Saturday Night Live is wrapping up what's certainly been a memorable thirty-fourth season—one that will conclude next weekend with a couple of 90s fixtures returning: Will Ferrell to host and Green Day serving as musical guest. Last night the show brought back a couple of familiar faces we've gotten used to seeing throughout the past year—Justin Timberlake (making his seventeenth appearance of the season) and Fred Armisen once again taking on the role of Governor Paterson. more ›

American Idol has been on the decline ever since Kelly Clarkson stepped off the stage. It's understandable, the first time is always more exciting -- and c'mon, one can only take so much of Paula's craziness, Simon's snarkiness and Randy Jackson's what's up dawg's. more ›

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a residential hi-rise fire on 10th Ave. in Manhattan, a double shooting on Beach Channel Drive in Queens, and a transformer fire at Barbey St. and Pitkin Ave. in Brooklyn.
• Entergy was fined $130,000 for not installing a warning siren system at its Indian Point facility by a required deadline. That would be the nuclear power plant that just had its safety rating downgraded by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
• The City Council distributed a memo reminding workers that even though Casual Fridays were in effect, flip-flops, shorts, and other too-casual clothing items are inappropriate for city government.
• A mugging by an 11-year-old who wanted another child's change after he bought candy ended with the victim's skull impaled with a stick. He survived, but is expected to leave the hospital for a nursing home.
• The niece of Tom Carvel, the man who brought us Fudgie the Whale, is claiming that he was murdered with poison and wants his body exhumed so an autopsy can be performed. We never trusted Cookie Puss.
• A gravedigger in Yonkers noticed four black bags in a freshly dug grave he had recently prepared. The bags each contained one smoked fish and pictures of unidentified people. Police are investigating but the bags' meaning is yet to be determined.
• The city medical examiner ruled that the jump rope-involved death of five-year-old Monet/Monique Flugham was an accident.
• The shutterbug photographer who caught American Idol lingerer Sanjaya hobnobbing with Gov. Spitzer––or is it the other way around?––is none other than Valerie Bertinelli!
• The case of NYC vs. Deadbeat Diplomats is being heard in the Supreme Court this week.

Federal prosecutors have indicted a United Nations official with bribery, for accepting bribes in return for very favorable real estate offerings. The U.N. Procurement Chief Sanjaya Bahel allegedly helped Nishan Kohli get contracts, and in return, Kohli offered an apartment at the Dag Hammarskjold Towers. From the NY Post:

The indictment alleged Kohli, who has also been charged with bribery, bought the condo in 2003 and rented the $8,600-a-month unit to Bahel and his family for $5,000 a month after they lived there for free for a while. more ›