In the wake of the deaths of three children on Saturday, apparently killed by their mother, the Nassau County Children's Protection Services supervisor was suspended today. Caseworkers had gone to Leatrice Brewer's apartment to investigate complaints, but she was not in. According to Newsday, Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi said CPS supervisor Eddie Arrendondo failed to send caseworkers on Saturday to follow up, "despite the warnings by relatives that the children were in mortal......

When They Might Be Giants released their twelfth album, The Else, over the summer, The Village Voice called it “as tuneful and rockin' as all the rest, from the withering ‘I'm Impressed’ to the female-empowerment anthem ‘Take Out the Trash.’” Keeping it fresh is no small feat for a band with such an impressive body of work, accumulated over the course of the past 25-plus years. But a listen to The Else or, even better,......

Yesterday, a woman was found shot to death, clutching a knife in her hands. It turns out that 23-year-old Shauna Sanders was killed on Jordan Avenue in St. Albans after fighting with a date about her cell phone. According to the Daily News, Sanders and her cousin met two men at a bar and went home with them Friday night. On Saturday morning around 6:30AM, apparently Sanders and her date, Donnell Dunson, got into an......

What’s worth watching on food-TV this week? Martha Stewart’s all about Thanksgiving this week; she even has a hotline up T-Day emergencies (email thanksgivinghotline@marthastewart.com). Her mashed potatoes tip? Use buttermilk instead of heavy cream or cream cheese—“Delicious,” she says. On Monday, she’s making sides and teaching people about heritage birds and how to find the perfect turkey. On Wednesday, she’ll be answering people’s last minute holiday questions—sent in via the hotline--throughout the show (Monday-Wednesday, Friday,......

Yankees 11, Royals 5: Good thing the Yankees didn't make that Alex Rodriguez for Ervin Santana move this offseason. Rodriguez hit two homers -- Nos. 50 and 51 -- as the Yankees cruised past the Royals. Detroit beat Seattle again, so the wild-card lead stands at three games. Johnny Damon, who looked like a corpse for most of the season, has played better of late. He socked his 10th homer as the Yankees gave plenty......

What a wild weekend for area beaches! On Saturday, a shark washed up at Rockaway Beach. Yesterday, a bunch of medical waste and trash was swept in onto the Jersey shore, causing beach closures. The beaches were reopened this morning, but would you really want to go back after "syringes, tampon applicators, gauze and other debris" were found? NJ environmental officials aren't sure where the junk came from, but they are investigating. The NRDC recently......

On Saturday Union Square Wines held the kickoff for the three-day, first anniversary of their new location on 4th Avenue and 13th street. Bringing in about a dozen of their favorite importers and distributors, they set up tasting stations all around the store and turned loose the herds of glass-in-hand sippers for six hours. Unlike the tastings that sometimes take place at your local wine stores with wines you do not know and are......

On Saturday I found myself cycling through the drizzling rain to The World Financial Center, an office building on the western edge of the former World Trade Center site. The occasion was Lisa D’Amour and Katie Pearl’s astonishing site-specific performance piece, Bird Eye Blue Print, presented in several rooms in an abandoned office for small audiences of 22 at a time. Upon receiving my ticket in the building’s lobby, I was asked to jot down......

READING: Have you thought about Rereading Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë lately? Writers and Brontë enthusiasts Jennifer Egan, Siri Hustvedt and Margot Livesey have! Tonight they celebrate the "heart-searing story of a plain, orphaned governess who struggles at an oppressive boarding school before moving to Thornfield, eventually falling in love with her mysterious employer, Mr. Rochester." The event coincides with a new Masterpiece Theatre presentation of Jane Eyre. 7:30pm // Symphony Space [95th and Broadway]......

Is beating up a 14-year-old a new low in irrational rap rivalries gone worse? On Saturday, rapper Tony Yayo, who is also a member of 50 Cent's G-Unit, turned himself into police. Yayo and some other men were accused of assaulting a 14-year-old boy on 25th Street. And it wasn't just any regular 14-year-old boy - the boy happened to be the son of Jimmy "Henchman" Rosemond, head of a rival music management company Czar......

A veteran police officer and her husband were arraigned yesterday in connection to Saturday's bizarre drive-by shooting of a plainclothes police officer. Police officer Jacqueline Melendez-Rivera was charged with evidence tampering for trying to cover up that her husband, Jose Rivera, driving in her Acura SUV, had shot at an unmarked police SUV carrying four police officers in Park Slope around 4AM. Rivera was charged with attempted murder. When police searched for the Acura SUV......

Like many New Yorkers, Graydon Carter could care less about noise caused by new development, renovations, and all the like. But who knew he'd be up for throwing scaffolding down in extreme frustration while wearing shorts in 36 degree weather? Luckily, the Post has the "photo exclusive" that shows the Vanity Fair editor get up in a construction worker's business. The scaffolding was being put up in the West Village, near Carter's home and near......

Two quite controversial and buzzed about movies hit New York theaters this weekend. So far the critical opinion of raving lunatic Mel Gibson's new foreign language feature, Apocalypto, seems to be pretty favorable. The movie about a Mayan family man and the invading nearby tribe, sounds like it is painstakingly composed but has quite a bit of gratuitous, sadistic violence. Lisa Schwartzbaum in EW even calls it "the weirdest, most violent movie of the year,"......

-Nets 112, 76ers 107: Vince Carter scored a season-high 41 points as the Nets started a new streak by winning two straight games after losing six consecutive contests. Jason Kidd came up a rebound and a point short of another triple double. With Richard Jefferson healthy (he scored 24 points and doesn't seem to be showing lingering effects of his sprained ankle), there's no reason the Nets can't go on a mini-tear in the sluggish......

On Saturday afternoon, Jose Sanchez and his fiance Sonia Lopez took their baby son to see Santa Claus at Macy's. Later that evening, Sanchez was crossing Conduit Avenue in East New York when a speeding car struck and killed him. The driver, Rudolph Daniels of Cleveland, was arrested and charged with manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, and driving without insurance; Daniels's license was already suspended in New York. The Post reports that he was driving "at......

A person was fatally hit by a subway train at Columbus Circle on the 1 tracks. Which means that 1, 2, and 3 train service is suspended in both directions between 72nd Street and 42nd Street/Times Square. On Saturday, a man was fatally struck by an E train at the 34th Street station. The MTA also says that select Brooklyn-bound 2 trains are running on the 5 between 149th Street/Grand Concourse and Nevins.......

This week, Sarah Michelle Gellar is back for more creepy girls hiding in her hair in the new sequel, The Grudge 2. Amber Tamblyn plays her sister, who also travels to Tokyo and is also infected by the grudge inducing curse. While both American versions of the Grudge movies were directed by their Japanese creator Takashi Shimizu, it would seem that the better material would be in the originals, so we suggest renting those instead.......

THEATER: Teflon war criminal and Nobel laureate Henry Kissinger made news again this week with the revelation that Dr. Strangelove has secretly cautioned against any troop withdrawal from Iraq because, just like ‘Nam, such action would “become like salted peanuts to the American public; the more troops come home, the more will be demanded.” Kissinger’s breathtaking contempt for democracy is matched only by his Machiavellian genius; both attributes are skewered to great effect in this......

We've reached the midpoint of this year's 44th annual New York Film Festival but there's still plenty of stellar cinema to come. Here's a few flicks Gothamist has caught that we've loved. Volver This year the festival's centerpiece movie is Pedro Almodóvar's newest, Volver starring Penélope Cruz. Fans of old school, high women's melodrama Almodóvar will stand up and cheer for this new film; it's a ghost story and a five hanky weepie about the......

We didn't make it to the Central Park Zoo for the icy food-for-animals competition, but luckily Julia Meredith Levy did. She sent us a detailed report:Ice replaced Iron in a Chef competition yesterday at Central Park Zoo. Fittingly, the contest's taste testers were Polar Bears Gus and Ida, weighing in at 1,000 and 700 pounds respectively. In the wild, their diets consist mainly of seals, eating as much as 100 pounds in one setting. On......

On Saturday, a teenager visiting from Minnesota was killed by a Long Island Railroad train in a strange and scary accident. Natalie Smead and her father had been visiting relatives on Long Island, and she headed to Randall's Island for a Dave Matthew Band concert with other relatives and friends. She was getting off a westbound train at the Woodside, Queens station when she fell between the platform and the train car onto the tracks.......

On Saturday, the NY Times had a big feature about the NYPD aviation unit, which has helicopters for "rooftop evacuations, air-sea rescues and counterterrorism operations." And yesterday, one of those choppers was put in use when a woman jumped into the Harlem River. The 51 year old woman was weak and barely moving, so one of the aviation police officers hung onto the side of the helicopter and tried to pick up the woman. Officer......

Japanther is: Ian Vanek, Matt Reily One of the most well respected and truly underground bands in New York, Japanther rarely play traditional venues. You find them in warehouses, lofts, restaurants, basements, bedrooms, bathrooms...anywhere you can squeeze two guys, a bit of equipment, and a mass of sweaty fans. The Bass and Drum Art/Noise/Punk duo are one of the most revered live acts in New York, and this weekend we have two chances to......

On Saturday we led a streetart bike tour through the streets of Brooklyn with Mike and Will. At the far end of the tour, we stopped at an abandoned shipyard at the corner of Halleck and Columbia Street. It's filled with amazing graffiti, including this Gable piece-- but that's not the point of this story. Mike pointed out that if you look through the back fence of the shipyard, you can get a clear......

Perhaps you've heard that this little summer movie starring a seldom written about actor is out this weekend: ie. Mission Impossible III with the utterly crazoid, yet infinitely fascinating Tom Cruise. He flies in helicopters! Rides fire engines! Attends screenings of his movie in Harlem! And, he wants your $10.75. Will you be powerless to resist? Here's a few other movie going options this weekend, if you've decided to boycott the work of Suri's papa.......

We know we've mentioned it before, but Gothamist can't get enough of Cringe. Not strictly a literary event, it's nonetheless amusing how literary we thought we were in our teens, which is half the comedy of Cringe, where people read from their high school diaries and journals about how totally misunderstood they were, and also their new hairdo. Cringe is happening, tonight (5/3), at Freddy's Back Room and Bar (Dean Street and 6th Ave in......

In case anyone forgot it was an election year and politics are on the brain, Housing Works' Used Book Cafe is hosting a reading of Proud to be Liberal!, an anthology that traces and defines the history and ideology behind liberalism. The reading features contributors from all walks of life, reading from the work, and starts tomorrow night (3/15) at 7PM. It's free. On Thursday night (3/16), the art and literature world will find themselves......

Tis the season for hibernating and canceling plans 'cause it's too cold to go out. Here's what could, possibly, maybe get us out from under the covers this week: Things admittedly start off kinda slow. We might recommend Koufax at the Knitting Factory, but we're not really into their piano- and synth-driven pop so much. Our ex-roommate swears by them, however. Tuesday boasts an interesting non-show at Mo Pitkin's: Author Simon Reynolds hosts a panel......

This week at the movies, there's good news and bad news. The bad news is that the new releases are seriously scrapping the bottom of the quality bucket. How many weeks now has it been that we've had this complaint? The good news is that, as per usual, there's load of other fascinating movie related events In New York to sink your teeth into with relish. Someday soon someone should tally up the release record......

We know it's fashion week, but Gothamist prides itself on offering all kinds of other, more bookish delights for those not inclined to prowl the tents at Bryant Park. Kicking off this week, Symphony Space (95th and Broadway) is hosting Banned: Stories by Censored Writers and Dissidents, with work by authors from Iran and Indonesia. The show starts at 6:30PM on 2/8 and costs $25, less for members. At KGB Bar (85 E. 4th St.)......