It's election day, and the polls in NYC are open until 9 p.m. (PDF). You can see who is running your district by entering your address here—you'll be able to see your voting location and a sample ballot. The biggest race in NYC might be the battle for Staten Island DA, between incumbent Daniel Donovan, a Republican, and Democratic challenger Mike Ryan. The Staten Island Advance reports, "Those working on both sides of the race expect between 25,000 and 30,000 voters will go to the polls today. At the high end, that would be little more than 10 percent of the borough's 268,181 registered voters." So if you can vote in SI, you should go to the polls to show your voice! more ›

On Staten Island, serial domestic abusers are going to have start wearing GPS tracking units that will text their victims when they get too close. "To many domestic abusers, an order of protection is just a piece of paper," Staten Island District Attorney Daniel Donovan said yesterday, announcing the plan. "It does not deter these relentless scofflaws from constantly terrorizing and attacking their victims. I refuse to stand by and continue to watch this happen time and again without trying to do something about it." more ›

The NYPD announced that 164 guns were surrendered at yesterday's gun buy-back on Staten Island. The program, which was held by the Staten Island DA's Office and NYPD, offered $200 cash for each eligible handgun and $20 for each eligible rifle or shotgun—no questions asked. The NYPD adds that of the guns turned in yesterday, four were loaded. more ›

A 16-year-old Staten Island girl faces up to a year in jail for sending Myspace friend requests to three people. Melissa Fernino is charged with second-degree criminal contempt, a misdemeanor, because she violated a Family Court order of protection that barred her from contacting a 43-year-old woman and her two adolescent daughters. more ›

Brushing aside the Staten Island Borough President's repeated criticism and endorsement of his opponent, Staten Island District Attorney Daniel Donovan won re-election in a landslide over Democratic challenger Michael Ryan. Donovan, whose 51st birthday was also yesterday, said during the celebration, "Tonight, you guys made me real happy." The SI DA's race became unexpectedly contentious when SI Borough President James Molinaro, who Donovan worked under as a Deputy Beep and considered a friend, attacked Donovan's... more ›

The Reverend Al Sharpton, speaking out against the beating a black man in Staten Island, announced that he will organize a protest march in the next few weeks. He said, "New York is becoming worse than Louisiana. We're going to Staten Island, Jena, Washington - and we're going to bring out numbers like you've never seen before." more ›

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: Airmail in Brooklyn, truck vs train overpass in 31st St & 20th Ave in Queens, an amputation at Grant St & St Pauls Ave in Staten Island and a bomb scare at Broadway and Mercer (NYU) in Manhattan.
• A former deputy mayor under Rudy Giuliani is now an "ambassador" for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. But it's not that shocking, since Fran Reiter had lead the Liberal Party before joining the Giuliani administration...or is it?
• Who decides how subway posters are hung, because this is another example of great subway-poster-juxtaposition?
• A piece of the Willamette Meteorite, which is at the American Museum of Natural History, is being auctioned off. And, no, the museum is not selling it - the private meteorite collection who they traded the 28-pound piece (getting a piece of Mars in return) is behind the sale.
• One man has been arrested in the Labor Day weekend bias attack of Top Chef Season 2 contestant Josie Smith-Malave. The attack was outside a Sea Cliff, Long Island bar; Smith-Malave said that about 12 people punched and kicked her and two of her friends and that the bar's employees, who went outside to watch the attack, didn't do anything.
• The NYPD's new headquarters for the towing division are in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
• Staten Island DA Daniel Donovan is warning residents about the fake IRS "Customer Satisfaction Survey" scam because taxpayers aren't really customers anyway.
• Speaking of taxes, John Gotti Jr. may head to prison because he hasn't paid $220,00 in back taxes.
• The Eldridge Street Synagogue's rose window returns in time for Rosh Hashanah.

A man brought in for questioning about the Wednesday incident where a 13-year-old was found practically nude and handcuffed to a tree in Staten Island was arrested. The Staten Island Advance reports that 26-year-old William Marcus is expected to be arraigned today - and that he was "arrested eight years to the day before last night's bust for a sexual abuse case." more ›

It's comforting to know that even documentary footage from MTV's True Life: I'm a Staten Island Girl is protected under the Shield Law. The Advance reports that Judge Matthew Sciarrino ruled that footage taken at Tottenville club Hush "does not contain relevant footage" of an alleged assault. The details of the assault are unclear, just that 40 year old Thomas J. Ford was charged with misdemeanor assault and harassment. The Staten Island DA's office wanted footage to make its case, but MTV successfully fought the subpoena. Sciarrino viewed the footage himself, and the Advance has Judge Sciarrino's ruling:

"The anonymity of the assailants was conspicuously preserved by the cameraman's behavior of pointing the camera downward or at inanimate objects each time a disturbance became apparent," the judge wrote. "Additionally, the lights for the camera would be turned off." more ›

The Staten Island DA's office is no longer charging two teens with a hate crime in the murder of Richard Salinas. The DA's office earlier said a trio of teens targeted the chef at an International House of Pancakes because he was Mexican, but now the DA believes the motivation was robbery alone. Daniel Betancourt and Travis King were indicted on murder charges. They and John Messiha stole $60 and a cellphone from Salinas while beating him, and Salinas died of a heart attack. Salinas, who had worked his way up from bus boy to chef at the IHOP, had been headed to a store to buy a phone card for his wife and milk for his kids. more ›

The Staten Island DA's office has made some ugly revelations in the murder of the Mexican immigrant Richard Salinas. The three teenagers who beat Salinas to death, only to rob him of $60, had decided to rob a Mexican man. ADA Alex Schapiro said of teens John Messiha, Daniel Betancourt, and Travis King, "The defendants were playing video games and decided to rob somebody. They wanted it to be a Mexican man and that's when they went out and found Mr. Salinas." And the Daily News has the chilling police statements:

In a statement to cops, Messiha said it was King who first proposed the attack Saturday night. "Travis said we should rob a Mexican," he said. more ›

Because when brother's keepers walk out, problems arise. Eighteen year old Bernard Quiroz was supposed to be watching his two stepbrothers, 10 year old Michael and 17 month old Matthew Diaz, at their Staten Island apartment yesterday, while Michael and Matthew's dad, Luis Diaz, went to a drug treatment program (Diaz's wife was at work). But Quiroz went to cash a check and left the two youngsters in their room. Michael was sleeping, and Matthew, being a curious toddler, decided to crawl out the window (removing the plastic tarp) and onto the third floor air-conditioner. A Staten Island Advance newspaper girl spotted the precariously perched baby, and a police officer brought Matthew to safety. more ›

People are eager to open up their homes to Dickie, a tabby cat who was at the center of an ultimately fatal incident in Staten Island. Stephanie Lindboe believed that her neighbor Linda Padulla had stabbed Dickie in the eye, leading Lindboe to attack Padulla with a knife. Police responded and killed Lindboe, who did not drop the 12-inch kitchen knife. more ›

Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes sure does have a lot of enemies. One of his rivals is pointing out many of his top assistant DA's don't live in Kings County, which might violate their "duty as public servants to live in the city where they work," as the Post puts it. John O'Hara filed a complaint with the Conflict of Interest Board; the Post notes that O'Hara has been "prosecuted three times for the felony crime of voting from an address that wasn't his primary residence," so it's a tit-for-tat deal. O'Hara hopes that many defense lawyers will try to get non-Brooklyn-residing assistant DA's recused from cases. As for the other boroughs, both Bronx and Staten Island ADA's live in their boroughs while Queens and Manhattan ADA's can live outside the city. Manhattan DA's were given an exception to the rule that says "at face value...assistants should be living in the five boroughs," according to the Staten Island DA's office. Interestingly, there was an interview with Annie Parisse about playing new assistant D.A. Alexandra Borgia on Law & Order. Parisse's backstory for Borgia is that she's "...unmarried...I live by myself in Brooklyn. I have a cat. I think my family is maybe a little hoity-toity and that I didn't want anything to do with that. A loner, who's maybe even socially defensive and not trusting." No word on if she's a lesbian; we'll probably find out on her last episode. Anyway, who knew that top ADA's made over $100,000? We always thought Jack McCoy made less than that for some reason. more ›