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THESE are the generations of cosmetic medicine: First came the “medical spa,” or medi spa, offering dermatology services in a retail setting. The medi spa begat the dental spa, bringing tooth bleaching to storefronts nationwide. The dental spa begat the podiatry spa. And now comes the first medi spa in Manhattan wholly dedicated to strengthening and grooming a woman’s genital area. Phit — short for pelvic health integrated techniques — is to open this month on East 58th Street.

A Yale Tale by: Malcolm A. Kline, June 25, 2008 Under the guise of scholarship, the professoriat would have us “leave them alone” but is the feeling mutual? You can get an insight into the answer to this question not by what they tell the public but what they communicate to each other. Take Yale sociologist Michael Yarbrough. His university web site tells us that he “works in the areas of law and society; family; the intersection of race, gender, and sexuality; and political subjectivity.” His page goes on to note that “He is particularly interested in the role of...

You bet your babushka, baby. But now, the red menace is kind of green. NEW YORK - The decor inside the national headquarters of the Communist Party USA, or CPUSA, is more Macy's than Marx. Glass walls rise from the floor to form state-of-the-art work spaces, nontoxic linseed oil burnishes the work surfaces, and biodegradable blue carpet is underfoot. Colorful paintings by the renowned artists Boris Taslitzky and Alejandro Romero, depicting the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps and working-class struggle, dot the walls of the expansive open-plan office. Inside their transparent cubicles, the 21-strong staff tap away on Apple...

What is good for the goose evidently isn't so good for the gander when it's New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine doing the honking about New York City's congestion-pricing plan. Leading up to yesterday's deadline for New York state lawmakers to vote on the proposal, Corzine weighed in last week by saying that he was dismayed by the scheme and would bring suit against New York if it went ahead with the proposal to charge motorists $8 and truckers $21 to drive into the most heavily trafficked parts of Manhattan; the N.J. governor was angry as well that the fees...

NEW YORK -- A massive crane has collapsed onto several neighboring buildings on the east side of Manhattan, killing at least four people, firefighters said. Fatal Crane Collapse At least nine others were injured, three critically. A full rescue operation is under way in the rubble-strewn area near 51st Street and Second Avenue. Chopper 4 images show that at least three buildings seem to be directly affected by the collapse, while at least another three buildings sustained collateral damage. One small, brick apartment building appeared to have been completely crushed by the falling wreckage. The crane, about 19 stories tall,...

Law enforcement officials have alerted Wall Street firms of a new, non-specific terror threat centering on lower Manhattan. Officials point out that the threat is based on unverified intelligence from overseas but was time-specific. The non-specific threat information suggests an al Qaeda terror would like to strike the city sometime this month, a security official said on condition of anonymity. An NYPD spokesman said the department is aware of the threat and is taking added precautions. The spokesman stressed there is no credible information any plot is imminent, but extra measures will be in place until officials learn more...

Petraeus: Al Qaida Trying to 'Come Back In' U.S. military officials said there will be no significant reduction in coalition troops in the Baghdad area as part of an effort to stop the Al Qaida offensive in northern Iraq. They said Al Qaida was trying to reenter Baghdad and reverse its losses in 2007. "Al Qaida is trying to come back in," U.S. military commander Gen. David Petraeus said. "We can feel it and see it, and what we're trying to do is rip out any roots before they can get deeply into the ground." Read More Militants Assert...

August 7, 2004THE OVERVIEWBin Laden Sent Suspect to U.S., Officials Say By DOUGLAS JEHL and WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM ASHINGTON, Aug. 6 - American intelligence officials now believe that Issa al-Hindi, the alleged Qaeda operative now in British custody, was dispatched to the United States in early 2001 by the mastermind of the Sept. 11 plot at the direction of Osama bin Laden to case potential targets in New York City, senior government officials said Friday. The officials said that Mr. Hindi was the same person as the figure identified in the Sept. 11 commission report as Issa al-Britani. The...

By nature, code names and cover stories are meant to give no indication of the secrets concealed. “Magic” was the name for intelligence gleaned from Japanese ciphers in World War II, and “Overlord” stood for the Allied plan to invade Europe. Many people assume that the same holds true for the Manhattan Project, in which thousands of experts gathered in the mountains of New Mexico to make the world’s first atom bomb. Robert S. Norris, a historian of the atomic age, wants to shatter that myth. In “The Manhattan Project” (Black Dog & Leventhal), published last month, Dr. Norris writes...

NEW YORK (AP) - Two improvised explosives were thrown into the rear of the Mexican Consulate early Friday, causing small explosions that blew out some windows, authorities said. No injuries were reported. Police believe someone on a bicycle threw the devices—made from replica grenades packed with explosive powder—at 3 a.m., New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. The commissioner said witnesses reported seeing someone on a bike at that time near the consulate in Midtown Manhattan. Edgar Trujillo, the press attache with the Mexican Consulate, said three windows were shattered. Police and FBI agents were at the scene. The block...

"Ladies' Night" was a hit single for the band Kool and the Gang in the '80s, but now it's become the subject of a lawsuit. New York attorney Roy Den Hollander has filed a class action lawsuit against several Manhattan bars and clubs, alleging that their ladies' night practices are unconstitutional. Hollander charges that when they host ladies' night they are violating the 14th Amendment's guarantee of equal protection under the law. Hollander is seeking to be named class representative for all men charged more money or burdened by stricter time restraints than woman. He seeks nominal damages and an...

(CBS) NEW YORK -- Several people were injured Saturday night in an apartment explosion in upper Manhattan. Police officers are standing guard in front of 557 West 148th St. in Hamilton Heights after neighbors reported hearing an explosion inside a 2nd floor apartment at about 4:45 this afternoon. “The smoke was so thick that the soot was running throughout the apartment and as the fire billowed from the apartment it just consumed all the hallways and the whole entire building was black,” said Imo Fox. Edgar Valez and his stepson Alex say they were painting in their own apartment one...

Firefighters die in blaze by ground zero By VERENA DOBNIK, Associated Press Writer 22 minutes ago NEW YORK - A seven-alarm fire ripped through an abandoned skyscraper next to ground zero in Lower Manhattan Saturday, killing two firefighters who were responding to the blaze. ADVERTISEMENT Officers at the scene were preventing nearby residents from returning to their homes, telling them that authorities were concerned the former Deutsche Bank office building, vacant since the 2001 terrorist attacks turned it into a toxic nightmare, could fall. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that fear turned out to be unfounded. The plume of gray smoke...

NEW YORK -- An underground steam explosion tore through a Manhattan street near Grand Central Terminal on Wednesday, sending edgy residents running for cover amid a plume of steam and flying rubble, and causing brief panic about another terror attack. The explosion was not terrorism. "There is no reason to believe whatsoever that this is anything other than a failure of our infrastructure,'' Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at a news conference at the scene of the blast. Sixteen people were taken to Bellevue Hospital, including the person who died, said spokesman Stephen Bohlen. He said two seriously injured patients were...

(New York - WABC, June 18, 2007) - A large steam explosion struck Midtown Manhattan on the east side Wednesday evening. Subway service through Grand Central is affected. There have been 12 confirmed injuries. It happened near 41st Street between 3rd and Lexington Avenue. The entire area from 41st Street to 47 Street in and around Third Avenue and Park Avenue has been evacuated and closed. The NYPD says a steam pipe exploded at 6:10 p.m. People were seen running from the scene, screaming and shouting amid an enormous roaring sound and a plume of steam and flying rubble. It...

It's happening at 41st Street between Third and Lexington Avenues. We are told the fire department is requesting that 41st through 47th streets to be closed off between Lexington and Third. Officials say that buildings in the area are being evacuated, though subway service is not affected.

NEW YORK (AP) - If you're looking for a Manhattan apartment, be prepared to shell out about $2,000 a month—unless, of course, you'd like a bedroom to go with it. Studio apartments in New York's most expensive borough went for an average of $1,995 a month last year, according to an analysis released Friday by Citi Habitats, a Manhattan rental brokerage firm. That's up from $1,659 in 2002. The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment shot up to $2,737, compared to $2,227 in 2002, and two-bedroom apartments climbed to $3,893, from $3,198 in 2002. Three-bedroom apartments saw the largest percentage...

A man was busted for pelting someone with flaming material in Times Square, burning his victim's hand and causing more than $5,000 in damage to a tour bus parked nearby, authorities said yesterday. Ahmed Said, 42, attacked the 38-year-old man in front of the bus on West 42nd Street between Seventh and Eighth avenues at around 7:40 p.m. last Wednesday. Said was charged with criminal mischief and reckless endangerment, authorities said.

Manhattan, which once epitomized the glamorous and largely childless locale for “Sex and the City,” has begun to look more like the set for a decidedly upscale and even more vanilla version of 1960s suburbia in “The Wonder Years.” Since 2000, according to census figures released last year, the number of children under age 5 living in Manhattan mushroomed by more than 32 percent. And though their ranks have been growing for several years, a new analysis for The New York Times makes clear for the first time who has been driving that growth: wealthy white families. At least half...

Mayor Proposes a Fee for Driving Into Manhattan Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg laid out a series of Earth Day proposals on Sunday at the American Museum of Natural History. By MARIA NEWMAN Published: April 22, 2007 Saying that he would not spend his final term in office “pretending that all is fine,” Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg made a series of Earth Day proposals this afternoon to improve the environment of New York City, including charging a new congestion fee to drivers who come into parts of Manhattan during peak hours during weekdays. The $8 congestion fee was one of 127...

A worldwide investigation has uncovered an al-Qaida loyalist's plan to blow up the PATH train tunnels under the Hudson River, thwarting a terrorist conspiracy the FBI called "the real deal," authorities said Friday. The alleged mastermind has been arrested. "The individuals were moving forward," said Special Agent Mark J. Mershon, assistant director of the FBI's New York office. They "were about to go to a phase where they would attempt to surveil targets, establish a regimen of attack and then acquire the resources necessary to effectuate the attacks." Mershon identified the plan's mastermind as Assem Hammoud, a 31-year-old Lebanese citizen...

YORK -- People all over a large part of New York City are smelling a gas, and it's not clear where it's coming from. Numerous people have called 911 concerned about the odor. Con Edison, the Fire Department and the U.S. Coast Guard are investigating. PATH service has been suspended into the 33rd Street station. Service is still going into the World Trade Center station. Macy's department store has been evacuated, according to reports. There also are unconfirmed reports of a similar smell across the river in New Jersey. People between Midtown and Battery Park are reported to be smelling...

In 1907, horse-drawn wagons traveled through Manhattan's streets at an average pace of almost 12 miles an hour. A century later, the average vehicle speed at rush hour has dropped to eight miles an hour. The slowdown may have something to do with the 800,000-fold increase, over the intervening 99 years, in the number of motorized vehicles that head each day into Manhattan's central business district. Like Singapore, Stockholm, and Oslo before it, New York is about to enter a debate over a radical solution to its traffic problem: inner-city tolls designed to discourage vehicles from entering Manhattan between 60th...

Patrick Michael Ward’s is the face that many visitors to New York City see smiling at them in photographs they take back to their homes around the world. He is the police officer who guards St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the man in a blue uniform before a limestone and marble church facade with each black shoe planted in a different institution. There he is, Officer Ward: a former military policeman in the Army, the officer with the big hazel eyes, hair cut short, and a black and silver mustache like a wire brush. Officer Ward: Jean and Thomas Ward’s son, easy...

N.Y.'s Russian Tea room reopens, caviar and all 03 Nov 2006 21:35:21 GMT Source: Reuters NEW YORK, Nov 3 (Reuters) - The reopening of New York's iconic Russian Tea Room on Friday should give gourmands depressed about a U.S. ban on wild beluga caviar something to smile about. Chef Gary Robbins, who first visited the restaurant as a child while Christmas shopping with his father and grandfather, said he has been keeping a wealth of wild beluga caviar from the 2005 catch at just below freezing. The United States banned trade in wild caviar last year amid declining global sturgeon...

NEW YORK - The city said Friday that it will search parts of the World Trade Center site again for remains of the Sept. 11 dead after several bones were pulled out of an abandoned manhole — a discovery that stirred up new fury and disbelief among victims' families. The family members demanded that construction stop at ground zero until remains of all their loved ones are recovered. They also called for state and federal investigations into the failure to completely remove remains from ground zero. ... Diane Horning said that part of her son's body was located more than...

Rush reports that a Cessna has been reported as crashing into (at least one) apartment complex in NYC Mannhattan's upper east side - on East 71st Street.

School Gives Parents Detention For Late KidsPOSTED: 6:33 am EDT October 2, 2006 NEW YORK -- A public school is requiring detention for parents who get their kids to school late. Under the new rule at the Manhattan School for Children, parents who don't drop off their children by 8:25 a.m. have to pick up late slips from the principal's office and go to the auditorium to serve 20 minutes of detention with them. "The parents need to make the breakfast, get the children dressed and get them to school on time," principal Susan Rappaport told the New York Post...

Jeanine F. Pirro, the Republican candidate for attorney general, sharply criticized her husband this afternoon for driving 51 miles an hour in a 25-mile-an-hour school zone on Thursday — only the latest instance of Albert J. Pirro Jr. causing trouble for his candidate-wife. “You didn’t want to be in my house last night,” Ms. Pirro said at a news conference. Mr. Pirro’s speeding ticket in White Plains came two weeks after he accepted a plea deal over another ticket, for driving 98 miles an hour on a 55-mile-an-hour stretch of Interstate 95 in July. Mr. Pirro, a lobbyist with many...

In the heat of summer, all sorts of tourists head north to cooler climes. This year, a manatee has joined the crowd, cruising past the nightclubs of Manhattan and continuing north.The massive animal has been spotted in the Hudson River at least three times in the last week — first off the Chelsea and Harlem sections of Manhattan, then to the north in Sleepy Hollow in Westchester County."It was gigantic," said Randy Shull, who said he spotted the unusual visitor Sunday afternoon while boating at Kingsland Point Park in Sleepy Hollow. "When we saw it surface, its back was just...

Building explosion at 32 East 62nd Street. Four story building collapses and is burning. Several people reported trapped in the rubble.

A story is developing in the heart of Manhattan. Police are investigating two stabbing attacks above and below ground and the possibility that the same person was behind both. Eyewitness News reporter Kemberly Richardson is St. Vincent's Hospital right now with the latest. Police brought in a man this morning, a suspect they believed stabbed three people this morning at two separate locations in Midtown. Police wanted the victims to take a look at the guy to see if this guy is the person who stabbed them. At about 4:30 this morning a man stabbed two women in front of...

A rookie police officer, with only weeks on the job, crossed paths with the would-be terrorist who is charged with plotting to bomb the Herald Square subway station. Beginning in November 2002, the undercover officer made visits to an Islamic bookstore in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and said he listened to the store clerk, Shahawar Matin Siraj, 23, predict further attacks on New York City, possibly on Wall Street. The officer, who testified yesterday at Mr. Siraj's trial in Brooklyn federal court under a pseudonym, Kamil Pasha, retold of conversations that suggest that Mr. Siraj drew satisfaction from tragedies ranging from...

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York announced plans yesterday for the most sweeping reorganization in its history of more than 150 years, recommending the closing of 31 parishes and 14 schools throughout the metropolitan region.At the same time, the archdiocese recommended creating five new parishes in Staten Island, Orange County and Dutchess County and constructing several new church buildings, mostly in northern Westchester County, Rockland County and Dutchess County, where many Catholics who have left the city have relocated.The closings would hit the archdiocese the hardest in its southern parts — the Bronx, Staten Island, Manhattan, Yonkers and central...

A wily coyote led sharpshooters armed with tranquilizer guns on a merry chase through Central Park for two days before it was finally captured Wednesday morning.At one point, the searchers had it cornered near the park's ice rink, but the clever creature jumped into the water, ducked under a bridge, then scampered through the rink grounds and ran off.The coyote was captured somewhere north of that area, Parks Department spokesman Ashe Reardon said.The hunt had been on since Tuesday afternoon when Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe, among others, spotted the animal in the southeast corner of the park, not far from...

You know the old saying about having a hammer and everything looking like nails? I was reading an article in the Journal of Law and Economics about why housing prices in Manhattan are so high, and I thought, "Omigosh! The answer to the demographic implosion." Since my hammer happens to be sex and marriage, even an economics article reminds me of sex. So bear with me. I’ll explain what the article had to say about housing prices. Then I’ll tell you what it has to do with sex...

Carlos Martín's spiritual life takes him across the New Jersey state line to a place not typically associated with religious fervor: Manhattan.Hadley Allen makes a similar journey. So does Zain Abdullah.The three northern New Jersey residents don't know each other and don't share the same faith.But their search for a transcendent, intellectually challenging worship experience led them in the same direction: out of New Jersey.Manhattan, with its diverse, demanding and frenetic cultural life, is where they found what they were looking for: congregations that were welcoming, engaging and bold.  "I checked out a lot of Catholic churches in Essex County,"...

NEW YORK (AP)-Hoping to bring state officials back to talks on the future of ground zero, World Trade Center developer Larry Silverstein offered a new proposal Friday to address complaints that he had demanded too much in exchange for giving up some of his building rights.

NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- The acting editor in chief at the Village Voice has left the weekly alternative newspaper, two weeks after overseeing publication of an issue containing fabricated material. The Voice announced the departure of Doug Simmons on its Web site by posting a photograph of what appeared to be a paper napkin bearing a handwritten note from Village Voice Media Executive Editor Michael Lacey. ``Doug Simmons is no longer acting editor,'' the napkin said. ``Ward Harkavy, long time senior editor and Arizona crony, is now interim editor. Call us tomorrow for next update.'' In a brief telephone...

This may have been asked before, but it's becoming more of an issue as time goes on - I was recently in Manhattan, and though I hadn't thought about it in a while, the former WTC site is still a gaping hole. Nothing has been rebuilt. Now, almost five years after the attack, that is getting kind of inexcusable. What, exactly, is holding up reconstruction? Is there not enough demand for office space? Too many "me-too!" groups demanding a say in the project? What, exactly, is hamstringing the reconstruction? As each year passess, it is becoming a bigger and bigger...

My fellow Freepers: I need your help! As many of you already know, I ran for Congress in New York’s 12th CD in 2004. As part of the experience, I became one of the principal subjects of a documentary being filmed on the Republican National Convention being held in the city that year. As a result, I had a camera follow me around during my campaigning in Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan, to the convention at Madison Square Garden, to various meetings and events of our NY Young Republican Club, to my uncle’s house in Staten Island, and even to my...

Gov. George Pataki remained hospitalized Monday nearly a week after undergoing a surgery to correct a postoperative complication related to an emergency appendectomy. Pataki, 60, continued eating some food Monday but also remained on intravenous nutrition and antibiotics to reduce the risk of an abscess... `The governor's doctors have indicated that there has been a slow return of normal digestive function because of the ruptured appendix,'' ... Pataki was originally to be released two days after the Feb. 16 appendectomy. ``The governor continues to be in good spirits and is reading, walking around and conducting state business,'' ...

Gov. George Pataki, showing no improvement five days after surgeons removed his appendix, was transferred Tuesday to a New York City hospital and underwent another operation. Doctors operated to alleviate a blockage in Pataki's digestive system, said his spokesman, David Catalfamo. Afterward, the governor was "awake, alert and resting comfortably," ... A blockage following abdominal surgery is relatively rare, said Daniel Herron, an assistant professor of surgery at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan.

"Diane Sawyer dropped by for a kiss and a hello. She was fresh from her chores filling in on ABC’s “World News Tonight” and said her stint on air with Elizabeth Vargas had been “refreshing and very exciting.” Another hit of the night was Cecile Richards, tall, blond and handsome, now moved to Manhattan to oversee Planned Parenthood. We had a reunion as we are pals via her famous mother, former Texas Gov. Ann Richards. Cecile and her wonderful family are going to be a great addition to New York. Documentary maker Alexandra Pelosi, the daughter of Nancy Pelosi, the...

John "Junior" Gotti, who insists he quit the mob family run by his late father, the "Dapper Don," watched jury selection start yesterday at his racketeering retrial in Manhattan. One prospective juror was quickly disqualified: a former supervisor of the FBI's organized crime squad. The most serious charge facing Gotti is the 1992 kidnapping of radio host Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels crime-fighting group, who allegedly was targeted by "Junior" Gotti because of his on-air rants against the late John Gotti.

A New York subway tale: That bag needs a ticket, lady NEW YORK – A ride home on an F Line subway train doubled the cost of Samantha Hoover's groceries after a cop wrote her a $50 ticket for putting the plastic bag on the seat next to her, according to a story in the New York Post. Sitting on the "mostly empty" Brooklyn-bound train Friday evening, Hoover, 33, said she tried to read a magazine, but her thoughts wandered between her day at work and the steak dinner she and her fiancé were going to prepare when she got...

Take a walk on the Upper East Side or stop in a TriBeCa park and you may think you're seeing double - that's because the birth rate of twins in those neighborhoods is more than double the city average. With the rising popularity of medical treatments for infertility, the rate of twin births in New York City has reached 3.8%, but from Kips Bay to Yorkville and from Battery Park to about 59th Street on the West Side of Manhattan, the incidence is closer to 8%, according to an analysis by the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene for...

Sure enough, the holidays brought only a temporary reprieve from the mainstream media's strange and endless fascination with Al Franken, where fluffy coverage is routine. Isn't it more of an affliction for these reporters, like a Frankenflu? And what an especially astounding example of Frankenfluff we have today, coming from the Chicago Tribune's Nina Metz. Get a load of these brutal, probing questions on the contents of his soon-to-be-vacated New York City flat, from "The Truth (and a Joke) About Al Franken's Apartment": .......snip........

NEW YORK - A federal appeals court Friday upheld the conviction of celebrity homemaker Martha Stewart for lying to investigators about selling stock that plunged in price soon after her trade. Stewart completed her sentence in the case last summer but pursued the appeal anyway. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan issued a written ruling upholding the 2004 convictions of Stewart and former stockbroker Peter Bacanovic for lying about why Stewart sold nearly 4,000 shares of ImClone Systems Inc. stock in 2001. The sale came just before the stock took a dive on a negative government report...

A horse-drawn carriage driver was hospitalized in critical condition after the animal bolted for blocks through midtown Manhattan, crashing into a station wagon and leaving the man in a pool of blood, witnesses and police said. "It was horrifying,'' said Robyn Hussa, who saw the horse racing through traffic Monday night. "It was like a nightmare.'' The horse, which had no passengers in its carriage, smashed into the station wagon at 50th Street and Ninth Avenue around 9:30 p.m., injuring two men in the car, fire department Chief Jim Hodgens said. The carriage driver was thrown into the street, which...