All may not be lost yet for Greenwich Village's St. Vincent's hospital. According to Crain's, Mount Sinai hospital is in talks to buy St. Vincent's, and is currently performing due diligence to see whether they would want to take on the burden of dealing with St. Vincent's $700 million debt and the poor facilities. They have until April 30th to make a decision. more ›

St. Vincent's, the money-sick Greenwich Village hospital whose looming closure has had the neighborhood up in arms, may get some medicine from the state of New York. According to NY1, Gov. David Paterson is authorizing $6 million in funds, directed from a state-supervised hospital restructuring program. "This is a dire situation, but I don't want to see this hospital close unless every available means has been employed," he said. The mini-bail out is a good start, but still just a drop in the ocean of St. Vincent's $700 million debt. more ›

Love 'em or hate 'em, 7-Eleven is here to stay. According to the Observer, the store will be a "recessionary scar" on this city for quite some time. The company will open 100 new Manhattan locations (up from six) in the next five years. They're also encouraging storeowners "to convert their existing business to a 7-Eleven store, complete with business model, products and technology." Will the corporate giant kill the bodega? At least we can look forward to easy access to Free Slurpee Day and that cabernet "with juicy plum Slurpee overtones." more ›

If this week's turmoil in Albany hasn't been enough to give Governor Paterson agita, a new poll is here to remind him that most New Yorkers have little faith that he is the man that can lead them through it. In this one, conducted by the NY Times, the governor's favorability rating sits at 21%, with over 70% saying the state is on the wrong track and a third of New Yorkers saying they wished they lived in another state. And with six in ten New Yorkers unable to even think of one example when asked what the best thing Paterson's done, maybe the Senate crisis could be his golden opportunity. Today he had strong words, telling WCBS 880, "My issue is that this is the last two weeks of session. This is a not a political time...Could we get rid of politics just for a few minutes and work on government?...This would be like stopping a movie right at the main part of the movie to discuss the contracts of the actors." more ›

After the dust cleared in yesterday's New School building occupation and police confrontation that resulted in 22 arrests, demonstrations continued into the night Friday with around 200 protesters marching south from Union Square towards President Bob Kerrey's house before being blocked off by police officers at 11th Street. more ›

After claiming it should still be allowed to purchase--with the help of the government-- Wachovia for $2 billion, Citigroup is now allowing Wells Fargo buy Wachovia for $15 billion. Wachovia issued a statement saying, "We're pleased Citigroup has abandoned its efforts to interfere with Wachovia's planned merger with Wells Fargo. We look forward to completing our merger with Wells Fargo, which we have always believed is in the best interest of shareholders, employees, creditors and retirees as well as the American taxpayers, and it imposes no risk to the FDIC fund." Of course, Citigroup is still suing for $60 billion in breach of contract damages! more ›

After the U.S. federal government moved to take over mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac this past weekend, stock markets around the world rallied--trading in Tokyo ending 3.4% higher and in Hong Kong, it ended 4.3% higher. And in Europe, stocks also rose 3-4%. more ›

Takeover BAM went down Saturday night after Sufjan Stevens’s last BQE show. There were 5 bands playing until 4am in the Opera House, bawdy burlesque shows, DJs and dancing in the swank BAM café, art by Mighty Robot and others, rock documentaries, a Lindsay Lohan Mid-Career Retrospective (“Mid-Career” – get it?) and $3 beer. It sounded like such a great time that we eagerly showed up at 11:30, only to realize that we weren’t the... more ›