A year after trying to slap regulations on yoga teacher training courses, the city is retreating, and the army of free spirits prepares to claim victory. Last April officials made the mistake of lumping yoga in with a host of other activities—hair dressing and truck driving among them—whose vocational schools would be required to undergo a long and arduous licensing process. But as the Times reports, the yoga community just wouldn't bend to those rules. more ›

The latest Times trend piece looks at a new combination of exercise and indulgence that is taking the city by storm: foodie yoga. Yes, combining the ancient and often holy practice of yoga with bacon and wine has become extremely popular. One yoga teacher, Sadie Nardini, claims it is a backlash against the "yogier than thou" mentality that purists hold, but is eating while doing yoga pushing the "anything goes" idea a little too far? more ›

Ashley Dupre offered up her "year after the Spitzer scandal" thoughts in a blog post for Global Grind, Russell Simmons' hip-hop news site. Dupre writes about moving on, "I am now 23 years old and I’ve made more mistakes than most people make in a lifetime. But to look back and see all that I have overcome, and to stand here, and actually still be here at all, that is a huge achievement. I am proud of myself for surviving," and how she's working on her spiritual side, "The more I know my true self, the more I come to have faith that my presence on earth means more or at least has different meaning than the media or disbelievers have tried to frame it to be." She and Simmons met at yoga class, and naturally, Simmons blogged about it, "While bent over in uttanasana, I noticed a cute, little, short girl whose hands were not placed properly," and when she introduced herself later, he thought, "Oh my god, this 5 foot, 1 inch god-seeker was the $4000 'escort' of Governor Elliot Spitzer." more ›