That’s Not To Say They Wouldn’t Have Given Up Their Seat On The Subway For Her, However

The kind of crime story that warms the heart and cheers the soul:

Two thugs mugged a pregnant woman in the lobby of a Midtown building and ran off with her wedding band and engagement ring, police said yesterday.

Housing Authority Employee Reclaims True Meaning Of “Pitchfork,” Confounding Search Engines And Hipsters

The idea of keeping a giant rat as a pet in a city where there is a rodent problem seems . . . kind of inspired, actually! Just don’t ditch it, lest it meets its untimely demise on the tong of a pitchfork:

They’re nocturnal, can grow to three feet and four pounds or more, and live seven or eight years.

Imports have been banned since 2003, when they were blamed for a monkeypox outbreak that sickened 100 people in the United States.

Dr. Paul Calle, director of zoological health at the Wildlife Conservation Society, said the Marcy Houses specimen was probably an escaped or discarded pet who decided to join the regular rat race.

Californians Smarter In At Least One Aspect

But don’t worry, we’ll get it right the next time the once-in-a-100-years event happens:

Kelly Huston, assistant secretary of the California Emergency Management Agency, said that watching New Yorkers evacuate on television was “unsettling.”

“If you think about it, the plate-glass windows above them have a potential for shattering,” Mr. Huston said in a telephone interview on Wednesday. “That glass has to go somewhere. And it’ll hit people trying to come out of a building.”

What New Yorkers should do, he said, is what Californians are told to do: drop under “anything sturdy” and “brace yourself until the shaking stops.”

That so many New Yorkers did not seem to know what to do should not be that surprising given the e-mail that arrived at Mr. Huston’s home early Wednesday.

New York City officials wanted a conference call because they needed advice on what earthquake instructions they should give the public the next time.

And While The City Lays Off Educators . . .

The NYPD Counter-Terrorism Unit, roughly modeled on television’s 24 and, well, kind of weird, is now under the microscope:

[An AP report] says the program to infiltrate Muslim communities was started by CIA veteran David Cohen, who was tapped in 2002 by Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, who thought 9/11 proved the NYPD couldn’t rely on the feds to protect the city from terrorists.

Cohen created a mini-CIA inside the NYPD, with spies and analysts and an international scope.

The NYPD has a big advantage over the CIA: a diverse pool of officers who could pass in any community in the city.

Undercover officers called “rakers” went to hang out in bookstores, hookah bars and cafes, the AP said — an allegation the NYPD fiercely denied.

After lawyers in the department said it might appear that police were building dossiers on innocent people, the cops began regularly shredding documents discussing “rakers,” the story said.

Earlier: NYPD CTU, Now More Than Ever; And NYPD CTU — Just So We’re Clear, This Totally Doesn’t Count As A “Foiled Terrorist Plot”; Talk Of Budget Cuts Leads To Inevitable NYPD CTU Puff Piece.

Earthquake 2011: All-Important Local Angles

Queens Self-Centeredness: “Earthquake strikes Queens”.

Brooklyn Insecurity: “Earthquake: Brooklyn Probably Shook More Than Manhattan”.

Staten Island Remaining Relevant: “45 seconds of panic as quake’s tremors reach Staten Island”.