Man's best friend was saluted as one Bay Ridge's resident savior, as Lexi the bichon frise was honored at St. Patrick's Church yesterday. Last month, when Linda Deutsch was taking the 5-year-old dog for a walk, Lexi refused to go to the elevator and instead dragged Deutsche down the hall. It turned out that Lexi heard the cries of neighbor James Postler--an 85-year-old deacon at the church--who had fallen hours earlier and managed to crawled......

The police released a sketch of a man claiming to be a Department of Environmental Protection inspector as he shakes down elderly people in Brooklyn. The suspect has apparently struck six times since August, telling victims that he will shut off their water if they do not pay. He is described by NY1 as a "dark-skinned man in his 40s or 50s," 5'6"-6' tall who wears a button-down shirt, tie, dress pants and a black......

An 80-year-old woman was rescued Thursday by a former neighbor whose concerns were aroused when she spotted newspapers piling up outside the Woodside, Queens woman's front door. Kim Russo used to live next door to Rose Schwing and was stopping by her old neighborhood to visit her mother. When the 47-year-old Russo saw the papers and mail accumulating in front of Schwing's house, she peaked inside one of Schwing's windows and heard her cries for......

Some time ago the New Yorker ran an amusing “Talk of the Town” feature on nightlife crusader Roy Den Hollander, who, unlike most nightclub scolds, isn’t fighting against excessive noise and loose morals – he’s out to put a stop to the scourge that is Ladies’ Night. And not because he disdains the ladies or the night, but because Den Hollander, attorney at law and self-styled pick-up artist, sees it as yet another way The......

After drivers of Access-a-Ride vehicles went on strike yesterday, a federal mediator will step in and attempt to help negotiations along. The drivers have been unhappy with a tentative contract that put more of the burden of health care on them, which then makes a pay raise less substantial. The strike affects about 40% of the Access-a-Ride drivers; there are about 20,500 people who use the service. MTA, which uses Access-A-Ride but is not part......

Anthony Marshall, the son of the late Brooke Astor, might have chosen a different lawyer if he suspected that he'd be eventually accused of looting his mother's estate. Or perhaps Francis X. Morrissey was the perfect man for the job. Papers are reporting today that Marshall's lawyer has a long history of profiting from soon-to-be-deceased clients. He was in court yesterday, arriving handcuffed, but leaving free on bail.It would seem to be the darkest moment......

An Upper East Side lingerie shop was robbed yesterday by a man posing as a vacuum cleaner salesman. In what the New York Post describes as a "Panty Raid," a black man in his 40s or 50s was let into Lingerie & Company on 3rd Ave. and 71st St., where he bound the 77-year-old clerk in the back room and robbed the store of cash and merchandise. The Daily News writes that the "Park Ave.......

After news of the Ninja Burglar's robberies at two homes in one night this past weekend, Staten Island residents are upset. One resident whose parents live near one of the recent victims told the Staten Island Advance that the two months in between robberies may have caused "people [to] let their guard down a little bit." The most recent victims, on Ocean Terrace, elderly couple Jean and John Interlandi, spoke out. Their house was robbed......

MOVIE: BAM pays homage to the late Barbara Stanwyck tonight with a screening of Forbidden. The 1932 Frank Capra-directed film (which tells the tale of a librarian who has fallen for an unobtainable/married man) was supposedly influenced by his real-life affair with the leading lady. Critic and historian Elliott Stein will discuss the film after the 6:50 screening. 4:30, 6:50 and 915pm // BAM Rose Cinemas [30 Lafayette Ave., Fort Greene] // $11 Meanwhile, the......

The intersection of Liberty Avenue and Crescent Street in Brooklyn was the scene of two separate incidents of pedestrians being hit by vehicles. According ot the Daily News, the first incident occurred by 12:30PM, when an elderly woman was hit at the East New York intersection. Then at around 2PM, a girl was hit by a cement truck. What are the odds of two people being hit at the same place within 90 minutes? A......

Around 2:30AM yesterday morning, 89-year-old Allan Stevenson was crossing First Avenue at East 73rd Street in Manhattan when a Mazda Miata fatally struck him. The car did not stop. A veteran theater and film actor, Stevenson, who walked with a cane and lived at 399 East 72nd Street for 40 years, had a late night ritual around his neighborhood. According to the NY Times, he would have a "glass of red wine at Delizia, the......

Early Sunday morning, an 86-year-old man was found driving in the opposite direction as traffic on the Belt Parkway. Luckily no one was hurt, but the highway patrol had to divert traffic in order to stop Bernard Hummel. The Connecticut resident had been reported missing from his home the day before. The Post reports that Hummell suffers from Alzheimer's and "wanted to drive his wife, Anna, to the Connecticut shore." He left home - without......

A 29-year-old Chinatown resident was charged with murdering his new girlfriend in the apartment he shares with his grandmother. Michael Chin Lenahan allegedly called his brother in NJ to say "I screwed up." His mother later went to the apartment and found a woman's body on her son's bed, under clothes. Police say Lenahan and Lorna Santiago had a date on Saturday night. They started at a restaurant on Third Avenue and then went to......

A man was shot after he stabbed two people on a Midtown street. Either an off-duty police officer or plainclothes law enforcement officer is believed to have shot the man. Here's a tip we received:I walked outside my building about an hour ago and saw tons of police activity. From what I hear a man went into Starbucks to obtain a knife unsuccessfully. Then went into another restaurant (not sure of the name) and......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a fall victim on Davoe Terrace in the Bronx, a bank robbery on 2nd Ave. in Manhattan between 62nd and 63rd Sts., and a missing person on 180th St. and Clinton Ave. in the Bronx. Jay-Z is a significant partner interested in moving the Nets to Brooklyn, but the rapper apparently is also interested in the naming rights to the team's current Meadowland arena. Insurance broker Noel Lauria pleaded......

TIP: Tomorrow morning enjoy some coffee and conversation with Likemind. EVENT: Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club cordially invites you to Bacchanal 2007 this evening! Enjoy some live music, all-u-can-eat BBQ from Schnack, canoe tours, kids' entertainment, silent art auction and raffle prizes from area shops and restaurants. 5 to 9pm // 2nd Street Boat Launch on the Gowanus Canal [165 2nd Street] // $25 PARTY: Did you hear it's National Singles Week? Well, it is --......

"I feel I’m losing my mind. I wish I knew what was the matter with me. It would be better to die than go on feeling this way." - Anthony Marshall's recollection of what his mother Brooke Astor said in a 2000 letter Is there a smoking letter in the battle over recently deceased philanthropist and New York City social fixture Broke Astor? As her son Anthony Marshall and her court-appointed guardians battle over whether......

Sometimes, there's nothing quite like a hot shower, but an elderly Bronx man got more than he was bargaining for with his shower. In 2004, 88 year-old Daniel Feliciano was showering when the water suddenly became "super hot", causing him to fall in his tub. He was treated for burns to his arms, abdomen, thigh, legs, and groin and was bed ridden in the hospital for three months and an additional three months at home.......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a pedestrian struck at 186th St. and Amsterdam in Manhattan, a child was struck and killed by a car on 130th Ave. and Springfield Blvd. in Queens, and a pedestrian was struck by a Bobcat (motorized work vehicle) on Monroe St. and Catherine Slip in Manhattan. Ironic Sans examines the new animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie and finds specific references to it taking place in NYC, but a......

An investigation into a fire at a seniors housing complex in Yonkers revealed a case or arson and then murder. WNBC reports that the Westchester County medical examiner's office announced that 78-year-old Louise Paciarello was strangled to death before her residence at the Kristensen Homes was set on fire Wednesday. Investigators initially thought the fire was suspicious because they found two points of origin for the blaze. Paciarello had lived at the seniors housing complex......

At the Ethnic Market highlights international specialty foods and ingredients that you're very unlikely to find at your local Gristedes. Gothamist has never been a big fan of rice porridge, whether it be Chinese congee or Korean jook. The number of bowls of congee we've eaten can be counted on the fingers of one hand. And we never had occasion to try jook until just the other day. Not that rice porridge is offensive, far......

An elderly couple filed suit against their landlord last month after he refused to let them move into the first floor apartment in their West Village building that they had already spent thousands of dollars renovating. To add insult to injury, Frank and Elissa Cella are part owners of the property, and the building manager who won't let them move in happens to be their own son. Frank Cella has diabetes, has undergone 12......

Londonist are starting to think their city is getting just a little bit too expensive, when even Christian Slater can't afford to go out there. And there's no escaping, as local singer Lily Allen discovered when she was barred entry to the US. The British mapping agency caused further bad karma, by blocking a 3-D representation of London in Google Earth. But the smiles returned to Londonist's faces as they interviewed Baroness von Reichardt,......

A Queens bus driver got into a brawl on his bus with a 22-year-old passenger after the younger man refused to surrender his seat at the front of the bus to an elderly woman with a cane. The New York Post reports that Larry Woods, who is 44, smashed passenger Christian Custis over the head with the bus's onboard phone after the man half his age wouldn't get out of a seat marked reserved for......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a large tree down at Hope and Havermeyer Sts. in Brooklyn, a plane fire at Laguardia Airport in Queens, and a disorderly passenger on a plane at JFK Airport in Queens. Regular L Train service between Brooklyn and Manhattan is suspended on the weekends for the rest of the month. Shuttle buses are the next hip thing. The Feast of Giglio is an amazing sight, with a five ton,......

The Landmarks Preservation Committee unanimously approved designating Sunnyside Gardens a landmark. However, amNew York reports that the preservationists who supported the measure were outnumbered by residents of the Queens enclave. One expressed dismay by saying, "It's going to cause a lot of problems for the low-income people We are disappointed. This process is not a democratic system." It was a heated issue: The LPC said it received "hundreds and hundreds" of letters with opinions on......

"People create because they feel what everyone else is thinking." In 1964, Tommy Trantino was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of two New Jersey police officers. In 1971, the death penalty was over turned and Trantino was sentenced to life in prison. During that time, Trantino wrote to Leonard Weinglass, the lawyer who defended the Chicago Seven, which included social and political activist Abbie Hoffman. Through Hoffman, Trantino's letters were seen by......

Jack Rhodes, the man suspected of robbing and beating elderly woman in Queens, was indicted yesterday on 35 charges of burglary, assault, robbery, and, yes, hate crimes. The NY State Hate Crimes Act has a provision that allows hate crime charges to be filed if the defendant has selected a victim because they are old. Queens DA Richard Brown said, “In just over nine weeks, the defendant is alleged to have beaten and robbed three......

Last October, the Brooklyn DA's office charged three men with murder as a hate crime after a gay man they had lured, beat, robbed and chased into traffic died from his injuries. But now the trio's lawyers claim that it was not a hate crime, but a crime of opportunity. Anthony Fortunato, John Fox, and Ilya Shurov are on trial for the murder of 29-year-old Michael Sandy; the three went to a gay chat room......

If you're looking for a good way to mimic the great NYC outdoors, check out the NY Times article about police car sirens - the Times even has a separate page with MP3s of all the different sounds. While demonstrating the different siren sounds to Times reporter Cara Buckley, Officer Spiros Komis made his work sound like he's a DJ when trying to get someone to stop speeding:“I go through the whole mode,” he......