George Bardwil, the linen king of New York, was lounging with his friends in his posh Turtle Bay apartment Monday afternoon when two gentleman came to his door with guns and bad intentions. The eccentric millionaire—who in 2009 struck his housekeeper so hard with an ashtray she wound up in intensive care and then accused cops of stealing his $187,000 diamond- and emerald- encrusted gold belt buckle—tells the Post, "There was a buzz at the door. I assumed it was somebody I knew. There was a large black male with a gun. We were all tied up and relieved of our watches, wallets, money." more ›

William Rapetti, the crane rigger responsible for a crane at a Midtown condo site that collapsed and killed seven people in March 2008, was acquitted of all charges, including manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, reckless endangerment and second-degree assault. Rapetti had declined a jury trial, so Justice Roger S. Hayes made the verdict (he did not explain it). more ›

On March 15, 2008, a towering construction crane fell from East 51st Street and 2nd Avenue, across East 51st, with the top section crashing onto a townhouse on East 50th Street. The collapse killed seven people; one survivor, a resident of the East 50th Street, testified in the trial of the crane's rigging contractor. John Gallego said, "I hear something like breaking, like when a train, let’s say a train is crashing. I look up through the window and I see a huge thing coming down." He was buried alive for four hours, "It was so quiet at one point that I was thinking I was dead." more ›

Months after residents of a Turtle Bay building found their apartments coated in a layer of dust, an environmental testing firm found "highly elevated levels" of a carcinogen inside the E. 47th Street condo tower. A toxic substance found in mortar called crystalline silica got into apartments while laborers did facade work at the L'Ecole building at 212 E. 47th Street, according to an attorney for tenants who have filed suit over the incident. "It was like there had been a snowfall," said Steven Rosenhaus, who suffered breathing trouble and eye irritation after his 20th-floor apartment was blanketed in the the powder. According to the Post, building management has denied any wrongdoing in court documents. more ›

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration has issued a number of violations related to the March 15 crane collapse in Turtle Bay, which killed seven people. more ›

Investigators suspect that a nylon strap may have started a horrifying chain reaction of events that caused a crane to collapse onto other buildings. Yesterday, emergency workers found the bodies of three missing people, construction workers Santino Gallone and Clifford Canzona, and Florida resident Odin Torres who was in town visiting a friend, raising the total dead to seven. Dozens more were injured in the accident which span East 51st Street between First and Second Avenues to East 50th Street between First and Second. more ›

After a 19-story construction crane collapsed in Turtle Bay and fell towards other buildings, firefighters and other rescue workers are searching for survivors in the rubble. At least four people - all construction workers, Brad Cohen, Aaron Stephens, Anthony Mazza and Wayne Binder - are dead and many more are injured. It's believed two or three more people are missing, possibly buried under the debris. Mayor Bloomberg called "one of the worst construction accidents" in the history of the city. more ›

Cathedral High School has a top reputation as an all-girls high school of the Archdiocese of New York. However, this past week has been rough: Teachers from Cathedral, as well as from nine other Catholic high schools, had a sickout. Plus, a former teacher admitted to assaulting students. more ›

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a bomb threat at New York Law School on Worth St. in Manhattan, shots fired on New York Ave. in Brooklyn, and a person in the river off of Manhattan's 59th St. and 12th Ave.
• The former head of the NYPD's forensic crime lab, Deputy Chief Denis McCarthy, was transferred to a patrol division by Chief Ray Kelly after allegations of falsified lab reports were substantiated by investigators.
• Debra Ann Ridgeley, the woman arrested in Panama for the killing of Staten Island resident Toni Grossi Abrams, is claiming innocence. Her lawyer says that it was Grossi Abrams who attacked her with a knife and that a male Colombian friend intervened to protect her. She also is maintaining that whatever happened to Grossi Abrams, it happened while she was someplace else tending to her wounds.
• A 57-year-old man accused a younger man of stealing his money off the counter of a midtown liquore store yesterday. After the store's manager told the two men to take their argument outside, the older man picked up a piece of metal from the sidewalk, prompting the other to produce a weapon and stab him in the chest before running away.
• A building at the NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston was evacuated today after a gunman was reported in the building.
• Kevin Walsh of forgotten NY investigates the origins of a large anchor in Park Slope and finds a retired seaman.
• A ruling by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals establishes that government officials can't be held constitutionally liable for statements made in regards to the safety or quality of air following the 9/11 attacks. This could put an end to a number of lawsuits related to post-9/11 air quality and the EPA's assurances of safety.
• Firefighters got to try out their new diamond-tipped glass-cutting power saw when rescuing two window washers stuck outside the 37th floor of a Turtle Bay building.
• Hitting a pedestrian in a grocery store parking lot is one thing; ramming into cop cars, however is highly discouraged in Long Island's Nassau County.
• New York named the daffodil the city's official flower. Over three million bulbs were planted across the city's five boroughs as part of the Daffodil Project to memorialize victims of the 9/11 attacks.

The U.N. is not going ahead with its plans to build a temporary office tower in Midtown while its headquarters is being renovated. Originally, Mayor Bloomberg had proposed building a new, temporary headquarters for the world body over Robert Moses playground near its current building, however approvals and construction timing seem to be issues. Instead, the U.N. will look to rent space in Midtown (7 World Trade Center had been reviewed, but the U.N. thought it would be too long a commute for officials based in Midtown). Well, some lucky broker will hit the jackpot is there's 200,000 square feet of space around. Ah, remember when the U.N. was thinking about moving to Brooklyn for a spell? It's still in play, according to their report, since Brooklyn is the least expensive. more ›

We heard the fire trucks honk, squawk and blare, but we didn't realize what was going on until Alan of Thousand Robots sent us a dramatic photograph of a fire from what looks like Sixth Avenue and Spring/Charlton/King/Prince vicinity. And now we hear helicopters! Does anyone know what's going on? more ›

With the urgent need to renovate their asbestos-filled and cramped headquarters on the East River, the United Nations is considering a move to Brooklyn. Seriously. Over a year ago, the U.N. selected Fumihiko Maki to design their new temporary space on First Avenue, a "glassy, white and sheer but elegant building," but the NY State Senate rejected the plan, so the U.N. had to hunt again for space starting in 2007. There are reports that the U.N. was offered space at 7 World Trade Center, but Secretary General Kofi Annan said that various real estate analyses showed that the only available building space, in the range of 700,000 square feet, was in downtown Brooklyn. If this goes through, the implications will be wild, with more diplomatic car accidents (diplomats will need to be shuttled around). more ›

Another question: Is Sutton Place the Upper East Side? The Newsday article described the address as the UES, but we've always thought of it more as "Farther Midtown East" or "Northern Turtle Bay." more ›

Michael Musto, Village Voice more ›