If Barry Melrose ever goes to Newark, he probably won't be getting a warm reception. Melrose, a hockey analyst for ESPN and a former player and manager, said some disparaging words about the city of Newark when talking about the new Devils arena on his webcast last week. Melrose said, "It looks great on the inside but don't go outside, especially if you got a wallet or anything else because the area around the building... more ›

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a water rescue off West St. at Battery Place in Manhattan, missing children on Grimsby St. on Staten Island, and a DOA floater in the Harlem River off Manhattan.
• New Yorkers may have just seen their water bill rates hiked 11.5% three months ago, but officials are now saying property owners can expect a rate increase of another 18% as early as the start of next year.
• Idle speculation at Eater about the future of the Brooklyn Inn in Boerum Hill is not appreciated by the bar's manager. [Caution: strong language]
• Mayor Bloomberg worked out a tentative new contract with the NYPD detectives union that promises a 20% pay raise over the next four years via higher salaries. A first grade detective with more than 20 years on the force will be able to earn more than $118,000 a annually.
• Fare Wars II: The Taxi Strike's Back. NYC cab drivers will have another go at striking in protest of GPS devices in their cars this Wednesday.
• Newark Mayor Cory Booker has a special vested interested in improving living conditions for young people in his city. He serves as a Big Brother to three teen-aged young men, attempting to mentor them towards the straight and narrow.
• The Daily Intelligencer locates a rather large TBS billboard that will be salt in the wounds of disappointed Mets fans.
• A man was shot to death by the man he was playing dice with outside a building on West 131st St. in Manhattan this morning.

Early yesterday morning, Newark authorities arrested the sixth and last suspect in the schoolyard shootings of four Newark residents that left three dead. Eighteen -year-old Melvin Jovel was arrested in Elizabeth, NJ at his family's home. He surrendered and is now being held on $2 million bail. Newark Mayor Cory Booker said, "Through collaboration with the Essex County Prosecutor's Office, the final suspect in this heinous crime has been arrested and the city is grateful. Now the process of healing must take center stage and the prosecution of the case begins." more ›

Cops followed suspects in the execution-style killings in a Newark schoolyard below the Mason-Dixon line. Newark Mayor Cory Booker announced that two more arrests were made in connection to the triple murder of three young residents and the attempted murder of a fourth in a schoolyard two weeks ago. more ›

Grieving families buried the three victims of last weekend's execution-style murders in Newark. Authorities also named a fourth suspect in the crimes: Rodolfo Godinez, a 24-year-old who has a record of robbery, assault, and weapons arrests. more ›

Yesterday, the principal suspect in the execution-style triple murder turned himself in to Newark Mayor Cory Booker. Booker was at a press conference to announce that another suspect, a 15-year-old, had been arrested when he learned that Jose Carranza would only turn himself in to Booker. Carranza's fingerprint was found on a beer bottle at the scene of the crime, and his photograph was picked out of a photo array by the shootings' only survivor, 19-year-old Natasha Aerial. Her 18-year-old brother Terrance and friends Iofemi Hightower and Dashon Harvey, both 20, were killed during the Saturday killings. more ›

Newark authorities say that the lone survivor of an execution-style shooting that left her brother and two friends dead has picked out a suspect. Nineteen-year-old Natasha Aerial, who is still in the hospital after being shot in the head, selected a suspect from a photo array. The Star-Ledger reports that the suspect was included in the array because his fingerprints were among those found on a beer bottle at the schoolyard where the shootings took place. more ›

The NY Times reports that Newark authorities may be close to naming a suspect in the Saturday night execution-style shootings of four people. Three friends were killed, while the fourth, Natasha Aerial, survived being shot in the head and has been talking to investigators. The Star-Ledger offered this description of the crime:

Aeriel, her younger brother, Terrance, and two of their friends, Dashon Harvey and Iofemi Hightower, had driven to the school playground to drink, eat and listen to music, authorities said. But at around 11:30, a group of Hispanic men gathered near them. Scared, the friends exchanged text messages saying they should leave. more ›

Nineteen-year-old Natasha Aerial, who was the only survivor from Saturday night's shootings in a Newark schoolyard, managed to speak to police yesterday. While her brother and two friends died from being shot in the head, execution-style, Aerial survived a gunshot to the head. She is heavily sedated and under police guard. Still, Newark Police Director (and former NYPD Deputy Commissioner for Operations) Garry McCarthy said, "We're getting the story piecemeal from her. Based upon witness testimony, we believe it was a robbery." more ›

A brutal crime took the lives of three young people and injured one more in a Newark schoolyard on Saturday night, saddening and angering the community. Twenty-year-old Iofemi Hightower, 20-year-old Dashon Harvey, and 18-year-old Terrance Aerial were "lined them up against a wall and forced...to kneel" before being shot in the head, according to Newark police. more ›

-- And some bad news, by way of Gothamist Contribute: "according to the militant-islamic calendar, tomorrow, august 22, 2006 is the end of the world." Guess there's no reason to rush out for more cat food tonight. more ›

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- And fancy that - kids can't pay attention when school's about to end; kids, wait until you've got a job and won't be able to pay attention then more ›