Coyote “Or Similar Creature” Invades Long Island, Queens . . .

That there are coyotes on Long Island now, where they haven’t been seen before (“Coyotes are firmly established throughout all New York counties except Long Island and New York City”), is freaky enough without seeing them within city limits:

Animal control officers set a trap at Rochdale Village after a coyote or similar creature was spotted prowling around a parking lot in the sprawling south Queens cooperative housing complex.

Buried “Lead”

Six paragraphs into the Post story about a lawsuit filed against Steiner Sports, the entity responsible for reselling collectibles from Old Yankee Stadium, for allegedly selling seats not as advertised, this detail sticks out in particular:

Back in May, when the sale of seats was announced, Steiner and the Yankees made no secret of the fact that all the original paint would have to be stripped because of lead. A new color, resembling the faded blue, was used to simulate their original appearance.

The Yankees really do want to kill you.

Location Scout: Old Yankee Stadium.

“Although Much Has Been Made Of The So-Called ‘Battle Of The Badges,’ These Are Isolated Episodes That Are The Result Of Individual, Low-Level Breakdowns In Discipline. They Are Not The Product Of Systemic Problems And Don’t Occur Higher Up Where It Would Jeopardize The Mission Of Each Agency”*

*That’s from Bloomberg’s statement to the 9/11 Commission in May 2004, and the sad thing is that he was talking about the lack of inter-agency cooperation, not even intra-agency cooperation:

The New York Police Department has removed a senior official from one of its two sometimes competing antiterrorism units, after it played a role in disrupting a sensitive federal terrorism investigation, current and former police officials said on Wednesday. He was replaced by a top official from the other unit.

The investigation was disrupted two weeks ago when detectives from one of the units, the Intelligence Division, sought assistance from a Queens imam who then alerted the central suspect in the case to the inquiry.

The transfers, which removed one official from the Intelligence Division and replaced him with another from the Counterterrorism Bureau, came in recent days amid intense activity in the case. Federal agents and police detectives have been hunting through New York City and other places for operatives in a suspected Qaeda bomb plot.

Again, the NYPD is playing with the security of all Americans. When they’re good, oh they’re real good, but there’s also a huge lack of oversight here. People in California, Denver or even New Jersey don’t vote for Michael Bloomberg, much less Ray Kelly, and when the NYPD fucks up, it affects them, too. I’m surprised more people aren’t more pissed . . .

F–K Trees!

They are coming to get us, and no one is paying attention to the true danger:

It was one of those accidents inevitably described as one in a million: A New Yorker strolling down a leafy path crossed by thousands each day is hit on the head and critically injured by a rotted-out tree branch that snapped under its own weight off a massive pin oak tree.

The branch was four inches thick and fell 20 feet on Wednesday morning, putting a gash in the man’s skull, damaging his upper vertebrae and causing a partial lung collapse. The man, Sasha J. Blair-Goldensohn, 33, began to show preliminary signs of consciousness on Thursday, responding to verbal commands, said his mother, Gwenda Blair, in a phone interview.

. . .

People passing by the site of the accident, near the entrance at Central Park West and 63rd Street, gave a fairly consistent interpretation of the previous day’s events: One in a million accidents are a fact of life in a city of more than eight million people. Plummeting tree branches, most added, are somewhere near the bottom of their daily worries, below falling construction cranes and rogue pedicabs, not to mention the more mundane concerns of everyday life.

“It wouldn’t keep me out of the park,” said Katina Zachmanoglow, 52, as she sat in the shade of a large oak. “It’s too isolated of an incident to be concerned.”

“I’d probably be more concerned about a pigeon doing something to me,” she added.

“I’m more afraid of manholes,” said Sarah Crocker, a 27-year-old musician, cooling off after a jog.

Leading Economic Indicators: Younger Interns

In this tough economy, a young person is forced to explore internship opportunities as early as he possibly can:

A subway rider says he got the shock of his life when he peered into the cab and saw a kid behind the controls alongside the driver.

“I saw him driving. He couldn’t have been more than 8 or 9,” said Jules Cattie, 41. “That has to be the craziest thing I’ve ever seen.”

Cattie, a lawyer who lives on the East Side, said he spotted the child after he got into the front car of a Lexington Ave. express train Sunday.

“I was just in shock,” he said. “I thought, ‘This is really dangerous.'”

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority yesterday said it has launched “a vigorous and thorough investigation” into the charge.