Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images Crain's reports that prices for million-dollar-plus residential transactions were up 60 percent over the previous year in the second quarter. It's the highest level since 2008, in fact. A quarter of the expensive properties were new construction, and the majority were in Williamsburg, followed by Park Slope, Carroll Gardens, and Red Hook. Maybe the Billyburg bust is ov... more.

An officer investigating the scene.Photo: via DNA Info/Bruce Katz Less than three months after two NYPD officers were cleared of most charges in the alleged rape of a drunken woman, an NYPD officer was arrested this morning after witnesses saw him raping a woman in Inwood. Michael Pena, a three-year veteran of the police force, reportedly asked a woman for directions around 6:45 a.m. this morning... more.

Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images Two years ago, we chuckled at the prospect of disgraced governor Eliot Spitzer lecturing on ethics at Harvard. But today, courtesy of Fox Business Network financial expert Charlie Gasparino, we have a new level of Harvard–related hubris. Ponzi-schemer Bernard Madoff claims in a series of rare prison interviews that he's been in talks to contribute to classes a... more.

If you don't know what this means, don't worry: Any citizen of the media world will be more than happy to guide you through it. Shafer's press column would be an ideal place to look, actually, if it were a different star writer at the top of his game who was suddenly laid off. He's one of four cutbacks announced by the web-magazine pioneer yesterday, along with foreign editor June Thomas, columni... more.

Photo: Twitter The actor and potential mayoral hopeful had a late Twitter session overnight, as he's been known to do, in which he answered questions from followers. At the end, he went on a particularly uncomfortable tangent. "Do you think Bin Laden was behind 9-11?" he wrote, followed by two messages about the counter-terrorist exercise Amalgam Virgo, a favorite talking point of the truther mov... more.

Photo: J.D. Pooley/Getty Images Denying that human activity is making the Earth warmer, despite the opinion of people who spend their lives studying these things, was thought to be a precondition of being a serious, viable Republican presidential candidate. But earlier today, Mitt Romney proclaimed at a town hall in New Hampshire that "the world is getting warmer, and I believe that humans have c... more.

Romney standing in a field.Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images One day after Mitt Romney officially declared his candidacy, he caused something of a stir when he acknowledged at a town hall in New Hampshire, "I believe the world is getting warmer, and I believe that humans have contributed to that." This is hardly a radical idea — 97 percent of climatologists believe that human activity has pla... more.

Accuweather is really being a wet blanket right now.Photo: Accuweather Normally, the name "Irene" conjures up recollections of old ladies or traditional folk songs. That may change in the next few days. Hurricane Irene could be on track to slam into New York City this weekend, and the experts are sounding the alarm: It could be bad. According to Kristina Pydynowski, Senior Meteorologist at Accuwe... more.

Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images Barbara Rice, the 46-year-old owner of Adirondack chair purveyor Rice Furniture in Saranac Lake, New York, thinks it's a good idea for Andrew Cuomo and his family to vacation in her bucolic hometown. "We don’t have paparazzi here," she told the Times, proudly. From the article: On a recent trip to the area, Mr. Cuomo took his daughters skiing on nearby Whit... more.

Sarah Maslin NirPhoto: Liam McMullan/PatrickMcMullan.com Sarah Maslin Nir, the Times scribe who penned this morning's story on Alec Baldwin's mayoral ambitions, doesn't often write about politics for the paper. She's a staff reporter who often writes on stylish subjects*, and recently crossed paths with Baldwin a couple of times in the Hamptons. By Nir's own account, Baldwin seemed rather taken w... more.

Photo: J.B Nicholas/Splash News Even though the criminal charges against him have been dropped, Dominique Strauss-Kahn's New York–based troubles are not over. Accuser Nafissatou Diallo has filed a civil suit with the State Supreme Court in Bronx, where she is seeking unspecified monetary damages from the former IMF chief. So, having secured their client's freedom, how do his lawyers plan to... more.

Lovebirds, 2008.Photo: Mahmud Turkia/AFP/Getty Images When Libyan rebels found themselves in Muammar Qaddafi's room, they discovered standard dictator collectibles — a gold chain, a gold scepter, a fancy hat — but they also ended up with a more offbeat keepsake. In the retreating Libyan leader's Bab al-Aziziya compound was a photo album "filled with page after page of pictures of Cond... more.

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Photo: Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images The day after the East Coast earthquake, newspapers were filled with pictures of one woman: Valeriya Shevchenko. She was the fully decked-out bride sprinting frantically through New York's City Hall Park shouting into her cell phone. At a time when most people greeted the natural event with a shrug and a laugh, the Getty Images picture of Shevchenko provid... more.

Steve Jobs.Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images "I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come." Sad news from Steve Jobs, who has kept his job as the head of Apple through a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer and a liver transplant, but said on Wednesday th... more.

The planned ground zero memorial. Not all of the $1.5 billion Americans donated went to helping victims, reports the AP. While plenty of money did end up going to them and their families, some charities can't account for the whereabouts of the money they received. One group raised $700,000 for a memorial quilt that has not been made, for instance; a third of the money it raised went to the charit... more.

Photo: Alexey Tolchinsky Menachem Youlus was arrested in Manhattan on Wednesday on charges of wire and mail fraud. If you've never heard of Youlus, consider yourself lucky, because fans of the man who called himself "the Jewish Indiana Jones" are in for some major disillusionment. Apparently, the rabbi and bookstore owner made $1.2 million over the years by convincing people to fund expeditions... more.

Sadly, not the actual oxy ice cream truck.Photo: Hector Mata/Getty Images New Yorkers like their oxycodone, and some of them got their oxy fix from a special ice cream truck on Staten Island. Some very ambitious young drug dealers sold hits of the drug for $20 a pop out of a Lickety Split ice cream truck. Louis Scala and Joseph Zaffuto got blank prescriptions from Nancy Wilkins, who was an office... more.

Photo: Nicholas KammAFP/Getty Images At 9:45 a.m. on Saturday morning, Washington, D.C., was August quiet. Then Glenn Beck's army emerged from the Foggy Bottom Metro station. The escalators spilled an endless stream of people, packing the sidewalks from the George Washington University Hospital all the way down the Lincoln Memorial, about a mile away. A group of men waved giant, yellow "Don’... more.

Photo: Gali Tibbon/AFP/Getty Images In the shadow of the Temple Mount on Wednesday, at a podium erected in the shallow area below the Al Aqsa Mosque and a stone’s throw from the Western Wall, Glenn Beck took the stage. In America his theme was “Restoring Honor,” but in Jerusalem he was “Restoring Courage.” The third of three rallies held across Israel this week, Beck... more.