CBS and NBC Boldly Go On Line With Classic TV CBS has started streaming some of its back catalog of programs on its website, or to me more accurate the back catalog of programs the companies that now comprise CBS. The biggest highlight is that all three seasons of Star Trek in original form are available. Also offered are two seasons of The Twilight Zone, and the first seasons of Hawaii Five-O, MacGyver, and Melrose......

On Friday, Gawker speculated that The Brooklyn Paper was in trouble after a tipster told them freelancers haven't been paid since last summer (a late freelancing check...unprecedented!) and perhaps more relevant, if true, that editor Gersh Kuntzman told staffers the "independent, family owned, locally-run" since 1978 paper is "undergoing some turmoil." We asked Kuntzman about the rumor, and here's what he had to say:"The Gawker story is a complete fabrication. The Brooklyn Paper, which just......

A 23-year-old animal groomer in Brooklyn is facing charges of animal cruelty and could spend up to a year in jail if convicted. The charges stem from an experience Igor Kisil and his Burmese cat Nusha had with groomer Bechir Bejaoui of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Kisil says that when he went to pick up his small cat, who weighs only three pounds, she was returned to him in a carrying case covered with blood. Kisil......

Left in the midst of Super Tuesday and the Giants ticker tape parade local news coverage is an intriguing story about a 14-year-old Long Island boy's suspension. Last November, Ethan Mirenberg was suspended after, per Newsday, "a former teacher accused him of putting her in a chokehold and grinding his knuckles into her scalp." In other words, a noogie from hell. Which is probably why the WNBC graphics department went the "Nightmare Noogie" route.......

Actor Heath Ledger was found dead in his downtown Manhattan apartment by the police. Some reports say he died from an overdose. UPDATE 5:00PM :According to the NYPD spokesman, Ledger, who was living in an apartment at Broome street, "had an appointment for a massage...The housekeeper who went to let Ledger know the masseuse was there, and found him dead at 3:26 p.m" with "pills strewn all around him." The housekeeper and masseuse tried......

SFist saw Christmas Day turn tragic after a Siberian tiger escaped from her pen at the San Francisco Zoo, killing a visitor and mauling two others. Phillyist counted down the top ten items on Philadelphia's New Year's wish list. Gothamist looked at the wooden bikes being offered for NYC's first bike share program on Governors Island. LAist received a Christmas present in the form of a drunk Santa Claus in a g-string. Bostonist launched......

Torontoist discovered their city's most ridiculous holiday lights setup, with 80,000 lights and two––two!––synchronized music routines. Naturally, they snagged a video. Chicago tragically loses one of its most recognizable neighborhood icons, the pigeon man of Lincoln Square. LAPD leaves body in car at crash scene, then tows it. Massachusetts plus mullet equals PR mayhem. Londonist sleeps in a Haunted plague pit. UC Berkeley students strip naked and race through campus, NSFW floppiness ensues. Phillyist......

The way the local news was hyping today's storm (especially with their nifty, paranoid graphics!), we expected to see a few inches of snow by the time we woke up. But, no, the snow is expected to come around later this morning (the snow and sleet will make a NYC appearance around 11AM or 1PM, according to WABC). Even so, there are many school closings in the suburbs as local government and anyone else out......

For the past few months, the Post has been detailing the problems of apartment mold at a new condo conversion - and how they have forced longtime New York City local news personality Kaity Tong out of her home. In September, Tong had been living in Gramercy Park Hotel for many weeks, as the floors and wall in her Chelsea home started to buckle, seemingly caused by the conversion of the O'Neill Building, on......

Wow. Penny Crone, the love-her-or-hate-her but totally in-your-face local news reporter (she put the crone in "Crone!"), is now a agent at Prudential Douglas Elliman! We were upset when she was fired from WNYW Fox 5 in 2005. With her 2-pack-of-smokes-and-Scotch voice and fearlessness to get into a scrum, Crone is a New York institution; as the Diary of the Contemporary Dandy put it, "No assignment was beneath [her] dignity." Which is why we......

On Monday, the Citizens Union released a report revealing that City Council members have used $1 million of their council budgets to pay for advertising, even in election years (which is prohibited), over the past five years. You can read the report here (PDF), as well as peruse the variety of ads, from public service ads (PDF), community event ads (PDF), and local news ads (PDF). Some Council members say the adds are important......

Mayor Michael Bloomberg's civilian life got a jolt: His company, Bloomberg L.P., was sued by the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission for "a pattern or practice of demoting and reducing the pay of female employees after they announced their pregnancies and after they took maternity leave." Mayor Bloomberg had previously settled a lawsuit with a former Bloomberg L.P. employee, Sekiko Garrison. From a 2001 Village Voice story by Wayne Barrett:Garrison alleged that Bloomberg told her twice......

This morning, President Bush is addressing the 62nd United Nations General Assembly. He is expected to discuss "global fight against terrorism, tyranny and poverty," as well as sanctions against Myanmar in support of the protest organized by Buddhist monks. However, he will only mention Iran briefly, and will opt to cover "broad themes." A White House spokesman said, "The president wanted this speech to focus on many other issues that are facing the world......

Local news stations are reporting late this evening that an unverified radiological threat was made against New York City sometime Friday. The city's alert level remains at the long-standing orange level though. WNBC passes along a statement from the NYPD: "While the threat remains unverified, our counterterrorism posture, which is reconfigured daily based on intelligence from around the world, has been modified to include increased deployment of radiological sensors, including vehicle, marine and helicopter-mounted, as......

We at the Gothamist network would like to express our heartfelt wishes to the people of Minnesota in the days after their tragic bridge collapse. We're not trying to discount the severity of the accident by making note of it in opposition to our usual -Ist lightheartedness - we just wanted to take a moment and recognize those affected last week. After the Minneapolis bridge collapse, Bostonist did a little research and found that Massachusetts......

The Video Vultures Circle It seems when tragedy writ large strikes, local news crews are dispatched to the scene no matter where it is. This week’s bridge collapse in Minnesota was no different with, as of last night, WCBS, WNYW, and WABC shipping reporters off to cover the death and destruction live. It seems more like vultures flocking to the carcass instead of legitimate coverage. Sending local reporters off just seems a bit much and......

More updates below, but here's a summary so far (8:20PM): A steam explosion occurred on East 41st and Lexington Avenue (41st between Lex and Third) just before 6PM - right during the evening rush hour. The NYPD does not think it was a terrorist attack. It appears that there is a hole about 25' in diameter with a red tow truck in the center. One person has died (possibly from cardiac arrest) and there......

An argument between two women out on the town last night devolved into gunplay in the Meatpacking District. WCBS reports that the shooter and her friend/victim were at the Pizza Bar on 9th Ave., and left shortly before 4 am. The women, who are described as being passengers in a three vehicle caravan, were arguing when the older woman (27 years old) shot her younger friend (23 years old) in the lower torso before fleeing......

Category 7 for ABC 7’s Bill Evans WABC’s Bill Evans is the latest local news talent to author a disaster novel about the city with his book “Category 7”, which he co-authored with Marianna Jameson. The book is the story about a man made hurricane heading towards New York. The book shouldn’t be confused with the 2005 made for TV movie Category 7: The End of the World, which was also about a deadly storm.......

Switcharoo at CBS 2 This week, veteran anchors Jim Rosenfield and Dana Tyler, who were anchoring at 6 p.m. and 11 p.m., switched newscasts with Chris Wragge and Kristine Johnson, who were anchoring the noon and 5 p.m. We think that moving younger talent to the higher profile 11 p.m. newscast is probably an attempt to get some younger viewers. Channel 2 has been the least stable of the local newscasts over the past ten......

Nowadays, when people see rodents at restaurants, they aren't necessarily calling 311 immediately - it seems the first call is to the local news station! A couple strolling by the Upper East Side Pinkberry at 82nd and 2nd Avenue called WABC 7 when they saw mice running around the store at 2:30AM yesterday. WABC 7 observed, "The mice seemed to prefer the counter area. It is just feet from the yogurt machine where the......

Save Veronica Mars Campaign Does Not Effect Local Mars Bar Availability A campaign to send the CW’s Dawn Ostroff the entire American supply of the popular British candy bar in an effort to save Veronica Mars has not effected local Mars bar availability, despite claims by organizers that they “bought out all the available Mars Bars in the U.S.A.”. Visiting Meyers of Keswick in Greenwich Village earlier this week, we were able to purchase several......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a baby locked in a car in Staten Island, a near drowning at a West 14th St. YMCA in Manhattan, and a shooting at Randall and Rosedale Aves. in the Bronx. New York remains alive and well, as someone decided to throw a guerilla dinner party at the World's Fair site in Flushing Corona, Queens. A Brooklyn swimmer, who shockingly admits that he has no idea what it would......

There is nothing like the ratings sweeps seasons on the local news. Thankfully, not all the stations go for the overly sensational stories and will present something that is really worthy of your time. There were many stories, like a day in the life of a paparazzi and part 99,991,047 in the saga of the dangers of myspace.com, but we'll take a look at a three noteworthy sweeps stories from last week. WNBC 4 had......

Friday will mark the end of an era when Sue Simmons will anchor her final Live at Five in almost twenty-seven years. As we have mentioned before, WNBC has decided to do some shifting of its early evening newscasts with a 30 minute newscast at 5:00 anchored by Lynda Baquero and David Ushery followed by a Perri Peltz anchored a light news and features half hour called News 4 You. Sue will be teamed......

It's pretty funny when a story about over a dozen rats scurrying around a West Village Taco Bell-KFC location is the leading story on the local news (okay, there was a mention of an off-duty police officer shooting a neighbor, too). The footage (see here at WNBC), while totally repelling, is also amazing. And that rat dangling from the chair? No wonder everyone is swarming to 6th Avenue and West 4th Street to catch......

Wednesday night, WNBC invited a bunch of bloggers to its first NYC Blogger Summit. Why? As Anil Dash put it, to "engage bloggers and encourage them to provide information and resources to the station's news-gathering efforts, in exchange for credit and exposure." While hearing all of this was exciting and surreal and left some natural questions (see Modern Fabulousity), it was also nice to hear the word "credit" (see Gowanus Lounge) - lots of print......

A helicopter has crashed into a building on East 72nd. It was thought to be a small plane, but now reports say it is a helicopter. The helicopter seems to have crashed into 524 East 72nd Street, a residential apartment building. CNN is saying there are no reports of terrorism or hijacking. Update: Dan Dickinson says it smells like smoke three blocks away and that traffic is screwed. Update: NY1 is reporting that 3-4......

After the Jets' surprising Week 1 win over the Titans, they return home to face the rival Patriots. Only a lack of mutual success has kept this rivalry from blossoming more over the years. Each franchise has poached a coach from the other (Bill Parcells taken by the Jets; Bill Belichick taken by the Patriots), the teams are from New York and Boston, the current Jets coach, Eric Mangini, was a longtime Patriots assistant, and,......

- The New York City Fire Patrol, which has been around since before the FDNY, may cease to exist on October 1. Save the Patrol! - There is a good piece in the Times today on Green apartment towers rising in the city. All well and good, but we'll really start to get excited when buildings start retrofitting themselves to fit green standards. We'd love to see rain-catching gardens on most city rooftops. -......