On the Taco Trail
Mon, 24 Sep 2007 00:00:00 -0400
What makes a great taco? Two pale corn tortillas, rendered warm and glove-soft by a visit to the griddle. A generous heap of meat that has texture and character--whether pork, beef, goat, sausage, chicken, or variety meats like ear and tripe. Then a fistful of minced raw onion and chopped cilantro, thrown on top as the meat is folded into the doubl...

  The State Pays for Sex
Wed, 15 Aug 2007 00:00:00 -0400
There was the guy who wore a dog collar and little else and who insisted on walking on all fours. There was the wealthy executive who donned chains and loincloth and rolled in the dirt, pleading that he was a Roman slave who needed whipping. There were the wannabe goths who wore capes, capped their teeth with porcelain fangs, and clustered in th...

  Mike's Well-Armed Pal
Wed, 01 Aug 2007 00:00:00 -0400
By all rights, battered Joe Bruno should have been waiting in line at the state Crime Victims Assistance Board last Wednesday, seeking the redress that is rightfully his. The governor's men had tried to get him, hadn't they? Set him up, put the state police on his trail, concocted phony reports, leaked them to friendly reporters? It was all right t...

  Busting the Merchant of War
Wed, 25 Jul 2007 00:00:00 -0400
For 30 years, Monzer al-Kassar has been linked to some of history's most notorious international arms deals and terrorist atrocities. He has been accused of aiding in the attempted assassination of an Israeli spy; supplying the weapons used in the 1985 hijacking of the Achille Lauro luxury liner; and seeding the Somali and Bosnian civil wars with c...

  Talking with writer Chloé A. Hilliard
Tue, 17 Jul 2007 00:00:00 -0400
The engineer behind Asia's biggest pop star ever has his eyes set on a new frontier. Six months ago, Jin Young Park and his company, JYP Entertainment, branched out from South Korea, purchasing a $4 million townhouse on East 31st Street. Park transformed the place into a dorm and recording studio for his next set of young musical trainees, with a p...

  What the Jail Guard Saw
Wed, 11 Jul 2007 00:00:00 -0400
Buried in court records are instances of near-fatal injuries, allegations of excessive force, claims of Rikers staff complicity in inmate beatings, and even the story of a correction officer fired after he reported corruption. In the past few years, the city has been forced to pay millions to dozens of inmates who were seriously injured in the jai...

  The Second Battle of Bushwick
Wed, 27 Jun 2007 00:00:00 -0400
From the top of the spanking new steel-and-glass 14-story condo tower now open for inspection on Grove Street just off of Myrtle Avenue, you can see most of Bushwick--the landmarks of the neighborhood that was, and the one that's fast being remade, the sites of the bad old memories, even of some of the good. This is the Brooklyn neighborhood's fir...

  Born Gay
Wed, 20 Jun 2007 00:00:00 -0400
On a recent spring Saturday afternoon at the American Museum of Natural History, the carpeted atrium beneath the giant blue whale in the Milstein Hall Ocean of Life teems with children. Preschoolers and kindergartners lounge on the carpeted floor and race from diorama to diorama while their beleaguered parents try to catch their breath. I'm here to...

  A Neo-Nazi Field Trip to the Met
Wed, 13 Jun 2007 00:00:00 -0400
Before a group of white supremacists made their planned field trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art over the Memorial Day weekend, they had decided to meet up at an undisclosed location in New Jersey. ...

  Mopping Up
Wed, 06 Jun 2007 00:00:00 -0400
If you ask some of the members of his military unit, Sgt. James McNaughton, the only New York City police officer killed in Iraq, should never have been put on the assignment that ultimately resulted in his death. Since he was killed in August 2005, McNaughton has become a celebrated, iconic figure in New York. His name graces streets and building...

  On the Outs in Brooklyn
Wed, 30 May 2007 00:00:00 -0400
At the end of April, the shopkeepers and residents of a block-long trio of three- and four-story buildings on downtown Brooklyn's Willoughby Street got a jolt from landlord Albert Laboz. Without warning, eviction notices arrived en masse in mailboxes, giving tenants between 30 and 120 days to clear out or face court proceedings. ...