A week ago, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly was criticized for being "soft" on drug dens, so now he's making up for lost time: following last Friday's Bloods/Crips bust, the NYPD arrested 17 members of two northern Manhattan drug crews for selling cocaine, ecstasy and marijuana today. more ›

A man walked into a Brooklyn police precinct station house last week shouting, "Allah! Allah" with a wire wrapped around his waist, and, miraculously, did not die in a blaze of gunfire. According to the Daily News, the incident "sent civilians and cops running from the 61st Precinct station house while other officers subdued the suspect, Marwan Mohemed, 22." They then realized that the wire was just being used by Mohemed as a belt. "He dropped a black knapsack to the ground, then dropped to his knees and began yelling 'Allah! Allah! Allah!'" one NYPD source says. "He scared the heck out of everybody." more ›

REMINDER: Don't forget to check out the World Science Festival, running through Sunday. And David Byrne needs your help Playing the Building. more ›

All signs, and weathervanes, point towards the upcoming outdoor summer concert season, which is just around the corner. The River to River Festival is kicking things off with a nod to the past, featuring Wire at the Seaport Music Festival stage. Why should you care? Unlike other 70s bands that have been over-saturating the concert circuit, these guys haven't taken a stage in the U.S. in quite some time; their last show was in Spain in 2004.

Wire came to prominence in the late 70s during the cultural revolution of punk in the UK. Their art-school approach set them apart from brasher contemporaries, where they expanded the sonic boundaries of not just punk, but rock music in general. From R.E.M., the Cure and Guided by Voices to Minor Threat and Black Flag, from Blur and the birth of Britpop up until Franz Ferdinand and Bloc Party, Wire’s influence has been one of most significant in the past 30 years.

Detective Sean Johnstone of the Brooklyn South Narcotics Unit was arrested yesterday along with police officer Julio Alvarez in connection to 11 missing bags of cocaine that Johnstone seized in a drug bust. The detective was caught talking about the drugs when he forgot that he was wearing a wire for an undercover operation and he recorded himself talking about them to Alvarez.

The officers were caught after Johnstone unknowingly left a wire that he was wearing turned on. The two officers were heard talking to a third unnamed officer about a drug bust and how they confiscated 28 bags of cocaine, but only turned in 17 of them.