the prosecution of domestic abuse cases by providing better images of victims' injuries.
• New York's Daily Intelligencer has early sketches of what might be in store for the Hudson Yards development on Manhattan's West Side.

- This week in Momofuku hype, a short love note as expressed via a T-shirt and a litany of chefs cite the joint as their go-to spots. more ›

Nobody likes buses. Drivers can't stand sharing the road with them, and bus riders have to deal with traffic, lines to board, and late and infrequent service. But Bus Rapid Transit, soon to be implemented in New York, just might be the ticket to making buses sexy. BRT lines have a number of advantages over regular express buses that give them the ability to cruise down the road at near-subway speeds, for a tenth of the upfront cost. more ›

Here's a fun diagram showing all the subways of the United States, Canada, and Mexico-- in color! New York and Mexico City take the cake for complexity, but San Francisco and Los Angeles seem to be the largest in terms of geographical extent. And look at little San Juan down in the right corner! It's so cute! [Via VisualComplexity, Via Youngna.] more ›

Reverend Al Sharpton went to Mexico City to pay a visit with President Vicente Fox, whose remarks saying that Mexicans take jobs "that not even blacks want to do" bristled many people. Sharpton told reporters, "I look forward to him coming to Harlem, but I absolutely will always, every time I see him, will say, 'You should apologize. You owe us an apology.' It was a very blunt meeting and we did not placate each other, but it was a good meeting." But there are conflicting reports about a future meeting: Sharpton says Fox visit him in Harlem, but the Daily News says that Fox's office denied he agreed to visit. Oh, man, Office of Vincent Fox, you clearly know very little about the Reverend Al. He will take you to town if you disagree with his side of the story. Fox's office said that Fox and Sharpton discussed civil rights and discrimination issues affecting both Mexicans and blacks. Plus, Sharpton gave Fox a copy of Crash to watch. more ›

This weekend begins a two week run of the surrealist classic, at the height of his stylistic powers. The story of a gang of youths wandering the streets of Mexico City picking fights, snatching purses and dreaming of crowing roosters and raw meat. It's rough and weird and wonderful, all at the same time. more ›

As the Jets trailed 14-3 in the first half as the Niners had just scored on two consecutive possessions, defensive coordinator Donnie Henderson left his skybox booth for the sole purpose of confronting his players. Shortly into the second half, it appeared to have worked. more ›

When meeting friends in the city for Mexican food, Gothamist has learned to accept the fact that sometimes the food itself will leave something to be desired as the lethal margaritas and tequilas take center stage. Never one to rain on our friends' fiestas, we have been known to tuck into some substandard guacamole and not complain, enjoying the atmosphere and overlooking the cuisine. And sure, we've even been known to frequent a neighborhood Mexican joint that is more cute than culinarily adventurous because of the convenience factor. more ›

Eliot Shepard, Slower.net more ›