Given how cold it is, this story is amazing: A teen who had been skateboarding with friends in Elmhurst last night heard some crying and found a a newborn baby girl wrapped in a blanket, inside a brown paper bag, at the top of a dumpster. The temperature was below freezing. Christopher Moncada said his brother Brian found the baby and when they opened the bag, "The baby was facing down. It looked like it......

Recently, IFC News was at the Walter Reade Theater for a New York Film Festival Press Conference for the Brian De Palma film Redacted, where the director was found defending his edit. At the end of the film disturbing images are shown in a montage sequence, photographs that Brian De Palma says "all exist on the internet." That may be so, but Magnolia Pictures owner Mark Cuban doesn't want them on the big screen. On......

The NY Times has an article this weekend that focuses on the overused and so over H word. Hipsters! They're still here, in all their b&w print glory. This time they're settling down in Staten Island to make babies. The new slow-growing hipster mecca has been a nearly silent Siren for a few years, drawing the hipster crowd over from Brooklyn -- the Times even tells us that at least one resident there wears "black......

An explosion occurred at building on West 119th Street, right off Fifth Avenue and just south of Marcus Garvey Park, around 4PM. Several people were injured - WCBS 2 says that the injured include two babies and a firefighter who was helping people out of the building. Also: "Firefighters on the scene removed pieces of debris from the building's first floor while residents were being treated on stretchers on the street." The situation was described......

Meat-adverse gourmands take note: October isn’t just Family Sexuality Education Month, Healthier Babies Month and Dental Hygiene Month, it’s also National Vegetarian Awareness Month! Yesterday, in fact, was World Vegetarian Day, which came hot on the heels of September 28th’s Hug a Vegetarian Day. (Photos!) Feeling aware yet? Brooklyn vegetarians still aching from the sting of Heath Ledger’s departure can try to fill the void at the first annual Brooklyn Vegetarian Restaurant Week, which seems......

The cutest mustachioed baby in this town is definitely the new walrus at the New York Aquarium. The baby walrus, who was born on June 12 and weighed in at 115 pounds, is ready for his public, as he made his first appearance yesterday. But he needs a name, and people can vote on the Today Show's website for one of four names: Utvak (Means ice made from snow or ice cube), Ukiivak (Means......

Les Savy Fav, known for rocks songs, bringing babies on stage and lovely apartment decor...are playing a couple of shows in their, and your, hometown this month. And we've got your tickets. First up, on September 21st, they're at the Music Hall of Williamsburg with Cheesburger and Fatal Flying Guilloteens opening. (Bonus: you'll get to see the new venue!) Next up, on September 22nd, they're at Bowery Ballroom with Parts & Labor opening. To win......

Last night Barack Obama came to Brooklyn to join supporters and community members at The Marriott Hotel on Adams Street. The event was set to begin at 7pm, and for hours prior to that (even after doors opened at 5:30) crowds filled the streets around the hotel - many waiting to get a glimpse of the candidate and many just waiting to get in! It turns out the event was oversold, a reader tells us......

This is a harrowing crime that makes us question humanity. Twenty-one-year-old Joseph Wallace of Staten Island was charged with first-degree manslaughter, second-degree sexual abuse, and endangering the welfare of a child in the May 21 death of his 2-month old son, Joseph Jr. Warning: Extremely disturbing details ahead. Authorities had been investigating the baby's death for the past few months, and an autopsy revealed that there were lacerations in the baby's rectum. The NY......

An interesting legal ruling, with a special guest appearance by former Governor Mario Cuomo. Manhattan Judge Renee Roth ruled that two children, conceived by in vitro fertilization using sperm from their father after his death, were eligible for a share of their paternal grandfather's estate. The Post reported that a man, only identified as James B., saved some of his sperm when he was diagnosed with Hodgkins' lymphoma. He died in 2001, and his widow......

The Observer has an interesting piece on The New Victorians, who are apparently bringing monogomy and early adulthood back. To get a mental image, think: Michelle Williams and Heath Ledger in Boerum Hill, Jonathan Safran Foer and Nicole Krauss in Park Slope and Liv Tyler and Royston Langdon in the West Village. A new breed of 20-somethings in the big city, and apparently this new regime is more into nesting than late nights. The Observer......

If you want a true cute overload this afternoon, check out Jenblossom's Flickr set of photographs of a cat named Stumpy and her babies that have taken over her Brooklyn backyard. In fact, Jenblossom and her family created an amazing duplex for the new feline family to live in. But she especially wants to make sure the four kittens find good homes. Photograph of three of the four kittens by Jenblossom on Flickr......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a possible grenade is noticed and reported on 33rd Ave. in Queens, an armed robbery on East 61st St. in Manhattan, and a carjacking on 133rd St. and Neptune Ave. in Brooklyn. City Council Speaker Christine Quinn is employing the celebrity skills of Matt Dillon to help save St. Brigid's Church in the East Village. Eastbay is marketing Converse All-Star high tops that appear pre-worn and fairly dingy as......

All across the Ist-A-Verse (or at least the American parts thereof), writers and editors are in the midst of enjoying their three-day weekend. But after the week we've all had, we feel like the break is not only needed, but deserved. Just look at everything we've been doing! Gothamist headed into the Memorial Day weekend with a number of tasks accomplished. They worried about Long Islanders giving New Yorkers a bad name. They tried......

Ick. The National Weather Service has issued an Air Stagnation Advisory for the city and points northward. The advisory, which is in effect from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., is in response to high ozone levels. Ozone in the stratosphere is great for blocking skin-damaging ultraviolet radiation, but it can damage lungs and get into our bloodstream when close to the ground. When ozone levels are high it is best to limit strenuous outdoor activity.......

That alert about reptiles on the Gothamist Newsmap yesterday? It turns out that many reptiles and other kinds of animals - snakes, frogs, tarantulas, and even little alligators - were found by the FDNY at a basement apartment in Queens. While the fire was contained, firefighters were "startled" to realize that a python (one that was as wide as a human thigh) was on the loose. A firefighter told the Post, "It felt like something......

As rival Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney continues to gain ground, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani is still leading in national surveys. However, Giuliani has been facing criticism over his abortion stance, which has most recently been refined as something like I believe that women should have a choice, though I'm morally against abortion. And with that, he's trying to convince the conservative voters out there that he's a good choice. He gave this opinion at......

We here in the Ist-A-Verse know that we're sensational, but it's very rare that we get a chance to be sensationalistic. This week, we've decided to have ourselves a little fun and try our hand at tacky tabloid headlines, using nothing more than our favorite posts from this week. Torontoist Special Report: Rosie to Trump: "Fire 300 Bicyclists for Fraud!" On DCist: Students Go Wild for Slogans, Secrets and Sexual Harassment The action was thick......

READING: Alice Walker's daughter, Rebecca Walker, reads from her book "Baby Love: Choosing Motherhood after a Lifetime of Ambivalence". Babies, family, pregnancy...will all be discussed. 7pm // Barnes & Noble [675 Sixth Ave] // Free EVENT: Ever wonder how Shakespeare would respond to current events? Well someone did, and now there's an event series, Conversations with Shakespeare, based around what he would do if he were alive today. In other words, WWSD? This week "your......

With the surprising, though not quite scandalous, news that Judith Giuliani had been married three times (one more time than the widely believed two times), it was a matter of hours before presidential candidate and our former mayor would have to answer questions. While on the campaign trail in Oakland, California - and taking a break from kissing babies - Rudy Giuliani said he's known about his wife's first husband for a while: "She told......

The Department of Health and St. Barnarbas Hospital in the Bronx announced a nurse working has tuberculosis. The nurse worked in the postpartum, well-baby nursery, neonatal intensive care and psychiatric units, and has exposed about 700 people, including 238 babies, with TB. The Post explains tuberculosis "is a contagious infection that typically attacks the lungs, and can be fatal if untreated." And newborns are especially vulnerable. And the NY Times spoke to the director of......

Earlier this month, New Yorker Nicole Carey gave birth at Lenox Hill Hospital - a posh, private hospital on the Upper East Side where many a celebrity has gone for treatment when in town. But the Long Islander's hospital course went awry when her brand new son Preston's brand new lungs filled with fluid and she herself developed blood clots in her uterus. Preston was taken to the intensive care unit immediately where he would......

When Rafael Hasid shuttered neighborhood standard Hill Diner, it seemed that the promise of a proper Israeli breakfast was retreating ever further into the horizon. Hasid reopened the spot this month as Miriam, a second location of his modern-Israeli concept, which has held court in Park Slope since 2005. The Israeli breakfast survived the switch unscathed. Gothamist credits Miriam with breaking the falafel autocracy to which most Israeli restaurants in New York have resigned.......

- LX.TV profiles Hurapan Kitchen, some food blogger gives commentary. - Restaurant Girl visits The House, gives the ambience an 8 and the food, a fairly dismal 4. - Augieland stops by Dieci, awards it "640 decimalillian stars," and finds that, although it is improperly categorized as Italian, it's "a good little place for a bite." - Tony Bourdain set to become a proud papa. - Gridskipper leads us to some of the city's......

It's the Lunar New Year this weekend, the first day of 4705 being this Sunday. The Year of the Pig is a very good year - pigs are fat and round, which means a prosperous and benevolent year. Some even think it's a good year to have babies, too! Chinatown will be celebrating the Year of the Pig this weekend and for the next few weeks. There's the Flower Market at Columbus Park today......

Yesterday afternoon, an apartment building at 115th Street and Lenox Avenue caught fire and tenants and onlookers cheered as five children and their mothers were led to safety. A neighboring building's super, Sharif Abdul Aziz, made three different trips down the fire escape to save mothers and their babies. Aziz simply said, "Everything I do, I do for God." Firefighters also rescued one set of twins from the fifth floor by handing the kids through......

The man who doesn't want you to smoke in City bars or clog your coronaries with sweet, sweet trans fats now wants to do something healthy for the tiniest and newest New Yorkers. Mayor Mike Bloomberg is dropping more than $2 million on a campaign to get City run hospitals to encourage new moms to breast feed. City health commissioner, Thomas Frieden, wants babies to dine on nothing but their mothers' breast milk for the......

Brooklyn author, Jennifer Baumgardner's recent essay "Breast Friends" explores a topic so taboo Gothamist had never actually heard of it before -- "cross nursing" or "milk siblings". In her essay, Baumgardner details her experience nursing a friend's child while that friend nursed hers. And while she initially was shocked and put off by the idea, she has completely warmed to it by the end of her baby swapping experience. Gothamist was a nursing mother at......

Former mayor Rudy Giuliani was in New Hampshire, making it known he wants to be a presidential contender. The NY Times says he sounds "nearer than ever to being a presidential candidate" while speaking to Republican delegates, telling them, "when I promise you things, if I do, when I do, as I do, I'll promise them because I've done them before." He was "unusually formal" during the speech, "staying behind a lectern," whereas he......

Texas is thawing, the Northeast is freezing, and a sort of natural order seems almost restored to the Ist-A-Verse. Almost. Londonist HQ—that is to say, the city of London—was battered by heavy winds, making it a bad time to be a twelve-meter (nearly forty-foot) tall snowman. Still, not everyone decided to keep warmly covered. Meanwhile, back indoors, the Big Brother racism is now causing all kinds of headaches for international diplomats, and Londonist got into......