Rooms at the Ritz-Carlton on Central Park start around $695 a night and can range up to $4,500. That may seem steep, but according to one maid, that price tag comes with plenty of extras, like parasites to relieve you of your blood free of charge. The worker, Rosanna Polanco, tells the Times that on Monday she was asked to service the room next to 1005, but she was not told what the problem was. Polanco says she only found out when she bumped into a worker from Ecolab Inc., which supplies cleaning products and pest elimination services. more ›

If you're spending $14 on soup or $10 on a side of spinach (let's not get into the $47 veal chop), you'd probably hope that the restaurant would have a Department of Health Restaurant Inspection grade of A, right? Well, in the case of the BLT Market restaurant at the Ritz-Carlton on Central Park South, it's a C-venue—thanks to violations like "Hot food item not held at or above 140º F" and "Filth flies or food/refuse/sewage-associated (FRSA) flies present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Filth flies include house flies, little house flies, blow flies, bottle flies and flesh flies. Food/refuse/sewage-associated flies include fruit flies, drain flies and Phorid flies." Your diet starts now! more ›

Influential democrat Gregory Meeks says his bank account is hovering near empty, but if that’s the case why is he spending nights at the Ritz Carlton? A Times piece exposed the Congressman’s considerable expenses which, in addition to pricey hotel stays, include a Lexus leased by the government (for $1,000/month), meals at trendy restaurants and a $1 million home in Queens built by a campaign contributor. “When it was getting built, I thought it was going to be four houses,” said a neighbor. more ›

Gov. Paterson should be investigated for possibly misusing $1,800 in campaign funds at a Florida Ritz Carlton, a good government group alleges. According to the Daily News, the New York Public Interest Research Group wants the Board of Elections to study campaign credit card charges made at the resort in 2008 and determine if they were "personal in nature and not appropriately expensed to the campaign." In a long-awaited Times story on Paterson's purported laziness, the Governor said he went to Florida to meet with possible campaign donors, but added: "I have a cousin who's ill in Sarasota. I went down to see my cousin." He also said he spent time poolside, and noted it "was kind of vacation-oriented." more ›

For the past seven years, the Ritz-Carlton at Battery Park has transformed its 14th floor lounge into a chocolate paradise during the month of February. This year's theme is a Chocolate Carnival, featuring myriad mouth-watering confections from award-winning pastry chef Laurent Richard. With commanding views of the harbor, the lounge is an ideal spot to pass a winter's evening gorging on the unlimited chocolate buffet, while downing bottomless Champagne and chocolate-themed cocktails, until you at last dissolve into a blissful, diabetic coma. more ›

Yesterday Forbes magazine, in their annual ranking of the rich, declared New York City is no longer the billionaire capital of the world. Where have all the dollar signs gone? To Moscow, of course, who beat us out by 3 billionaires (they have 74 to our 71). more ›

There's a really sad story about a Central Park carriage horse that died Thursday night in the NY Times today. Antonio Provenzano had be driving his horse Juliet and carriage on Thursday night, when Juliet collapsed, he called his vet who instructed him to strike her "repeatedly in the flank with his thin five-foot whip to get her to her feet again" which he did. The thinking was that Juliet, a 37 year old horse, had colic and the whipping would make her get up and walk around to "rid herself of gas and waste." But a crowd of people and gathered and yelled things like "Stop beating that horse; you’re going to kill it" and a police officer told Provenzano to stop or he would be arrested.

“I’ve been around horses 30 years and I love my horse,” he said. “They think I want to hurt her?” When the veterinarian and officers from the mounted unit showed up at the park Thursday night, Mr. Provenzano was told he could resume the whipping. more ›

Because our dollars don't ever pay for quite enough drinks, we're always looking for new dives, hook-ups, buybacks and, this week, we didn't have to look any further than Time Out New York. From this week til the end of the summer, the magazine has been getting its game on: Go to drinking establishments, find answers to trvia and/or take photos and win-- wait for it --a bar tab at one of the featured bars. And since 90% of the bars featured have cheap-ass options (avoid the Rise bar at the Battery Park Ritz Carlton if making rent is an issue), it's a win-win situation. This week starts with garden bars, an idea that goes down easy right now. more ›

- Tour of city's waterwaysThe Observer notes that DNC is debating whether or not to have a heartland convention or just go to NYC, where most everyone wants to go anyway. New Orleans is the "sentimental choice" for the convention, but it's unclear whether they'll be bidding; the other cities who have bid for the convention are Minneapolis and Denver, cities that haven't seen a Democratic convention in about 100 years. NYC hosted the 1992 convention, aka the start of Biill Clinton's era, so there might be some symmetry if Hillary does decide to run. more ›

— we did find out a few fun factoids about the stars and their movie. more ›