Locating the Zeckendorf Buyer: GPS Exec Purchased 15 CPW's Record-Setting Penthouse

Conditions bode well for Rockfish Shootout
VIRGINIA BEACH Today's registration for the ninth annual Mid-Atlantic Rockfish Shootout could be a busy affair. Weather forecasts and catches from previous days determine interest, with many potential competitors waiting until the last minute to register. Bad Weather and no fish usually mean a small field. That shouldn't be the case for this year's event, which features a registration and captains' meeting today, and fishing Thursday through Sunday. Catches have been on the rise since last week,...

Heidi Jones, Meteorologist, Lied About Being Attacked: DA
NEW YORK — A TV Meteorologist told police she concocted claims of being attacked because she was under personal and professional stress and wanted attention, a court document released Wednesday shows. Heidi Jones said nothing as she appeared briefly in a Manhattan court Wednesday to answer Misdemeanor charges of false reporting. Her lawyer, Paul F. Callan, said she would fight the charges and had been "unfairly characterized and vilified" in some press reports on her case. Jones, who has...

Best Things To Do In NYC Today, Jan. 5
Five things to do in New York City today. By Carly Petrone. Are you a depressed Dexter fan, left wondering what you’ll be doing until next season? You can get a dose of Jennifer Carpenter as she stars with Pablo Schreiber in Gruesome Playground Injuries, the latest play directed by Scott Ellis. Written by Rajiv Joseph, the production focuses on two childhood friends who rekindle their friendship and eventually form a courtship. After running into each other in a Hospital room they realize ...

ABC Meteorologist Due In Court In False-Report Case
NEW YORK (AP/CBS 2) - A Meteorologist on ABC’s local New York station is due in court after police said she concocted claims that a man tried to sexually assault her in Central Park and later harassed her. Heidi Jones has a court date Wednesday in Manhattan. She was told last month to appear in court on a Misdemeanor false reporting charge. Her lawyer has said she will plead Not Guilty. Police say Jones told them on Nov. 24 that a man tried to assault her a month earlier while s...

Egypt Called. They Want Their Obelisk Back.
via MSNBC, LiveScience/Dreamstime ​More than a century ago, Egypt "gave" New York City a giant obelisk, you know, to cultivate trade and good faith and such. We called it Cleopatra's Needle, and we parked it in Central Park, where it's stood since 1881. But all of a sudden, Egypt is not happy with the care we've been taking of their 71-foot-tall monument. Perhaps we don't deserve the obelisk, after all! MSNBC has the note that Zahi Hawas, the Secretary General of Egypt's Supreme Council ...

Egypt threatens to take back New York obelisk
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Egyptian government official charged with protecting his country's ancient monuments is threatening to take back an iconic obelisk in Central Park unless New York City takes steps to restore it. The stone obelisk "has been severely weathered over the past century" with no effort made to conserve it, Zahi Hawass, Secretary General for Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, wrote in a letter this week to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The obelisk, which commemorates K...

Forecaster Admitted Making Up Attack Story: Prosecutors
Stress and a Hunger for attention led a suspended WABC weather woman to make up a story about being attacked, prosecutors said Wednesday. Meteorologist Heidi Jones, 37, used those excuses when she finally came clean almost two weeks after leading detectives on a wild goose chase last month, according to a court document. Jones appeared silently before a Manhattan Criminal Court judge to face two Misdemeanor counts of filing a false report. Her lawyer said that she pleaded Not Guilty and will fig...

Egypt Threatens NYC/Bloomberg Removal of Cleopatra's Needle
Since 1881, the obelisk known as Cleopatra's Needle has stood in New York's Central Park, but a letter from the Secretary General of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities indicates that this may change if the monument is not taken better care of. Recently, Zahi Hawass, the aforementioned Secretary General and archaeologist, wrote to the Central Park Conservancy and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to inform them that if steps are not taken to prot...

Early On, About One Truck for Every Snowflake
Earl Wilson/The New York Times A sanitation truck out to battle the snow on 34th Street. If you learned your Latin, or if you were a fan of “The Gilmore Girls,” you can think about this until there are two inches of snow on the ground: In omnia paratus. Or, if you prefer, semper paratus. Either phrase could be Friday’s motto for the Department of Sanitation, which already has 365 salt spreaders on city streets even it says there is only a trace of snow and the National Weather Service say

Andy Plesser: Architect John Hix: Vieques is the "Central Park of the Caribbean"
VIEQUES, PR -- John Hix, the Canadian-born architect who developed the "eco-hip," retreat the Hix Island House, sees Vieques as largely undeveloped gem in the Caribbean, a sort of "Central Park" in the midest of a highly developed region. He sees sustainability as key to Vieques' future success is creating homes which are energy dependent, "off the grid," using solar power. He hopes that in the future Wind Farms will provide Energy Independence for the island. Hix first visited Vieques some 28...

For the record, we apologize for these errors, too
"I will alert school divisions to the factual errors found in the reviewed history textbooks," State Superintendent Patricia Wright said in a statement. "I also will direct Virginia Department of Education staff to provide guidance to educators in the field on how to ensure that classroom instruction is not distorted by the misinformation found in these textbooks." Upon further review, a number of previously undiscovered errors have been found in Virginia's fourth-grade histo...

Murtagh: Lawmakers should follow Cuomos lead and give back 5 % of pay
Yonkers City Council Minority Leader John M. Murtagh, a Republican who is expected to run for mayor, today challenged his fellow City Council Members and the entire Westchester County Board of Legislators to return five percent of their annual salaries. “Yonkers, Westchester County, New York State, and the Federal Government spend too much money and it’s undermining the very foundation of the American Economy,” Murtagh said. “Too many of our elected leaders still haven&...

Bound to Make a Boehner
Matt Taibbi: The Democrats have plenty of creatures like Boehner. But in the new Speaker of the House, the Republicans own the perfect archetype — the quintessential example of the kind of glad-handing, double-talking, K Street toady who has dominated the politics of both parties for decades. In sports, we talk about athletes who are the "total package," and that term comes close to describing Boehner's talent for perpetuating our corrupt and Debt-addled status quo: He's a five-tool insider who...

DA: NY meteorologist made up attack for attention
Authorities say a New York TV Meteorologist told police she concocted claims of being attacked because she was under personal and professional stress and wanted attention. Heidi Jones appeared briefly in a Manhattan court Wednesday to answer Misdemeanor charges of false reporting. Her lawyer says she'll fight the charges. Prosecutors filed a court document Wednesday. It says Jones told police on Dec. 1 that she'd been attacked in Central Park in September and then again outside her apartment in ...

WABC 7's Heidi Jones Pleads Not Guilty To Fake Rape Claim
The WABC 7 weather anchor who allegedly falsely claimed she was raped was in court today to face charges for filing a false Police Report. Heidi Jones, 37, pleaded Not Guilty; she faces up to a year behind bars if found Guilty of the two Misdemeanors. Her lawyer said, "We urge everyone to keep an open mind until the conclusion of the case. This entire thing has been extremely stressful for her," but the Daily News reports that court papers reveal Jones, when confronted by cops, admitted, "I di...

DA: NY meteorologist made up attack for attention
NEW YORK (AP) — Authorities say a New York TV Meteorologist told police she concocted claims of being attacked because she was under personal and professional stress and wanted attention. Heidi Jones appeared briefly in a Manhattan court Wednesday to answer Misdemeanor charges of false reporting. Her lawyer says she’ll fight the charges. Prosecutors filed a court document Wednesday. It says Jones told police on Dec. 1 that she’d been attacked in Central Park in September and th...

Crude oil prices settle session lower
Heating oil for February delivery tumbled 2 cents to $2.49 a gallon. At the pump, the national average price of unleaded Gasoline rose to $3.083 per gallon from Thursday's $3.079, AAA said. Jailed Gov. Ryan visits dying wife NEW YORK, Jan. 7 (UPI) -- A judge has dismissed a Copyright-infringement Lawsuit brought by the estate of author Adrian Jacobs against the U.S. publishers of the "Harry Potter" novels. NEW YORK, Jan. 7 (UPI) -- Crude Oil Prices closed down Friday on the New York...

Early Addition
Photograph by Gary Burke on Flickr Remember to follow Gothamist on Twitter and like us on Facebook. From the Gothamist Newsmap: A crime scene at Industrial St & Waters Place in The Bronx, a Robbery at Central Park and a Water Main break at Knapp Street & Avenue X in Brooklyn. Makes sense: A Queens church fired a volunteer who is a registered Sex Offender and contacted a child on Facebook. ...

Mitch Daniels and Social Security
You can find some excerpts here of the recent New York Times interview with Indiana’s impressive Governor Mitch Daniels. It’s all worth reading, but this (on means-testing Social Security and Medicare) caught my eye: It’s a very cynical calculation that had always been made, that you had to have everybody in it. Why? So that nobody could ever change it, not ’cause there’s any justice in that. I always say, “Why do we send a Pension check to Warren Buffett...

Marines hardest hit by Pentagon cuts
Image via Wikipedia NY Times: It was supposed to be a tank that swims, a new way for the Marines to storm hostile beaches. But as Military Budgets come under pressure, the 38-ton landing craft that turns into an assault vehicle seems destined to be the next bit of high-tech wizardry to bite the dust. Pentagon and industry officials say the Defense Secretary, Robert M. Gates, is poised to cancel the long-delayed $14.4 billion program on Thursday, when he is expected to announce a new round of ...

The Most Expensive Column In America?
Well, he is an Economist: Gene Sperling, who is rumored to be on President Obama’s short-list to head the National Economic Council, was reportedly paid $137,500 by Bloomberg for a monthly column. As Kevin Drum notes, that’s equivalent to $11,000 for an op-ed. Those must have been some columns! ...

Pentagon Is Poised to Cancel Marine Landing Craft
Source: NY Times It was supposed to be a tank that swims, a new way for the Marines to storm hostile beaches. But as Military budgets come under pressure, the 38-ton landing craft that turns into an assault vehicle seems destined to be the next bit of high-tech wizardry to bite the dust. Pentagon and industry officials say the Defense Secretary, Robert M. Gates, is poised to cancel the long-delayed $14.4-billion program on Thursday, when he is expected to announce a new round of belt-tightenin...

Oprah's OWN Debuts Strong -- but Can it Keep Delivering for Advertisers?
Last weekend was a key test for Oprah Winfrey's latest media venture: Would the Oprah Winfrey Network -- OWN -- succeed as her earlier efforts have, or would her jump to cable flounder like Martha Stewart's move to the Hallmark Channel last year? More was on the line than Winfrey's reputation. The network had promised its initial advertising partners, including giants such as Procter & Gamble (PG) and Kohl's Department Stores (KSS), that the network would deliver viewers. Many of OWN's in...

Fool's Gold: Giant Tuna Sold for Nearly $400,000 in Tokyo
A behemoth bluefin tuna sold for a record 32.49 million yen — or about $396,000 — in Tokyo's famed Tsukiji fish market on Wednesday, smashing the 2001 record when a bluefin auctioned for 20.2 million. The fish, bought by a sushi restaurant in Tokyo's Ginza district and a Hong Kong sushi chain, weighed in at market at an incredible 754 pounds. That prices out to about $526 per pound wholesale and places it in the ranks of the Most Expensive foods in the world. "It was an exceptionally...

Southwest revising frequent flier program, will eliminate blackout dates
Southwest Airlines will introduce a new loyalty program today that rewards its high-spending customers and injects more flexibility into redeeming awards. The program, which takes effect March 1, converts Southwest's current credit model into a point-based system, introduces membership tiers, offers international flights by other carriers as awards and removes restrictions on the number of Southwest seats available for redemption. Customers who buy "Business Select" tickets, the Most Expensive...