Oh, Osama. You think you can release a new audiotape proving you're alive - and send our intelligence agencies into overdrive - and threaten to attack to the U.S. again as well as offer us a truce. Those are some mighty mixed signals! To paraphrase Jon Stewart on the Daily Show last night, while it's nice that Bin Laden acknowledges the fact that many Americans are against the war, people are still pissed off at......

Gothamist doesn't know what's sadder: The fact that the standardized tests city 7th graders are taking doesn't quite match up with their bubble sheets to fill in the answers or that this isn't the first time that it's happened. You'd think that if the state is testing kids' English with an exam, there would be answer sheets that correlate to the test, but five of the twenty-six questions offers answers as A, B, C, or......

The MTA and Transport Workers Union have an "agreement in principle" for a new contract. The TWU board will meet today with president Roger Toussaint to vote on the plan. Right now, it looks like the workers will get raises of 3%, 4%, and 4% for each year of a three-year contract, and while all workers would need to "contribute toward health insurance," the contract "would not change the existing pension plan or retirement......

Given the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene's attempt to get pet owners to stop smoking, by alerting them to the fact that pets can get sick from our vices, Gothamist spent some time talking to pets we know or just see on the street. They gave us a few other suggestions for living life:From dogs: - Spill more food onto the floor - it doesn't matter if you get cockroaches, because I'll eat......

Mayor Bloomberg's campaign reported that it spent $77.8 million to get the man reelected. Given that the Mayor spent almost $70 million for 2001 election, is inflation over four years over 12%? Or did the Mayor just decide to use more wood pulp and roboto telephoners to bombard us with how awesome he was? The Mayor said, "It is what it is. I spent my own money. I had a big message to get out......

A 21 year old exotic dancer was found murdered in her Upper East Side apartment. And the odd thing is that Catherine Woods was apparently killed during the 20 minutes her boyfriend left the apartment to move his car. The Daily News says the killing was brutal, that Woods "was attacked so viciously she was nearly decapitated," with police saying. "It was a bloody mess, like a bucket of red paint had been tossed around."......

Mark your calendar for December 1. That's when the City Council will have a public hearing for commuters to complain about the insanity of weekend subway diversions (especially the ones on the L!). City Councilman John Liu, who heads the Council's Transportation Committee says, "We want the MTA to do whatever repair work is required...but the disruptions are so numerous and pervasive that there's serious lack of accountability." True, but will the NYC subway-riding public......

An update on a story that's in the "The Rent is Too Damn Low" (from the perspective of the landlord) department: A landlord who terrorized a rent-controlled tenant pleaded guilty to illegally evicting the 87 year-old man; but the landlord Dominic Galofaro won't serve any jail time - just three years probation and 200 hour of community services. Galofaro had changed the locks and thrown out the furniture of retired cook Wah Hop Eng from......

With just two new episodes so far this season, the NY Post wonders if Saturday Night Live is really dead. It's a good, if evergreen question. Horatio Sanz is certainly no Tina Fey during Weekend Update, though Gothamist has been impressed he's been able to hold it together this long. With Maya Rudoph's pregnancy, it seems like most sketches with a female character involve Amy Poehler (who rules, but maybe she needs a break). There......

- Oh, you better believe it: The MTA votes that open containers (to drink from) are forbidden on the subways, but they're okay on the platform; and now token clerks can refuse entry to service dogs if they seem like a threat somehow - The Giants and Jets will share a stadium in NJ; the borough of Queens - and quite a few fans in Long Island - weep - Fernando Ferrer went back to......

Who knew it was illegal to have an iguana in New York? Not Gothamist. But that's what we learned while reading about a four foot iguana found stranded in Brooklyn. Animal Care & Control had to remove an iguana from a tree in Midwood - it ran up there when the police arrived (maybe it was afraid of getting a summons). The Post says the iguana was first seen on the street last week, with......

Two women are suing a fertility specialist, Dr. Khaled Zeitoun, for posing as a single man on Yahoo Personals and luring them into sexual relationships - even though he was really married with three kids. Jing Huang and Tiffany Wang have filed suits against Zeitoun for causing them emotional distress. Wang's lawsuit says, "Zeitoun claimed that 14 years prior while he was in Egypt, the devil had taken his soul...He claimed that he made a......

Opponents of the Parks Department's plans to renovate Washington Square Park have filed a lawsuit to block the work. The NY Post pulled this bit, "The park's designers made plazas purposely asymmetrical according to what is known as Olmstead's naturalistic design theory, espoused by Frederick Law Olmstead." Okay, aside from spelling Olmsted wrong, what Gothamist likes is that they needed to spell out that Olmsted's naturalistic design was espoused by Frederick Law Olmsted! Gothamist still......

If it's Sunday, it must be time to contemplate little Andrew Giuliani. He could be dating Sarah Hughes, as they appeared at the premiere of The Island together. And the Daily News has two features on him (1 and 2), looking at how he's grown up as well as his burgeoning golf career. In fact, little Giuliani plays at the public golf course at Van Cortlandt Park:"I love this city. I'd rather play here than......

Last week, the police officer behind the website, NYPD Rant, was fired. And now, a similar site focused on complaints from firefighters about the FDNY, FDNY Rant is getting attention. The Post reports about FDNY Rant, and says that the FDNY doesn't really think it's relevant, though some brass are secretly interested in shutting it donw. For instance, they don't like how Mayor Bloomberg's nickname is "Doomberg," Police Commissioner Kelly is called "Popeye," and Fire......

As expected, many people took the opportunity to call the Mayor yesterday, after he bragged how he took calls from constituents at home on his listed-in-the-phonebook number. The NY Times reports that the Mayor's communications director said Bloomberg's townhouse received "more calls than we can count" while the Post was able to fix the uncountable number as "more than 100 calls." A Post reporter tried calling a few times, but only got a busy signal......

A Hampton Jitney, those familiar green buses that spirit New Yorkers to fro the Hamptons, broadsided a car in East Hampton, killing the driver. The Post reports that none of the Jitney's fourteen passengers or driver were injured, while the 53 year old man driving a PT Cruiser was apparently from Manhattan. The bus had the right of way, and the Cruiser had tried to make a left.......

There's this old maxim, "The customer is always right, even if the customer is crazy," but sometimes, employees just get mad. The Post says a Bronx woman is suing White Castle for $9 million after a counterwoman threw hot water on her. According to Carolyn Brennan's lawyer, Brennan tried trying to order an egg-and-cheese biscuit — without the biscuit — in 2002 at an upper Manhattan location, but the cashier, Tasha Adams, freaked out and......

Build a Bear, the furry phenomenon from malls across the nation, is opening in New York today, and the Post reports that it will have official NYPD and FDNY bear-sized uniforms for people to outfit their stuffed animals. The City's marketing arm, NYC Marketing, which had asked various companies to offer up licensing opportunities for various NYC agencies, like the NYPD, FDNY, Department of Sanitation and more, last February, and it looks like Build-a-Bear met......

Monday night, two tourists told the police that a man had robbed them of a camcorder while they were walking in Central Park at 11:30PM, at around 74th Street and the East Drive. What guide book told them to walk around Central Park at 11:30PM, Gothamist didn't know. But it turns out that the two Norwegians made up the whole story about a black robber, and now they have been arrested for filing a false......

After reports of a raid, it turns out that employees at the Mondo Kim's on St. Mark's were arrested for making illegal CDs and DVDs in a back room. The police took "hundreds" of illegally made discs during the afternoon raid, and charging five workers with trademark counterfeiting. The NY Post says that some "record-industry executives joined cops outside the store and helped point out what police said were the 'mixes of a variety of......

A woman is suing the Waldorf-Astoria hotel for $20 million after her room was not free of down feathers. Eileen Boulger had requested hypoallergenic bedding because of her allergies. The room was originally feather-free, but a maid accidentally replaced the hypoallergenic bedding with a feather pillow and duvet, causing Boulger to go into allergic shock. She and her husband are suing the Waldorf for negligence. Boulger's lawyer also added that the Waldorf did give her......

Good ol' P.S.1 has been showing works from NY area artists in its Greater New York 2005 show. However, one artist, Mike Bouchet, causing been making a stink. Literally: His work, "Celebrity Hot Tub for Kofi Annan," has been making visitors ill, according to the NY Post. (For your NY Post conspiracy theorists, Rupert hates modern art!) How does Bouchet achieve this powerful audience reaction? The sculpture has a "rotting sausage stewing in a [Jacuzzi]......

If only to enrage everyone else about not being in on the Internet wave, the NY Post has a little feature about the guy who has to watch Dukes of Hazzards reruns and maintain a blog with contests and interviews for the Country Music Channel. Christopher Nelson is blogging from his East Village apartment to the tune of $100,000. Gah! Gothamist thinks we remember seeing a job posting for this position, though it might have......

Kids do the darndest things! They say funny things, they think poop jokes are great (okay, so do we), and they bring their dad's loaded Glock to school! Oh, yes: A five year-old brought a loaded .45-caliber gun to PS 16 in Corona, Queens, and handed it off to a classmate. The classmate brought it home, taking it out of his Teenage Mutant Ninja backpack (love the NY Post's attention to detail) and showed his......

Wow, it may take a year and a half, but sometimes those publicity-magnetizing City Council proposed bills actually can get passed. A year and a half ago, Gothamist was intrigued by a proposed plan to make sure new construction and renovations as places like bars, theaters and stadiums would have more women's bathrooms. And now, it seems that the City Council and Mayor's office have agreed on a potty parity bill. Now, new buildings and......

Even though the four main Democratic mayoral hopefuls debated yesterday, the election big news is how Mayor Bloomberg has spent $10 million so far in his re-election campaign. A 10-day ad blitz will begin midweek, and the NY Times reports that the ads will "stress 9/11 and leadership." However, the "mindboggling" thing is millions have been spent to get demographic and psychographic information from a polling firm to delve into the pysches of New Yorkers.......

Earlier this week, an unknown slasher attacked two people uptown. Yesterday, when a teenager matching the attacker's description was seen at West 189th Street, the NY Post reports that a mob of 50-100 grabbed Jeffrey Jimenez, bringing him to one of the victim's, Yely Valerio, who then positively ID'd him. Then the mob dragged him to the police, in a show of community solidarity. However, they beat him "viciously." While Gothamist likes citizen patrolling, the......

Candy is the new killer! It was tragic news that a Yonkers little girl died Tuesday after choking on a peppermint candy, but now it seems that another child died while choking on a peppermint ball. Ashley Johnson of Queens had been in front of a neighbor's yard when she choked on the peppermint ball, which the police described as "one of the large peppermint candy balls." Like Jocelys Santiago in the Bronx, EMT were......

Putting the "Online" back into the "New York Post Online Edition," millions of people who don't want to buy the NY Post on newstands or have it delivered to their homes, waiting to just read it online or gingerly pick up a tossed-away copy from a subway floor, breathed a sigh when the NY Post didn't require an elusive username and password for its articles. Gawker, aka "The source for daily Manhattan media news and......