The NY Times follows up its article about the death of an Hiu Lui Ng while in detention. The engineer who left Hong Kong at 17 overstayed his visa (his U.S.-citizen wife was trying to get him a green card), Ng was "swept into the immigration detention system" last year. His family contends his pleas for medical help were ignored for months until he died days later discovering he had a fractured spine and cancer......

Photograph of MTA police K9 team by Diane Bondareff/AP Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced New York City will receive $153 million - up from last year's $61 million - in transit security grants. Wow - all we can do is remember Chertoff's 2005 remark, when trying discussing how security funding would be allocated, "The truth of the matter is, a fully loaded airplane with jet fuel, a commercial airliner, has the......

President Bush submitted a budget proposal to Congress this week that involved dramatic cuts to the city's anti-terrorism funding. "The plan would eliminate programs for port security, transit security and local emergency management operations in the next budget year." Well, why would a low-priority target like NYC need all that money anyway? Oh wait, we remember! It was hard not to see this coming, though. The city already took a 40% cut in funding from......

Even though he has amended his plan to give illegal immigrants the opportunity to get driver's licenses, Governor Spitzer can't make everyone happy. The governor's new plan has three tiers: There will be the Real ID (the one passed by Congress in 2005 - the very program Spitzer's own Homeland Security director criticized last month) which will be offered to citizens and legal immigrants, plus, per the NY Times, "an enhanced driver’s license that......

There was a suspicious package in Times Square this afternoon. The NYPD shut down Times Square briefly as they investigated the object at 42nd and 7th Avenue. And the package turned out to be a red backpack forgotten by its Brooklyn owner. D'oh! The city has heightened its security after the London and Glasgow incidents, and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff affirms that decision. He told the Chicago Tribune's editorial board, "I believe......

Yesterday, two cars full of gasoline and nails were found near London's Picadilly Circus. The car bombs were defused, and British authorities determined that the two vehicles were linked, which is apparently an al Qaeda tactic. Had the bombs gone off, the Post reports "security experts said that if the car bombs found yesterday had been ignited, they would have created enormous fireballs, followed by shock waves forming a killing zone at least 400......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an abduction on Marmion Ave. in the Bronx., a pedestrian struck at Driggs Ave. and South 8th in Brooklyn, and a scaffolding collapse at 35th St. and 6th Ave in Manhattan. An up-and-coming rapper was shot dead in the lobby of his building. Is waving the state Attorney General past airport security a career-saving or career-ending move? That's up in the air. A bigger power plant for Roosevelt Island......

Concerned about a reduction in federal anti-terrorism funds, governors Eliot Spitzer of New York and Jon Corzine of New Jersey held a press conference yesterday at the Hoboken Terminal to urge Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to not reduce funds. Federal counter-terrorism aid to New York City decreased by almost half last year, while in New Jersey aid to six northern counties was increased but funding was slashed for the rest of the state.......

They say New York is home to a million stories, and so far this year, we've published 7021 of them here on Gothamist. So in case you missed any of those, let's take a little stroll back in time, and review the most significant stories the past 12 months, shall we? Here's part one of a semi-chronological look at 2006; part two will go up tomorrow: Nixzmary Brown and the Problem with the Administration for......

Remember how this summer, the Department of Homeland Security reduced the amount of anti-terror funding NYC would get? Sure, NYC was still getting most of the funding, but funds were being increased in less risky areas with, well, influential politicians. And then the press had a field day with how Homeland Security didn't think there were any national monuments or major buildings at risk? And then Homeland Security claimed that NY State and NYC didn't......

New York politicians on the Hill are doing their happy dance: The Department of Homeland Security will give $26 million in port funding for this year, which the NY Post reports is a 400% increase over last year's port funding. Remember how earlier this summer the DHS released it/s budget, and New York City's (and DC's funding) was cut by 40%? Granted, the overall DHS budget was lower, but when you drastically cut back on......

Oh, it's New York City's best friend, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, writing a NY Times op-ed piece to tell us "New York, You're Still No. 1." Well, that's the headline the Times copy crew designated for the article, which is Chertoff's way fo explaining why NYC got shafted in funding allocation for the Urban Areas Security Initiative. We outline his points:- NY still gets the most funding; in fact, its $124 million......

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he spoke to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff Thursday night and told him "for sure" that he disagreed with the urban area funding. On his radio show, the Mayor said, "I just think the ways they went about it was wrong. I think some factual things were wrong -- forget about the fact that they didn't have the right number of financial institutions or didn't know there were any significant targets......

As New York state and city politicians attack the Department of Homeland Security over cutting the funds NYC gets for anti-terrorism efforts, the DHS has been fighting back by saying that New York City's proposal wasn't well-prepared. The NY Times writes, "Federal officials said yesterday that the city had not only done a poor job of articulating its needs in its application, but had also mishandled the application itself, failing to file it electronically......

The Department of Homeland Security cut the yearly antiterrorism budget for the "Urban Area Security Initiative" and New York and DC got the shaft, with their funds cut by 40%. New York City, which had received $207.6 million last year, will now get $124.5 million (DC went from $77.5 million to $46.5 million), while cities like Omaha, Louisville, Atlanta, and Jacksonville are getting more; ost notably, Jersey City/Newark got a 44% increase in funds,......

From his hospital bed, Governor Pataki has joined other politicians in opposing Dubai World Ports from taking over P&O Ports holdings in the U.S. Specifically the ports which serve New York and New Jersey. Senators Schumer and Clinton had been against the deal, along with Representative Peter King (Long Island, Republican) and NJ Senator Menendez, given the history of terrorist ties with the United Arab Emirates. But the Bush administration claimed "favorable" relations with the......

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced that a Homeland Security representative would be placed in New York in order for the police and feds to have "one voice." This move is seen as a way to address the should we freak out or not subway threat two weeks ago. Hmm, a couple months on the job and finally he realizes there needs a rep in one of the country's biggest possible terror targets - nice......

The Department of Homeland Security will dole out its terror-related federal funding by determining which areas are at greatest risk, after Congress agreed to the measure. Just think, it only took four years for that to happen! The Senate had been dragging its feet to give areas with more risk more anti-ferror money because Senators of states that aren't obvious threats wanted an equal share of the money, in the oft-cited example, currently Wyoming receives......

The MTA will be paying for the additional police presence in the subways, according to Mayor Bloomberg. Police overtime to put one police officer on every train is costing the city $1.9 million a week, and Bloomberg said, "Let me give some credit to the MTA. They're willing to do this. They have some money. The governor has pushed them," even though he hasn't been happy about the MTA's footdragging on spending security funds. During......

He's only been the Department of Homeland Security Secretary for a couple months, but Michael Chertoff is a real dumbass. Chertoff, you're not going to win any fans by saying, "The truth of the matter is, a fully loaded airplane with jet fuel, a commercial airliner, has the capacity to kill 3,000 people. A bomb in a subway car may kill 30 people. When you start to think about your priorities, you're going to think......