Medical marijuana advocates protest outside the Somerset courthouse. 37-year-old John Ray Wilson has multiple sclerosis, and he's found that smoking the leaves of a certain plant helps alleviate his symptoms. So he grew 17 of the plants in the ground on his property.' [...]
After freaking out street vendors and the bloggers who love them yesterday, the Health Department has emailed us to say it was all a big misunderstanding. A provision in the Health Department's new code [pdf] raised eyebrows by declaring that "no fish, shellfish," [...]
This is the man who was fatally run over by a southbound B train at the Central Park West and 110th St. station; his name was Shem Herman and he was the father of a 2-year-old son, Dylan. The 33-year-old Washington Heights man had [...]
The porn was on, but there was nobody home. An NYPD officer inspecting a Bronx narcotics unit last week found a soft-core porn movie playing on one of the TVs in the facility, sources tell the Post. But there was nobody watching it, because [...]
GadgetLam's Flickr Shake Shack, Danny Meyer's insanely popular upscale burger joint, is expanding, with new Manhattan locations planned for the theater district and the Upper East Side (as well as the previously announced Nolita outpost, plus Miami Beach and Kuwait). [...]
Senator Chuck Schumer is doing damage control today after he was overheard calling a flight attendant a bitch. The Pool Party lover was sitting next to Senator Kirsten Gillibrand aboard a US Airways shuttle as the crew prepared to begin a flight from New [...]
Today's frivolous lawsuit that will probably flush away more of your tax dollars in an out of court settlement: A Queens teenager is suing the city because she broke her ankle in a base sliding drill during high school softball practice. Francis Lewis High School [...]
Mayor Bloomberg is heading back to New York after participating in the UN conference on climate change in Copenhagen, where he joined dozens of the other mayors in signing a joint declaration urging world leaders "to embrace this chance and seal an ambitious and" [...]
This week Sam Sifton at the Times files a twofer on impresario Jeffrey Chodorow's restaurants Tanuki Tavern and Ed's Chowder House. This is exciting because Chodorow famously bought full page ads in the Times after Sifton's predecessor, Frank Bruni, slammed his ventures [...]
Courtesy Oscilloscope Laboratories At the beginning of 2008, Brooklyn-born musician and filmmaker Adam Yauch (famous for his work with a little hip-hop trio called the Beastie Boys) launched a movie distribution company called Oscilloscope Laboratories with ThinkFilm vice president David [...]
Last month Attorney General Andrew Cuomo filed a lawsuit against the United Homeless Organization, accusing the group of running a scam that funnels money to the bosses at the top and the workers who solicit donations throughout Manhattan, in the name of "helping the" [...]
Sardines at the Atlantic Antic On January 1st a little-noticed Health Department rule will take effect, prohibiting street vendors from selling any seafood products. This is going to put a dent in the business of such vendors as the Schnitzel Truck, the Endless [...]
The city will debut a special limited-edition condom package next fall, and the Health Department is holding a contest to pick the new look. They're calling for designs that reflect NYC's "distinctive culture and style while also promoting safer sex." As they put it
[UPDATE BELOW] As the current owners of Tavern on the Green prepare to clear out and auction off everything inside the storied Central Park restaurant, it's still far from clear that the place will reopen any time soon under new management. Cantankerous Steve' [...]
In what is being described as a "high-profile event" tomorrow, Governor Paterson will sign an executive order extending legal protections to transgender employees of New York State. (The order applies only to state employees under the executive branch—not to the private sector.) Sources tell [...]
The line at the Halal Chicken and Gyro at 53rd and Sixth. (Courtesy The Eaten Path) A man who witnessed his young friend's murder after a dispute at a popular Halal chicken and gyro street stand has admitted that he lied [...]
Hadassah Lieberman The wife of Senator Joe Lieberman—whom the Times dubs a "master infuriator" for his recent threat to join a Republican filibuster unless Democrats drop a plan to let uninsured Americans under 55 purchase coverage under Medicare—is in the cross hairs. [...]
Actor Michael Stuhlbarg was nominated for a Golden Globe for his performance in the Coen brothers' A Serious Man
Up in the Air is up on top of the Golden Globe award contenders (full list after the jump), receiving six nominations,' [...]
Jeff Fisher The NYPD has not revealed any more details about a man who was charged over the weekend with ten felony counts of using Manhattan pay phones to make "terroristic threats" to kill Mayor Bloomberg. Jeffrey Fisher of Philadelphia (not [...]
Peter Ehrlich/NYCsubway.org An unidentified man was fatally struck by a southbound B train last night around 7:30 at the Central Park West and 110th St. station. Witnesses told police the man, an Hispanic male from Washington Heights in his mid-30s, was engaged [...]
Methamphetamine has reached its lowest popularity among teens in years, according to surveys of eighth, 10th, and 12th graders. The number of high school seniors reporting they used crystal meth in the past year is now at only 1.2 percent. (In 1999, it was [...]
Brooklyn comic Eugene Mirman is spending the week in Copenhagen, covering the protests coinciding with the UN Climate Change Conference for Grist. He reports that over the weekend, "somewhere between 50,000 - 100,000 protesters marched without incident, even when I teased them." Our favorite part of this video [...]
The Hurt Locker is picking up critical momentum as Hollywood heads into Academy Awards season. After nabbing the "best film" prize from the LA Film Critics Association, director Kathryn Bigelow's taut Iraq war drama has been named best film by the New York [...]
Bike riders weren't the only ones demonstrating in the rain yesterday; in Times Square a small but annoying group gathered to protest a Congressional proposal to tax breast augmentations, facelifts, tummy tucks and other procedures, as a way to fund a health care bill. The protest was organized by' [...]
Since May, a Philadelphia man has used Manhattan payphones to make 10 calls to 911 threatening to kill Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Kelly, authorities tell NBCNewYork.com. Jeffrey Fisher, 48, is being held on $100,000 bail after his arraignment Saturday in Manhattan Criminal Court [...]
Smoothdude's Flickr When fares rose to $2.25 and the state legislature bailed out the MTA in May, it was with the understanding that there would be no service cuts. But now the MTA's "doomsday" scenario has been revived in [...]
NYC has the second highest cell phone tax rate in America, according to a study released by Representative Anthony Weiner, the Vice Chair of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet. His report shows that New Yorkers pay ten cell [...]
[UPDATE BELOW] On the same day that a woman was killed while riding her bike in Greenpoint, protesters denounced the Bloomberg administration for removing a 14-block stretch of bike lane on Bedford Avenue in South Williamsburg. Approximately 15 cyclists braved the [...]
Well, the title of this video pretty much says it all. Making good on their promise to make a commercial for their vivid ad campaign discouraging sugary drink consumption, the NYC Health Department has just released this little opus. If you like Garbage Pail Kids, you'll love this:
The' [...]
Independent Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman surprised Democrats yesterday by declaring he would vote against the Senate health care bill in its current form. In an interview on Face the Nation, Lieberman said that he would "have a hard time" voting for the bill if [...]
Pavel Antonov
Noël Coward's Brief Encounter, a classic 1945 British film directed by David Lean and adapted from Coward's one-act play Still Life, tells the story of a middle-class London mom's forbidden romance with a dashing married doctor. Every Thursday, Laura heads into' [...]
A group of Palestinian and Israeli families who have lost loved ones in the inexorable conflict have united to present a traveling exhibit of editorial cartoons that address the situation. The show, called "Cartoons in Conflicts," [...]
Gino, an old school restaurant on the Upper East Side famous for its zebra wallpaper, chicken cacciatore, and "greatest generation" clientele, is in trouble. Profits have gone down by as much as 70 percent in the last couple of years, and owners and unionized workers [...]
On the afternoon of December 3rd, two men, Jesus Muñoz, 38, and Joseph Cartagena, 21, found a 2008 beige and gold Lexus parked on West 81st Street with the keys inside. But instead of counting their blessings and using their new-found wheels for a road [...]
Yet another employee is suing the New York Post, accusing the editors and reporters at the tabloid of racist and sexual harassment. You'll recall that former editor Sandra Guzman filed a discrimination lawsuit in November, describing the Post newsroom as a male-dominated frat house' [...]
Katie Sokoler/Gothamist
After less than nine months in business, the ambitiously-designed sustainable seafood restaurant Harbour has gone down to Davy Jones. The publicist writes, "Yes, Harbour has closed. After much success but struggles due to their location, they have decided to" [...]
Investigators have previously said that "everyone's hand was out" for bribes at SLA, and now two women have been caught planning to bribe liquor authority officials to help speed up a booze license approval. A court ordered wiretap allegedly found that Annie Guerrero, the [...]
Twitter user WmsbgNews captioned this photo "DOT painted black the line painted by the Hipsters."
The saga continues: At some point last night or early this morning, the impromptu bike lane painted by activists on Bedford Avenue in South Williamsburg was [...]
The line at the Halal Chicken and Gyro at 53rd and Sixth. (Courtesy The Eaten Path) The man accused of fatally stabbing a teenager who cut the line at a popular midtown gyro and chicken cart told the officer who arrested [...]
Four waitresses at the super douchey Nolita "hotspot" Cafe Habana are suing the owner for fostering a "sexually charged environment." Known for its celebrity clientele, attractive staff, and Mexican grilled corn, the tiny restaurant has been a favorite of "keeping it real" stars like Josh [...]
NYC's Bicycle Access to Buildings Law takes effect tomorrow, requiring commercial buildings to allow tenants to bring their bicycles into offices using the freight elevator. If your employer approves your request to bring your bike up into the office, he or she can submit' [...]
While those space age automated public toilets—or A.P.T.s, as they're known in the business—have been getting all the attention lately, one atavistic bathroom experience is still quietly savored by the public at Herald and Greeley Squares. It involves actual human attendants, who clean and' [...]
Brooklyn cycling activists angry about the Bedford Avenue bike lane removal are in Copenhagen and waiting to confront Mayor Bloomberg when he arrives on Monday for the international climate change conference. Baruch Herzfeld, an Orthodox Jew who runs a South Williamsburg bike clubhouse, [...]
It appears that last week's story about senior bankers at Goldman Sachs arming themselves with handguns to fend off a "populist uprising" was just that: a story. Reporting for Bloomberg News, Alice Schroeder wrote, "New York Police Department has told me that ‘as" [...]
Tarlach MacNiallais Tarlach MacNiallais is a gay activist from Belfast who helps run the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization, which fights for homosexual inclusion in NYC's annual St. Patrick's Day Parade. Around 12:30 a.m. on Saturday, he says two security guards [...]
Bring it on, thieves: Ozone Park octogenarian Harry Luft is ready. Sure, you may have burglarized his house three times in the past 20 years, but just try it one more time. Luft will be wide awake and waiting, monitoring the perimeter of his small [...]
When parishioners at The Glory of Christ Church in the Parkchester section of The Bronx arrived for service on Sunday morning, they found their church—located in a formerly run-down synagogue that they'd lovingly rescued from decay—reduced to a smoldering ruin. The fire, which broke out' [...]
NYC Transit is having fun with Twitter, and today started a new, interactive feature, "What Up Wednesdays." They're soliciting "Questions about the subway system? We're here to answer up to 5/day. Play nice, please." So what is up today? "The longest subway line w/o" [...]
Quintessential New York reporter Jimmy Breslin was feted Monday night at NYU by former colleagues at the Daily News and Newsday, at an event that featured a surprise appearance by Tony Bennett and lots of anecdotes from Breslin's long career. When it was all over, [...]
It it's December, it must be time to visit Dyker Heights, that Brooklyn neighborhood famous for its transcendent Christmas light displays. The spectacle draws onlookers from around the world, and was immortalized in a truly hilarious documentary called [...]
Some retirees kill time between Canasta games by moping around the house feeling sorry for themselves, but not former Vice President Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney. He swung by the Fox News clubhouse yesterday with some words of wisdom for our current President, calling his [...]
In New Jersey, the legislature is poised to vote on whether gays can marry. In Uganda, they're debating legislation to kill them. Last night, Rachel Maddow interviewed an author named Richard Cohen, who says he used to be gay—until he cured himself. Now he writes books helping others' [...]
Madangsui This week Sam Sifton at the Times files enthusiastically on Madangsui, which he deems Manhattan’s best Korean barbecue restaurant. The informative review instructs readers how to order and when, plus how to eat: "Now use your chopsticks to drag a" [...]
A 5-year-old autistic boy was sent home on the wrong school bus on Monday, and his mom is on the warpath. Helen Morell says she was worried sick when her son Elijah didn't emerge from the bus outside her Highland Park home after school, and' [...]
Last week a Bronx motorist threw a ticket agent's hand-held computer to the ground during an angry dispute over a parking ticket issued minutes after his Muni-Meter expired. "I get a five-minute grace period. It was in the media, today on the news," George [...]
In a spectacular snafu, the Transportation Security Administration stupidly posted an entire airport screening procedures manual on a government website. The 93-page document included details on special screening rules for diplomats, CIA and law enforcement officers; a list of items for which screening is not [...]
57-year-old Jesus Leonardo has long hair, a beard, and spends at least ten hours a day loitering in a midtown OTB. At first glance, he may look like all the other gambling deadbeats crumpling losing tickets in their yellowing fingers, but during the past decade [...]
The Pink Tea Cup, a West Village institution beloved for its greasy ribs, pork chops, sweet potatoes and biscuits, will close January 3rd! The soul-food restaurant opened in 1957 and relocated to its current Grove Street home in 1982. An employee tells Grub [...]
Long-simmering tensions between Mayor Bloomberg and undead District Attorney Robert Morgenthau boiled over last week when the mayor's office accused the DA of quietly keeping $83 million in settlements, fines and forfeitures in 62 "secret" bank accounts. One official said Morgenthau's office kept "two" [...]
Tales of a Flaneur's Flickr The owners and managers of M. Slavin & Sons' fish distribution center in Brownsville have been hit with a federal lawsuit accusing them of subjecting black employees to a torrent of racist, sexual harassment. According to' [...]
Vintage V.D. sign spotted at Brandeis High School on the Upper West Side. (Sam Park)
In 2005, the city started an education and testing program to help STD-infected high school students, but kids today just can't seem to get enough of these' [...]
David Shephard, joined by other advocates at City Hall.
At the end of last month, three people were killed in two hit-and-run accidents in New York City; the motorist responsible for each accident was driving with a suspended license. On Staten Island, [...]
James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles In the wake of the infamous undercover pimp/prostitute videos that got the community outreach group ACORN in such hot water in September, the group hired Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger to conduct an internal investigation. The results' [...]
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn has vowed to dedicate the next four years to food. She has a dream that the city can create jobs, improve food quality, support local farmers, and improve the environment by bringing NYC's "food infrastructure" [...]
"Standing in the Middle of the Stuy Town Oval," from Marianne O'Leary's Flickr. When the state's highest court ruled in October that the new owners of Stuyvesant Town should not have raised rents beyond certain set levels while also receiving tax' [...]
Smaller-sized disposable cans of carbonated corn syrup water will arrive in NYC next week!!! The 7.5 oz Coca-Cola Mini, which has 50 fewer calories than your fat grandpa's boring old 140-calorie 12 ounce can, was celebrated yesterday by children, parents, and The Radio City [...]
Al Pacino will be reprising the role of Shylock in The Merchant of Venice in Central Park next summer, as part of The Public Theater's annual free Shakespeare series. (Pacino previously played Shylock in the 2004 film of The Merchant of Venice.) Daniel Sullivan ([...]
20 Bayard, that big hubristic building on the edge of McCarren Park in Williamsburg filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Friday, The Real Deal reports. Are there no hedge funders left who want to live above a blindingly-lit soccer field, 10 minutes [...]
Sen. Joseph Addabbo, Jr. The rhetoric is ratcheted up to 11 after last week's overwhelming rejection of same-sex marriage in the state Senate, which left gay-rights activists reeling. "It's going to be a bloodbath," one gay "operative" tells the Daily [...]
Justin Bernhaut
Those Tibetan Buddhists who spend their days toiling over sand mandalas are going about it all wrong—they'd have a lot more fun making marshmallow mandalas instead. Lovers of those gelatinous white sugar puffs will be alternately tantalized and tortured by Terrible' [...]
Before she left West Village restaurant Centro Vinoteca to embrace her new life as a Food Network star, Anne Burrell spent her days toiling in the kitchen, making killer meatball sandwiches, pasta, and offensive insults about the female front-of-house staff, a lawsuit alleges. The [...]
Mayor Bloomberg is fighting with Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, and Morgenthau is hitting back with "barnyard" vulgarity, as the Times decorously puts it. Speaking to reporters yesterday, Morgenthau said, "If you all weren't newspapers of record, I'd say these were chickenshit comments." He [...]
A rally was held in Union Square last night to support same-sex marriage. Erin M's FlickrYesterday City Council Speaker Christine Quinn urged angry New Yorkers to keep the blame focused on the politicians who voted down a bill legalizing gay' [...]
Well, here's surveillance video of armed thugs running amok in a Far Rockaway jewelry store on November 28th, in broad daylight. After locking two employees in a bathroom, the thieves handcuffed a third employee, who tries to casually walk away at the 50 second mark. He almost makes it out [...]
A analysis of Board of Elections data has determined that Charles Montgomery Burns, the nuclear power magnate immortalized in The Simpsons, would have won the recent NYC mayoral election, had it just been limited to write-in votes. A mysteriously-funded "grassroots" campaign to install Burns [...]
At midnight on December 2nd, 1984, twenty-seven tons of lethal gases leaked from Union Carbide’s pesticide factory in Bhopal, India, immediately killing 8,000 people and poisoning thousands of others. According to Bhopal.net, "There was no warning, none of the plant's safety" [...]
After agreeing to settle an explosive $600 million lawsuit filed by five female former employees, Hawaiian Tropic Zone has backed away from a deal to settle out of court for $2 million. It's a surprising move for HTZ, which is famous for its bikini-clad [...]
trippchicago's Flickr The deficit-reduction plan passed by the State Legislature yesterday cut $140 million from the authority's operating budget, which is more than the $110 million that was originally anticipated. Bus and subway fares are already expected to rise 7.5 percent [...]
You'll recall the brouhaha sparked by the video of a cop body-slamming a man off his bicycle back in the summer of '08; the officer lost his job and the cyclist, Christopher Long, filed a fat lawsuit. Well, the Post is quick [...]
A bicyclist using the dedicated lanes in Manhattan for five or six blocks will find a vehicle in the way 60% of the time, according to a new survey released by Hunter College. The report found that most vehicles obstructing bike lanes do so [...]
This shaky surveillance video shows an unidentified man brazenly slashing the tires of three NYPD Parking Enforcement cars in broad daylight on Monday in Parkchester. (It was either very windy out, or the surveillance cam was afraid it would be slashed next, because it can't stop trembling!) The cars were' [...]
New York state Senators Ruben Diaz, D-Bronx, left, and Thomas Duane, D-Manhattan, shake hands after the debate over same-sex marriage yesterday. (AP Photo/Tim Roske) In the wake of the State Senate's 38-24 rejection of a bill legalizing same-sex yesterday, advocates of gay [...]
Despite a steady rain, thousands of people amassed at Rockefeller Center last night for the annual tree lighting event. Besides the dramatic moment [...]
[UPDATE BELOW] The Occupy Everything student dissidents have sent out another video from one of their strident street demonstrations, which is always a fun way to start the day. This one is described by the group as "video of last night's incident when the police attacked students at the" [...]
Courtney McCallion (left) and Maggie Alexander Five female employees at Battery Park Swim and Fitness say they were fired after complaining to human resources about a manager who ran the place like his own personal frat house. A lawsuit filed by two of [...]
Mayor Bloomberg ignored a letter from an elderly woman begging him to stop the Parks Department from planting two trees in front of her Bronx home, where she's lived for 45 years. 76-year-old Irene McKenzie says leaves from the new trees will be enormous [...]
SaikoSakura's Flickr [UPDATE BELOW] The local chapter of the union that represents nearly 3,000 of the NBC's producers, writers and technicians is threatening to walk out during the network's "Christmas in Rockefeller Center" special tonight—potentially denying millions of viewers the pleasure [...]
Daddy teaches Joy about life's many pleasures. (Brainware3000's Flickr)
Sophia and Jayden surpassed Isabella and Daniel to become the most popular baby names in NYC, according to the Health Department's annual report [pdf] on infant nomenclature. 872 newborn males were [...]
The scene from an NYC Prop 8 protest last year. (Shield's Flickr)
After a lengthy debate, the New York State Senate voted 38-24 against a bill to legalize same-sex marriage. The Marriage Equality Act was finally brought to the floor for [...]
Passing longstanding legislative roadblocks, the State Senate has finally brought a bill to legalize same-sex marriage to the floor for a debate and vote. Here's live streaming video from the historic debate:
Watch live streaming video from nysenate at livestream.comState [...]
A bookkeeper and community organizer for the embattled antipoverty group Acorn raked in $500,000 in merchandise through a corporate rewards program with Verizon—goodies she had no right to claim, investigators say. As part of an expansive fraud that began five years ago, Donnett Davis [...]
Maurice Clemmons The Seattle cop killer who was fatally shot by a lone police officer Tuesday made a trip to Manhattan in June to tell a Riverside Drive "cyber-minister" that he was Jesus Christ. Maurice Clemmons twice approached Bishop E. Bernard Jordan, [...]
SD26 (Sparkyluck's Flickr) This week Sam Sifton at the Times tosses one measly star to SD26, the big glitzy Flatiron district reboot of San Domenico, which used to operate on Central Park South. Given the restaurant's lofty ambitions, one star is [...]
Earlier this year Queens became the latest borough to join the Edible magazine family, a national network of about 60 magazines that cover local food trends and everything artisanal. The second issue of the Queens quarterly drops later this month, and the Daily [...]
For at least a year now, the First Presbyterian Church in Brooklyn Heights has been giving parishioners parking placards for their cars when parking in the bike lane on Henry Street. The placards explain to police that occupants of the vehicle are conducting "Church Business." One local resident, Peter Kaufman, [...]
Hot on the heels of "100 Things Restaurant Servers Must Stop Doing!" and "64 Things Restaurant Patrons Must NEVER Do!" comes "30 Secrets Your Waiter Will Never Tell You," compiled from two dozen servers nationwide. It's hardly a secret that servers do [...]
Sex offenders love networking on Facebook and MySpace just like everybody else, but a 2008 law called the Electronic Security and Targeting of Online Predators Act (e-STOP) put tight restrictions on their Internet use—especially if their prior offense involved a minor. In the first major [...]
For an NYPD officer, losing your shield is a major headache, leading to lots of annoying paperwork and a penalty that can cost up to 10 days’ pay. So it's an open secret that many officers keep their actual badge at a safe at home, [...]
