Earlier this morning, a tractor trailer overturned on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. The tractor trailer's cargo - an assortment of live chickens - spilled onto the highway and broke open, leaving crews to chase a lot of fowl for hours during clean-up (a worker estimated there were 500!). It's unclear whether all the chickens were retrieved, so if you live near Flushing Avenue and see a feathered friend more suited to a coop than a tree, you'll know why. more ›

The serenader of the 50 states, Sufjan Stevens, grew his midwestern roots and reached New York in the late 90s -- where he has resided since. So it's only fitting a tribute to our state has arrived, after nearly a decade of soaking up the city. And perhaps separating himself from the rest of the city, he's found something special in the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. As announced this summer, Sufjan's latest muse is none other than the BQE, something he chose when commissioned by BAM to create an arrangement with a Brooklyn theme. more ›

Okay Conor, we get it: you have cool friends. This week, during the Bright Eyes 7-night run at Town Hall, the band promised a special guest each night. So far he's brought out the likes of Lou Reed, Steve Earle, Jenny Lewis, Norah Jones and Ben Kweller. Each played a few songs of their own mid set before joining in jamming with the rest of the group. On the night we went, we were treated to a mini acoustic set by Ben Gibbard and a sit in by Nick Zinner, who among other songs, played the haunting Daniel Johnston cover "Devil Town." But as far as Bright Eyes goes, no matter what you think of the guy and his music, there's no denying that he always makes the extra effort to please his fans in NYC. Whether it be avoiding the larger, expensive venues, playing intimate shows or pulling stunts like this. Conor went out of his way to make each of these shows special, and as a fan, we really appreciate that. more ›

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a double shooting on St. Johns Pl. in Brooklyn, a collapse on Grant Ave. in the Bronx, and a barricaded emotionally disturbed person on 102nd St. in Queens.
• Like Robert Moses in reverse, Mayor Bloomberg wants highways to give way to housing by covering roads like the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, as well as rail yards, and constructing housing above them. New York's own Big Dig?
• Ricki Lake's documentary, which is debuting at the Tribeca Film Festival, includes scenes of her giving birth in the bathtub in her West Village apartment. She made her assistant clean the tub afterwards, because there's natural and then there's just gross.
• Attractive adult NYC virgins talk about their decisions to not go all the way in a slideshow presentation.
• NY1 political reporter Dominic Carter requested his mother's medical records after her death. Unbeknownst to him, Carter's mother was a paranoid schizophrenic who once choked him and thought about throwing him out a window when he was a child.
• A Brooklyn yeshiva is serving eviction notices to the residents––many elderly and disabled––of a property it owns to make way for a studyhall and more classrooms.
• 13 miles of mostly straight, flat NY highway that is the site of a disproportionate number of fatal crashes.
• NJ Governor Jon Corzine may just stay in bed and run the state better, faster, and without ribbon cuttings, via video. We have the technology.
• The City Council voted to override Mayor Bloomberg's vetoes on a metal bat ban and pedicab-limiting regulations.

A terrible aftermath to Representative Joseph Crowley's holiday party. His staffer Eileen Gillepsie was driving with best friend and former staffer Peggy Bartichek afterwards, and Gillepsie drove down the wrong way on a Queens street. Her car was hit by a town car and "slammed" into a parked truck. From the NY Times:

They were headed home about 12:50 a.m. yesterday, the police said, when Ms. Gillespie, heading south on 69th Street in Elmhurst, failed to turn off it where it became one way northbound, near the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, and was hit by a Lincoln Town Car, which pushed her car into a parked pickup truck. There are do-not-enter signs at 34th Avenue, where southbound traffic is supposed to turn off 69th Street.

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Yesterday's tanker fire on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway caused huge problems along the artery, and roads were mostly reopened by this morning. The truck, carrying 8,000 gallons of diesel fuel, seemd to have tipped over and immediately burst into flames. The huge fire could be seen for a distance, and the immediate area was evacuated. Luckily, no one was hurt and the driver was only "slightly hurt." Tthe NYPD says some people noticed the truck lose control, and that the driver may have been confused by road signage. The Office of Emergency Management said the city was "fortunate" the accident happened on a holiday. more ›

What happens when 8,000 gallons of fuel explodes on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway? Well, there's a huge fire and tons of traffic, both car and subway, is diverted, as a tanker crashed on the BQE around noon today. Luckily, the driver managed to get out of the truck and no one was hurt. WNBC reports "part of a temporary overpass apparently fell on top of the truck," causing the fire. Yikes - we wonder if the truck hit the overpass or if the overpass fell... the former makes us feel slightly better, though not by much. But the FDNY is not sure why the truck turned over. more ›

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After what they claim was a four-month investigation, the Daily News today starts a three-part series on "how real-life Tony Sopranos and mobbed-up contractors steal your tax dollars, put workers' lives in danger and even screw up traffic at rush hour." And actually it's pretty interesting. more ›

Gothamist loves the NY Times article about the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge being too fat, because for a moment, we thought, "Hey, that's not nice, calling a bridge fat!" But then it was actually an interesting (and a little scary) look at how the suspension bridge is being re-engineered, with new technology and materials, to make sure it can support the traffic in the future. For instance, Robert Moses had engineers add concrete to the bridge; to stop the swaying (even though it was still safe), and in order for drivers to perceive it was stable, cables were added, which some people have felt ruined the skyline. more ›

That Marty Markowitz - he's always coming up with some new and crazy idea. Like signs at Brooklyn's exit points that say, "Leaving Brooklyn...Fuhgeddaboutit." The NY Post reveals the wacky Brooklyn borough president's thinking - "Once you enter Brooklyn, there's no good reason why you should ever leave" - and goes on to point out that many Brooklynites (and sports teams) do leave in fact, and it's possible that one in four Americans has roots in Brooklyn. more ›

Dateline, Hong Kong
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