Another turn of the screw. Shame on Judge Richard Berman. From the New York Daily News, Dec. 2:

Judge: Searches of bags in subway is constitutional
Random police searches of riders' bags to deter terrorism in the nation's largest subway system do not violate the Constitution and are a minimal intrusion of privacy, a federal judge ruled Friday.

By the way, a week later we're still trying to figure out what this was all about, and we note with trepidation that there have been no follow-up stories. WW4 Report's chief blogger became aware of the smell at around 7.30 PM Oct. 28 on Whitehall Street in the Financial District. It was still evident, although fainter, upon arriving by bicycle in the Lower East Side, some two miles uptown. The immediate association for this observer was butterscotch. Is it just us, or does anyone else think it might have been a clandestine test of a dispersal agent to simulate bio-chemical attack, such as have been held (overtly) in the city in recent weeks? Or, ominously, an actual attack with some kind of slow-acting bio-chem agent? From the NY Times, Oct. 29:

Kristen Lombardi in the Village Voice Sept. 6 remembers 9-11's forgtten victims—who continue to suffer in silence:

Sarah Ferguson reports for the Village Voice Sept. 12 on how the conspiracy set crashed the official 9-11 commemoration:

The anguish was palpable at Ground Zero yesterday, as family members made their way down a long ramp into the vast emptiness of the World Trade Center site, then took turns reading out the names of their lost loved ones.

"Vasean's Law" is a step in the right direction, but too bad it couldn't be applied retroactively. In the USA, it seems having a driver's license is literally a license to kill. From New York Newsday, Sept. 13:

Drunk driver who inspired Vasean's law released from jail
The drunken driver who mowed down two boys last year, killing one of them, is a free man after serving 38 days of his two-month sentence.

The group of New York cyclists who join the monthly Critical Mass Bike Ride is asking Mayor Michael Bloomberg to join in so he can see first-hand how they're treated by police. They also say they are going to launch a letter campaign asking the mayor for a public hearing to explain why money is being spent to police their events. "Critical Mass happens around the world," said Sara Stout of World Carfree Network.

From The New Standard, Aug. 24:

Responding to last month’s bombings in the London subway system, transit officials in New York City decided to hand one of the nation’s largest defense contractors $212 million to dramatically increase surveillance efforts throughout the metropolitan transportation system.

Aug. 24 commentary in MarketWatch takes Goldman Sachs to task for exploiting the chaos—as well as government largesse—over the Ground Zero redevelopment effort in New York City:

For a Wall Street bank, Goldman Sachs plays the Main Street game of government extortion like a veteran.