Self-styled "Playboy Centerfold & Celebrity Author" Stephanie Adams (left) and her lawyer Sanford Rubenstein held a press conference yesterday announcing her lawsuit against a taxi driver, the NYPD and the City of New York. Adams claims "that officers roughed her up based on the cabbie's false accusation that she was armed and dangerous." Maybe you remember? The city "had no immediate response" to the allegations. Cabby Eric Darko, who had his license suspended after......

After we included a throwaway link in yesterday's post about the once-a-week Egg Store we got an e-mail from a reader asking who exactly this Mike the Butcher was. A reasonable question, so in the same spirit of remembering Manhattan characters who've faded away we thought we'd share. Short answer: He was a butcher who used to have a shop on Third Street (right). Longer answer: He was "an artist" with "fingers as large......

- The Village Voice has a good cover story on people living where the Atlantic Yards will be built - State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno's granddaughter was found in Manhattan after she was missing for a couple of days - and the police have arrested a man in connection to what might be a kidnapping - Jennifer Moore had a chance to escape from her killer - The families of the defendents in......

-- Nothing kicks off the weekend like a touch of the 'thrax! Luckily, it looks like the "beige" powder found at the Times today is harmless. -- New owner says it's "highly doubtful" he'll turn the Park Slope Pavilion movie theater into a residential building. Our bet: tenants move in by late August! -- Interesting spotlight piece on Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest rules: "a competitor will be disqualified if the effluvia hits the......

- A city rugby team that included some FDNY refused to play against the Gotham Knights gay rugby team - A brownstone gets naked - Elaborate plotting by the Bloods to kill Newark Mayor Cory Booker - A manhole explosion launched both the manhole and a construction worker into the air - The Mayor will create an office of sustainability - When you shoot a scene of Oliver Stone's World Trade Center, using a......

- The Department of Transportation will add more credit card-accepting parking meters; they have been in the Theater District and will soon be added to parts of the Upper West Side, Long Island City, and Forest Hills - First foie gras, now lobsters - Whole Foods announces the inhumane treatment of lobsters is causing the grocery chain to stop selling them! - NYC is considering creating job centers for day laborers - Gammablog has......

- "Fat Nick" found guilty. - A truck with 500 gallons of hypochlorite, a highly concentrated chlorine-based bleech, was stolen Thursday. - A woman waiting for the southbound A train at 125th street fell into the tracks. Short one leg, the woman is in critical condition at Bellevue. - Bloomie really wants to keep those cell phones away from the school kids. - From the Doorman: "Ten Things Not To Do When You Get......

It's two follow-ups in one: Two people have filed separate lawsuits against the NYPD for excessive police force. Playboy's Miss November 1992, Stephanie Adams, complained about the police treating her roughly last month, after an altercation with a cabby. Adams's cabby refused to drop her off outside her Chelsea apartment building, leading them to argue and each call the police. But the cabby claimed Adams had a gun (which she didn't), so when police arrived......

The Post today has one of those great stories that isn't ever going to go anywhere but make fun reads anyway. How could you not be curious about a story involving the first openly gay Playboy Playmate, five leering police officers, a cabby imagining a gun and a dispute with the cabby over a $10.60 fare? And we haven't even gotten to the typically perfect Post hed - PLAYMATE: COPS BUNGLED MY BUST! The......