Mmm . . . Garbage Juice!

It’s that time of year again:

There’s no escaping the grime and nose-holding stench levels that city sidewalks generate in the summertime.

. . .

The city last month found that 95 percent of Brighton Beach sidewalks were clean, yet residents there say the stench of litter and rotten fruit from overflowing trash cans on Brighton Beach Avenue reaches gagging levels in the summer.

“The private garbage companies, you’ll see them squeeze the garbage and the juice comes out,” said [someone who emailed to have his or her name removed because he or she claims not to have actually said this to AM New York]. “I stepped in it once and my car smelled for weeks.”

Woodlawn Meets Fallujah

Take care of these animals now before they become mass murderers:

Their colony in the Bronx already is devastated by so many ills: homelessness, hunger and rampant disease. Their young are often left to fend for themselves in the streets or in abandoned houses, where many will die a lonesome death.

And now they’re being beaten, burned and mutilated, residents say.

With so much already against them, it seems even harder out there than usual for the feral cats of Woodlawn.

The first report surfaced late last month. Karen Borsotti said she was walking along Vireo Avenue near East 233rd Street when she noticed a gray cat skulking by the road. It had a large gash across its back and seemed a bit haggard, she said. Ms. Borsotti stepped closer to get a better look, but the cat darted off. Later, she said, she saw signs posted on utility poles offering a $500 reward for anyone with information on the person or people responsible for what some say is serial cat abuse.

A couple days later, Animal Nation, a nonprofit rescue group, reported receiving a frantic call from a teenage girl pleading for help. She had found a 6-month-old brown tabby she knew from the neighborhood. It had been badly beaten and its tail was burned to the bone. A veterinarian later said that most of the cat’s teeth had been broken or knocked out, that it had suffered major head trauma and burns to its gums, likely sustained when it tried to bite out the flames on its tail. The young tabby was euthanized.

Locavore Movement Gains Steam

Raising chickens in your backyard is a fine thing. A fine thing. It’s part of our heritage:

Investigators who raided a Brooklyn apartment building Wednesday found a cockfighting factory, a breeding ground for brutality.

There were chicks a few months old and battle-scarred veterans — 59 in all, destined for the lucrative betting rings that pop up across the city.

“There is no ring here, but they were breeding and housing them for the fights,” said Al Lombardo, deputy chief of Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes’ investigators.

“I love my birds,” Corchado, 40, protested as he was led away in handcuffs.

Cages of the raging roosters were stacked three deep in the Arlington Ave. backyard. Shipping labels showed some were brought in from Puerto Rico.

Most had their combs cut off, making it harder for opposing birds to grab them. Other were shaved.

“I shave them because the weather is hot,” Corchado said.

Prosecutors scoffed at the excuse.

“They are placing razor blades on the birds’ legs to cut humidity? No, these animals were trained to kill everything around them,” said Deputy District Attorney Carol Moran.

Whatever Happened To Predictability — The Milk Man, The Paper Boy, Evening TV — How Did I Get To Living Here, Somebody Tell Me Please

Mary-Kate, with blood on her hands:

Pint-size actress Mary-Kate Olsen has refused to be interviewed by federal investigators probing the accidental drug death of her close friend Heath Ledger unless she receives immunity from prosecution, The Post has learned.

The actress’ lawyer has repeatedly rebuffed attempts by the feds to question Olsen, who was the first person called after her masseuse discovered Ledger’s body in his SoHo apartment in January.

Frustrated federal officials could obtain a grand-jury subpoena to compel the funky “Full House” actress to tell them whatever she knows about the “Dark Knight” star’s behavior, his possible drug use and the events of that fateful morning, according to sources.

Is Arthur Miller Still Alive?

Sounds like the premise to a modern urban tragedy. And fortunately Al Sharpton is nowhere near this horrible story:

A grand jury has decided not to indict a Queens man who fatally stabbed a 15-year-old girl who he said was part of a mob of teenagers attacking him after an argument on a bus.

It was the final stage of a rolling confrontation that began when the man, Winston Alladin, exchanged words with a woman who he said had cut in line to board the Q85 bus the night of June 25. Several miles later, the argument, now involving some young passengers, spilled onto a street in Springfield Gardens, where more teenagers joined in and Mr. Alladin stabbed Keyanna Jones in the chest.

“He broke down in tears because I told him he is going home,” Kevin P. O’Donnell, Mr. Alladin’s lawyer, said on Thursday.

But Mr. Alladin, who is from Trinidad, may not be able to return to his home in Queens. He was still in jail Thursday and was expected to be turned over to federal custody at the request of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, said a Rikers Island spokesman, Stephen J. Morello.

The agency did not say why it wanted Mr. Alladin detained, though it typically does so when a person’s immigration status is in question. Mr. O’Donnell said he believed Mr. Alladin, who has been in the United States for at least about 10 years and was engaged to be married, was in the country legally.

But he wants to return to Trinidad anyway, Mr. O’Donnell said.

“It is awful; he has never been arrested before,” he said. “He is a hard-working guy. One of the things he kept saying was, in his Trinidadian accent, ‘Why did these people want to hurt me? I did nothing.'”

. . .

“He had a very, very legitimate self-defense argument,” said Mr. O’Donnell. “He had been chased by 10 or 12 kids for no reason for an argument that happened half an hour earlier that did not involve any of them. It was like a pack of wolves.

“He was running up and down the street screaming for people to call the police,” he said. “He was being hit by rocks, punched.

“He goes into the street and these kids surround him,” Mr. O’Donnell said. “One at a time they are stepping in and punching him.”

His back against a wall, Mr. Alladin pulled out the knife, he said.

“He had a knife in his bag, he was hoping they would see the knife and back off,” Mr. O’Donnell said. “It just so happened that the next person that stepped up to hit him happened to be this young girl. He did not know if it was a girl, he did not know if it was a boy, he just stuck the blade out to protect himself and she happened to get cut. Unfortunately it was a lethal stabbing.”

“‘Why did these people want to hurt me?” It’s a much, much better last line than Eric Bogosian’s final lines in subUrbia: “What is wrong with you . . . You throw it all away!” People, this is A Raisin in the Sun meets subUrbia! Pitch now!