Honey bees are the epitome of DIY all-natual wholesome food goodness. But don’t try to tell that to beekeepers in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn whose bees have been putting out a glowing red secretion, complete with Red Dye No. 40. [More]
NEW YORK
Town Tells Walmart It Can't Have Early Morning Black Friday
By 11.17.10
There will be no pre-dawn Black Friday shopping rampages inside the Victor, NY Walmart. Backed by a wave of local outcry, the town had denied the superstore’s request to open from 11pm to 7am on Nov 25-26th. [More]
The $800,000 Cab Ride
By 11.16.10
A Hong Kong businessman took a 13 mile car service ride to New York City that wound up costing him almost $800,000. [More]
Teens Busted For Selling Cupcakes Without A License
By 11.15.10
In news that’s reminiscent of the Oregon Lemonade Stand Scandal of 2010, two 13-year-olds in New York state had their baked goods business shut down by police for operating without a license. [More]
Starbucks Spilled Tea Lawsuit Dismissed
By 11.3.10
Starbucks proved victorious in the courtroom yesterday. The coffee colossus convinced an appeals court to uphold a lower court’s decision to dismiss a lawsuit alleging the company was liable for burns suffered from a cup of spilled tea. [More]
Overpriced Bars Now Adding Mandatory 18-20% Tips
By 11.1.10
Here in New York City, there are certain bars — most of them in hotels and most of them frequented by people who read in Us Weekly that celebrities party there — that are not only charging absolutely ridiculous amounts of cash for basic cocktails, but are automatically adding hefty tips onto the tab. [More]
Cablevision Customers File $450 Million Class-Action Suit Over Fox Blackout
By 10.28.10
This is what happens when you take Glee away from people — they file an almost half-billion dollar lawsuit against you. Or at least that’s what some Cablevision customers in New York have done as the standoff between the cable company and Fox nears the end of its second week. [More]
NY DMV Doesn't Believe I Already Paid Fee, Wants More Money
By 10.28.10
New York’s Department of Motor Vehicles doesn’t believe that Danjalier already paid the fees to have his driver’s license un-suspended. Never mind that he used a credit card, the charge from the DMV posted to his credit card, and the credit card company (American Express) tried to convince the DMV that yes, Danjalier had in fact already paid them. [More]
Starbucks Pay-By-Phone Tests Expanded To NYC Area
By 10.25.10
For a few months now, coffee cravers at a small handful of Starbucks in Seattle and Northern California — along with many Starbucks located Target stores — have been able to pay by iPhone or Blackberry with the Starbucks Card Mobile App. And starting today, java junkies in New York City and Long Island will be able to try this system out at around 300 locations. [More]
NY To Make Foreclosure Lawyers Verify Paperwork
By 10.21.10
The chief judge in New York Wednesday ruled that lawyers handling foreclosures will have to verify that all paperwork is correct. [More]
Judges: Hookers & Porn Are Not Tax Deductions
By 10.7.10
No matter what you may think of the health benefits of a paid companion or of an XXX-rated DVD, the New York State’s Tax Appeals Tribunal has made it clear — hookers, pills and porn do not count as tax-deductible medical expenses. [More]
For $27M NYC Turns Caps-Lock Off Street Signs
By 10.1.10
250,900 street signs in New York City will be changed from all-caps to initial caps, where only the first letter is capitalized. The legibility will save lives, say the federal guidelines mandating the change, which will cost the city $27.6 million to implement. [More]
A&P Mails You Back Keys You Drunkenly Left In Cab A Month Ago
By 9.30.10
Shopper club cards might be part of an Orwellian masterplan to scrutinize your purchasing habits, but they also have another, less well-known use. Zach says that after an evening of drunken frolicking around New York, he lost his keys. A month later, this showed up in his mailbox. [More]
Webloyalty Settles With NY AG For $5.2 Mil
By 9.24.10
Online “marketing” company Webloyalty has settled with the New York AG for $5.2 mil. You know how when you buy movie tickets and at the end it says, “You won a free $10 gift certificate!” And then if you read the small print it says that if you accept the gift certificate you get signed up for a discount club that charges a monthly fee? Yeah, that was their game. [More]
Verizon Talks Elderly Parents Into Pricey Phones They Can't Use
By 9.22.10
A fast-talking Verizon rep talked Joanna’s septuagenarian parents into buying expensive Blackberry Storm 2’s, but after they got them, they found that when it came to using the devices, they were all thumbs. Her dad has large fingers and rheumatoid arthritis, and the gadgets were overall too complex for her parents. [More]
Next Stop, TV Ads Inside The Subway Car
By 9.22.10
Mark another “safe from motion-based commercial messages” area off the list. New York is trying out adding TV screens inside subway cars as a way to bolster flagging revenues. The first campaign is a “full body wrap” – what graffiti artists used to call “bombing” – on the 42nd street shuttle for TBS’s baseball playoff coverage. The (silent) monitors will show highlights from previous games. [More]
Walmart Is Coming For New York
By 9.21.10
Thought impervious to Walmart colonization, urban centers like New York and San Francisco are the big box retailer’s next expansion targets. [More]
Schools Put Carrot-Only Vending Machines In Cafeteria
By 9.20.10
Students at two high schools — one in Cincinnati, OH, the other in Syracuse, NY — are guinea pigs for a new program that’s trying to change the way young people look at veggies, by marketing and selling carrots like they’re junk food. [More]
