Free Republic

NEW YORK (AFP) - New York's iconic Empire State Building is to be lit up green from Friday in honor of the Muslim holiday of Eid, the biggest festival in the Muslim calendar marking the end of Ramadan, officials said. "This is the first time that the Empire State Building will be illuminated for Eid, and the lighting will become an annual event in the same tradition of the yearly lightings for Christmas and Hannukah," according to a statement. Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the fasting month, is expected to be celebrated in New York from Friday, depending...

Frustrated by a legislative session that left many key issues hanging, Gov. Eliot Spitzer said Tuesday that he could govern without lawmakers. Downplaying the importance of passing laws, the freshman governor said he favored regulatory changes and executive orders to run the state -- neither of which require prior approval by the legislature. The Democratic governor repeated his criticism of a decision by the Senate's Republican majority to go home June 21, the official end of the six-month session, though many bills remain to be considered.

Like a molten thread of white heat, lightning cuts across the grey skies above midtown Manhattan to find the top of the Empire State Building. The storm yesterday afternoon was part of the latest blast of bad weather to hit New York. The murky skies and lightning, seen from across the East River in this dramatic picture, were accompaniedby 72mph winds and a deluge which saw an inch of rain fall in nearby Central Park. There was no damage to the 1,454ft Empire State Building. The lightning rod at its very top absorbs such strikes around 100 times a year....

On Bill Maher's Real Time: "There are some, you know there are some anti-Semites in this country, but most of them would vote Republican anyway." You can watch it here. Yeah, because, you know, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Keith Ellison, Michael Moore and other leading lights of American anti-Semitism are Republicans. Not to mention surveys demonstrating without question that Democrats are more likely to have unsympathetic views of Israel than Republicans. (No, I'm not saying you can't be anti-Israel without being anti-Semitic. But it's a signpost.) This was Chuck Schumer attempting to be jocular. Hardy-har-har.

Posted: Friday, 28 April 2006 7:03AM Fla. Man Arrested in Empire State Building Stunt NEW YORK (1010 WINS) --  A man who tried to parachute from the Empire State Building after passing through security wearing a rubber mask and a foam fat suit was arrested in a struggle on the 86th-floor observation deck and handcuffed to a railing, authorities said. "He was fighting with us to get off,'' recalled building official Timothy Donahue, who said he grabbed the man's leg. "He wanted to jump off in the worst way.'' The man, J. Ray Corliss IV, a Discovery Channel host who is slim...

TAMPA -- It cost Barry Grayson $600 to tour Busch Gardens the other night with his family, but the Bradenton man says it was worth every penny to have a guide escort them to the front of the line of major attractions at Busch's annual Halloween event. The fee was more than double the regular admission price for Grayson's five-member party. But for an increasing number of tourists at theme parks and attractions, paying extra to break in line or join a custom tour is the only way to go. Hour waits for rides marred his family's otherwise pleasant visits...

President George Bush is gaining on John Kerry in New York after holding the Republican Convention there. A Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday shows a post-convention bounce for the president –something Kerry did not achieve. Kerry leads Bush by just six percentage points in the race for New York’s 31 electoral votes, 47 percent to 41 percent. A month ago, the Democrat led by 18 points.

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - "The Interpreter," a Universal Pictures thriller starring Nicole Kidman and set in the United Nations headquarters, began shooting late last month in New York. It immediately made history as the first movie to gain permission to shoot in the United Nations since the organization built its Big Apple headquarters in 1953. Yet it almost didn't happen. To the dismay of director Sydney Pollack and his New York crew, the production was in real danger of moving to Canada for about half of its 16-week shoot because of the world body's long-standing policy of not allowing...

I can't put in the data since it is in table format. Maybe someone, like the mod, can help.

New York straight up Through ghastly circumstance, it is once again Manhattan's tallest skyscraper. But the Empire State Building has always been so much more. By Blair Kamin Tribune architecture critic March 20, 2002 NEW YORK -- There it is, popping out from between the skyscrapers as you face south from Central Park. There it is again, soaring above the sidewalk as you gaze east from Macy's on 34th Street. Looking northward from the Flatiron Building at 22nd Street, it is there, too, rising in splendid isolation, its Art Deco summit lit up like the American flag in stacked...