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Consider yourselves warned. @GridlockSam, our favorite source of New York City traffic information, calls today "the gridlock alert day of the decade." It's going to be a traffic nightmare today as President Barack Obama is in town for three fundraisers, coinciding with the annual lighting of the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree. Obama is landing at JFK around 5 p.m., choppering in Marine One to Wall Street, and then attending three events in Greenwich Village, the Upper East Side, and West Midtown. Each neighborhood will be subject to a traffic freeze while the President is on the move. Plus, the area...

SNIPPET: "In July, the British government warned that Al Qaeda’s exploitation of social networking websites is on the rise." SNIPPET: "The massive and multifarious network of websites and social media has presented a challenge to authorities in trying to combat it. Additionally, civil liberty concerns have conflicted with government efforts to spy on communications. Reducing terrorist activity on social media sites has been particularly difficult because users have adopted new forms of communication to conform with the new formats. Many Arabic speakers on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and other sites use Arabizi, a form of colloquial Arabic written in the Latin...

A Dominican with an anti-American grudge has been busted for building a bomb in his upper Manhattan apartment to blow up a police station, sources said Sunday night. -snip- The suspect was identified through one of the al-Awlaki web sites, where he posted anti-American comments, the source said.

Downtown residents and business owners angry that their neighborhood has been occupied for two months by the Wall Street demonstration are staging a protest of the protest Monday, declaring that City Hall has let it get out of control. Angry over all-day drumming, people urinating and defecating on the streets and verbal attacks from protesters, organizers say they will rally at City Hall Monday to send officials a message. "Laws are clearly being violated and we simply want them enforced," Lower Manhattan resident Linda Gertsman told NBC New York. Exasperated residents and businesses said they are "pursuing all options," including...

NEW YORK -- An "Occupy Wall Street" protester threw a violent fit in a McDonald’s after employees refused to give him free food. Fisika Bezabeh, 27, ripped a credit-card reader from a counter and threw it at workers at about 2:30am local time Friday at the downtown Manhattan restaurant, which has become a bathroom spot for protesters.

Families Terrorized By Swarms Of Underground Insects That Invade Homes NEW YORK (CBS 2) — An insect invasion is terrorizing New York City homeowners, making life miserable, even dangerous, for many families. Parents have been forced to take extreme measures to protect their children and their homes. CBS 2’s Dave Carlin investigates the growing Upper West Side mosquito mystery: These rare mosquitoes are extra blood-thirsty and active year-round. Carlin saw some of them in a lab after they were collected in the unlikeliest of places, Bernard Lagan’s home on West 84th Street. “They trapped 150 mosquitoes in the basement in...

Sat, Oct 29, 2011, 1:37 PM EDT ... DANGEROUS TRAVEL CONDITIONS... WITH INCREASINGLY WIDESPREAD DOWNED TREES... TREE LIMBS AND POWER OUTAGES EXPECTED THROUGH 5 PM... HEAVY BANDS OF WET SNOW WILL CONTINUE TO AFFECT THE AREA THROUGH 5 PM... WITH SNOW FALL RATES OF 1 TO POSSIBLY 2 INCHES PER HOUR. EMBEDDED THUNDER WILL ALSO BE POSSIBLE. THIS WILL RESULT IN DANGEROUS TRAVEL CONDITIONS WITH SNOW AND SLUSH COVERED ROADS AND VISIBILITIES REDUCED TO 1/4 MILE OR LESS AT TIMES. WINDS WILL ALSO BE INCREASING THROUGH THE LATE AFTERNOON HOURS TO 15 TO 25 MPH WITH GUSTS 30 TO 40...

OCTOBER 19--A well-known “Occupy Wall Street” protester who was arrested last Friday for kneeling down in prayer and blocking traffic in lower Manhattan is wanted in Indiana for failing to appear in court in connection with criminal charges filed after cops found him naked, intoxicated, and covered in olive oil in a public park. The bizarre nature of the charges against Michael Donte Booth, 27, were the subject of a previous TSG story after police discovered Booth sunbathing in the altogether in a Mishawaka park on May 24. Cops found Booth laying face up on a blanket “with his entire...

Protesters will resist any efforts to remove them from the Lower Manhattan park where they have been camped for nearly a month, despite Mayor Michael Bloomberg's order that they vacate the park at 7 a.m. Friday so it can be cleaned, an organizer said Thursday. "Come tomorrow morning, we will passively resist and make it as difficult a process to remove us as possible," said Occupy Wall Street spokesman Tyler Combelic. "It's not an occupation if you can't occupy the park." His words appeared to be backed up by the sentiment of the crowd of more than 1,000 protesters who...

It’s been a bit of a puzzle as to why the owners of Zuccotti Park that the Occupy Wall Street gang has taken over have allowed them to stay. They’re angering residents and pretty much stinking up the place. The owners have mentioned that the park is normally cleaned every night, but they have not been able to clean it in three weeks. Sanitation was “becoming an issue” a few days ago. Lord knows what it’s like now, I hear it’s pretty bad. Could the fact that the parent company of Brookfield Properties received a “green energy” loan guarantee from...

The Occupy Wall Street protesters who have taken up residence at Zuccotti Park for the past three weeks may temporarily have to find new digs Friday when crews plan to enter and clean the park. The owner of the park, Brookfield Properties, will be dispatching cleaning crews there, said Deputy Mayor for Operations Cas Holloway. Holloway said Brookfield wrote a letter to the city expressing concerns over the upkeep of the park and maintaining it in a "condition fit for public use." "The last three weeks have created unsanitary conditions and considerable wear and tear on the park," said Holloway....

(This info was developed and originally posted by chatteringclassof58. The original post was deleted. This is an edited version of the material.) Occupy Wall Street protesters have been camped out in and trashing Zuccotti Park for weeks. Zuccotti Park is a very nice private park, right in the middle of Manhattan. Zuccotti Park is owned by Brookfield Office Properties, which is part of Brookfield Asset Management, worth at least $150 billion. Brookfield Office Properties Mayor Bloomberg has said he can do nothing about the protest unless the park owners (Brookfield Properties) ask the protesters to be evicted. Brookfield issued a...

The Central Intelligence Agency has avoided a potential showdown with a Manhattan federal judge. Judge Alvin Hellerstein (pictured) yesterday declined to find the CIA in contempt for destroying videotapes of its interrogations of Sept. 11 detainees, concluding that it would serve no beneficial purpose to penalize the agency, according to this AP report. Hellerstein also noted in his ruling that the CIA has put in place new procedures to prevent such destruction from happening again.

NEW YORK (AP) -- New York City police say about 500 protesters have been arrested after they swarmed the Brooklyn Bridge and shut down a lane of traffic for several hours. Police say some demonstrators spilled onto the roadway Saturday night after being told to stay on the pedestrian pathway. They face disorderly conduct and other charges. The lane has since reopened. Occupy Wall Street demonstrators are railing against corporate greed, global warming and social inequality, among other grievances. The group has been camped near the Financial District for two weeks and clashed with police on earlier occasions. Earlier Saturday,...

SNIPPET: "Dan Folk (21), an Israeli who was invited to the event in which over 100 students took part, ended up getting a business card and memento from Ahmadinejad. "It was at his hotel in Manhattan, we got there and had to wait in the security check line for nearly an hour," said the student, adding, "we gave them our cell phones and any kind of camera we were carrying. During the security check I showed them my Israeli driver's license and the Iranian security officer smiled at me." Folk said he had mixed feelings over the question of whether...

DCCC removes footage of plane flying low over Manhattan skyline from ad attacking TurnerThe Daily Caller – Fri, Sep 9, 2011 Two days before the 10th anniversary of 9/11, the Democratic Congressional Campaign committee was forced to pull footage from a television ad in the New York 9th Congressional District special election that showed a Bob Turner plane flying low over the Manhattan skyline. However, a press release from the Turner campaign Friday morning says the ad is in fact still on the air in its unedited version, and “has been running all morning on New York City television stations.”...

A poll of New York voters conducted by Siena College found that only 36% approve of President Obama’s job performance. This is a decline from last May’s 53% approval rating. A comment from a Manhattan poll respondent cited the president’s “lack of focus.” “He keeps talking about creating jobs,” the respondent complained. “We don’t want wage slavery. We need to get paid. That’s why we elected him. What I want to know is where are our checks?” Despite their disappointment with the President, New York voters still prefer him to any possible Republican contender. The poll shows that even former...

Prosecutors are reportedly set to ask a judge to abandon the case against Dominique Strauss Kahn. Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance is preparing to ask that all charges against the former head of the IMF accused of attempting to rape hotel maid Nafissatou Diallo are dropped Tuesday. Such requests from the DA 'are never denied', an expert told the New York Post meaning Strauss-Kahn could finally return to his home country after being forced to remian in the U.S for months.

Americans sweltered today in the scorching heat in what was officially the hottest day of the year in scores of cities across the country. The heatwave covered a million square miles, affecting 141million Americans. New York's Manhattan experienced the hottest ever July 22 recorded, with an overwhelming 104-degree temperature in Central Park. The Washington DC region continued to be smothered in heat and humidity with temperatures reaching 102 degrees but with a heat index of more than 120 - hotter than Death Valley at daybreak

BRONX, NY (PIX11)— "I asked them to lower their voices and then they started in on me, 'Shut the f--- up, white boy. We'll beat the s--t out of you, cracker.'" Jason Fordell, 29, of the Bronx, said that was the first exchange he had with three black men and a Hispanic man on the #4 subway train near Grand Central early Sunday morning, and by the time the train got to Fordham Road, Fordell says he was being beaten and stomped by other passengers who were egging the original group on. "Eventually, half the car" joined in, Fordell told...

The hotel maid who claims former IMF boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn raped her has been accused of working as a prostitute. Allegations have emerged that the 32-year-old cleaner was was taking extra money from male guests at the hotel for sex. 'There is information... of her getting extraordinary tips, if you know what I mean. And it's not for bringing extra f**king towels,' a source close to the defence investigation told the New York Post. The woman also had 'a lot of her expenses – hair braiding, salon expenses – paid for by men not related to her,' the source added....

Two men from East Elmhurst, Queens have been arrested and charged with plotting to blow up a Manhattan synagogue. Mayor Michael Bloomberg was joined by top city law enforcement officials at City Hall earlier today in announcing the arrests of Ahmed Ferhani, 26, and Mohamed Mamdouh, 20. Ferhani, who is from Algeria, and Mamdouh, was is from Morocco, are both charged with engaging in terrorism, weapons possession and hate crimes. An arraignment is expected later today. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly says the men told undercover officers that they hated Jews and wanted to kill them. He also says they had...

The founders of the three largest online poker sites were indicted by the FBI on Friday in what could serve as a death blow to the thriving industry. Eleven executives at PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker were charged with bank fraud and money laundering in an indictment unsealed in a Manhattan court. Two of the executives were arrested on Friday morning in Utah and Nevada. Federal agents are searching for the others. Prosecutors are seeking to immediately shut down the sites and to eventually send the executives to jail and to recover $3 billion from the companies. By...

What’s in your wallet? Not much — especially after a trip to the supermarket. At the checkout counter at the D’Agostino in Hell’s Kitchen, retired ballerina Carol Sumner shook her head over the increasingly steep price of her weekly grocery bill. “It’s outrageous,” said Sumner, a senior citizen who was making a pit stop to buy soda, ice cream and cake for a party she was throwing. “I feel like I am getting fleeced and taken advantage of. I don’t buy meat anymore. I can’t. It’s too expensive.” The price index for groceries is expected to surge 3 to 4...

...........a bombshell audit found an ex-NARAL President siphoned off more than $100,000 for meals, high-end clothing, a Hamptons rental, and $100,000 to chauffeur her kids to school. The allegations against the Dem-leaning charity have far-reaching political implications for state AG Eric Schneiderman.... whose office regulates charities, and who received NARAL's endorsement. His father, Irwin Schneiderman, was NARAL’s treasurer during the audit period.

Apple is telling us that the apps' content is considered "likely to expose a group to harm" and "to be objectionable and potentially harmful to others." Inasmuch as the Manhattan Declaration simply reaffirms the moral teachings of our Christian faith on the sanctity of human life, marriage and sexual morality, and religious freedom and the rights of conscience, Apple's statement amounts to the charge that our faith is "potentially harmful to others."

"Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore." Those were the troubled words of Dorothy Gale as she found herself in a foreign world in the movie The Wizard of Oz. Many have used that sentence over the years for different reasons but in general it highlights a feeling of being somewhere that is so alien to our sense of normality that we cannot fully articulate where we are, only where we are not. As a lifelong Kansan I have felt that my state, as well as its location within the heartland, is a special place where traditional American...

Compound Interest, Manhattan & the Indians * Posted by Jeffrey Strain * January 15, 2006 I’ve always enjoyed a story that I have often told about the power of compound interest and the Indians who sold Manhattan. I even wrote an article about the power of compound interest a couple of years back using the example I had found in an old shoe manual: Inspiration is often found in the most unlikely places. I received my first lesson in the importance of compound interest and long term savings from a pair of training shoes I bought in high school. To...

Drop that bishop and come out with your hands up! A squad of cops in bulletproof vests swooped into an upper Manhattan park and charged seven men with the "crime" of playing chess in an area off-limits to adults unaccompanied by kids -- even though no youngsters were there. "Is chess really something that should be considered a threat to the neighborhood?" Inwood resident and mom Joanne Johnson wrote Mayor Bloomberg, the City Council and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly after the raid. "This incident is an embarrassment to the officers from the 34th Precinct who felt that it was necessary...

Did You See The Fire In The NYC Sky? Chopper 2 Films Red-Hot Streak Moving Behind Emp. State Bldg November 10, 2010 11:59 PM Chopper 2 HD captured images of a red-hot streak ripping through the NYC sky nearing dusk on Nov. 10, 2010. (Photo: CBS 2) NEW YORK (CBS 2) — Did you see it? Chopper 2 HD sure did. It was a bizarre, glowing red-hot streak in the sky — right at sunset Wednesday — moving briskly behind the Manhattan skyline. CBS 2 reached out to a top astronomer who looked at the video. He said it looks...

What do Dali, Matisse, and the streets of Manhattan have in common? Their cross section is embodied by the artist Peter Zonis, a surprising talent showcasing in a surprising venue, the subject of his art. To say he and his art are one, while being cliche', does seem to fit. Zonis' art is a perspective on the streets where he peddles his work. To be sure, the venue for display is intentional, not relegated. Among Zonis' following are Dustin Hoffman, Larry King, Robin Williams, Rudy Giuliani, Tony Bennett, Michael J. Fox, and the list goes on and on. Zonis' myriad...

Saturday in Manhattan there was a streak slicing through the urban sludge of jammed traffic offering the hope of liberation. Pretty outrageous: a skater flash mob called The Broadway Bombers, an annual event. Probably 200 skate boarders zipped past Macy's 5th Ave stopping traffic. Sort of a skate board parade or something. Horns were blasting. Drivers upset. Others taking photos and laughing. The context: People contained in cubicles within office cubes stacked 100 stories high, in cars jammed in a frozen river of traffic. The Protagonist: a mob of skaters slicing freely thru the stagnant ice, screaming gleefully, some with...

Barack Obama heckled in Manhattan By: Carol E. Lee September 22, 2010 08:09 PM EDT NEW YORK – President Barack Obama was heckled multiple times during his speech at a Democratic fundraiser in one of the country’s most Democratic cities. Demonstrators held signs that said “Broken Promises” and interrupted his speech to protest AIDS funding and the stalled repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” the policy banning gays from serving openly in the military that Obama has promised to lift. Obama showed a flash of irritation after he was forced repeatedly off his prepared remarks. “We listened to you, we...

A scientist and his wife who used to work at a high-level U.S. energy laboratory were arrested Friday after an FBI sting operation and indicted on charges of conspiring to help develop a nuclear weapon for Venezuela. After their arrest, the two appeared in federal court in Albuquerque, New Mexico. They dealt with an FBI undercover agent posing as a Venezuelan agent. The government did not allege that Venezuela or anyone working for it sought U.S. secrets.

While speaking at a conference in London, chairman and publisher of The New York Times Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. made a major statement about the future of his publication: "We will stop printing The New York Times sometime in the future, date TBD." He was there to talk about the changing journalistic business model and to touch on the Times' upcoming metered paywall for online content, but it was his concession about the bleak outlook for the print edition of the paper that's become the major news. Henry Blodgett, CEO of Business Insider, predicts the repercussions of suspending the printed version...

While the nation has been focused on a proposed Islamic center near Ground Zero, a mosque has been functioning just four blocks from the site of the 9/11 attacks with rumored plans to build even closer to the spot that once housed the World Trade Center. The mosque, the Masjid Manhattan, recently boasted of plans to construct a "House of Allah" next to the World Trade Center, exclaiming on its website, "Help us raise the flag of 'LA ILLAHA ILLA ALLAH' in downtown Manhattan!" The Masjid Manhattan has been holding classes at 20 Warren Street, four blocks from Ground Zero....

New York City, N.Y., Aug 6, 2010 / 02:59 pm (CNA).- Responding to the Empire State Building's refusal to display lights in honor of Bl. Mother Teresa's 100th birthday later this month, the Catholic League is organizing a protest at the national landmark. Media attention spotlighted the controversy caused by Empire State Building manager Anthony Malkin's refusal of a request by the Catholic League to light the iconic facility with the blue and white colors of Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity on August 26.“The Empire State Building (ESB) celebrates many cultures and causes in the world community with iconic lightings,...

Note: This is the Whitehouse channel on YouTube. # Video: "Celebrating Ramadan at the White House" Video Description - Quote: Free Download | whitehouse | August 13, 2010 The President hosts an Iftar dinner celebrating Ramadan in the State Dining Room. Category: News & Politics Tags: • Ramadan Iftar Dinner President Barack Obama Muslim Islam Download this video for offline viewing. Public Domain. Download High Quality MP4 Learn more

A chunk of ice four times the size of Manhattan has calved from Greenland's Petermann Glacier, scientists announced today. The last time the Arctic lost such a large chunk of ice was in 1962. "In the early morning hours of August 5, 2010, an ice island four times the size of Manhattan was born in northern Greenland," said Andreas Muenchow, associate professor of physical ocean science and engineering at the University of Delaware. Satellite imagery of this remote area at 81 degrees north latitude and 61 degrees west longitude, about 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) south of the North Pole, reveals...

She was a vivacious young queen when she first saw New York City in 1957, regal in white gloves but as dazzled as any tourist. 'snip'“Nearly two decades later, in 1976, the 50-year-old queen made her second visit to New York, marking the Bicentennial of America’s Declaration of Independence from Britain. Now, in the twilight of a reign that has spanned 58 years, one of the longest of any British monarch, the 84-year-old queen is to visit New York on Tuesday for a third time, accompanied by her husband, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh. 'snip'In contrast to her first...

PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that HECTOR RIVERA was sentenced today to 32 years in prison for leading a robbery and extortion crew that targeted diamond businesses and shipments from the Diamond District in midtown Manhattan. United States District Judge HAROLD BAER, JR., also ordered RIVERA to forfeit $2.93 million in criminal proceeds. According to documents filed in this case and the evidence at trial: RIVERA was the leader of a robbery and extortion crew that operated primarily in the Diamond District in midtown Manhattan from at least 2003 through December...

<p>A mild-mannered Manhattan pooch turned into a flying furball when a gust blew him up, up and away off his owner's 11th-floor terrace in TriBeCa and sent him five stories down and 30 feet east to a rooftop.</p> <p>Alfie, a 4-year-old, 10-pound silky terrier, miraculously walked away from the flight with just a few bruises and scratches and a cut lip.</p>

NEW YORK -- Police and the fire department are investigating a suspicious vehicle parked with gas canisters inside it near Union Square in Manhattan late Thursday, MyFOXNY.com reported.

A failed car bomb smoked, popped and shut down Times Square, causing panic, evacuations and confusion Saturday on one of the tourist spot's busiest nights. Most of the streets in the area were reopened Sunday morning, though a heavy police presence remained in the area. New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said officers are heading to a town in Pennsylvania to talk to a man who believes he may have recorded a bombing suspect on his video camera. Police are looking a for a white male in his 40s who was seen shedding a dark shirt with a red shirt...

The crowd of more than 1,000 that turned out for a Tax Day Tea Party in New York had the last laugh on the smattering of left-wing counterprotesters accusing them of racism. "We're supposed to be a bunch of racists. The guy in charge is an African American," said KT McFarland, a Nixon, Ford, and Reagan administration official who ran for Senate in New York as a Republican in 2006. She was referring to the Tea Party's organizer, David Webb. In case the audience missed the point when Ms. McFarland made it, Mr. Webb, a radio host, reiterated it later...

Note: The following text is a quote: Hassan Nemazee Pleads Guilty in Manhattan Federal Court to $292 Million Bank Fraud PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that HASSAN NEMAZEE pleaded guilty today to charges of defrauding Bank of America, N.A. ("BofA"), Citibank, N.A. ("Citibank"), HSBC Bank USA, N.A. ("HSBC"), and a longtime friend and business associate of a total of more than $290 million in loan proceeds. NEMAZEE entered his guilty plea before United States District Judge SIDNEY H. STEIN in Manhattan federal court. According to the superseding Information, filed today, to...

I can’t get excited about the Mt. Vernon statement, yet I am passionate about the ideas behind them. Surely, it must be possible to retell our founding principles without strangled or purple prose. Let’s try. The Manhattan Statement A truth once known does not become false due to the passage of time. An agreement is not made null because it has been neglected. A promise once made cannot be broken by arrogance. We have not forgotten the self-evident truths and unalienable rights upon which this country was founded. No one is above the law. All have the right to life,...

A Muslim chaplain for the city’s Department of Correction showed up for work on Wednesday as he routinely does — entering the city jail in Lower Manhattan to minister to some of the roughly 900 male inmates there. But when the chaplain, Imam Zulqarnain Abu-Shahid, flung his shoulder bag onto an X-ray machine at the entrance of the Manhattan Detention Complex, at 125 White Street, officers were alerted to the presence of metal. They found a pair of scissors and three metal blades, the kind used in box cutters, in the bag’s outer flap, the authorities said. Imam Abu-Shahid was...

WASHINGTON — White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Sunday that the accused author of the 9/11 attacks would "meet his maker" after being convicted, and said the US administration still hopes the trial can be held on American soil.... Gibbs said the White House is still hoping to bring Sheikh Muhammed and other alleged plotters of the September 11 attacks to trial in New York, despite recent reservations expressed by officials there. "We are talking with the authorities in New York," he said. "We understand their logistical concerns and their security concerns that are involved. We have been discussing that...

"'Lady Al Qaeda's' lawyers angry over extra security checks at court where she's on trial" BY ALISON GENDAR DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER Friday, January 22nd 2010, 3:38 AM SNIPPET: "Lawyers for the so-called "Lady Al Qaeda" are up in arms because spectators at her trial have to show identification and sign in. The extra security check comes on top of a metal detector placed outside the doorway of the Manhattan courtroom where Aafia Siddiqui is on trial for attempted murder. Her defense team said Thursday the precautions are depriving her of a fair trial." Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2010/01/21/2010-01-21_lady_al_qaedas_lawyers_angry_over_extra_security_checks_at_court_where_shes_on_t.html#ixzz0dKS2tvgx