Those familiar with the Williamsburg dining scene certainly know Dressler. In a neighborhood flooded with restaurants, Dressler is truly a gem – it was also just one of the five Michelin-starred restaurants in all of Brooklyn.

The iconic restaurant closed its doors for good today. The following announcement was posted on the restaurant’s website.

After seven years of business, Dressler is closing its doors for business today, Monday, June 17, 2013. With much regret, an agreement could not be reached for a lease renewal. To all of our talented staff and to our customers, our friends, thank you for your loyal support. Our accolades and accomplishments would not have been possible without you.

We close the doors to one of NYC’s most beautiful dining rooms with mixed emotions. We are so proud of Dressler. It was a pioneer in the Brooklyn Dining scene that helped set the standard for dining in the borough today. We are excited to continue serving the Williamsburg Community at both Dumont and Dumont Burger as well as our new ventures in Clinton Hill and Prospect Heights.

Despite the restaurants somewhat high prices, the food was consistently good. In a 2006 review The New York Times critic Frank Bruni praised the food as being “sophisticated without being too cliver, in a room that’s beautiful without being too flamboyant.”

And the cocktails? Delicious. Dressler will truly be missed in the neighborhood.

The post Williamsburg favorite Dressler unexpectedly closes appeared first on Metro.us.

The FBI started digging for a body Monday at the former Queens home of mobster James “Jimmy the Gent” Burke, according to a report from DNAinfo New York.

Burke was the inspiration for the character Jimmy “The Gent” Conway in the Martin Scorcese film ”Goodfellas,” playing by Robert DeNiro.

According to DNAinfo’s sources, FBA Evidence Collection specialists and agents from the Organized Crime Division were in the basement of the Burkes’ South Ozone Park home from 8 a.m. Monday morning with jackhammers and sledge hammers.

The FBI reportedly received a tip recently that a person who disappeared decades ago was buried in the basement or backyard of the Burke home.

A spokesperson with the FBI told Metro all that can be shared right now is that the Bureau is doing a search for evidence in connection with an ongoing FBI investigation.

Follow Danielle Tcholakian on Twitter @danielleiat

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Thanks to two long-time Bushwick residents, a special Restaurant Week for the apparently often-overlooked neighborhood kicked off today.

Bob Murray and Nick Gilbert noticed that Bushwick had been excluded from programming by Dine In Brooklyn, they joined forces to put together a Bushwick-specific dining extravaganza.

Over 30 restaurants are signed on, the organizers say.

Bushwick Restaurant Week developed a partnership with the taxi-hailing app Uber so restaurant attendees can get enter the promotional code “Bushwick” and receive $30 of cab fare to bring in Manhattanites or help people hit up several spots over the course of a single evening.

Follow Danielle Tcholakian on Twitter @danielleiat

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Police are reporting a manhole cover explosion and transformer fire in front of the 14th Street Apple store.

The explosion reportedly occurred at 1:52 p.m. today, at Washington and West 14th streets.

There is a power outage along 14th Street from Ninth to 10th avenues, cops said.

Police stated that there are no injuries resulting from this incident.

Follow Danielle Tcholakian on Twitter @danielleiat

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Cops responded to a 911 call about 11:15 a.m. Sunday to find a man and a woman dead in an Upper West Side apartment, police reported.

The deceased have been identified as Florenciana Martinez, 44, and Edwin Rodriguez, 58. Martinez was reportedly a resident at the apartment where the two were found.

Cops said the incident is being investigated as a murder-suicide.

Martinez was found on the floor of the bedroom, cops said, and Rodriguez was in the bedroom as well, with a belt around his neck attached to the headboard of his bed.

There were no signs of forced entry into the apartment.

Follow Danielle Tcholakian on Twitter @danielleiat

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Anthony Weiner, campaigning with his fedora-clad toddler on Father’s Day, promised voters can expect to see his wife, Huma Abedin, on the campaign trail “soon enough.”

“She’s very busy,” Weiner reportedly said.

Meanwhile, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has reportedly sent a letter to Abedin and current Secretary of State John Kerry, questioning Abedin’s holding two jobs in politics.

Abedin reportedly earned a six-figure salary as a political consultant at the same time that she was working as an aide for ex-Secretary of State Hilary Clinton. Grassley is questioning whether Abedin disclosed the consulting gig and salary.

Weiner reportedly said it was all above board, done with the approval of the State Department, and he and his wife have “perhaps a couple of the most financially transparent lives that there is.”

“I gotta tell you, the American people have gotten a real bargain for her service,” Weiner added. “She works, frankly, 24/7.”

Follow Danielle Tcholakian on Twitter @danielleiat

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New Yorkers may no longer be able to throw their potato peels or egg shells in the trash can, as Mayor Michael Bloomberg has a plan in the works for a food-composting plan for all five boroughs.

Bloomberg first announced the plan in his State of the City address in February, as part of the city’s aim to divert 30 percent of the city’s waste from landfill by 2017.

“By recycling food waste, we can cut down on the total amount of trash we send to landfills and put it to better use as compost for community gardens or even energy,” said Deputy Mayor for Operations Cas Holloway. “This is an innovative program that’s already seen success in homes on Staten Island and our public schools, and we’re excited to expand it to more New Yorkers.”

The program is set to launch in all five boroughs this fall and reach more than 100,000 homes, averaging about 25,000 per borough, according to Bloomberg spokesman John McCarthy.

McCarthy said organic waste makes up about 35 percent of the city’s total waste, and totaled 1.2 million tons in 2012. Getting that waste to landfills cost the city $100 million.

Ultimately, the Bloomberg administration said, the composted waste could be converted to natural gas.

Earlier this year, organics recycling programs were launched in 90 public schools in Brooklyn and Manhattan. The diversion rate reportedly increased from 15 to 34 percent in Manhattan schools and 15 to 28 percent in Brooklyn schools.

Not everyone is thrilled with Bloomberg’s plan, however.

Jeff Stier, New York City-based director of the Risk Analysis Division of the National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative thinktank, called the plan “a rotten idea for the Big Apple.”

“It doesn’t make sense to mandate that all New York residents save their rotting food,” Stier said. “Consider the increased risks from disease carrying vermin—a problem the city still hasn’t conquered—from all of the pre-compost material sitting around our dense living spaces, not going out with the trash each night.”

Aside from vermin, Stier is concerned about greenhouse gas emissions from additional trucks he says will have to be deployed to transport the composted waste.

Follow Danielle Tcholakian on Twitter @danielleiat

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Another poll reveals that New York voters want Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver to step down because of the way he handled sexual harassment allegations against former Assemblyman Vito Lopez.

According to the Siena College poll, 52 percent of voters said they believe Silver should step down from his post because he “failed the people of New York and Lopez’s accusers by not addressing the issue appropriately and by not being completely honest.”

A poll conducted by Quinnipiac University earlier this month showed similar results, with half of New York voters saying they believe Silver should get the boot.

A report released by the Joint Commission on Public Ethics last month showed that Lopez harassed at least eight female staffers and that most of the incidents occurred after Silver approved a $103,000 settlement with two women that required them to keep quiet.

“A majority of Republicans and independents, downstate suburbanites and upstaters, men and women, and a plurality of Democrats and New York City voters believe Speaker Silver should step down,” said Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg.

The poll results also show Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s favorability rating has dropped to 58 percent, his lowest ever as governor.

The Siena College poll was conducted June 9-13 by telephone calls to 804 New York State registered voters. It has a margin of error of +/- 3.9 percentage points.

Silver facing new lawsuit over Lopez settlement

The Assembly speaker is also facing a new lawsuit, the New York Daily News reported.

Robert Schulz, who has reportedly filed several lawsuits against the state, is trying to force Silver to pay back the state for the $103,000 settlement given to two female employees of former Assemblyman Vito Lopez when they accused Lopez of sexual harassment.

Shulz is reportedly alleging that Silver did not go through proper Assembly channels and the settlements were a misuse of taxpayer money.

“The money belongs to the taxpayers of this state and had no business being used for this purpose,” Schulz said.

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An off-duty NYPD officer was shot late Sunday night as he tried to break up a domestic violence dispute in Queens, police said. 

Joseph Koch was leaving a party when an 11-year-old boy came out of a nearby home shouting for help, saying his mother was being assaulted inside, cops said.

The boy’s mother reportedly told police that assailant broke into her apartment and burst into the room where she was with her son. The attacker reportedly began punching the woman in the face repeatedly, knocking her into a wall, she told police.

Cops said her son tried to stop his mother’s alleged attacker but the attacker punched the boy in the face and kocked him to the ground. He turned back to the boy’s mother and continued punching and kicking her in her face, head and body, police said.

That is apparently when the boy ran for help, encountering Koch.

The boy’s mother told police that Koch appeared in the doorway. She said she recognized he was a police officer because he had his gun drawn and she could see his badge.

The victim said that Koch told her assailant to stop and put his hands up, but the assailant lunged at the officer, attacking him.

The two struggled for the gun and three shots were fired, police said.

Koch was struck once in his left hand and the suspect was struck once in the lower abdomen. No one else was shot. Both Koch and the suspect were taken to Jamaica Hospital in stable condition. The domestic violence victim was also taken to Jamaica Hospital where she was treated for a laceration to the head, cops said.

The suspect, who has been identified as Jose Bernazard, 40, has been arrested and charged with five counts of assault, five counts of criminal contempt, aggravated harassment, burglary, endangering the welfare of a child, and resisting arrest.

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The Sunday Assembly will meet in Hell’s Kitchen. Credit: Twitter

A bikini bar in Hell’s Kitchen is the last place you’d expect to attend a sermon, but it’s the location of a British atheist group’s first stateside meeting.

The Sunday Assembly, a “godless congregation” founded by comedians Sanderson Jones and Pippa Evans, will transform Tobacco Road in Manhattan into a meeting place for fellow atheists later this month, the Daily News reported.

With a strong base in London, the duo has been told to expect opposition to their message once they reach the States.

“Lots of people are giving us warnings that it’s going to be different over there, but so far, we’ve just had a lot of support from the people in America,” Jones told the Daily News.

Jones and Evans founded the group after a road trip brought them to the realization that atheists were missing a community to bring them together.

Despite warnings about bringing their message to America, The Sunday Assembly’s visit has already sparked the interest of local atheists.

“I missed the easy access to doing good work and helping others,” Michael Trollan told the News. “And maybe the best thing about churches is the sense that when you show up, you’re immediately welcomed.

Though the group has no ties to religion, the founders have molded the structure of their congregation around the infrastructure of Christian churches. Their monthly meetings include speakers and music that promote the congregation’s message to “live better, help often and wonder more.”

The Sunday Assembly will bring their message to Manhattan on June 30 at Tobacco Road on 41st St. in Hell’s Kitchen.

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Rita Valladares bounced her toddler son in her lap and gestured at a piece of paper that had her name on it, listed next to the word “defendant.”

“When I see this, it’s just so disappointing, you know?” said Valladares, 23. “My sister’s 19, she wants to get an education; but she’s afraid of getting into this type of situation.”

The piece of paper in question had been sent to Valladares courtesy of Technical Career Institutes (TCI), a for-profit college she had attended for a few weeks in the fall of 2008 before dropping out, dissatisfied with the program. She had unwittingly been enrolled in remedial-level classes she didn’t need for her major, she said, and maintained that she was told there would be no consequences for leaving when she did.

Three and a half years later the letter arrived, notifying her that she was being sued for $1,771.34 in unpaid tuition and fees.

Valladares, who also owes $2,000 to ASA College, which she also attended for a few weeks in 2009 — “That was the worst mistake I made,” she said — is one of hundreds of people who have sought assistance from the New York Legal Assistance Group after bad experiences with some of the city’s many for-profit degree programs.

There are dozens of these schools in New York City alone, their advertisements promising a brighter future plastered all over the subway. Recruiters regularly patrol Fulton Mall in Brooklyn and Grand Concourse in the Bronx, promising financial assistance and help with job placement after graduation.

But according to NYLAG Director of Litigation Jane Greengold Stevens, such promises should not be taken on faith. Too often, she said, these schools prey on vulnerable members of society — low-income New Yorkers and immigrants — looking for a way to better themselves.

“One of the most important things to understand about the process is that when a person walks into one of these places, they walk out an hour later already fully enrolled,” Stevens said.

That initial meeting often involves some form of loan application, even for students with bad credit and limited means, she said. The loans are disbursed directly to the school.

“So what’s actually happening is students are coming out of the schools with burdensome loans and essentially no training,” Stevens said. “Many people end up going back to the very low-paying job they had before.”

Valladares’ mother, Maria, a Honduran immigrant, also attended TCI. She quit her housecleaning job to enroll full-time, studying to become a nursing assistant. She graduated with an associate’s degree but was unable to find a job after failing her CNA certification. She now works two low-paying jobs: as a cashier for Rite Aid and as a teacher’s assistant.

NYLAG provides free legal counsel to low-income New Yorkers, and is working as part of a coalition that includes the Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project to build a case against some of the worst-offending schools. The coalition is also seeking to convince the Department of Education to implement a massive stoppage of collections from people who have been “defrauded” by these schools.

The president of ASA, Alex Shchegol, sees it differently. No education system is perfect, he acknowledged, but emphasized the rigorous selection standards his schools sets for its teachers and ASA’s high graduation rate.

“I’m not a hundred percent aware what’s going on at other colleges,” Shchegol said. “Whether I’m aware of problems with many students, let me put it this way: I think there are more problems in the public sector.”

An advertisement for ASA College is seen on the subway.

The for-profit college industry is booming, with enrollment growing at a rate of 225 percent between the years of 1998 and 2008 — a significantly higher rate than the 31 percent growth across higher education as a whole during the same period of time.

Earlier this spring, the Department of Education announced that it would renew a push for controversial regulations on for-profit colleges. These regulations, known as “gainful employment,” would tighten underwriting standards for some student loans and protect graduates who are unable to get jobs with enough of a salary to pay back their loans.

Even if it that legislation is passed, it may not come soon enough for Valladares, who is now enrolled at Kingsborough Community College. She likes the program — she calls it a “real” college — but worries about her credit score, which has been affected by her legal woes with TCI and ASA.

“I was told if I keep having these problems with schools, I won’t be able to keep going to Kingsborough,” she said.

Follow Emily Johnson on Twitter @emilyjreports

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New York City dwellers are famous for ignoring their neighbors, but if Mayor Michael Bloomberg has anything to say about it, that’s about to change.

The city is teaming up with Nextdoor, a social network aimed at connecting neighbors, Bloomberg announced on Friday.

The network, which launched three years ago and recently unveiled a new iOS application, has already partnered with more than 120 city governments, including San Diego, Dallas, and San Jose—three of the ten largest cities in the country.

“Partnering with Nextdoor is another step forward in our adoption of strategic technology that better serves New Yorkers,” Bloomberg said in a statement. “Nextdoor gives New York neighbors an easy way to connect and communicate with those who live around them. It also provides the City with a direct line of communication to residents about important and often critical updates.”

Nextdoor’s unique utility is that is connects people not with friends and family, or pundits who share their worldview, but with people who simply happen to live close by.

The official city Web site, NYC.gov, already uses social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook to reach out to New Yorkers. The partnership with Nextdoor is intended to target those updates to specific neighborhoods, providing public safety alerts and engaging with people about changes to their neighborhoods.

In theory, it could also enable a sort of online, crowd-sourced neighborhood watch to prevent crime.

Follow Emily Johnson on Twitter @emilyjreports

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Police responded to a 911 call at 3:30 a.m. Sunday morning from a caller reporting a person hit by a car near 97 East 233 Street in the Bronx, cops said.

Police said officers arrived to find a 27-year-old male laying on the ground with no cars in sight.

EMS workers reportedly pronounced the victim, later identified as Kevin Bell with a listed address just a few blocks away, dead at the scene.

No arrests have been made, but the investigation is ongoing, cops said.

Follow Danielle Tcholakian on Twitter @danielleiat

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Former New York state senator Pedro Espada, Jr., was sentenced Friday to five years in prison for stealing federal funding from non-profit medical clinics in the Bronx that he founded and lying on his 2005 personal tax return.

Espada, who served as the New York State senate majority leader from 2009 to 2010, was also sentenced to 100 hours of community service, is being fined $368,088 and will have to pay the Internal Revenue Service $118,531. He owes an as-yet undetermined amount in restitution to his victims, the FBI reported.

“Over 30 years ago, Pedro Espada, Jr. helped establish the Soundview Health Center, but his own greed and self-dealing undermined that good work,” said FBI Assistant Director in Charge George Venizelos.

According to U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch, Espada “embezzled funds to finance his personal lifestyle and lavish gifts on friends and family members at the expense of taxpayers and underprivileged members of the Bronx community who were deprived of needed health services and medical equipment.”

Governor Andrew Cuomo, who as Attorney General launched the investigation into Espada, called his sentencing “a victory for the People of New York.”

“This sentence sends a clear and direct message that those who defraud this state’s taxpayers will be held accountable and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Cuomo said.

Follow Danielle Tcholakian on Twitter @danielleiat

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Kidney donation surgery. Photo by Flickr user Tareq Salahuddin

Sons and daughters everywhere were celebrating their fathers on Sunday, but one Queens man has more reason than most to give thanks for his dad.

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Richmond Hill resident Leonard Burke, 32, received a kidney from his father Ronald after a years-long battle with hypertension and kidney failure, the Daily News reports. The younger Burke is himself a father to a baby girl.

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A 911 dispatcher reportedly stayed on the phone with a stroke victim for almost eight hours while rescue workers scrambled to locate the victim, the New York Post reported.

Emergency Medical Dispatch Capt. Philip Weiss reportedly wrote a letter to the FDNY asking that the dispatcher, EMT Joann Hilman-Payne, and her colleagues be recognized for having gone above and beyond in rescuing Mary Thomas.

“Throughout the entirety, [Hilman-Payne] worked to keep the patient awake, she never lost her own composure and remained calm while attempting to elicit more information from the patient,” Weiss wrote.

Thomas was reportedly working as a housekeeper at the apartment where she had a stroke, which is part of what made locating her so difficult.

Hilman-Payne reportedly stayed on the phone with her to keep her awake, though she was unable to understand much of what Thomas was saying, as her speech was badly slurred.

Efforts were made by the FDNY, the NYPD and Verizon to trace Thomas’ cell phone, but success only came around 8:30 p.m. when Verizon was able to successfully pinpoint Thomas’ cell signal at an East 72nd Street apartment.

Thomas was rushed to Lenox Hill Hospital, and is reportedly being treated in the Intensive Care Unit.

Follow Danielle Tcholakian on Twitter @danielleiat

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Governor Andrew Cuomo unveiled Saturday a portrait of his father, former Governor Mario Cuomo, now hanging in the State Capital’s Hill of Governors gubernatorial portrait gallery.

“Governor Mario Cuomo was not just one of our state’s greatest governors, but a father that instilled in me the values of public service, hard work, and commitment to making our state a better place,” the governor said. “I can think of no better way to celebrate my dad on his birthday this Father’s Day weekend.

The artist, Simmie Knox, also painted the official White House portraits of Bill and Hillary Clinton.

The portrait is based on a 1989 photograph of the elder Cuomo. According to the New York Daily News, the former governor had refused to sit for an official portrait on the grounds that it was too pretentious.

But friends and family reportedly conspired to make the portrait happen, providing Knox with the photo.

“For us, this is like putting the cherry on the cake, and Pop, you are the cherry,” the younger Cuomo reportedly said at the unveiling.

Mario Cuomo was New York’s 52nd governor. A vocal opponent of the death penalty, he vetoed death penalty bills 12 times. Saturday was his 81st birthday, the News said.

Follow Danielle Tcholakian on Twitter @danielleiat

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John F. Kennedy International Airport is under invasion—a very slow invasion.

For years, turtles have been crawling out of the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge and crossing JFK runways en masse, intent on laying their eggs in the sandy soil near the airport. After scooping 1,300 of the critters off the tarmac during last year’s mating season, officials are building a 4,000-foot long, 8-inch wide barrier in hopes of keeping them out of harm’s way.

It’s not just the turtles—Diamondback Terrapins, to be precise—that stand to get hurt. When turtles are struck by an aircraft, the carcasses can attract seagulls and other scavengers, increasing the risk of bird strikes.

“We’re trying to find a balance between nature and aviation,” Port Authority spokesman Ron Marsico told the New York Post. “We don’t want to see the turtles get hurt, and this should keep the airport running smoothly.”

 Follow Emily Johnson on Twitter @emilyjreports

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A loud blast that startled people in Midtown on Saturday night was caused by an exploding manhole cover.

A vehicle was parked over the manhole on East 50th Street and sustained significant damage when the cover blew off around 9 p.m., but it was unoccupied and no passersby were injured.

Con Edison is investigating the cause of the explosion, WABC-TV reports.

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A crisis counseling program for Hurricane Sandy survivors that had been set to expire in the fall has been granted new life with $39 million in federal money.

The program, Project Hope, has already offered counseling and other services to 170,000 people affected by the storm.

“The damage to New York was not only the devastation left behind but also the emotional and mental health toll it took on many individuals,” Gov. Cuomo told the Daily News on Thursday.

Project Hope was created by the New York State Office of Mental Health. It offers free, confidential services to people in New York City as well as Nassau, Suffolk, Rockland, and Westchester Counties. According to its Web site, counselors visit affected communities to work with survivors one-on-one as well as in group settings.

Counselors can be reached at 1 (800) 543-3638.

Follow Emily Johnson on Twitter @emilyjreports

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Police have arrested a teenager in connection with the shooting that wounded a 9-year-old girl who was playing outside her home in the Bronx on Friday night.

Billie James, 17, has been charged with attempted murder, assault, reckless endangerment and criminal possession of a weapon.

Meanwhile, the young victim was released from the hospital Sunday, the New York Post reported.

Metro’s original story is below.

A 9-year-old girl was hit by a stray bullet in the Bronx on Friday night, police reported.

About 9:20 p.m., a suspect on a bicycle fired several shots, cops said. Police said the girl was outside her house playing when she was shot in the torso.

The victim was taken to the North Central Bronx Hospital and then transported to Jacobi Hospital in stable condition, cops said.

The NYPD is asking that anyone with information regarding this shooting call the Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477). All calls are confidential.

A $2,000 reward is being offered by Crime Stoppers for any information leading to the arrest and indictment of the person responsible for this shooting. An additional $10,000 is being offered by the NYPD, and another $10,000 by the mayor’s office, for information leading to the shooter’s arrest and conviction.

Follow Danielle Tcholakian on Twitter @danielleiat

The post (UPDATE) Cops arrest teen in shooting that wounded 9-year-old girl appeared first on Metro.us.

An EgyptAir jet heading to New York from Cairo was diverted and landed in Scotland on Saturday after a passenger found a note in a toilet containing a threat to set the plane on fire, the Egyptian airline told Reuters.

The pilot informed air traffic control and landed at Glasgow Prestwick Airport where the 310 passengers would disembark, Tawfik Assy, chairman of the state-owned airline, said in Cairo.

The authorities would search the plane once passengers were taken off, he added. Scottish police confirmed the incident had taken place but had no further details.

A note, written in English and reading, “This flight will be on fire,” was found next to a pencil in one of the plane’s toilets by a woman passenger, Assy said.

Once the crew were made aware, the pilot diverted: “According to the rules, we have to be on the ground as soon as possible,” Assy said.

No comment was immediately available from Prestwick airport.

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Mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner was mocked on Thursday after he claimed that he coined the term “Obamacare.”

“[It’s] a term, by the way, that I coined and used proudly long before the administration decided it was a good idea,” Weiner had told The New York Times.

But the term was being used widely since 2007, The Daily News reports.

Republicans who were critical of the health care bill were the first ones to start calling it “Obamacare.” The White House despised the term until the 2012 election when they decided to embrace it, the News reports.

Weiner is not mentioned in any stories about Obamacare until 2009, according to the News. And he isn’t heard saying the term until 2011.

After much criticism and mockery for the claim on Thursday, a spokesman for Weiner clarified the comment.

“He did not mean that he was the first person ever to use the term, only the first on the left to embrace it unapologetically,” Barbara Morgan said.

“Up till then, the right had used the term as a pejorative,” she added. “He realized that running from the term was a mistake, and eventually so did the White House and the Obama campaign.”

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An accused bank robber who allegedly held up at least four banks on Thursday was captured by police after he crashed his getaway car near the Lincoln Tunnel in Manhattan and tried to run from cops.

The suspect crashed his car on West 31st Street as he headed for the tunnel, The Daily News reports.

He then attempted to flee on foot but was unsuccessful. NYPD officers and a Port Authority officer surrounded and caught the robber at the entrance to the tunnel.

The robber targeted several banks on Thursday including an Investor’s Bank near Fifth Avenue and East 29th Street at about 3:50 p.m., police said.

Charges for the suspect were pending on Thursday night. Cops are now searching for Frank Mione, 47, (pictured below) for questioning regarding the robberies.

Police are now searching for 47-year-old Frank Mione for questioning regarding the bank robberies on Thursday. (NYPD)

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A livery cab driver died on Thursday after he was stabbed in the eye, police said.

The driver crashed his 2000 Mercury near the intersection of Lott Avenue and Thomas Boyland Street in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn at approximately 5:30 p.m., police said. When cops arrived at the crash scene, they observed the driver with a stab wound to the eye.

The victim was taken to Brookdale Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

Police are searching for a man and a woman in their mid-20s who were in the cab driver’s car, The New York Post reports.

A surveillance video from a nearby bodega obtained by the Post shows the pair walking out of the vehicle.

The investigation is ongoing.

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As city politicians argue over a bill that would establish an independent Inspector General with oversight over the NYPD, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a statement of interest in the city’s stop-and-frisk lawsuit recommending just that, in the event that the presiding judge finds that the NYPD’s implementation of its stop-and-frisk practice is unconstitutional.

Judge Shira Scheindlin has yet to issue a decision in the stop-and-frisk trial, and the DoJ’s stated interest exists only if she decides against the city, finding that the implementation of stop-and-frisk by the NYPD unjustly targets black and Hispanic people and is a systematic violation of the Fourth Amendment right to protection against unreasonable search and seizure.

The DoJ statement is entirely contingent on the court finding a constitutional violation— it does not attest that there is one.

If she does find a need for reform, though, the Justice Department asked that she consider a court-appointed monitor—and moreover, that she consider making the DoJ that court-appointed monitor.

“A court-appointed monitor in this case would help the Court ensure that, if any pattern or practice is found to exist, it is effectively and sustainably remedied,” the statement read. “The experience of the United State in enforcing police reform injunctions teaches that the appointment of an independent monitor is a critically important asset to the courts, the parties, and the community in cases involving patterns or practices of unlawful conduct by law enforcement officials.”

In the 21-page statement, the Justice Department cites its experience engaging in reform efforts with several police forces in the past, including addresses systemic issues in the execution of stops and searches.

The DoJ stated that an independent monitor “can reduce unnecessary delays and litigation over disputes regarding compliance” and “should non-compliance be identified, early and objective detection by the monitor, as well as the identification of barriers to compliance, allows the parties to undertake corrective action, which saves the parties, the Court, and, importantly, the City precious time and resources.”

The experience the Department emphasized the most was a consent decree entered into with Pittsburgh in 1997 to address issues with police using excessive force in searches and seizures.

After the appointment of a federal monitor, the Justice Department said, the city came into compliance with the decree in 1999 and the injunction due to the finding of excessive force was lifted 2002.

A branch of the Department of Justice, the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), apparently analyzed the work done with Pittsburgh and found that a court-appointed monitor is a critical element of effective reform.

According to the Department of Justice, in the Pittsburgh case, the federal monitor effectively put together a plan of action, provided a compliance manual with milestones and stages, held early meetings with community leaders and effectively offered reassurance that change was coming, and cultivated a collaborative instead of adversarial relationship with city officials “making it easier for them to accept some of the more difficult terms of the decree.”

Advocates of an Inspector General have been quick to express support and enthusiasm for the Justice Department’s proposal.

Donna Lieberman, the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, called the proposal “welcome and long overdue.”

“The NYCLU has for years been asking the Department of Justice to come into New York and put an end to the NYPD’s abuse of stop-and-frisk,” she said.

City Comptroller and mayoral candidate John Liu said the DoJ’s statement “should be a sobering wake-up call for Mayor Bloomberg and Commissioner Kelly.”

But Liu, perhaps the most outspoken opponent of stop-and-frisk among the mayoral candidates, brushed aside the idea of a monitor as a solution.

“Simply abolishing stop and frisk would alleviate concerns about management of the NYPD,” Liu said.

Follow Danielle Tcholakian on Twitter @danielleiat

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Anthony Weiner’s brash, outspoken performance as a Congressman was largely a show to garner attention for an anticipated mayoral bid, some former colleagues told the New York Times.

While some aides reportedly spoke of the former representative with admiration, recounting his quick grasp of complex material and an apparently inspirational office catchphrase —”We don’t wait” — former colleagues expressed disappointment with his approach to lawmaking.

Former Representative Zachary Space (D-Ohio) reportedly said Weiner’s “unwillingness to be team player did compromise his ability to be an effective congressman.”

“I don’t care if you’re a congressman, or president, or mayor or a city councilman,” Space told the Times, “you can’t do it yourself.”

To hear former aides tell it, Weiner was an energetic, almost manic boss with a single goal at the end of the day: get back to New York and stump.

The Times says his aides always knew what time the last votes would be held on any given day because he was anxious to rush back to attend public events in New York.

He reportedly even had his aides call air-traffic control to get his plane bumped up in the departure order.

Other Democratic lawmakers reportedly told the Times that Weiner often refused to show up at less-public campaign events to help colleagues raise funds from donors.

However, some recalled major accomplishments by the former congressman as recently as last year.

A month before Hurricane Sandy he reportedly got the Army Corps of Engineers to repair beach erosion in Brooklyn that was causing flooding on Belt Parkway. Councilman Lew Fidler told the Times the Parkway could have been washed away if not for those repairs.

But of the 50 bills he introduced in the 2007-8 sessions, he failed to get a co-sponsor for 39 of them, and according to a former senior aide, “he just never tried.”

“The point was to be able to say he introduced a bill,” the aide said.

Follow Danielle Tcholakian on Twitter @danielleiat

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Senator Chuck Schumer had disparaging words for some of the mayor’s dogged efforts in pushing for gun control.

In a recent interview on his negotiating tactics, Schumer, who played a big role in the federal background-check legislation that eventually stalled in the Senate last year, told Time magazine he does not think Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s gun control ads are effective in red states—in part, apparently, simply because the ads are coming from the mayor of New York City.

“I am trying to persuade—in whatever way I’m allowed to—the gun groups to put out different ads,” Schumer said.

According to Schumer, another senator told him that constituents dismiss Bloomberg’s ad because the speaker’s accent was reportedly inauthentic.  

Schumer reportedly read out a sample script for an ad he thinks is stronger, faking a “country twang.”

The ad’s narrator, a fictional gun-shop owner and NRA member in Nevada, announces he’s on board with background checks because “that background check ain’t gonna affect me.”

“I’m a law-abiding citizen,” the narrator says, after declaring his children are going to be NRA members just like he is. “It’ll just affect felons, spousal abusers, people [who are] mentally ill.”

“So on this one, I don’t agree with the NRA,” the narrator concludes.

Schumer reportedly is appreciative of the mayor’s efforts to counter the National Rife Association’s power, but does not believe money is truly the source of that power, suggesting Bloomberg’s efforts to block political donations to the Democrats who voted against background checks are, like the ads, ineffective.

“I’ve been trying to figure out the power of the NRA,” Schumer told TImes. “It’s not the money they give out… There are many groups that give much more.”

“It’s that they have a core group of active members who translate what’s going on to the average person—who are sympathetic to them because they’re part of their milieu,” he concluded.

Schumer suggested that taking such an understanding approach—”walk[ing] in the other guy’s moccasins”—could help as a strategy in the Israel-Palestine conflict as well.

Follow Danielle Tcholakian on Twitter @danielleiat

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New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, in his latest bid for tougher gun control, is urging the city’s legions of Democratic donors to withhold funds from four Democratic senators who opposed a background checks bill earlier this year.

The letter, sent to hundreds of the city’s major donors on Wednesday, targets the four Democrats who joined Republicans in blocking a compromise bill designed to keep guns out of the hands of criminals, according to Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a group Bloomberg founded and largely funds.

The bill reached the Senate floor just months after a gunman killed 20 first graders and six adults at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, prompting gun control advocates to push for significant changes to U.S. gun laws.

Most senators – 54 – approved the measure, which polls indicated was backed by more than 80 percent of Americans, when it came up for a vote in April.

The plan to expand background checks to sales made online and at gun shows failed to become law after Republicans threatened to use a filibuster to block any gun proposal that did not get 60 votes in the 100-member Senate.

It was a stinging defeat for the billionaire mayor, who had aggressively used his personal wealth and political bully pulpit to push the measure. At the time, Bloomberg called the defeat a “damning indictment of the stranglehold that special interests have on Washington.” He said his group would work to defeat opponents of gun control in the 2014 midterm elections. Wednesday’s letter, first reported by the New York Times, targets Max Baucus of Montana, Mark Begich of Alaska, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Mark Pryor of Arkansas. 

“I am writing to ask you: the next time these four Senators want you to support them with donations to their campaigns, tell them you cannot. Until they show that they will stand up for the American people and not the gun lobby, tell them you cannot support their candidacy,” the letter says. “These “no” votes were a slap in the face to Americans everywhere.”

In scathing language, the letter criticizes the senators for undermining efforts to keep Americans safe, at the same time as they approached New York donors for contributions.

At least one of the senators targeted by Bloomberg said he relishes the challenge.

“In Alaska, having a New York mayor tell us what to do? The guy who wants to ban Big Gulps?” Begich told the New York Times. “If anything, it might help me.”

The four senators were not immediately available for further comment.

Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a Democrat and a chief sponsor of the bipartisan background check plan the Senate blocked, told reporters he would like to see more money going to “gun culture states” to finance an information campaign about why Americans should not fear the background-check expansion.

“It’s well-intended, they all have different approaches and they have a right to have that approach,” he said of Bloomberg’s letter.

Others said the effort could backfire, especially if Republicans win back control of the U.S. Senate, making new gun control legislation all but impossible.

“Mark Pryor is the only Democrat who could win in Arkansas,” said one senior Democratic aide. “Making it less likely that he will win, will make it more likely that Republicans take control of the Senate, which would doom the prospects for expanded background checks for the foreseeable future.”

The aide said that in some states, Democrats targeted by Bloomberg could use the liberal New York mayor as a foil to campaign against. Still, the aide quickly added: “It is never good to have someone spend millions of dollars against you.”

(Additional reporting by Thomas Ferraro)

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Lawyers for a Fox News reporter who is being asked to reveal her anonymous sources in a story about last summer’s shooting at a Denver-area movie theater asked a New York appeals court on Wednesday to quash a subpoena requiring her to appear in Colorado court.

Jana Winter, a New York-based journalist, cited two unnamed law enforcement sources in reporting that the accused gunman, James Holmes, sent a notebook with details about his plans to commit mass murder to a psychiatrist before the 2012 attack that killed 12 people and wounded 58 others.

Holmes’ lawyers said authorities leaked the information in violation of a judge’s gag order in the case and want to force Winter onto the witness stand to reveal her sources. They also want prosecutors sanctioned for the leaks, which they said undermined their client’s right to a fair trial.

The story in question appeared five days after Holmes is accused of opening fire inside a suburban Denver multiplex during a midnight screening of the Batman film “The Dark Knight Rises” last July.

Holmes, 25, who could face the death penalty if convicted, pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity earlier this month to first-degree murder and other charges.

At a hearing in April, a Colorado judge presiding over the case deferred ruling on whether to compel Winter to testify until and unless the notebook becomes evidence in the case, and ordered her to return to his courtroom in August.

At issue before a five-judge panel of the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court is whether a Manhattan judge erred when he signed off on an out-of-state subpoena requiring Winter to appear in a Colorado courtroom in the first place.

Winter’s lawyer, Christopher Handman, argued on Wednesday that New York’s robust shield law, which protects reporters from being forced to divulge confidential sources under any circumstances, demands that the subpoena be invalidated as a matter of public policy.

Otherwise, Handman said, out-of-state subpoenas could effectively sidestep New York’s shield law whenever a New York journalist reports on news outside the state.

“New York, more than any other state in the nation, has a strong public policy that reporters can protect the identity of their sources,” he said.

Daniel Arshack, a New York lawyer representing Holmes, countered that New York’s shield law was irrelevant. The real question before the appellate judges, he said, is whether Colorado can require Winter to come to court. If she then refuses an order to testify, it would be up to the Holmes trial judge to decide how to proceed.

Under Colorado’s shield law, a judge may force a reporter to reveal confidential sources if all other remedies are exhausted and if the interests of the party seeking information outweighs the First Amendment rights of the reporter and the public.

Regardless of the outcome of Wednesday’s appeal, Dori Ann Hanswirth, another lawyer for Winter, said her client would not disclose her sources even if she is threatened with jail time.

“She is not going to reveal her sources,” Hanswirth said.

(Reporting by Joseph Ax; Editing by Steve Gorman, Cynthia Johnston and Lisa Shumaker)

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