Mark Twain once told a reporter who expected to find him on his deathbed, "The report of my death was an exaggeration." But Mark Twain was also living in a massive house in Connecticut so screw him. 71-year-old Staten Island resident Margaret Arrighetti has been declared dead three times by the Social Security Administration, and according to CBS has been denied prescription medication because of it. When asked what her current status with the SSA is, Arrighetti says, "I will cross my fingers and pray to God that I'm alive." Cogito ero sum, Margaret! more ›

Last night, Republican hopefuls debated for CNN and the Tea Party in Tampa, Florida. While Rep. Michele Bachmann, business executive Herman Cain, former House speaker Newt Gingrich, former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, Rep. Ron Paul, and former Senator Rick Santorum were there, the main attractions were former Massachusett Governor Mitt Romney and Texas Governor Rick Perry. Perry has been leading in polls, but Romney is the choice of the GOP elite. more ›

Earlier this week, a 36-year-old Bronx woman admitted to stuffing her dead 73-year-old roommate in a suitcase and leaving him in front of an abandoned house in Williamsbridge. Monica Exum claimed she had nothing to do with his death, and did this because she was scared. But it's now been revealed that things weren't even that clear-cut: Exum allegedly cashed longtime boyfriend Johnny Davis's Social Security checks and bank funds for three months after he died. more ›

As if getting to do MMA fighting despite getting pension for "lung problems" wasn't sketchy enough, the Post reports on a "PENSION EXPLOSION," where some retired NYPD officers are being investigated for allegedly faking mental illness to get an extra $3,500 a month Social Security benefits. Though they were deemed sane enough to carry guns during their careers, the cops in question are being targeted by the feds, and have set off a corruption probe. One supervisor allegedly told one retired cop, "You're f- -ked! You need to get a criminal-defense attorney." more ›

A woman embroiled in a struggle for her life finally managed to convince the government that she is not dead. Carol Combes, an obituary writer in East Quogue, NY, discovered her name and social security number in the social security death index in June. Soon, all of her accounts were frozen. But now, the government confirms Combes is indeed alive! Phew, for a second we though the zombie apocalypse was here. more ›

Oh, the irony. A Long Island obituary writer is on a mission to prove to the government that she's not actually dead. Carol Combes of East Quogue, NY was sorting through the social security death index in June when she came across her name, date of birth, social security number and date of death. Pretty soon, her bank accounts and medicare were frozen, and her social security number began showing up on ancestry websites. more ›

Initial tests performed on the suspicious white powder that was discovered in a Lower Manhattan office building indicate that the substance is not hazardous. The Times reports that a total of nine employees of a regional Social Security Office located at 26 Federal Plaza—a building that houses offices for the FBI, the EPA, and other agencies—were given showers and had their clothes bagged after coming into contact with the powder. The substance was found in an envelope, which only one of the individuals handled, according to the paper. more ›

For six years, 49-year-old Thomas Prusik-Parkin of Brooklyn disguised himself as his deceased mother so he could collect some $115,000 in Social Security and rent subsidies, police sources tell the Daily News. After being busted for the elaborate scam on Monday, Prusik-Parkin reportedly told detectives, "I held my mother when she was dying and breathed in her last breath, so I am my mother." And if you think that's creepy, take a look at his mug shot! more ›

The charges have been dropped against the two men who were arrested for trying to cash a dead man’s $355 social security check. Back in January, David Daloia and James O'Hare made headlines with their foiled scheme to capitalize on O’Hare’s roommate’s death by pushing his corpse in an office chair up to a Pay-O-Matic check cashing joint in Hell’s Kitchen. They were arrested en route after a detective spotted the visibly deceased third man. more ›

If a bank teller told you had an unknown bank account with $5.8 million in it and the bank insisted it's yours, wouldn't you spend it? That's what Brooklyn resident Benjamin Lovell did - and now he's paying. more ›

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a partial facade collapse on East 148 St. in the Bronx, two pedestrians struck on 72nd St. and West End Ave. in Manhattan, a body found on Pioneer St. in Brooklyn.
  
• A developmentally disabled woman on Staten Island depends on Social Security benefits to survive, but the SSA keeps declaring her dead.
  
• A three alarm fire injured one person on East 166th St. and Teller Ave. in the Morrisania section of the Bronx early Saturday morning.
  
• The Gowanus Lounge wonders if the C-Town grocery store in Park Slope is a vortex of lust based on Missed Connections.
  
• NYC Transit is reporting that ridership is the highest it's been since 1969. During 2007, 2.3 billion rides were taken on subways and buses.
  
• A massive scaffolding collapse in Midwood, Brooklyn left no one injured, but brought down power lines and crushed cars on both sides of the street.
  
• Stephon Marbury's season with Knicks is over after he underwent surgery for bone spurs.
  
• Angel Rodriguez, 12, and Michael Mumford, 13 are the heroes of the weekend. When they smelled smoke 1 a.m. Sunday morning from a blaze that began on the 5th floor of their East 21st St. walk-up; instead of racing directly from the 6th floor apartment where they were watching a movie, the boys knocked on every door in the 30-unit building alerting neighbors of danger.
  

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a bank robbery on 31st St. and 7th Ave. in Manhattan, an attempted sexual assault at Broadway and Gates Ave. in Brooklyn, and an aircraft incident at Laguardia in Queens.
• The Yankees Double-A farm team in Trenton has a mascot named Chase, who catches frisbees, brings water to umpires, and serves as a canine batboy. In his off hours, he managed to knock up the other team mascot, Cynderella, and they're expecting a litter soon. Congratulations to the both of them.
• Gov. Spitzer's budget, released today, is about $100 million shy of what educators were hoping for.

The desperate antics of old-school Hell's Kitchen residents are still making news. James O'Hare and David Daloia were arraigned for forgery, petty larceny and other charges when they tried to cash in O'Hare's roommate's Social Security check - while O'Hare's dead roommate's body was in a chair outside the checking cashing place. more ›

James O’Hare and David Dalaia, both 65, were arrested after they wheeled in the corpse of O'Hare's roommate to a check cashing office, attempting to cash in O'Hare's dead roommate's Social Security check. With a roommate like this... more ›

There's finally been an arrest in the murder of Linda Stein. Yesterday it was reported that the police were interested in re-interviewing Stein's assistant, Brooklyn resident Natavia Lowery, who has a shady past involving identity theft. So it's not all that surprising that today the NYPD announced Lowery has been taken into custody. They found the 26-year old in Virginia Beach, apparently visiting her boyfriend.Police spokesman Paul Browne said Lowery "made statements implicating herself" in... more ›

The shift comes as the governor has faced a firestorm of criticism both from Republicans and from within his own party. More than a dozen county clerks, who operate Department of Motor Vehicles offices upstate, have refused to carry out the policy, even though they are considered agents of the governor’s administration. more ›

Gov. Spitzer announced yesterday that illegal immigrants will be able to get valid New York State drivers licenses if they provide a valid and verifiable foreign passport. Spitzer hopes that the change, which reverses a four-year-old Pataki-era decision, will legitimize the 500,000-1 million undocumented immigrants who are driving in New York. In a repudiation of the federal government's stance, the governor said "We will not become part of what is propagated on the federal level that if we don't admit they are here then we can somehow not provide services. That is bad policy." more ›

The Village Voice is reporting that Hilly Kristal was a millionaire. Not really surprising considering the owner of CBGB, who claimed to be broke, ran more than just a venue. Just look at all those kids wearing their Urban Outfitters t-shirts with the club's logo on it. Those cost money! So does everything branded with their logo at their own store.

Just weeks after the legendary former CBGB owner passed away, his heirs—who thought Kristal was broke—are finding out that the old punk impresario was worth a surprising $3.7 million. more ›

Never leave home without it: City Councilman Hiram Monserrate is proposing a bill that would allow all NYC residents to have identification cards, regardless of legal status. more ›

Yesterday, the controversial immigration bill proposed by President Bush stalled in the Senate when both Republicans and Democrats could not come to a final vote. The bill, which neither party liked very much for different reasons, represented a historic to change immigration law, and both parties tried to work on a compromise that would satisfy most Senators. Sixty votes were needed to stop debate and move to a final vote, but there were only 45 votes (37 Democrat - including Senators Schumer and Clinton - 7 Republican and 1 Independent) to break the filibuster. more ›

On the Gothamist Newsmap, one of the incidents is "Pedestrian Struck | West 51 Btw 9th & 10th Ave I/f/o Club Posh Manhattan, NY | 5/9/2007 2:14 a.m." It turns out that the pedestrian isn't any ol' pedestrian -- it happens to be Steve Green, millionaire real-estate developer, onetime member of the "worst landlords of the city" club, and high-profile gay divorcee. more ›

Fun statistics about what names are popular amongst new parents in the city. Most notably, the name "Angel" is now the most popular amongst newborn Hispanic boys. The NY Times reports this is the first time a "traditional Spanish name" has been number 1 since the 1980s - usually Hispanic parents choose Kevin and Justin. Angel is the most popular name amongst all males in Arizona and ranks #32 nationally. There are some suggestions about the name's sudden power - it's easy to pronounce, some think some parents want their kids to be angels, it could be a "compromise" name, there are also religious undertones. more ›

The Post has this crazy story about how a woman used various identities to attend schools like Columbia, Harvard, and California State. Naturally, she studied criminology and psychology! It sounds like a Law & Order: Criminal Intent multi-episode arc in the making. more ›

It's Law & Order: Concerned-Child- Who-is-a- Police-Officer Squad! An identity theft ring that targeted the elderly or people with "foreign-sounding" names was busted when a scammer called an old man, only to speak to an NYPD deputy chief - the man's daughter. Eleven people were indicted in Queens for duping people into giving up their credit card number, Social Security number, and other personal details. They would randomly call people, and one of the people they called was Deputy Chief Joellen Kunkel's father. According to the Sun, they called twice, leaving messages, "before Chief Kunkel finally called a phone number left by one of the supposed federal agents to demand that he identify himself." And the Daily News had their exchange:

"He kept saying, 'I'm a fed. I'm Homeland Security. I'm a fed,'" Deputy NYPD Chief Joellen (Cookie) Kunkel said yesterday of the phone call she received from the scammers last May. "And I said, 'I happen to be a chief in the New York City Police Department and I don't know who you are.' more ›

Where to begin? Seventy-three year old Joanne Iversen had been telling her neighbors in a Bay Ridge apartment building that her husband, 78 year old Frank, was visiting friends when they stopped seeing him around a few years ago or that he moved upstate. But when her 38 year old son Paul, who wanted to reconcile since they have been estranged for many years when he told them he was gay, came to the house, she told him his father was in the bedroom. Only, Richard Iversen's decomposed remains were on the bed. more ›

City public schools allow students at high-poverty schools to take advantage of online tutoring, which the Department of Education contracts out to a number of firms. But now it turns out that one of the firms may be off the list of tutoring firms because it used tutors in India. more ›

For the boys, the list was Michael, Daniel, Joshua, David, Justin, Matthew, Anthony, Christopher, Joseph and Nicholas. Now, we all make fun of celebrities for naming their children stupid things (Pilot Inspektor? Moxie Crimefighter?), but there is an upside to having a relatively uncommon name - people will remember it, versus being one of legion of same-named kids in a playground, office, or school. more ›

Federal, city, and local NJ authorities are facing a big "d'oh!" on their faces after mistakenly putting a Chinese-American woman in Rikers for 8 days last year. Because now the woman, Hui Ping Wang, who was arrested at JFK Airport when she was returning from a trip to China, is suing many law enforcement agencies, incuding the Department of Immigration, the city's Department of Correction, and Bergen County NJ's sheriff's office. Why all the fuss? The Daily News explains:

Hui Ping Wang, 33, was locked up at Rikers Island on Aug. 10, 2005, after a computer check indicated a warrant had been issued for a woman named Hui Hua Wang in Bergen County, N.J. more ›

There are outlandish schemes to avoid criminal prosecution or arrest, but the story of a Kevin Walker in Brooklyn takes the cake. The NY Times tries to explain how Walker almost managed to avoid prosecution by claiming he was dead, but couldn't because the U.S. Attorney who had been dealing with him knew better. Walker had been charged with $210,000 of fruad, "in part by using an account in the name of his restaurant, Jamaica Me Crazy!" (Yes, "Jamaica Me Crazy!"!!) Then he called many area hospitals to find a Kevin Walker who was on his deathbed, and had his lawyer tell a probation officer that, hey, he was dying and couldn't go forward with sentencing. The criminal Walker's lawyer called the hospital, only to hear that "Kevin Walker" had died, and recommmended that the case be closed. more ›