Newsday reports that Cablevision is near a deal with Tribune to buy...Newsday! The Bethpage-based company had bid $650 million, $70 million more than bids from both News Corp. and the Daily News owner Mortimer Zuckerman. It was widely believed that News Corp. would be able to close the deal. Tirbune and News Corp. seemed to an informal deal, and even after Cablevision's much higher bid, News Corp owner Rupert Murdoch told investors and analysts he......

Slice took the photo here and wondered what the story was behind this sign, which is part of a series of alternating signs in the window of a Union Street home in Park slope. Well, our buddy at the NSA owed us a favor, and we tracked down the man behind the cryptic signage. His name is George Horner; he’s an administrator at Tony Shafrazi Gallery and has been putting his signs in the window......

Geez, the weather this winter has been uneventful. There's no letup of dull weather in sight, at least in New York. We took a gander at LAist this morning only to see that Los Angeles has more snow than Gotham City. The massive west coast storm has dropped up to eighteen inches of snow at higher elevations in Los Angeles County. Today is sunny, slightly cool and windy. Tomorrow: Clouds, slightly less cool and not......

The family and friend of the Minnesota tourist who took a fatal plunge from a Midtown hotel this past weekend are saying her death is not a suicide. Twenty-one-year-old Jennifer Olson fell 60 feet from a fire escape at the Night Hotel and earlier reports suggested she jumped, but her friend, Timothy O'Neill, told the Daily News, "I don't believe it was suicide. I believe it was accidental. After drinking six or seven hours, people......

Ten years ago today, Camden Sylvia and Michael Sullivan left their rent-stabilized loft in downtown Manhattan, went for a jog, rented a video and were never seen again. Today, the Daily News revisits the mystery and speaks to Sylvia's mother. Laurie Sylvia says, "I want to know what happened. Each year that goes by I think, maybe this year. I never imagined I would be doing that for 10 years." Sylvia, then 36, and Sullivan,......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a DOA/Fall Victim at 1 Hogan Place in Manhattan (that's the Manhattan DA's office), a double stabbing on East 171st St. in the Bronx, and an overturned ambulance at Broadway and Delafield Ave. on Staten Island. Opening day sales for tickets to The Metropolitan Opera set a record this Sunday after increasing 25% year over year, to $2.08 million. Online sales to performances were 50% higher than 2006's opening.......

George Steinbrenner's poor health isn't new news, but a September Conde Nast Portfolio article paints a picture as to how The Boss is really doing. Franz Lidz and former Tampa Tribune sports editor Tom McEwen, an old friend of Steinbrenner's, paid a visit to the Yankees principal owner at his home in Tampa. Once at the Steinbrenner residence, the two have what seems to be a rather quick conversation with Steinbrenner at the door. Lidz's......

The Moondance Diner shut its doors at the end of June at which time it was rumored that it would live out its years at a museum in Pennsylvania. The free-standing diner has changed its path, however, and now it's headed to the small town of La Barge, Wyoming. The NY Sun (and the Jackson Hole Star Tribune) reports that Vincent and Cheryl Pierce purchased the diner from the Rhode Island-based nonprofit American Diner Museum......

The Knicks have a bad history of getting robbed when it comes to the Windy City and Eddy Curry (forget all their history with the Jordan-era Bulls). First, the Knicks traded for Eddy Curry in a deal that also gave the Bulls the 9th pick in the 2007 draft (they picked Joakim Noah) and early Saturday morning Curry was robbed at gunpoint in his suburban Chicago home. Three masked intruders tied up Curry, his wife......

There was a suspicious package in Times Square this afternoon. The NYPD shut down Times Square briefly as they investigated the object at 42nd and 7th Avenue. And the package turned out to be a red backpack forgotten by its Brooklyn owner. D'oh! The city has heightened its security after the London and Glasgow incidents, and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff affirms that decision. He told the Chicago Tribune's editorial board, "I believe......

President Bush is taking his No Child Left Behind Act education platform to Harlem today, with an afternoon visit to the Harlem Village Academies charter school on West 144th Street today. Yes, that's what all the traffic and security is for- as well as the lack of garbage cans. The school and Department of Education are proud that Harlem Village Academy was selected; founder Deborah Kenny tells the Sun, "We take in kids that are......

As the Virginia Tech story broke last Monday, cable news, as always, took the lead with their normal oversaturated speculative coverage transferring the energy and resources normally reserved for non-story stories like the Anna Nicole Smith saga into covering a real story. Some observers complained that the broadcast networks didn’t go with wall to wall coverage of the story. It is good that they did not last Monday afternoon, since all it does is......

On-air personalities (especially those of the "shock jock" genre) are really raising the bar in crossing the line this month. While there's been some high-profile stupid DJ behavior in the past - Hot 97's Tsunami Song, Opie & Anthony broadcasting a couple having sex at St. Patrick's, DJ Star asking listeners for information where a radio rival's young daughter goes to school so he could ejaculate and pee on her - the last week has......

At the Sundance Film Festival, the film Waitress will premiere this afternoon. Written and directed by Adrienne Shelly. Last November, Shelly had been waiting to hear whether her film was going to be accepted by the Sundance Film Festival when she was found dead in a the Greenwich Village apartment building she had an office in. Initially, police suspected Shelly killed herself, since her body was found hanging from shower rod, but her family......

Oooh, Itsu Sushi has opened downtown! What's the big deal about Itsu? For starters, it's the from the same chain as the one where former KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko had lunch on the day he was fatally poisoned with polonium! The branch owner Luke Fryer told the International Herald Tribune, "It's greatly increased the profile of our business." Ha. The Itsu in London was given a "clean bill of health," and apparently business is......

May the television gods hear our and others' pleas! Last month, the Chicago Tribune's Maureen Ryan broke the news that Tim Gunn was not signed for a fourth season of Project Runway:Will he be back? Ever the modest one, he would only say he "makes no assumptions," but he would come back "in a heartbeat" if asked. There's no official word, by the way, that there will be a fourth season, but it seems more......

- Grub Street reports that the Frying Pan rumors are true -- it will, in fact, be closing, at least at its current location. Their lease at Pier 63 has expired, but accoring to the owner's wife, there's no need for despair quite yet. "Pending recently commenced negotiations, the John J. Harvey fireboat, the Frying Pan, the kayak storage shed, and the recently opened Cafe du Soleil will tie up at Pier 66A, an old......

There's a possibility that the meat full of 3-inch pins, found in Central Park and eaten by a dog, was actually a Santeria hoo doo ritual. A hoodoo supply shop owner tells the Daily News that putting pins in a cut of tongue is "a very old and popular spell used to silence people. It can be used in any case where there's a witness that's going to speak against you." So you put it......

What the heck? The Crain's reports that Rudy Giuliani and a team of other investors may make a bid to buy the Chicago Cubs. Hall of Fame Cubs shortstop Ernie Banks ("Let's Play Two!") is interested in buying the team, though current owner, the Tribune Co. claims the team is not for sale (in spite of other scuttlebutt that Mark Cuban may be interested in the Cubs as well). And Banks says Giuliani Partners and......

Jeez-- just what the Village needs-- another Duane Reade! Kim's Video used to live in the basement of this building on the corner of Bleecker and Laguardia-- it was a dank, fetid, dark little hole, but it was the only place within ten blocks where you could rent a video or DVD, and the clerks knew what they were talking about. The facade of the building was decorated with strange plexiglass sculptures-- it's too......

The Pulitzer Prizes were announced today and the old Gray Lady takes three, but the Washington Post won four (criticism, beat reporting, explanatory writing, and investigative reporting). However, the real story might be the awards for Hurricane Katrina coverage, a public service award shared by the Sun-Herald in Biloxi and the Times-Picayune in New Orleans, breaking news photography award for the Dallas Morning News and a breaking news reporting awards fro the Times-Picayune. The three......

Another really short Weddings and Celebrations this week, so enough with the pleasantries and let's just jump in: Total Number of Weddings: 9 Total Number of Same-Sex Weddings: 0 Average Age of Brides: 30.3 Average Age of Grooms: 31 Youngest Bride: 26 Oldest Bride: 35 Youngest Groom: 26 Oldest Groom: 35 Average Age Difference: 1.3 years Largest Age Difference: 4 years Number of Older Brides: 2 Number of Older Grooms: 4 Number of Same-Age Couples:......

Whoa-- the New York State Liquor Authority has issued a fatwa against a bunch of bars on West Broadway in Tribeca. Their crime? Apparently they are located a little too close to a low-profile mosque located in one of the nearby buildings (the Sufi Masjid al-Farah at 245 West Broadway.). The SLA has issued summons to The Bubble Lounge, Cercle Rouge, and the Tribeca Tavern. Another bar, The Liquor Store, has already been denied a......

Something named "Philth-Y" presents something we've all been waiting for: the Battle of the Blogosphere. Lay down your bets and put your money on either Fluxblog or Stereogum as they face off, armed only with their knowledge of mashups and downloads of the "next big thing". Which music blogger will prevail? We have no idea, but we're betting that Norwegian pop tart Annie is played at least 4 times throughout the night. Come meet......

A week after Curbed (and the Tribeca Tribune) covered the future 10,000 square foot Tribeca house that's supposed to be very a humble little family that couldn't resist a good deal (a good deal with you gots millions), the NY Post takes up the story. Which makes Gothamist wonder if the Schnall family and their architect are trying to win over the court of public opinion, if not the Landmarks Preservation Commission, in trying to......

Rachel Sklar, co-editor and writer of FishbowlNY...

'Tis the season for presidential endorsements. The city's paper of record, The New York Times, bestowed an endorsement of Senator John Kerry for President yesterday, describing him as a man with a "strong moral core" and "not just a modest improvement on the incumbent," closing with: We look back on the past four years with hearts nearly breaking, both for the lives unnecessarily lost and for the opportunities so casually wasted. Time and again,......

Yesterday afternoon, a man stabbed three people in the Herald Square area, until being shot by a police officer. Police have no motives for the actions of Jos� Rodriguez de Jesus, whose rampage in Horace Greeley Park at 6th Avenue and 32nd Street (across from the Manhattan Mall) interrupted people sitting and chatting. A man selling newspapers told the Times, "He seemed to be chasing all the people in the park." De Jesus stabbed a......

There's another new free newspaper, as you might have been able to tell from the floor of the subway. Metro debuted yesterday, in the effort to milk advertisers for every cent they've got to corner young readers. Newsday, whose parent company, Tribune, owns amNewYork, our first free daily, says that Metro will have a press run of 300,000 (amNewYork's circulation was 180,000 at end of 2003). Of course, Metro, a London based company that has......

Yes, Anne, Gothamist will call you crazy: It looks like Anne Heche (left) had the evening's wacky quotient filled at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute Gala, Dangerous Liaisons (read: lots of corsets and bustles). We also liked how the Times's headlined it a "Night of the Living Art" (you can't fool us!) and Guy Trebay pointed out:Andre Leon Talley, the editor at large at Vaogue, swept up the stairs...in a volumnious 18th century......