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. Espinosa and Otis Blunt somehow acquired wire and were able to use it to "scrape the mortar around two 8-inch-by-16-inch cinderblocks," which......

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......

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......

- 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. - With the ongoing hubbub of how unacceptable the wait is at DiFara’s in Midwood, it’s good to have a fallback, or at least a stopback, for our hunger out in the same neighborhood. All relevant details in this preview article from the next edition of the excellent......

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......

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.]......

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......

This weekend begins a two week run of the surrealist classic, Los Olvidados (1950) at Film Forum. Directed by Mexican Spanish director Luis Buñuel, a filmmaker known more for his work done in France (like L'Age d'Or, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, and Un Chien Andalou) than in his native country, this picture displays an auteur at the height of his stylistic powers. The story of a gang of youths wandering the streets......

For the second week in a row the Jets had to erase a second half deficit against a semmingly inferior opponent before pulling out a victory, as rookie linebacker Jonathan Vilma's interception of a Tim Rattay pass sealed a 22-14 win over the visiting San Francisco 49ers in East Rutherford yesterday to set a franchise record with a 5-0 start. As the Jets trailed 14-3 in the first half as the Niners had just scored......

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......

Eliot Shepard, Slower.net...