Sharpe James, five-time former mayor of Newark, NJ, was convicted by federal jury this morning on charges he conspired to, per the Star-Ledger, "rig the sale of nine city lots to his mistress, who quickly resold them for hundreds of thousands of dollars in profit." The jury, which had deliberated for five days before returning a verdict today, found James guilty of 13 counts of corruption. James' ex-girlfriend, Tamika Riley, who bought South Ward properties......

A grand jury voted to indict former police commissioner Bernard Kerik on federal corruption charges yesterday and, this morning, he surrender to the FBI in White Plains. The indictment was sealed, but the 16 counts include charges of "conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud, tax fraud and making false statements." The U.S. Attorney's office, which sought the indictment, and the FBI are giving a press conference now; U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York......

The U.S. Attorney's office will be asking a grand jury to indict former police commissioner Bernard Kerik on tax evasion, corruption, and conspiracy charges. Kerik has reportedly made arrangements to surrender tomorrow, instead of being arrested by U.S. marshals. Kerik's dealings have also been questioned, even back when his friend Rudy Giuliani was mayor, but his past became a big story when President Bush nominated him for Secretary of Homeland Security in 2004, only for......

John Fekner was a street artist in the 1980s-- check out this gallery of his pieces, including a few from Greenpoint, near the old gas towers. [Via Wooster] Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a barge worker had a heart attack and had to be rescued at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, someone fell down an elevator shaft on East 11th Street, and a water main broke on Canal Street. Former Page Six gossipeur Jared Paul......

Yesterday's decision by a federal judge to sentence controversial lawyer Lynne Stewart to 28 months in prison for charges in helping terrorist Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman carry out his message was met by relief from Stewart supporters and overwhelming outcry from the government (which had hoped for a 30 year sentence) and many of the local papers. The Post, Daily News and the Sun all have editorials criticizing Judge Koetl's short sentence. From the......

One day is all it took. After it was revealed Republican Attorney General candidate and former Westchester DA Jeanine Pirro was under federal investigation for possibly wiretapping her husband - because she was worried he was cheating on her - it's revealed who the possible "other lady" in Al Pirro's life was: The 35 year old wife of the lawyer who represented Al Pirro in his 2000 tax evasion case. The Post calls Lisa Santangelo......

This morning, Jeanine Pirro kept her appointment to speak at the New York Hispanic Clergy Association and spoke out against the federal investigation into her possible plans to wiretap her lying and cheating husband (he's lied and cheated before, though it's unclear if there was any lying and cheating last summer). WNBC has footage of today's speech, where she says that she's fought to keep her family together, that she's disturbed by the leaking of......

That thud you heard this afternoon? The jaws of Jeanine Pirro's campaign staffers. It turns out that Republican candidate for NY State Attorney General Pirro is under state and federal criminal investigation. WNBC's Jonathan Dienst had the scoop: State and federal agencies were looking into whether Pirro eavesdropped on her husband, who she suspected might be cheating on her. (Well, he did father a love child a couple years into their marriage.) So she......

Now this was a primary. Ned Lamont defeated Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman in yesterday's Senate primary, 51% to 48%. Lieberman still plans to run in November's Senate race as a third party "petitioning candidate." A petitioning candidate with better website security, we imagine, after his campaign accused Lamont's of crashing their server, leading them to put up a statement:"For the past 24 hours the Friends for Joe Lieberman's website and email has been totally......

The police and feds busted a crew of Eastern European criminals yesterday who operated out of Brooklyn. The Daily News calls them "Stringfellas" because one of their schemes was to sell a stolen Stradivarius violin and "then rob the buyer." That would be an ambitious but classic (no pun intended) cycle of crime: Claim to sell stuff only to pocket the cash and then take the object back for another "sale" - we just like......

The NYPD is being rocked by news that two former police officers were on the take from the mob, for their roles in eight murders. Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa were arrested in Las Vegas, where they moved after retiring from the NYPD, and charged with racketeering conspiracy, two attempted murders, obstruction of justice, money laundering and more. The US Attorney's office claims that Eppolito and Caracappa used their ties in the NYPD to smoke......