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NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — In the push for increased school safety in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, some parents on Staten Island are pushing for guns in school. It’s all part of a proposal that calls for the weapons to be held by retired city cops, but as CBS 2′s Sean Hennessey reported Thursday, not everyone is convinced it’s the way to go. Some New York City students may soon be getting a lesson in school safety few ever would have imagined. Sam Pirozzolo is the president of Staten Island Community Education Council 31, the school...

The newly appointed Chancellor of the University of California – Berkeley (CAL) denied in a recent interview that he signed a petition demanding Columbia University divest from companies doing business with Israel. While chair of Columbia’s Department of Anthropology in 2002, Nicholas Dirks’ name appeared on a controversial petition calling for the Ivy League school to divest from Israel because of the “brutality of Israeli military rule over Palestinians.” Dirks denied that he signed the petition, in an interview with the University of California’s Office of Public Affairs.

Yesterday we told you about the interactive map of local gun owners published by the Journal-News, a newspaper serving the Westchester and Rockland counties of New York, and the outcry it immediately drew. Turns out the stunt was so unpopular — with gun owners and privacy advocates alike — that a blogger named Christopher Fountain took it upon himself to dig up and organize the names, addresses, and phone numbers of the Journal-News staff, starting with editor Cyndee Royle. The post is called "Keep up the heat" and encourages readers to pester the paper and prevent them from...report[ing] gun-owner addresses. As long as...

In retaliation against the New York newspaper — the Journal News — that published the addresses of those pistol permit holders in two of the state’s counties, a blogger has created a map pinpointing the addresses of the newspaper’s employees. Mimicking the title of the Journal News’ original article, Robert Cox with “Talk of the Sound” headlined his post: Map: Where are the Journal News employees in your neighborhood?

Jammie Wearing Fool is reporting, with supporting links, that Editor CynDee Royle at the Journal News headquartered in White Plains, New York, which on Saturday, as noted on Monday at NewsBusters, published an interactive map showing the names and address of all pistol permit holders in Westchester and Rockland Counties, has taken down her Facebook page and made her Twitter account private (the latter may have been the case before the article was published). The paper has also recognized the outrage the published map cause, is offering a truly lame defense, and claims it didn't get everything it wanted. Paper-“People...

A relief center for storm-ravaged residents of Staten Island, New York, was vandalized and looted overnight on Christmas by thieves who stole donated supplies and destroyed items intended for victims of Hurricane Sandy. The Midland Beach center on Midland Avenue has been an oasis of hope for those who lost their homes in the storm nearly two months ago. The supplies are housed under a tent, which is blocked off with barricades and manned by volunteers, but the workers left the center unattended on Christmas night.

Nearly two months after homes in Staten Island, NY were devastated by Hurricane Sandy, residents say they’re still struggling with red tape as they try to get the government to help. … Victims are shuffled from one desk to another for registration, an identification check, and one-on-one interviews—then referred to something called a “Mitigation Desk,” a FEMA official at a local Disaster Recovery Center explained to MRCTV. …

The father of New York gun control was Democratic city pol “Big Tim “Sullivan — a state senator and Tammany Hall crook, a criminal overseer of the gangs of New York. In 1911 — in the wake of a notorious Gramercy Park blueblood murder-suicide — Sullivan sponsored the Sullivan Act, which mandated police-issued licenses for handguns and made it a felony to carry an unlicensed concealed weapon. This was the heyday of the pre-Prohibition gangs, roving bands of violent toughs who terrorized ethnic neighborhoods and often fought pitched battles with police. In 1903, the Battle of Rivington Street pitted a...

CARROLL GARDENS — An NYPD commander is using Twitter to distribute the names and mugshots of convicts recently returned to his neighborhood after serving prison sentences — and his actions could result in a lawsuit. Capt. Jeffrey Schiff, commanding officer of the 76th Precinct, which covers Red Hook, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill and part of Gowanus, said his goal is to protect his community and keep residents safe. But his actions, though praised by some local residents, have caused privacy concerns among others and provoked the threat of a lawsuit from Legal Aid. "Everyone can absorb this information and intelligently...

<p>A local New York newspaper is drawing the ire of its readers after publishing an interactive map that shows the names and addresses of thousands of residents who have handgun permits.</p>

WEBSTER, N.Y. (AP) — Residents of a suburban Rochester, N.Y., neighborhood gutted by a fire set by a man who gunned down four volunteer firefighters have been allowed to return to their homes. Local media outlets report that authorities began letting homeowners return to their properties in Webster on Tuesday, a day after 62-year-old William Spengler shot four firefighters, killing two, after setting the pre-dawn blaze that destroyed seven homes along Lake Ontario and damaged two others.

It’s fine to flash the neighbors — just don’t have the indecency to smoke. The condo board for one of Brooklyn’s most prestigious addresses has banned smoking throughout the glass-walled building — including in residents’ private apartments. Condo owners at tony 1 Grand Army Plaza — a k a 1 Prospect Park, where residents are famous for parading around in the buff, giving parkgoers an eyeful through their floor-to-ceiling windows — will now face fines if they dare to light up in their multimillion-dollar pads. The only area where residents can puff away is on their private terraces, which boast...

A local New York newspaper is drawing the ire of its readers after publishing an interactive map that shows the names and addresses of thousands of residents who have handgun permits. The online map was published by The Journal News along with an article under the headline: "The gun owner next door: What you don't know about the weapons in your neighborhood." The newspaper obtained, and then published, the names and addresses of pistol permit holders in Westchester and Rockland counties through a Freedom of Information Act request. The article, in explaining the decision to publish the information, pointed to...

U.S. stocks sank Monday as investors remain concerned that officials in Washington will fail to resolve a looming fiscal crisis. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.4%. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq both lost about 0.3%. U.S. markets closed at 1 p.m. ET and will remain dark Tuesday for the Christmas holiday. With time running out, investors are increasingly concerned about the lack of progress in talks over tax hikes and spending cuts set to kick in automatically on Jan. 1, known as the fiscal cliff. …

The Belle Harbor section of the Rockaways in New York, where so many heroes emerged during Superstorm Sandy, has lost one of them to a tragic surfing death in Puerto Rico. ((snip)) The New York City lifeguard was widely praised after the storm for using his surfboard to move several Queens neighbors endangered by high water and a fire to safety.

A newspaper in New York has received a wave of criticism from its readers after publishing the names and addresses of all of the individuals with handgun or pistol permits in its coverage area. Hundreds of residents in New York's Westchester and Rockland counties were surprised to find their names and addresses listed on a map posted by The Journal News on Sunday. Users can click any dot on the map to see which of their neighbors has a permit for a gun. The map sparked more than 500 comments from readers within a day of its appearance on the...

After it surfaced that Democratic Congressional candidate Wendy Rosen had been voting in two states she dropped out of her race against Republican Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) in September

The gunman who ambushed four volunteer firefighters, killing two, in upstate New York had spent 17 years in prison for beating his grandmother to death with a hammer in 1980, police said. Undated booking photo of William Spengler, who shot and killed two firefighters Monday. William Spengler opened fire on the volunteers as they responded to a blaze just before 6 a.m. ET in a small cluster of homes along Lake Ontario in Webster, N.Y., police said, rocking this close-knit community. The 62-year-old convicted felon had apparently set a trap, firing on the first responders from atop an earthen berm....

Webster, N.Y. -- 13WHAM News has learned several people have been shot at the scene of a fire on Lake Road in Webster. The fire is at 191 Lake Road near Bay Road. A source tells 13WHAM News that at that scene, an unknown gunman opened fire on fire crews on the scene. The victims have been taken by Mercy Flight to area hospitals. The fire has now spread to a second house. 13WHAM has several crews converging on the scene and will provide updates at they're available.

<p>A man who was paroled just two days earlier was ordered held without bail Saturday in the 2005 murder of a 23-year-old Cicero woman.</p> <p>Travon D. McDonald, 29, of Hickory Hills is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Nayely Murry. He is charged with suffocating Murry, hiding her body in the trunk of a car and trying to set the car on fire.</p>