Over the past week, temples in the NYC area have been vandalized. In Staten Island, swastikas were spray-painted on a Bay Terrace synagogue; there is a $13,000 reward for information leading to a suspect's arrest and conviction. At a Dix Hills, Long Island synagogue, the word "JEWS" was spray-painted on the exterior on Saturday. And also on Saturday, torahs were stolen from a Queens synagogue--the suspect had access to keys and was able to disarm......

Photo via Jay Parkinson. Yesterday there was some chatter about the Hello Health subway ad campaign, mainly how its empty word bubble design (unsurprisingly) acted as a magnet for vandals! AnimalNY mentioned that the MTA was responsible for pulling the ad campaign, which launched when Hello Health opened its doors in Williamsburg. Today, however, they uncovered that there was a little bit of finger pointing going on, and it was actually "CBS Outdoor, the......

A Bronx neighborhood was outraged last month when a building's mural memorializing 9/11 and a local firefighter who was killed at the World Trade Center was tagged by a graffiti artist. The tagger painted his initials directly over the face of Peter Bielfeld. Tips eventually led police to arrest 16-year-old Avery Prince, who goes by the tag SIPS and has since apologized for defacing the mural. Artist Eddie Gonzalez has since restored Bielfeld's face......

Tao Lin's promotional spam-mongering tactics have not made Gawker a fan of the author; last year the website addressed Lin, saying, "I know you're reading this. I just want you to know that because of your ill-conceived self-marketing strategy, you have 100% guaranteed that I will never read your damned book. You're maybe perhaps the single most irritating person we've ever had to deal with." They added that his stunts are "retarded" and "deceptive." Well,......

Sure, getting dumped hurts, but does that mean you need to deface an entire neighborhood? A Brooklyn man was arrested after police discovered he was behind a number of swastikas found in Brooklyn, apparently acting out after being left for another (possibly more stable) man. According to police, 911 received a number of calls from a pay phone about swastikas on buildings and cars in Sheepshead Bay; the culprit was described as a bald man.......