In May of 2000, five employees of a Wendy's in Flushing were killed in the basement, while two others were injured. John Taylor and Craig Godineaux were arrested and charged with the murders. While Godineaux pleaded guilty to the crimes and is serving a life sentence without parole, Taylor, a former Wendy's employee, was sentenced to death by lethal injection in 2002. more ›

Check out this video from Kelly Loudenberg, who says: more ›

Governor Spitzer has nominated Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Theodore T. Jones to a position on the NY State Court of Appeals, the state's highest court. You may remember Jones's name from such incidents as the Transit Strike of 2005. Jones is the one who fined the TWU $2.5 million and sentenced TWU president Roger Toussaint to 10 days in jail. more ›

Whoa, it's a good news, bad news day for the Campaign of Fiscal Equity's attempt to get more money for New York City Schools. The NY State Court of Appeals just ruled that NY State should pay an additional $1.93 billion a year in public school funding to New York City. That sounds great, except that other courts had previously ruled that NYC deserved $4-6 billion. But since the Court of Appeals is the state's highest court, this ruling will probably stick. From the NY Times:

“The lower courts were wrong,” [State Senator Joseph] Bruno said today. “They were out of their jurisdiction. They were doing things that were inappropriate. They were literally fooling the public by pretending that a lot of money was going to flow, billions and billions.” more ›

the court said that the NJ government will decide whether it's "marriage," taking a stance similar to Vermont. The court's 4-3 ruling stated, "The issue is not about the transformation of the traditional definition of marriage, but about the unequal dispensation of benefits and privileges to one of two similarly situated classes of people." more ›

Today is Columbus Day, and since it's a federal, state and local holiday, there are many closings. Public schools and public offices are closed. There is no mail delivery, but the James Farley Post Office at Eighth Avenue and West 33rd Street is open. There's no garbage or recycling pick up or street cleaning. Things that are open: The stock market and many offices (based on the grumblings we've heard). more ›

The news is grim for many gay rights supporters after the NY State Court of Appeals upheld the gay marriage ban - ceding a decision to the NY State Legislature (one of the most dysfunctional in the country!). The NY Times' news analysis calls this a "key setback" as other states deciding on gay marriage will look at this ruling:

For now, at least, so-called marriage equality is the fight that both sides want to wage, and opponents are predicting that New York will be remembered as the beginning of the end of gay marriage. more ›

The NY State Court of Appeals ruled that gay marriage is not allowed. The Court of Appeals heard a NYC case in which Judge Doris Ling-Cohan ruled that gay marriage was allowed. The city appealed, and the case made it way up to the highest court in the state. Here's the ruling (PDF) and here's some of what it says:

We hold that the New York Constitution does not compel recognition of marriages between members of the same sex. Whether such marriages should be recognized is a question to be addressed by the Legislature. more ›