Free Republic

Earlier this year, New York Times food critic Pete Wells was moved to write 841 words about breakfast sandwiches. It was a love letter of sorts, an ooey gooey ode to the most basic form of one of the most basic morning foods. But it was also a complaint: A new restaurant called BEC — short for Bacon Egg and Cheese — was about to open in Manhattan, and he was less than pleased. Breakfast sandwiches, Wells explained, are nothing if not practical, prepared quickly and eaten on the go, stuffed with modest ingredients and sold at a reasonable price....

Can you imagine this happening even ten years ago? This is the pace of “social change” in the seventh year of the reign of the Emperor Hussein: A highly adored and highly controversial fast food chain satisfied cravings and ruffled a few feathers Saturday with the grand opening of its first official Manhattan outpost. Chick-Fil-A, the massively popular Southern staple owned by a conservative Christian family known for their anti-gay marriage views, hatched a 5,000-square-foot store in Herald Square to mixed reviews from fervent devotees and activists.“This is the best chicken in the world, in my opinion.” said Dana...

New York City residents were treated to a glimpse of their (and our!) future recently when Egyptian journalists in town to cover the visit of Egyptian president Al-Sisi to the U.N. were assaulted by Muslim Brotherhood agents -- in full view of New York City police. The journalists were assaulted verbally and physically while New York’s finest looked on, deigning to intervene in much the same way a schoolteacher does with a recalcitrant student – tut-tutting and tsk-tsking – rather than apprehending and jailing the violent assaulters as one would expect on the streets of an American city. In...

The great and terrible Chick-fil-A has come to Babylon. I’m pretty sure that’s a quote from Ghostbusters, right before the “dogs and cats living together” bit. Yes, the mighty and controversial, but undisputed King of chicken has come at last to New York City, and despite any past enmity, the city is thrilled and the residents are lined up for blocks to get the precious. Being from the south, Chick-fil-A has long been a passion of mine. If you’re wondering, I order the classic as is. I put a little mayo and mustard on it. I escape to euphoria. And...

Ethel Rosenberg, who was executed with her husband for treason in 1953, was honored Monday by the City Council on what would have been her 100th birthday. Three council members joined Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer in issuing two proclamations lauding Rosenberg, a Lower East Side resident, for “demonstrating great bravery” in leading a 1935 strike against the National New York Packing and Supply Co., where she worked as a clerk. The proclamations also said she was “wrongfully” executed for helping her husband, Julius, pass atomic secrets to the Soviet Union. “A lot of hysteria was created around anti-communism and...

<p>NEW YORK (AP) — New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is set to propose that New York City's pension funds divest from coal.</p> <p>De Blasio administration officials told The Associated Press that the mayor will begin making his case to the city's five pension funds on Tuesday.</p>

We did it! We the people. President Obama pushed for it, then-Mayor of NYC Michael Bloomberg supported it, the media actively campaigned for it — the elites in their increasingly fragile ivory towers stumped for the mosque. But the people stood up and fought it and won. Hey Obama, YES. WE. CAN. ‘Ground Zero mosque’ officially scrapped ‘Market-maker’ skyscraper planned for controversial site The infamous “Ground Zero mosque” debate is officially over. A “market maker” 70-story skyscraper will soon break ground at lower Manhattan’s 45 Park Place, ending any possibility of resurrecting plans for the religious building. Imam Feisal Abdul...

The infamous Ground Zero Mosque project is officially dead. We won. We the People.Crains New York reports that the unsavory developer behind the Ground Zero Mosque initiative, Sharif El-Gamal, is now making different plans: “Mr. El-Gamal’s Soho Properties has proposed a 667-foot condominium tower at lower Manhattan’s 45 Park Place. The glass skyscraper, which has yet to break ground, will include at least 15 full-floor units of 3,200 to 3,700 square feet, and average prices higher than $3,000 a square foot, according to plans released to Bloomberg by the developer.”If El-Gamal hopes to snag $3,000 a square foot, there is...

New York City public schools are closed to observe the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha. Thursday was the first time the schools serving 1.1 million pupils closed for a Muslim holiday. Mayor Bill de Blasio announced this year that the city’s public schools would observe the two Muslim holy days of Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha.

Two New York legislators are launching a campaign to designate the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village as the first national park site honoring LGBT history. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler are making their announcement in front of the tavern that was the scene of a 1969 uprising that was a key moment for the nascent gay rights movement. …

One of New York City's most well-to-do streets is not immune to the growing panhandling problem. It is a sunny summer morning on E. 29th St. and Park Ave. Business is brisk for panhandlers who zero in on drivers stopped at the light on the busy crosstown route. It's almost like an unofficial toll. There's no shame to them as they panhandle, knowing Fox 5 News cameras are right there. A man who says he's an Army veteran works the corner by day and sleeps in a city shelter by night.

New York's top cop has said the only reason a police officer told a Times Square desnuda to cover up her two-year-old daughter was because it was cold rather than any law she may have been breaking. NYPD Chief Bill Bratton told reporters that he was frustrated with the current situation at the Crossroads of the World that allows women to parade around topless in exchange for tips. “That’s the craziness of this issue of ‘artistic freedom’ when it goes to the extent of [the mother] — if in fact that was the mother — exploiting that young child for...

A Long Island woman’s insistence that she owns a BMW landed her in a psych ward at Harlem Hospital. The doctors believed she was delusional and suffering from bipolar disorder — but she was actually telling the truth, a lawsuit claims. Kam Brock’s frightening eight-day “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” ordeal at the mental facility included forced injections of powerful sedatives and demands she down doses of lithium, according to medical records obtained by PIX11 from her attorney. Brock said it all started at a traffic light in Harlem after she was pulled over by an officer for allegedly...

A painted lady says she no longer feels safe posing topless in Times Square after she punched in the face and called a 'nasty wh**e'. Amanda Roman, 23, was attacked by a woman in front of the huge crowds gathered at the New York City landmark. Roman, one of a group of bare-breasted women who have caused controversy in recent weeks, says she 'doesn't feel protected' by police officers stationed in the square.

On the eve of the 14th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, stunning photos show a rainbow appearing to originate from the World Trade Center in New York City on Thursday. Ben Sturner, the CEO of sports marketing company Leverage Agency, has an unobstructed view of the Manhattan skyline including the World Trade Center, from across the East River. On Thursday morning, Sturner stepped outside of his apartment in Long Island City, Queens and onto the terrace to check the weather as part of his daily routine. The sight that he saw while standing outside just after 7:00am was...

New York Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said Thursday that he intends to apologize to former tennis player James Blake, who he said was "inappropriately" put under arrest outside a midtown hotel after fitting a description of a subject in an investigation. Blake, who is black, is in New York for the U.S. Open in Queens. He was standing outside the Grad Hyatt hotel around noon on Wednesday when he was incorrectly identified by two witnesses as being part of an Internet identity theft scheme. Bratton called the incident a "fast approach" encounter -- where police grab a suspect by the...

September 6, 2015 Variety of mutilated animals found strewn in city parks Aaron Short There’s magic in New York City’s parks — black magic. More than a dozen mutilated animals have been discovered in the past 18 months, apparent victims of ritual sacrifice, records show. New Yorkers found four severed goat heads, scores of mutilated chickens and other birds, three butchered pigs and a calf’s head, according to 311 complaint data. The Fort George Playground in Highbridge Park in upper Manhattan was fouled by a particularly gruesome animal mutilation in January 2014 — a goat head “pinned up on one...

A three-year restoration project at St. Patrick's Cathedral, the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York and one of the country's most well-known churches, is coming to an end just in time for a late September visit from Pope Francis. Most of the scaffolding has already been taken down and officials are steadfast in saying it will be done in time. The project was officially announced on St. Patrick's Day 2012 and got started soon after. It was a huge undertaking — the entire exterior was covered in scaffolding, all the way to the top of the two...

It was early afternoon when the man with the twitching legs was dragged from the ground into an ambulance. Another man selling books washed away the vomit.A man named Charlie Medina sat at the same spot a few days later, unable to remember his name before he fell into a trance with his jaw open and his eyes dilated.And the lovers. They were unable to find a room. One pulled off the other’s shirt and her bra, then started to kiss her bruised breasts while a small crowd gathered to watch.The people here on this stretch of 125th Street in...

Mayor de Blasio has endangered New Yorkers’ lives by abandoning stop-and-frisk — an “amazing surrender” rooted in politics, ex-Police Commissioner Ray Kelly charges in a new book. “De Blasio shrugged and walked away from a routine and useful policing tool, snatching law enforcement defeat from the jaws of legal victory,” Kelly writes in his memoir, “Vigilance: My Life Serving America and Protecting Its Empire City.” De Blasio swept away stop-and-frisk — a policy police brass instituted in 1990 to let cops search and detain anyone they suspected of committing a crime — as a sop to his core supporters as...