A 15-year-old fell to his death from a Brooklyn school roof after trespassing, police say. WABC 7 reports that the boy, Nick Gryak, and his friends "apparently like to spend their summer climbing the scaffolding and hanging out on the roof" of Roy H. Mann Junior High School on East 68th Street in Mill Basin. And the Daily News reports, "He tumbled down the shaft about 10:20 p.m., officials and family said. Nick plummeted five floors to the basement, where he got stuck in the shaft, sources said. He died at the scene." more ›

Cops headed to a Mill Basin synagogue in order to find a Hasidic Jew accused of "pouring beer on a newlywed neighbor, calling her an 'Arab terrorist' and pummeling her husband," according to the Daily News. Simchon Schwartz, 46, who was apparently hiding in the synagogue and tried to resist arrest, even kicked out a police cruiser window! more ›

State Senator Carl Kruger is facing federal corruption charges accusing him of taking over $1 million in bribes and even though he's back to work (if that's what they do in Albany), there are questions about his relationship with the Turano family. The 61-year-old Democrat lists his sister's home as his residence, but he lives with divorcée Dorothy Turano, 73, and her two unmarried physician sons, Michael, 49, and Gerard, 47. The NY Times has a long, rather gothic feature about the Turanos, the bachelor lawmaker and the huge Mill Basin mansion once owned by a mobster. more ›

After being woken by loud noises in his Mill Basin, Brooklyn home around 2 a.m. yesterday morning, 62-year-old Larry Goldstein took his .38-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver to investigate what was happening. He discovered two intruders in his kitchen, and since they appeared to be armed, Goldstein fired, hitting one of the men three times while the other fled. And it turned out the intruders were carrying a toy pistol and toy machine gun. A police official told the Wall Street Journal the toys "were very realistic looking... If someone pointed them at you, you would light them up too." more ›

Earlier this morning at 2 a.m., a homeowner in Brooklyn shot a man who was breaking into his house on East 64th Street in Mill Basin. According to WPIX, the homeowner "saw someone in his front yard" and then "went to retrieve his gun and by the time he returned, the suspect was already broke into his home. The man shot the suspect twice in the torso." more ›

Even when the USPS is trying to help, they're messing things up. Since their long, insufferable lines have caused so much grief, they decided to send out tens of thousands of postcards to Mill Basin customers, directing them to an alternate place to mail letters and buy stamps during the busy holiday season. How helpful... except they printed the wrong address. more ›

Doctors are trying to reattach a Brooklyn man's leg after a terrible crash in Mill Basin last night. 1010 WINS reports that a livery "cab traveling on E57th Street south of Avenue L around 7:45 p.m. swerved to avoid a car pulling out from a driveway on the right side of the road and slammed into the man who was across the street putting his child in a car-seat." A neighbor told the Post, "I saw the cab swerve and the next thing you know his leg was down the street. He was on the ground totally quiet." Neighbors apparently helped by putting the leg on ice and the man was taken to Bellevue Hospital. The baby was slightly injured. more ›

A Brooklyn teen killed another youth in a Mill Basin jet ski accident almost three years ago, then sped away without trying to help the victim, prosecuters argued in court yesterday. You may recall that Aristotle Plagianakos, who was 16 at the time, was arrested in connection with Paul Zaccaria's death in 2006. It took investigators a month to find Zaccaria's body in the water, and now Plagianakos is charged with manslaughter and trying to cover up the death by telling friends, "It wasn't us, if anybody asks." more ›

Patrick Venetek, the cop whose service weapon wound up shooting through the ceiling of his downstairs neighbors' apartment and striking an 18-month-old's arm, gave further details on how the incident occurred. Perhaps to the relief of Porcellini's six brothers and sisters, Venetek has been stripped of his badge and gun at this time and is on modified duty. more ›

A family had been living in its Mill Basin, Brooklyn apartment for less than a week, when their 18-month-old toddler was struck by a bullet that passed through its ceiling from an upstairs apartment Thursday afternoon. Their upstairs neighbor is 24-year-old police officer, an Army veteran assigned to Manhattan's 1st Precinct, named Patrick Venetek. more ›

John and Annette Ferranti certainly did not feel they were in good hands with the Allstate Insurance Company, after Allstate refused to pay their homeowners damage claim they insist was caused by an Air France Concorde jet. The insurance company, which had wanted to appeal appeal a jury award of $1.15 million to the Mill Basin couple, finally agreed to pay the Ferrantis $995,000. more ›

Two hit and run drivers were arrested late this week; one through the actions of a horrified but brave bystander and the other through a successful effort by the Brooklyn Accident Investigation squad. Cops arrived at Sergey Satyr's Mill Basin home Thursday to arrest the 20-year-old for the hit-and-run death of 71-year-old Grace Smith of Sheepshead Bay. The Brooklyn Accident Investigation squad used debris from Satyr's Nissan and a partial license plate number to track the suspect down. Satyr allegedly ran down Smith December 21st on Ocean Parkway near Avenue X. more ›

With yesterday’s innocuous New York Times review of Katz’s Deli and the news last week that the 2nd Avenue Deli will be "recreated" in Murray Hill, it seems that forces of pastrami have won some kind of cosmic victory over the over the forces of real estate; forces that threaten to destroy old-fashioned New York dining institutions. more ›

Inside Schools describes PS 236 thusly:

PS 236 is a well-run, well-equipped school in a neighborhood with lots of stay-at-home mothers and one- and two-family homes with manicured lawns. Fifth graders lead The Pledge of Allegiance and sing The Star Spangled Banner over the public address system each morning. Classes are tracked, with children placed in groups according to their abilities. Homework is heavy. "They start homework at 4 in the afternoon and don't finish until after dinner," one parent said. "This breeds discipline and will pay off down the road." Even kindergarteners have homework assignments, such as filling out a phonics worksheet from a workbook. The school has an inviting library with classical music playing, plants, dioramas made by the kids, and big windows that overlook a playground. Students in all grades perform and stage musical plays.

A 64 year old Brooklyn grandmother was walking on East 55th Street in Old Mill Basin with her two young nephews when the sidewalk collapsed. The woman, Faye Drod, fell in a 4-5 foot deep hole and was trapped by slabs of concrete on top of her. Yikes! Her 3 and 5 year old nephews were able to avoid the hole by grabbing onto a fence - they are going to have some crazy nightmares! more ›

The Post reports on two motorcycle deaths yesterday. Ivette Hernandez was killed after being thrown off her boyfriend Louis Perez's motorcycle on the Gowanus Expressway. According to the Post, a car had swerved towards them, and when Hernandez fell, another motorcycle in their group hit her. Perez, who was supposed to propose to her that day, was charged with DUI and "blamed the accident on a motorist trying to merge into traffic." more ›

In June, 17 year old Paul Zaccaria went missing during a jet skiing accident in Mill Basin. And yesterday, his body was finally found, just a few days after another teen, 16 year old Aristotle Plagianakos, was arrested and charged with recklesness, leaving the scene of an accident and speeding in connection with Zaccaria's death. The Daily News reports that there were discrepancies between Plagianakos' story and eyewitness accounts, and the NY Times says that some witnesses saw his water scooter hit Zaccaria's. Others say that Zaccaria had "fishtailed" and sprayed other riders before he was hit, perhaps raising the question whether Plagianakos was trying to get back at him. more ›

- Protests today over the World Trade Center Memorial more ›

Police are investigating whether or not the black victim of Sunday's possible bias attack knew his attackers. Newsday reports that a police official says one of the attackers told a black man who was driving by and stopped to intervene, "Sir, this has nothing to do with you." The police are essentially puzzled by this "polite" remark, coupled with the fact that Alex Moore was attacked in a mostly black section of Mill Basin. The NY Times says police are looking for five to ten men involved in the attack.
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Yesterday, there were two separate hate crimes in Brooklyn and Manhattan. A black man was beaten and robbed by a group of white men in the Mill Basin section of Brooklyn, while a man was attacked by men yelling anti-gay slurs as he and another man were on their way to a Chelsea Bar. Alex Moore was beaten by the a group, which had a baseball bat and an iron pipe. The Brooklyn incident was only broken up when a car stopped to help Moore. Moore told the police and Brooklyn district attorney that he "was called the n-word," as D.A. Charles Hynes said, making the beating a bias crime. Unlike Howard Beach where there was a recent racial attack, Mill Basin is racially mixed, and the NY Times said the "generally peaceful, integrated" community was shocked. more ›