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Anti-SOPA Protests Planned Around The Country Today
By Chris Morran on January 18, 2012 4:06 AM
4 Comments
Even though the House Judiciary Committee has moved its planned hearing on the Stop Internet Piracy Act from today until February — perhaps hoping that we'll all be too hungover from Super Bowl beer and wings to care — that's not going to stop people who are peeved about SOPA and its Senate counterpart, the Protect IP Act, from taking to the streets to have their say. More »
Vodka Company To Take Down Billboard After Complaints Of Anti-Semitism
By Chris Morran on November 23, 2011 7:45 AM
63 Comments
Yesterday, we brought you the story of the Wodka (a brand of Vodka and not a typo) billboard that advertised "Christmas Quality" at "Hanukkah Pricing," which more than a few folks took as playing up the stereotype that Jewish people as cheap. After initially attempting to defend the ad by claiming that the idea was to say Hanukkah's eight nights of festivities are a better bargain than the one day of Christmas, the makers of Wodka announced last night that they will be taking the billboard down. More »
Foreclosure Mill That Mocked Homeless For Halloween Is Shutting Down, Blames NY Times
By Chris Morran on November 22, 2011 12:30 PM
110 Comments
Remember that foreclosure mill law firm in NY state that got caught mocking the homeless during Halloween? They subsequently apologized, but that couldn't keep the firm afloat, and last week it was announced that the company was closing. So whose fault is this? Well, the NY Times' fault, obviously. More »
(dougtone)
After Last Department Store Leaves, Town Decides To Start Its Own
By Ben Popken on November 14, 2011 12:00 PM
116 Comments
After the last department store in town went bankrupt in 2002, the townsfolk of Saranac Lake, NY, faced the daunting prospect of having to drive 50 miles away just to purchase underwear. Rather than give up or give into complaining, they pulled themselves up by their mud boots and decided to build their own store, and it just opened. More »
(Gene)
Protesters Get Boiler Fixed In Harlem
By Ben Popken on November 11, 2011 4:00 PM
58 Comments
Those good-for-nothing bums down at Zuccotti Park put down their free Ben & Jerry's ice cream for one minute and became quite good-for-something. Instead of occupying Wall Street, they occupied 142nd Street, and got a new boiler installed in a building where the heat and hot water has been spotty for years. More »
Illegal Urban Vegetable Gardener Gets Away With It
By Ben Popken on November 9, 2011 10:00 AM
46 Comments
The city needn't be a blighted blacktop jungle where the only thing that grows is broken dreams. Under the cover of night, Todd Bieber planted an urban vegetable garden in Brooklyn in an abandoned patch of ground next to a parking lot. The harvest he reaped was more than just the tomatos and squash: anonymous passers by added water to it on a regular basis, and neighborhood folks spontaneously donated seeds and tomato stands. Here's his story of how his garden grew, flourished, became salsa that he donated to the Armenian church that owned the patch, and then compost. More »
(katerha)
Phony Bedbug Exterminator Steals Jewels
By Ben Popken on November 3, 2011 5:00 PM
21 Comments
New York Police are warning Queens residents to be on the lookout for a jewel thief in bedbug exterminator's clothing. More »
Renter Sues To Keep Name Off List Of Renters Who Have Been Sued
By Chris Morran on November 3, 2011 11:30 AM
41 Comments
If you're sued for eviction by your landlord in New York state, whether you win or lose the case, your name goes on a list that then gets sold to other landlords looking to screen out potential nuisance renters. Wanting to keep his name and record clean, one Manhattan man has preemptively sued to bar his name from being added to the list. More »
Vegas Dismisses $896 Ticket They Gave Car Parked In New York
By Ben Popken on October 26, 2011 2:00 PM
51 Comments
Sometimes it just takes a little followup. That's what got a $896 ticket vaporized that the city of Las Vegas had erroneously slapped on Charlotte's car while it was 2,000 miles away in New York state. More »
Car Racks Up $896.80 Vegas Parking Ticket While Sitting In New York
By Ben Popken on October 25, 2011 3:00 PM
90 Comments
Charlotte is bewildered as to how her Camry somehow got a for $896.80 ticket for parking in a handicapped spot in Las Vegas while it was sitting happily in New York State. Had her car been secretly running out of town to go galavant around Sin City behind her back? More »
Brooklyn Restaurant To Try "Pay What You Want" Model
By Chris Morran on October 20, 2011 4:15 PM
41 Comments
The restaurant business is incredibly risky, especially in a city like New York with its fickle diners and over-the-top overhead costs. But that's not stopping a restaurant in Brooklyn from going ahead with plans to try out the whole "pay what you want" model for a month. More »
(jikatu)
Scammed For Sympathy On The Street
By Ben Popken on October 17, 2011 4:00 PM
253 Comments
It was a horrible story. A man approached Liza on the street and said that he needed $6 because his mother had just had a stroke behind the wheel of a car and he was short on cash to pay for the tow truck while she was taken to the hospital. It was also a lie. More »
Bloomberg Tells Occupy Wall Street Protesters To Leave Park By Friday
By Ben Popken on October 13, 2011 12:00 PM
115 Comments
New York City Mayor Bloomberg has asked the Wall Street Protesters to leave their encampment at Zuccotti Park in the financial district by Friday. Though the park is open to the public, it's privately owned, and its landlords have asked the city to assist in clearing the park so that it may be cleaned. More »
With Neighb's 'Net Down, Super Holds TWC Node Hostage. Ransom: Free Cable
By Ben Popken on October 7, 2011 12:00 PM
66 Comments
In the middle of reports of widespread Time Warner Cable outages in New York's East Village late this week, one building supervisor has decided to hold a local cable node hostage. This node controls cable and internet not just for his building, but several others on the block. His price for access? Free cable. More »
USPS Stops Delivering To Building Because Of Leaky Pipe
By Chris Morran on October 6, 2011 1:15 PM
58 Comments
The famous oath inscribed above the entrance to the James A. Farley Post Office Building in Manhattan reads, "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds." But it appears as if that unofficial postal creed doesn't extend to leaky pipes. More »
A Richer Way To Measure Poverty
By Ben Popken on September 29, 2011 4:00 PM
81 Comments
The way we currently measure poverty is, shall we say, based on a paucity of data. New York is deploying a new system of measuring poverty that aims to give a greater depth and richness to the poverty picture. More »
New Yorker Finds Out What People Will Do For A Free Cab Ride
By Chris Morran on September 28, 2011 4:30 PM
13 Comments
Many of you may remember comedian Mark Malkoff as the guy who raced — and beat — a New York City bus while riding a big wheel or the man who tested the limits of Apple Store employees' hospitality using a goat and a Darth Vader costume. Recently, he hired a NYC taxi for 14 hours and offered to pay the fare of anyone who Tweeted him for a ride. More »
Fashion's Night Out: Dolce & Gabbana Made Kids Buy $35 Lipgloss To Get Bieber Autograph.
By Ben Popken on September 12, 2011 12:00 PM
63 Comments
Shoppers have figured out that Fashion's Night Out in New York is a great time to scoop up freebies, like tshirts, prizes and free champagne. But in a recessionary move, this year retailers are making attendees pay a price if they wanted the privilege of attending their promotions and getting celebrity autographs. At Dolce & Gabbana, kids were told that they could buy a $35 tube of lipgloss to get Justin Bieber's autograph, but then he only popped down the stairs to sing one cover song. Then he sped back upstairs without signing anything. More »
Walmart Shopper Borrows Electric Shopping Cart For 11 Days, Uses It Like A Car
By Chris Morran on September 6, 2011 3:30 PM
96 Comments
You know those electric shopping carts you can use while shopping at Walmart? Then you likely also know that you're supposed to return the cart when you are done shopping. You're certainly not supposed to keep it for 11 days until you get ticketed by police for driving it down a public road. More »
Staten Island Couple Tried To Evacuate Homes In Order To Rob Them
By Chris Morran on August 29, 2011 12:00 PM
27 Comments
When you evacuate your home in advance of a hurricane, it's bad enough you have to worry about coming home to find a new indoor swimming pool in your basement. You certainly shouldn't have to be concerned that your stuff has floated away in the back of some thief's truck — or that this thief is also the same person who knocked on your door to order you to evacuate. More »
