Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an explosion at Linden Blvd. and 220th St. in Queens, a homicide on Sedgewick Ave. in the Bronx, and a water main break on Prospect Place in Brooklyn Santa may have to bypass coalition troops stationed around the world today, but holiday presents will be appreciated even if they do arrive a few weeks into 2008. Newsday has a nice piece on gift-giving to troops and how to do......

After responding to a woman's 911 call about a domestic dispute with her son, the police fired between 13 and 20 times at the son, who claimed he had a gun. The gunfire killed 18-year-old Khiel Coppin and it turned out he was only holding a hairbrush. Coppin had been arguing with his mother in their Bedford-Stuyvesant apartment, and when police arrived, came out to the window ledge, "screaming and acting irrationally," according to......

The cops were looking for an alleged gang member in Bed-Stuy when they found something very disturbing - a 4-day-old baby in a Timberland shoe box. After arresting the 21-year-old they were looking for, police found the baby girl in an apartment that is described as filthy. Also found in the apartment was a loaded .45-caliber pistol, ammo, and a small amount of cocaine. Police arrested the 19-year-old mother for endangering the welfare of a......

Let's paraphrase what we wrote yesterday: How is it again, with Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff and Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan riding their bikes, that NYC remains a bike-unfriendly city? Yesterday, two bicyclists died in separate incidents in Brooklyn and the Bronx. At 9AM, 18-year-old Luis Ramos was biking to his job at George's Spanish and American Restaurant when a woman opened her car door in his path on Flushing Avenue near Beaver Street. The Post......

Tody on the Gothamist NewsMap: a carjacking in Staten Island; a missing patient at Woodhull Hospital in Brooklyn; and a fatal accident in Queens. The Staten Island carjacking, which included a police chase, injured three people, including a child and a police officer. One suspect is in custody and police are on scene looking for a possible 2nd suspect. The fatal accident in Queens was a small school bus striking a 23 year-old woman......

Eep! An off-duty police officer was stabbed in the chest by another person at Kellogg's Diner in Williamsburg around 4:30AM yesterday with a folding knife. And what started this confrontation? According to the NY Times, when "one person bumped into someone from the other party on his way to the bathroom." Kellogg's Diner manager Theodora Fiotos told the Times, "Basically, they exchanged some words. They were yelling and screaming and pushing each other." The......

It seems the meningitis bug that hit Brooklyn last March is still hanging around and causing trouble. So far this week, one person, Geraldine Stafford, has died from the illness while two other residents of her apartment building at 940 Gates Avenue in Bed-Stuy have been hospitalized. This includes a 12-year-old girl whom the disease has placed on a respirator at Woodhull Hospital. Meningitis is an infection of the meninges, which are protective layers which......