NY State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, in his quest to get to the bottom of Merrill Lynch's extravagant bonuses right before announcing a $13.8 billion 4th quarter loss, told a judge, "We respectfully request that the court reject Bank of America’s continued efforts to stymie the attorney general’s investigation." Bank of America, which bought Merrill, has allegedly threatened to sue an employee for cooperating with Cuomo's investigation. The bank says it "has continually offered to provide the information the attorney general is seeking if he would agree to an appropriate confidentiality agreement. He has continually declined," (Cuomo wants to air all the dirty laundry). Additionally, the AG's office says it has found signs of "trading irregularity"; per Bloomberg News, a London-based Merrill trader who "recorded a trading profit of $120 million for the fourth quarter may instead have lost a large amount." Bank of America and Merrill Lynch have received a combined $45 billion in bailout funds.

Between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. today, P.S. 41 (116 W. 11th Street, Manhattan) is holding a bone marrow donor drive, in hopes of finding someone who may be a match for kindergarten student Jasmina Anema, who is suffering from a rarely and deadly form of leukemia. Jasmina, who just turned six, is adopted, so her doctors are unable to turn to blood relatives for bone marrow transplants and her family and friends have been trying to draw attention to the drive (see the very touching video at her website). Her mother told the Daily News earlier this week, "I need thousands of people to come," and called Jasmina, who was three days old when she was adopted, "the love of my life." The drive is also to raise awareness about registering as a potential bone marrow donor; here's more information about eligibility requirements.

A number of items that once belonged to Mahatma Gandhi sold for $1.8 million at auction yesterday despite an outcry from the Indian government and a last-minute change of heart from the items' owner. The Times describes a somewhat chaotic scene that unfolded minutes before the lot was to be auctioned off, when a lawyer for James Otis, who amassed the items piece-by-piece in the '90s, tried to halt the proceedings. Julien Schaerer, an official of the auction house, said that Otis had entered a "legally binding agreement" to sell the items, and ordered the lawyer escorted from the building. The lot, which included his sandals, pocket watch, and spectacles, was ultimately purchased by Vijay Mallya, who owns the company that makes Kingfisher beer. Otis had earlier rebuffed an offer from the Indian government to buy the lot, calling it too low, but said he would be willing to hand it over if the government agreed to increase spending on the poor. It's unclear what prompted Otis's second thoughts, but he said he would not challenge the auction if Mallya returned the items to India.

With productions fleeing the city after the state's tax credit program ran out of money, a popular prop house is now expected to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection next week. Props for Today, which has been around for 28 years, hooks up shows like Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock with furnishings, and Crain's reports that owner Dyann Klein will attempt to "reorganize" after a rough year. Klein said, “The decrease of film making and television in New York, which began with the writers' strike and has continued and been escalated by the loss of the tax incentives, has impacted everybody in this industry. I believe I will be able to implement necessary changes in reorganization in Chapter 11 and emerge as a much stronger, healthy company that will continue to be the leader in prop rentals in the industry for years to come.” Allegedly the company owes just under $1 million in rent on its West 34th Street space. In the meantime, maybe local Michel Gondry can help some productions in need of props with his cardboard boxes.

Over at Fork in the Road, journeyman Robert Sietsema has done a bang up job surveying the city’s burgeoning landscape of tip jars, which are no longer only found at cafes with counter service. They’re everywhere, Sietsema reports— from the coffee shop receptacle that implores “Karma is a boomerang,” to the mamma-said “Take a penny, leave a dollar.” It would seem that the current Thunderdome-style match-up of recession vs. New Yorkers has resulted in a new economy of tip jars that simultaneously allow business owners to broadcast their quirks as well as their woes, such as the “Tip $, because $4 a gallon is killing us!” price-of-milk themed message Sietsema found at a bakery. And Frank Bruni of Times puts in his two cents, imploring everyone to tip at restaurants, no matter how bad the service was: “It’s not some bold stand against fat-cat restaurant operators lining their pockets,” he writes, not to tip.

An exterior wall at 270 West 123rd Street in Harlem collapsed around 3:15 p.m. WCBS 2 reports the building was "partially under construction" and "appears to be a five-story walk-up with a pizza shop, Pizzaria 123, on the bottom floor." WABC 7 says that some pizzeria customers were temporarily trapped: "Workers were pouring concrete at a construction site when the wall collapsed into the pizzeria next door." Four people were injured; the extent of their injuries is not known.

We would like to take a moment to thank this week's advertisers on Gothamist.

• ACES Train Service, now bringing you to Atlantic City with direct service from Penn Station.
  
• Zipcar, cars by the hour or day, just around the corner. Sign up now and get $25 in driving credit!
  
• Godmother, the secret Cinderella story of a Manhattan woman who has an intriguing secret.
  
• Mike Bloomberg NYC, looking for volunteers for their team.

Put down that silly book and stop ironing that tight-fit v-neck for a moment, lads, and know this: you're now a part of the least manliest city in the nation, according to some list. The #1 spot on the "America's Manliest Cities" index went to Nashville (home to an unhealthy number of NASCAR enthusiasts), with NYC falling right at the very bottom. They report, "Despite high ratings in the bowling category, New York City ranks 50th out of 50 in the study due to low scores in manly indicators such as fishing, home improvement and drag racing." Cities that got higher rankings did so through high purchases of salty snacks, number of hardware stores, monster truck rallies and, of course, sports bars. Fun trick: if you flip the list upside down you'll get the America's Most Educated Cities list, and hey, we're #1! [via Village Voice]