Yesterday, we briefly mentioned that Viola Plummer, former City Council staffer under Councilman Charles Barron, was forcibly removed from a City Council meeting. City Council Speaker Christine Quinn fired Plummer, who had heckled her during meetings and referenced an "assassination" of another City Council member (assassination of his career, Plummer later claimed), for not agreeing to behave during meetings. Plummer filed a $1 million lawsuit against Quinn and continues to work for Barron as a volunteer. more ›

Sometimes people just don't like dogs, and one of those people is Jeanne Farley. Farley is suing her apartment's management company to, as she tells the Daily News, "get rid of the dogs and play by the rules." Sixty-four year old Farley has a fear of dogs (cynophobia) points out that the rules at Penn South does have a ban on dogs and her lease says "no animals of any kind" (!!) are not allowed. She says, "I can't go in the elevator if there's a dog in there, and I'm afraid to go in some of the hallways. I've never been bitten, but the growling, the teeth and the jumping just scares me." more ›

Two weeks ago, we posted about a video showing how to steal a bike. Good Day New York wanted to get in on the action, so they had some people demonstrate it on the show this morning - only for it to go totally haywire in a brilliant, planned fake blood way and spook reporter Jodi Applegate away from stories on the Internet for good. Gawker has a description of the segment, which has made it's way to YouTube. more ›

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During the last week of 2005, the Bloomberg administration signed a flurry of new city laws. One of the most controversial changed the way the city deals with graffiti. IndyMedia reports: more ›

Kate Wood, executive director, LANDMARK WEST! more ›

For more about MLK, go to The King Center, with an essay about the holiday from Coretta Scott King (she also did a rare recent public appearance last week). And InfloPlease has links to many MLK-related events. more ›

Yesterday, the city announced that it was investigating ways to create, trademark and license an official New York City logo in order to generate more revenue for the city. This move also involved hiring the city's first chief marketing officer, Joseph Perello. The city is also looking into ideas for the Fire Department and other areas. Gothamist is glad that the city is thinking its marketing more seriously, but also finds the marketing rhetoric being thrown about amusing. "You've got to create a special logo, 'NYC,' or some little doohickey," said City Corporation Counsel Michael Cordozo. "The letters 'NYC' can't be trademarked but when you put them together with a distinctive trademark you can sue to enforce it." Yeah, doohickey. Gothamist is pretty confident now. more ›