While President Obama's proposal to increase the number of troops in Afghanistan by 30,000 is taking heat from both Republicans and Democrats, Rep. Mike McMahon (D-Staten Island and Brooklyn) told Gothamist that he strongly supports the plan.
The first term Conressman — who replaced [...]
Do you feel ashamed and guilty because you haven't been fulfilling your duties as a member of the Park Slope Food Coop? Have you been missing shifts, drinking bottled water, or purchasing Israeli products? Do you feel like horrible person because' [...]
Recent parolee Akin Webster, 25, surrendered to police in connection with a drive-by shooting that killed a member of the Bloods gang in Arlington on Nov. 16. The suspect — who was paroled in March after serving three years for [...]
Photo of MTA worker reading a magazine from JR from Brooklyn's flickr
Hundreds of Metropolitan Transportation Authority workers responsible for repairing above-ground subway tracks have been getting paid for eight-hour shifts, even though they actually spend only four hours per day working.
To [...]
It wasn't bumbling prosecutors, arguing jurors, or untrustworthy mob informants that kept mob scion John Gotti Jr. from being found guilty in his racketeering and murder trial. The former Gambino boss told reporters after his fourth mistrial yesterday that his deceased father' [...]
In a court case that might turn out closely foreshadowing the much-hyped trials of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and four other suspected 9/11 plotters, terror suspect Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani has asked a Manhattan judge to dismiss his indictment because authorities denied him his constitutional [...]
The man accused beating Oreo the dog and throwing her from the roof of a Red Hook building this summer failed to show up to his sentencing hearing on Tuesday.
After initially pleading not guilty, Fabian Henderson, 20, changed his mind [...]
A Bronx renter stabbed his landlord to death after an argument about a spare mattress on Tuesday, according to police. The brutal crime occurred after suspect Omari Richards, 26, got into an argument with his landlord's fiancee over a [...]
Federal prosecutors aiming to convict mob scion John Gotti Jr. came up short for the fourth time in five years when a deadlocked jury failed to reach a verdict. After more than a year behind bars, Gotti Jr. was released [...]
A Brooklyn federal judge declared that NYPD officers regularly fabricate criminal charges and lie under oath — and the city condones it. Judge Jack Weinstein said "there is some evidence of an attitude among officers that is sufficiently widespread to constitute a custom or policy" [...]
The 13-month, multinational search to find a new commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection came to a surprising close this week when Mayor Bloomberg selected a 36-year-old aide with limited environmental experience who works a few desks away from the Mayor [...]
A chain-reaction car crash claimed the life of a Marine Park senior on Monday. Edith Shaller, 88, was walking home from the doctor's office on Avenue U near the corner of Hendrickson Street at around 3:30 pm when a black Lexus sedan rammed a green [...]
A judge has declared a mistrial in the case against former Gambino boss John Gotti Jr — again.
In its 11th day of deliberations, the deadlocked jury issued a note stating that they couldn't come to a consensus on any of the murder and' [...]
Rev. Al Sharpton says police had no reason to arrest his ex-wife and daughter after they swore at officers during a Harlem traffic stop last month. In a message spanning three consecutive Tweets, the president of [...]
Fear not people who like to drink until 8 am — the state has extended the deadline for bars looking to push back the last call on New Year's Eve. After only 165 bars applied for the special "night permit"' [...]
In the aftermath of three November shootings in which innocent Bronx teens were gunned down, friends of one of the victims are urging witnesses to come forward. Following the death of 17-year-old Issi Ariel Dominguez — who cops believe was not the intended target [...]
Photo by Joe Holmes.
In an attempt to curb graffiti, the City Council voted unanimously yesterday to gradually ban solid metal roll-down gates from storefronts. Starting in July 2011, shopkeepers who install new security shutters will be required to purchase gates [...]
The ex-wife and daughter of Rev. Al Sharpton shouted obscenities at cops before they were cuffed after a traffic stop in Harlem, according to police reports. When Dominique Sharpton, 23, was pulled over for running a red and crossing a double yellow while passing [...]
Just when it seemed like the hoopla over bike lanes in Williamsburg had come to a close, Gothamist has learned that the Department of Transportation is planning to remove a 14-block section of the Bedford Avenue cycling route.
A spokesman said that [...]
The Fire Department may be forced to cutback on staffing to cover the costs of the increasing number of firefighters taking sick leave.
If the annual average of firefighters taking medical leave hits its expected level of 7.5 percent this year, union contracts will allow [...]
Defying conventional wisdom, crime is not on the rise despite the miserable economy. Police records reveal that as the city faces a 10.3-percent unemployment rate and record numbers of homeless families, "the number of major crimes is continuing to fall this year in nearly every" [...]
A cop shot in the line of duty last year is suing the NYPD for outfitting him with a bulletproof vest and a holster that he claims weren't up to snuff.
Officer Shane Farina, 39, was wearing a department-issued vest when he was shot
The first ever "professional" dreidel league will host its debut matches in Williamsburg on Dec. 12 — the second day of Hanukkah. In an article laden with Borscht Belt-style puns, the Brooklyn Paper reports on Major League Dreidel, which is expected to draw [...]
Rendering of the ventilation system at the 96th Street station from the Real Deal.
While most subway stations rely on sidewalk grates for fresh air, the new stops on the long-awaited Second Avenue line will be cooled with a modern [...]
The law forcing chain restaurants with more than 15 locations nationwide to display calorie information might have been drafted with fast food joints like McDonald's and Dunkin' Donuts in mind — but it's ticking off diners at some of the city's [...]
Photo from Triborough's flickr
Commuters waiting for the bus have been tossing their trash on the sidewalk and lawn in front of Rosanna Gennarelli's Bronx home — leaving her to face hundreds of dollars of littering summonses.
The city has repeatedly fined the [...]
A Staten Island gang war that has claimed the lives of four men so far this month has gotten so intense that members of the Bloods are apparently skipping town to stay safe.
According to the Daily News, the internal squabble between Bloods members [...]
This is a pretty crazy time to be a teenager in the Bronx. Another adolescent was gunned down this weekend — this time fatally — with a bullet meant for someone else.
According to WABC, 17-year-old Issi Ariel Dominguez was walking home from a party [...]
Just one mile from the spot where 15-year-old Vada Vasquez was shot in the head by a stray bullet, a 16-year-old girl was caught in the crossfire after a Bronx house party, the Post reports.
Victim Angelica Bermudez was outside [...]
A petty larceny suspect escaped from a TriBeCa police station last night only to be dragged back to the First Precinct in tears. Orlando Reyes, 21, was being transferred to Central Booking when he reportedly broke free from the Ericsson Place stationhouse and hid in [...]
Cops cuffed a 17-year-old accused of stabbing and killing 18-year-old Nelson Rafael Pena near the corner of Hester and Forsyth Streets on Nov. 18. Police charged Victor Fong with second-degree murder when he surrendered at the [...]
New Year's Eve celebrations might turn out ending a little earlier this year, because the number of New York area bars that have applied for a special permit allowing them to keep serving booze until 8 am has plummeted by 60 percent. [...]
New York City judges spent taxpayer money on seemingly personal purchases like meditation retreats, framed photographs of themselves, and an iPod, according to the New York Post. Each year, judge's receive an expense allowance of $10,000 each — a citywide total of $12.6 million [...]
The crooks who robbed a 64-year-old for his television — but couldn't escape with the unwieldly flatscreen — shot the victim because his achy knee kept him from following their orders.
Three perps entered Bentley White's Cambria Heights home on Black Friday after spotting the' [...]
The city's street gangs have turned to Twitter to communicate amongst themselves, taunt their foes, and plan brawls, according to the Daily News. Police even think an adolescent might have been shot in the legs on Lenox Avenue over an online turf war started [...]
The driver suspected in a fatal Bronx hit-and-run on Friday has a suspended license and a lengthy automotive rap sheet. Sheldon Reid, 28, is accused of mowing down 40-year-old Sonya Powell at around 8:30 pm as she walked home from Christmas shopping in Wakefield with [...]
About 50 dogs rescued from puppy mills in Utah and overcrowded shelters in Missouri arrived in Long Island on Friday, where they will be put up for adoption before the holidays. The pooches, which were saved from filth, abuse, and the risk of euthanasia in [...]
The man or woman responsible for presiding over the trial of Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four other suspected plotters of the 9/11 attacks will likely be chosen with the kind of machine that "might have been used to call out bingo numbers in a" [...]
The skies above Newark Liberty International Airport are a disaster waiting to happen, according to federal investigators who are concerned about the simultaneous use of intersecting runways. Problems arise when a plane needs to abort its landing — [...]
Here's why you shouldn't lean on train doors. Two doors on a JFK Airport AirTrain fell off the shuttle — which had just undergone maintenance work — as it picked up its first load of passengers yesterday, according to the Post.
As the' [...]
Firefighters recovered the remains of two men from a burning van in Sunset Park last night. The victims — whose names have not yet been released — were apparently homeless and lived in the van, which had been parked near the [...]
Doctors at St. Vincent's Hospital exposed a Washington Heights woman to the HIV virus when they used dirty medical equipment, a lawsuit alleges.
According to the suit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, several hours after Milvia Lopez was discharged from [...]
Black Friday is typically the most lucrative day for traffic agents because many shoppers, out-of-towners, and forgetful locals assume it's a parking holiday. In past years, traffic agents have issued about 20,000 tickets on the day after Thanksgiving — netting the city around $900,000. But [...]
In his race for a third term, the richest man in New York City spent an astounding $102 million of his $17 billion fortune. New filings reveal that Mayor Bloomberg shelled out about $174.53 per vote in his narrower-than-expected victory over Democratic challenger [...]
Three men shot a 64-year-old in Queens in an attempt to steal his new flatscreen television on Black Friday — but the 47-inch TV wouldn't fit in their escape vehicle.
The crooks forced their way into Bentley White's home in Cambria Heights at around 8:30 am' [...]
Police arrested two 3rd graders and a 5th grader suspected of bringing a box cutter and a knife to their Bronx elementary school on Wednesday. According to the Post, a school safety agent nabbed a 9-year-old with a box cutter inside P.S. 2 on [...]
Investigators uncovered the remains of an infant encased in cement and a Rubbermaid container when they broke up a suspected sex trafficking ring in Sunset Park. Federal prosecutors allege that Domingo Salazar, 33, smuggled a young Mexican woman into the country, forced her to [...]
Just days after a student was suspended from Stuyvesant High School for allegedly setting fires, investigators say a copycat arsonist has been lighting blazes in the esteemed Lower Manhattan school — and taunting police in hieroglyphics.
According to the Daily News, the new [...]
Bed bugs are on the rise in schools, NY1 reports. Though the city couldn’t provide any hard data on the number of infestations, officials told the station that the bed bug problem has gotten worse as the hard-to-exterminate critters [...]
Opponents of the Obama administration's plan to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other suspected terrorists in New York City will hold a Dec. 5 rally in front of the federal courthouse to demand that the trials take place elsewhere, according to the [...]
Sacred Heart's Roncali Hall, where the alleged sexual assault took place.
An 18-year-old student at Sacred Heart University claims that three lacrosse players at the Connecticut school — one of them a Long Island native — sexually assaulted her in a dorm [...]
Cops busted a Clinton Hill crack and marijuana ring and nabbed 11 individuals suspected of selling drugs on the street, from an apartment building at the corner Putnam and Grand Avenue avenues, and out of a barbershop and [...]
A judge announced on Monday that he will likely throw out the conviction and dismiss the indictment of a Bronx man who was incarcerated for four years on rape charges that his accuser has admitted were made-up. Though he didn't immediately clear William McCaffrey's name,' [...]
More than a week into deliberation on the fourth racketeering trial against one-time Gambino boss John Gotti Jr., the jury still hasn't come up with a verdict — and one of its members wants a vacation.
Eight days after lawyers rested their cases, the jurors' [...]
A nonprofit organization accused of serving as a "front for the Iranian government" donated $100,000 to Columbia University just months before Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made a controversial appearance at the school.
The Times reports that the embattled Alavi [...]
Try not to think about bed bugs next time you watch a movie.
There's a classic he said/she said playing out at a Park Slope cinema, where moviegoers and theater management are arguing over allegations that the multiplex is infested with bed bugs. [...]
One of the undercover cops involved in the fatal shooting of an 18-year-old who was pointing a gun at officers fired eight rounds, according to the Post. Three officers contributed to the 15-bullet salvo (up from 14 in yesterday's' [...]
The subway passenger who pulled the emergency brake during a grisly murder over a seat on the D train claims the attacker was unprovoked. Denouncing previous reports that victim Dwight Johnson had struck suspect Gerardo Sanchez during their dispute, witness Vincent Martinez said the [...]
The Corona dad suspected of slitting the throats of his wife and 14-year-old son claims he has suffered from multiple personality disorder since childhood, and that his alter ego Roberto was "responsible for everything I did that was bad," suspect Otto Herrarte told investigators. [...]
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the four other suspected terrorists who will be tried in Manhattan for their involvement in planning the 9/11 attacks will plead not guilty, according to an attorney. Scott Fenstermaker, the lawyer representing suspect Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, said the men [...]
Is there anything more horrifying than being locked on the subway with a knife-toting murderer? About two dozen commuters found themselves in that hellish situation early on Saturday, when they were locked on in the first car of an uptown D train [...]
During his campaign for a third term, Mayor Bloomberg stifled a Freedom of Information Law request by withholding the release of photographs of himself with Sarah Palin until two weeks after the election, the Daily News reports.
Bloomberg posed with the former [...]
After a Corona dad blamed his split personality for the gruesome murder of his wife and 14-year-old son, the victims' relatives have said they aren't buying the excuse. Friends and family of the victims claim that Otto Herrarte — who has blamed his alter [...]
This isn't the first time that Brooklyn Paper Editor Gersh Kuntzman has gone too far in his web videos. He has already posed nude and documented himself using the bathroom, but it's safe to say that nothing he —' [...]
Police shot an 18-year-old 11 times when he pointed a gun at them after a chase in Far Rockaway late on Saturday. Officers fired 14 shots in total, striking and killing Dashawn Vasconcellos after he ran away from cops who tried to question him [...]
The 37-year-old suspected of slaying a straphanger in a grisly murder on the D train was not provoked before the vicious attack on Saturday, according to prosecutors. When suspect Gerardo Sanchez boarded the first car of the northbound train at around 2 am at [...]
Long Island cops are using an $800,000 acoustic gunshot tracking system that allows officers to almost immediately pinpoint the locations of shootings from a data center miles away. The so-called ShotSpotter system transmits the sound of gunfire using microphones and wireless sensors to a [...]
Back in heady days of 2007, real estate developers followed a simple algorithm: add the city's finite housing supply with the massive demand for housing and you could make money by building a condo on just about any property. Though the recession [...]
The restaurateur who sent out an obscenity-laden missive against his employees last week stands by his angry rant, which he has defended as his food industry version of Allen Ginsberg's poem "Howl." Vadim Ponorovsky, owner of the Meatpacking [...]
Police gunned down an 18-year-old in Far Rockaway when he pointed a 9mm handgun at officers. When four plainclothes cops approached Dashawn Vasconcellos and two other men as they were leaving Bayswater Park after-hours at around 11:30 pm, Vasconcellos fled. Officers pursued [...]
The off-duty NYPD cop who shot a man following a Long Island bar brawl fired the round after the altercation was over, according to the lawyer representing victim Atiba Watkins. The fight that lead to the shooting started [...]
As more and more New Yorkers are using bikes to commute and the city continues its massive — and at times controversial — push to expand its network of bike lanes, the Daily News [...]
The majority of New Yorkers want to see Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four other suspected terrorists put to death, according to a study by Marist and the Daily News. If found guilty, 73 percent of locals want Mohammed to be executed, while 67 [...]
A Queens father is suspected of slitting the throats of his wife and son, then blaming the act on his alternate identity, according to cops. "Otto does not do these things, but Robert does," Otto Herrarte, 48, told investigators, according to [...]
Embattled political journalist Dominic Carter told the press yesterday that he was innocent, but that the allegations of domestic abuse and his conviction of attempted assault mean that his family has "lost everything."
A tearful Carter apparently broke down after "being fingerprinted like a common" [...]
More details have emerged on the gruesome stabbing on the D train yesterday that left one straphanger dead and another behind bars. Bronx resident Geraldo Sanchez, 37, allegedly stabbed Dwight Johnson, 36, repeatedly in the face and neck in an altercation [...]
Christina Ambers and Angel at their wedding.
Yesterday we heard one-half of the love story of the year, when a famed hand and foot model who married her doorman filed a $10 million lawsuit against an Upper East Side coop board that [...]
The judge who convicted NY1 political anchor Dominic Carter of attempted assault for "punching, choking, and kicking" his wife, ruled that his spouse's conflicting testimony blaming a day laborer for the attack was "preposterous."
In a written statement on the misdemeanor conviction, Judge [...]
A source at the real estate agency that leased Jude Law an apartment in the heart of NYU's campus has no sympathy for the "Hamlet "star. The actor — who has been so terrorized by his collegiate fans that he was [...]
photo by Caitlin Brown
A disabled Iraq War veteran who relies on the assistance of a service dog claims he was beaten by employees at a McDonald's in Sunset Park after being repeatedly kicked out of the fast food joint for bringing his [...]
Janine Brawer's Facebook photo
The Staten Island teenager who was run over in a chain reaction car crash in front of her high school last week has died. Janine Brawer, 17, was taken off of her respirator on Thursday after going [...]
A knife-wielding commuter stabbed a passenger to death on the D train early this morning in a fight over a seat. Cops arrested a 37-year-old man suspected of repeatedly stabbing a 36-year-old man in the neck and face when the victim refused [...]
A 16-year-old Stuyvesant High School student was caught on camera setting two fires in school bathrooms this week, according to police. Cops arrested junior Mohammed Hassan after obtaining surveillance tapes that apparently show the teen entering a seventh-floor bathroom at 1:13 [...]
This is simply disgusting. A teacher is suing the city after she slipped and fell on condoms and other garbage scattered across the floor in the High School of Art and Design. Educator Karen Hollander says she injured her head [...]
After 911 operators mistakenly dispatched firefighters to the wrong addresses in response to at least two fatal fires, the NYPD and FDNY announced that they will alter the city's emergency phone-answering system. Police phone operators will still respond to all 911 calls [...]
Journalist Dominic Carter — who is facing charges for allegedly abusing his wife — had scuffled with NY1 colleagues in the newsroom, according to the Associated Press. In a profile on the well-known political anchor, the wire service quotes NY1's general manager Steve Paulus [...]
In a time when most newspapers see their futures on the internet, the Daily News has put $150 million where it might make the least sense: brand new printing presses. The paper "heralded a new era for New York's favorite newspaper" with a gala [...]
An MTA-hired subcontractor severed a jet fuel line that was targeted by would-be terrorists in 2007, spilling 500 gallons of gasoline at the corner of Skillman Avenue and 37th Street. The workman was doing maintenance work for the MTA when he [...]
image from Pardon Me For Asking
The city has stopped a developer from completing a large rooftop addition in Carroll Gardens — but that doesn't mean it has any way to force the builder to remove the two stories of steel girders' [...]
The MTA is considering rolling out bus-only lanes on First and Second avenues that the agency says might shorten commutes between Houston Street and 125th Street. The "East Side speedway" could be laid down by September 2010, and the agency is planning to stock up [...]
Rupert Murdoch and wife Wendi Deng at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch blamed some of New York's troubles on Gov. David Paterson's blindness, which the Australian billionaire claims makes it hard for Paterson to "really know what's going on."
While [...]
While the majority of Americans aren't happy with the plan to try Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four other suspected terrorists in New York City, more New Yorkers support the plan than oppose it, according to two new studies. Based on findings from a nationwide' [...]
A Republican Arizona Congressman who opposes the plan to hold the trials for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other suspected terrorists in Manhattan asked Mayor Bloomberg how he would feel if his daughter was "kidnapped at school by a terrorist." Though Bloomberg's daughters — [...]
Crazy Coney Island news just keeps on coming. Less than a week after Mayor Bloomberg reached a $95.7 million deal to purchase 6.9 acres of the neighborhood's ailing amusement district from landowner Joe Sitt, the city has announced plans to bring ferry service back [...]
Photograph of Oreo by Stephen Chernin/AP
Despite widespread backlash against the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals for euthanizing Oreo the dog — a pit bull who miraculously survived being thrown off a six-story building only to be [...]
A judge found Councilman Charles Barron guilty of disorderly conduct for sitting in the middle of Tillary Street to protest the Sean Bell verdict. Unsurprisingly, the East New York Councilman — a one-time candidate for Brooklyn Borough President who is considering running for [...]
A day after voicing his opposition to plans to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other suspected terrorists in New York, Gov. David Paterson backtracked from those statements and blamed the press for sensationalizing [...]
The MTA's $200 million plan to install countdown clocks at all numbered train line stations is moving forward, though it's already running slightly behind schedule, the Times reports. By the end of next month, MTA NYC Transit will start the clocks [...]
