The Inquisitr » New York

Hostage situation at upstate NY high school reportedly stable

Kim LaCapria — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:19:43 +0000

A gunman who reportedly took a high school principal hostage at Stissing Mountain middle and high school in upstate New York is said to have been taken into custody.

Reports from a local news source indicate that students are being released after the school was put on lockdown during the situation. By about 9:30, around 100 students from the school in Pine Plains had been evacuated. The situation in the middle school principal’s office is said to be stable and the gunman is reportedly the parent of a middle school student.

Parents are being asked to convene at the Stissing Mountain House restaurant, on the corner of Route 82 and Route 199 near the school.

[Source: Poughkeepsie Journal]

Former NY Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik Pleads Guilty To Corruption

AHN — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:07:13 +0000

White Plains, NY (AHN) – A little over two weeks after being jailed for having attempted to influence potential jurors, former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik admitted on Thursday to corruption and lying to the government when he was being screened for the post of secretary of Homeland Security.

The 54-year-old Kerik pleaded guilty to eight charges, including five counts of making false statements to the federal government. He confessed to failing to disclose $255,000 in renovations to his Riverdale, New York apartment by a contractor, Interstate, which had sought to do business with the city when he was police commissioner in 1999 and 2000.

Kerik was indicted in 2007 on the corruption charges, including his failure to report $236,000 in rent payments for a Manhattan apartment, and taking $80,000 in false charitable deductions in his tax filings. In May, he was indicted for lying to White House officials while he was being interviewed for a Cabinet post.

When he was being vetted for Homeland Security secretary in 2004, Kerik had told Bush administration officials that he had, as police commissioner, no financial dealings with the contractor that renovated his home. He also lied in an email he sent to the White House about the renovations.

Last month, Kerik’s $500,000 bail was revoked after he revealed confidential information for his trial to a legal defense fund, an attempt to influence jurors, according to prosecutors.

Kerik, who was police commissioner during 9/11 and had served as Interim Minister of Interior of Iraq after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, faces up to 61 years in prison for all the charges. He has agreed to pay $187,931 in restitution, but may be ordered to other fines when he is sentenced on Feb. 10.

Temporary 9/11 Memorial Set On Fire

AHN — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 23:08:35 +0000

New York, NY (AHN) – A section of Memorial Park, which houses the remains of 9/11 victims, was set on fire Saturday morning. Police arrested a 26-year-old man in connection with the alleged arson.

Brian Schroeder will likely face criminal mischief and arson charges.

Memorial Park is a large white tent in east midtown Manhattan. The remains housed there will eventually be relocated to the World Trade Center Memorial once it is completed.

Police and firefighters responded to reports of a fire at the park’s chapel at around 9 a.m. Saturday morning. A bench and some momentos left by family members were damaged in the fire. Schroeder turned himself in to police Saturday night.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg told reporters that the person responsible for the fire is “craven and contemptible,” according to the New York Times.

GOP To Force Vote On Whether To Remove Rangel As Committee Chair

AHN — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 19:10:27 +0000

House Republicans on Wednesday introduce a measure calling for Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) to step down as the nation’s top tax-law writer. Democrats are expected to easily block the measure just as they have done so in previous efforts to sanction Rangel during the more than one year that he has been embroiled in tax and ethics controversies.

House Republican Conference Secretary John Carter (R-TX) will offer a privileged resolution calling for Rangel to resign as chairman of the Ways and Means panel until an Ethics Committee probe, now on its 16th month, is concluded.

“To allow Mr. Rangel to continue to serve as Chairman of the very committee with IRS oversight, without paying a nickel in penalties, and with no end in sight to his ethics investigation, sends a clear message to the American public that this government refuses to abide by the same laws they impose on the working people of this country,” Carter said.

“With this vote, those people can see exactly where their representative stands on the issue of equality under the law,” he added.

Rangel has been facing calls to step down from his chairmanship since July last year, when Democrats successfully voted down a resolution from Republicans publicly censuring him for “dishonor[ing] himself and [bringing] discredit to the House.”

The House Ethics panel has been investigating his failure to report in tax returns more than $75,000 in income from a villa at the Punta Cana Yacht Club in the Dominican Republic, for allegedly using rent-controlled apartments for below-market rates, and inappropriately storing his car, a 1972 Mercedes Benz with an expired license plate, in the Congressional parking garage.

The 79-year-old congressman last year issued six checks worth $10,800 in total to the Internal Revenue Service and the state of New York to pay back taxes from his Dominican Republic villa. He also hired a forensic accountant after admitting to discovering more inaccuracies in his tax returns from as far back as decades ago.

In August, he amended his 2007 disclosure form to include a $250,000 account at the Congressional Federal Credit Union, a Merrill Lynch Allianz portfolio fund worth at least $250,000. He also declared that he owns land in New Jersey worth $3,000, and shares of PepsiCo and Yum! Brands, which operates KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and Long John Silver’s.

The vote on Carter’s resolution comes nearly a year after the Democratic Caucus voted to keep Rangel as Ways and Means chairman. Several publications, including the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, have called for his resignation from the panel.

Rapper Shyne to be freed from prison today

Kim LaCapria — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 15:31:56 +0000

Shyne, the rapper who was jailed for a high-profile NYC club shooting incident involving P. Diddy and Jennifer Lopez, is set to be released from an upstate New York correctional facility after serving over eight years.

Shyne, born Jamal Barrow and now known as Moses Michael Leviy, has been in prison since 2001. Over the years there has been speculation that Shyne took the fall for higher-profile stars, and Shyne does seem to harbor some animosity towards Diddy, who did not serve time in relation to the incident:

“How do you call a witness to testify against your comrade? That don’t make no sense. If I’m telling you that [the club bouncer] is lying, and you saying ‘Well hey, she’s helping me’ — I’m facing 25 years. You looking at probation,” Shyne explained in an interview with MTV.

“Those types of things are unacceptable. You don’t have to hold my hand, you don’t have to do nothing. But don’t try to hurt me. That’s intentional,” he added.

Diddy called into Hot97 recently and expressed excitement at Shyne’s impending release.

“It’s a blessing that he’s coming home…I spoke to him like a couple of weeks ago and he sounded like he was in good spirits. I know he can’t wait to get home. I know he is definitely going to heat the whole scene up. He was definitely one of [many] talented young artists that I had the pleasure to work with. I’m quite sure he’s been using his time wisely and has some heat.”

NYC-area DJ Mr. Magic dies of heart attack

Kim LaCapria — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 16:16:41 +0000

Mr. Magic, an influential NYC DJ who has been namechecked on tracks by Nas, Biggie and Tupac, has died of a heart attack.

Alongside Marley Marl, Mr. Magic began hosting the first all hip-hop radio show (”Rap Attack”) in New York in 1983. For the next six years, Mr. Magic was a instrumental in bringing hip-hop to listeners, feuding with fellow area radio host DJ Red Alert. He also made an appearance as himself in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.

Hot 97’s resident gossipmonger Miss Info posted a letter this morning from DJ Premier confirming Mr. Magic’s death and eulogizing him:

I WANT TO SEND OUT THE UTMOST RESPECT AND CONDOLENCES TO THE MEMORY OF JOHN RIVAS—-aka MR. MAGIC

HE PASSED AWAY THIS MORNING OF A HEART ATTACK…..

TRUE HIP HOP HEADS KNOW THAT HIS HISTORY IS SO LONG
DUE TO HIM BEING THE FIRST RAP MIXSHOW TO EVER BE ON COMMERCIAL RADIO ON NEW YORK’S WBLS–(107.5) WITH MARLEY MARL AND FLY TY IN 1982-1984…….THEN WENT ON TO WHBI IN OCTOBER OF 1984 AND THEN
BACK TO WBLS in 1985 and WDAS in Philly SIMULTANEOUSLY

HE PAVED THE WAY FOR ALL RADIO STATIONS THAT EVER DID MIXSHOWS AND ALSO SPARKED THE CAREER OF BOOGIE DOWN PRODUCTIONS DUE TO THE DISS HE SHOWED WHEN THEY CAME TO SHOP THEIR DEMO TO HIM AND WAS TURNED AWAY WHICH THEN SPARKED “SOUTH BRONX” AND “THE BRIDGE IS OVER”…….

HE WAS KNOWN FOR HIS DIRECT AND SARCASTIC ATTITUDE ON THE AIR AND EVERY ARTIST WANTED HIS APPROVAL WHEN IT CAME TO BREAKING NEW RECORDS……..HE EVEN HAD SONGS DEDICATED TO HIM BY THE LEGENDARY WHODINI–(”MR. MAGIC’S WAND”) WHICH WAS SURPRISINGLY PRODUCED BY ONE OF MY FAVORITE ARTISTS THOMAS DOLBY…….

SHOUTS OUT TO MARLEY MARL AND FLY TY FOR THE CORRECT INFORMATION ON THIS……

REST IN PEACE MR. MAGIC………….DJ PREMIER

[Source: Gawker]

Foursquare games Twitter, moves into local ads

Kim LaCapria — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 22:02:05 +0000

Fledgling social networking site Foursquare has a new trick up its sleeve that may lure users from Twitter.

While Twitter has a strong foothold, a celebrity following and heavy media presence, Foursquare is poised to rapidly gain ground by connecting with local advertisers. Twitter is very organic, notorious for not having a business plan and lacking a clear way to check some cheddar. Clever Foursquare is strategically targeting local businesses in a bid to grow networks and get more users playing. The company recently hooked up with 8Coupons, which lacks the social nature of Foursquare- it will be interesting to see how that pans out. The competitive aspect is a draw as well- Robert Scoble posted about the addictive nature of getting points for doing the stuff you do normally, and becoming “mayor” of local bars and restaurants:

The game gives you points for doing various checkins. If you do a lot of checkins everyday you get more points. You also get badges (which are sort of like achievements on Xbox games) for doing various things. For instance, I checked in so much at the Half Moon Bay Ritz that I became the Mayor of that location. It’s a lot of fun and great bragging rights.

Yeah, still sounds lame, huh?

But I think this lame little location game is going to be bigger than Twitter.

Why? Because eventually businesses will learn that this is an even better way to engage with customers than Twitter is.

Why? Because when you know your customers location the way this game is going to let you know you can really do some wild offers.

He goes on to predict that it will be less than “400 days” before Oprah’s playing Foursquare.

Foursquare’s “for business” page highlights some examples of offers for users, with businesses often offering mayoral privileges like happy hour pricing or free beer. The reciprocal nature has an incredible amount of potential, because it really fires up users and businesses to connect as much as possible for maximum benefits and loyalty points- like a free coffee every so often at your local coffee shop. The more you use it, the more you get from it in terms of rewards on both sides of the equation. And the interface awards users with badges based on their socializing habits, some of which are city-specific. In NYC, there are badges like “Brooklyn 4 Life” after 25 checkins in BK, “Far Far Away” in the unlikely event anyone ventures above 59th Street and “I’m On A Boat,” which appears to be related to water proximity.

I have to admit to not using it much, though it seems to have a lot of promise. Long Island, full of bedroom communities to Manhattan, hasn’t been added to the network, so those of us who are city-local but telecommute have to watch from the sidelines for the time being. Which is a shame, because metro areas like this one have a lot of promise as far as venues go- but that also may change. When cash flowed into the start-up earlier this month, Foursquare announced plans to allow users to populate the venue listings. Where’s our “Amy Fisher” badge for too many trips to the Massapequa Mall?

Remembering 9/11, from space

Kim LaCapria — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 17:05:51 +0000

As a New Yorker who was in the city of Cork in Ireland on September 11th, I’ve always asked people where they were and how events transpired on that day.

It’s a strange feeling being away from the only place you’ve called home on the most defining day of its history in recent memory. Being abroad gave a different perspective- I’d not have believed that Ireland would be as affected if I’d not seen it with my own eyes. I remember the moment I really processed what was happening back at home. My Irish mother in law had called for what must have been the fifth time on the hour-long drive to Cork- but this time to inform us that New York was under attack. My husband turned on the radio and reports had started to come in that people- as in more than one person, perhaps dozens- were leaping and falling to their depths below from the towering buildings I’d commuted under hundreds of times in college. At the time, we wondered how many more would die before they were rescued from the rooftops. It seems naive at the time, but the idea that rescue would never come never crossed our minds. The ensuing demise of so many of the NYFD- 343 of them, all heading up into the massive inferno to their deaths- would have been unimaginable.

Transmissions filtered through to RTE and BBC channels from CNN and 1010wins and the day we left, on the first flight out of Shannon since the attacks, the entire country halted in a national “Day of Mourning.” (Though even then, albeit sparingly, people in England and Ireland had begun casting blame at America for spurring on the attacks, much to my horror and again, naivete.) I’d get my first and only first-hand glimpse of the destruction driving to my home in Babylon through Newark- the smoke plumed from the site in indescribable volume, visible from over an hour away on Long Island. It was one of many breath-snatching moments in the blur of days following the attacks, but something that seeing with my own eyes made horribly, indescribably real.

The picture above shows a NASA satellite image of the fire, visible in the sky from many miles above. And again, as I look at it, the horror I felt at the destruction of lower Manhattan doesn’t feel all that far away eight years on. And as I’ve asked of many people since, I’d like to know- where were you when you found out? When did it hit you?

[Image: Gizmodo]

Want a celebrity baby? There’s sperm for that.

Steven Hodson — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 20:30:00 +0000

Typically sperm banks have used the selling power of brains over beauty. High IQ’s through smart people looking to spread their genome for so much a pop. That is what typically brings people in need, or desire, to the high priced sperm banks that promise discretion and excellent SAT scores.

But our world is changing and celebrities of all kinds are the new models of what people want for their children, and the more famous the better. Hence the arrival of celebrity look-a-like sperm banks like the one that has seen a Los Angeles based sperm bank, California Cryobank, spin-off a celebrity-inspired Donor Look-A-Like service.

The service has proven to be so popular, with 300 percent more traffic to their main site than usual, that the company is opening a branch in New York. Of course the donors aren’t the celebrities themselves but rather men who look like some celebrity which means there is a lot of subjective decision making going on.

The company’s process of attributing a celebrity to a donor could never be termed scientific. Male and female employees of varying ages make up the assigning committee. They meet, put each donor’s picture up on a projector, and then argue about whom he looks like. Scott Brown, California Cryobank’s communications manager, says it’s more complex than it seems. “There’s a lot that goes into it. It’s not just sitting in a room deciding who looks like Ben Affleck,” he says. “What sounded really easy got complicated when we realized that people see people in completely different ways. So we’re very concerned about misleading clients. One rule we made was that a donor never gets just one celeb. And one of our representatives can always get on the phone and explain.”

Source: Daily Intel – Dreaming of Celebrity Genes: Donor Look-A-Like Sperm Bank Comes to NYC

The really sad thing about this is that I an see it being a booming business.

At it again: Zack Hyman gets Kathleen Neill arrested at the Met

Kim LaCapria — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 18:19:07 +0000

Zack Hyman, who made headlines earlier this week with his subway snaps of naked girls on the L train, is in the news again.

This time, he didn’t get away with it. Or rather, his model, Kathleen Neill (also known as KC) was popped at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for stripping off amongst the nudes. Hyman practiced his usually strip-and-snap routine, but for the first time, the model was caught by police.

As Neill moved to leave the museum, she was detained by an employee until police arrived. The guard explained (without a hint of irony in a museum full of “nudie cuties”):

“I had to make sure that girl was turned over to the police.

“There were little kids in here watching the whole thing.”

Hyman wasn’t charged, but his model was, with public lewdness. Hyman and Neill said of the controversy:

Hyman asked, “Why is this wrong? There were thousands of people in the Met today looking at nudes as art, but as soon as there is a real nude, it’s a big problem.”

Neill had the same question, which she posed to the security guard who detained her.

“She told me there were naked statues everywhere,” the guard said. “I said, ‘Those statues are 400 years old. You’re from the 21st century.’ “

[Source: New York Post]

75 Bedford St. hallway with a window will cost you $2.7m

Kim LaCapria — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 21:26:43 +0000

Be grateful, rest of the country, that you do not live in such a stupid real estate market.

75 1/2 Bedford Street (yes, it doesn’t even warrant its own whole house number) is in the news today after hitting the market at $2.7m. At 990 square feet (and three floors) that’s $2,777 per square foot. The house sold in 1994 for $270,000, and that owner did about $200K worth of renovations. It sold again in 2000 for $1.6m, but has location, location, location appreciated that much?

Selling points include being (only in New York) the narrowest house in Manhattan and former tenants including Edna St. Vincent Millay. The house also boasts a shared backyard and a skylight. And each floor has a whole nine feet of width to sprawl out in- luxurious by NYC standards.

Recent estimates place the house’s value at $2.5m, but the market has been soft since then. Still, Corcoran broker Alex Nicholas is confident the house will fetch the hefty price tag. Nicholas says:

“It’s a unique space – one of a kind.”

PICS: Zach Hyman snaps Jocelyn Saldana naked on NYC subway

Kim LaCapria — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 20:45:07 +0000

…just in time for his show’s opening at the Chair and Maiden gallery on Christopher Street tonight, Zach Hyman’s naked subway snaps are grabbing headlines.

Like Jordan Matter and her book Uncovered: Women in Word and Image, Zach’s got a habit of snapping models naked in places like Times Square. Unlike Matter, he did it on the L train. Ewwww…

Hyman’s shoot took 30 seconds, and most riders remained blase. One woman screamed and and elderly lady started shaking, but other than that, no one really took notice. Still, Hyman travels with “bail money” and keeps his lawyer on speed dial. And if he gets arrested, he’s pretty unconcerned:

“In Times Square, there are cops everywhere,” Hyman said. “It seemed that always right before or after the shoot, a cop car would roll by. Thankfully, we never needed bail money. But I have a clean record, so I’m open to the experience of getting arrested.”

[Source: CBS, NYPost]

Foot Found In New York Recycling Plant Possibly From Toronto Garbage

AHN — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 11:29:43 +0000

Seneca, NY (AHN) – New York police officers are investigating how a foot severed above the right ankle ended up at the Casella Recycling transfer station in Seneca, New York. Among the theories being studied is that the foot might have originated from Toronto, where piles of uncollected garbage, due to a strike, accumulated.

The police theory is that the foot arrived between July 29 and Aug. 3, which was about the time Toronto city workers lifted their six-week strike and started to collect the city’s trash. For that six-day period 136 garbage trucks dumped their contents at the Casella station, mostly from 15 counties from New York.

However, New York’s Ontario County sheriff Philip Povero said the trash has distinctly Canadian characteristics. Casella vice president Joseph Fusco confirmed that for the past two weeks tons of Toronto garbage were delivered to their facility.

With Toronto still recovering from the job walk-off, there are reports that residents are mixing recycle trash with organic waste and that garbage collectors are collecting the mixed lot. Toronto Solid Waste Department head Geoff Rathbone denied the report.

According to city hall, since blue bin, green bin and garbage collection services had resumed in Ontario’s capital city, about 25,000 tons of piled up trash has been removed from temporary dump sites and about 5,000 street litter bins have been cleaned up.

Jordan Matter’s Uncovered shows us NYC, with boobs

Kim LaCapria — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 17:18:41 +0000

We call it the naked city, but did you know getting your tatas out ain’t so illegal up in here?

Jordan Matter’s new book Uncovered: Women In Word and Image was inspired by Janet Jackson’s most controversial nip-slip of all time at the Superbowl. If someone just moved the rock, Jackson’s nipple was exposed for a nanosecond under some kind of weird nipple dungeon and American freaked the frick out. Most Americans were terrified for the children (who may or may not have been eating from breasts directly before seeing one on TV) but Chris Rock did say “right idea, wrong titty.”

Matter said she began thinking about the “culture of covering up,” and the idea for the book came about. It makes sense- despite being perfectly legal, I would see many topless men on warm days in Manhattan and Brooklyn, but never a set of tatas on the C train. Such a double standard.

Matter snaps women out and about in the city, and uses women of a variety of ages and body shapes- it’s not just Girls Gone Wild: The Lexington Avenue Line. Below are some mildly NSFW excerpts of breasts in the wild in New York.

[Via: The Frisky]

Homeless teens set out to change New York rooftops

Steven Hodson — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 00:26:11 +0000

One of the hot topics in the whole ‘green’ movement is the idea of turning city rooftops into living green spaces with everything from gardens growing vegetables to small parks. In New York this challenge is being taken up by the most unlikely of groups of people – the homeless kids that live in the city.

At-risk teens who live at Covenant House, a homeless shelter in New York, have decided that they want to make a change in the city they call home and have set about to create a citywide “skyscraper garden” across Manhattan. A roof of a nine-story building in midtown Manhattan is their first project that they have completed and was done in collaboration with Seeding the City.

Through the program they will be water and tending the seedlings that will be planted on other roofs around the city. the hope is that by the time they are done they will have help to create a rooftop garden that is spread across the whole city.

hat tip to Treehugger

Basking Shark washes up on New York beach

Duncan Riley — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 00:01:44 +0000

A 20 foot (6m) long, one ton basking shark has washed up on a beach on Long Island, New York.

According to reports the shark is alive but is believed to be dying from an unknown illness. There are no marks on the shark suggesting that it wasn’t hit by a boat or attacked by other sharks.

Basking sharks are the second largest living sharks and are common in the waters off New York, although not so commonly found on New York breaches. The species is classified as vulnerable, and gets the name basking shark because it is most often observed when feeding at the surface and appears to be basking. Unlike a range of its relatives, the basking shark is considered harmless and is a “filter feeder,” that is it eats by straining suspended matter and food particles from water.

A video of the basking shark from a local New York TV station as follows:

Calvin Klein billboard showing threesome not universally loved (pic)

Duncan Riley — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:31:44 +0000

A new Calvin Klein billboard in New York is receiving flack for its depiction of a threesome.

The billboard (pictured above) shows a semi-naked woman on top of a shirtless man, making out with a second shirtless man. Just for good measure, there’s another guy in the shot, pants and shirt undone lying in front of the threesome.

Critics have slammed the billboard as being overly sexual and pornographic in nature, and claim that it’s not suitable for children. Vox pops from a number of news outlets also found that people on the street also believe that the billboard goes too far.

Calvin Klein has long been known for this sort of advertising so this billboard isn’t exactly a huge surprise, but have they overstepped the mark this time? What do you think?

1. Dress as a school girl 2. Get free feed in NY 3. ??? 4. Profit

Duncan Riley — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 06:47:07 +0000

New York restaurant Park Avenue Winter are celebrating the return of the new series of Gossip Girl with a promotion: free food for women dressed in a schoolgirl uniform.

The fetishists delight has resulted in over 250 women making reservations to collect their free food for each night during the promotion, and a ton of free publicity, both local and (naturally) a news crew from Japan.

Eater.com makes the following warning: “service advisory to both regulars and the all you creeptastic men out there: it’ll be a circus here for the rest of the week.”

Authorities Warn: Stay Away from the Wild Turkey in New York’s Central Park

Duncan Riley — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 05:30:32 +0000

New York residents have been warned to stay away from a wild turkey that has taken up residence in Central Park.

The turkey, the bird kind, not the drink are common along the East Coast, but are rarely seen in city areas, and experts aren’t sure how it go there. Wild turkey’s can and do fly, but usually fly close to the ground for no more than a quarter mile (400 m) at a time. To get to Central Park would have meant negotiating Manhattan traffic, and that would have been a challenge.

The turkey was last spotted scrounging for food near Wollman Rink according to a local report, but quickly disappeared.

It’s hoped the turkey will move on in the spring.

New York City Gets a Google Earth Makeover

JR — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 18:20:19 +0000

Google Earth has given New York City a major makeover, and the difference is impossible not to notice.

The newly updated Big Apple images boast hundreds of new fully textured buildings — nearly every building in Manhattan Island, the Google Earth team says.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Not quite the same as a real, in-person tour — but not too shabby for a virtual view.

The Google Earth program, of course, lets you tilt up and down to check out all the details. You can even fly around the buildings Spiderman-style. Just remember: With great power comes great responsibility.