Results tagged “rehab”

The family of Vada Vasquez, the 15-year-old Bronx girl who took a stray bullet to the skull last Monday, declined their usual Thanksgiving feast this year, postponing it until the teen can eat again. But the five young men accused of involvement in the shooting were given a seemingly generous Thanksgiving meal in jail yesterday. Dinner included turkey with dressing, yams, steamed greens and carrot cake!

Recovering drug addicts can look forward to climbing even further up the walls starting tomorrow, when all drug treatment centers in New York State implement a smoking ban. Bryan Lapsker, a 21-year-old PCP addict, tells amNY he’s been dreading the change: "Nicotine helps (addicts) get through the day. Now you take the nicotine away from us, it's almost impossible to get through the day. Addiction is addiction, I understand that, but nicotine is a legal substance." The state will now spend $8 million training health care workers how to treat nicotine dependence, and if the regulation’s a hit, maybe they’ll finally take away addicts’ caffeine, chocolate and soda pop, too.

Isiah Thomas thinks he deserves more time. Not that much more, just two weeks, but time to show he can turn this club around. Of course, he has had four years already, but at this point who is counting? Maybe Isiah noticed that the next two weeks contain six games, but only two of those teams currently have winning records. The two-week timeframe came up as Thomas was asked what he would do to a coach with his record as GM. His response: "That's a better question in a couple of weeks. Not today, but in a couple weeks, that would be a fair question. We'll see if we can come out of this. If we can't come out of this, then those are fair questions. There's still a lot of basketball left in the season. There is time to turn it around."

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a shooting on Prospect Pl. in Brooklyn, a collapse at Flushing Ave. at Portland Ave. in Brooklyn, and an armed robbery on 157th St. and 109th Ave. in Queens.
• The Queens courtroom where three cops will be tried on charges of shooting Sean Bell to death is undergoing $175K in renovations in preparation for the trial, even though attorneys for the defense are arguing for a change of venue.
• Rehab center Silver Hill Hospital is being sued after a woman committed suicide while under the facility's care. The person bringing the suit is the executor of her estate, himself a former patient at Silver Hill and someone her doctor advised her to avoid.
• AM New York looks at some NYC bars beloved by Hollywood filmmakers.
• Alex Kelly, the high school rapist from Darien, CT who fled to Europe where he lived on the lam for years before being captured, was released from prison after serving 10 years of his 16 year sentence.
• Cops responding to a call that a woman was being assaulted inside Club Duvet on East 21st St. early this morning were instead met with a patron staggering out of the club with blood flowing from a chest wound. The victim died after being taken to St. Vincent's Hospital.
• A 14-month-old toddler fell out of an open window at his Brooklyn home yesterday, but landed without injury. The child fell 20 feet to the roof of an adjacent record store.
• The Gowanus Lounge reports that the IKEA in Red Hook believes in recycling. It will be using the paving stones that are being ripped up out of Beard St. for some secondary use on the store's property.

The family of Carol Gotbaum, the New Yorker who died at Phoenix's Sky Harbor Airport on September 28, held a funeral for the mother of three at Congregation Rodeph Sholom yesterday. Her husband Noah, son of labor leader Victor Gotbaum and stepson of Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, mourned his wife, saying, "Carol, you were an angel, and everyone knew it. My girl was born with the most beautiful smile on her face. It put people at ease, it made others smile, it radiated the warmth of Cape Town.” But he was angry as well, "If the airline or the police authorities had treated Carol with some modicum of dignity and grace or if one single person at that airport had put an arm around her shoulders, sat her down and given her some attention, she might still be with us today."

, isn't the standard memoir. It's not about getting addicted to drugs and going to rehab or about living on the streets and selling her body. It's about what happens when you start doing stand up for ten minutes every night at the dinner table when you're eight because you don't want your adopted parents to send you back to the adoption agency because you didn't provide the "hours of entertainment" that they expected and never stopping, not when you're meeting Jon Stewart on your first day at the Daily Show, not when you're going through a divorce, and not when you meet the friends and family of your live in boyfriend for the first time after the death of his wife. For this reason, Weedman's memoir is non-stop funny and provides "hours of entertainment". And she'll be reading at McNally Robinson on October 10th and the UCB Theater on October 11th.

The Daily News and NY Times both look at the life of Carol Anne Gotbaum, the New Yorker who died while in police custody at Phoenix's Sky Harbor airport over a week ago. She is portrayed as a vibrant woman and loving mother to three children who had become depressed in recent years.

A Phoenix medical examiner's autopsy conducted on the body of New York resident Carol Anne Gotbaum was inconclusive. Gotbaum died in police custody at Phoenix's Sky Harbor Airport on Friday, after she became upset when she missed a connection to Tucson, where she was planning on checking into the Cottonwood de Tucson alcohol rehabilitation center. Police suggested that she died while struggling to break free of her handcuffs; her family, which includes stepmother-in-law Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, believe she may have been manhandled and wonder why a disturbed woman weighing 105 pounds was handcuffed behind her back and left alone.

A proposal for 9th Ave. in Manhattan will utilize cars themselves to protect cyclists from vehicular traffic. The seven-block stretch of road in Chelsea will run from 23rd St. to 16th St. and designers are calling it the street of the future. It will feature a ten foot-wide bike lane adjacent to the sidewalk that will be separated from traffic by a parking lane. To prevent motorists from using the wide-open curbside lane for parking, it will be buffered by physical barriers like planters.

. From her days as a young girl in Long Island, trying to navigate her way through social circles while discovering boys, punk rock, and drugs, to her increasing addiction that eventually leads her to rehab and then sobriety, Arfin remains honest in her appraisal of the past while making sure to interject just the right amount of humor to make the whole thing work.

Friday night, Perez pitched seven shutout innings and out-pitched one of the best in the NL, Brad Penny. David Wright had a home run and Mike DiFelice went 3-for-3 as the Mets won the series opener.

Starting this morning and through Sunday, the AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour is making its 2007 stop in New York City with the AVP Brooklyn Open. In it's 2nd year in NYC, the Brooklyn Open features over 150 beach volleyball players, a temporary 4,000-seat stadium, and 13 outer courts that will offer general admission seating (ticket info). Qualifying round play began today at 8 a.m.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an unusual sexual assault on Broadway in Brooklyn, an unstable building on Sutphin Blvd. in Queens, and a shooting on West 142nd St. and Amsterdam Ave. in Manhattan.
• Central Park's Sheep Meadow was the first park location to upgrade its wifi Internet connection to high speed. The new 15-megabits-per-second service is five times faster than the previous connection.
• Madame Tussauds wax museum in Times Square wasted no time in dressing its likeness of Lindsay Lohan in prison stripes, after the young star was arrested for drunk driving and drug posession shortly after leaving rehab.
• Former NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason is in talks to fill the morning time slot on WFAN left vacant by the abrupt departure of Don Imus.
• Williamsburg! The Musical will premiere August 11th as part of the 11th Annual Fringe Festival.
• Gridskipper has a guide to NYC record stores for vinyl enthusiasts.
• Turning Long Island City into a giant sundial, with the Citibank tower as the shadow-casting spire.
• The City Council is thinking of revising its cell phones-in-schools policy, to allow kids to bring them to school, but not use them there. Schools would be required to set up cell phone storage facilities to secure the devices during the day.

When asked in 2005 what train wreck of a celebrity she would give some advice to, then-Gawker editor Jessica Coen said, "Lindsay Lohan, may God help you secure a room at Promises." Lohan ended up going to Wonderland for rehab, and apparently it didn't work any wonders on her. Adding to the list of Long Islanders giving New Yorkers a bad name is the one and only La Lohan. Recently in town for the Costume Institute Gala and the Maxim Hot List party, she managed to keep out of trouble. Perhaps that's because her car was in Los Angeles. And perhaps that's because last time she drove in New York she ran down a West Village photographer and is now being sued.

Gone are the days when children who wanted to learn the meaning of a naughty word or slang term had to find a dictionary or a more worldly pal. Today, Wikipedia can explain in a matter of seconds that badonkadonk is a term for a woman’s buttocks.

Continue reading "Precocious"

This might be one of the few times bad police behavior is well-timed with the release of a Dreamworks animated film! The Daily News reports that a couple enjoying a first anniversary celebration was spied upon by an NYPD captain who was trying to film the amorous couple with his pants unzipped. It's definitely one of the better stories about how the NYPD deals with catching criminals in their ranks.

When NJ Governor Jon Corzine was critically injured in a car accident two weeks ago, a commenter wrote, "Obviously, God wants Codey to be governor," referring to Richard Codey, the NJ Senate majority leader (pictured) who has served as acting governor under the three past NJ governors. And, apparently, so does Corzine himself: The NY Times has an article about how Corzine was often not in NJ before being injured.:

In the 450 days between his inauguration and his accident, Mr. Corzine notified Mr. Codey that he would be away for all or part of 111 days, and would sleep out of state on 77 nights...

Continue reading "Corzine Just Not In NJ So Much"

Governor Jon Corzine expects to be discharged from the hospital next week. Corzine has been at Cooper University Hospital where he has been recuperating after severe injuries after the SUV transporting him (where he sat seat-belt-less in the front passenger seat) crashed on the Garden State Parkway.

Andy Borowitz's talent transcends mediums. He's conquered TV with The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, the Internet with The Borowitz Report, the stage with his stand up and regular host of The Moth, a story telling series, and books with his tomes The Republican Playbook and Who Moved My Soap: The CEO's Guide to Surviving in Prison. What's next for this master of humor: the future!

Mayor Bloomberg's longtime girlfriend Diana Taylor is known as the "de facto" First Lady of the city. She was recently the State Banking Superintendent, with previous stints as a VP at Keyspan and CFO of LIPA, and will be working at Wolfensohn & Company, an investment firm, in a few days. Her fashion sense has been praised in Vogue, yet she stands by her man when he wears shorts and white socks. In other words, she flies under the radar.

You would have thought Delilah shaved Samson's head again after the breathless reports of Britney Spears shaved her head Friday night. Apparently the pop singer-mother-train wreck did the deed before going to a Sherman Oaks tattoo parlor and giving the tabloids something to pun about.

Valentine's Day is only a few days away, and we here across the Gothamist network wanted to express would like to tell you, in the spirit of the holiday, just how much we love you, our readers. Don't let it get to your heads, though. There are plenty of things we love, you included. Just be glad you're not amongst the things we hate.

A look at some noteworthy television programs this week:

I am Legend in Washington Square Park, by sdsparks.

If it's built, then take it! The NY Times reports that the the Bloomberg administration is considering a plan to turn the FDR's Outboard Detour Roadway into an extension of the East Side esplanade.

The plan, in its very early stages, calls for demolishing all but the roadway’s westernmost underwater support beams and building a new structure that would not extend as far over the river.

Continue reading "The FDR's Temporary Route May Turn Into a Park"

That Donald Trump. Just last week, there was all this attention about his hotel planned for Soho hitting a snag - well, actually many, many human remains - when a graveyard was found. The Department of Buildings issued a stop-work order and community groups criticizing the 45-floor Trump Soho Hotel rejoiced for the moment. And then Tara Conner happened.