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Powell will try to win the seat that Rangel took from his father Harlem State Assemblyman Adam Clayton Powell IV may challenge U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel in a race for the congressional seat Rangel has held for nearly 40 years but once belonged Powell’s father. Powell, 47, said he is launching an exploratory committee to see whether he has any chances to win the seat if he runs against the embattled Rangel. "It's no secret I'm interested," Powell said. He has been fund raising since 2004 for a campaign that has yet materialized. He is the son of the late...

Once upon a time, when you were just a kid, Mom or Dad probably read you "The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge.” And years later maybe you read this 1942 classic by Hildegarde H. Swift to your own children.   Little Red was saved twice by children, once from being auctioned off and once from neglect. The story begins with the introduction of a little lighthouse sitting on the rocky Manhattan shore of the Hudson River.  “It was round and fat and red. It was fat and red and jolly. And it was very, very proud.”  The...

The economy is putting a squeeze on the nation's biggest arts complex. The Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts is canceling its holiday tree lighting ceremony in December. The decorated tree erected in the center's main plaza has become an annual tradition, with a live televised ceremony drawing both New Yorkers and tourists. Lincoln Center blames the cancellation on what it calls "the challenging economic climate" -- and also construction at the entrance to the plaza. “[Construction] will be completed by next year, but it is in no shape to hold the group that the tree attracts," Kate Merlino, a...

It was an amazing scene just blocks north of Times Square Thursday morning as a yellow cab caught fire and exploded, but no injuries were reported and the driver escaped unharmed, fire officials said. The cab was parked at the corner of 53rd Street and 7th Avenue when a small fire erupted in the car around 9:30 a.m, fire officials said. The fire spread to the gas tank, causing the vehicle to explode. Huge plumes of gray smoke were seen billowing from the front of the burning car. The blaze frightened pedestrians and office workers in the area, but there...

Elmo no like tourists, tightwads - or photographers. At least a rogue version of the lovable "Sesame Street" character hassling passersby outside Planet Hollywood in Times Square Friday night didn't. The dirty and creepy character demanded money from people and, when he didn't get it, swore and jostled them. "No picture. No picture. You have to tip Elmo. You have to tip Elmo or Elmo gets angry," the imposter shouted as he stuck a filthy red paw over a Texas tourist's camera lens. "What the hell, Elmo? Keep your hands to yourself," shouted Victoria Vought, 47, pulling away. Wide-eyed at...

Obtained by NBC news, this video shot by an Italian tourist shows the moment of impact between a Piper Saratoga and a Eurocopter over the Hudson River. The accident killed all nine aboard the two aircraft. >> WATCH <<

The NYPD bomb squad is on the scene of an explosion outside a Starbucks on Manhattan's Upper East Side. There are reports an explosive device was left on a bench outside the coffee shop at 1642 Third Avenue and the corner of 92nd Street.

This is a great video. It shows the three aircraft orbiting over the Statue of Liberty during the Air Farce One incident. (The money shot is near the end) The "Red Tail F-16" is clearly a prop. If the George Lucas' film "Red Tails" has, as is likely, a 3D IMAX version, and this sequence were to be used as an epilogue, the camera plane would likely have an external camera mount to attach an IMAX camera. Publicity stills would have been photographed by an air combat photographer during the flight. According to this Wall Street Journal article, the camera...

It is hypocritical in the extreme to profess concern about interrogation of a small number of enemies who want to kill us, but then to show no concern whatever for the fear, anxiety and emotional damage caused to thousands of our own citizens for a photo op.

The NYPD is asking for federal funding so it can duplicate in midtown the measures under way near Ground Zero to protect the city against terrorists, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said Tuesday. The idea, Kelly testified before a City Council committee, is to allow police to do everything they do downtown - scan license plates, monitor surveillance video cameras and use radiation and bioterrorism detectors - between 34th and 59th streets, from river to river. "We want to take that model and replicate it, to the extent that we can, to midtown Manhattan," Kelly said. The bustling swath of Manhattan...

Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau is not just a public official. He's an institution, as much a part of the landscape of New York as the gray court buildings in Foley Square. That he's not running for re-election this fall is stunning news. For 35 years he was the district attorney of Manhattan, responsible for fighting crime on many fronts. He pursued corporate thieves, mobsters and many other criminals. He presided over almost 100,000 cases. He is the boss of 500 assistant district attorneys who prosecuted some notorious criminals. Among his notable cases have been the Robert Chambers murder trial,...

Manhattan Kansas - Center of Hoof and Mouth Research? Should This Dangerous Disease Stay Where it Is? By W Thomas Payne

Spicy food lovers have strangely unique egos. You certainly don't find self-professed sweet tooth fanatics boasting about how much sugar they can cram down their throat, nor do those who prefer the salty end of the spectrum parrot about how they're connoisseurs of umami. No, the fans of spiciness are not just content with self-infliction of pain—they have to make sure everyone knows about how much heat they can handle. Make the mistake of mentioning how you had a spicy Thai dish the other night, and they will either scoff at you, or smile at you, patronizingly: "You think that's...

Obama pick faces questions over bombers' clemencyBy PETE YOST Associated Press Writer Originally published Wednesday, January 14, 2009 at 2:05 PM WASHINGTON — New York police detective Anthony S. Senft's life changed forever when a bomb set by Puerto Rican separatists exploded, blowing him 15 feet in the air and blinding him in one eye. Now, he's angry that Eric Holder, who played a key role in awarding clemency to the bombers, is in line to be attorney general. Holder, as President Bill Clinton's deputy attorney general, worked closely with the Justice Department's pardon attorney to raise the possibility of...

UPDATED - ALERT - Frightening Text Messages Being Forwarded Around NY Jews January 2, 2009 3:00PM EST: [UPDATE BELOW] With the situation in Gaza deteriorating by the day, and anti-semitism rampant around the world, thousands of NY Jews were frightened upon receiving the following text message which has been going around on Friday afternoon: “A Jewish woman gave a tip to a Muslim taxi driver and out of appreciation he warned her not to go to Manhattan next week Wednesday.” YWN has reached out to high-ranking members of the NYPD, and have stated that although they received the same text...

U.K.: Mosque "committed to peace, diversity and interfaith dialogue" hosts conference featuring "spiritual advisor" to 9/11 jihadists A spokesman for the mosque insists the conference organizers are just using their facilities. But no one seems perturbed enough about this "misunderstanding" and "hijacking" of Islam to cancel the conference or appearances by speakers like Anwar al-Awlaki and others named below. The full schedule of festivities can be found here.

Hey, Cuomo, stand up and fight. I’m talking to Andrew Cuomo, the attorney general of New York. Stand up and fight. For the last two weeks, as the Caroline Kennedy coronation has been going on, the man whose career she is destroying has been silent. It’s as if he fell off the face of the earth. The story is that Caroline Kennedy has announced that she wants to be a U.S. senator from New York. She has no experience, no preparation, no training. She has never stood before the voters. She has never even visited vast stretches of the state...

The Mumbai, India terrorist attacks should serve as a reminder that terrorism is real, tangible, and a threat everywhere...waiting only for the right opportunity to explode. And, try as we all do to engage in denial, the reality is that it is only a matter of time before a Mumbai-style event occurs on American soil. Back in 1993, right after the first World Trade Center bombing, I was talking with a friend of mine who was raised in Israel. I opined that it would be a relatively simple matter for terrorists to stage simultaneous attacks on, say, a dozen shopping...

Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is traditionally the busiest shopping day of the year. Macy’s, for instance, usually serves a minimum of 50,000 shoppers on that one day. But as this week’s revelations of a terrorism plot targeting New York City’s subway system remind us, the holiday bustle is also an opportunity for those seeking to inflict mass casualties. That thought may well have been on the mind of Fidel Castro, when he planned a colossal terrorist attack on Manhattan on the Friday after Thanksgiving in 1962. On November 17, 1962, J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI cracked a terrorist plot...

Some wag dubbed the Prius the "Pious," for the smug self-righteousness of its greener-than-thou owners. CNBC ran a segment this morning highlighting an even pricier form of conspicuous green consumption: the installation of geothermal wells in Manhattan as an alternative form of HVAC. Narrating the segment, CNBC's Bertha Coombs observed "for many, it represents bragging rights in the pursuit of green luxury." That segued to a clip of New York magazine's Jesse Oxfeld explicitly making the conspicuous consumption point. View video here.

ALBANY, N.Y. – New York's top court has upheld the eviction of Bianca Jagger from a rent-stabilized Manhattan apartment. The Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that foreigners on tourist visas cannot claim New York digs as a "primary residence." The globe-trotting human rights activist and ex-wife of Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger was evicted in December from the Upper East Side apartment she rented for 20 years.

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The New York City Police Department is working on a plan to photograph the license plates of every vehicle entering Manhattan in an effort to guard against a terrorist attack. The plan, called Operation Sentinel, calls for photographing and scanning the license plates of cars and trucks at all bridges and tunnels, and using sensors to detect the presence of radioactivity, The New York Times reports. Data on each vehicle would be sent to a command center in Lower Manhattan, where it would be stored for at least a month and then eliminated if it were not linked to a...

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.