John D'Amato, a prominent Staten Island attorney, died of a heart attack yesterday; the 52-year-old had been jogging near his Dongan Hills home. D'Amato, a lawyer and lobbyist, had been appointed as the NYC campaign manager for Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign. (He had hosted a fund-raiser for Governor Spitzer's campaign last year, though.) The Staten Island Advance writes:John D'Amato was a titan on Staten Island -- one of the most ambitious, aggressive and influential of......

Local teams may have been shut out of the NCAA tournament's Final Four, but New York is not without representation in Atlanta. Florida phenom Joakim Noah calls NYC home, as does Georgetown's Jesse Sapp. Neither played high school basketball in New York: Noah played for The Lawrenceville School in New Jersey and Sapp attended National Christian Academy in Maryland. Ohio State and UCLA are sadly New York City-free teams. Is your team still in the......

Is it going to be Florida’s year again? Can the likely #1 pick in this year’s NBA draft, Greg Oden, lead Ohio State to a championship? Is Georgetown ready to return to elite status? These questions and many more will be answered over the next three weeks as March Madness begins. Locally, there isn’t much to root for. Syracuse got left out of the tournament despite a 10-6 record in the Big East and UConn......

When a judge threatens you with contempt when you don't show up for your own client's trial, one would think you'd try to get into court to explain yourself. But after not showing up for client Paul Cortez's murder trial on Monday, attorney Laura Miranda still did not appear yesterday, even after Justice Carol Berkman threatened her with a $1,000 fine and/or contempt. So Berkman fined her $1,000, found her in contempt, and questioned her......

Today, jury selection begins in a gruesome murder case. After Thanksgiving 2005, a young woman was found with her throat slashed in her apartment. She was Catherine Woods, who moved from Ohio to NYC as an aspiring dancer and worked as a stripper to make ends meet. While she had been living with an ex-boyfriend from Ohio on the Upper East Side, the police zeroed in on another boyfriend Paul Cortez, a personal trainer and......

With weather advisories in effect, warning of storms and winds, city officials are contemplating what to do with Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons. From the NY Times:The poor weather and heightened oversight could ground some or all of the 13 big balloons — 1 fewer than last year — that are set to fly today, starting at 9 a.m. In the best case, they could be flown so low as to practically be floats.......

Newsday reports that in Hillary Clinton's ongoing efforts to appeal to the state she represents in the Senate - and the rest of the country - she made it very clear that she was never, ever, ever a Mets fan. In fact, she said, "I cannot let stand that I have ever, ever been a Mets fan: Let's set the record straight. The Cubs and the Yankees -- those were my teams and remained my......

The ex-boyfriend and suspected killer of Catherine Woods - the fresh-faced aspiring dancer from Ohio who turned to stripping to make ends meet - kept a diary where he fantasized about cutting her throat. Yoga instructor Paul Cortez, whom the police suspected shortly after Woods's murder, apparently mixed teachings from the Bhagavad Gita and his dream of trying to save Woods from a sinful life. A police source tells the Post: "He's talking a lot......

All offseason, Jets’ coach, Herm Edwards, has insisted that kicker, Doug Brien, would be back for the 2005 season, despite his having missed two key field goals in the playoffs last January. After this weekend’s NFL Draft, Brien would be wise to update his resume. The Jets spent their top selection on kicker, Mike Nugent, of Ohio State, almost guaranteeing the end of Brien’s career as a Jet. The Jets also added a kick returner......

The Giants simply must win this Sunday against the Bears. To call the Bears mediocre is an insult to C students and Ford Taurus drivers. They start the rookie Craig Krenzel out of Ohio State at quarterback and although they beat the 49ers last week, San Francisco may be the only team in the league worse than Chicago. Hopefully the loss to Detroit two weeks ago woke this team up a little bit and the......

Loyal Gothamist readers will notice that there is little change in our rankings this week - there simply weren't many upsets or games involving top 25 teams last week. That will certainly change this weekend with several top matchups including LSU vs. UGA, Aub vs. Tenn, and Purdue vs ND. It will be a great weekend for college football junkies/coach potatoes! Naturally Gothamist will be watching every televised game from Noon until 2 am in......

Justin S. brings us his 3rd weekly ranking of the NCAA Division 1A teams. No movement in the top 5 from last week's rankings. 1. Oklahoma – Oregon isn’t great this year, but that’s still a quality win. 2. Miami 3 . Southern Cal – A young team that will improve as the season progresses. Pac 10 is weak, and getting Cal at home sure helps. 4. Georgia – How can a team with so......

This morning Gothamist was reading an AccuWeather story on Hurricane Jeanne's likely path. We were saddened by the non-literate nature of the story more than its content. Jeanne's path is described as "somewhat uncertain," that a high pressure system will block a northward "escape path," and that Jeanne may "impact" Florida. Gothamist wonders, somewhat uncertainly, from what Jeanne is escaping when she impacts Florida. Maybe we are being curmudgeonly, but this sort of writing makes......

As some of the top teams begin to play each other (FSU-Miami), we can finally begin to gain some insight into how good (or bad) they are. Some teams are without comments this week - if you blow out a cupcake, there's not much to say about that. Also, as you will see, our rankings can fluctuate from week to week - unlike the "real" polls, just because you win doesn't mean you won't drop......