Bradlee Dean, a heavy-metal preacher (yes, that's a thing), has filed a defamation suit against Rachel Maddow and MSNBC that seeks a modest $50 million in damages. Dean's fury at Maddow stems from her August 9, 2010 show, on which she spoke about Dean and his ministry, You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International. The segment involved Maddow playing a clip of Dean saying this: "Muslims are calli... more.

Photo: Patrick McMullan When Dealbreaker came across a bank statement in East Hampton that indicated someone was keeping $100,000,000 in his or her savings account, we could barely believe it. But according to the Observer, there are some moneymen who not only admit to such a folly — they flaunt it. From today's profile of enigmatic real-estate investor Joseph Chetrit, who recently made hea... more.

Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images The next time some sleepy guy is drooling on your shoes on the F train, don't punch him in the face because he might be a cop. According to Metro, there are between 50 and 200 plainclothes officers on the subway at any one time and many of them are sleeping. Well, they're pretending to be sleeping in hopes of baiting would-be thieves into stealing their iPhone, Blac... more.

Starting on August 2, it will no longer be possible to make a reservation at the Hotel Chelsea. Hotel residents suspect that the move is a union-busting one. If the structure closes its hotel business for a year, new owner Joseph Chetrit would be allowed to hire non-union employees after the contract expires. Curbed reports that if you want to catch one last glimpse of the ghosts of Sid and Nancy... more.

One of the benefits of having a satirist like Minnesota's Al Franken in the Senate is that, unlike most of the chamber's stodgy old people, he's capable of making a serious point using humor — in general, the best way to make a point, aside from a good pie-ing, in certain situations. For example. Today Franken was on the Senate floor, discussing the consequences of not raising the debt ceili... more.

After 103 years of dutifully transporting water through the Bronx, a 36-inch iron water main, which was installed underground in 1903, decided to abruptly retire this morning — by which we mean it exploded, flooding Jerome Avenue and causing mayhem for its residents. The Daily News reports: "I didn't have a choice but to start wading in the water. I was shocked," said 61-year-old Paul Englis... more.

Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images The Congressional Budget Office has scored the revised version of John Boehner's debt-limit plan, and the news is good for the beleaguered House speaker. The new bill has increased cuts from $850 billion to $917 billion while the $900 billion debt-ceiling increase remains the same. That means this version of the bill actually meets the GOP promise to have budget ... more.

Cops have blocked off a four-block radius around the building with police tape and SWAT teams. Twitter reports say that it appears to involve an armed gunman, in an apartment near but not in the Flatiron building itself, reportedly at 12 East 22nd Street. (There were initial reports that the gunman was in the Argo Tea Cafe, inside the Flatiron building itself.) Update: No shots appear to have be... more.

Photo: Mike Coppola/Getty Images For years now, Alec Baldwin has mulled a run for some kind of political position, whether congressman, senator, or governor. But there's a big opening for mayor of New York City in 2013, and with the presumed departure of Anthony Weiner from the race, that opening just got ... more ... open. The Daily reports that Baldwin has noticed: The “30 Rock” sta... more.

If you've ever seen Anderson Cooper biking around town — and if you live downtown you may have (he's like Michael Musto with that thing) — you probably aren't surprised to hear that he does it without wearing a helmet. That's not that uncommon, although I might argue that if he wanted fewer people to recognize him, covering up that silver shock of hair might help. But now the CNN host ... more.

As the two parties remain deadlocked over the debt ceiling, everyone has been wondering: What does reality TV star Sarah Palin think about all of this? On Fox News last night, she shared some of her inimitable wisdom: "Well, scaring the American people is exactly what President Obama is doing. And that bizarre speech that he gave last night, it reminded me of when he insisted that TARP had to be ... more.

We were going to Photoshop this to look more New Brooklyn, but what needed to be added, really? We here at Daily Intel are unashamed pun aficionados.Though we couldn't quite bring ourselves to read the whole Observer article entitled "A Twee Grows in Brooklyn," we chuckled a bit at the title this morning — though the brief, nagging thought did flash through our minds that twee wasn't exactl... more.

Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images "My desire for Eliot to jump into the race is that he would become a great asset to my candidacy," Dick Grasso, the former NYSE chair who is mulling a mayoral run, told Charlie Gasparino today. "As an Independent — and the presumption is he is not going to seek to become mayor on the democratic line — he would become a dilutive effect to whomever the... more.

Photo-illustration: Mary-Louise Price; Photos: Mike Simons/Getty Images (lion), Monika Graff/Getty Images (landscape) The rogue mountain lion that had been, until recently, terrorizing the smug parents of Greenwich has an interesting history. After it was killed by an SUV on the Wilbur Cross Parkway on June 11, scientists did some testing on its 140-pound body. Turns out, it was originally from t... more.

Photo: Don Emmert/AFP/Getty Images The Manhattan D.A.'s office is reeling in the wake of yesterday's explosive revelations that the New York hotel maid who accused former IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn of sexually assaulting her had repeatedly lied in testimony to authorities. With the credibility of the government's primary witness shaken, Mr. Strauss-Kahn, once a favorite in Franc... more.

Photo: Pete Souza/The White House via Getty Images On the one hand, the decision of Afghanistan general Stanley McChrystal and his aides to spout off about Joe Biden, President Obama, Richard Holbrooke, and others in a Rolling Stone article could be considered an unforgivable act of insubordination, one that demands his firing. On the other hand, now is definitely not the most convenient time for... more.

Uh-oh.Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images Michele Bachmann doesn't like federal home loans. Criticizing them plays nicely into her fiscal-discipline schtick, along with her anti-government-handouts stance. The Minnesota congresswoman even highlights her frequently-voiced distaste for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the federal lenders that played such a large role in the 2008 financial crisis, on her off... more.

Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images Today, the Times brings us a tale of a magical place on McDonald Avenue in Brooklyn: The Thrifty Redemption Center. There are no fairies or unicorns here. There are no elves or hobbits or whatever the nerds are into these days. No, what makes Thrifty so magical is that they'll pay you 6 cents for a recyclable can or bottle. It's enough to attract can-and-bottle c... more.

Photo-illustration: Mary-Louise Price; Photos: Mike Simons/Getty Images (lion), Monika Graff/Getty Images (landscape) A mountain lion has been roaming around the Connecticut suburbs since at least Sunday, according to the Greenwich Conservation Department. Evidence indicates the beast could be up to eight feet long and weigh 160 pounds. Residents are terrified, although, of course, some have mor... more.

Photo: John Roca/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images The perpetually broke MTA's fiscal plan for the next few years contains both good and bad news. The good news: No service cut-backs! The bad (and predictable) news: Our fares are being raised 7.5 percent in 2013, and then another 7.5 percent in 2015. The MTA doesn't have much of a choice — even with sharp cost-cutting measures, it just... more.