An update about the Tuesday-night incident where a reckless 19-year-old driver hit a bicyclist in Staten Island: The Staten Island Advance reports that Leon Wilson was high on painkillers while driving. And his past driving experience was so terrible that his learner's permit had been revoked in January. Yet somehow, he was behind the wheel of a rental car on Tuesday night, crashing into 47-year-old Juan-Han Guan, who had been biking home. more ›

Jerry Seinfeld sure has come a long way from being a struggling stand-up comic to trying to avoid paying a real estate broker her commission! Seinfeld and his wife Jessica say that when they called their broker Tamara Cohen to see a townhouse on West 82nd Street, she didn't pick up her phone. But it turns out the Cohen is an observant Jew and was observing the Sabbath. Here are some details from the NY Law Journal:

Cohen began showing apartments and buildings to the Seinfelds' "estate manager," Steven Galistinos, in September 2004, according to the decision. In January 2005, Cohen showed the 82nd Street townhouse to Galistinos. The listing broker for the townhouse agreed to "co-broke" the house with her. more ›

Leave it to our senior senator to sniff out the bizzarre 19th century law that means New Yorkers pay extra in cellphone taxes! Senator Schumer is complaining that a law from the Spanish American War (circa 1898), originally created to generate revenue for the federal government, should be discarded - as it has in other parts of the country - and that the IRS should refund NYers $50 for the past three years of paying the tax. Gothamist hates reading our cellphone bill, because even though we think we have a great plan (many minutes! text messages galore!), the taxes really stink. more ›