That group of Columbia University students staging a hunger strike is at least a little victorious, if starving, today. Last night, the university agreed to a number of demands relating to the students' concerns that not enough was being down to encourage ethnic studies and understanding other cultures (especially in the wake of recent hate crimes). From the Columbia Spectator:The University has committed to pay for the expansion of the Office of Multicultural Affairs......

Mayor Michael Bloomberg hasn't totally eschewed the Republican party. According to the NY Sun, the Democrat-turned- Republican-turned- independent will be "entertaining" Nancy Reagan "as well as hosting a fund-raiser for the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library." Like the former First Lady, Bloomberg has progressive views on health and science issues (like stem cells). And Bloomberg has been known to host many fund-raisers for various people and causes. But some suspect that Bloomberg might be looking for......

The 22-year-old St. John's University student who brought a loaded .50 caliber rifle to the Queens campus on Wednesday was arraigned in his hospital room at Bellevue yesterday. Communicating via a video link to the Queens Criminal Court, Omesh Hiraman appeared "frail in his blue pajamas" (NY Times), while he "hands shook and he "rocked back and forth" (Daily News), but seemed lucid during the proceedings. Judge Deborah Stevens Modica ordered that he be given......

The police discovered the decomposed body of a 20-year-old woman at 4 Washington Square Village yesterday evening. WABC 7 says that the victim was last seen alive on Wednesday and was found "inside a locked bedroom." Neighbors had called the police to complain about a foul odor; the police are handling the situation as a homicide until they hear from the ME's office. NYU's spokesman John Beckman released a statement; here is some of it:“The......

The Observer's Matthew Schuerman has a few interesting stories about Columbia's Manhattanville expansion plans. An article published today looks at how the University of Pennsylvania's successful (and more community-embraced) urban transformation could potentially inform Columbia's plans, now that former Penn president Judith Rodin's book, The University & Urban Revival has hit the bookshelves. Rodin, now the president of the Rockefeller Foundation, only says that the conversations she has had with Columbia president Lee Bollinger......

The long awaited second location of Grey Dog's Coffee is now open for business. The University Place branch is serving the same fantastic coffee (and iced coffee), and full menu as the West Village original. Stop by and wish them well on their first day and be sure to check out the whimsical dog photos inside -- we had to restrain ourselves from running off and adopting a puppy, iced coffee in hand. The Grey......

There's a whole wide world out there, and here's the proof: DCist revels in The University of Maryland's basketball triumphs, marvels at Metro's security strategy, and applauds DC local Katie Couric's new gig. Phillyist is all about the Philadelphia Film Festival.  OK, not all about -- they still have time for loitering, underage sex, and random wacky news. LAist would have to send a camera around the world to get shots as bizarre as Katie's big......

Given our stint in the suburbs where having the most beautiful, manicured lawn becomes the object of desire for homeowners, and now living in a place where dog pooped and gummy sidewalks is what greets us when we leave our front door, we were fascinated by the NY Times story about outer-borough homeowners paving their front yards. Mind you, these are not brownstone owners with a sliver of grass, these are people who fairly substantial......

Aaron Karo, author, Ruminations on Twentysomething Life...

Though it was the Washington Post's biggest story, the NY media suckerpunched the Post by running the revelation that former FBI No. 2 man, Mark Felt, was Deep Throat, the shadowy informant who helped reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein reveal the Watergate scandal. Felt, now 91, confessed after the urging of his family, catching Woodward and Bernstein off-guard (Woodstein probably were probably planning a book to be published as soon at Felt died). Gothamist,......

Jessica Coen, Editor, Gawker.com...

This column used to be called Sets & The City, but we wanted to change it. So we're taking suggestions! For now we'll call it the Gothamist Band Interview. We digress, today's subject is Other Passengers. [Photo by Dum Dum Images] When your influences range from Bauhaus to early Pink Floyd to Sonic Youth it's a toss up as to what your sound will be like. Luckily Other Passengers pinpoint, expand upon and move past......

Chilly and windy tomorrow. It won't get too cold tonight in the city because of the wind, but don't expect tomorrow's high temperature to go much above 40. A good day for hot chocolate. Sunday is looking better, with a high in the mid-50s if you believe AccuWeather or weather.com, but slightly if you're a National Weather Service fan (the Weather Underground merely repackages NWS forecasts). All three forecast outlets raised their maximum forecasts by......

The Post titillates its readers with a story about the new sex columnists in town: Two students at Gothamist's alma mater, Columbia University, writing for the Spectator. Which then begs the question: What's more interesting, the fact that Columbia's student paper has sex columnists or that students at Columbia actually have sex? The writers, a he-said-she-said team, use Columbia dorms as pseudonyms say, "Nothing is off-limits. We're not trying to offend people, but there will......