Former NYC Police Chief William Bratton announced yesterday that he will step down from his current post running the LAPD and return to New York to work in the private sector. Bratton has been chief of police in Los Angeles since 2002 and spoke of his tenure with a sense of "mission accomplished" yesterday, telling reporters, "We succeeded in making this city one of the safest in America." more ›

William Bratton, the former NYPD Commissioner who introduced CompStat and helped oversee a dramatic reduction in crime (and then was dismissed when Rudy Giuliani got jealous), is now dealing a different kind of scourge: The paparazzi in Los Angeles. An LA City Council member has proposed restrictions on paparazzi and even convened a regional "paparazzi task force," with testimony from celebrities. Bratton, who has headed the LAPD since 2002, feels it's a "total waste of time," saying, "If you notice, since Brittany started wearing clothes and behaving; Paris is out of town not bothering anybody, thank god; and, evidently, Lindsay Lohan has gone gay, we don't seem to have much of an issue." more ›

The NY Times' editorial board has made its endorsements for the upcoming primaries. While the Times' selection of Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama is interesting (the Times cites experience), we're very taken with the editorial about the Republican candidates. more ›

Mayor David Dinkins, who preceded Mayor Giuliani in office from 1990 to 1993, had his appendix removed in an emergency surgery Friday when it was determined that he was suffering from appendicitis. Dinkins was actually visiting his doctor for a routine flu shot, when he complained that he had a sharp pain in his side. A CAT scan revealed the inflamed and infected appendix--a condition that can be lethal if the vestigial organ bursts. more ›

The NY Times's Sewell Chan follows up the Campbell Robertson story about subway riders not being that fazed by subway by the robberies (the one that got a Fader employee fired) noting that none of the iPod-toting commuters would stop using them on the subway and that during the early 90s, gold chain snatchings were the big subway crime of the day. There's also this great quote from MIT's Henry Jenkins about why iPods and other gadgets, like cellphones, are targetted:

The participation gap creates techno-envy, where the kids who are locked out of participation in the culture covet those tools and devices that are considered essential to being a young person.

The Daily News has great coverage, especially since they're crowing from breaking much of the story. The NY Times pondered about who Kerik's nanny is and here's Newsday's special section dedicated to the the Kerik mess; also check out Kerik's bio at Giuliani Partners and his love nest via Curbed. more ›