• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an officer struck on 42nd St. and 8th Ave. in Manhattan, a bomb threat on 76th St. and Amsterdam Ave. in Manhattan, and a shooting on Mayfair Dr. in Brooklyn.
• Don't speed (108 m.p.h.), at night (2:30 a.m.), while drunk (.113 BAC), while tailgating and driving erratically, on an urban highway (Staten Island Expressway.) One young Brighton Beach resident didn't get the memo it seems.
• Councilman Leroy Comrie's efforts to halt the branding of soft and alcohol-based drinks "OG Nation," was recently successful, with the renaming of Larry Johnson and Jim Brown's snack and beverage company "Hall of Fame Beverages." No word on what the fate of the"Thug Chips" snacks brand is.
• After Hillary Clinton put her own money on the line by loaning $5 million of her own cash to her campaign, backers have ponied up $7.1 million in additional funding. The beauty of democracy: it brings a tear to our eye.
• Unfortunately, as police arrived at the Staten Island 9/11 Memorial today, a man shot himself in the head and died.
• The FDA is now questioning the safety of a widely used Botox [botulinum toxin] in injection as a beauty treatment. Thousands of New York women would love to express outrage at the revelation, but simply can't.
• Grub Street points out that one can do more than just eat at IHOP, one can now wear IHOP. And that means much more than just throwing up a half-stack of flapjacks on yourself at 5 a.m. after too much "syrup." We're talking IHOP apparel.
• Good question: New York City has its Bravest, Finest, Strongest, and Boldest, but what about the lawyers employed by the City. Do Jack McCoy and the legions of actual city attorneys who've served as his inspiration deserve an appellation? Suggestions welcome.

As if the news about the massive pet food recall after pets have become ill and even died couldn't get any worse, it has. It turns out that Menu Foods actually fed 40-50 cats and dogs, resulting in seven animals dying - and still waited weeks to recall the food! more ›

Two more big pet-food brands joined the massive pet-food recall announced on Friday. Nestle Purina and Hill's Pet Nutrition voluntarily recalled some of their products. Pet-food manufacturer Menu Foods, which sells food to stores and other brands that then market the food under their own names, has not found out what is causing pets to become ill (10 cats and dogs have died so far), but believes the problem is related to wheat gluten in wet foods. more ›

A Canadian company that produces cat and dog food is recalling over 80 brands. Some pet owners have noted that their cats and dogs have been vomiting and suffered kidney failure. more ›

Now, almost 100 hundred people have grown ill after eating E.coli-tainted spinach, with 14 of them becoming "gravely ill." The NY Times reports the company suspected as a possible source, Natural Selection Foods of San Juan Batista, voluntarily recalled its prepackaged spinach and salad bags, "as well as prepackaged spinach it processes for numerous other companies, including Dole." That's a lot of greens - you can see all the brands Natural Selections Foods provides spinach for on this FDA press release. When we checked Natural Selection Food's Earthbound brand (the one the prepackaged veggies come from) website, we saw they noted that spinach was removed from some mixed greens and that the baby spinach bagged salads was not available. more ›

The FDA contends that “no sound scientific studies supported medical use of marijuana,” which seems to ignore studies that have been performed by the United States’ own Institute of Medicine, a non-for-profit arm of the National Academy of Sciences. The IUM has not only performed studies showing that medical marijuana is effective, but the biology behind why it is so. more ›

-The FDA has again delayed making a decision over making Plan B (the morning-after pill) available over the counter. In Gothamist's humble opinion this latest delay is BS. more ›