Vehicle checkpoints have been established around the city, concentrating on downtown and from certain jurisdictions. Deputy Commissioner Paul J. Browne reportedly stressed that the moves were strictly precautionary and that no threat had been verified. So if you notice an increased level of police, military, and air or marine activity around the city tonight, don't become too concerned. It's just standard precautions. more ›

Late last month, after the death of his girlfriend Theresa Duncan, witnesses saw Jeremy Blake walk in to the water around Beach 102nd Street. The 35-year old East Village artist left a suicide note (along with clothes and a wallet) under the boardwalk at Rockaway Beach. His body was found on July 22nd off of Sea Girt, NJ, five days after he was last seen. Yesterday the body was identified as Blake's. more ›

It was finally Mayor Bloomberg, however, that gave him the boot this April. Only recently was he allowed back inside the press room, but as an uncredentialed observer. Martinez Alequin's publication has slimmed down to an online-only format and operates from Blogspot.com as "Your Free Press." He has been questioning––some might say heckling––public officials for 20 years. This spurs a broader look by the Times at what it takes to be a credentialed press member. more ›

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he spoke to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff Thursday night and told him "for sure" that he disagreed with the urban area funding. On his radio show, the Mayor said, "I just think the ways they went about it was wrong. I think some factual things were wrong -- forget about the fact that they didn't have the right number of financial institutions or didn't know there were any significant targets in New York City -- just the quality of the report." (You can download an MP3 on the show here.) At any rate, Bloomberg and Chertoff plan to speak again on Monday, which makes Gothamist think some city staffers are working overtime this weekend. more ›

Whoa-- apparently the prolific and insanely talented NYC street artist Swoon has three pieces up at the Museum of Modern Art! Wooster Collective alerted us to the "Printmaking Now" show, which runs until September 18th: more ›

- "Mardi Gras lasts 12 days. Down here, it lasts 365 days a year. It's become party central for the entire metropolitan area. These clubs and bars are ruining people's lives, and they've got to be stopped." - Sean Sweeney of SoHo Alliance, which has tried to block liquor licenses, and a SoHo resident Remember when the problem in NYC was more rampant crime? more ›

The Rangers needed a game like this. After a lackluster effort on Tuesday and with a game against first-place Philadelphia on Monday, the Rangers needed to rebuild their confidence. They did so and more, destroying Pittsburgh 7-1 in a nationally televised game. more ›

In the mid-90’s it was the best local rivalry we had. Both teams were among the NHL elite and ferociously battled each other whenever they met. Then the Rangers fell on hard times and the Devils kept wining. Last night the two teams squared off at the Garden and when it was over New York had beaten New Jersey 3-1 and snapped their nine-game winning streak. more ›

It was a night to pay tribute to one of the greatest hockey players to ever lace up skates, so it was fitting that another one of the all-time greats provided the winning goal. Long after the cheers for Mark Messier had died down, Jaromir Jagr scored just 14 seconds into overtime to give the Rangers a 5-4 victory over Edmonton. more ›

Peter Sykora was openly campaigning to join the Rangers. He had watched their early-season success and he wanted to get out of Anaheim. His wish was granted Sunday and he immediately made his presence felt in the Rangers 4-2 victory over Calgary. Sykora scored a goal, had an assist and manned the point on the Rangers’ power play unit. The win puts the Rangers five points out of first place with about half the season remaining. more ›

Both teams had shoddy defense, but the Yankees', which has been dreadful all year, imploded again. Robinson Cano booted what should have been an inning-ending ground out, and Jason Giambi couldn't flip the ball to Tom Gordon on another routine play. Both happened after Tony Womack's poorly-traveled field trip in center field on a Chris Woodward double. By the time the inning ended, the Yankees had handed the Mets three runs. more ›

The home run was a promising sign of recovery for Giambi, who struggled last season with health issues. When speaking of the home run, he said, "For the critics, it's always nice." Giambi went 2-5 on the evening and said that he didn't hear the chants about steroids. more ›

Carlos Beltran took his place on Tradition Field for the "new Mets" and was immediately the center of attention. Apparently, that's what happens when you sign a $119 million contract and are potentially the present and the future of the franchise. Of course, Beltran's arrival was overshadowed by Jason Giambi's arrival in Tampa. more ›

Seems like the issue for the Yankees is their starting pitching. Mike Mussina and Jon Lieber are the probable starters for games one and two, but the other two starters remains a question until the Yankees officially file their post season roster and Joe Torre makes a decision on Orlando Hernandez's status. The NY Times reports that Jason Giambi will be left off the post-season roster and Javier Vazquez will pitch in long relief. Torre has yet to make an announcement as to who he will pitch in game three, but Brian Cashman says the Yankees are going to have 11 pitchers on the post-season roster. As they say, pitching wins the post-season. The Twins will start Johan Santana, a solid candidate for the Cy Young award, in game one followed by Brad Radke in game two. MLB.com is reporting that Hernandez is the tentative starter for game three, which considering his performance in recent outings is rather surprising. In his past two starts, both against Toronto, Hernandez has given up 10 total runs in 9.1 innings of total work. His surgically repaired shoulder has been acting up, but the Yankees may not have anywhere else to turn. Then again, the Yankees have had poor pitching all year and they've managed to win 100+ games. more ›

Not everything went so smoothly though. As is becoming the norm in this series, tempers rose during the game, resulting in ejections and bench clearing. First came Kenny Lofton and Doug Mientkiewicz in the third inning. The two had some issues as Lofton grounded out and Mientkiewicz supposedly didn't get out of Lofton's way quickly enough. Then, in the 8th, Pedro Astacio threw the ball behind Lofton, which got him ejected. In retaliation, Brad Halsey threw a ball high and tight to Dave Roberts, which got him and Joe Torre ejected. The benches cleared and words were exchanged, but there were no fisticuffs. more ›

Breaking news: the Yankees are headed to the playoffs!! Okay, maybe that's not so "breaking" from a team that is expected to win the World Series, but it's news nonetheless. Yesterday, the Yankees made the playoffs for the 10th straight season. more ›

Chacin, 23, led the AL East cellar dwelling Blue Jays to an eventual 6-3 win (box score). He pitched seven full innings before leaving with bases loaded in the 8th inning. Chacin gave up 3 runs, 3 hits, 3 walks, 2 runs and picked up 2 strike outs. more ›

Game one of the series came down to the 9th inning, where Mariano Rivera failed to close the game and the Red Sox eked out a 3-2 win. Rivera's performance Friday, was very un-Rivera like, and was his 4th blown save of the season. Saturday afternoon, Jon Lieber nearly no-hit the Red Sox as the Yankees rolled 14-4. Derek Lowe was horrendous, giving up seven runs in less than two innings of work. Lieber didn't give up his first hit until David Ortiz's home run in the 7th inning. Mike Mussina, not to be outdone, was also lights during his start on Sunday. In his 7 innings on the mound, Mussina only allowed 1 run and 7 hits. Pedro Martinez was hit by the Yankees, and hit often, continuing his team's losing ways against the Yankees when he pitches. After yesterday's performance, the Red Sox are a mere 11-18, including the playoffs, with Pedro on the mound. more ›

It was the worst loss in the history of Baseball. Let that sink in. In over 100 years of baseball there has never been a loss as bad as the one the Yankees suffered from the hands of the Cleveland Indians on Tuesday night. 22-0. It was the low point of the Yankee season. But, it only counted as one game in the standings. The next day the Yankees put it behind them and came out with a 5-4 win and then clinched the series with a 9-1 win last night. more ›

Kevin Brown struck out seven and allowed only four hits over the 8 innings. Barry Zito got into trouble in the second inning and that lead to 3 runs. It wasn't entirely Zito's fault as Alex Rodriguez reached base on left fielder Eric Byrnes error. Jorge Posada flied out to center for the first out of the inning. Then Hideki Matsui singled to right, A-rod to second. Ruben Sierra then doubled to left field and A-rod scored moving Matsui to third. Newly acquired John Olerud then doubled to deep left scoring Matsui and Sierra. more ›

In the bottom of the ninth with one runner on and one out, Gary Sheffield (hands down the Yankee MVP) launched an Octavio Dotel pitch into the Left field seats tying the game 6-6. In the Bottom of the 11th it was A-Rod's turn to play hero, hitting, what looked like a lazy fly ball to left field, that carried over the left field wall. The home run may be viewed as the moment that A-Rod officially became a Yankee. He had been mired in a slump this entire season with runners in scoring position, but last night that all changed with his walk-off home run. more ›

Ponson was the story of the night. After the first two innings, Ponson retired 16 straight batters. Matsui broke the streak with a single in the 8th inning. The Yankees could only muster 4 hits off of Ponson as he pitched a complete game. Jose Contreras on the other hand was doomed by one bad inning. He was pitching on three days' rest. more ›

Mussina gave up seven runs in six innings. In Mussina's last two starts, against the Mets and Tigers, he is 0-2 with a 9.82 ERA. In the two games against the Devil Rays, he is 0-2 with an ERA of 11.00. Not really the numbers of an ace, are they? Last night the tigers were able to run away with the game and win 9-1. Jason Johnson pitched 8 strong innings to move his record to 6-7, allowing one run on six hits. more ›

The Yankees came into the series with a five and a half game lead over the Red Sox, by the first pitch on Thursday night, that lead was seven and a half games. It was a must win game for The Red Sox and their ace Pedro Martinez took the hill. Pedro picked up where he left off last year. After Gary Sheffield disrupted Pedro's focus by calling for time, Pedro plunked him with the baseball. After that, you could almost feel the air turn into the crisp October air this game deserved. more ›

Lucky for the Brown, the Yankee offense the team out of a 5-0 hole and the Yankees went on to win 7-5 (box score). Derek Jeter, returning from a groin injury, continued his hot streak by hitting the a two-run home run in the 7th, giving the Yankees the lead. Bernie Williams hit a solo shot after Jeter to give the Yankee bullpen a small cushion. 2nd basemen Miguel Cairo went 4-4 on the night, pushing his average above the .300 level to .304. more ›

In last night's 11-2 loss to the Angels (box score), Jorge Posada was injured when he took a ball in the nose while on the basepaths. During the 2nd inning, Posada was running to 2nd base on a double-play ball when a ball thrown towards first by Angels shortstop Alfredo Amezaga struck him. The ball deflected off Posada's arm as he reacted and hit his nose, breaking it. Amezaga threw the ball side arm, which wasn't necessary given the situation. After the game, Joe Torre said: more ›

Yesterday, the Yankees finally beat the Red Sox at Fenway, taking the 3rd game of the four game series, 7-3 (box score). Paul Quantrill got the win, after bailing out starter Jose Contreras in the third inning. A well rested Derek Lowe got the loss, giving up seven runs in 2 2/3 innings. Despite the victory, one has to wonder if it was the Yankees that performed well, or if it was the pitching of Derek Lowe. more ›