Photograph of Queens native Amy Ryan, nominated for best supporting actress for her role in Gone, Baby Gone At 8:30PM (following a half-hour red carpet special), the 80th Annual Academy Awards ceremony will begin, finally putting an end to the "There Will Be Oscar" or "Oscar Country for Old Men" type headlines. You can prep yourself with the Oscar nominees list as you watch (or avoid) red carpet coverage. You could read NY Times......

Kate Sullivan co-anchors CBS 2 News This Morning on WCBS along side Maurice DuBois every weekday morning. She is a native of New England, attended Notre Dame and came to channel 2 in April of 2006 from KATV in Little Rock, Arkansas, which is ranked #57 on the list of biggest television markets. We recently paid her a visit at the studio and asked her some questions. Did you always want to come to New......

Yesterday, there was excitement over the U.S. Olympic Men's Marathon Trial being held in the heart of Manhattan and top three finishers Ryan Hall, Dathan Ritzenhein, and Brian Sell qualifying for the 2003 Olympic team. But the event was also tragic: 2003 U.S. Marathon champion Ryan Shay suffered an apparent heart attack 5.5 miles into the race and died. Witnesses described that shortly after 8AM, Shay seemed to fall during the course near the......

Successful Staten Island high school track star Arielle Newman died from poisoning that occurred from the over-application of topical pain-relieving balms. The 17-year-old was found dead in her bed by her mother the morning after she attended a large party on Staten Island in April, and suspicions initially turned to drugs or alcohol as the cause of her death. An initial autopsy that proved inconclusive only deepend the mystery surrounding the loss of a promising......

The recent $10,000 bump in rookie firefighters' pay is probably a hot topic of conversation at Cosmo's Diner on 23rd St. That's where police recruits often gather before and after their days at the police academy in Gramercy. The new contract between the FDNY and the City leaves new members of the NYPD in the dust, earning only an annual salary of $25,100 during their first six months of duty. Once officers graduate from the......

The Jets and the Giants took very different approaches to the draft on Saturday, but when the day was over, both had primarily upgraded their defenses. Five of the six selections made by the locals were defensive players and both teams hope they addressed some key needs. The Jets had a clear idea of what players they wanted and went after them, trading up in both rounds. In the first round, New York traded......

Rockets 112, Nets 91: Richard Jefferson returned to a basketball game for the first time since Jan. 22, but that didn't do the Nets too much good. Bostjan Nachbar had a career-high 29 points, but that didn't help either. New Jersey has lost four straight games and is in the middle of another drought. With each week, the playoffs draw nearer and the Nets' margin of error shrinks. How quickly they readjust to Jefferson......

Rangers 2 Islanders 1: Why did he do it? He had to know how important this game was and he had to know this wasn’t the time to take a penalty. So, why did Chris Simon decide to take a total cheap shot against Ryan Hollweg? Was it because Hollweg had checked him, cleanly we should note, into the boards? Was it because he has always been willing to mix it up in his career?......

Sunday. Usually, a quiet, contemplative day in the Blogosphere. But not here in the Ist-a-Verse. Nonono! Just look below and see all of the wild and crazy stuff our staffs are up to. In Austin, bands are beginning to confirm for SXSW and the rumor mill is up and running. Good thing, too, because we all know how much Austinites love live performances. Austin also found itself in the national spotlight, with Longhorn Legend......

Where would you go if you only had a few weeks to live? Hawaii? Europe? How about New Jersey? This might not be an unreasonable option for New Yorkers suffering from debilitating illnesses such as cancer as the Garden State may (someday) legalize the use of medical marijuana. We applaud Senator Nicholas Scutari, a Democrat senator from Middlesex County, New Jersey who has long proposed legislation to legalize medical marijuana in the Garden State. The......

To beat Villanova at home, a team would have to play flawless basketball, or at least close to it. When West Virginia knocked off the Wildcats earlier this year, they used scorching three-point shooting. St. John's didn't play perfect basketball, and their shooting ended up far from accurate in a 65-52 loss at Villanova Wednesday. The Red Storm did a good job of keeping it close, but not of making Villanova sweat. They'll need a......

Another undefeated team loses this week in Wisconsin, and tumbles way down the rankings from last week. Utah moves up to #5, but Boise State is nowhere to be seen after a shootout against San Jose State. Will another undefeated fall this week, or will championship week be a deciding factor for Auburn and Oklahoma? USC plays Notre Dame, OU plays Baylor, Utah faces BYU, Boise State plays Louisiana Tech and Auburn faces Alabama in......

With the first full week of college football now over, Gothamist Sports proudly unveils our first Top 15 ranking for college football. Ranking the top 15 this early is obviously a crap-shoot, but that's never stopped anyone before. It's difficult to rank teams early in the season, but we gave it a shot, so don't take it personally if your team is lower than you think they should be. We'll publish the rankings on Tuesday......

The once proud St. John's basketball program named Queens-native Norm Roberts to be their new head coach. Roberts, who played college ball at Queens College, went to Springfield Gardens High School, where he played with former-Knick Anthony Mason. The real question is if he can actually get some talent onto the team. It certainly looks like he will try:"It pains me to see guys from New York City wearing other uniforms. It pains me to......

A children's book about tight rope artist Philippe Petit's 1974 walk between the towers of the World Trade Center won the Caldecott Medal. The Caldecott, if you remember from when you had trips to the school library (now media center; what gives?), is the award for the best American picture book. Mordicai Gerstein wrote and illustrated, The Man Who Walked Between The Towers, right after September 11, 2001 according to a Times article. More illustrations......