Drivers, it's the last Friday in November—do you know where your car is? The day after Thanksgiving was the most-ticketed day of the last fiscal year, according to an extensive analysis of parking tickets conducted by the Times. The study concluded that parking tickets issued citywide have surged 42 percent since Mayor Bloomberg took office. During the last fiscal year, the city raked in $624 million in parking fines, which is more than the city spends to run the entire Department of Transportation. Officials, maintaining a straight face, insist the parking enforcement is not driven by revenue goals....

Opening arguments began in the murder trial of Lillo Brancato Jr., an actor who starred in A Bronx Tale and appeared in The Sopranos but found himself ensnared in a robbery gone wrong when an off-duty cop was shot. Brancato (pictured) and friend Steven Armento were attempting to steal prescription drugs from a friend's home in the Bronx. The Post reports, "Brancato had hoped to extend their high with drugs from friend Kenny Scovotti -......

While much of the attention is still focused on Hillary Clinton and the increasing possibility that she will become the next secretary of state, another local politician has entered the fold as a potential cabinet member in the upcoming Obama administration. Sources say Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion Jr. is being considered for secretary of housing and urban development. Carrion's name had also been one of many thrown around as a possible senate replacement if......

Upon hearing that Ashlee Simpson and Pete Wentz named their baby "Bronx" (Bronx Mowgli Wentz, to be exact), we asked Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión, Jr. what he thought. He told us: “It’s great to hear that Pete Wentz and Ashlee Simpson named their son after such a great place. I hope baby Bronx gets the opportunity to see what a beautiful and eclectic borough he was named after.” But just what are the chances......

Last night Ashlee Simpson and husband Pete Wentz welcomed a baby boy into their lives, and in turn, all of our lives. You didn't think these two would give this little guy a normal name, did you? Unlike many celeb couples who allow their kid a shot with a normal middle name, this one is just screwed no matter what way you look at it: Bronx Mowgli Wentz. Words fail. The proud pop explained the......

A former library assistant who was arrested in a case of mistaken email identity will receive a little over $25,000 in a settlement with the city. In April 2007, 24-year-old William Hallowell was accused of sending salacious and threatening emails to Robin Bernsen, his former boss in the library at the Riverdale Country School in the Bronx. Bernsen had sent an email to address that was similar to Hallowell's email address, and the response she......

Yesterday's three-alarm fire at a Bronx strip mall destroyed a number of businesses, including a pet store. According to the Daily News, over "100 frantic birds, reptiles and small animals died trapped in their cages" at Stephanie and Amanda's Pet Center. Joel Rivera, the store's manager, said of his cousin, who owns the store, "He just couldn't stay and watch what was happening." Rivera added that firefighters helped save "parrots, parakeets, rabbits, guinea pigs, lizards......

Fox 5 reports that over 140 firefighters are working to put out a three-alarm fire at a Bronx strip mall. Apparently the fire started at Urrego Alba Cleaners at 1105 Southern Boulevard and spread to other stores. Due to the FDNY activity, the 2 and 5 trains are suspended in both directions from 149th Street-3rd Avenue to East 180th Street, bypassing Jackson Avenue, Prospect Avenue, Intervale Avenue, Simpson Street, Freeman Street, East 174th Street, West......

Police are searching for gunmen who fired onto people at a Bronx house party, killing a 17-year-old girl and injuring two others. According to NY1, the suspects were angry after being turned away from the party (whose hostess even had guests frisked at the door) at 1495 Morris Avenue around 2 a.m. yesterday morning. The Post says the suspects probably "waited outside to get revenge," and during a fight, Nadaire Walters, 17, was shot in......

Bronx resident Diogenes Angeles showed three young men he's no shrinking grandfather: The Daily News reports that Angeles "dusted off his karate skills" yesterday when "Eugene Sanchez, 19, Rakeem Johnson, 23, and Jason Lopez, 25, taunted and then attacked" him. The 57-year-old managed to defend himself and the attackers ran away, only to be arrested by the police later and charged with robbery, possession of stolen property and resisting arrest (Sanchez also bit a cop's......

A stray pit bull attacked a pregnant woman yesterday morning as she sold newspapers beneath an elevated subway station in the Bronx. According to the Post, the wild dog lunged at 32-year-old Nogotaly Meite, an immigrant from the Ivory Coast, around 8:30 a.m., sinking its teeth into her left ankle. Her cries of "Help me! Help me!" were heard by good Samaritan Johnny Hernandez, who tells 1010 WINS that he "put the dog on the......

More details were revealed today about Rodulfo Jones, the man who stood on a ledge for 13 hours after allegedly stabbing his girlfriend. Jones, an off-duty NYPD traffic agent, was saying that he was "a demon" and wept as police tried to talk him down. By the time he was finally ready to leave the ledge, he talked about how out of character this was and continually asked about his girlfriend's condition. The only thing......

The 10th grade schoolteacher who was fired for calling his students "filthy animals who belonged in a f---ing zoo" has opened up to the Daily News. Last week Steven Clarke's lawsuit against against the Education Department was thrown out, with Supreme Court Justice Marilyn Shafer ruling that the principal at the Global Enterprise Academy was justified in terminating Clarke because "he had verbally abused students." Clarke now regrets his comments, but says that the punishment......

A jury delivered a guilty verdict for Steven Armento, a Yonkers man accused of killing an off-duty police officer in 2005. Armento had been trying to break into a Bronx home for drugs with friend, actor Lillo Brancato, when police officer Daniel Enchautegui intervened. Prosecutors say Enchautegui, while in civilian clothing, shouted, "Don't move! Don't move!" However, Armento was armed, and he fired at Enchautegui, hitting in him near the heart. Enchautegui still managed to......

A Bronx man was arrested after killing his wife's dog. The Post reports Bronx resident Brian McCafferty "staggered home at about 4:45 a.m. after spending most of the night drinking with some friends," which wife Jeanine Tulimero was not happy about. The couple --who were married on September 27--got into a fight and Tulimero left. Then, according to the Daily News, McCafferty "shot the dog once with the air rifle and then used a kitchen......

Tenth grade teacher and proud Cornell alum Steven Clarke (not pictured) lost his lawsuit against the Education Department yesterday. Clarke had been fired from his teaching fellowship at the Global Enterprise Academy in the Bronx after he told another teacher, in the presence of students, that, "My parents did not sacrifice for me to go to Cornell so I could take care of a bunch of animals." He then went on to describe the 10th-graders......

Two female NYPD cops accused of brutally beating a man during a road rage incident in August were indicted today by a Bronx grand jury. You'll recall the charges stem from an altercation between officers Michelle Anglin and Kollen Robinson—who were off-duty at the time—and Marlon Smith, who mouthed off to the pair after they yelled at him to shut his car door so they could pass by in Robinson's SUV. F-bombs ensued, followed by......

Yesterday afternoon, a hostage standoff ended peacefully after police managed to get two men holding a grandmother at gunpoint to surrender. The situation, which unfolded at 505 East 184th Street in the Bronx, was initially a robbery. Police managed to rescue a couple and their 2-year-old son and arrested one suspect who tried to escape. Two men were still holding a 60-year-old woman, but after negotiations, the suspects finally "drop[ped] two guns in a bucket......

The bus driver who was arrested after forgetting about a 3-year-old student left on the bus has received multiple tickets for public drinking, according to the Daily News. Terry Rocker, as well as bus matron Charlene Powell, left autistic Jose Gabriel Lopez (pictured) on a bus for six hours; the child was discovered when his mother went to PS 168 to pick him up--only to be told her son never arrived! The News also reports......

The police arrested a man for abusing his 8-month-old son to death. The medical examiner's office says that baby Elijah Rodriguez had "blunt trauma to the abdomen" (the Daily News says there were "fist-shaped bruises" there), attributing his death to "fatal child-abuse syndrome." His 21-year-old father, John Rodriguez, was charged with murder and manslaughter; he and the baby's mother Wanda Rosado, who were living at a Bronx shelter for homeless families, were already being monitored......

A homeless Bronx teenager charged with killing her newborn child, and the woman who took in the teen is devastated. The Daily News reports that Esther Pastrana, 17, had been kicked out of a friend's Manhattan home, where a neighbor, who saw Pastrana "weeping in the hallway," called Lysdell Ocasio. Ocasio (pictured), who readily agreed to house the teen, repeatedly asked Pastrana if she was pregnant, but she denied it. On Saturday, Ocasio's husband found......

NY1 reports that Bronx apartment building 1520 Sedgwick Avenue was sold to a new owner. The address is known as the "Birthplace of Hip-Hop" because DJ Kool Herc first "introduced extended break beats" in the apartment building's rec room back in 1973. Tenants had been trying to preserve its Mitchell-Lama status and keep it affordable by buying it themselves, but the landlord chose developer Mark Karasick to buy the building. Last week, Housing Preservation Department......

Yesterday morning, a man fatally shot his pregnant wife at a Bronx homeless shelter on Walton Avenue. The Daily News reports that Imanie Evan-Sawyer, 7 months pregnant, was trying to protect her 15-year-old son when husband Michael Sawyer was aiming his gun. Sawyer hit his wife as the teen ran across the street to the Bronx Supreme Court, yelling, "He has my mommy hostage! He's going to shoot my mom!" After shooting Evan-Sawyer, Sawyer shot......

Don't think for a second that Margaret Arrighi, head of the Bronx Business Alliance, lives in New York City—to her it's the Serengeti, and the traffic agents are the bloodthirsty predators: "They wait for you to park. They come up from behind, like a tiger waiting for its prey. They snap the machine and the ticket has begun to be written. Instead of tapping on the window, instead of asking you to move, they say,......

A Chinese food delivery man who was shot in the head while delivering an order in the Bronx is expected to survive, but lawmakers are demanding justice. City Councilman Larry Seabrook said, "Someone knows [the shooting suspects], and they need to give them up," while City Councilman John Liu said, "Not again. Not another vicious attack against a hard-working individual supporting his family while on the job serving the community." The Daily News reported that......

An unidentified homeless man got sent on a Dickensian misadventure last December after he made the mistake of knocking on the door of NYPD counterterrorism czar Richard Falkenrath (pictured) to ask for a glass of water. Like other czars, Falkenrath is not known for his compassion, and he promptly alerted the local constabulary to the parched roustabout's presence in his Bronx neighborhood. Cops questioned the man and released him, but officers in the NYPD's intelligence......

The suspect who allegedly struck Pelagio De La Cruz seven times in the head with a bat during a late-night robbery in the Bronx has turned himself over to police. Jamal Roman, 26, was arrested yesterday after being identified by his accomplice, 20-year-old Gavin Scott, who surrendered earlier, accompanied by his grandmother. Scott was captured on a surveillance video rifling through De La Cruz's pockets after Roman allegedly beat the victim outside a University Heights......

Poor 5-year-old Jaeden Vasquez. Even though he lives across the street from P.S. 111, someone put him on a school bus and the driver kicked him off at the last stop. The Daily News reports that the boy attends an after-school program next door in the Bronx--kids line up for the program or buses--but someone put him on a bus. Though the Department of Education says young children should not be let "off the bus......

One suspect has turned himself in to police in the Bronx in connection with the brutal beating of Pelagio De La Cruz, a Boston-area radio talk show host who was visiting his children in University Heights. Police say relatives convinced 20-year-old Gavin Scott to turn himself over to police last night after a widely-circulated surveillance tape showed an unidentified assailant who accompanied Scott savagely beating De La Cruz seven times with a bat outside his......

Heather Mills, the ex-wife of Beatle Paul McCartney, headed to the Bronx yesterday to donate $1 million in vegan food products to the children of Hunts Point. While more than a few Bronx residents didn't really know who she is (when the Daily News showed her photo around, there were "blank faces" or "She looks Mexican, but I don't know her"), others were simply appreciate of her efforts. Tiana Cora, 13 told the News, "She......