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It's been over a month since Greenwich Village baker Ted Kefalinos sparked outrage over his so-called "Drunken Negro Face" cookies, and the controversy will still not go away, despite his fumbling attempts to apologize. The New Black Panthers have been protesting on Saturdays outside his bakery, and the Secret Service paid him a visit because of his alleged remarks that "Obama will get he deserves, just like Lincoln." In a Villager article that can only be described as pure gold,......

Coming soon to Times Square and Herald Square: Vehicle-free Broadway! Starting on Memorial Day, two stretches of Broadway, from 42nd to 47th streets and from 32nd to 35th streets, will transformed into pedestrian plazas in an experiment that will last through the end of the year and may become permanent, the Post reports. Mayor Bloomberg is expected to announce the plan today, and promise that the change will actually improve the overall traffic flow, because Broadway disrupts traffic where it intersects with other streets. As part of the changes, Seventh Avenue will be widened......

We may have mentioned that the occupation of NYU's student center ended with a whimper, but after watching this 9:22 minute video of NYU security daring to enter the barricaded cafeteria occupied by student protesters last week, we're worried our faces are now permanently frozen in deep cringe. According to NYU Local, the footage was recorded not by an NYU student but by a strident young man from Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA., who seems truly appalled that officials have violated their inner sanctum, "making everyone very upset," while also deliberately ignoring......

A rendering of Broadway's future as a pedestrian-only boulevard in Times Square, courtesy DOT. Various news outlets fanned out around Times Square to get comments from "men on the street" reacting to the news that, starting Memorial Day, Mayor Bloomberg will banish motor vehicles from Broadway, between 42nd and 47th streets and 33rd to 35th streets. Bloomberg says computer simulations determined that motorists will be able to cruise down Seventh Avenue 17% faster, and 37%......

With all the recent uproar about carriage horses, and Fashion Week recently bringing out the fur brigade, we thought it was a good time to talk to an animal lover—one who happens to know exactly what's happening out on the front lines. Patrick Kwan is the New York State Director of the Humane Society of the United States, and recently he schooled us in some current animal rights issues. What's the latest with the carriage horse situation, and how is the Humane......

Photograph by Digiart2001 on Flickr With today's snow storm, the Schools Chancellor has canceled NYC public schools for the day, but it's not like the workforce can necessarily stop as well. Let us know if you're heading to work or if you're telecommuting... or just hanging out and enjoying the winter wonderland after you shovel. Given today's snow fall, are you at work......

Mayor Bloomberg really likes his space! The NY Times reports that the billionaire who lives in a 5-story "flawless Beaux-Arts limestone with 7,500 square feet of exquisite living space" at 17 East 79th Street, has been "been buying up space in the building next door, knocking down walls and combining two entire floors along the way." The neighboring building, 19 East 79th, is described as a "white 1880 neo-Grec co-op town house," and the added space—one of the floors includes "vaulted......

Rupert Murdoch and wife Wendi Deng at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party Media baron Rupert Murdoch apologized for last week's controversial NY Post cartoon— which shows a fatally shot chimp and one cop saying, "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill"— with an statement printed in the NY Post. As the Chairman of the New York Post, I am ultimately responsible for what is printed in its pages. The buck......

Photograph of a Kentucky grow house from the SEA Federal prosecutors have charged an FDNY firefighter with maintaining a marijuana grow house—with 100 plants— in a rented Queens home's basement. Patrick Murray was "arraigned on charges of manufacturing and possessing a controlled substance with the intent to distribute." Apparently the DEA has been looking at a "narcotics trafficking organization that grows marijuana in houses in Queens and sells it throughout the New York region,"

With Heath Ledger's posthumous Oscar win this past Sunday, his only daughter Matilda has been thrown back into the spotlight. Her mother, actress Michelle Williams, was recently interviewed by the Telegraph in Brooklyn, the borough that mother and daughter are still calling home. In some of her first public statements about Ledger's death, she says she still feels "burned out," hasn't set foot on a film set since last May, finds the Hollywood lifestyle "a hassle," and spends her time these......

For the better part of the last 60 years, Jimmy Prince has worked a 12-hour day behind the counter at Major Prime Meat Market on Mermaid Avenue. Yesterday, the 77-year-old butcher closed his shop for good, seeing as many longtime customers off as possible. Coney Island neighbors filled the place: some brought snacks, like plates of cookies and cake. Others cried. Former customers hoisted cameras above their heads to get a good shot of Jimmy and took pictures of the sign that said “no hamburgers left” taped to the front door. Glen Miller played......

There's a pretty big sex club hidden in a hangar-like space somewhere around the border of Red Hook and Carroll Gardens, where every weekend swingers and single fornicators come together for a little coitus, voyeurism, and baked ziti. Times reporter Alan Feuer has a detailed profile on the place, which charges $40 for couples, $90 for single men, and admits unescorted women—"who are sex-club gold"—free of charge. During his time at the nameless club, which he says is located somewhere between a......

Jessica Chesnutt, 25, and Natalie Sauro, 24, are lesbian couple who recently got married on top of the Empire State Building along with 12 other couples on Valentine's Day. Since they're a same-sex couple, however, their vows were considered a part of a commitment ceremony. Following their whirlwind few days, Jessica told us a little bit about the experience, New York's progress with marriage rights, and more. How did you meet? Natalie and I met while we were both seniors at Smith--but......

Better bring something to read—the NYC Transit Authority says that weekend subway waits between trains on the A, D, F, G, J, M, N, Q and R lines will increase from 8 minutes to 10 minutes, according to the Post. Also: "The E line, the most crowded, will run every 7½ to 10 minutes, depending on the time of day...The MTA calculates about 10 to 18 more straphangers will be forced to stand in each car on the D, E, F and......

With the MTA's finances in desperate, dire shape, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has "proposed a compromise on Wednesday that endorses putting tolls on the bridges over the East River and the Harlem River," the NY Times reports. The idea to toll the currently free bridges came up last November, but opposition from drivers has been fierce. Silver offered a compromise to charge $2 tolls to drivers—which is what subway and bus riders pay—and said, Obviously there are some who......

Photograph of Governor Paterson at the White House yesterday by Charles Dharapak/AP Governor David Paterson was in Washington D.C. yesterday, along with other governors meeting with President Obama to discuss what the states will get from the federal stimulus package. NY State got $24.6 billion of the $787 billion package, and Paterson announced the first projects that will benefit—eleven upstate roads projects, like "Replacement of the I-86 Bridge over Rte. 415 in the Town of Erwin, Steuben......

Some people irritated by the government's intervention in the economic crisis gathered at City Hall yesterday to throw a Taxpayer Tea Party. The NY Post reports that organizer Kellen Guida was "inspired to set up the rally after watching CNBC anchor Rick Santelli's scalding rebuke on Feb. 19 of Obama's $275 billion housing bailout last Wednesday." Guida said, "I know my basic economics, and know the stimulus package doesn't work. [Obama] is going to add more to the federal deficit in 20......

Photo by Wally G Times they are a changin'. Cafe Wha?, the Macdougal Street club that put many legends (including Dylan, Springsteen, Hendrix, even Bill Cosby) on the map by giving them a start on their stage, is being sued for playing one of the musician's songs without a license. The Post is reporting that the venue is "named in a pair of copyright-infringement suits charging unlicensed performances of Billy Roberts' 'Hey Joe'......

A Brooklyn entrepreneur has purchased the trademark for Crazy Eddie, a Northeast electronics retail chain famous in the '80s for its irritating, low-budget ads, which featured DJ Jerry Carroll hyperventilating about the store's "insane" sales. (Watch below.) The company went bankrupt in 1989 after the U.S. Attorney in New Jersey busted brothers Eddie Antar and his nephew Sam for fraudulent business practices. Now one Jack Gemal has bought the trademark from Trident Growth Fund LP, which tried to auction it......

Watch out Bloomberg! Yesterday Reverend Billy launched his campaign for Mayor of New York City, sending out a letter declaring "It's time for all of us to rise up and reclaim our wonderful city from Starbucks and the other awful chain stores, from real estate speculators and the predators on Wall Street. Together, we'll give New York back to the people who love it." Hallelujah! Nominated by the Green Party last week, he made his announcement in person in Union Square yesterday, donning an electric blue suit....

A judge ruled that Leona Helmsley's multibillion dollar fortune can be distributed to a number of charities—and not just dog-related ones. The real estate mogul, who died in 2007, had wanted her $5-8 billion fortune to go to canine charities (she also left $12 million to her dog Trouble, but that was reduced to $2 million by a judge), but now The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust's trustees will be able to determine where the......

Left photo of Rourke holding Loki (with director Daren Aronofsky in the background) at the Venice Film Festival last September by Andrew Medichini/AP; right photo of Rourke wearing a "Loki pendant" at the Oscars this past Sunday by Amy Sancetta/AP Ever since Mickey Rourke's performance in The Wrestler has celebrated, the press has devoted many stories to his comeback—and how he credits his dogs with saving his life (he discusses them a lot during his

In his autobiography Barack Obama writes about the first night he spent in New York, prior to attending Columbia. Finding no one home at the apartment he was meant to stay at, he "found a dry spot, propped my luggage beneath me and fell asleep, the sound of drums softly shaping my dreams. I woke up to find a white hen pecking at the garbage near my feet. Across the street, a homeless man was washing himself at an open hydrant and didn't object when I joined him." The alleyway Obama slept in, pictured, is believed to be adjacent to 200 West 109th Street. Should the unique historical spot be renamed after our new President? Someone get the LPC on this!...

Before you get to uncork your first "Spring Breaaaaak!" scream, the arrival of March appears to be playing one its cruel (or delightful) tricks on us as it comes in like a snow leopard with a storm that looks like it may be the heaviest accumulation we've received all winter. The National Weather Service has issued a winter storm warning in effect for twenty-four hours beginning at 6 p.m. this evening. They are calling for six to ten inches of snow......

Fine, President Obama may have delivered his first speech to a joint session of Congress, but let's really get down to brass tacks: Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal did sound eerily like Kenneth the Page during the GOP response. That crossover audience of 30 Rock fans and presidential address watchers were probably expecting Jindal to break into "Top That." The other dominant non-policy observation was that Michelle Obama was going sleeveless again (this time, in Narciso......

The Coney Island Boardwalk has been seriously deteriorating over the years, and Borough President Marty Markowitz says it's time for Washington to help save it. He tells the Daily News what anyone who's drunkenly stumbled around the Boardwalk with a Pina Colada knows all too well: "It’s in horrible condition." The city is currently spending $5 million to renovate a small section of the Boardwalk (with plastic!), but a total overhaul of the entire 3-mile promenade is estimated to cost more than......

When the NY Times article on how the economy shrunk 6.2% last quarter starts off with, "The economy is spiraling down at an accelerating pace, threatening to undermine the Obama administration’s spending plans..." is it any surprise that over a thousand brides-to-be flocked to the Union Square Filene's Basement to participate in the "Running of the Brides"? The annual event (in NYC; it's held twice a year in Boston) offers wedding gowns—which usually retail for $700 to $10,000—at $249, $499 and $699. Brides generally attend with family or friends to help scope......

Top Chef finalists Stefan, Carla and Hosea at left; some of their dishes at right Last night was the finale of Top Chef New York. The final cheftesants standing were Stefan (aka the European), Carla (aka the chef with love), and Hosea (aka the chef who really hated Stefan), and they were tasked to create a three-course meal—not including the last minute twist, of course. Some thoughts about the finale and season overall......

Last September, friends of a 23-year-old woman became worried when she had been missing for several days. However, Hannah Upp, a teacher at the Thurgood Marshall Academy and Pace graduate student, was spotted at the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue—she spoke to a fellow Pace student—raising questions about whether she wanted to be found. She was ultimately spotted in the water—and alive— off Staten Island two and a half weeks after she was last seen. Upp has said little since re-emerging—except......

A neighborhood bar's surveillance camera captured footage of two cops, accused of raping an East Village resident, returning to the woman's apartment two times after their first visit. Yesterday, the Daily News and Post reported that police officers, who were called by a cab driver to help the woman—who apparently vomited in the cab—get home on December 7, were stripped of their guns and badges and were put on modified duty. While the two cops have not been identified, the