The defense for the man on trial for murdering his 7-year-old stepdaughter Nixzmary Brown opened its case by presenting a DNA expert. The Daily News says Dr. Lawrence Koblinsky, who teaches at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, "attacked the investigation but seemed to bore jurors." Cesar Rodriguez, accused of killing the little girl in January of 2006, has admitted to savagely beating Nixzmary, tying her to a chair, and more, but his defense has......

Everyone is abuzz about the latest art world scandal, and here's what is known about the life of the Warhol painting at the center of the controversy.1981: Andy Warhol creates a number of his "Dollar Sign" pieces, using the same theme with different colors and sizes. Medium: polymer paint and silkscreen ink on canvas. February 14th, 1998: One of the two "Dollar Sign" pieces measuring at 16 by 20 inches is reported stolen from the......

Photograph of Michael Strahan, coach Tom Coughin (holding the Vince Lombardi trophy) and quarterback and Super Bowl MVP Eli Manning by Tien Mao Update: Here are some of our photographs from the parade route - it look us a few hours to download the photos and decompress/shake out the confetti from the parade. We'll be adding a slideshow later. Photograph of NFC Championship hero, kicker Lawrence Tynes, by Tien Mao Photograph looking down the......

In early 2007, The New Yorker writer George Packer published an enthralling article about the desperate plight of Iraqis who had assisted the American effort in their country and were being hunted down as a result, with little or no U.S. protection. Betrayed, Packer's first play, is based on interviews conducted while in Iraq for the sixth time to research his article; the fictionalized account concerns three young Iraqis – two men and a woman......

THEATER: Lisa Kron’s solo play 2.5 Minute Ride, which won an OBIE when it premiered at the Public Theater in 1999, is currently being revived with Nicole Golden as the autobiographical “Lisa.” The play concerns Lisa's attempts to make a documentary about the life of her father, a German Jew who survived the Holocaust but lost his parents at Auschwitz. 2.5 Minute Ride finds him, in his later years, a blind diabetic with a heart......

Timberwolves 98, Nets 95: Minnesota, with only eight wins on the season,hasn't been a complete rollover during the past 10 days, but that doesn't mean the team is any good. It was a good night for the Jeffersons -- Minnesota's Al had 41 and New Jersey's Richard had 35. The Nets have lost nine straight. The last six of those have come on the road against Western Conference teams. See for yourself which conference is......

Before getting back to his grueling practice schedule* today, Giants kicker Lawrence Tynes stopped in to the Late Show last night. David Letterman and Tynes chat about his family and when he learned to kick (as a senior in high school). Tynes, the 29-year-old father of twins, who missed two 4th quarter field goals in the NFC Championship before kicking the game winner in overtime, was not able to escape ribbing from Letterman, "Everybody......

Rangers 4 Atlanta 0: Tom Renney shook up the lines and the lineup and the Rangers responded. Playing the opening game in their consecutive home game tilt with the Thrashers, New York set the tone early and played great defense allowing only 14 shots. Sean Avery, placed on the top line with Gomez and Jagr got things started with a goal at 12:12 of the first period. Brandon Dubinsky scored a few minutes later and......

If there's one thing to warm up New Yorkers - and New York newspaper editors thinking about a holiday issue - today, it's the Giants' NFC Championship win over the Green Bay Packers. Let's look at how they touted the big win. The Post opts for quarterback Eli Manning on the cover and kicker Lawrence Tynes on the back sports cover. Points for puns on both headlines. The Daily News and Newsday both use the......

Photograph of kicker Lawrence Tynes after the game-winning field goal by David J. Phillip/AP The Giants won the NFC Championship in overtime, beating the Green Bay Packers 23-20 in overtime and overcome the frigid, below-zero conditions. They are now headed to the Super Bowl where they will meet the New England Patriots, who beat the San Diego Chargers 21-12. Giants kicker Lawrence Tynes missed a field goal as time expired in the fourth quarter,......

Prefab housing isn't just for the..."thrifty" anymore! Yesterday Wired featured a selection of twelve modular, prefab housing units -- from lofts to place atop city skylines to 60 square-foot cabins with "cathedral ceilings". Today The NY Times reports that the idea has "become fashionable at architecture schools and among an upscale segment of the housing market." As such, MoMA has commissioned five architects to set up their prefab-ulous designs in their vacant lot on......

Two hit and run drivers were arrested late this week; one through the actions of a horrified but brave bystander and the other through a successful effort by the Brooklyn Accident Investigation squad. Cops arrived at Sergey Satyr's Mill Basin home Thursday to arrest the 20-year-old for the hit-and-run death of 71-year-old Grace Smith of Sheepshead Bay. The Brooklyn Accident Investigation squad used debris from Satyr's Nissan and a partial license plate number to track......

Clear skies and rain will alternate through New Year's Eve. A weak high pressure system has pushed out yesterday's dreary drizzlyness. Clouds will start building in later in the day but not before we reach a high in the low 50s. Rain, associated with a low pressure system moving up the Ohio and then St. Lawrence Valleys, should arrive around midnight. New York is at the eastern boundary of the expected rainfall. It is kind......

Nets 107, Heat 103: Udonnis Haslem forced overtime with an off-balance shot at the end of regulation, but the Nets shook it off. The overtime wasn't pretty, but it's the results that count. Richard Jefferson and Vince Carter had their moments in the son, but Malik Allen had 18 points (on 9-of-11 shooting) and tormented the team with which he started his NBA career. At last place in the NBA's Eastern Conference, Miami isn't the......

Did anyone go see destructo-porn blockbuster, I Am Legend, this weekend? Apparently New Yorkers who saw the movie up close and personal when it was being filmed gave it two thumbs down, or rather -- one middle finger up! amNewYork reports on Will Smith's run-ins with disgruntled locals."I would say, percentage-wise, it's the most amount of middle fingers I have received in my career. I'm used to people liking me… [all those] middle fingers, I......

It seems like just yesterday that the Brooklyn Bridge was being blown up by Hollywood. How time flies. I Am Legend, the movie for which this post-apocalyptic craziness occurred, is opening today (get your promotional survivor kit ready!). In the 100 minutes of watching it, you'll meet three main characters: Manhattan, Sam the dog, and Will Smith ("Robert Neville"). The combination is apparently a winning one, as the reviews have been frighteningly positive...it will scare......

Last year WNBC got up close and personal with the Civic Fame statue atop the Municipal Building, and this week The NY Times looks at the woman who modeled for that statue, and many others -- Audrey Munson, "a long-forgotten New York celebrity whose face and figure continue to grace the contours of statues all around Manhattan."It was Ms. Munson’s eyes that stared stoically from the marble forms of the Firemen’s Memorial on Riverside Drive,......

Gross! A former assistant principal at I.S. 72 in Staten Island is accused of asking a 12-year-old student for massages - and then trying to buy her and her mother's silence with promises of private school payment! Lawrence Siegel was put in a district office job - not his usual gig at Rocco Laurie Intermediate School - while the Department of Education investigated him after a DOE parent support coordinator, per the Staten Island Advance,......

ART: Last night the works of ex-Guided By Voices frontman Robbert Pollard were unveiled at an invite-only opening, and today it's a free-for-all. Come by and check out his debut art exhibit, which "will consist of more than 50 collages that date from 1990 through 2007. Using elements from 1950's -70's era magazines, pamphlets and obscure pictoral paperbacks as his primary tools, he portrays allegorical personas and hallucinogenic-type environments to create small, almost random synapses......

Last night, the Nets lost a rare game to their cross-river rival in which both teams were without key players. Normally, the story would be Marbury missing the game to grieve his father's death and Curry embarrassingly spraining his ankle during a walkthrough, but instead, the Nets troubles were the talk of the town this morning. Jason Kidd missed the game last night due to what he said were migraines, but several people at the......

The low-slung Port Authority bus terminal will be getting a heady addition: The Port Authority will announce a deal for a tower to be built at its north end. The NY Times reports that Lawrence Ruben Company and Vornado Realty Trust is buying air rights for $400-500 million, which the Port Authority will then be used to add 18 bus platforms, give the terminal a "major face-lift" and overall refurbishing. Well, finally - commuting to......

It took all of 45 seconds on Sunday to tell you that the Giants were in trouble. Lawrence Tynes sent the opening kickoff out of bounds and Minnesota scored on a 60-yard bomb on their second play of the game. It was a harbinger of things to come as Minnesota thrashed the Giants 41-17 on Sunday. You can blame the entire team for this one, but the quarterback deserves special consideration. Eli Manning was terrible......

Devils 6, Flyers 2: After three failed bids to get Martin Brodeur his 500th career win, the Devils finally provided him some margin of error. They played stingy defense and lit the lamp six times en route to an easy milestone win. Brodeur joins Patrick Roy as the only netminders with 500 wins. Dainius Zubrus got the party started and added an assist. As happy as the Devils are for Brodeur, they're probably happiest that......

The Manhattan District Attorney's office announced that the Reverend David Ajemian was arrested on charges of stalking and threatening Conan O'Brien. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston placed Ajemian, a 46-year-old priest in Stoneham, Massachusetts, on leave. The DA's office says that Ajemian had sent letters (some on parish letterhead!) to O'Brien's offices at 30 Rockefeller Plaza and home, contacted his parents, and tried to attend tapings of Late Night with Conan O'Brien. He was......

The Giants escaped London with an ugly 13-10 win on an ugly day on an ugly field. The Wembley Stadium turf was not made to handle our brand of football in the rain and it rapidly turned into mud, leaving the players struggling for footing and resulting in sloppy play on both sides of the ball. The Giants took an early lead, after Jay Feely missed a field goal, driving 59 yards for a field......

Lawrence Salander, whose East 71st Street townhouse gallery Salander O'Reilly has been padlocked by order of a judge amidst numerous lawsuits, maintains he does not have any money troubles. Even though investors and others accuse him of selling paintings without their permission and of Ponzi schemes, Salander told the NY Times, “When people say it’s a Ponzi scheme, it’s a house of cards — I’ve got millions of dollars of assets here. It’s beyond belief.”......

For the past few weeks, an art gallery has been locked down by judge's order as angry partners and clients claimed that the gallery sold their works without permission and that the gallery's owner reneged on millions of dollars of debts. And yesterday, a judge toured the toured embattled art gallery Salander O'Reilly to examine its conditions as many artworks are still hanging on the walls. The accusations range from John McEnroe and other investors......

MUSIC: If you see a lot of guitar-toting ladies and gents around the Puck Building right now, that's because CMJ has officially begun. This means there is a ton of music happening (including at our own Gothamist House starting tomorrow). Tonight we suggest hitting up Brooklyn Vegan's show at Bowery Ballroom: Voxtrot, The Rosebuds, Dean & Britta...and so many more. 6pm // Bowery Ballroom [6 Delancey St] // $16, or free with badge THEATER: A.R.......

The MTA has announced the times of public hearings where the agency will discuss the impending bus and subway fare hike. There are eight meetings across the five boroughs, Westchester, and Long Island. We've all heard about the two kinds of fare hikes - a traditional across-the-board hike and another hike that would give discounts during off-peak rides. The a single ride would be $2.25, up from the current $2. And the early mentioned......

John Madden said it best on the air, “Osi Umenyiora made the Pro Bowl in one night tonight”. Umenyiora turned in one of the greatest games by a defensive end ever, sacking Donovan McNabb six times officially and just missing out on a few other opportunities. And it wasn’t just Umenyiora, the defense had a dominating night. recording 12 sacks and holding the Eagles to only three points in the 16-3 win. Aaron Ross......