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New York City police Tuesday were investigating how the two American flags that historically sit on top of the Brooklyn Bridge's 273-foot towers were stolen and replaced with two white flags, which are known universally to symbolize surrender. The white flags were removed by noon, but police said they are investigating the issue, which may indicate a serious security breach on one of the city's most secured landmarks.

In a stunning security breach, the giant American flags at the top of both sides of the Brooklyn Bridge were replaced by white flags overnight, cops said. The two new flags appear to be American flags that were painted over white — the traditional symbol for “surrender” — and were flying Tuesday morning from both towers. ... The NYPD’s Emergency Service Unit will is replacing the white flags with American flags as they set up a crime scene

Cultural Inertia: Remember how 45 years ago we were suddenly able to say: "If we can send a man to the moon, why can't we (fill in the blank)"? If only we could say the same today. It's worth remembering Neil Armstrong's July 21, 1969 "giant leap for mankind," if only as a measure of what the country used to be able to accomplish, but increasingly can't do today. When President Kennedy announced his goal of "sending a man to the moon and returning him safely to earth" in less than nine years, it was a laughably audacious promise. By...

President Obama said Tuesday he had an obligation to secure the release of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, regardless of the circumstances surrounding Sgt. Bergdahl’s capture by the Taliban five years ago and despite claims he’s a “deserter” who walked away from his unit. Speaking at a news conference in Warsaw alongside Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski, Mr. Obama said he, like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and FDR before him, must take every possible step to bring home American fighting men and women held in captivity at the end of a war. U.S. combat operations in Afghanistan will cease at the end...

By John Crewdson, Tribune senior correspondent. Reporting and research assistance was provided by Drew Crosby in Madrid MADRID -- The most sweeping criminal indictment to arise thus far from the Sept. 11 attacks reflects a quiet but dramatic change in understanding by investigators here and across Europe of the terrorist organization known as Al Qaeda, and the international Islamic radical-terrorist network of which, they now agree, it is merely a part. As laid out in the indictment, the defendants' alleged activities--from arranging travel and providing introductions to procuring false documents and, especially, moving money--provide the first detailed look at one...

BROOKLYN, N.Y. – The Brooklyn Bridge opened in 1883 at the height of America’s most turbulent political era. Built with steel, adorned with electricity, this marvel of the future was rooted in our past – a pivotal moment in the Revolutionary War. “What you do not see when you walk across the bridge is that you are overlooking where George Washington and his defeated army of the Battle of Brooklyn escaped in the middle of the night across the East River,” explained David McCullough, historian and author of The Great Bridge. McCullough sees the bridge’s story – the creativity, work...

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,...

Wild Nature 'Sea Monster' Discovered Beneath Brooklyn Bridge Published May 26, 2011 | FoxNews.com * Print * Email * Share * Comments (196) * * * Text Size A 'sea monster' has washed up beneath the Brooklyn Bridge in New York. At left, the creature on May 21 in a frame from a NY1 video. At right, the beast 5 days later, as seen on Gawker.com. NY1 / Gawker.com A 'sea monster' has washed up beneath the Brooklyn Bridge in New York. At left, the creature on May 21 in a frame from a NY1 video. At right, the beast...

Meet Donald Trump: Democrat Donor, Abortionist, Single Payer Supporter, and Taxer Update 1: A New NBC/WSJ Poll has Trump at an astonishing 17%, tied for second with Mike Huckabee behind Mitt Romney (21%). I know this is probably just a little surge by people who know nothing of Trump’s politics pre-3 weeks ago, and he is making an interesting splash right now. It’s like he found a Tea Party manual sitting around somewhere and suddenly adopted all of those positions (and then added birthirism for good/bad measure). Update 2: 2008 Trump Blasts Bush, Praises Obama, Says he Can Save the World:...

NEW YORK, - A chief inspector for New York's Brooklyn Bridge renovation project said he talked U.S. Vice President Joe Biden into calling his wife, shocking her. Tom Shepherd, 44, a city Department of Transportation Inspector working on the bridge project, said he told his wife, Betty, he might be meeting Wednesday with Biden, so he promised to "tell Joe you said hello," the New York Post reported Thursday. Shepherd said he mentioned the conversation when he met with the vice president later in the day and Biden immediately suggested he call Betty on his cellphone. "I'm Vice President Joe...

Johnny Maestro, who started out singing on the New York subways and a few years later recorded one of the great teen love anthems, "Sixteen Candles," died late Wednesday night in Florida after a battle with cancer. He was 70. A distinctive and highly respected vocalist both among his peers and fans of early rock ‘n' roll, Maestro spent his life in the music business, scoring hits as lead singer of the Crests in the 1950s and then the Brooklyn Bridge a decade later. He continued performing live shows with the Brooklyn Bridge until he was diagnosed several months ago...

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday sued a well-known fortune-teller who called himself “America’s Prophet,” charging him with securities fraud for swindling investors out of $6 million with the promise that he could accurately predict market moves. (Read the lawsuit after the jump.) Sean David Morton, 51, is accused of inducing more than 100 investors into pouring money into the Delphi Investment Group through his newsletter, Web site and guest spots on a nationally syndicated radio show. Among his pitches: “I have called ALL the highs and lows of the market giving EXACT DATES for rises and crashes over...

I'm really thinking about using some sort of identity theft service, especially since I got married and my credit card usage went up. Questions to anyone using these services: Can Lifelock be trusted and does it work? How does it work?

NEW YORK - The Brooklyn Bridge is 125 years old this month and New York City is getting ready to celebrate. The city on Monday announced an array of activities including a special bridge lighting, concerts, lectures, film series and family events. The five-day festivities will kick off on May 22 with a performance by the Brooklyn Philharmonic at the Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park in Brooklyn, and a Grucci fireworks presentation. The bridge connects Brooklyn and Manhattan across the East River, and is one of the oldest suspension bridges in the country. It will be lit up in an array...

RALEIGH - No, you're not imagining things. That really is a Ron Paul for President blimp flying over the City of Raleigh today. Organizers for the blimp took off this morning at 8am at the Airship Management Hangar in Elizabeth City, North Carolina and they are on their way to Chester, South Carolina where they will make their first stop. This afternoon, the blimp will be flying over north Raleigh and will most likely be visible from Interstate 540 at some point, said Bryce Henderson, a media coordinator for the effort. Organizers say the current schedule has it passing over...

...the superannuated span, as emblematic of the city as the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty, has been falling into disrepair. ...its steel elements are rusting, exposed to the elements by lack of paint. ....It turns out that the way the city will pay for the upcoming paint job is symptomatic of New York at its fiscal worst. The bulk of that $85 million, or whatever the cost shoots up to by the time painters actually arrive on site, will come not from the city's operating budget but from its capital budget. That means the city will be...

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Before Assem Hammoud and his associates decided to try to bomb New York's PATH trains, they had considered several other targets: the Brooklyn Bridge, the Golden Gate Bridge and the forests of California, where they would set a huge fire, Lebanese security officials told Newsday.

06/16/06 08:17:49, Categories: Celebrity News Hilary Duff Is Saving Herself for Marriage Hilary Duff insists her rocker boyfriend Joel Madden will have to put a wedding ring on her finger before he gets the chance to sleep with her because she plans to stay a virgin until her wedding night. The 18-year-old pop star/actress has revealed she has never had sex and is upset when fans automatically assume she and Good Charlotte star Madden are bedmates. She says, 'It's harder having a boyfriend who's older because people just assume.' But (virginity) is definitely something I like about myself. It doesn't...

For decades it waited in secret inside the masonry foundations of the Brooklyn Bridge, in a damp, dirty and darkened vault near the East River shoreline of Lower Manhattan: a stockpile of provisions that would allow for basic survival if New York City were devastated by a nuclear attack. City workers were conducting a regular structural inspection of the bridge last Wednesday when they came across the cold-war-era hoard of water drums, medical supplies, paper blankets, drugs and calorie-packed crackers — an estimated 352,000 of them, sealed in dozens of watertight metal canisters and, it seems, still edible. To step...

FINALLY, some good may come from the Valerie Plame kerfuffle - if Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has the stones to do what's right. A grave crime was exposed Dec. 16 when New York Times reporters James Risen and Eric Lichtblau published a story revealing President Bush authorized the National Security Agency to listen in on conversations between al-Qaeda suspects abroad and people in the United States without first obtaining a warrant. "We're seeing clearly now that [President] Bush thought 9/11 gave him license to act like a dictator," wrote Newsweek's Jonathan Alter. But the scandal was not the program Mr....