The stripper couple who lured two teenage girls they met on Myspace into an involved sexual tryst pleaded guilty to charges sprung forth from the crime on Friday. You may remember Julio Rojas and Sophie Soto as the pair of married strippers who invited two underage girls back to their apartment where they had "numerous orgies" and topped it all off by bringing the girls to their strip club and having them perform sex acts on customers onstage. Soto is looking at two to six years in prison while her husband Rojas is expected to get eight due to a prior charge of seducing a minor. more ›

Sometimes you have to eat a species in order to save it. To raise awareness about threatened Pacific wild salmon, Water Taxi Beach in Long Island City will be adding wild salmon barbecue to the menu this Saturday. The feast is being held in cooperation with Save Our Wild Salmon, a group that’s traveling the country to educate people about the Northwest salmon crisis. more ›

Today the Times’s chief food critic Frank Bruni revisits WD-50 (pictured) and elevates the Lower East Side avant-garde restaurant to three stars (a 2003 Times review by another critic had awarded it two). Chef Wylie Dufresne has made WD-50 a destination with his experimental, transgressive menu, and Bruni concedes that in the past “too many of his creations were gratuitously perverse… many visitors understandably feel that what they’ve experienced isn’t so much a meal as a prank.” But now most of the dishes are “knockouts” and Bruni extols “the tidiest Benedict the egg-loving world has ever known.” more ›

Kaki King (MySpace) is a guitar player and singer-songwriter from Atlanta, Georgia. She lived in Brooklyn for 7 years until last summer, when music started taking her on a permanent tour around the world. Her upcoming album is called Dreaming Of Revenge and will be released March 11th on Velour Records. King was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Original Score for the music she played in the Sean Penn film Into the Wild, and Rolling Stone Magazine has declared her the first and only female "Guitar God." more ›

Now that there seems to be a compelling 2008 presidential race, Mayor Bloomberg's White House prospects appear diminished. And associates of the billionaire suggest to the NY Times that post-mayoral life may not be enough for Bloomberg. more ›

On the day that MySpace agreed to work with 49 states to stop sexual predators from using the social networking site to find young victims, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown was announcing a disturbing 56-charge criminal complaint against a couple accused of rape, sexual abuse, and forcing two young teens into performing sexual acts at a Manhattan strip club. Julio Rojas, a stripper, is being held on $500,000 bail while his wife, Sophie Soto, also a stripper, is being held on $250,000 bail. more ›

Due to the Writer's Guild of America strike, Hollywood's party, the Golden Globes Awards were transformed from a boozy, fun dinner party to a press conference where presenters from entertainment programs like Extra! and E! News got to announce the winners. Yes, it was as painful as it sounded (Giuliana Rancic, it's not about you); many said they couldn't believe they were announcing the winners but said they would prefer it with the stars. Inside Edition's Jim Moret struck a classy note when he acknowledged the Hollywood Foreign Association (the organization that doles out the Golden Globes) President Jorge Camara. more ›

While New York is very urban, there are still many places where you can see some wilderness. Here's a list of the Parks Department's 48 Forever Wild Nature Preserves, which total over "8,700 acres of towering forests, vibrant wetlands, and expansive meadows" and include "flying squirrels, bald eagles, and fascinating rare plants." Flying squirrels! more ›

New York magazine's cover feature is all about crime in the Big Apple. There are a number of articles, from getting the murder rate to zero (last year it was at the lower in 40-plus years with 494 murders) to those Criminals Gone Wild videos and a look at the violence plaguing Brownsville. But most intriguing is Adam Fisher's personal account of getting mugged in Bushwick. more ›

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Recently, legend became reality when a 10-story building in SoHo was being converted to a luxury condo. Unearthed in the walls was a large mural created by graffiti pioneers Fab Five Freddy and Futura 2000.The artwork contains a variety of images and writing executed in spray paint, grease pencil, magic marker and whatever else was on hand — in silver, gold, pink and red. There are cartoonlike pictures of a bomber airplane, images of a... more ›

Last night, we did a double take while watching WNBC News at 11 because reporter John Noel was interviewing a man who made a DVD of supposed actual crimes, like robberies, carjackings, and possibly a murder, in progress (here's the WNBC video). Of course, it's called Criminals Gone Wild, and DVDs are $26.98. Noel asked the Brooklyn resident behind the DVD, Ousala Aleem, if he actually did film a murder. Aleem says, "Well, the... more ›

Attention Pacific Northwest: New Yorkers don't care about your cuisine. None of Jeffrey Chodorow's blogging, full page ads in the Times or other theatrics could save Wild Salmon from its imminent closure. After Eater circulated news of its potential doom, Chodorow issued a statement, published on Grub Street, "Regrettably, we will be closing Wild Salmon after the new year. We were excited about bringing the food and wine of the Pacific Northwest to New York,... more ›

DJ Star, who was fired from Power 105 after some remarks about a rival's child, will be coming back to radio stations. While publicists for the DJ, born Troi Torain, would not disclose where he'll be headed (not before tomorrow press conference, at least), the Daily News reports that it will probably be WNYZ, which is 87.7FM: "Its current format is Russian popular music, but with the hiring of Star, it will reportedly switch to... more ›

The Gotham Awards gala run by the Independent Feature Project (IFP) will be held in Brooklyn for the first time tonight, after 17 years spent bouncing around between Roseland, Hammerstein Ballroom and Chelsea Piers. This year the independent film awards will take place on the soundstage of Steiner Studios in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Among the thousand-plus guests expected to attend are Javier Bardem, Sean Penn, Laura Linney, Uma Thurman, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Brooklyn’s... more ›

An off-duty firefighter was charged with misdemeanor assault after he beat up a Brooklyn motorist in front of the driver's wife and two sons. Michael Crespo, who is a 28-year-old copier technician, says that he was driving in Brooklyn when Stephen Spagnola jaywalked in front of his car. Spagnola, who is with FDNY Engine Co. 28 and also posed as Mr. September in the 2005 edition of the FDNY's racy Calendar of Heroes, objected to Crespo's objections and soon enough, Crespo was out of his car getting brutally beaten by Spagnola and a his friend. The Daily News quotes Crespo's wife, "I was hysterical. My oldest child saw everything. He was afraid for his daddy." more ›

For an avowed non-presidential candidate, Mayor Bloomberg certainly gets more attention than some of the actual candidates. Newsweek devotes its cover story to "Mike" Bloomberg, "The Billion Dollar Wild Card," a reference to the billion dollars Mayor B has at his disposal, should be decide to run for president next year. That is so much more flattering than the "Lazy Like a Fox" cover Newsweek had of Fred Thompson! Newsweek editor-in-chief Jon Meacham got to... more ›

Rudy Giuliani better check his sports allegiances. While campaigning in Boston, a reporter asked the former mayor which team he would be cheering for in the World Series - the Colorado Rockies or the Boston Red Sox. To our surprise (and Bostonist's), he went with the Red Sox, "I'm rooting for the Red Sox. I'm an American League fan, and I go with the American League team, maybe with the exception of the Mets. Maybe that would be the one time I wouldn't because I'm loyal to New York." Last time we checked, the Yankees and Red Sox were bitter rivals. We're betting that you won't catch a Mets fan rooting for the Braves or Phillies in the World Series or a Giants fan rooting for the Cowboys or Eagles. more ›

A look at some of this week's noteworthy television: more ›

We understand the desire to milk every last dollar out of sports fans, but we have to say, the "Wild Card collection" is ridiculously bizarre. The Sports Hernia Blog pointed out the Yankees Wild Card hat and some reactions to it:

"If I see one person wearing that hat, they will get a swift donkey punch. I will take their hat, light it on fire and then shove it up there f**king nose." -- Brian, 30, passionate Yankee fan more ›

The Village Voice is questioning the merits of some top designers suing Forever 21 for "ripping off" their style. Over 20 designers in all are calling the store out for their fashion faux-pas, and they're led by Diane Von Furstenberg, president of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, who has brought the case to Washington "attempting to get federal legislation passed that would make clothes-copying clothes a criminal offence." This isn't the first time she's taken issue with the store, and now she claims they have knocked off her famous wrap dress and more than one of her prints, one of which the Voice adds "actually looks a lot like an old Marimekko design." more ›

It took the Mets a little more than two weeks, but they've somehow managed to squander a seven-game lead in the National League East. Since September 12th, the lead has slowly gotten smaller and is now zero, zilch, zip, nadda, nil. With three games left in the regular season, the Mets are tied with the Phillies for first in the NL East. The last time the Mets weren't in sole possession of first place - May 15th! How did they get to where they are now? Starting on Sept. 14th, the Mets went 4-10, including a 5-game losing streak and a 4-game losing streak. It didn't help that the Phillies went on a tear during the same stretch of games, including a three-game sweep of the Mets. more ›

From last place to the playoffs, the Yankees have taken their fans on a trip, but they will play October baseball once again. The same cannot yet be said about the Mets. more ›

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In 1982 Matt Dillon hosted a film on the history of the amusement park (in particular roller coasters) called Wild Rides. He discusses a lot of the Coney Island rides, and there's some great old footage -- check out that "human pool table"! We'd be interested in seeing some numbers on how many people got injured on rides during this time. more ›

FESTIVAL: Conflux 2007 has arrived. Starting tonight and running through Sunday, their "annual New York City festival for contemporary psychogeography" will help re-imagine urban spaces with a series of events, lectures, workshops, installations, parties and so much more. Get all the info and schedules you need, here. more ›

• Yankees 6, Indians 1: The Yankees played well against the soft part of their schedule and last night, against an actual playoff contender, they continued their recent winning ways (they've won 20 of the last 27 games). In his second start since returning from a May leg injury, Hughes, a key player in the future of the Yankees rotation, pitched brilliantly. He allowed only one run over 6 innings to the AL Central-leading Indians. Equally as impressive as Hughes, if not more so, was Joba Chamberlain who pitched perfect 7th and 8th innings. Chamberlain picked up one strikeout in the 7th before striking out the side in the 8th. The win put the Yankees in a tie for first-place in the Wild Card standings and gave them the same record as the Mets (not that it matters).
• Marlins 4, Mets 3: Perhaps it was the cold weather that pushed Billy Wagner into the blown save territory last night. Wagner, who hasn't exactly inspired confidence recently, blew only his 2nd save of the season. Wagner allowed a two-run double by Hanley Ramirez in the 9th to spoil the return of Carlos Beltran from an oblique strain. Beltran had the go-ahead, three-run homer in the 5th inning, but the Mets were unable to capitalize on a night that the Braves loss.
• Cyclones 4, Doubledays 3: Brooklyn won its third straight game last night by defeating the Doubledays. The Cyclones took the lead in the 7th with a two runs in the inning. Doubledays starter Marc Rzepczynski had a career high 10 strike outs in six innings of work.

Frank Bruni, in the Diner's Journal, waxes poetic about the oysters at Wild Salmon and Aquagrill, and discusses the reasons why he often disobeys the "rule" that one is not supposed to eat oysters in months that don’t have an ‘r’ in them. We're with Frank on this one. We love oysters in the summer. The platter above was from a recent oyster happy our at P.J. Clarke's downtown. They were cheap, but didn't hold a candle to ones we've had at Aquagrill, Blue Ribbon or Pearl Oyster Bar. more ›