SFist worried over drugstore chain Walgreens celebration of Black History Month.Gothamist was surprised that apparently New York City is the fourth most miserable city in the country, after Detroit, Stockton, CA, and Flint, MI.Shanghaiist finds out what the Chinese think of Hilary and Obama.It was with a healthy amount of schadenfreude that Phillyist reported that former Eagle, and now Cowboy (ew), Terrell Owens owes the Eagles a significant wad of cash.Torontoist is two weeks......

Photograph of the Trump Soho by Riccardo Sinti Gothamist went to the scene of the Trump Soho construction collapse, which left one construction worker dead and others injured (an indirect culprit - Manhattan's hot real estate market, causing rushed construction jobs).Shanghaiist is confused by media reports as to whether Playboy will be available in China during the year of the Olympics.LAist got fugged in an interview with the Go Fug Yourself girls.Torontoist set hearts......

According to The New York City Department of Health, New Yorkers have a longer shelf life than those in the rest of the country. NY Mag has some astounding stats including: a New Yorker born in 2004 can now expect to live 78.6 years, which may not sound that long but it's in fact nine months longer than the average American. Note that the average gets brought down anytime a young person dies, which seems......

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......

We've heard of paintings getting CT scans, but how about $100K cleanings? Maxfield Parrish's 25-foot King Cole mural, owned by the St. Regis Hotel, just got restored to its original splendor at that exact price. The $12M painting hadn't been cleaned in 40 years, and since there wasn't a smoking ban for most of that time, and the painting hung in the hotel bar - the appearance suffered. This cleaning was one of the last......

There's so much going on across the Ist-a-Verse that it's almost impossible to keep track these days. Fortunately, we do it so you don't have to! Londonist took a walk through Oliver Twist's London, thanks to a gorgeous map layer for Google Earth. They also caught up with modern-day fictional London, with the Fantastic Four and 28 Weeks Later. It was a week of insanity over at DCist. They started the week off with......

Between fake terrorist alerts and scandals big and small, this just might be the Best Best of the -ists ever. We're exhausted just thinking about it. First up, SFist, who saw their little 'ole site be the center of what was a nice little scandal (even getting their editor on TV) only to find their scandal dwarfed by the even bigger scandal caused by their Mayor boffing one of his aides' wife. We're not......

Texas is thawing, the Northeast is freezing, and a sort of natural order seems almost restored to the Ist-A-Verse. Almost. Londonist HQ—that is to say, the city of London—was battered by heavy winds, making it a bad time to be a twelve-meter (nearly forty-foot) tall snowman. Still, not everyone decided to keep warmly covered. Meanwhile, back indoors, the Big Brother racism is now causing all kinds of headaches for international diplomats, and Londonist got into......

This week's New York cover story is about Mayor Bloomberg's presidential possibilities. It's a great look at how far the Mayor has come from the dog days of 2003 when his approval ratings were in the 20-30 point range and how, somehow, many New Yorkers seem to like Mike. It’s the Tuesday after Labor Day, and Bloomberg and I are having lunch (though his idea of lunch is coffee and a slice of incinerated toast)......

Yesterday the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene held a public hearing about banning trans fats in city restaurants. Overall, most people said it was a good thing, with health and diet experts noting the "historic nature of these hearings" and that 22% of heart-related deaths are due to trans fats consumption. However, there was opposition - and not just from fast food restaurants. The Food Bank for New York City pointed out that......

Somehow, the world of -ists managed to make it through the week despite news that Jen & Vince broke up. - Chicagoist had fall on their mind as they made squash and fudge, read "House of Leaves" and tried to figure out what's next for the Cubs. Not fall related, but still of utmost concern, the whole skinny black pants thing. -Torontoist fought off an evil scourge of raccoons and went to go see......

Let's see, people who hate the Mayor: Besides conservative Republicans and super left Democrats, smokers who hate him for the smoking ban and public school students who hate him for the cell phone ban. But now Mayor Bloomberg could lose any affection for that 18 years-20 years and 364 days age group if the city does raise the cigarette purchase age to 21. The current legal age to buy cigarettes is 18, but the city......

No way, man. No way is the government going to tell me what to do, man. No square in a tie is going to tell me how to live my life. Oh. It’s for my own good? Oh, ok. Earlier this week, Mayor Bloomberg spoke at a public health law conference in Atlanta conducted by the CDC where he recommended that other cities should follow New York’s example of promoting better health through law. He......

One of the Health Department's big initiatives has been to help New Yorkers quit smoking, and it's been working, especially with the smoking ban and the cigarette tax. However, after looking at numbers that reflect a slight rise in smokers between 2004 and 2005, the Department of Health would like another cigarette tax to hit its goal of 250,000 more former smokers. Health Commissioner Tom Friedan said, "It is now more critical than ever that......

Smoke Gets in Your Clothes Ah. There's nothing like hitting a bar, tying one on, getting home, passing out, and not smelling like cigarette smoke. The NY Post reports that the number of complaints of illegal smoking in bars and restaurants continued to drop last year. There are also 200,000 fewer smokers in the City compared with four years ago. Gothamist Health can't believe that it's already been almost 3 years since the smoking ban......

Last November, Gothamist fell in love with the idea of congestion pricing for the city. The Partnership for New York City has been investigating the opportunity to make the city less crowded with cars - or if it is crowded with cars, then drivers will have to pay. However, there is quite a bit of opposition to the plan, and with the Mayor saying that the city would investigate using congestion pricing to relieve city......

While it's not completely official (a vote needs to take place), the City Council has selected Christine Quinn, the Democratic Manhattan member who represents Greenwich Village, Chelsea, and Clinton, to be the new speaker. She secured her bid when the powerful Queens city council bloc decided to support her instead of Brooklyn member Bill deBlasio. Quinn will be the first female city council speaker, as well the first openly gay speaker, and Gothamist enjoyed news......

More than two years after New York City instituted the smoking ban, and hot on the heels of the announcement that midwestern bastion of second-hand smoke Chicago was following suit with its own ban, comes a new poll commissioned by the State Health Department that says that 75.5 percent of New Yorkers (from a 2,000 person sample) would favor even banning smoking in front of building entrances. We couldn't find the report on the Health......

And in case the cover of the Arts and Leisure section left any doubts, "with one caveat in mind," The New York Times enthusiastically endorses "Michael Bloomberg for mayor." But what is that one caveat? Bloomberg has spent too much money, especially the second time around. While Bloomberg "may be remembered as one of the greatest mayors in New York history," his "out-of-control campaign spending" may hinder his chances: This year, with all the advantages......

Ashlee Simpson...

LAist editor Jason Toney was in town, and he captured this photograph of one of the city's fixtures. And some thoughtful passer-by made sure the bloated rat wouldn't be lonely on the street until the Department of Sanitation swept him up. Even though Gothamist is not always excited to see a rat, we have to say this is a pretty great, if gross, picture. Gothamist loves the book Rats by Robert Sullivan. And is this......

Wither the McDonald's fries and black and white cookies? The NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene want to Take the Trans Fat Out of New York! It's a big initiative to prevent cardiovascular disease, and the goal is lofty: To get NYC food establishments from restaurants to supermarkets to stop using or selling partially hydrogenated vegetable oils. Yes, we're talking trans fats which makes foods shelf stable (think the bag of Oreos or bag......

Assemblyman Felix Ortiz, best known to Gothamist as the Assemblyman who wants school kids' weights to be graded, is looking to ban smoking from NYC housing projects. Okay, it's really just a measure to make 50% of housing projects smoke-free, but the goal would be to make housing projects completely smoke-free by 2010. Ortiz's argument is that hotels have smoking and non-smoking rooms, and "housing complexes are not so much different than hotels." Gothamist understands......

In a blow to the members of The Players club, a judge ruled that New York City's smoking ban also applies to their exclusive club. The club, founded in 1888 by Edwin Booth (John Wilkes' brother), sued in 2003 on the basis that the law was unconstitutional. Judge Victor Marrero cited an earlier decision of his, "individuals have no 'fundamental' right to smoke tobacco." Hmm...next thing you know, Marrero might be taking all our guns......

The NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene will give the first 45,000 callers to 311 free nicotine patches, as part of a campaign to help New Yorkers stop smoking. The Daily News says the Pfizer-donated kit includes "a six-week course of nicotine patches, instructions, educational information and online support." Health Commissioner Thomas Friedan says the 2003 free-nicotine-patch program helped 11,000 New Yorkers quit smoking, but Gothamist isn't sure if there's follow-up after that; he......

The smoking ban in bars, which turned two in March, seems to have worked a-okay, according to a study by the NY State Department of Taxation and Finance. The Post got a copy and says that business has rebounded steadily since early days of the ban. In fact, business seems to have grown faster at bars than restaurants. But the Empire State Restaurant and Tavern Association thinks that figure is skewed because of the increase......

New Yorkology helps solidify the list of Manhattan bars you can smoke in! NYology asked the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (someday, Gothamist will figure out what mental hygiene means because we know that we can't wash our brains) to compile the list, and here are six more bars, added to Karma Lounge in the East Village and cigar bar Club Macanudo on East 63rd that we knew about: Carnegie Bar & Books......

Almost two years ago, right in the early days of the smoking ban, a bouncer at Guernica was stabbed after fighting with patrons who wanted to smoke. Yesterday, the attacker, Isaias Umali, was sentenced to 17 years in prison for killing Dana Blake. Last fall, Umali's defense team claimed his actions were heroic, because the bouncer was strangling his friend; this didn't work, as Umali was found guilty of first-degree manslaughter. Prosecutors said that Umali......

NY State is going to be increasing its anti-smoking initiative. Newsday says that an independent review found the state's advertising to be bad - it failed to "elicit emotions" in viewers, which probably means the state or ad agency working pro bono was asleep at the wheel. In fact, the CDC thinks NY State should spend almost $100 million to tout the anti-smoking message, but spending is more along the lines of $40 million. CDC,......

The brother of the Guernica bouncer who was killed during an altercation after hauling out some patrons who were smoking told reporters that he blamed the smoking ban for the death. And what's more, the late Dana Blake, hated the ban! Brother Tony said, "The smoking ban did initiate this thing — it's obvious. He hated it because he smoked. They kind of threw this at him." The trial of Isais Umali, whose knife skills......