The three police officers facing trial for the November 2006 shooting of an unarmed man are requesting to their trial moved from Queens. Lawyers for Michael Oliver, Gescard Isnora, and Marc Cooper claim they won't be able to get a fair trial in Queens, blaming media attention for "incurably poison[ing]" any potential jury pool. On November 25, 2006, Sean Bell was having a bachelor party with friends on the eve of his wedding. When he......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an armed robbery on Washington Pl. and Broadway in Manhattan, a person under a train at 42nd St. and 8th Ave. in Manhattan, and a bomb threat at Utopia Ave. and 58th Ave. in Queens. A Chappaqua neighbor of Bill and Hillary Clinton was arrested for the murder of his wife. Last year, he claimed that a stranger burst into their SUV following an accident and shot her. There......

October 22-28: Lance Armstrong Week at Hill Country All this week, barbeque restaurant Hill Country is donating a portion of its sales to the Lance Armstrong Foundation, which aids people with cancer and their families. Hill Country, 30 West 26th Street (between 6th and Broadway). 212-255-4544. October 25-November 2: Bon Appétit Supper Club and Café Bon Appétit Magazine opens a “pop-up” café, designed by The Rockwell Group. The café will serve food from notable chefs,......

There's nothing like seeing the Gothamist Newsmap and last night seeing an alert for "Cow on the loose" in the Queens. While 1010WINS's lede is very concise - "A cow on the loose in Queens is now in police custody." - the Daily News has amazing coverage of the situation. Dimitrti Mitropoulos told the News he saw the cow near the Queens Hospital Center's parking lot (he suspects the cow was grazing), so he......

Oh dear. Not only is today Friday the 13th, and the thirtieth anniversary of the 1977 lightning-caused Blackout, it is also time for another Manhattanhenge. Could it just be astronomical coincidence or evidence of something more sinister? Today is also the anniversary of the 1895 Woodhaven tornado. The reporting is a bit scattered, but from what we read a tornado first touched down in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, killing three, then skipped over to......

The fight between boys at a Queens public school that led to a Sikh classmate's hair being cut off was classified as a hate crime by the authorities. The Queens DA's office and the NYPD gave a few more details. The NY Times reports that 17-year-old Umair Ahmed, a Pakistani student, and Vacher Harpal, a 15-year-old Sikh, "had had an argument and that Vacher had made derogatory comments about Mr. Ahmed’s mother." And though Vacher......

Did you ever hear the one about the vineyard in Queens, just minutes away from the Little Neck Parkway Q46 bus stop? Even if you haven’t, it’s true. First reported three years ago, the borough is finally set to prove it has terroir in spades with the imminent production of its namesake wine. The epicenter for this oenophile revolution is the Queens County Farm Museum, described on its website as “New York City's largest remaining......

There's a fun NY Times City section article about the Queens Museum of Art's Panorama Challenge. The Queens Museum of Art's panorama is a to-scale model of New York City: One inch equals 100 feet (the Empire State Building is 15 inches tall) and the model was originally designed for the 1964 World's Fair, as a "helicopter" ride over New York City. (And, yes, Parks Commissioner Robert Moses commissioned the panorama in 1964, just......

At 7AM, the three detectives indicted in the shooting of Sean Bell last November turned themselves. WNBC reports that Michael Oliver, Gescard Isnora, and Marc Cooper will be fingerprinted and processed before their arraignment this afternoon. The grand jury came to a decision last Friday, but said it would wait until today to make the official announcement. However, news of the indictments got out when defense lawyers for the cops involved found out whether their......

If you haven’t gotten a pumpkin yet for Halloween, head out to Queens. Today you can pick your own at the Queens County Farm. Begun in 1697, this is the only working historical farm in the city. All kinds of vegetables are grown on site, and animals like these piglets are raised here. Today there will also be a haunted house ($4 admission, from 1-7pm) as well as a children’s fall festival with hayrides, a......

How can you not love it when bank robbers literally launder money? Paul Villanueva and Anthony Digiosaffatte had robbed a Queens County Savings Bank branch earlier this week, and were found at a motel after trying to wash the dye off the money. Villaneuva and Digiosaffatte were arraigned in federal court, and their tale is wacky. They managed to demand $65,000 from the bank on Tuesday - and Digiosaffatte even told the bank tellers, "No......

Whether or not you believe in the Easter Bunny, the events from the Department of Parks & Recreation this weekend are awesome. Leading off would be the big Eggstravaganza at Central Park tomorrow starting at 11AM - there's egg dyeing, puppets, knitting clinics and more! There are more events in Manhattan and throughout the boroughs. Here are a few others: - Egg hunt at Morningside Park at 1PM - Queens County Farm's Barnyard Egg......

Is there anywhere to go apple picking near the city which is accessible by public transit? We're so glad you asked this question, because we are getting ready to kick it into gear for Autumn of Fun 05, which involves getting large-ish groups of people together for autumnal excursions such as apple picking. We found a few orchards that offer apple picking and directions by mass transit: Wickham's Fruit Farm, in Cutchogue, Long Island can......

The Queens County Farm Museum, the only working farm in the city, is planning on starting a vineyard. The Post reports that the Farm would be "bottling Chardonnays, Cabernets and Merlots as early as 2007." It seems that the climate in Queens is better suited for wine production than Long Island. Joshua Wesson, CEO of Best Cellars, gives this optimistic yet guarded quote, "It will be interesting to see if Queens wine can capture the......