If you are one of the 700,000 people who pass through Grand Central Terminal every day there are things that you may take for granted or just may not know about the great train station. Thanks to Metro-North's Dan Brucker, Gothamist can reveal some of them to you. First things first: It is Grand Central Terminal, not Grand Central Station, since it has always been the terminus for the railroads it serves since its......

Would-be Empire State Building jumper, Jeb Corliss (pictured), isn't in the clear yet. Last year's decision from Supreme Court Justice Michael Ambrecht to dismiss the charges against him was overturned yesterday when The Supreme Court Appellate Division decided to bring the case back to life. A four-judge panel unanimously voted, and the Manhattan District Attorney's office can now pursue its charge of reckless endangerment against Corliss for his 2006 attempted jump. The judges did reduce......

Two lawsuits currently wending their way through New York courts are forcing judges to grapple with the legal ramifications of “gay divorce.” In one case, State Supreme Court Justice Laura Drager is allowing a Manhattan woman to sue for divorce and custody of children borne by a woman she married in Canada in 2004. The ruling echoes a recent appellate court decision in Rochester that found "out-of-state marriages of same-sex couples must be legally recognized......

Today marks the third annual Informal Presentation on the Art of Dance, a dance event put on by the Dance Theatre of Harlem and the Dancing Through Barriers Ensemble. The two troupes converge each year in a most unconventional space: The State Supreme Court of Manhattan! Arthur Mitchell (himself a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet in the '50s and '60s) co-founded DTB after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr, and the......

The construction worker who killed Adrienne Shelly in her West Village office pleaded guilty to manslaughter - and gave new details about why he killed the actress-director. Diego Pillco will receive 25 years in prison; as an illegal immigrant from Ecuador, the Post says his sentence will be "almost certainly followed by deportation." Originally, Pillco had told the police he killed Shelly in November of 2006, he was in a "bad mood" and picked a......

After a parents of a rejected student filed a class action lawsuit, the Department of Education asked a federal judge to overturn a 1974 ruling that set in place quotas to keep the school 40% minority and 60% white. The DOE wants the court to overturn the ruling immediately so the 2008-2009 will be quota-free. Last June, 11-year-old Nikita Rau was denied a place at Coney Island magnet school, Mark Twain School - IS 239.......

A lawsuit filed Monday against the City Campaign Finance Board seeks to overturn a recently enacted funding law that opponents assert will just make the City Council richer - and whiter. The recently-enacted campaign finance restrictions reduces the contributions from companies who do business with the city by a whopping 92%. Translation: In a mayoral race, the individual limit on giving is now $400, versus $4,950; in City Council races, it's $250, down from $2,950.......

Brenna Stewart, the daughter of convicted so-called "terrorist lawyer" Lynne Stewart, is to undergo psychiatric testing after she was charged with providing phony doctors' notes claiming she was sick to get days off from her job as a gym teacher. Ironically, the fake notes, at least one of which she submitted to attend the sentencing of her mother, could land her in jail for up to seven years. Stewart was busted last year when an......

The fight over the right for school children to bear cell phones in schools moved to the Appellate Court, where lawyers for NYC and public school students' parents appeared before a five-judge panel. This comes after the City Council passed a bill allowing cell phones in schools, which the Mayor vetoed. Many parents believe cell phones are critical for keeping in touch with their children, in case of an emergency or just to check in......

Sponge Bob! I am your father!, by dcschaub, at flickr Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a shooting on East 169th St. and Franklin Ave. in the Bronx, an aircraft emergency at Laguardia in Queens, and a power outage on Laconia Ave. in the Bronx. The suit about seizing private property for another private owner in the name of public gain will move to the Supreme Court after a 3-judge panel ruled that Bruce Ratner's......

After almost a week of delays, jurors were back in court for the Nixzmary Brown murder case. A expert said that the malnourished 7-year-old's blood was found under the fingernails Brown's stepfather, Cesar Rodriguez, as well as on his jeans. Rodriguez faces murder charges for the malnourished 7-year-old's 2006 death. Rodriguez's defense lawyers said the blood was present because he had tried to save her after the girl's mother beat her to death, noting the......

Charles F. Luce, who was Con Ed's chairman and chief executive between 1967 and 1982, died last week at the age of 90 in California. The Bronxville, NY resident died of prostate cancer. The NY Times notes that unlike most "big business executives," Luce was a liberal Democrat and environmentalist. He took a considerable amount of heat for a NYC blackout during the summer of 1977 and faced angry shareholders who didn't appreciate their dividends......

Last October, a fire was started outside the Engine 34/Ladder 21 firehouse on West 38th Street. The fire was put out, but upon investigation, it turned out the ones who set it were firefighters from different firehouses! A surveillance cameras actually captured Michael Izzo and Richard Capece purchasing the gasoline at a gas station and later splashing the stationhouse's garage door and igniting it, setting off what was described as a fireball. The pair were......

The story of Ivaylo Ivanov just gets more and more strange. First, he calls the cops saying that he was shot in the hand only to admit that he shot himself. Next, the police investigate the situation only to find a cache of assorted weapons and pipe bombs at Ivanov's residence. Now the 31-year-old ex-con admits to defacing Brooklyn Heights with swastikas last year. Ivanov, who his lawyer says is Jewish, claims that the pipe......

When retired cop Paul Soto joined the force in 1993, he weighed a svelte 250 pounds. He now weighs over 500 pounds and is living off disability payments since maladies like narcolepsy, hypertension and, yes, morbid obesity, made his desk job unbearable. In 2006, he left the force, living off benefits which equal half his old paycheck, tax-free. But had his disability resulted from activity in the line of duty, Soto would be pulling in......

A 38-year-old construction worker from Brooklyn is suing New York Presbyterian Hospital for giving him more medical attention than he cared for, and then having him arrested. Brian Persaud went to the ER at NY Presbyterian after a plank hit him on the head at a work site, causing a head laceration that required eight stitches. Although Persaud walked into the ER and was fully mobile, doctors told him that he should get an anal......

Over two years after a jury found it negligent for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the Port Authority continues to fight that claim. The NY-NJ agency and lawyers for the victims face the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court to argue their sides. In 2005, a jury found that the Port Authority was 68% responsible for the bombing in the WTC parking garage, which left six dead and over 1,000 injured. The decision meant......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a pedestrian struck on Autumn and Liberty Aves. in Brooklyn, a suspicious fire on Wallace Ave. and Pelham Parkway in the Bronx,and a carjacking on 85th St. in the Bronx. Lawyers for Ted Corliss continue to argue for charges to be dismissed against their client, who attempted to jump off the Empire State Building, even after the State Supreme Court ruled that jumping off tall buildings was a form......

The city has been crowing about this year's low murder rate since last week, when officials announced it was likely to be under 500 murders. Currently, the murder rate is 492 as of Sunday night (we're not sure if that number includes the three men killed in Brooklyn); this year's murder rate would be the lowest since 1963, the first year with reliable data and a year that saw 548 killings. The NY Times examines......

22-year-old Gregory Barnard was having a pretty sweet night with his bros at the Times Square nightclub Arena (pictured) one night over the summer. Fresh out of NYU, the kid spent the evening enjoying a reasonably priced $350 dollar bottle of vodka, watching the club’s far-out video projections, and allegedly getting a beatdown from bouncers for not buying enough booze! According to Barnard, it all started when the time came to settle the tab......

New Yorkers have been known to live in some pretty dismal conditions just to avoid the hassle of finding another apartment. Roaches, rats, mice, bedbugs, loud neighbors with thin walls, odd smelling hallways...but where does one draw the line? The Post has a story about a brother and sister who ran screaming from their new Greenwich Village digs after finding out it was above a clinic for sexual deviants.William and Amy Grace claim landlord Dr.......

If lawyers for the detectives involved in the Sean Bell case get their way, the venue for a trial may be moved out of Queens. The attorneys for Detectives Mike Oliver, Gescard Isnora, and Marc Cooper met with Judge Arthur Cooperman and prosecutors yesterday to notify them of their intent to move the case out of Queens. Oliver and Isnora are charged with manslaughter while Cooper is facing reckless endangerment in the shooting death......

There are some things needed while reporting for jury duty. Reading material, maybe some snacks, a lot of patience... but a sword and a dagger aren't on the list. But that's what a city employee, headed to Brooklyn Supreme Court, did bring. The Post reports that 40-year-old Vladislav Lisetsky, who works in the Human Resources Administration, brought in a cane that concealed not only a two and a half foot sword at one end, but......

It's all in an Upper West Side day for the Material Girl! The tabloids have reported that Madonna is suing her co-op, claiming the board blocked her attempt to buy a neighbor's apartment. Madonna has a 6,000 square foot apartment at Harperley Hall at 41 Central Park West - a duplex with hair salon and gym. The summons filed in Manhattan Supreme Court accuses the board and Midboro Management of "breach of contract...and orders......

In May of 2006, a bouncer at Opus West 22nd Street was arrested after shooting four clubgoers, killing one of them. Then it turned out that Stephen Sakai was possibly connected to three other murders of associates from when he worked at a strip club in Brooklyn. Yesterday, Sakai took the stand in his trial for the three Brooklyn murders. And, boy, to be on that jury. The Post reports that he used a fake......

In Los Angeles, LAist most definitely celebrated Thanksgiving like no other. After all, one has to keep up all the energy to keep on walking the line at the Writers Strike and fighting the unfortunate return of the wildfires in Malibu, which single handedly destroyed over fifty homes within the first 24 hours. National outlets may be covering the fires, but CNN also found it is easier to buy a gun than fruit and......

State Supreme Court Justice Helen Freedman has ruled that the Broadway production of How the Grinch Stole Christmas can and will proceed, despite the theater owner’s attempt to lock out the stagehands. “Grinch” producers dragged Jucamcyn, the third largest owner of Broadway theaters, into court yesterday seeking an injunction to let the show go on. Local One, the stagehands’ union, is on strike until a contract is agreed upon with the producers’ league, of which......

Through some strange stroke of Manhattan Supreme Court scheduling, Ja Rule, Remy Ma, Lil Wayne and Busta Rhymes all appeared in court yesterday (at different times) to face various charges. Ja Rule and Lil Wayne faced gun possession charges from separate incidents on July 22. The pair, who collaborated on a song "Uh Oh," also shared the same attorney, Stacey Richman. Richman said that Lil Wayne couldn't be guilty, because when his tour bus......

After Brooklyn prosecutors decided to drop murder charges against ex-FBI agent R. Lindley DeVecchio, after the star witness's testimony was deemed questionable, the judge presiding over the case decided to scold the defendant. DeVecchio had been on trial for allegedly giving mob informant Gregory "The Grim Reaper" Scarpa information to kill other rival informants. Supreme Court Justice Gustin Reichbach's four page ruling included turns of phrase like, What is undeniable was that in the......

Gov. Spitzer made an abrupt shift from his stance of pushing forward with his plan to issue drivers license to illegal immigrants. He will be appearing with Dept. of Homeland Security officials in DC today to announce a compromise that involves two tiers of drivers licenses. The more secure version will comply with new federal Real ID standards that will be fully instituted in coming years. By 2013, US residents will be required to produce......