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July 29, 2014 Sophie Weiner

The producers of Sesame Street stated this week that they are exploring possibilities of legal action against people wearing costumes that represent their copyrighted characters. The mascots, who pose with tourists and demand tips, have come to police attention multiple times recently, including last week when a man dressed like Spider-Man punched a cop. Sesame […]

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July 28, 2014 Marina Galperina

The least populated borough in the city has the highest number of most-sued NYPD officers, Daily News reports. Staten Island’s 120th Precinct is particularly troubled, covering the area near Tompkinsville Park where Eric Garner died after Officer Daniel Pantaleo put him in an illegal chokehold. The 120th Precinct narcotics unit specifically has cost the city $6 million in […]

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April 24, 2014 Andy Cush

Josh Boss, a journalist who was violently arrested while documenting a peaceful Occupy Wall Street March in 2011, will receive a $55,000 settlement from the city. A video of the altercation surrounding Boss’s arrest — in which Thomas Purtell throws him to the ground, then puts his knee in Boss’s face — is above. Boss […]

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April 1, 2014 Andy Cush

It wasn’t just the New York Post that pointed an accusatory finger at innocent young men who just so happened to have brown skin in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing, and now, they won’t be the only ones getting sued for it, either. Abdulrahman Alharbi, a Saudi Arabian student who was present at the scene […]

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March 25, 2014 Andy Cush

The city banned the smoking of electronic cigarettes in public late last year, and now, a smokers’ rights group is suing to have the legislation overturned. The lawsuit’s argument hinges on semantics. As The Verge points out, New York’s constitution requires that  “laws must address only one subject, and that subject must be reflected in the title,” […]

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March 19, 2014 Andy Cush

Allen Henson, the photographer who’s made a name for himself taking photos of topless women around New York City, was sued by the corporation that owns the Empire State Building earlier this year. This morning, he sent us and presumably several other journalists an update on his case: he’s countersuing for $5 million. Henson announced […]

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March 18, 2014 Andy Cush

The saga of Beastie Boys versus GoldieBlox appears to be winding to a close, as the two parties have reached a settlement in a lawsuit sparked by a GoldieBlox YouTube commercial that went viral late last year. GoldieBlox, which sells toys designed to “inspire the future generation of female engineers,” used a reworking of the […]

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February 21, 2014 Andy Cush

Last April, two Keystone Cops NYPD officers were driving the wrong way down Watkins Street in Brownsville when they sideswiped a parked SUV belonging to a man named Robert Jackson’s girlfriend. Jackson was inside, and stepped out to ask the officers how’d they manage to run into him. Then, according to Jackson, the cop said […]

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February 12, 2014 Andy Cush

The saga of is-stripping-art-or-isn’t-it continues this week, as Administrative Law Judge Donna Gardiner ruled that Larry Flynt’s Hustler Club must pay $2.1 million in back sales taxes. The club hadn’t been charging tax on dances, arguing that they constitute “artistic performance.” The court disagreed. This isn’t the first time this has come up. In 2012, the Albany […]

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February 3, 2014 Andy Cush

Last year, a federal court upheld that New York City can limit the number of artists who are allowed to sell work in public places like Battery Park and Union Sauare. A group of activists are fighting that decision, and have asked the Supreme Court to hear their case, but the city is vying to […]

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