The cold weather - and holiday festivities - descended upon Gothamist. The Rockefeller Christmas tree was lit, Broadway stagehand finally ended their strike, and NASCAR decided to run their victory lap through Times Square. There were disturbing photographs revealing the working conditions in which many city manholes are produced and ninjas were also a hot topic, either robbing homes or entering into alibis. But the city was really rocked by how Rudy Giuliani's visits......

75-year-old Maximo Jurado escaped from a New Jersey prison in 1979 and has been on the run ever since - until he was captured by police last night in Philadelphia at the home of an ex-girlfriend, who had known him for a over a year but had never discovered the truth about his past. The Daily News story we linked to the other day about the bloated Parking Authority pay roll has caused Ed Rendell......

The Inquirer has the details on yesterday's Phillies pep rally, which folks are claiming was the largest pep rally in the city's history. Today is the one year anniversary of the Amish school shooting. The Penn student who died on September 9th of meningococcal meningitis was discharged from the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania only days earlier and told she had a viral infection that would soon clear up. Penn officials are still claiming......

Londonist are starting to think their city is getting just a little bit too expensive, when even Christian Slater can't afford to go out there. And there's no escaping, as local singer Lily Allen discovered when she was barred entry to the US. The British mapping agency caused further bad karma, by blocking a 3-D representation of London in Google Earth. But the smiles returned to Londonist's faces as they interviewed Baroness von Reichardt,......

Seattlest has a talk with the photographer from last week's "Segway Mom" and then experiences some dissension in the ranks over the question of wine vs. beer. It's not West Side Story, but about as close as they'll get. They're also still waiting on some inbox relief after a spammer is arrested. As Chicagoist counts down the days to its third anniversary party, they found all-organic pizza to be underwhelming amidst the hoopla, tried......

Good news: looks like they may have nabbed one of those "splash and grab" convenience store robbers. In case you haven't heard enough about the violence in our town, the Daily News points out that "Philadelphia is the most murder-plagued big city in the country," and they even throw up some numbers to prove it. Those aren't the only interesting numbers Daily News has for us, either: a poll which they conducted with Keystone says......

Valentine's Day is only a few days away, and we here across the Gothamist network wanted to express would like to tell you, in the spirit of the holiday, just how much we love you, our readers. Don't let it get to your heads, though. There are plenty of things we love, you included. Just be glad you're not amongst the things we hate. SFist saw their beloved mayor enter rehab, and they loved the......

As if the School District of Philadelphia wasn't having enough money troubles, the former principal and chief administrative officer of a small Center City charter school has been found guilty of defrauding them of over $200,000. He's been ordered to pay the money back, and to serve 33 months in federal prison. US Department of Justice lawyers had requested that federal observers be stationed in polling places in Philly's Latino neighborhoods on Tuesday, but......

It's like ist, and like that, and like ist, huh? Here's your weekly wrap-up of what's going on across the world, courtest of the Gothamist network. >>> Austinist: Hey, look, it's interview with one of the best names in rock music. His music is OK, too, but we love love love the name. >>> Bostonist: Those loveable-then-annoying Boston fans are mourning the loss of Theo Epstein. He didn't sign a contract extension, he's not dead.......