Here's an interesting sidenote to the upcoming trials of five suspected 9/11 plotters — there could turn out being an awkward family reunion in the Manhattan courthouse between one of the accused terrorists and his ex-wife, who also happens to be charged with "trying to" [...]
If you can't beat them, publicly shame them. That's the strategy that Staten Island District Attorney Daniel Donovan is using at the shoplifting-plagued Staten Island Mall, where for the second year in a row his office has created a commercial showing the mug' [...]
The city's Administration for Child Services is looking into the death of an 11-month-old boy who passed away in Cypress Hills on Monday night. Police responded to a call of an infant having difficulty breathing at around [...]
A group of costume-clad commuters will turn a subway ride into a subterranean soiree. The tour guides from Levys' Unique New York will host a free, unsanctioned "Vintage Tea Party" on an antique subway train where costumed straphangers can sip tea,' [...]
New Jersey rocker Bruce Springsteen rejected an offer to perform at the inauguration of his state's Governor-Elect Chris Christie — possibly because Christie is a Republican.
Even though Christie has attended 122 Springsteen concerts and went as far as ditching [...]
Two cycling activists suspected of repainting the Bedford Avenue bike lane turned themselves in at the 90th Precinct in Williamsburg yesterday.
According to the Post, 26-year-old Quinn Hechtropf and 24-year-old Katherine Piccochi were among the bikers who used paint rollers, spray [...]
An Imam has turned an abandoned department store just two blocks away from ground zero into a place where hundreds Muslims gather for prayer every week — and he dreams of converting into a full-fledged Islamic cultural center.
After paying 4.85 million this summer to purchase [...]
Photograph by Mary Altaffer/AP
Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau will stand against former Giant Plaxico Burress' request to take part in a work release program that would allow him to spend several nights a week at home, the Daily News reports.
Just' [...]
Just weeks after a horrifying murder on the D train in which straphangers were locked in a subway car with the suspect until police arrived, a Gothamist tipster describes a scary — though thankfully less violent — [...]
Billy Joel's daughter's hospitalization following an apparent suicide attempt occurred just days after the 23-year-old singer returned home from a "dysfunctional family getaway" with her supermodel mother Christie Brinkley, the Post reports.
Alexa Ray Joel spent nine days in Turks and Caicos with Brinkley [...]
Police are searching for the gunman who murdered a child protection specialist in an execution-style killing in front of her children yesterday morning. Lakisha Scriven, a 30-year-old supervisor for caseworkers for the Administration for Child Services, was leaning into her [...]
photos from Gothamist reader Sam
Williamsburg cyclists got a new bike lane on Bedford Avenue yesterday morning, but they lost one last night when dozens of cars obstructed the cycling path on Kent Avenue. Just hours after biking activists repainted a [...]
The woman whose false rape allegations put an innocent man behind bars for four years lied because she wanted her friends to feel sorry for her, according to the Post.
Biurny Peguero Gonzalez pleaded guilty to [...]
The recently re-painted Bedford Avenue bike lane
The biking activists responsible for repainting the Bedford Avenue bike lane have shared video of their actions with Gothamist. After the city controversially decided to remove the bike lane from a 14-block stretch of [...]
After being hospitalized for an apparent suicide attempt, Billy Joel's daughter Alexa Ray Joel is "feeling much better," her publicist told People.
The 23-year-old singer was rushed to the St. Vincent's Hospital after what authorities said seemed to be an intentional overdose on [...]
The woman who sent an innocent man to prison for four years when she made up a story about being raped will face charges for perjury, the Post reports.
A grand jury voted to indict Biurny Peguero Gonzalez, who has confessed that she was attempting [...]
Just two months into his two-year prison sentence, former Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress is eyeing a work furlough that could let him spend anywhere from one to seven nights per week at home, the Post reports.
Burress has requested [...]
via Triborough's flickr The bus lane on 42nd Street isn't quite living up to its name, the Daily News reports. The lane is supposed to be dedicated to the M42 bus — which just last month was called out as the' [...]
A gunman shot a Bronx mother in the back of the head in an execution-style killing as she brought her children to school this morning. The perp shot Lakisha Scriven, 30, at around 7:15 am while she helped her [...]
Investigators are hunting for the man who attempted to poison an infant by delivering "toxic" breast milk to the child in a Brooklyn hospital.
After 38-year-old Kisha Jones failed to kill her husband's lovechild by convincing the seven-months-pregnant mistress to take a labor-inducing medicine, [...]
We haven't been able to verify this one with the NYPD yet, but sources tell Gothamist that police — and South Williamsburg's Shomrim Patrol — arrested two men suspected of attempting to repaint the recently-removed Bedford Avenue bike lane this' [...]
Hundreds of demonstrators protested over the weekend against the plan to try Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four other suspected 9/11 plotters in a Manhattan civilian court.
On Saturday, protesters rallied in Foley Square in front of the federal [...]
In a move that the Post reports will soon allow Columbia University undergrads "to live in sin — on their parents' dime," students will be permitted to shack up with roommates of the opposite sex in dorm rooms. The so-called "gender-neutral" housing policy could' [...]
In a decision that insiders say could prove once and for all that Rudy Giuliani isn't seriously considering another run for office, the former Mayor has accepted a long-term job as a security consultant for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Giuliani — who has' [...]
The season's hottest Christmas toy is a robotic hamster that could cause cancer in children, according to a consumer website. The rodent in question, named "Mr. Squiggles," belongs to the Zhu Zhu Pets brand and allegedly contains a high level of [...]
A 29-year-old transit cop is accused of raping an 18-year-old woman on Thanksgiving, according to the Daily News. The suspect, Shawqi Ahmed, was off-duty when he met the woman at a club and [...]
The Brooklyn mother of four suspected of trying to abort and poison her husband's lovechild told investigators she would never hurt a kid. Prosecutors told the Daily News that 38-year-old Kisha Jones said she didn't trick her husband's pregnant mistress, Monique Hunter, into' [...]
After his child was hospitalized following an apparent suicide attempt yesterday, Billy Joel says his 23-year-old daughter Alexa Ray Joel "is going to be fine."
Alexa Ray was rushed to St. Vincent's Hospital yesterday after a roommate called 911 to report an “emotionally disturbed [...]
The Bronx street where police fired 41 shots at an unarmed black man in 1999 has become an unlikely tourist attraction, according to the Daily News.
Visitors from around the world take tour buses to Wheeler Avenue to see the place where Amadou Diallo was [...]
A Queens judge threw out a patient's lawsuit against his doctor for purportedly giving him bad investment advice. John Otto, a former patient of renowned erectile dysfunction expert Dr. Arnold Melman, claimed that the physician abused [...]
Mayor Bloomberg has abandoned the most ambitious part of his plan to reduce greenhouse gases, which would have required the owners of the city's largest buildings to undergo mandatory energy audits to determine green renovations — and forced the landlords to pay [...]
Photo via MySpace
Alexa Ray Joel — Billy Joel's 23-year-old daughter — is being treated at St. Vincent's Hospital in the West Village after an overdose on sleeping pills that police are considering a suicide attempt, according to the Post.
The [...]
Just days after the New York State Senate voted down a bill to legalize same-sex marriage, the Garden State is getting ready for the debate. According to the Times, the New Jersey State Senate's Judiciary Committee is gearing up for a vote on [...]
As Mayor Bloomberg and Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau continue to beef about the $83 million in settlements, fines and forfeitures that the DA's office has stored in 62 bank accounts, inside sources tell the tabloids that personal disagreements are the cause of the [...]
A Bronx cop faces a life sentence for using his status as a police officer to help his friend run a cocaine ring. Officer Juan Acosta is accused of aiding his longtime buddy Yorick Rafael Corneil-Perez in distributing drugs by stealing cash [...]
Mayor Bloomberg says that if the City Council's planned five-minute grace period for parking violations goes into effect, there will be "chaos" on the streets. Based on this Daily News article, that already seems to be the case [...]
Sasha Blair-Goldensohn, with his daughter
The 33-year-old who suffered brain and spinal injuries this summer when he was struck by a falling tree limb in Central Park is suing the city and the Central Park Conservancy for negligence.
Sasha Blair-Goldensohn remains hospitalized [...]
A Brooklyn wife tried to kill her husband's child with another woman — first by slipping the mistress a medicine to induce abortion, then by attempting to poison the baby with tainted breast milk, according to cops.
In late October, after learning that her husband [...]
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 [...]
