And the death of the New York deli continues. After some disappointing rye bread experiences in New York delis, the folks at Saveur went on a mission to find authentic, flavorful rye bread, wherever it may be. And though Orwasher's Bakery and Zabar's get nods for having the real thing in NYC, America's best rye bread can be found in...Michigan? more ›

The missing 34-year-old medical student who seemed to disappear without a trace after being kicked out of her Midtown apartment was found safe and sound at the West Side YMCA. Aimee Angle-Zahn, who reportedly has epileptic seizure disorder as well as a "gullible" and "clueless" nature, was found after cops looked at the activity on her debit card. more ›

In addition to approving a measure that loosens restrictions on embryonic stem cell research, Michigan voters also approved a medical marijuana ballot measure yesterday by an overwhelming majority, voting 63% to 37% to remove state-level penalties for registered patients using marijuana. But unlike other states such as California, the bill won't create legal dispensaries for the drug. Of course, not every one was for it: 20-year-old poindexter Claire Luczak, an uptight junior at the University of Michigan, said she voted against the proposal because "it would be too easy to get it. I know hundreds of people who smoke pot, and I think people would get it for recreational use and not legitimate reasons." And yesterday Massachusetts voters approved a marijuana decriminalization proposition that will make getting caught with less than an ounce of pot punishable by a civil fine of $100. [Hat tip Camera Club.] more ›

At a rally in Michigan, Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama picked up an endorsement from Al Gore, the former Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate. Gore said, "Looking back over the last eight years, I can tell you that we have already learned one important fact since the year 2000. Take it from me, elections matter. If you think the next appointments to the Supreme Court are important, you know that elections matter.” more ›

In a televised meeting that could be subtitled "Death by a Thousand Paper Cuts," the Democratic Party's Rules & Bylaws Committee is meeting today to discuss and hear testimony on the dilemma of Florida's and Michigan's delegates. more ›

With the South Dakota primary next week, Senator Hillary Clinton made a visit to Mount Rushmore. But her campaign was dealing with news that lawyers for the Democratic Party believe, according to party rules, that "Florida and Michigan [should] lose at least half their delegate strength," which damages Clinton's hopes of overtaking Senator Barack Obama. more ›

Hillary Clinton may have won more votes in Tuesday’s crucial primaries, but the victories barely made a dent in Barack Obama’s lead, narrowing the gap by only a few delegates. Unless scandal or some other meltdown severely damages Obama, Clinton’s chances of beating him on pledged delegates are extremely difficult. more ›

Fresh off her big night of wins in Ohio and Texas, Hillary Clinton spoke on CBS's Early Show and mentioned the words "dream ticket" in relation to the heated Democratic presidential race. Harry Smith told Clinton, "We talked to a lot of people in Ohio who said there really isn't that significant a difference between you two, and they'd like to see you both on the ticket." After remarking how "incredibly close" the race is, she said pairing up "may be where this is headed, but we have to decide who is on the top of the ticket, and I think that the people of Ohio very clearly said that it should be me." more ›

Another Will Ferrell sports flick will inflate this weekend, capping off a nationwide “Funny or Die” promotional tour that brought him to Radio City Music Hall Sunday night. The movie is Semi-Pro, which stars Ferrell as Jackie Moon, owner of the 1976 Flint Michigan Tropics, a team in the maverick ABA basketball league. To keep his career alive against all odds, Moon initiates off a series of increasingly desperate publicity stunts to attract fans – behavior that does sound awfully familiar. more ›

No, he's not blushing from all the attention. Mao Mi is a Red Panda and the newest addition to Prospect Park Zoo in Brooklyn. He arrived last week from Michigan's Binder Park Zoo as part of a Wildlife Conservation Society breeding project. Red Pandas are an endangered species with fewer than 2,500 adults thought to remain in the wild in Bhutan, China, India, Laos, Nepal and Burma. more ›

After the NY Times story revealed how NYC votes for Barack Obama appear to have been undercounted for the unofficial (yet official enough to be sent to the AP and other news outlets) results on primary night, State Senator Bill Perkins of Harlem spoke out. Perkins, who supports Obama, told the Post

: "Every election has problems, but in this case, all the problems seem to have been his," said state Sen. Bill Perkins (D-Harlem). "He got all the zeroes and undercounting. more ›

After Hillary Clinton's started airing a commercial in Wisconsin questioning why Barack Obama declined to appear in another debate, Obama came back with his own ad. The voiceover says:

After eighteen debates, with two more coming, Hillary says Barack Obama is ducking debates? It's the same old politics, the phony charges, and false attacks. On health care, even Bill Clinton's own labor secretary [Robert Reich] even says Obama covers "more people" than Hillary and does more to cut costs, saving $2500 for the typical family. Obama's housing plan it stems foreclosures and cracks down on crooked lenders. That's change we can believe in.

Hillary Clinton's February flop continued today as voters in Virginia, Maryland and D.C. turned out for Barack Obama by nearly two-to-one margins (in D.C. he won by 75% to 24%). According to exit polls, Obama not only did well with young voters, blacks and independents but, surprisingly, with certain demographics Clinton's been counting on: senior citizens, women and blue collar voters. Polls suggest 49% of those who voted for Obama were white and voters over sixty backed Obama by 52%. more ›

It's another Tuesday test of candidates' appeal as D.C., Maryland and Virginia have primaries today. Both the Republicans and Democrats have primaries those three states, but most attention is being focused on the battle between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, who are just about neck-and-neck in terms in delegate totals. more ›

The specter of a Mormon multimillionaire as president has been lifted; Mitt Romney announced his withdrawal from the Republican primary race this afternoon. Romney used his speech to the Conservative Political Action Committee to declare: “If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Senator Clinton or Obama would win.” Wonkette liveblogged the speech to great comic effect. more ›

New York City faced some stiff competition in the Forbes Top 10 “Misery Measure”, but ultimately moped away with a respectable fourth place, losing only to such perennial dystopias as Detroit (#1, forever); Flint, Michigan (#3) and… Stockton, California, in the #2 slot? Apparently, the Bay Area satellite has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the country and a swelling population. more ›

After early results put John McCain and Mitt Romney in a "too close to call" race, McCain won the Florida primary. Rudy Giuliani, who once led national polls, looks like he'll finish in third place (though Mike Huckabee is a close fourth as of 10PM), which is actually his best finish after the primaries and caucuses in New Hampshire, Iowa, Wyoming, Michigan, Nevada and South Carolina. more ›

LECTURE SERIES: The Nation forges on with their series of Tuesday evening lectures tonight. Nation columnist and Columbia Law professor Patricia J. Williams will be on hand to discuss her montly "Diary of a Mad Law Professor" column. Expect to examine the law in whole new light. more ›

People have been wondering about former mayor Rudy Giuliani's campaign for a long time (his presidential campaign plan notebook went missing last January! he pays more attention to his friends' advice versus that of election consultants). Now, with the Florida primary on the horizon, it seems his New York-based supporters are starting to worry. more ›

Yesterday the three top Democratic contenders for the presidential nominations debated in Nevada. The debate wasn't as testy as previous ones, in part because Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were trying to maintain an aura of good will and love for the Democratic party - and not bicker over race or gender. Which meant that Clinton, Obama and John Edwards were pretty boring in their happy, friendly paces. The NY Times noticed that even Tim Russert, one of the moderators, "seemed subdued" in a night of "'John' and 'Barack' and 'Hillary,' soft voices, easy jokes and belly laughs." more ›

Were you rudely awakened by a clap of thunder early this morning? We heard one at 2:49 a.m. and again around six and seven. Gothamist is going to be a grumpy worker bee today! Yes, we were treated to a rare January thunderstorm last night. Showers and possibly another thundershower or two will continue until the early afternoon. more ›

Hillary Clinton proved the polls and pundits wrong with her New Hampshire primary win last night and dominated the front pages for a second day in a row. Clinton and John McCain, who won the Republican primary, are being called comeback...adults as New Hampshire polling centers had record turn outs. WNBC's Gabe Pressman writes that their wins are a defeat for pollsters and journalists who had written them off. more ›

The medical examiner's office said the autopsy of top long distance runner Ryan Shay is inconclusive. Shay collapsed during the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials on Saturday in Central Park and died shortly after. The ME's office said, "We want to take a closer look at the heart tissue," and will probably come to a conclusion in a week. His father had revealed his son was diagnosed with an enlarged heart at age 14, and Joe... more ›

We may be in for a bit of a wild weather ride later today. The same low pressure system that spawned 29 tornadoes from the panhandle of Florida to northern Michigan yesterday will be our big weather maker today. The Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center has the metropolitan area in a slight risk of severe weather this afternoon and evening. For us the severe weather is likely to be thunderstorms with gusty winds and heavy rainfall. The wind and heavy rain combo will strip many trees of their autumn leaves, clogging storm drains which adds to the likelihood of the dreaded urban flooding. We may see a shower or two before noon, but the showers should begin in earnest later in the afternoon. The heaviest rain is expected after the evening rush hour. more ›

Gov. Spitzer announced yesterday that illegal immigrants will be able to get valid New York State drivers licenses if they provide a valid and verifiable foreign passport. Spitzer hopes that the change, which reverses a four-year-old Pataki-era decision, will legitimize the 500,000-1 million undocumented immigrants who are driving in New York. In a repudiation of the federal government's stance, the governor said "We will not become part of what is propagated on the federal level that if we don't admit they are here then we can somehow not provide services. That is bad policy." more ›

THEATER: The fall theater season gets curiouser and curiouser with the start of The Alice in Wonderland Puppet Festival at HERE. (The festival, which is not recommended for children under twelve, will feature a tea party after every show.) Tonight curiouser & curiouser fuses text from Alice in Wonderland, Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll’s diary entries and his muse Alice Liddell’s memoirs to try to decipher what destroyed their unique friendship. - John Del Signore more ›

MUSIC: Scottish indie sensations Camera Obscura bring their pop and their rock to the Seaport tonight. They're joined by The Last Town Chorus. After that, there's only one more show down there this season! more ›

While SFist cringed at the fatal dose of crime littering the Bay Area, it found solace in Hillary Clinton's San Francisco campaign headquarters opening, which featured loads of exposed mammary glands. In other news, SF Taxi Commission ruled that Satan's cab must keep its (in)famous medallion number, 666; and in an un-fashion-forward frenzy, San Francisco Fashion Week (chortle) bars bloggers from covering and getting smashed at their shows and parties, respectively. Also, they found a picture displaying the woes of cruising in a tacky limo on the streets of San Francisco. more ›

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Okay Conor, we get it: you have cool friends. This week, during the Bright Eyes 7-night run at Town Hall, the band promised a special guest each night. So far he's brought out the likes of Lou Reed, Steve Earle, Jenny Lewis, Norah Jones and Ben Kweller. Each played a few songs of their own mid set before joining in jamming with the rest of the group. On the night we went, we were treated to a mini acoustic set by Ben Gibbard and a sit in by Nick Zinner, who among other songs, played the haunting Daniel Johnston cover "Devil Town." But as far as Bright Eyes goes, no matter what you think of the guy and his music, there's no denying that he always makes the extra effort to please his fans in NYC. Whether it be avoiding the larger, expensive venues, playing intimate shows or pulling stunts like this. Conor went out of his way to make each of these shows special, and as a fan, we really appreciate that. more ›