Controversy is swirling around a course offered at Hunter College that an untenured professor says he was pressured to “teach.” The course was paid for last year by the International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition [IACC], an industry group combating the proliferation of cheap counterfeit clothes, jewelry, accessories, etc. Hunter students were enlisted as free labor to develop a guerrilla marketing campaign for the IACC as an attempt to change attitudes about knock-off goods; the result was a......

They may have grown up privileged and prepped for success from birth, but a record number of four-year-olds are facing rejection from New York's top kindergarten programs. Fortunately, the parents of the doomed children are probably still young enough to procreate again and hope for better chances with their younger progeny. According to the Sun, many top kindergartens in New York City have admission rates in the single digits (take that Harvard). To make matters......

Former President Bill Clinton laid out his wife's chances for voters during a speech - and didn't sound terribly confident about them. He told them, "If she wins Texas and Ohio, I think she will be the nominee. If you don't, then I don't think she can. It's all on you." And the Post quickly dug up the Davy Crockett hat for its Photoshop job. Hillary Clinton spoke at Hunter College yesterday, telling the crowd,......

Mayor Bloomberg spoke out about the unofficial results from NYC's primary night undercounted votes in 78 districts. These districts' unofficial results raised eyebrows because no votes at all were recorded Barack Obama. Bloomberg said, "This is just an outrage," and decried the Board of Elections for being a "partisan patronage organization": "What they do is hire on the basis of politics, and obviously the people that they have aren't as competent as you would like,......

The story around the possible hate crime attack on a Q train the other night seems to be made for the season. Not only does it come while subway violence is a big topic, it also involves a group of Jewish subway riders being called "dirty Jews" and "Jew bitches" and attacked by people who cried, "Happy Hanukkah, that's when the Jews killed Jesus." And here's the kicker: The only person who stepped in......

It's no shock that many drivers aren't totally on the ball when driving, but it turns out that one in three New York drivers multi-task in their cars. According to a Hunter College study (PDF) conducted at 50 intersections in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens, of the over 3,000 drivers observed, 23% were talking on a cellphone, 5.7% were smoking, 4.5% were drinking, 3.1% were drinking, and 1.7% were grooming. Time to quote Rihanna:......

A freshman from New York University apparently committed suicide yesterday morning. The student, Allan Oakley Hunter III, jumped from the roof of University Hall, a 15-story dorm at 110 East 14th Street; his body was found in the courtyard. The Washington Square News reports that police were searching his room around 10AM yesterday morning and that his body was removed by 1PM. Friends told the Washington Square News that Hunter was "introverted but friendly," but......

A bus full of students from Hunter College High School was pursued by a hammer-wielding road rager yesterday afternoon in Queens. It's unclear what made the driver so irate, but bus driver Jose Bautista noticed a man driving crazily in his rear view mirror and pulled over to the left. That is when the angry driver got out of his car and kicked in one of the panes of glass on the school bus's front......

The NYCLU and ACLU are suing the Transportation Security Administration and Jet Blue over an incident where a passenger was forced to cover/change his shirt, which had Arabic lettering. Last year, Reid Jarrar, an American resident of Iraqi descent, was taking a JetBlue flight at JFK when a TSA official asked him to over his shirt, which read "We Will Not Be Silent" in both English and Arabic. The shirt's message is taken from the......

Thirteen-year-old Bramdon Ragnot was found in a Brooklyn alley, shot in the head, yesterday afternoon. He was discovered around 5PM by a Marine Park neighbor who told the Daily News, "I didn't know he was shot. I thought he was just beat up. I said, 'I know it hurts, but keep your eyes open.'" Another neighbor told the Post that a teen had asked to use a phone after the shooting, "He banged on my......

The public school year will end on a scandalous note. An aide at the prestigious Hunter College High School was arrested on charges of raping a 15-year-old student. Timothy Avery, a 25-year-old Staten Island resident, was charged with statutory rape and endangering the welfare of a child. The NY Times reports that "friends of the girl had expressed concerns about the girl’s behavior to school authorities." Laurel Wright-Hinckson, a spokeswoman for the city Education Department’s......

Tomorrow afternoon at 2 p.m., the Municipal Arts Society is holding a meeting at Hunter College to present a brainstormed plan for making the East River waterfront in Manhattan's midtown an accessible public waterfront. The idea is that if the rebuilding of the FDR Drive, the decommissioning of the Con Ed power plant, and the expansion of the U.N. are coordinated, there is the opportunity for a waterfront park to be built, and completing the......

We can't possibly choose only one music event for the weekend, so check out OhMyRockness for the jam packed weekend listings. We will say, however, that one of the openers for Snowden at Maxwell's tonight...is We Are Scientists, trying out some new tunes. Though closer to home are The Clientele and Beach House at Bowery Ballroom. Listen: Apple Orchard.mp3 - Beach House THEATER: A mysterious little two-actor, umpteen character play called The Eaten Heart concludes......

Congratulations to everyone graduating this month! As NYU's commencement was today, with speaker jazz musician Wynton Marsalis, we decided to list the many NYC commencement speakers, with help from The Chronicle of Higher Education (if we've missed any or gotten it wrong, let us know in comments): Barnard College: Anna Deveare Smith, playwright-actress CUNY Lehman College: Representative Charles Rangel CUNY Brooklyn College: Roberta S. Matthews, provost and vice president for academic affairs at Brooklyn......

Stars of stage and screen will be rearing their boldface names on April 9th to blow out 443 candles for the boldest face of all: Billy Shakespeare. Broadway’s Michael Cerveris (Sweeney Todd), Debra Messing (Will & Grace), the esteemed Philip Bosco (Copenhagen) and other notables will perform scenes from the Bard’s plays at The Shakespeare Birthday Marathon at Hunter College’s Kaye Playhouse. But perhaps the most anticipated star at this free event is TV’s Rainn......

Judge Larry Seidlin wept when he gave custody of Anna Nicole Smith's body would go to her baby Danielynn Smith. Well, make that Danielynn's legal guardian, Richard Milstein. Five-month-old Danielynn was practically the only person who wasn't fighting for her mother's body, and the AP called it a "surprise middle course" decision. However, Newsday's Star Struck blog called Seidiln's sobbing "possibly the most embarrassing thing on television since 'The Magic Hour.'" E! Online has......

As the fight over Anna Nicole Smith's body continues in a Florida courtroom, the judge presiding over the proceedings has become something of a media star. And Judge Larry Seidlin is ready, telling people that he's ready for a TV show. We chalk up his chutzpah to a Bronx background. Seidlin, who famously said "This body belongs to me now" in spite of the medical examiner's suggestion that Smith's body be released, got a short......

EVENT: The Academy presents Meet the Oscars. On top of learning fun facts about Oscar, you'll get to see the little gold guy (and tons of tourists) up close and personal, as the statuettes are on display in Times Square. We suggest you bring a fake acceptance speech with you. 11am through 7pm // Times Square Studios [1500 Broadway] // Free THEATER: Kathleen Chalfant (Wit, Angels in America), Marian Seldes (A Delicate Balance, Three Tall......

A 21 year old Hunter College student committed suicide by jumping off the West Building at 67th and Lexington yesterday afternoon. Anton Frolov had sneaked onto the 20 floor building's roof earlier, but had been escorted off by security guards. But 15 minutes later, at 5:40PM, Frolov managed to get back onto the roof and jumped before guards could stop him. A witness told the Post, "It was like a blown tire. It was so......

An emotionally disturbed Brooklyn man died of a heart attack after being Maced and Tasered by the police. A relative called the police when Blondel Lassegue was acting up at his uncle's house in Queens, saying he was depressed and delusional (he had recently gone off medication for bipolar disorder and depression, according to the Daily News). The police had difficulty in restraining 38 year old Lassegue; when the Mace did not subdue Lassegue, they......

A man was shot at Ninth Avenue and West 23rd Street after leaving the Chelsea Square Restaurant Saturday morning. Two men robbed him of a necklace then shot him in the foot. The victim then went back to the restaurant and crawled into the kitchen for help. As the Post tries to make the point that there's a lot of violence in the club area, there's a quote from a restaurant employee who says the......

Who would residents say is the worse neighbor - Columbia or NYU? For today, at least, the controversy surrounds Columbia, plus the Department of Education. Columbia and the DOE will be opening a secondary magnet public school this fall for sixth through twelfth grade. The school will eventually be located on the university's planned Manhattanville campus, but until the building is completed, the DOE has decided to put the school in PS 36, a pre-K......

Parents hoping to get their little Einsteins into some of the city's 137-odd programs for young and "gifted students" take note: The city has announced that it is now going to institute a uniform admissions test for all of them. What does this mean, exactly? For all "gifted" programs for prekindergarten through second grade applicants will need to take something called an OLSAT which measures students in four areas (verbal comprehension, verbal reasoning, figural......

With just 55 days left, the dance cards are set for the general election. As expected, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and Senator Hillary Clinton won their respectives primaries for governor and Senate. The NY Times noted that Clinton's reosounding win showed that her support of the Iraq war did not affect voter sentiment:“Clinton’s work ethic, her lack of enemies, and her fund-raising help for other Democrats have insulated her from party criticism, including on......

The Post has the latest on the Facebook predator, Elvin Chaung, as the Manhattan DA's office added new charges. Chaung was arrested last month for posing as female Facebook members' friends and then coercing them to hand over photographs of themselves undressing. Police found hundreds of additional victims after searching the 20 year's old computer cache - "scores and scores of pictures" of the victims in "various stages of address," according to ADA Aaron Karczmer.......

Yet another story about how social networking sites can be dangerous! And this one involves a Brooklyn man who posed as various female Facebook members' friends to get them to somehow give him nude pictures and force them to be his friend. The Post reports that 20 year old Elvin Chaung was charged with identity theft, computer trespass and tampering, coercion and grand larceny after it turned out he was using his Facebook account to......

It's a brou-ha-ha in a mass-produced glossy, leather (or vinyl) bound book: Hunter College High School faculty halted production of their "Annals" yearbook, leading some students to threaten a First Amendment lawsuit against the school. The NY Sun has the inside track on why the yearbook was pulled: Because of its "100 jokes that typically run alongside photos of the students clubs." In past years, some of those jokes teetered on offensive. Yearbook staff said......

The tragic story of Romona Moore finally saw some justice yesterday as the two men who kidnapped, raped, tortured, sodomized and eventually killed the 21-year-old Hunter College student were both found guilty. Troy Hendrix, 22, and Kayson Pearson, 24, now face maximum penalities of life in prison without parole. The Moore case has been one ordeal after another from the onset. When police were first informed by her family that Romona was missing they responded......

The trial of Romona Moore's accused murderers took a strange turn when one of the defendants, Kayson Pearson, testified. Since Pearson, along with co-defendent, Troy Hendrix, tried to stab a defense lawyer with a knife and take on other court officers during their first trial (it ended in mistrial), Pearson had to be shackled while on the witness stand, wearing black foam mittens. He was also ordered not to make any outbursts and not to......

One of the most depraved crimes in recent memory is being relived at a murder trial in Brooklyn. Raymondo Jack, witness for the Brooklyn DA, testified to seeing Hunter College student Romona Moore tortured and chained in a Brooklyn basement in 2003. Jack had been visiting his friends Troy Hendrix and Kayson Pearson when they showed him Moore. Hendrix and Pearson had kidnapped the 23 year old as she was walking to a Burger King......