The Staten Island Advance has been following the turmoil brewing between a Wiccan family and their neighbors. The South Shore home at the center of the controversy is a duplex, half belonging to the Wiccan devotees, Ivy Colmer Vanderborgh, her husband and mother (the husband isn't Wiccan). Not hiding their practices, their property is decorated with a "witchy weather vane and cauldron out front," along with a massive stained-glass pentacle. Before the front yard cauldron......

Two white Staten Island cops were indicted today for an incident last Halloween in which they allegedly handcuffed a black egg-throwing teen and drove him to a dark, secluded marshland he was stranded (the handcuffs were taken off). Initially, the cops were also accused of stripping him down to his shorts and kicking him. The officers, Thomas Elliassen and Richard Danese, who are pleading not guilty, said they just wanted to "scare him" and later......

When Staten Island Mall shoppers saw a mother beating her 3-year-old son Tuesday afternoon, some followed her to "make sure she didn't leave," reports the Staten Island Advance. Eventually, the police arrested 33-year-old Yesenia Hausler with felony assault and endangering the welfare of a child. Hausler apparently became angry when her son either wanted to play with a new toy or wanted to buy a new toy, and punched and slapped him so hard there......

A dwarf bowling tournament planned for Staten Island bar Big Nose Kate’s has been cancelled after an unidentified scold alerted the media to the event, which was to be hosted Saturday by d-list celebrity dwarf minstrel Beetlejuice (pictured), an occasional guest on the Howard Stern show. In dwarf bowling, players take turns rolling a dwarf (wearing protective gear) on a skateboard down makeshift bowling alleys toward small pins. In exchange for his dignity, the dwarf/bowling......

Everything's coming up rosé on Staten Island: on the heels of the new aquarium unveiling in the ferry terminal, plans for the island’s first vineyard are coming into focus. Borough President James Molinaro (pictured, right) has pledged $2 million for the project, which will establish a 2 acre vineyard and demonstration winery at the Staten Island Botanical Garden. The organic vineyard will yield its first wine about four years from now; it’s the brain-child of......

Almost five years after the horrifying incident where the Staten Island Ferry crashed into wooden pilings at a pier, the city will pay $6.5 million to a man who lost part of his right leg. Shriram Agni was on the front of the boat when the ferry crashed, and his right leg was "sandwiched between collapsing seats." Agni's leg, six inches below the knee, was amputated due to complications and he learned to walk again......

Photographs of the Bedell House, clockwise from upper left: Normal-looking in 2005 (from Tottenville Historical Society), covered in graffiti in 2005 (from Tottenville Historical Society), and boarded-up in 2008 (from Staten Island Advance) A landmark Tottenville home that caused a bitter fight between its owner and neighbors has entered a new stage of its existence: foreclosure proceedings. The Staten Island Advance reports John Grossi, who bought the 1869 Bedell House in hopes of razing......

Well, this explains a lot: The Center for Disease Control and Protection says this year's flu shot is only good for 40% of the flu bugs going around. Thanks a lot, new strains of flu viruses that are kicking people's butts! Every year, health departments around the country recommend people get flu shots, starting in the fall and continuing to remind people who haven't for many months. Usually, the flu vaccine tends to be good......

Everyone wants the subway to be cheaper - some are just a little more desperate about it. Michael Garetano decided to get crafty and rubber cemented a student fare MetroCard magnetic strip to a regular Metrocard. According to the Staten Island Advance, an MTA officer noticed Garetano swiping through and asked him to show his Metrocard: "The teen showed the officer a regular, unaltered card, and when the officer responded, 'I know this isn't the......

Staten Island singer/songwriter Ingrid Michaelson found fame through the small screen before hitting airwaves nationwide. Last year one of her songs was featured in the season finale of Grey's Anatomy (video), only to be followed by another one of her songs being picked up for an Old Navy ad (video). Needless to say she went from getting write-ups in the Staten Island Advance, to getting them in the NY Times. With plans to leave the......

Moments after the Giants won, visitors to www.giants.com were greeted to this page about getting Super Bowl gear; of course, it wouldn't ship in time for today's parade Commemorative sweatshirts and hats haven't been so popular since... the Yankees won the World Series in 2000! All around the region, Giants Super Bowl XLII Champions clothing and doodads attracted long waits and some empty hands. Trucks delivered the Super Bowl Champions-emblazoned items to stores at......

Picture it: You're not feeling well, so you go to your doctor's office, where you're told you're having a heart attack. And just as you're on an ambulance gurney, the receptionist asks you for a $5 co-pay! This is what happened to 76-year-old Staten Island resident Barbara Antonelli last month. Antonelli described her trip to the Staten Island Physician Practice and told the Staten Island Advance, "Stupid me, I gave her the five dollars. This......

Rudy Giuliani's poor showing in the presidential campaign has plenty of people giving their opinions on why it all went wrong. Bronx residents gave the NY Times an earful about the former mayor ("I was waiting for this moment — he stinks...Giuliani was always for himself, never for the people.") while the Daily News reported on the "hick" comments of Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, who said, "The New York lifestyle hasn't gone over [in]......

A Staten Island man arrived at his Clifton home to find four teen boys having sex with his 11-year-old stepdaughter and her 13-year-old friend. The stepfather called the police upon finding the naked teens. The boys, ages 16 to 18, were charged with first- and third-degree rape, first-degree criminal sexual act and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child. The girls had signs of vaginal tearing and the Staten Island Advance reported, "The......

For the past few years, the French game and humor site called Uzinagaz.com has been featuring an online video game which challenges players to prevent jetliners from flying into the Twin Towers. As the game progresses, the planes arrive with increasing frequency and eventually each tower collapses in a plume of digital dust. The tagline for the game, called New York Defender, says "Go beyond your powerlessness and use your mouse to fight back."......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a person struck by a train at 14th St. and 8th Ave. in Manhattan, a shooting on Flatbush Ave. in Brooklyn, and a shooting on Houston St. in Manhattan. Yet another reason to celebrate: today is the 110th anniversary of Richmond County joining us as the 5th borough of NYC. The Staten Island Advance features a picture of a general store with a wooden Indian in front of it......

A Grinch has crossed state lines! Some NJ residents didn't receive their deliveries when a New Springville resident swiped packages from doorsteps during the holiday season. The Staten Island Advance reports that David Oakes would follow delivery trucks "to people's doors in Ocean Township, watching to make sure no one answered the door and claimed the packages." That's the problem with package delivery without signature! Apparently Oakes preferred "packages containing electronics, clothing and toys" -......

A woman was robbed in her Staten Island home by a man clad in black on Monday morning but authorities do not think it's the Ninja Burglar. A police source told the Staten Island Advance, "There are burglaries committed every day and everybody is wearing black out there." In the Christmas Eve robbery, a woman, who left her Great Kills home at 5AM, startled the burglar when she returned at 8AM. The burglar, who seemed......

On Friday, dozens of birds fell out of the sky and died on a street in the Great Kills section of Staten Island. Residents grew concerned as, the Staten Island Advance reported, birds "flopped and twitched...as they breathed their last" (video here). One resident said the birds were flying "as if they were drunk" before falling to the ground. Residents were advised to stay in their homes as the fire department, police and as well......

If you thought noticed a group of bicyclists playing dead on 6th Avenue near 33rd Street, your eyes weren't fooling you. Time's Up led a Bike Lane Action to "dramatize the fatal last moments of David Smith’s ride up 6th Avenue." Smith was killed when a passenger in a truck, parked in the bike lane, opened a door; Smith was knocked off his bike and into the path of a truck. A Time's Up......

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,......

Earlier this year, the city's new noise code went into effect, and the city has definitely been enforcing it on Staten Island's Kinborn Street. The Department of Environmental Protection has fined Lucie Liebman $1,000 for a noisy ice truck jingle. The thing is, Liebman doesn't have an ice cream truck! A Lickety Split truck had parked outside Liebman's house and sounded its jingle. The DEP sent two summonses to Liebman, before dropping off the hefty......

We've admired the Wee Ninja from Shawnimals ever since we were looking for a visual to go with posts about the Staten Island Ninja Burglar. Wee Ninja is actually not a criminal in Shawn Smith's Ninjatown - Wee Ninjas only train, harvest Stealth Wheart, and fight the Wee Devils (or something along those lines). And now it turns out that there's an event at My Plastic Heart on Forsyth Street this Friday, Keep it......

As authorities investigate the murder of Fire Marshal Douglas Mercereau, found in his Staten Island home with three bullets in his head Sunday morning, his wife Janet Redmond-Mercereau as a suspect, though the police have declined to officially name anyone as a suspect. The couple had been having marriage problems - the Post describes her as being "estranged," though living in the same house. Redmond-Mercereau, a teacher at Tottenville High Scool, called 911 around 8:30AM,......

A "rising star" in the Fire Department was found with three gunshot to the head in his Staten Island home Sunday morning. The ME's office said that Douglas J. Mercereau's death was a homicide. It's believed that his 38-year-old wife, Janet Redmond-Mercereau, is a suspect (the Daily News calls her the "prime suspect"). She called 911 around 8:25AM on Sunday, saying she found her husband's body. The Staten Island Advance says the couple had "started......

After news of the Ninja Burglar's robberies at two homes in one night this past weekend, Staten Island residents are upset. One resident whose parents live near one of the recent victims told the Staten Island Advance that the two months in between robberies may have caused "people [to] let their guard down a little bit." The most recent victims, on Ocean Terrace, elderly couple Jean and John Interlandi, spoke out. Their house was robbed......

You know a story is going to be good (as in crazy) when it starts "It's a story as old as the drinking laws: A teenage girl convinces a man to buy her a bottle of alcohol." And that's how an article in the Staten Island Advance starts - and it keeps getting better. The leader of a S.I. civic association! Her 21-year-old son! A drunk 14-year-old - and the girl's angry mother! Frank Ammirato,......

A 63-year-old woman and her 34-year-old son were found dead in their Silver Lake home Tuesday morning. The Staten Island Advance reports that Doris Newsome and son Martin both had health issues and needed to use oxygen tanks. The pair seemed to die of natural causes at around the same time, but it's not clear what the exact cause was (the ME's report will take a while), so their simultaneous deaths seem mysterious and bizarre.......

Note to public servants: Your embarrassing MySpace pages will get the tabloid once-over if you do something totally stupid. Last week, police officers Thomas Eliassen and Michael Danese were arrested after they stranded a 14-year-old boy who had been egging cars at a remote swamp. Now Eliassen's MySpace page, where he proclaims, "LET'S DO LINES OFF A STRIPPERS A--!!!", is getting attention from the boy's lawyer. The boy, Rayshawn Moreno, claimed the officers also made......

Staten Island Borough President James P. Molinaro was not happy when DA and former aide Daniel M. Donovan Jr. recused himself from the trial of Molinaro's grandson Steven for violating his probation and intimidating a paperboy he'd previously assaulted. Last week, the borough president placed a full page ad in the Staten Island Advance newspaper expressing his displeasure with Donovan punting the case to the Manhattan DA, feeling that it improperly biased the eventual jurors......