The city has agreed to pay $2 million to the parents of an unarmed Brooklyn teen who was fatally shot by a police officer three years ago. In January 2004, police officer Richard Neri was patrolling a Brooklyn rooftop with another officer at 1AM. Around the same time the other officer had opened a door to the stairwell, Timothy Stansbury and his friends were heading upstairs, to go to a party in another building in......

In May 2003, the NYPD were trying to raid a CD priacy ring at the Chelsea Mini-Storage. A cop, Brian Conroy, walking the dark labyrinth of the facility ended up fatally shooting Ousmane Zongo, an immigrant from Burkina Faso who had been working on African art in another storage unit. Yesterday, Zongo's family accepted a $3 million settlement from the city as an "apology" to end their wrongful death lawsuit. The city Law Department said,......

-- The L Magazine sent us this recipe for cold green pea soup with smoked trout-- but why? -- A porch and flowering meadow on the 7th floor? We're dying of envy. -- Ousmane Zongo's family is getting $3m dollars for his wrongful-death. -- When it's a van vs. a bike store, the van usually wins. -- The Apiary has some great photo coverage of the UCB concert in the park. -- A sad......

- Some of L.A. gets a blackout; so far, it doesn't seem to be Al Qaeda but rather some "overzealous cable cutting"... however, it's unlikely that blackout babies will be conceived, since power should be going up soon - NYU has taken in some students from colleges affected by Hurricane Katrina - At the Art Parade, Elijah Wood tries to dispel the "hobbits are gay" rumors - New York Rangers captain Mark Messier retires (yes,......

Yesterday afternoon, the jury deliberating the manslaughter case of Officer Bryan Conroy's fatal shooting of African immigrant Ousmane Zongo announced they were deadlocked again, declaring a mistrial. In May 2003, Zongo had been restoring art in one of the storage rooms at the Chelsea mini-storage; Conroy was working a sting operation there as well. They confronted each other in the dark, twisting warrens of the storage facility and what exactly happened has been at the......

There are two extremely high-profile trials around town: - In Queens, trial of Huang Chen's murder started last week. Last year, Chen was delivering food for his parents' Chinese restaurant. At an apartment building in Rochdale, he was beaten and murdered by two 16 year-olds who wanted his money to buy Nikes; the teens dumped his body into a pond later. When Chen didn't return to the restaurant, his sister went to the apartment and......

Jury selection for the Ousmane Zongo manslaughter case against police officer Bryan Conroy started yesterday. In May 2003, Conroy was undercover in the Chelsea Mini Storage for a counterfeit CD sting. Zongo, an African immigrant, had been working in the storage facility, restoring African art stored there. When Conroy and Zongo approached each other in the dim, twisting hallways of the mini storage, it's unclear exactly what happened except that Conroy shot and killed the......

The Times has a good run down on the scene of the Chelsea mini-storage shooting last week. The incident occured on the third floor, in a warren of fluorescent lit hallways, after a plainclothes officer encountered Ousmane Zongo and shot him four times. The Times describes the third floor as something out of Alice and Wonderland, but the pictures on the CMS website remind me of the secret hallways in the Matrix Reloaded. Contemplated......