With Britain at its top terror alert level after a flaming SUV crashed into Scotland's Glasgow Airport yesterday, New York City has stepped up security at area airports. Port Authority spokesman Steve Coleman (the PA oversees JFK, LaGuardia and Newark airpots) said, there were "increased security measures" in place. Notably, many more police officers from the NYPD and Port Authority PD, as well as National Guard, were stationed in and near the airports. It......

WNBC’s investigative reporter Jonathan Dienst is a native of the tri-state area, originally from Teaneck, New Jersey and is a graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He has worked behind the scenes at Newsday, and got his start in television at WSAV-TV in Savannah, Georgia where he worked for about half a year. He then had the opportunity to return to the city as NY1 was starting up and eventually moved to......

The Daily News and Post both use the alleged JFK Airport terror plot - that would have involved blowing up the airport's fuel oil pipeline - to move papers: The cover of the Daily News teases an interview with a waitress who served an "alleged mastermind" (cover headline: "Evil Ate at Table Eight") while the Post wonders about the whereabouts of one of the alleged plotters (headline: "Invisible Man"). The story doesn't crack the......

WNBC 4's Jonathan Dient reports that the feds have arrested four men plotting to blow up a jet fuel pipeline at JFK Airport today. From WNBC 4:Four people have been charged. One is in custody in New York. Three suspects are thought to be overseas. Sources said one suspect is thought to be a former parliament or government official in Guyana... ...Law enforcement officials said the plot may involve a former airport worker.There will be......

For the second year, Mayor Bloomberg has unveiled the New York City Card, which serves as a list of the qualities he is looking for in any politicians, be they Republicans or Democrats. And therefore, those with the money to put behind politicians can use the card to see if the politician's interests line up with what the city needs. Bloomberg said, "The City Card is not about conservative or liberal, Republican or Democrat -......

Yesterday's storm brought flooding, closed roadways, delayed mass transit, difficult drives, soaked clothing, upended umbrellas and 7.46 inches of rain to Central Park. There were winds of 48 MPH at Kennedy Airport, as hundreds of flights in the area airports were canceled. And some environmentalists noted the irony of Saturday's Sea of People demonstration while the mayor was issuing emergency flood warnings for downtown Manhattan. Con Edison reported about city 1,700 households were without......

Yesterday, Democracy Now.org showed footage taken from the Air Train station near the club in Jamaica, Queens where Sean Bell and his two friends were shot by police. And the video (link to download MP3) is bananas. One video shows a bullet coming into the station and barely missing a man. Another video shows two Port Authority police officers ducking from the bullets and running. The Daily News' Juan Gonzalez, who co-hosts Democracy Now, explained......

As we all know now, the soaring glass atrium dome and underlying transit hub designed by Nicholas Grimshaw will be much more modest than originally planned (above). The problem, of course, is b-u-d-g-e-t. A brief recap: The MTA cup that once runneth over with federal aid for post-9/11 redevelopment in Lower Manhattan now appears rather dry, owing to rising real estate and construction costs. To keep the project under a billion dollars, the dome will......

For about a day, Gothamist was worried that the Port Authority was seriously thinking renaming properties like the George Washington Bridge or John F. Kennedy Airport if sponsors would fork over enough money, but it turns out it was over eager speculation. The Port Authority is looking at possible shortfalls in the next few years and would consider renaming the Port Authority bus terminal; Gothamist liked Port Authority Commissioner Bruce A. Blakeman's quote: "We would......

John F. Kennedy Airport's Terminal 1 was evacuated yesterday when the bomb detection machines noted the presence of explosives on a piece of luggage that was left behind. It turned out that the owner of the luggage worked in construction and had access to explosives (for "legitimate" reasonsas the wire reports say), and there were trace amounts on the luggage. He was at JFK for a connecting flight to Paris; he made the flight, the......

By popular demand, snowfall amounts over Friday and Saturday, from the New York Times: 16 inches in Riverdale in the Bronx 12 inches at La Guardia Airport 12 inches at Kennedy Airport 13 inches in Central Park (which the Times notes is used as a "microcosm" of the city for weather records...no word on the influence of body heat generation by SummerStage) Other areas: 18 inches in central Long Island 20 inches in Thornwood,......

The Air Train that will connect from the LIRR and different subways to Kennedy Airport may be open by the end of the year. Originally scheduled to open last year, a fatal train crash during a test run in September 2002 delayed the project; the crash was apparently due to poor communication and excessive speeds. Over $2 billiion has been pumped into this project, which hopes to make traveling to JFK easier. NJ Transit's Newark......

New York City drug-sniffing dog, Crazy Joe, was named Pedigree's American Dog Hero. Crazy Joe has sniffed $13 million of illegal drugs at Kennedy Airport, and the Daily News notes that his biggest bust was 60 pounds of cocaine and most recently he found 12.5 pounds of heroin. Damn, doggie. The News also says that the name "Crazy Joe" came from the shelter he was found at in Atlanta, but NY cops still call him......

In this case, the French really don't have any sense of humor: Air France pilot Philippe Riviere's shoes set off a Kennedy Airport metal detector, and he was asked to remove them. Then Riviere made a joke about a bomb in his shoes. Of course the security workers called the cops. Riviere was arrested, his shoes turned out to be clean, his flight of 350 people to France was searched then cancelled. Bon idee, Philippe,......