When you think of a coordinated law enforcement effort that involves simultaneous takedowns of three illegal operations in three different counties, you might assume it involved narcotics or human trafficking or terrorist cells. But New York state’s Operation Angry Birds had a truly fowl target in mind. [More]
NEW YORK
Trio Convicted Of Running Fake Nursing Schools
By 2.7.14
When you scam wannabe nurses out of more than a million dollars by selling them a fake education, you have to expect you’ll get caught at some point. But that didn’t stop three women in New York from operating a number of bogus nursing school programs in NYC and Long Island. [More]
Super Bowl Ticket Scalpers Need A Hug Because Nobody Is Making Them Rich This Year
By 1.30.14
Can we pause for a moment to reflect on the plight of the lowly Super Bowl ticket scalper? He toils thanklessly for his art and all he asks in return is that you pay him several thousands of dollars to watch a football game in which you probably have no personal stake. With heartless, penny-pinching fans taking a risk by purchasing their Super Bowl tickets through “legitimate” means, this year’s scalpers may be forced to sink to selling NHL or NBA tickets just to pay the rent. [More]
Time Warner Cable Will Try To Not Suck As Much In L.A. & NYC
By 1.30.14
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, if you want to get a Manhattan resident’s blood boiling, your best bet is to mention Time Warner Cable. In addition to the horrid billing and customer service problems experienced by TWC customers all over the country, New York customers will claim they are plagued by frequent and unexplained outages and bouts of cripplingly slow download speeds. From what we gather, things aren’t much better for TWC customers in L.A. [More]
Sick Of Husband’s Gambling, Wife Alerts Authorities To $600K Super Bowl Pools At Local Bar
By 12.23.13
All around the country, local bars operate betting pools where patrons pay a set fee to buy a shot at taking home everyone else’s cash. At lots of bars, the price for a box is reasonable, but some pools charge thousands of dollars to check off a single box. These pools often go ignored by police and other authorities, but after the wife of a Staten Island gambler complained to the state about the large sums being wagered at a local bar, that establishment is no longer accepting bets. [More]
Domino’s Hires Back 25 Workers Fired During Wage Dispute
By 12.12.13
Last week, a Domino’s Pizza franchisee in New York City terminated the employment of 25 workers who had filed complaints about being underpaid. That’s kind of against the law in New York, and so after receiving a little talking-to from the state Attorney General, the franchisee has agreed to re-hire the previously dismissed employees. [More]
Psychologist Deems Dad Unfit Parent For Not Feeding McDonald’s To 5-Yr-Old
By 11.7.13
You’d think that most parents would be applauded for not giving in to their kids’ demands for fast food, but a court-appointed psychologist in New York City (New York City?!?) has reportedly decided that one father is an unfit parent because he failed to feed his 5-year-old son’s craving for McDonald’s. [More]
New York To Sue Wells Fargo For Failure To Comply With $26B Mortgage Settlement
By 10.2.13
Last spring, New York state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman threatened to sue both Bank of America and Wells Fargo, alleging that the banks had repeatedly failed to comply with the 2012 $26 billion settlement between multiple states and the nation’s five largest mortgage servicers. Now the AG intends to make good on that threat by actually filing suit against Wells. [More]
Watch Fashionistas Rave About Hot Designers Like Joe Isuzu, Meadowlark Lemon & George Costanza
By 9.13.13
Sure, people have been making videos outing fashion, food, wine, movie, and music snobs for years by getting them to rave about some completely made up person, product, or place… but it really never gets old. [More]
Public Park Visitors Banned From Sitting On Grass
By 9.13.13
It’s not uncommon to see a sign in a public park telling people to avoid a section of grass that’s being reseeded, or that things like football games, grilling, and bike riding are forbidden on the grass, but one town in New York has decided that simply sitting on the grass in one of its parks is a big no-no. [More]
Sears Settles With New York Over Deceptive Refunds
By 9.12.13
For more than two years, Sears offered “Come Back Cash” promotions that rewarded customers with Sears gift cards for purchases over certain qualifying thresholds. But if a customer returned an item, they would have the proportionate value of that gift card deducted from the refund, even if the total value of the purchase was still above the threshold for meriting a gift card. [More]
Judge Says Strippers Are Employees, Merit Minimum Wage
By 9.11.13
Are dancers at a strip club independent contractors or employees? That’s the question involved in a lawsuit against a popular Manhattan club and in at least one other pending lawsuit against a club in Colorado. [More]
Verizon Decides To Not Force Sub-Par Service On New Yorkers Left Without Phones By Hurricane
By 9.10.13
Last fall, Hurricane Sandy tore through the Mid-Atlantic, leaving entire coastal towns in New York and New Jersey without landline service. Verizon only made it worse for some residents, choosing to test replacing the ruined copper-wire network with its craptastic Voice Link service. After months of complaints from residents businesses and concerns about public safety, Verizon has decided to abandon that test and replace the copper lines in Fire Island, NY, with fiber optic cable. [More]
Verizon FiOS Tries To Win Over Blacked-Out CBS Employees
By 8.20.13
Millions of Time Warner Cable customers have now gone more than two weeks without knowing which attention-starved individuals got kicked out of the Big Brother house or if the people of Chester’s Mill ever got out from under the dome (Spoiler: Maybe). Many employees of CBS have been unable to watch the shows they air if they have TWC as their cable provider (which in NYC, Dallas, and L.A. is highly likely), so Verizon is trying to reach out to them and lure them over to FiOS. [More]
Needy Oenophiles Pawning Prize Bottles Of Wine For Cash
By 8.20.13
Eight years ago, it seemed like everyone in New York City was operating a hedge fund, and many of those suddenly rich folks splurged on necessities like rare bottles of wine. Then things went sour and these briefly wealthy types had to relocate the contents of their wine cellars to a storage unit. Realizing that cash-in-hand may be more helpful than bottles of wine they may never drink, some are using their prize wine collections as collateral on short-term loans. [More]
Here’s Why You’re Probably Paying Way Too Much For A Lobster Roll
By 8.19.13
Food prices frequently fall and rise, especially for those foods that come from the ocean. But why, when the price of Maine lobster is currently below that of some chicken and beef, are consumers paying top-dollar for lobster roll sandwiches? [More]
Food Truck Worker: I Was Fired For Calling Out Customers Who Didn’t Tip On $170 Order
By 7.30.13
While sit-down restaurant diners customarily leave tips, gratuities are much more rare in the to-go food business. But when an eatery goes out of its way to accommodate a customer, it’s not unheard of for that customer to toss a few extra dollars in. So when a food truck worker in Manhattan saw his crew had been left without a tip on a $170 order placed by a multinational shareholder advisory service, he took his frustration to Twitter — and got fired for it. [More]
New York State Wants Drivers To Put Their Smartphones Down Already
By 7.29.13
The authorities are on to you. Yeah, you. The person who thinks that you can totally get away with texting and driving as long as you keep your phone in your lap. In order to catch you, the Empire State spent a million bucks to launch a shiny new fleet of Chevy Tahoes that let state troopers stare at motorists’ crotches. [More]
