At the 1968 Democratic Convention, anti-war activists were denied permits to demonstrate by the city and spent most of the week getting their skulls cracked courtesy of the Chicago Police Department, witnessed by a television audience of over 50 million. A year later, eight of the most high profile radicals – guys like Abbie Hoffman and the Black Panthers' Bobby Seale – were tried on charges of conspiracy and inciting riots. The courtroom was......

On your faces, maggots. Iraqi war vet (and former SLC punk) Jason Christopher Hartley (pictured) has collaborated with The International WOW Company to create one hell of an interactive theatrical experience. Called SURRENDER, audience members sign up as active participants in simulations of counterinsurgency operations. Upon arriving at the Sanford Meisner Theater, you’ll be issued boots, a uniform and a replica M-4 assault rifle. You’ll train with Hartley for 100 minutes in basic combat techniques,......

What is the lawsuit about, Kenneth? Dan Rather, the controversial former CBS anchorman best known for his strange pseudo-folksy “Ratherisms”, funny moments in the paths of hurricanes, and being mugged by someone who demanded “Kenneth, what is the frequency?”, is suing his former employer CBS, three of its executives, and its parent company, for $20 million in compensatory damages and $50 million in punitive damages. He claims that they violated his contract by not giving......

With Britain at its top terror alert level after a flaming SUV crashed into Scotland's Glasgow Airport yesterday, New York City has stepped up security at area airports. Port Authority spokesman Steve Coleman (the PA oversees JFK, LaGuardia and Newark airpots) said, there were "increased security measures" in place. Notably, many more police officers from the NYPD and Port Authority PD, as well as National Guard, were stationed in and near the airports. It......

Earlier this year, I Am Legend, the latest Will Smith extravaganza took over the Brooklyn Bridge. Warner Bros. spent around $5,000,000 for a 6 night shoot in New York, after getting approval from 14 government agencies, with hundreds of extras, including 160 members of the National Guard in full combat gear. The plot: "Robert Neville (Will Smith) is a brilliant scientist, but even he could not contain the terrible virus that was unstoppable, incurable, and......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an EMT was assaulted on Hazen St. at Rikers Island, a dead body in the water off Emmons and Ocean Aves. in Brooklyn, and another dead body in the water off Manhattan's Pier 11. The doctor taped swearing allegiance to Al Qaeda claims that his trip to Saudi Arabia to treat injured terrorists was actually just a ruse. He wanted to go to the Middle East to find out......

Who doesn't live for tidbits like learning that Mayor Bloomberg has a special phone - with a "special device that encodes on either end" - located in his kitchen? The Daily News shouts, Bloomy bat cave wired for terror, and the Batman reference works, because Bloomberg is a billionaire, lives in Gotham, and, for all we know, he's got some crazy underground lair where he has latex suits that he enjoys wearing. The mayor mentioned......

Gothamist was driving across southwestern Kansas late last April. It was a hot day, temperatures were well into the 90s, so we stopped for ice cream in Syracuse, Kansas. We got to talking to the ice cream shop owner and when they found out we were from New York City they said "New York? You get lots of snow there don't you? We haven't had snow in five years." From what we saw that......

As delays snarled Laguardia, JFK, and Newark with news that British authorities had stopped a terrorist plot to blow up airliners flying the U.S., New York City's security level remained at "elevated" - which is where it's been since September 11, 2001. Governor Pataki increased state police, Port Authority police, and National Guard presence at the airports, and said, "I want to assure all New Yorkers that we have and will continue to provide......

- Police Commissioner Kelly is very worried about "homegrown terror" these days... - ...but if you're a police officer in the National Guard, you better pony up for your military pay! - The blasting at Ground Zero started today - that's exactly what makes downtown such a suburb - Concerns from Brooklyn blacks and Hispanics over who will face off against City Councilman David Yassky in a Congressional primary - Some very cool forgotten......

James Thomas, a special education teacher in the Bronx, was arrested yesterday for claiming he was participating in Katrina related relief efforts when he was actually in Brazil attending a religious conference. Not just a teacher, but pastor of St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Bronx as well, Thomas used his position in the Air National Guard to fake documents in order to receive four days of pay. The teacher / pastor /......

It sounds bad enough that a teacher is lying to get out of teaching, but it sounds worse when the teacher uses "helping out Hurricane Katrina victims" as the excuse. James R. Thomas, who was a special education teacher at a Bronx public high school, admitted he falsely claimed the Air National Guard needed him, when in fact Thomas was going to Brazil. Thomas forged Air National Guard military orders saying he needed to help......

This might be why Gothamist tries to avoid Times Square and the Herald Square areas: The man who New York Region > Assailant Stabs Man in Times Square" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/09/nyregion/9stab.html?oref=login">stabbed someone who bumped into him was apprehended after he stabbed two people at a Penn Station T.G.I. Friday's. What's more, 58 year-old James Nettles had been convicting of killing a man in 1974. Nettles's rampage started on Thursday, after stabbing a different man at the same......

Yesterday, President Bush pledged $350 million to the tsunami relief efforts in South Asia; this is a huge increase from the last aid commitment of $35 million, which had been increased from an initial $15 million right after the disaster. Whether or not putting the aid package in the hundreds of millions is a way for President Bush to deflect criticism that the U.S. was being "stingy" or to show that the U.S. is interested......

CBS News announced that Dan Rather will give his last evening news broadcast in March 2005. At 73, Rather has had a long and storied career, which was recently marred by the whole Bush National Guard incident. Rather is 73, which makes soon-to-step-down Tom Brokaw look like a spring chicken at 66. And if you asked Gothamist which newsman would be arrested over a meatloaf, we would have said Dan Rather, not the 86 year-old......

Everyone is talking or writing about Dan Rather and CBS's News' questionable judgement over the National Guard documents, even going so far as to attach "-gate" to "Rather" just in case people out there couldn't figure out this was a bit scandalous. One caption on a Dan Rather photograph from Reuters read:Internet bloggers have drawn blood and American journalism may never be the same. To hear some press experts tell it, CBS's admission on September......

Bruce Bennett, Writer/Typist/Guitarist...