Free Republic

He’s the teen wolf of Wall Street. A kid from Queens has made tens of millions of dollars — by trading stocks on his lunch breaks at Stuyvesant High School, New York magazine reports in its Monday issue. Mohammed Islam is only 17 and still months away from graduating — but worth a rumored $72 million. “The high eight figures,” is as specific as the shy and modest teen would get when asked his net worth.

It's the city's largest, and most diverse, borough. Now it’s … the best tourist destination in the nation? That's the word from Lonely Planet tour guides, which has anointed Queens as the Best U.S. Destination for 2015. "Queens is finally emerging from the shadows of Manhattan to take its place as one of New York's most fascinating boroughs," the guidebook’s writers said. True, there are only five boroughs, but still. "I've watch it change from forgotten to an exciting destination," said Regis St. Louis, Lonely Planet’s coordinating author — and a resident of Brooklyn. St. Louis said Queens has the...

The New York borough of Queens has been given top spot in a list of the best places to visit in the US next year. The sprawling suburb, traditionally off the tourist map, has beaten a host of America's most famous destinations in an annual 'Best in the US' ranking compiled by Lonely Planet. The list praised Queens' microbreweries, beaches, global food offerings and ‘world-class’ art scene.

From A New and Accurate Map of the Entire New Netherland, engraving believed to be by Carolus Allard, courtesy the Department of Records   Over the Thanksgiving holiday, the New York City Department of Records just blew the minds of history geeks everywhere.  They released the first batch of digitized documents from the first years of the city's existence, back when it was the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam. You can find the first batch of released documents at the city's attractive new portal here. This is the equivalent of pulling out old photo albums of you playing with...

Though abortions are significantly down in the U.S. as a whole, business is booming at Planned Parenthood. Even while abortions have dropped to totals and rates not seen since the early days of Roe v. Wade, Planned Parenthood has been on building spree, putting up giant abortion mega-clinics all over the U.S. A new $9 million “health center” just announced by Planned Parenthood of New York City for Queens is just the latest. Annual abortions hit 1.6 million in the U.S. in 1990, but as of 2011 had dropped to 1.06 million a year. During that same time frame, however,...

The deadly encounter took place in Jamaica, on Jamaica Ave. near 160th St., when the man attacked four cops, police sources said. He swung a hatchet at the officers, hitting two of them, one of whom was dealt a severe head wound. Two cops then shot the man dead. A female bystander was hit in the back and was initially listed in critical condition but was expected to survive. A man armed with a hatchet who attacked a group of cops on a Queens street, critically injuring one of them, was shot dead by the officers on Thursday afternoon, and...

despite her family owning property since 1931 Imagine arriving at your own home and finding out a stranger is not only squatting there — he’s claiming the place for himself after he re-keyed ALL the locks to the house. AND even though you can prove the house isn’t his the courts drag their feet about evicting him because after all it is the guys residence– IN YOUR HOUSE! hat’s the nightmare that an elderly New York City woman is living, and now she is fighting to get back the house that she says an ex-con stole from her by filing...

Woman fights to take back house stolen in deed-fraud scam By Amber Jamieson It’s a case of grand theft house. A Manhattan woman claims an ex-con stole her family home in Queens by filing a phony deed with the city and moving in. Now Jennifer Merin is battling in court to remove the convicted armed robber, Darrell Beatty, 49, and his sons, Darrell Kash Beatty, 25, and DeShaun Beatty, 22, from the three-bedroom Tudor she says they snatched in February. “It just devastates me,” Merin, an online film critic, said as she looked at cherished family heirlooms — photos, a...

The crowd of 500 included grandmothers and small children, Chinese immigrants and the president of a local Republican club, all shouting that the mayor had trampled their rights. The source of their anger? The 180 homeless families the city had moved into the defunct Pan American Hotel in Elmhurst, Queens. The residents felt nervous around the new arrivals, they said. There were reports of shoplifting from the Good Fortune Supermarket, public urination and panhandling – all things, they said, that had been unheard-of in their neighborhood until now. During the protest on Tuesday night, one of the organizers spoke through...

From the In My Backyard Desk, some sensational news, via The Brooklyn Eagle: The Most Reverend Nicholas DiMarzio, bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn and Queens, will ordain 13 men to the priesthood on Saturday, June 28. This group of men, who have served for the past year as transitional deacons, composes the largest class of new priests in the United States. The diocese is thus helping to reverse a long decline in vocations that has led to a shortage of priests within the Roman Catholic Church.The ordination liturgy will take place at the Brooklyn DioceseÂ’s newly renovated...

One Queens-based e-commerce startup is poised to grow aggressively over the next few years, and has found just the place to do it: Ohio. Gwynnie Bee, a subscription service for the lease and sale of plus-size women’s apparel, reportedly plans to add 400 new positions over the next few years at a new 100,000-square-foot warehouse and distribution facility on the outskirts of Columbus. The company’s executive and marketing operations will remain in New York City, where Gwynnie Bee will still be officially headquartered, but the 42 warehouse and distribution workers at the company’s current Long Island City warehouse will be...

The politician was charged with misusing tens of thousands of dollars in taxpayer funds — even spending some of the money on a $750 designer handbag. ... A city councilman's career is going to hell in a Louis Vuitton handbag. Councilman Ruben Wills, 42, of Jamaica, Queens, was arrested Wednesday on charges of stealing $30,500 in government money, and using some of it for shopping trips to Nordstrom and Century 21 and the purchase of a $750 Vuitton bag at Macy’s. Wills, a Democrat, was slapped with a dozen charges, including scheming to defraud, grand larceny and falsifying business records....

A border patrol officer who crashed his van into a civilian car blamed the accident on the other driver — but little did he know, the civilian had a secret camera installed in his vehicle.

**SNIP** “It is the recommendation of this office that Marcella Sills’ employment be terminated,” Condon wrote in his 13-page report, adding that his finding have been turned over to Queens District Attorney Richard Brown for further investigation and “whatever action he deems appropriate.” Condon said in his report that the probe of Sills and her assistant-principal, Tonya West, was sparked by The Post’s reporting. The investigation found that Sills flat-out lied about her attendance at the school, didn’t keep a timecard – and then tried to get underlings to fudge or produce fake timecards to cover her tracks.

Mayor de Blasio made a call to a top NYPD spokeswoman about the arrest of a pal who was key to helping him in the black vote last year – and the guy was spared a night in jail. Bishop Orlando Findlayter, pastor of New Hope Christian church in Queens, was pulled over at 11:21 p.m. Monday in East Flatbush, Brooklyn for making a left turn without signaling, according to the Wall Street Journal. When cops ran his license, they found two warrants issued on Jan. 16 for failing to appear in court for prior protest arrests. He was arrested...

Mexican border-violator Miguel Mejias-Ramos said he slashed his two baby girls to death after he killed their mother — and didn’t have car seats to take them back to Mexico, outraged officials revealed as craven Queens dad Mejia-Ramos was arraigned on murder charges. Mejia-Ramos, 28, was expressionless as a judge ordered him held with no bail for the slaughter during a jealousy-fueled, five-knife rampage.“I was going to take them with me, but I didn’t have car seats,” the monster told cops. Originally claiming self-defense, Mejia-Ramos came clean while being flown back by Queens detectives. Mejia-Ramos has no known criminal history...

This seems to be the only coverage of the protest on Tuesday.

Shortly after New Year’s Day, Man Hyung Lee, 77, was nursing a coffee in his usual seat in a narrow booth at a McDonald’s in Flushing, Queens, when two police officers stepped into the fluorescent light of the restaurant. Mr. Lee said the officers had been called because he and his friends — a revolving group who shuffle into the McDonald’s on the corner of Parsons and Northern Boulevards on walkers, or with canes, in wheelchairs or with infirm steps, as early as 5 a.m. and often linger until well after dark — had, as they seem to do every...

Students at PS 106 in Far Rockaway, Queens, have gotten no math or reading and writing books for the rigorous Common Core curriculum, whistleblowers say. The 234 kids get no gym or art classes. Instead, they watch movies every day. “The kids have seen more movies than Siskel and Ebert,” a source said... The principal — Marcella Sills, who joined PS 106 nine years ago — is a frequent no-show, sources say. Sills did not come to school last Monday. On Tuesday, she showed up at 3:30 p.m. On Wednesday, The Post found her at home in Westbury, LI, all...

A Queens man broke his leg Thursday in a horrific, unprovoked daytime attack similar to a “knockout game” strike, the Daily News has learned. Clifford Wong, 52, was leaving his job at a New York Lottery office in Harlem and was nearing his car on W. 126th St. near Lenox Ave. at about 2:30 p.m. when he saw a group of black teens watching him. “Something didn’t feel right so I crossed the street,” he said. “I took a few steps and in an instant one guy was in front of me.” “Where do you think you’re going?” the suspect...