Apparently they don’t just use the hot dog water as someone might have told you one time or another:

Health inspectors, cracking down on unattended vendor carts across the city, revoked his permit last week when a bathroom emergency forced him to leave his stand in lower Manhattan.

“Everybody has to go sometimes,” [Nuts 4 Nuts vendor Shiraj] Islam, 42, who had been a fixture near J&R Music World, told The Post.

“Now, I am losing a lot of money. I have a wife and four children, and I have been sick.”

Leaving a food cart unattended — even for a minute — is a violation of revised city health codes that went into effect Jan. 1, sparking the crackdown.

. . .

Under the law, street-sold hot dogs, pretzels and nuts become “imminent health hazards” the moment the carts are abandoned because the food could be contaminated.

Normally, Islam would have a friend watch the cart during the one or two bathroom breaks he took each day, but since he was diagnosed with a tumor on his colon, the frequency of his trips to the toilet have increased.

Islam’s cart is dropped off each day two blocks away from the electronics and music store on Park Row, but the veteran vendor said that on that day, as he went to haul it to its usual spot in front of the shop, he knew after walking 10 feet that he wasn’t going to make it without a pit stop.

“My stomach was feeling very bad,” he said. “I went into a pizza place on Fulton Street where they know me, but there was a line.”

Islam said he waited and used the restroom, but “when I returned [to the cart] 15 minutes later, the decal [permit] was gone.”

See also: Food Carts, Nuts 4 Nuts.

. . . is a standard transmission:

“We stopped at the light, and he came right over,” Peter recalled. “He was 6-foot, thin.”

“Get out of the car!” the crook barked at Anne, who stands 5-foot-3 on her tiptoes.

The creep then forced down the window on the driver’s side — and stuck his long arm in the car.

“He used a knife to cut my hand” and then swiped Anne’s iPhone, she said.

Things went from ugly to ridiculous by the time the light changed, the couple recalled — and the would-be carjacker’s luck ran out.

. . .

“I’m small — he cannot fit in my car,” she said.

“And I don’t think he could drive the stick shift!”

So, stolen iPhone in hand and his tail between his legs, the driving-challenged car thief took off on foot.

In case you ever wondered exactly when you should pull the cord, since it’s unclear from the sign when you should ever be pulling the cord:

A rider on a Bronx-bound D train pulled the emergency cord Saturday after Gerardo Sanchez allegedly stabbed Dwight Johnson to death in an argument as the train traveled to the Seventh Avenue station.

But passengers should never pull the cord when the subway train is between stations, said NYC Transit spokesman Charles Seaton.

. . .

If a passenger witnesses a crime or a passenger becomes ill, the cord can be pulled if the train is still at the station but not when it’s already departing.

NYC Transit says the cord is mainly to stop a train from leaving a station if someone gets caught between closing car doors and is being dragged.

It’s like the customary several-minute delay for the curtain to rise at theaters, only more helpful:

Every commuter train that departs from New York City — about 900 a day — leaves a minute later than scheduled. If the timetable says 8:14, the train will actually leave at 8:15. The 12:48 is really the 12:49.

In other words, if you think you have only a minute to get that train — well, relax. You have two.

The phantom minute, in place for decades and published only in private timetables for employees, is meant as a grace period for stragglers who need the extra time to scramble off the platform and onto the train.

“If everyone knows they get an extra minute, they’re going to lollygag,” explained Marjorie Anders, a spokeswoman for the Metro-North Railroad. Told of this article, Ms. Anders laughed. “Don’t blow our cover!” she said.

Entirely hidden from the riding public, the secret minute is an odd departure from the railroad culture of down-to-the-second accuracy.

. . .

The minute was originally known as “gate time,” dating to the days when gates were used to block off the ramps that lead down to the platforms. (The gates are still occasionally used at Grand Central.)

At the publicly posted departure time, the gates would be closed; those who had already made it through would have a minute to climb onto the train.

The practice gradually extended to trains to Long Island and New Jersey that start in Pennsylvania Station and the Long Island Rail Road’s Brooklyn terminal.

What ends up at the LIRR lost and found:

For instance, [Casey Arasa, Penn Station's terminal manager] suggested, judging by the number of lost karate gis, interest in the martial arts and being properly uniformed for them is booming in the suburbs. Yoga, too — at least according to all the dropped mats — remains quite popular. But trend spotting gets more difficult when the items are bizarre ones, and there are certainly plenty of those.

. . .

All told, the lost and found collects more than 10,000 items a year (with a 50 percent return rate) and stores them for as long as 40 months on numerous cluttered shelves in a dingy warehouse space that is just around the corner from the men’s room. Lost cellphones are kept in plastic bins, according to their model (and with their ringers blissfully off). Cash, of course, is stored separately, and the fact that $19,892 has been returned so far this year suggests that people probably aren’t as grasping as you thought.

The biggest lessons of the lost and found appear to be: a) suburban women have a hard time keeping hold of their purses, and b) Long Islanders are waterproof, since why else would they leave behind so many nice umbrellas? Sub-lessons might include the fact that many commuters are technophobes (there are currently more than 60 laptops in the lost and found) and that, judging by how many Touristers are missing, a good piece of luggage just isn’t as valuable as it used to be.

Another thing you may not know is that the framed print of, say, the East River bridges that you accidentally left behind last year on the morning train to Babylon now hangs on the wall of the lost and found, which is furnished by commuters’ dropped objects. There is even a modest lending library of lost books that indicate the Long Island mindset: “Be a Real Estate Millionaire,” “Gross Anatomy,” “Blue Highways,” by William Least Heat Moon and Joe Torre’s inside-the-clubhouse tell-all.

See also, for comparison’s sake, the MTA lost and found (from 2006); prosthetic limbs there, too.

The bad old days are still hanging on:

Manhattan prosecutors on Thursday accused the Luchese crime family of infiltrating the Buildings Department, saying that three of the family’s associates found jobs as building inspectors and that others in the family, including top bosses, committed a wide range of crimes.

In all, six building inspectors were accused of taking bribes to grant building permits, expedite inspections and overlook building violations. The three inspectors said to be Luchese associates were also accused of more traditional mob-related offenses, including bribery, gambling, drug trafficking, extortion and loan sharking.

In other news, the 6 train alone carries more riders than the entire Chicago train system:

More than 150 stations on the numbered subway lines, including the heavily trafficked Nos. 1, 4 and 6, will be providing the information by December 2010; in some stations the clocks will be running even earlier, according to a recently released Metropolitan Transportation Authority document.

In the timeless realm of the underground, where anguish can mount with each passing trainless second, this amounts to something of a revolution.

. . .

Although New Yorkers became familiar with the technology after its debut on the L line in 2007, that train, which snakes through Williamsburg out to Canarsie, carries only a fraction of the city’s overall ridership (though it does carry a high proportion of its well-heeled hipster set). The No. 6 train, on the other hand, handles 700,000 rides a day, more than the entire Chicago rail system.

New York has the entrepreneurial spirit:

After spraying disinfectant, Sosa poured a sandy material akin to kitty litter to soak up the scabbed-over puddles of blood. After scraping up and disposing of the material, he breaks out a mop, then a high pressure steamer to clean the smaller splashes of blood around the kitchen.

Gospodarski, who has been a paramedic for nearly three decades, said he started his career working the Queens District Attorney’s Office, founded Bio-Recovery when he noticed that there were no companies in New York City that provided cleanup services after nasty incidents and instead, made the victim’s family, or landowners, pick up the pieces. Bio-Recovery is one of only a few companies based in NYC that specializes in cleaning up the aftermath of crime scenes and death.

Gospodarski said the city takes the official position that they can’t refer anybody to a private company due to conflict of interest. “The city can hire a tow truck, but they can’t hire somebody to clean up your husband or your child and make you deal with it.”

Don’t miss the charming video at the link . . .

Researchers at NYU devise system to count gumballs. Good for state fairs and third grade science class but, sadly, computer not included:

“It’s a mathematical problem, it’s a geometric problem, and it’s a real physical problem as well,” said Professor Jasna Brujic, a physicist who led the team that solved the query.

Johannes Kepler, the 17th-century scientist, had originally come up with a conjecture to solve the problem based on the gumballs being perfectly round, of equal size, and packed as tightly as physically possible.

Only in the last decade had scientists shown Kepler’s 400-year-old conjecture was probably right — using calculations that required high-speed computers.

Now, Brujic’s team, in a paper just published in the science journal Nature, takes things a step further — by giving a way to calculate the number of gumballs in a jar if they are of varying sizes.

The complicated formula boils down to this: It’s easiest to figure the answer if you start from the perspective of one gumball and check how many other gumballs touch it.

The team concluded that if you know the proportion of gumballs of each different size, you can figure out statistically how many are in the jar.

One, unless you’re comparing Nazis to actual Nazis, refrain from using Nazi comparisons, because that’s just, as they say in Gaelic, “meshuganah.”

And two, never, ever, ever allow anyone to be able to use a headline like “REP. CAROLYN MALONEY APOLOGIZES FOR USING ‘N WORD’,” even if you are just repeating what someone else told you.

As in “their pee could kill your dog”:

Here’s another reason to hate rats: Their pee could kill your dog.

Health officials and pet owners in North Brooklyn are on the alert after a report last week that two dogs may have died from leptospirosis, a disease that can be passed on to canines through water tainted by rat or mice urine.

The city’s Department of Health said this week that the cases in Brooklyn are only suspicious for leptospirosis, and are still under investigation.

The Daily News said a six-year-old rat terrier called Parker died within days after romping at one of the dog runs in Greenpoint and Williamsburg, particularly muddy and wet after June’s heavy rains. The dog’s owner, Aaron Goodman, said the his sweet pup stopped eating, turned yellow and ultimately suffered severe kidney failure, according to the report.

And proving once again that it’s always good to keep some holy water handy:

For the past two days, visitors to a park in Staten Island’s Fort Wadsworth section have stumbled upon a gory mystery — a mutilated animal, possibly a dog or a goat, wrapped in a white sheet.

Parkgoers found two such animals in Von Briesen Park yesterday and this morning, city Parks Department officials confirmed.

The discovery has sparked speculation of ritual sacrifice and cult activity, and has led one Port Richmond woman to douse part of the ground where one animal was found with holy water, in an attempt to ward off what she believes is an evil presence.

Several alluded to Santeria, which blends elements of Yoruba, an African religion, with Catholicism and involves animal sacrifice in some of its rituals.

. . .

“This is not good, doing this,” said Nancy Kelcho of Port Richmond, who was walking her Scottie, Tara Lynn, this morning when a friend pointed out the mutilated animal. “This is evil. I just pray to God to take away the evil spirits.”

Ms. Kelcho, a firm believer in the supernatural, chanted prayers this afternoon as she sprayed holy water on the ground, and at one point gasped, “Evil! Evil! Evil!”

Though Ms. Kelcho said she was certain the animal she saw was a dog, Parks spokesman Phil Abramson said both animals are believed to be goats.

Location Scout: Arthur von Briesen Park.

I have no idea how heavy 37 bundles of cardboard is — but $5,000 isn’t bad:

Cops arrested Toure Mahamadou, 25, Sadabe Sekou, 39, and Latil Serge, 21, all of Newark, whose truck allegedly continued 37 bundles worth $5,550 when sold to recycling centers.

“I wasn’t scared when they pulled the knife,” [Milton Williams Supermarket manager Milton] Rivera said.

Apparently you can escape a five-story fall in a vehicle with only minor cuts and scrapes:

Shortly after 3 p.m. today a silver Mercedes fell out of the fifth floor window of the Hertz parking garage (12 E. 13th St.) behind NYU’s Fairchild building at 7 E. 12 St., landing on the courtyard behind the NYU building. The driver, a parking attendant at the garage, was transported to St. Vincent’s Hospital in stable condition, suffering from minor scrapes and cuts. The accident was reportedly due to brake failure, according to the NYU Office of Emergency Management.

. . .

Ninette Gironella, who works in the Registrar’s office on the third floor, was sitting in her office when she saw the car back out and fall. Recalling the response of emergency operators when she called 911, Gironella said, “They didn’t grasp the fact that a car had gone out the window.”

They grift! Or as Kari Ferrell might explain it had you run into her, “I want you to throw a hot dog down my hall”:

It’s likely that when Kari Ferrell walked into the Vice magazine offices in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, last month to interview for an administrative assistant job, they thought they’d hit the jackpot. Ms. Ferrell — petite, 22 years old, of Korean heritage — had a huge tattoo of a dragon across her chest and a cute pixie haircut. She was talkative, funny, charming, adorable. She had a tattoo on her back that read “I Love Beards.” She told them she’d been working for the New York office of the concert promotion company GoldenVoice, which puts on huge rock festivals like Coachella near Palm Springs, Calif., and that she’d moved to New York from Utah just a few months earlier. They hired her on the spot.

A few days later, one of Ms. Ferrell’s new colleagues came by her desk. “I said, ‘Excuse me, miss, is [her boss] downstairs?’” the 29-year-old told The Observer. “She thought that was very polite that I said, ‘Excuse me, miss,’ and after that she started talking to me, instant-messaging me. She asked if I was from the South. I told her no. It escalated from there.”

Within the space of a half-hour, Ms. Ferrell was peppering him with questions about his sexual history — how many women he’d slept with and so on. “She was coming on to me, and I was super into it for the first part of it,” he said. “I realized I could have fun after work — but then I was like, ‘Let me check this girl out.’” He Googled her. Up popped a photo of his flirtatious new co-worker on the Salt Lake City Police Department’s Most Wanted list, wanted on five different warrants, including passing $60,000 in bad checks, forgery and retail theft.

. . . including the dick who wouldn’t take us to the airport just the other day (if you’re truly “off duty,” turn on your fucking off-duty light and don’t pull up when we hail you*): I don’t believe you. I will never believe you. And when people like me believe a city regulatory agency over you, you’re in trouble. So quit complaining and take our credit cards already:

The average cabby works nine and a half hours a day. A cab’s busiest hours are 6 to 8 p.m. And even as the economy has fallen deeper into recession, the number of cab rides each day in New York has remained relatively steady.

Those are among the most vivid bits of information about the yellow cab industry to emerge from a trove of new data collected by the Taxi and Limousine Commission from cabs equipped with new computerized systems that record each trip and fare.

Among the more surprising findings is that credit cards may be saving the industry from feeling the worst effects of the recession.

“The credit card that we put in cabs has helped keep them afloat,” said Matthew Daus, the chairman of the Taxi and Limousine Commission.

By last November, every yellow cab in the city was equipped with a credit card reader — as a part of the new computerized system — and as a result, Mr. Daus said, many corporations that once ordered black cars for their employees have begun telling them instead to take a cab (which costs less) and charge it.

That has hurt the black car business, which was already reeling from the impact of the Wall Street crisis on its main customers, financial services firms. The black car business is down at least 30 percent, Mr. Daus said.

But the shift has helped yellow cabs and appears to have made up for lost business as tourism and air travel have slumped and the disposable income of ordinary New Yorkers has dwindled.

*And yes, I know the drill: Get in the cab before telling the driver where you want to go, but he caught me off guard as I was fumbling with the luggage (where did he think we were off to?)

If you’re going to skimp, skimp on the Rolls-Royce and not pest control:

Brace yourselves for more fun news: recessions, it turns out, while bad for humans, may be good for cockroaches and mice.

Veterans in the pest control industry said that their customers, both residential and commercial, appear to be sacrificing on regular exterminations as a cost-cutting measure. While restaurants are bound by the threats of steep fines, apartment landlords and office buildings are cutting back services, the exterminators said.

Robert Agatowski, with Control Exterminating Company on East 33rd Street in Manhattan, recalled a recent call from a general manager of a business.

“He said, ‘It’s very simple. I don’t know if we can make the rent or the payroll,’” Mr. Agatowski recalled. “‘So in other words, you’re out. We’ll step on the bugs and kick the mice.’ The exterminating almost becomes like a luxury item.”

He and other exterminators interviewed this week were careful not to name names.

You know you need to get off the island when the subways start talking to you:

Just when the train is starting, as if the cars were screeching, “There’s a place.”

. . .

Once heard, it is unmistakable: an echo of “Somewhere” that rises from the ceaseless tide of shrieks and moans in the subways.

A revival of “West Side Story” begins previews next week, but this little piece of it has been playing nonstop beneath Broadway since 2000, when new cars began rolling with an innovative propulsion system. Most of them are on the 2, 4 and 5 lines, and fresh audiences arrive daily.

. . .

The sound is a fluke. Newer trains run on alternating current, but the third rail delivers direct current; inverters chop it into frequencies that can be used by the alternating current motors, said Jeff Hakner, a professor of electrical engineering at Cooper Union. The frequencies excite the steel, he said, which — in the case of the R142 subway cars — responds by singing “Somewhere.” Inverters on other trains run at different frequencies and thus are not gifted with such a recognizable song.

The playwright Tony Kushner told New York magazine last year that it was his favorite New York noise. Riders often ask transit officials about it, and readers still write to the City section of The Times to report their discovery.

I thought the mayor was going to say that it was the stench of Adam Gopnik’s treacly prose periodically wafting over the city, but apparently that’s not the case:

The mayor repeatedly mispronounced the name of the word fenugreek as “fenugeek.” According to the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, part of the National Institutes of Health, fenugreek has historically been used for a variety of health conditions, including menopausal symptoms and digestive problems, and for inducing childbirth. Today, fenugreek is used to treat diabetes and loss of appetite, to stimulate milk production in breastfeeding women, and to treat inflammation of the skin.

Last month, the mayor said, inspectors from the city’s Department of Environmental Protection captured four odor samples, three in Manhattan and one west of the George Washington Bridge.

The substance was a kind of ester, the mayor said, in this case a harmless compound created by interaction of an alcohol and an acid. Its maker: Frutarom, an industrial company based in Haifa, Israel, that processes fenugreek seeds to make fragrances at the plant in North Bergen, in Hudson County.

“The mystery of the maple-syrup mist has finally been solved,” the mayor said. “Frutarom does not appear to be breaking any rules and New Jersey’s D.E.P. will confirm that as well.” On future days when the plant processes seeds, a similar odor will recur.

“It just happens to be one of the aromas we will have to live with,” the mayor said.

The history of the smell: The Sweet Smell Of Maple Doughnuts, Or Perhaps Eggos, Smell Returns? Mysterious Smell Comes, Goes And Leaves No Clues In Its Wake, Sweet Syrupy Smell, I Wish I Knew How To Quit You!.

“Even if you’re working, you can still qualify for unemployment benefits. It may sound strange but it’s pefectly legal.”:

You’re considered underemployed and can “double dip” in unemployment benefits when:

• You work no more than three days a week
• Make less than $405 per week
• Are actively seeking full-time work

We have a way of chewing up our heroes with effusive mayoral proclamations, Letterman appearances, State of the Union speeches and boatloads of swag until they’re finally fleeced for all they’re worth by sycophants and hangers on.

That said, ABC News aviation consultant John Nance is looking like he’s lost a step or two and should probably think about making the way for someone with a little more cred:

After hero Capt. Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger III turned the Hudson from a river into a runway, his co-pilot beamed.

“No one has ever pulled this off,” Jeff Skiles said as they floated in a rescue boat, according to passenger Billy Campbell, 49. “You’ve done something amazing!”

Sullenberger did not seem all that impressed, Campbell told The Post.

But when Campbell thanked the pilot for saving their lives, he did say, “You’re welcome.”

Such humility is not surprising to friends and colleagues of the US Airways pilot.

NTSB board member Kitty Higgins said Thursday’s feat “has to go down the most successful ditching in aviation history.” But to Sullenberger and his brother pilots, it’s just another day’s work.

In case you were wondering:

How long can you park if the meter for the space is broken?

Many New Yorkers do not know the current answer — one hour — and are frustrated when they get tickets, particularly as New York City has aggressively raised fines and enforcement in recent years.

Today, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg sign ed a bill that permits drivers to park at a broken meter for as long as they would normally be able if the meter were working. The law is scheduled to take effect on March 1.

The law applies even if the single-space meter is missing. (“A person shall be allowed to park at a missing or broken meter up to the maximum amount of time otherwise lawfully permitted at such meter,” the new law states.)

If you are by chance traveling by rail this holiday weekend and the train seems crowded, check out the first or last car — both of which may be emptier than usual:

The FBI’s source reportedly told agents of an al Qaeda-connected group’s desire to place bombs or suicide bombers inside the first and last Long Island Rail Road commuter cars and detonate them as the train entered Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan, also used by the Washington-New York-Boston Amtrak system and the New York City subway.

Interesting:

Newsday recently reported that the New York Police Department is phasing out “The Thug” and replacing it with a target that looks more like Mr. Clean, a visage apparently inspired by no one. Not so with “The Thug,” which, depending on who’s doing the talking, is any number of people, from actor Ernest Borgnine to boxing great Rocky Graziano to Fred Worell, a deceased sergeant who worked as an instructor at the range.

At least, that has been the prevailing wisdom since the scowling face made its debut. But after Newsday’s report, retired Det. Harold Schiffer stepped forward with a proclamation likely only to deepen the mystery.

“I know who that guy is,” Schiffer, 65, said. “It’s a guy named Jesse Oldshein. He’s 90 years old and living in Florida.”

When contacted, Oldshein, a retired lieutenant, didn’t make much of the mystery, probably because to him, there’s no mystery about it. “That’s me,” he said from his home in Boynton Beach. “I was up at the range one day. They asked to take my picture. They said, ‘Pose in a boxing stance.’ Next thing I know, my face is on the target.”

. . .

Officially, “The Thug” is known as Silhouette SP-83A. It portrays a bad guy — snarl on face, snub-nosed revolver in hand — out of a Cagney movie. But the NYPD says the shaded area covering the head and much of the torso makes it difficult for instructors to see from a distance the shot patterns left behind by an officer.

Mr. Clean is shaded differently, as is a second new target, a faceless silhouette that looks like a Martian. The new targets were designed by the Firearms and Tactics Section and have been in place as part of a pilot program since July.

Oldshein says he never gave much thought to the issue, but his wife, Francine, remembers other police officers for years teasing him about it.

“It was a big deal back then,” she said. “So many people came over to us: ‘Hey, Jesse, you should get residuals,’ or ‘Hey, Jesse, I shot at you today.’”

Earlier: “Cops’ Favorite Target Thug, but Just Who Was the Guy?” New York Times, February 17, 2005.

Community Boards across the city deal now facing Snoop Dogg quandary:

Local residents should expect to see fewer blocks named in honor of their late friends and neighbors now that the city has instituted new guidelines regulating the practice.

Just a few weeks ago, the city approved 85 new street designations throughout the five boroughs — 13 of them right here in Brooklyn. But that’s the last big batch of honors the borough is likely to see for some time.

Community Board 11 Chair Bill Guarinello recently explained the new criteria his board will now be following, saying that “street namings have been run like the Old West” and that in the past the designations were partly granted on the basis of “who you know.”

“Community Board 11 has new standards,” Guarinello said. “There are going to be times now when we are going to be rejecting people.”

Under the new criteria, candidates put up for consideration must have been “New Yorkers of a significance to New York City.”

This greater emphasis on citywide rather than local appeal significantly raises the threshold that prospective honorees now have to achieve before a street is designated in their honor.

The latest group of Brooklynites to have streets named after them includes victims of violent crime, a successful realtor and members of Coney Island’s Polar Bear Club.

According to Guarinello, Community Board 11 committees charged with considering new street dedication applications will immediately begin using the city’s revamped criteria.

But seriously, is there anyone on Staten Island who doesn’t understand what calamari is? I’m shocked:

When Jeanmarie Ritger’s 10-year-old daughter swims with friends in the family’s backyard pool in Dongan Hills, the children are captured on a video camera posted on a neighbor’s roof.

There is nothing Ms. Ritger can do about the unwanted surveillance of her yard, her life and her daughter, say officials.

That’s because the camera is not trained on her bedroom or bathroom window — places where New York law says a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy and such surveillance would be illegal.

“I’m stuck and I’m very uncomfortable and I’m concerned,” Ms. Ritger, an elementary school teacher, said during a recent interview in her yard under the watchful eye of her neighbor’s camera. “When does surveilling someone’s property become an invasion of someone else’s privacy?”

Not when it’s in a homeowner’s back, side or front yard.

Ms. Ritger’s video-taping neighbors defended their rooftop camera, saying they are protecting their yard and in-ground pool, not spying. They accuse Ms. Ritger and her brother, who lives in the house next-door, of throwing worms, berries and calamari (squid) into their pool over the last few years. Ms. Ritger has flatly denied those claims, calling them “ridiculous.”

“It’s watching my yard and her yard,” the neighbor, Peter Malvagna, said of his camera. “It’s legal and I can’t get in trouble for it.”

. . .

William Smith, a spokesman for the Richmond County District Attorney Daniel Donovan, said the Staten Island office was the first to win a felony conviction in the state under Stephanie’s Law. A retired firefighter was convicted here in 2004 of secretly recording his girlfriend’s teen-age daughter undressing in his home.

Before the enactment in 2003 of Stephanie’s Law, which was created after a Long Island woman was secretly recorded by her landlord undressing in her apartment, there were even fewer protections from prying eyes.

“In plain language, New York State law defines unlawful surveillance as recording someone, without their permission, at a place and time when a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy, specifically a place where a person believes he or she could disrobe in privacy. This law has not been interpreted to cover the outside of a residence, especially in an urban or suburban environment like Staten Island,” said Smith.

What are you going to do, make me pay? Why yes, yes they will:

Fare-evaders who brazenly board buses without paying would be targeted in a crackdown being developed by transit and police brass, officials said Tuesday.

Approximately 130,000 riders a week board buses without dipping MetroCards, or plunking change into fare boxes, according to new transit data, suggesting the cash-strapped agency is losing millions of dollars annually.

“We’ve identified the worst routes, including the worst bus stops or hot spots,” said Joseph Smith, NYC Transit vice president in charge of buses.

Smith said he hoped the crackdown would start in a week or two. An NYPD spokesman, however, said Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly has yet to sign off on a final plan. The two sides are in talks about how the Metropolitan Transportation Authority could defray costs.

Fare-beaters enter via rear bus doors that are opened by exiting passengers or by helpful riders on board. Some simply saunter past the driver and fare box up front. To reduce the risk of being assaulted, drivers are instructed not to confront or accost fare-beaters.

Above-ground fare-beating is most prevalent on 10 routes in Brooklyn and the Bronx, according to NYC Transit. The worst is the B46 in Brooklyn where drivers have reported “theft of service” at a rate of about 4,000 a week. The route runs the length of the borough, between Williamsburg and Marine Park, through Crown Heights, Bedford-Stuyvesant and East Flatbush and Flatlands.

Smith wouldn’t speculate on why some routes have rampant fare evasion while others have none. But the agency now has a better understanding of where evasion is taking place, officials said.

All we need is three examples for a trend piece:

Once, it was clear, black and white: One token got you one ride. Now, while MetroCards have created a more elastic, fluid system for riders, they have also created an ethical gray area:

Do I swipe in a stranger? Is that legal? Can I share my monthly card with my spouse or a friend? What if someone offers to sell me a swipe at a discount? And what if a machine accidentally gives me a free ride — something token booth clerks were not known for. Do I take it?

The ethical quandaries of the free ride were spotlighted this week by the disclosure of a computer glitch that allowed hundreds of people to get free tickets and MetroCards — most of them unwittingly — from vending machines in Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad stations.

Selling a swipe on a MetroCard is illegal and can get you arrested. Bending a MetroCard’s magnetic strip to fool the turnstile into letting you through is also a form of theft.

But letting a friend or a relative use your unlimited-ride MetroCard when you are not using it is perfectly legal, as long as you don’t charge for it, said Paul J. Fleuranges, an authority spokesman. (The card allows only one entry every 18 minutes.)

Mr. Fleuranges said it is also legal to help out a stranger who asks you, as a favor, to swipe him through a turnstile free as you are leaving a subway station — although it certainly deprives New York City Transit of a fare.

. . .thanks to the economic contributions of Center Moriches and Bridgeport:

New data show the New York metropolitan area is the largest contributor to America’s gross domestic product, but its position at the top of the national ranking may be due more to the inclusion of neighboring economic powerhouses such as Greenwich and Stamford, Conn., than its own economic strength.

New York City actually is responsible for less than half of all economic activity in its own metropolitan area, the data show. According to the city comptroller’s office, its economic activity constitutes 43% of the region’s total economy.

. . .

The New York City metropolitan area, which includes parts of Connecticut up to Bridgeport, as well as Long Island and northern New Jersey, accounts for 6.6% of the country’s population while contributing 9.1%, or $1.129 trillion, of the country’s GDP.

The Los Angeles metropolitan area came in second place, contributing 6.3% of U.S. GDP or $788.9 billion. Although the New York region has 7% more people than the Los Angeles area, New York contributed 43% more to the country’s GDP.

Next time you’re escaping the police and some buttinsky, keep in mind that this ploy does not seem to work:

The pajama-clad super of a ritzy lower Manhattan high-rise chased a burglar but was mistakenly grabbed by security guards when the wily thief screamed for help, police sources said.

“The guy was yelling at no one in particular, ‘Stop this crazy guy. He’s trying to kill me!’” said super Bobby Gardocki, who admitted he looked somewhat bizarre running barefoot in his jammies after the burglar Saturday night.

Gardocki was grabbed by Manhattan Community College police, who thought he was the culprit.

A building tenant convinced the guards they had the wrong guy and cops arrested the suspect, Michael Estrada, 38, of Queens, nearby.

He allegedly looted a woman’s apartment of more than $3,000 in jewelry before trying to get into the super’s flat.