The so-called "Millionaire Madam" Anna Gristina remains at Rikers Island, nearly two months after her initial arrest. The married mother of two, accused of running a high-end escort service from an Upper East Side apartment, is being held on $2 million bail, because Manhattan prosecutors say she has bragged about having money overseas as well as law enforcement connections. But Gristina insists she's innocent and has been trying to get her bail lowered. Now her family has apparently started a website to solicit donations. more ›

In 1991 David Lynch created this public service announcement to draw attention to the city's rat problem (he does love to make ads). The director of photography for the PSA was Frederick Elmes, who also worked with Lynch on Blue Velvet, and together they put the city's rodent problem in simple (and somewhat creepy) black & white terms. The minute long ad focuses on littering New Yorkers, but wouldn't it be great if Lynch came back to create a new one that focused on subway eaters? It could feature Mr. Chompy. more ›

About a month ago, police officers from the 6th Precinct started cracking down on the book vendors and their ubiquitous tables lining Sixth Avenue, especially down by the West 4th Street area. According to DNAinfo, more than 3000 books were confiscated one morning, with officers citing numerous violations of the city's General Vendor Code—this includes violations like leaving tables and wares set up overnight, and covering tree pits. more ›

In yet another installment of pick-a-public-servant's brain on Reddit, a Sanitation Department worker is asked the question that has plagued many a wrinkled nose: "Why is Chinatown always twice as dirty as the rest of Manhattan?" After a gentle attempt at parrying ("Do I really need to explain that?") the worker responds, "Just a lot of filthy people down there. That's the best explanation I can give. I don't think it matters how hard they work to try and keep it clean." more ›

[UPDATE BELOW] A bill in Albany that would prohibit eating food on the subway with fines up to $250 for violators, does not have the support of the new MTA chief Joseph Lhota. Although Lhota was known as the "rat czar" when he was deputy mayor under Rudolph Giuliani, he thinks an outright food consumption ban would adversely impact poor people who inhale their greasy stinking McDonald's on the train because there's simply nowhere else for them to eat. Also, think of the children! "It severely hurts and impacts minority communities," Lhota tells the Times. "I don’t want to deny the kid the only time that day he’s going to get food." more ›

A major part of the reasoning behind the proposal to ban food on the subway currently in the State Senate is that your leftovers are many rats main courses. So what better time to sit back and watch some videos of rats hanging out in subway stations, chilling out and taking their people food for a stroll? more ›

We're not sure how far the Morris Houses are from the infamously huge rat found at a Bronx foot locker, but the housing project definitely has a terrible rat problem. A concerned resident contacted MyFoxNY about the situation. The news crew spotted many, many rats— "Big ones... little ones... even babies"—as well as many burrows. more ›

Avian enthusiasts who are bummed about the recent death of Washington Square's red-tailed hawk Violet may find solace in the fluffy bosom of New Jersey's new snowy owl. That's right: an owl that normally makes the Arctic tundra its home has been roosting at the Merrill Creek Reservoir in Warren County New Jersey for two months. Experts the Star-Ledger spoke to seem to think that there may be a "baby boom" of snowy owls in Canada, forcing them to travel further south. We're eagerly awaiting Chris Christie's demand that the owl "get the hell over to the Jersey Shore's fabulous casinos and fine dining." more ›

New Yorkers are besieged by rats who can read and bedbugs who eat poison for brunch (after they suck your blood for breakfast). If the feds can't help us, perhaps it's time to try a little tenderness? The WSJ reports that more women are entering the traditionally male-dominated profession of pest-control. "When people come to the door, they are surprised to see ladies, but they love to see ladies," Beverly Rice Brady, the co-founder of Pro Service Pest Control says. "They feel safer; they feel more comfortable having a girl in their home." more ›

Pair up visions of rats roaming around the subway platforms with the slow sounds of what sounds like a demented lullaby written by a possessed clown, and you have enough nightmare fuel to get you through the week. As promised, the Station Rat has delivered a new video, showing him roaming the stations in complete bliss after budget cuts brought on dirtier stations and less cleaning. Turn it up to 11 for the intro, where you'll hear rat screeches followed by the aforementioned song: more ›

Besides those who are fast asleep and susceptible to becoming a rat's playground, tipsy straphangers are among the most vulnerable to theft on the subway. A special type of criminal the NYPD calls the "lush worker" knows when you've had enough to drink for them to cut away at your clothing and steal the $3 in your wallet plus those Groupons you printed out. The good news is that lush workers tend to be old, and there's only 109 of them left in the city. more ›

The Station Rat has been lurking around on Twitter, so we got in touch with him to find out what he's got to say on behalf of the unground rodent nation, that will undoubtedly one day serve as our overlords. Station Rat tells us that he is "the voice of subway rats across the city. As full-time residents of the subway system, we know first-hand what is happening to the system. Budget cuts mean dirtier stations and less money for train cleaners. And we're happy about it. But now people are talking about 'fixing transit' or 'cleaning up the subway.' The last straw was the MTA's effort to clean up subway stations and remove trash from the system. We've had enough." With that, he released this trailer today: more ›

Won't someone think of the rats?! After all, Frank "Rat Man" Calzarano is only one man—for over a decade he's risen at dawn to bring food to the poor needy rats on the Lower East Side, particularly in the vicinity of Stanton Street. But New York City's rat community has thousands, perhaps millions, of desperate rodents, and Calzarano can't feed them all himself, try as he might. And if one area woman has her way, Calzarano's rats will be left to starve in the gutter. more ›

Ever wondered who's on the other end of the line when you call 311 to complain about the Nickelback being too loud across the street? Content farm ManifestoNYC recently spoke with Tamesha, a New York City native who works the phones at 311 headquarters. Beyond the usual concerns about municipal services, she fields questions like, "Should I kick my husband out?" and "What do I do with expired milk?" more ›

6,000 packages of an extremely lethal chemical being sold in Manhattan's Chinatown as rat poison have been seized, and ten retailers have been arrested on state and federal charges. Authorities from the EPA, the city's DA's office, and the state's Department of Environmental Conservation confiscated vials and boxes of brodifacoum, an anticoagulant 61 times stronger than is legal, with the label "The Cat Be Unemployed." A woman who purchased them in the East Broadway Mall last year mistook it for medicine, and lost two-thirds of her blood volume! more ›

Rats may seem cuddly and adorable when they're scampering across your face, swimming in your toilet bowl, or dangling from a fellow straphanger's mouth, but don't be fooled: these vicious creatures want nothing more than to sink their pestilent fangs into unsuspecting man flesh. Of course, they prefer woman flesh. amNew York reports that an unidentified woman waiting for the J train in the Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall station was bitten by one of these critters Monday morning. more ›

Now that the subways are up and running post-Irene, commuters are getting back into the swing of things, which for some, means a morning spent battling the suffocating smell of GIANT DEAD RATS. more ›

Forest City Ratner, the developer behind the controversial Nets arena currently rising over the Atlantic Yards, seems to have expanded its "rodent control program" to help neighbors dealing with "a rat tsunami." Their solution? Free trash cans! Better than nothing, we guess. more ›

The new de-paned Apple Cube by Grand Army Plaza won't be revealed until November but some four-legged fans just can't wait. As far as the Daily News is concerned there is an epidemic of rats-the-size-of-rabbits currently inhabiting the park in front of the Plaza Hotel. more ›

Last year we were none-too-thrilled to discover something called Rat Bite Fever exists, but took comfort in our own assumptions that people rarely get bitten by rats. But now Metro comes along and says 100 New Yorkers get bitten by rats each year, and that's just what's being reported to the Department of Health! It gets worse... more ›

Russian billionaires and bleak buildings aren't the only things the Atlantic Yards project is bringing to Brooklyn: the construction is reportedly stirring up a large rat colony, some of which are "the size of cats." At a recent meeting to address the issue, two Downtown Brooklyn residents said that the rats got into their cars' engine blocks, "leaving behind chicken bones and aluminum foil, all the while chewing on the wires." One neighbor tells City Room, "We don't have a normal rat problem, we have a rat tsunami." more ›

A Long Island man was killed by a rare rodent-borne disease last week, in a freak illness that's only the second confirmed case of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome in the state since 1995. more ›