The Staten Island Advance has been following the turmoil brewing between a Wiccan family and their neighbors. The South Shore home at the center of the controversy is a duplex, half belonging to the Wiccan devotees, Ivy Colmer Vanderborgh, her husband and mother (the husband isn't Wiccan). Not hiding their practices, their property is decorated with a "witchy weather vane and cauldron out front," along with a massive stained-glass pentacle. Before the front yard cauldron......

Everything's coming up rosé on Staten Island: on the heels of the new aquarium unveiling in the ferry terminal, plans for the island’s first vineyard are coming into focus. Borough President James Molinaro (pictured, right) has pledged $2 million for the project, which will establish a 2 acre vineyard and demonstration winery at the Staten Island Botanical Garden. The organic vineyard will yield its first wine about four years from now; it’s the brain-child of......

Photographs of the Bedell House, clockwise from upper left: Normal-looking in 2005 (from Tottenville Historical Society), covered in graffiti in 2005 (from Tottenville Historical Society), and boarded-up in 2008 (from Staten Island Advance) A landmark Tottenville home that caused a bitter fight between its owner and neighbors has entered a new stage of its existence: foreclosure proceedings. The Staten Island Advance reports John Grossi, who bought the 1869 Bedell House in hopes of razing......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a person struck by a train at 14th St. and 8th Ave. in Manhattan, a shooting on Flatbush Ave. in Brooklyn, and a shooting on Houston St. in Manhattan. Yet another reason to celebrate: today is the 110th anniversary of Richmond County joining us as the 5th borough of NYC. The Staten Island Advance features a picture of a general store with a wooden Indian in front of it......

A Grinch has crossed state lines! Some NJ residents didn't receive their deliveries when a New Springville resident swiped packages from doorsteps during the holiday season. The Staten Island Advance reports that David Oakes would follow delivery trucks "to people's doors in Ocean Township, watching to make sure no one answered the door and claimed the packages." That's the problem with package delivery without signature! Apparently Oakes preferred "packages containing electronics, clothing and toys" -......

A "rising star" in the Fire Department was found with three gunshot to the head in his Staten Island home Sunday morning. The ME's office said that Douglas J. Mercereau's death was a homicide. It's believed that his 38-year-old wife, Janet Redmond-Mercereau, is a suspect (the Daily News calls her the "prime suspect"). She called 911 around 8:25AM on Sunday, saying she found her husband's body. The Staten Island Advance says the couple had "started......

Claiming he was panicked, the driver who fatally struck a mother of four in Staten Island Tuesday night now faces felony charges of leaving the scene of a fatal accident. But the law is a strange thing. The Staten Island Advance reports that if 19-year-old Ibraim Qoku "hadn't run away, he could have ended up with nothing more than a speeding ticket." Qoku was driving 50MPH, 20 MPH over the speed limit, on Hylan Boulevard......

A Todt Hill couple's home was broken into by the infamous Ninja Burglar last night. The craziest part: The wife ran into him. The Staten Island Advance reports that Mary Ann Carlo bumped into the intruder. Carlo said, "I started screaming, 'The Ninja is here! The Ninja! The Ninja!'" The Advance has the details AND gets a plug:At about 10:30 p.m., Mrs. Carlo turned off the television and headed downstairs toward the bedroom, where her......

Yesterday morning, two Bangladeshi brothers jumped off a freighter ship that was leaving the Port of Newark, "somewhere between the Kill van Kull and Verrazano-Narrows Bridge." One brother was found, while the other is still missing. Authorities say that 27-year-old Mohammed Nayem Uddin was found by fishermen on Hoffman Island, "shivering and covered in garbage bags." The Staten Island Advance reports he was taken to the hospital for hypothermia-like conditions. Uddin did not cooperate with......

There were a number of deaths and injuries from incidents all over the city early Sunday morning. The first was a collision between a Toyota and BMW on Hylan Boulevard in Staten Island. The Toyota's driver, 29-year-old Paul Vinin, died while the BMW's driver Jolyn SIlva, was critically injured. Silva's passenger, 17-year-old Paulina Vivirito, had minor injuries. The Staten Island Advance, which said that Toyota "t-boned the BMW", reports that both Vinin and Silva had......

After years of legal wrangling, the Appellate Court has backed the College of Staten Island and says that the CUNY school can deny official status to fraternity Chi Iota. But the battle may not be over, as the brothers want to fight this at the Supreme Court. Chi iota had applied for official status at CSI in an attempt to be the first Greek-letter organization on campus, but CSI denied their application, finding that the......

The lawyer for Brigitte Harris, the Queens woman accused of killing and mutilating her stepfather, says that Eric Goodridge committed a "pattern of repeated and systemic sexual abuse." Harris's lawyer, Arthur Aidala, told reporters that while he couldn't say what happened on Saturday, when Goodridge was found dead in Harris' apartment, he did say that his client had been abused from age 3, "This guy was a monster." The Staten Island Advance reports that there......

The man who throttled, stomped, kicked, and beat a peacock into a mortal state Thursday morning was turned in to police by his own stepfather yesterday. The Staten Island Advance is all over the story. It reports that John N. Potts was arrested yesterday, after threatening to smash his stepfather's face with a shovel in the older man's home. Potts then ran off and jumped into the Raritan Bay, shovel in hand. The Advance describes......

After scaring residents of two boroughs when a woman discovered a pipe bomb on her Jeep Cherokee, police arrested Baudelio Rodriguez for making a pipe bomb and placing it on a car. What makes the story more strange is that it was Rodriguez's daughter who discovered the bomb - the Jeep belongs to his daughter and his wife! He was reportedly angry at his wife for leaving their Brooklyn home and staying with their daughter......

June 21-23: NYC Food Film Festival, Part 2 See last week's calendar for the full description of the festival and the website for the schedule of events. This weekend's fim focus in on hot dogs and sausages, currywurst in particular, and even includes a hot dog eating competition, so get your gullets ready. At Water Taxi Beach. June 21-24: Staten Island Restaurant Week In their first ever restaurant week, over 50 of Staten Island's restaurants......

Successful Staten Island high school track star Arielle Newman died from poisoning that occurred from the over-application of topical pain-relieving balms. The 17-year-old was found dead in her bed by her mother the morning after she attended a large party on Staten Island in April, and suspicions initially turned to drugs or alcohol as the cause of her death. An initial autopsy that proved inconclusive only deepend the mystery surrounding the loss of a promising......

The Staten Island Advance reports that work has begun to stabilize the retaining wall that collapsed late Monday in the Dongan Hills neighborhood. Five homes were evacuated after a 50'-by-50' chunk of wall - including boulders - fell downwards from a wall built to support John D'Amato's home, hitting other homes; luckily no one was hurt. D'Amato is notable for two reasons: 1) One neighbor complained that the wall was built illegally back in 2002......

An update about the Tuesday-night incident where a reckless 19-year-old driver hit a bicyclist in Staten Island: The Staten Island Advance reports that Leon Wilson was high on painkillers while driving. And his past driving experience was so terrible that his learner's permit had been revoked in January. Yet somehow, he was behind the wheel of a rental car on Tuesday night, crashing into 47-year-old Juan-Han Guan, who had been biking home. Guan, who was......

There's a fine line between a parent reprimanding a child with punishment and assault. A Staten Island man was charged with assault and child endangerment after he admitted to rubbing a hot yellow pepper on his 11- and 8-year-old sons' naked bodies - including their genitals, including their faces. Why hot yellow peppers? The Staten Island Advance reports that the father, Ganganue Gonesh, explained to the police, "I use pepper to rub on their body......

Governor Spitzer outlined his agenda for the year, and besides tackling judicial pay raises and campaign reform, the governor also wants to target violent video games and movies. Hmm, could this be timed with the fall release of Grand Theft Auto IV, which is set in a NYC-like city? The Staten Island Advance reports Spitzer "wants to restrict access to these videos and games by children, similar to motion picture regulations which prohibit youths......

Retired NYPD cop John Galtieri was charged with the murder of his ex-wife, Jeanne Kane. Kane was found shot at a Staten Island park-and-ride Tuesday night, as she waited for her daughter's bus to arrive. Kane and Galtieri had a bitter divorce, with Galtieri upset at how much he was forced to pay her in the settlement. Galtieri, who had moved to Florida after divorcing Kane a few years ago, was arrested on I-95 in......

We can't get enough of hearing how the Department of Education's school bus route changes are totally insane. Here are some more examples: - Little kids on Staten Island waiting in 21 degree weather for 50 minutes for a bus - 10 year old Nessa Bratslavsky lives too close to school, but since her parents won't let her take the subway and her family can't keep taking her themselves, she might have to leave......

The Staten Island mother of an 11 month old baby was arrested after she left her baby home alone so she could go drinking. Thirty-one year old Evelyn Graft was returning home in a livery cab from a night in Brooklyn. Graft told the driver she wanted to go home "as quickly as possible" because her baby was home alone. The Staten Island Advance reported that by the time the cab arrived at her New......

A woman injured in a Staten Island drag racing incident was awarded a $4 million settlement for a wild June 2000 incident that left her with a punctured lung, broken ribs and broken vertebrae. Lauren Fuscaldo was a passenger in friend James Jaiman's Camaro when another driver in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution challenged them to a drag race. Though Fuscaldo urged Jaiman not to drag race, Jaiman did and his car went off the road......

Beware of that cute stray cat you see in Staten Island - the borough is facing a a "frightening" spread of rabies. The Staten Island Advance reports that City Councilman Michael McMahon wants to convene an emergency task force made up of the health department and NYPD, as "23 raccoons, three skunks and three cats have been found with rabies" since April. A West Brighton man who found a stray kitten and brought it to......

A 75 year old Staten Island man was killed by a minivan yesterday afternoon on the corner of Atlantic Avenue and Hoyt Street. Alvaro Fernandez, who would chat with his friend Augustin Abreu on the Hoyt Street Market and Deli's bench, was hit when a minivan tried to make a right turn from Atlantic Avenue. The minivan was rear-ended by an ambulette and jumped a curbed and crashed into the deli's building. Then the......

Dunh dunh DUNH. The Fire Department threw out an interesting statistic during a community meeting about NASCAR on Staten Island: Somehow, they calculated that an average of six people die during NASCAR weekend. The Staten Island Advance reports, "The deaths are put down to such causes as heart attacks, fires, injuries and auto accidents in and around the tracks." Does this count for deaths in a thirty mile radius of the tracks, because that......

The Staten Island Advance had an interesting tale of pet ownership and living in city housing. Patricia Leonardo, a tenant in the Mariners Harbor Houses, complained about roaches in her apartment, only to be evicted for owning two dogs in the apartment. A building manager also accompanied the exterminators, and since the New York City Housing Authority prohibits more than one dog or cat (though many pet owners do have more than one dog or......

An interesting follow up to a post from two weeks ago about the Department of Transportation's ridiculous ness. The NY Sun has an interview with Andrew Vesselinovitch, the DOT's bike program director who quit, and, boy, he doesn't pull any punches:Mr. Vesselinovitch said that when Deputy Mayor Daniel Doctoroff in April asked the department for more miles of bicycle lanes, his superiors asked him to come up with excuses to refuse to do so, including......

Yesterday morning, some subway service on different lines was disrupted due to a police investigation. It turns out that a woman was killed at 34th Street and 8th Avenue subway station. The Staten Island Advance reports that the woman was Grace Coughlin, a 53 year old US Postal Service Inspection employee. The motorman told police that Coughlin jumped in front of the train, but Couglin's family was told that she fell into the tracks. Police......