It was a grueling procedure that lasted more than two and a half hours. Marcos Castellon, 30, had fallen about 25 feet into the trench at 119-02 83rd Ave., and it partially collapsed around him, the FDNY told 1010 WINS.

He and his brother, Miguel, were working at the excavation site when the sides came crashing in.

“We were working inside the one whole. Then, everything came tumbling down,” Miguel Castellon said.

Marcos Castellon was trapped in dirt up to his waist.

“We had rescue paramedics go down and start a line, start a treatment for crush syndrome,” Chief of Rescue Battalion Richard Portello told CBS 2′s Jessica Schneider.

While teams of men shored up the side walls, paramedics made sure Marcos Castellon didn’t suffer the deadly affects of the weight of the debris on his body. Con Ed vacuum trucks raced to remove the dirt, getting the trapped worker out from under every inch before they hoisted him up.

“We just kept giving him encouragement, telling him that we’ll get you out, just gonna take a little time,” Portello said.

Marcos Castellon was in stable condition at the time of his rescue. He was transported to Jamaica Hospital with injuries not believed to be life threatening, Schneider reported.

People who live nearby said something like this was bound to happen. They said they’ve been raising the red flag on this site for six months.

The  owner of the property has been slapped with 23 complaints from the Department of Buildings since January.  A stop-work order was in place Tuesday, meaning no construction should have been ongoing, and an additional complaint was filed just Tuesday, Schneider reported.

“They’ve been constructing this house without any plan. Community board has been complaining to Department of Buildings day in a day out. [It's] toothless … haven’t put stop to illegal construction. [They have] absolutely no permit,” concerned neighbor Ido Tuchman said.

In a similar incident back in March, a worker was trapped for four hours in a muddy trench as he worked on the Second Avenue subway. More than 150 firefighters went below ground to rescue him, and it took three hours to free one of his legs.

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NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – There were more delays, more cancellations, and more frustration for Long Island Rail Road riders Tuesday – a full day after a derailment snagged the line near Penn Station.

On Tuesday night, the LIRR said repairs to the tracks and switches that were damaged in the derailment were “progressing rapidly,” but had no final information on how, or whether, the Wednesday morning commute would be affected.

The LIRR said it plans to issue an updated service plan for the Wednesday morning rush before 5 a.m.

The derailment happened on Monday afternoon. For the evening rush Tuesday, the LIRR canceled 21 out of 130 trains that normally originate at Penn Station as repairs continued.

As CBS 2′s Hazel Sanchez reported Tuesday night, commuters said the evening commute at Penn Station was a gamble. Steve Orlando said he lucked out and made it home on Monday, but as to getting home Tuesday, all he could say was, “Fingers crossed.”

Added Rockville Centre resident Michelle Sabatiele: “It’s very frustrating. It’s becoming more and more often that there’s complications on the Long Island Railroad.”

The two cars that were damaged in the derailment Monday had long since been removed Tuesday night, but repairs continued on 500 feet of damaged track and eight switches. Thus, Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials said, cancellations were necessary.

“About 500 feet of tracks and eight switches damaged in the derailment, and Amtrak crews are working diligently now to make those repairs,” said LIRR spokesman Joe Calderone.

The damage was inside one of four East river tunnels owned by Amtrak.

Two cars of a 10-car LIRR train headed to Hempstead derailed at around 6:09 p.m. Monday as it was entering one of the four East River tunnels. About 1,000 passengers were trapped on the train.

One of the riders snapped a picture showing a tilted, derailed car with passengers inside. Riders said it felt like an earthquake.

Some passengers had to wait three hours to be evacuated, while Penn Station swelled with commuters due to cancellations on all lines.

Jill Augustine of Garden City among those who were stranded on the train.

“You had cops, you had the Fire Department — they had water,” she said. “All the passengers were calm. It was just annoying to sit there for three hours.”

The service disruptions kept many routine commuters away from Penn Station Tuesday.

“A lot of people gave up today,” said Moris Mostafiz of Hewlett. “They didn’t come back.”

Most hoped to return Wednesday with service back to normal.

“It’s horrible. It’s horrible. Everybody’s rushing around. They don’t know what’s going on,” said Stacey Thompson of Levittown. “It’s like cattle. Everybody’s rushing for the train pushing. The worst comes out of people when this stuff happens.”

Meanwhile, the LIRR is looking at the possibility that a malfunctioning switch may have contributed to the derailment, Calderone told 1010 WINS.

An inside look of a Long Island Rail Road train that derailed at Penn Station Monday. (CBS 2)

To make the ride a bit smoother, NYC Transit is cross honoring LIRR tickets on the No. 2, 3, 7 and E subway lines.

CHECK: Traffic & Transit | Listen: 1010 WINS | WCBS 880

The cause of the derailment was under investigation by Amtrak, LIRR, and the U.S. Department of Transportation Tuesday.

A preliminary assessment indicates that about 500 feet of track and approximately eight switches have been damaged, MTA spokesman Salvatore Arena told WCBS 880′s Paul Murnane.

Numerous other incidents have impacted MTA riders in recent weeks.

In late May, a No. 1 subway train derailed as it headed into a tunnel just south of 125th Street. Passengers were stuck for more than an hour until a rescue train arrived.

Just over a month ago, both Metro-North and Amtrak suspended service between Grand Central and New Haven after a Metro-North train jumped the tracks and sideswiped a passing train, injuring about 60 riders.

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The first incident happened on Tuesday, May 14, around 12:30 a.m. A 37-year-old woman was reading something on her iPhone as she rode a northbound M train. When the train pulled into the 67th Avenue station in Forest Hills and the doors opened, the suspect ripped the iPhone out of the woman’s hands and ran off.

No one was injured in the incident.

The second incident happened on Thursday, June 6. A 20-year-old woman was also riding the northbound M train in the same area, when the suspect tried to rip her iPhone out of her hands, police said.

The victim fought back, but the suspect slammed the woman’s head into the train door, and stole her iPhone and Metro card. He ran off at the same 67th Avenue station.

The victim in that case refused medical aid, police said.

The suspect was described a black male between the ages of 16 and 17, weighing 150 to 160 pounds. Police have released a surveillance photo of the suspect using the second woman’s Metro card at the Parsons Boulevard-Archer Avenue station several hours later.

Anyone with information in the case was asked to call the NYPD Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS, log onto the Crime Stoppers Web site, or text tips to 274637 (CRIMES) and enter TIP577.

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“Bear,” a member of the Transit Bureau K-9 Unit, suffered four broken teeth and lacerations to his tongue. His handler, Officer Vincent Tieniber, was also injured in the incident, suffering a sprained wrist.

It all started around 11:15 a.m. Tuesday, when four women got into a fight on the No. 4 line subway platform at 59th Street and Lexington Avenue, police said. A 19-year-old woman was being choked by another woman of the same age.

Officer Rafael Diaz came to break up the fight, but the other two women – ages 22 and 31 – pushed Diaz as he tried to stop the choking.

Diaz called for backup, and Officer Tieniber and Bear came to the scene. He was handcuffing the 22-year-old woman – Ravenia Matos-Davis of Queens – when she attacked Bear, police said.

Matos-Davis kicked the German shepherd twice in the mouth, cracking two teeth and chipping two others. She cut the dog’s tongue and left scuff marks on his snout, police said.

But even though he was injured, Bear fought back.

“Bear kept the woman’s foot in his mouth, and held on until I could handcuff her,” Tieniber said in a news release.

But Bear’s damaged teeth did not penetrate the woman’s shoes.

Tieniber himself also suffered the sprained wrist while handcuffing Matos-Davis, police said.

Bear was taken to the Animal Medical Center on East 62nd Street, where he was treated and released. He was expected to return to the job Wednesday, with two canine teeth capped and the others shaved where they are currently chipped.

Tieniber was treated and released from Beth Israel Medical Center for his sprained wrist, and will be evaluated to see when he can return to duty.

Bear and his handler have been credited with numerous brave arrests.

In 2011, Tieniber saw three men wanted for a robbery – one of them with a pair of scissors in hand – at the Broadway Junction A train stop in Brooklyn. He lined the suspects against the wall and handcuffed them as Bear intently stood guard.

The same year, Tieniber came upon an assault in progress by a suspect armed with a razor at the Atlantic-Pacific N, Q and R line stop, also in Brooklyn. The suspect froze when Bear barked, and the man was arrested without incident, police said.

Bear, 6, has been on the job for five years. Tieniber has been on the force for 11 years.

Matos-Davis was charged with injuring a police animal, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, and obstructing governmental administration. Attacking or killing a police animal is currently only a Class A misdemeanor, but legislation is pending to make it a Class E felony, police said.

Another of the women in the fight – Alexandria James, 19, of the Bronx – was charged with strangulation and criminal possession of a controlled substance. Tabricia Moore, 31, also of the Bronx, was charged with obstructing governmental administration, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct, police said.

The woman James allegedly attacked suffered bruises, scratches and neck pain, but refused medical attention, police said.

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Wymore, 51, is running for the 6th District City Council seat on the Upper West Side. On his Web site, he focuses on his history of activism and service in the area.

“I don’t think there is a community more committed to the world working for anyone,” he said in a campaign video.

He co-founded the Stratford Arms Meal Program in 1993, and is a 17-year member and two-term chair of Manhattan Community Board 7 – a typical resume for a City Council candidate in many ways. But Wymore’s community-leader resume has an unusual feature — he built much of it while he was a woman.

In running for office, Wymore’s campaign is neither emphasizing his personal story nor sidestepping it.

“I want to create the inclusive community, and it goes beyond my personal identity,” he said. “But it actually lends a lot to my story and my credibility as a candidate. I’m honest, I’m brave, I’m forthright, and I’m willing to stand up for change.”

Wymore, a Democrat, faces several opponents who also have long records of community involvement in the area.

Nationwide, at least five transgender people have won city, school board and judicial elections, including Mayor Stu Rasmussen in Silverton, Ore. Perhaps dozens of others have run across the country; it’s unclear whether any such candidate has run for city office in New York, though a transgender New Yorker, Melissa Sklarz, holds a Democratic Party post that’s on the ballot.

Wymore is a systems engineer, a specialist in structuring and managing complex projects. He fielded questions at a recent candidate forum with a courteous purposefulness, a handful of index cards for note-taking and a message of valuing “inclusion and care for the Earth and care for each other.”

During his time on Community Board 7, Wymore raised money to renovate a run-down city recreation center that reopened Monday after facing a shaky future for years, among other projects. Colleagues say he’s eagerly consultative but focused on finding resolution.

Wymore’s personal life also has been shaped by a search for resolution. It took major turns in identity — twice — as Wymore raised two children and took on community roles, starting with co-founding a meal program 20 years ago.

He had a gleeful childhood as Melanie Wymore in Tucson, Ariz., and went on to college and a master’s degree at the University of Arizona. Wymore worked for an aerospace company before moving to New York in the 1980s to further a relationship that became a marriage, and to work in engineering and technology consulting jobs.

Yet the “exuberance” from childhood slipped away around puberty. At 35, Wymore reached a conclusion about why — and came out as a lesbian.

As a decade went by, Wymore still felt joy was missing and didn’t know the reason until seeing a recorded interview with a transgender boy during an anti-bullying event about five years ago. Wymore looked at the boy and saw himself.

“It suddenly hit me that it was gender that was at the core” of Wymore’s unease, he said in an interview in his campaign office in a brownstone. “And, of course, it terrified me at the same moment because I’d already been through this family-disrupting, life-changing transition.”

He ultimately decided to undertake surgical and other changes to live as a man. After telling his family, the newly chosen chairman made an announcement of a sort rarely, if ever, heard at community boards.

The response was accepting, he and a colleague recall. “People knew him before and knew what kind of person he was,” member Madge Rosenberg explains.

But there were some alienating moments during Wymore’s roughly two-year transition. At times he sensed other people’s awkwardness as they stumbled over whether to use “he” or “she,” or felt hurt when a women’s book group stopped inviting him for fear of seeming to dismiss his identity shift.

The experience made him more determined to advocate for the disabled, the elderly and others who feel overlooked _ in other words, everybody, Wymore says.

After all, “everyone feels excluded some time or another, for some thing or another,” he said.

Wymore’s opponents include Green Party candidate Tom Siracuse and several Democrats: restaurant executive Ken Biberaj; Democratic Committeewoman Debra Cooper; Noah Gotbaum, founder of the volunteer group New York Cares and a son of a prominent labor leader and stepson of a former city public advocate; Democratic district leader Marc Landis; and former community board chairwoman Helen Rosenthal. The Democratic primary is in September, and the general election is in November.

No one, contender or constituent, mentioned Wymore’s personal story at the recent candidate forum. And that’s just as he’d like.

“For me, it’s really about the work at hand,” he said.

(TM and © Copyright 2013 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2013 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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Nearly 3 million homes are now in evacuation zones — under new flood maps released Tuesday, CBS 2’s John Slattery reported.

Gerritsen Beach, on the south end of Brooklyn, has just been kicked up a notch on the city’s flood map. This neighborhood used to be in Zone B.

“It’s devastating,” one woman said, adding that she wasn’t surprised her community is now in Zone 1.

The city has put this area among the first in the city for evacuation from a storm surge. Sandy, however, changed everything.

“We never got flooded like that before,” resident Roger Galli said.

The city has revised its evacuation maps, with more zones, 1-6. Those zones include an additional 600,000 New Yorkers or a 37-percent increase over those who were in the former Zones listed as A, B and C. So now, each zone is more refined.

Zone 1 has 290,000 people.  Zone 2 has 540,000. Officials said the refinement is all important.

“You want to avoid over evacuation and under evacuation. You don’t want people to have to evacuate if it’s not necessary. We’re looking at storms differently,” Office of Emergency Management Commissioner Joe Bruno said.

Before, the concern for a storm was primarily its intensity. Now, officials account for larger and slower moving storms, as well as the track of the storm and the surge at high tide. And, of course, taken into account is an area’s elevation.

The key for flood-prone New Yorkers is to know which zone you’re in and be prepared if the zone you’re in is evacuated, Slattery reported.

In the city’s history, a mandatory evacuation has been ordered only twice — Hurricane Sandy in October and Hurricane Irene in 2011.

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As 1010 WINS’ Sonia Rincon reported Tuesday, barbecuing is a regular event on Pelham Parkway, but it is illegal, and the Parks Department said it will enforce the rule.

Neighbors such as “Elizabeth” said they do not see what the big deal is.

“The barbecuing on the parkway doesn’t create a problem. It’s just that there’s not enough garbage receptacles to put all the garbage in,” she said. “People usually clean up, but when there’s not enough garbage receptacles, the garbage starts to pile up around the garbage, and it’s not picked up very often.”

And “Ian” said the people who barbecue seem responsible enough about it.

“Little families, basically; not big families. They play soccer; they play sports,” he said.

A Parks Department official said it is not just the trash, but the trees. The leaves can get singed from the smoke.

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As 1010 WINS’ Al Jones reported Tuesday, the Mets’ Single-A affiliate has installed cutting-edge FieldTurf, which “has the look and feel of traditional sod, but is optimally designed for durability and severe weather,” according to the team’s official website.

Sandy ruined the grass at MCU Park.

And maybe it is no surprise that the home park of a baseball team called the Cyclones would get swamped by a hurricane, but “Rick” said it was nice to see that the park, like parts of Coney Island, has made a comeback.

“It’s fitting that they’ve … thank goodness they weren’t where they were, it just seems like a few months ago,” he said.

Artificial turf has replaced the grass, and “Scott” is still just plunking down $10 for his seat.

“I like watching the baseball games, because they’re cheaper than going to Shea, to Citi Field,” he said.

And it is not just the ballpark.

“Nathan’s looks nice, too,” Scott said.

The Cyclones lost their home opener Monday night to the Staten Island Yankees 2-1.

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The typically large crowd looked on as two men fought near the intersection of 46th Street and Seventh Avenue around 2 p.m.

As 1010 WINS’ Sonia Rincon reported, it was an altercation between two men in their 40s that got physical. Witnesses were alarmed, but did not realize one of the men had been stabbed until they saw him lying on the ground bleeding. By then, the other man was gone.

“I don’t know what they were saying to each other,” said a woman who was working nearby. “What I do know is that when the gentleman was down on the floor, he kept saying, ‘I don’t think I’m going to make it,’ and his friend was like, ‘Hold on, you’re going to be all right,’ and the cop was like, ‘Oh, don’t worry, guy, you’re strong.’ The cop was keeping him awake.”

“I’m kind of freaking out a little bit and I heard them screaming,” Junior, a tour bus ticket salesman, told WCBS 880′s Alex Silverman. “I heard a commotion, I looked across the street and I seen the dude over there with the chair.”

According to witnesses, the man who ended up getting stabbed was swinging the chair at the other man who had a knife.

“I told the cop there’s a fight across the street and then they ran across the street and that’s when you notice the guy was on the ground and that he was stabbed because he was holding his side,” Junior said.

The incident was not random, according to police. They said the two men involved know each other.

The stab victim is expected to survive, police said.

Police were looking into what led to the fight.

About an hour and a half after the incident, the crime scene tape was taken down and the Naked Cowboy was entertaining a crowd of onlookers where the fight occurred, Silverman reported.

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NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Tenants and their children have been demanding improvements in their apartment building, demonstrating outside a landlord’s home in the Riverdale section of the Bronx.

They also took CBS 2’s Tracee Carrasco on a tour of their apartments to point out the problems.

From the outside, the apartment building at 1348 Sheridan Ave. in the Claremont section of the Bronx looks well-maintained.
But ask any tenant in the building, and they will show you otherwise.

One woman who did not want to be identified said she had called management about problems in her apartment “a lot of times, a lot of, lot of times.”

Her apartment was infested with bugs, and was rife with leaks and missing tiles. And that was just what was visible to CBS 2’s cameras.

She said her apartment has been that way for three years.

Another resident, Mahamadou Madasa, said he as had the same problems and has been waiting for someone to fix it.

“So when we told the super, he said, ‘I’m going to come fix it,’ and never fixed it,” Madasa said. “It’s over five months.”

The problems are not just inside the apartments — they are outside the building, too. There are no locks for security on the front door, and there is no glass to keep any unwanted visitors out.

“We complain about the door, they never fix it — the same thing,” Madasa said.

Tenants said they believe the problems all started when Chestnut Holdings of New York took over the property several years ago.

“Those company, no good since this company take it, we have a problem,” Madasa said. “When you call, they never pick up the phone.”

That led to a protest Saturday outside company president Jonathan Weiner’s Riverdale home

CBS 2 asked the building owner several times to come on camera, but instead, they released the following statement: “We actively manage our properties using onsite staff, and have attended multiple tenant meetings to address concerns, only to be turned away.”

But the residents said that never happened, and said they are running out of patience.

Chestnut Holdings currently manages around 5,000 apartments in total.

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NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Telecommuting once sounded like science fiction, but it is so common today 10 percent of Americans work from home at some point during the week.

As CBS 2’s Dana Tyler reported Tuesday, those who do not drive off to work are now often being driven to distraction. But now there is a solution in the form of a “virtual office.”

Maggie Mistal; her husband, Craig; and their 2-year-old son, Mercer, live in a one-bedroom apartment in Midtown.

Craig is a travel writer, and Maggie is an executive coach. They both work from home.

“It’s wonderful and challenging at the same time — no, really,” Maggie Mistal said. ”It’s a little bit of both because sometimes you get interruptions, and sometime you get the convenience of being able to walk out your bedroom door and do a phone call.”

Mercer’s cries interrupted Maggie Mistal’s thoughts as she spoke. But another telecommuter, David Deutsch, said there are plenty of other potential distractions too.

“I have all these things — ooh, I can get a snack, or ooh, I should do this — maybe I’ll just take a nap,” he said. “And that does happen, for me, even with a nice home office. I just have a really hard time working from home.”

Both Mistal and Deutsch have also taken the “home” part out of working from home. They are now part of the growing number of people who are so-called “mobile workers,” and work almost anywhere they can find an outlet and Wi-Fi.

Bill Morrow of Regus said a temporary office space could minimize the distractions one might encounter at home, or the local coffee shop.

“The difference between here and a Starbucks is you have a professional work environment, and you don’t have the typical distractions or crowded environment — and just the simple fact that we have electrical outlets and Internet that works all the time,” Morrow said.

Regus is one of several companies that offer temporary office space. There are many players in the “virtual office” industry, from a division of W.R. Grace to a company called Micro Office, but Regus has taken the next step.

The company just opened a street-level business center on Third Avenue. Telecommuters buy a membership for $30 per month, and can use any of their business lounges around the world.

Mistal said no matter where you work, you need to network. She said telecommuters should show up at the office on a regular basis and go to work-related events.

She said there is no substitute for face time – especially if you want to get promoted.

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CBS 2 Political Reporter Marcia Kramer, WCBS 880′s Rich Lamb, El Diario/La Prensa’s Marlene Peralta and Susan Lerner of Common Cause New York were on hand as Brooklyn residents talked about their key concerns.

Click Here To Watch The Meeting

CBS 2 News, WCBS Radio 880, 1010 WINS, El Diario/La Prensa, CUNY and Common Cause NY have teamed up to hold one meeting in each borough (click here to attend an upcoming meeting).

One man, Kevin Ray, urged one of the mayoral candidates to come out in favor of ending the stop-and-frisk policing program.

He said he would lend a “political ear” to any candidate that had the “fortitude and constitution to eliminate stop and frisk.”

“I’m wondering which candidate is willing to step up to the platform, and take that on, debate it, challenge it, give very intellectual discussions; hearty discussions about it, and eliminate it,” Ray said.

Ray said he has not personally been subjected to the stop-and-frisk program, but does not like the fact that he could be.

“It’s so offensive to me personally that it could be me,” he said.

Ray was also one of several people at the meeting to address issues about the city’s public education system. Specifically, he called for “holistic education.”

He wondered if any candidates would consider taking the emphasis away from test taking, and instead bring back programs such as theatre, music and dance.

Some others who addressed education also called for less of an emphasis on test-taking, while one question suggested it is time to “inject capitalism” into public education and give parents vouchers so they can choose schools.

Another resident, Cedric Malone of Brooklyn Heights, addressed the closing of hospitals. In Brooklyn, Long Island College Hospital has been under a threat of closing for months, but has been kept open by a temporary restraining order since April.

“Why are we closing hospitals in overly-developed areas to add more people to the infrastructure and for luxury housing?” he said.

He noted that St. Vincent’s Hospital in Manhattan has closed and will be replaced by luxury housing, and worried that the same could happen elsewhere.

Questions on the cost of housing were also a dominant theme. One participant addressed the need for affordable housing, and questioned the rent levels between $1,400 and $8,000 a month that some developers have considered “affordable.”

Another participant lamented the change in the character of Brooklyn as development has boomed.

“There is a Manhattanization of Brooklyn, and many don’t like the borough losing its authenticity,” the participant wrote, asking what the candidates would do to ensure the borough maintains its unique identity.

The closing of libraries in the city, and concerns about the sale of naming rights for city assets to corporations, were also among the issues addressed.

“If it’s public, and publicly paid for, I’d be inclined to say don’t let them have corporations’ name,” said Michael White of Citizens Defending Libraries. “Subways, to me, are some of the most public things there area.”

Click here to attend an upcoming meeting as we continue our collective listening tour around the five boroughs of New York City. The next meeting takes place on June 25 at the N.Y. Hall Of Science in Queens, and the last will be on Staten Island on June 27 at Wagner College.

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NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — A nanny was sexually assaulted in Central Park in broad daylight Tuesday, and police immediately launched a hunt for her attacker.

As CBS 2’s Dick Brennan reported, Central Park near Tavern on the Green is one of the most popular places to go for an afternoon run, or walk, or take the baby out for a stroll.

But on Tuesday afternoon at 12:30 p.m. that area of Central Park was a scene of horror and danger.

The nanny was walking with two children, when a man raced up to her, smacked her backside, and then grabbed it.

Another woman who saw what was happening intervened. The suspect pushed her away and then took off.

“It’s very scary,” said Simona Ginov.

Ginov comes to the park every day to walk her 9-month-old baby, Mia, and said she can’t believe someone would come after a woman with children.

“I’m actually getting concerned now, because I’m on my iPhone all the time when she sleeps, and I don’t know what is going on around me,” she said.

Beth DiLorenza said she takes her four grandchildren to the park all the time.

“It’s no joke when you have to worry about the children, and now about yourself, too,” she said.

NYPD cameras can be seen all over Central Park West near 67th Street, in the area where the attacker may have made his getaway.

Police on Tuesday afternoon were no doubt checking to see if the victim could identify anyone.

Some in the park were hoping for a wider police presence

“I would encourage more security so women can feel safer,” said Meredith McGregor of the Upper East Side.

And many people in the park said they will have to be more careful, whether walking or jogging.

“I think you should tone your music around a little bit and be aware of your surroundings,” said Angie Walker of the Upper West Side.

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Brooklyn resident Shamel Allen, 28, was charged with manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon in the death of Uro Ama Orji.

Orji, 54, was stabbed in the eye with an umbrella in Brownsville on Thursday, police said.

“There should be very little if any consideration for this man. He doesn’t deserve to be even given bail. This man deserves to go to jail and never come out again. What he did was barbaric, something unseen before, and what could he take from a cab driver? All he could take is $50 to $100,” New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers president Fernando Mateo told WCBS 880 on Tuesday. “He deserves to go to jail for life. He took away a man that was 54 years old, father of five children, immigrant that came here just to work, hustle to support his family. This was a brutal crime, a gruesome crime.”

After Orji was wounded, detectives said the cab jumped a curb and crashed into two parked sport-utility vehicles at Lott Avenue and Boyland Street at about 5:30 p.m.

Orji, a Nigerian immigrant living in Queens, was taken to Brookdale Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

Before Allen’s arrest, video showed a man getting out of the cab, opening the front door of the vehicle and stabbing Orji with an umbrella, 1010 WINS’ Carol D’Auria reported.

“It’s clearly on that video. You have a female and male, and the male runs — the young lady walking away, perhaps guilt got the best of her,” community advisor Tony Herbert told CBS 2′s John Slattery.

A $12,000 reward had been offered for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the case.

“This is a total outrage. This is just a guy just trying to make a buck to probably feed himself and his family, only to have his life taken for less than $10 or maybe $20, which is close to the average fare one would pay for a local ride inside Brooklyn,” Herbert said.

“It’s a very dangerous job, a very dangerous business,” said Mateo.

Orji was the father of five children and had come from Nigeria 10 years ago to start a better life for his family. His children, who range in age from 13 to 22, arrived from Nigeria in December.

His sister-in-law, Chinedum Agwu, said he was a good father who was just trying to make ends meet.

“He was a very dedicated, loving father,” she said. “An innocent man who was just working hard to make sure his kids eat. Everything he wanted to do was take care of his children. It’s horrible. How do you do something like that? How do you wake up and have in your mind to go out and hurt somebody?”

When asked about the dangers of the job, Chinedum Agwu told Slattery, “He always wanted to stop doing it and do something else.”

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District Attorney Charles Hynes said Tuesday that Leslie Alexander, 39, faces dozens of charges for torturing and injuring animals as well as criminal possession of a weapon.

Seven pit bulls were removed from the home, along with a .40-caliber handgun and boxes of ammunition.

Hynes said the equipment included 25 dog kennels and scales with rope attachments used to strengthen a dog’s jaws. He said there was also a stick used to break a dog’s grip on another animal or object.

“Animal fighting is not a ‘sport.’ It is a barbaric and inhumane practice and a serious crime,” Hynes said in a statement. “If you see or hear anything that sounds like animal fighting, if you see animals with wounds from fighting, or if you hear about a fight being planned, please call my office, Animal Care and Control or the ASPCA, and report it.”

Authorities said Alexander’s garage had been converted into a dog-fighting arena.

“Dog fighters, my understanding based on my training and experience, rely on a steady stream of new dogs to come in to be trained because obviously some of them don’t make it,” Diane Malone, head of the Brooklyn DA’s Animal Cruelty Unit, told 1010 WINS.

Alexander will be arraigned on July 2.

If convicted, Alexander faces up to seven years in prison and a $25,000 fine.

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(TM and © Copyright 2013 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2013 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Don’t feel like cooking Wednesday?

Your decision to dine out can mean help for Hurricane Sandy relief efforts.

New Jersey’s first lady, Mary Pat Christie, called on her friend chef David Burke to help spearhead her latest fundraising effort to benefit the Hurricane Sandy New Jersey Relief Fund.

CBS 2′s Kristine Johnson met up with the duo in Chelsea to cook up a soft shell crab dish being served at Burke’s Rumson restaurant Wednesday. Burke is donating 100 percent of the lunch proceeds and 50 percent of the dinner to the relief fund.

Chef David Burke, Mary Pat Christie and CBS 2′s Kristine Johnson meet ahead of National Dine Out Day for Hurricane Sandy relief on June 18, 2013. (credit: CBS 2)

“It’s affordable for lunch and dinner,” Burke said. “For dinner, we’re doing $35 for four courses.”

Christie convinced a number of other notable chefs, locally-owned restaurants and chains to participate in National Dine Out Day. The more you eat, the more they can donate.

“Go to breakfast, lunch and dinner,” Christie said. “We have some really great chefs involved.”

So far, more than 28,000 donors around the world have contributed to the Hurricane Sandy New Jersey Relief fund, raising more than $34 million.

For more information about National Dine Out Day, including participating restaurants across the country, click here.

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Wheeler is making his major league debut in Game 2 Tuesday night, but he’ll technically be optioned back to the minors after the game no matter the outcome.

The Mets put Turner on the DL after he received a cortisone shot. Right-hander Scott Atchison was activated from the DL to bolster the bullpen.

Because Wheeler is joining the team under a rule that allows 26-man rosters for doubleheaders, he won’t have to spend 10 days in the minors before rejoining what will become a six-man rotation.

Turner is batting .266 with no homers and six RBIs for the Mets in 2013.

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(TM and © Copyright 2013 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2013 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

So what are you going to wear? On Tuesday, CBS 2’s Emily Smith learned about the season’s biggest trends.

Look all around and you will probably notice what might be the first biggest trend for summer 2013 – short shorts. You will see them on the streets and in stores – in denim, lace and mixed patterns.

“It’s about shorts city shorts,” said Ann Sherman, owner of Darling in the West Village. “They are also good in the country, but they are everywhere.”

Sherman said for a barbecue, go with the shorts look and even wear heels to dress up a fun trend.

For work, anything navy blue is all the rage. So are stripes.

For a wedding, try a bright yellow or orange dress.

Wallpaper patterns are also back in fashion. Kim Kardashian got mixed reviews donning floral at the Metropolitan Museum of Art gala.

Style expert George Brescia said a light and flowing floral dress could be just right.

“It’s very feminine; it’s lightweight cotton,” he said.

Brescia also loves the lace look, “which is so pretty and so feminine, and actually, this has a peplum on it, and so we’re still seeing the peplum.”

There is also the sheer trend. Some garments are so sheer it might just be shocking.

“What do we do? Just wear a little camisole underneath, and you get sheer flowy romantic look with shorts or jeans,” Brescia said.

For hair, braids are in – but not for an everyday look.

“The wet trend is really in too, right? Slicked-back hair, beautiful side part, pony tail — very chic,” Brescia said.

And are you still not sure what to stock your closet with? Brescia said use neon sparingly, and as for shoes – no to jellies; yes to flats, Espadrilles and white canvas sneakers.

“I think the wedge is the safest, and I say break out that heel because it flexes the leg,” Brescia said.

As for the color of summer, think happy. Brescia said this summer, happiness comes in any shade of green.

For jewelry, experts said to go with chunky necklaces in chalky white or shades of blue. And overall, experts advise trying to be aware of what looks best on you, and not simply what is in style.

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EASTCHESTER, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) — Area residents are going to battle against high property taxes.

Tuesday was tax appeal day in Westchester County, and as CBS 2’s Lou Young reported, homeowners lined up to catch a break.

The conferences began in the morning and continued all day in town halls throughout suburbia: little trials with verdicts pending. In the county with the highest property tax rates in the United States they were homeowners begging for a break.

“Our taxes are high; every couple of thousand counts,” homeowner Bill Gordan said.

Some tax appealers in Westchester hire professionals like Dave Ruzow to do the work for them. He takes a portion of the savings if he prevails, but only accepts half the cases that come to him. He said while everybody thinks their taxes are too high, only some have a case for reduction.

“A third of the properties are properly assessed, a third are under-assessed and a third are over assessed,” Ruzow said.

For example, one house in Eastchester was initially assessed at $1.7 million, but reduced last year to $1.1 million. The owner is now seeking a reduction to $925,000 with Ruzow’s help.

In that area of Westchester property taxes run about $23 for every $1,000 of assessed value, Young reported. The periodic re-assessments at market value are most shocking to residents who’ve been in their houses the longest.

“We’re talking about a couple hundred thousand dollars in assessed value,” homeowner Dave Berman said.

That’s quite a discrepancy considering Dave and Ellen Berman paid $225,000 for the whole place in 1983. The Bermans said they think the house has more than doubled in value. The assessor thinks it’s done better than that.

“The assessment we got is close to $1 million and I’d be happy to give the house for $1 million,” Dave Berman said.

Young then saw another home that was assessed at the same price it’s being offered for sale at, but there have been no takers.

“I haven’t recorded a single offer; verbal or written, on the property,” homeowner Michael Rosenbaum said.

So, like the rest, he appeals. Some will get what they came for, while others will probably be back next year.

“You get to know the repeat customers,” said Eastchester assessor Todd Huttunen.

The appeals boards will make this year’s decisions by the end of the summer.

Property tax appeals skyrocketed in Westchester County in the years immediately after the big stock market crash, but have started to stabilize.

Tax assessors say the number of appeals have dropped 40 percent this year compared to last, Young reported.

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NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — The head of the National Security Agency offered a strong defense of his unit’s surveillance programs on Tuesday. He said plots to bomb New York City subways and the New York Stock Exchange were among more than 50 foiled worldwide.

It was an all-out charm offensive by Army Gen. Keith Alexander, head of the NSA, and representatives of the FBI and the Department of Justice to beat back concerns that our government is spying on us, tapping our phone lines and email accounts, CBS 2’s Marcia Kramer reported.

“These programs, together with other intelligence, have protected the U.S. and our allies from terrorist threats across the globe, including preventing potential terrorist events over 50 times,” Gen. Alexander said.

It was an unusually candid attempt by the nation’s spymasters to convince the American public that big brother is not using sections of the Patriot Act to spy on them.

“Let me be very clear, Section 702 cannot be and is not used to intentionally target any U.S. citizen,” NSA Deputy Director Chris Inglis said.

Alexander said the intelligence leaks by Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old former NSA contractor, were detrimental to protecting the homeland.

“The intentional and irresponsible release of classified information about these programs will have a long and irreversible impact on our nation’s security,” he said.

To prove the worth of the surveillance, officials said that among the 10 terrorist attacks foiled in the United States were plots to use backpacks to blow up the New York City subway system and another plot to attack the New York Stock Exchange.

“Several times in your testimony you referenced 9/11,” Rep. Peter King (R-Long Island) said.

And under questioning by Long Island Rep. Peter King the officials said that had the spying programs been in place, the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks might have been prevented, because officials could have traced a call from 9/11 terrorist Khalid al-Mihdhar from San Diego to Yemen. Mihdhar was on Flight 77 that crashed into the Pentagon.

“If we had the data base that we have now we could have then tipped the FBI,” Gen. Alexander said.

Officials claim that in all of 2012 they used electronic surveillance on 300 people — total.

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Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.

FORT DIX, N.J. (CBSNewYork) — In just a few years, women could be training to be Navy Seals or Army Rangers on the front lines, under a plan just released Tuesday by the Pentagon.

As CBS 2’s Christine Sloan reported, U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta launched the ban on women serving in combat back in January.

With the stroke of a pen, Panetta broke down the barrier between men and women in the military.

But before any plan is enacted, Pentagon officials said they were first developing gender-neutral tests that men and women must pass to qualify to be in combat units.

Women will have to meet the same standards as men to get the jobs.

“We haven’t made any decisions whatsoever,” said Special Operations Command Major Gen. Bennett Sacolick. “We’re going to spend the next year collecting and analyzing data.”

There are more than 200,000 women in the military — some 15 percent of the force — mostly in the Army and the Marines. Because of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, women have been pushed into the front lines in jobs as medics, intelligence officers, and military police.

Of the more than 67,000 servicemembers killed, 150 have been women.

The Navy plans on opening up its Riverine force, and begin training women next month.

The Pentagon is also looking at other issues with women being in small units.

“The concern once again is privacy issues, there’s other issues; there’s health and welfare,” Sacolick said. “Quite frankly, I was encouraged by the physical performance of some of the young girls that aspire to go into the cultural support teams.”

General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in January that he thinks lifting the ban will have another benefit — reducing the number of sexual assaults on women soldiers.

Dempsey said the sexual assault problem is due partly to the military class system — male “warriors” versus the rest of the force.

Special Operations troops are expected to be the toughest hurdle for women to clear, and some jobs could be off limits to women if studies find women cannot be successful in sufficient numbers.

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Jose Bernazard was charged after he allegedly broke into his ex-girlfriend’s home in Jamaica, Queens Sunday night, prosecutors said. He will also be charged in connection with the shooting that wounded the officer.

Bernazard tried to get his ex-girlfriend to let him in through the front door around 10 p.m. Sunday night, prosecutors said. Rodriguez would not let him in, so he forced his way through the door, according to the Queens County District Attorney’s office.

Once inside, Bernazard attacked the woman and her son. Off-duty police Officer Joseph Koch came to the home when he heard a woman screaming and a child yelling for help, and succeeded in subduing Bernazard.

During a struggle, both the officer and Bernazard were shot, prosecutors said. They were hospitalized following the incident, as was Rodriguez.

At the time of the incident, Bernazard was also wanted on an open bench warrant, stemming from an earlier attack on his ex-girlfriend.

On that occasion, the woman was fast asleep in her home on Jan. 26, 2012, when she heard a noise at her front door and found Bernazard on top of her when she woke up, prosecutors said. Bernazard allegedly choked and punched her, and claimed that he had broken through the door to “get his stuff” when he was arrested, prosecutors said.

In that case, Bernazard was hit with multiple charges. He was released on his own recognizance, but was also hit with an order of protection and was not supposed to have any contact with his ex-girlfriend.

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BAY SHORE, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) — A Long Island woman who lost her two children in a drowning accident has launched a call to improve pool safety just in time for swimming season.

Meanwhile, a local YMCA has offered a swimming lesson with the goal of safety in mind.

As CBS 2’s Jennifer McLogan reported, Ralph Knowles, 5, and Sharon Knowles, 7, drowned in a neighbor’s unguarded above-ground pool in Central Islip back on April 14. Police officers jumped into the 4-foot-deep pool and found the brother and sister’s lifeless bodies submerged inside.

“(It was) the worst thing that ever happened to me in my life,” said the children’s mother, Tia Knowles. “Nothing could replace my children.”

The pool was located just behind the Knowles’ property on Half Mile Road. Investigators said the pool was enclosed, but the fence on the property line was not properly installed so as to keep the children out.

“I told my children to go outside and play until lunch was ready,” Knowles said.

But in an instant, the children found a hole in the fence and an unlatched gate, as well as a pool without a tarp.

“It only takes a minute,” said Bob Pettersen of the Great South Bay YMCA. “You hear this all the time – you’ve got to be vigilant, you have to supervise your children, and you have to teach your kids how to swim. That can save a child.”

That was why the parents of Jalen Cutler, 7, sent their son to the world’s largest swim lesson at his local Bay Shore YMCA camp.

Jalen said he is learning to swim, with such lessons as, “When you get tired, you float.”

With pool, boating and beach season right around the corner, families have been reminded that drowning is a leading cause of death among children between the ages of 1 and 4.

“I have three daughters — one is 8, another 7, and a 6-month-old,” said Tara Obermeyer of Bay Shore. “They are never too young to learn how to swim. Accidents can happen at any time.”

Added Obermeyer’s 7-year-old daughter, Ava, “I want to learn to swim to feel safe.”

The staff has advised working parents to make sure their child care providers have knowledge of what to do in emergencies, in case nannies can’t swim.

“Scream for help,” said Maureen Kiernan, aquatic director at the Great South Bay Y.
“You’re going to call 911.”

Knowles now wants to become an advocate for early swim lessons and backyard pool safety.

“It could have been prevented,” she said.

This would have been Sharon Knowles’ eighth birthday.

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They have more international players on their roster than any other team in the NBA, and even their American players don’t come straight from America to the league.

It’s the hard way to build a roster, requiring patience, discipline and investment that few teams are able to muster these days. And it’s paying off in a big way for them in the NBA Finals.

There is Danny Green, who was cut three times and spent a summer in Slovenia, drilling every 3-pointer in sight and running away with the finals MVP award.

There is Gary Neal, who was undrafted out of Towson University and spent three years kicking around Turkey, Spain and Italy before being discovered by the Spurs, scoring 24 points in a Game 3 victory that put them back in control.

There is Boris Diaw, the once-promising Frenchman who was on his way out of the league before the Spurs brought him in, playing surprisingly stingy defense on LeBron James and finding Manu Ginobili cutting to the basket for easy buckets in a Game 5 win that moved the Spurs one victory away from the franchise’s fifth title.

How do they find these guys?

General manager RC Buford has assembled an unparalleled scouting staff and worked with Gregg Popovich to establish a system and culture over the last 15-plus seasons that allows them to identify the exact attributes that will allow a player to succeed in San Antonio.

“Our management staff, RC does a great job with his scouts showing us who is out there, who is available,” Popovich said earlier this season. “And we all sit down and decide who we want to bring in. Once we bring them in, we do take a lot of time trying to develop them.”

It takes communication. It takes trust. It takes commitment to do what the Spurs do. It also takes a willingness to think outside the normal parameters of team building, to consider players that don’t fit the prototypical mold.

“When you look at a basketball player and you’re trying to evaluate someone, in my opinion you’ve got to look past the typical biases and preconceived notions on what an NBA player is and should look like or should be; what their pedigree or path should be and really get down to the guy’s talent and character and work ethic,” said forward Matt Bonner, who played in Italy and was acquired in a trade from Toronto. “Is this person going to make our team better and can he play? I think when you do that you can get a more accurate portrayal of a player and what their value potentially could be.”

The commitment to drafting and developing came early for Buford and Popovich. Situated in small-market San Antonio, they knew they couldn’t afford to throw millions at the free agent market every summer to fill holes in their roster. They certainly got lucky getting the No. 1 pick in 1997 when Tim Duncan was available, but their moves to surround him with a championship-caliber supporting cast all came the hard way.

Game 6 is Tuesday night in Miami, where Duncan will have a chance to win his fifth title 14 years after his first. Along the way he has gone from the focal point to a supporting role, all thanks to the system the Spurs have in place.

“I think development is a big part of that,” Buford said. “The better prepared you can be to fill in the holes behind that success of an aging group, the smoother the transition might be.”

Tony Parker was the 28th pick out of France in 2001. And despite being well known and coveted thanks to his stellar international play for Argentina, Ginobili fell to the second round in 1999 and didn’t come to the NBA for another three seasons.

“Ginobili that was a pick that a lot of people knew was going to be good,” Timberwolves president of basketball operations Flip Saunders said. “It’s just at the time a lot of people didn’t want to wait for him.”

The Spurs were willing to wait, and it’s paid off handsomely with the left-hander helping them win three titles and then registering 24 points and 10 assists in their Game 5 victory over Miami. He has also helped other foreign players like Tiago Splitter and Nando De Colo make the transition to the United States.

“The first years I started to feel like a guide to the new guys, it felt great, because I needed that at the beginning,” Ginobili said. “Being sort of an icon or staple player on this team feels really good. I’m very lucky. And at the same time, it’s great to have so many international players that went through some of the things you went through.”

Assistant coach Chad Forcier also deserves plenty of credit. He worked hard with Green to smooth out his jumper and has spent countless hours with many of the projects the Spurs have taken on over the years. The long and winding road that many of these players have taken to get here comes through in the hunger they show on the court.

“Just dealing with the reality that I wasn’t going to get drafted, that’s like a crossroad for a lot of guys coming out of college,” Neal said. “You realize you’re not going to get drafted and there’s a great chance that you might not become an NBA player. You kind of have to make your mind up that you want to continue on professionally and take the European route and take it seriously.”

When they arrive in San Antonio, they see a lot of other players just like them. A bond is formed and a support system is fostered.

“I think there’s a lot of guys with the Spurs who didn’t have the easy way, one-and-done in college and then bam, you have a career,” Bonner said. “A lot of guys on our team have had to go through the journey of maybe all four years of college, maybe the D-league, maybe overseas. I think that builds character and it makes you appreciate playing in the NBA and playing for an organization like the Spurs that much more.”

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – A $65,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the bomber wanted in the 2008 Times Square attack.

The case has remained unsolved since March 6, 2008, when a person riding a 10-speed blue Ross bicycle placed an explosive device at the U.S. Armed Forces Recruiting Station, lit a fuse and then fled the scene before the early morning blast, CBS 2′s Tony Aiello reported.

The bike was later found in the trash. No arrests were ever made.

“Obviously, we’re very frustrated. That’s why we continue to pursue the investigation,” FBI Agent Carlos Fernandez said.

On Tuesday, the FBI released new video of the bombing suspect, the cyclist, who was wearing a gray hoodie, and a picture of the explosive device used in the attack — a military ammunition container which was filled with black powder and detonated using a time fuse.

“It was a device that was crude and yet very effective,” Agent Fernandez said.

“Cleaned up the video a little bit and put that in a montage to make it a little bit more user-friendly,” NYPD Deputy Chief Matthew Pontillo with the Joint Terrorism Task Force told reporters, including WCBS 880′s Marla Diamond on Tuesday.

He said the video was released to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the bombing.

“We really believe that there are people out there who know something,” Pontillo said. ”Any information, no matter how small or insignificant one might think it is, may be very significant to us.”

The Times Square attack could be connected to at least two other unsolved bombings on the Mexican consulate in 2007 and the British consulate in 2005, the FBI said.

In each case, a person on a bike delivered the bombs which were then detonated between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m.

Dummy grenades packed with explosive powder caused minor damage in the earlier attacks, but sources said the explosive in the Times Square attack was in an ammunition can — commonly found on battlefields Iraq and Afghanistan — and was as powerful as the bombs that went off at the Boston Marathon, 1010 WINS’ Juliet Papa reported.

A military-style ammunition can used to create the 2008 Times Square explosive device (credit: FBI)

“While published reports have repeatedly cited the early morning time of the attack and the lack of casualties, the fact is the bomber narrowly missed killing or injuring passers-by who can be seen clearly in the vicinity, moments before the blast,” said New York City Police Department Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly. “The distance between polemics by bombing and the murdering of innocents is short, indeed.”

The FBI said although the suspected bomber appears to be working alone, a lookout or surveillance team of up to five other people could have been involved.

“Hoping we can compel people who five years ago weren’t in a position to assist the government are in a position now to assist us with new leads,” Agent Fernandez said.

A picture of the blue Ross bicycle used by the suspect (credit: FBI)

“Someone, somewhere, knows something about a bomber who’s still on the run,” said FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge George Venizelos. “Today we’re asking for the public’s assistance in finding those responsible and encouraging the public to look closely at these photos and video, which could be the key to breaking the case.”

Anyone with information on any of the three bombings is encouraged to call the FBI at 212-384-1000. Tipsters may remain anonymous.

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Then LeBron James got “the look” and things were never the same for the Heat.

James put the team on his shoulders and ran wild on the Boston Celtics for 45 points and 15 rebounds in Game 6. After that, James and the Heat never looked back en route to the Big Three’s first NBA championship.

This year, the Heat are once again staring elimination in the face and it will likely come down to just how far James and his fellow Big Three members Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh can carry the Heat.

LeBron has said repeatedly that he wants the majority of the responsibility for how the Heat performs in the 2013 Finals. When the team has been firing on all cylinders, Miami has looked unbeatable against the San Antonio Spurs.

But when Miami has been playing poorly, as the team did in Games 3 & 5, the Heat resembled a junior varsity squad trying to keep pace with the Spurs. The question is can James once again reach into his veritable bag of tricks and pull out more Game 6 magic.

So what can the Heat expect out of LeBron heading into Game 6? Based on his history in closeout playoff games, Miami will likely get a big output of points, but it may not be enough to put the Heat over the top.

Since he was drafted into the NBA, LeBron has played in eight games that would closeout a series. In those games, James’ teams are just 2-6 overall; but LeBron Has played well in almost every one of the games.

James averages 29 points and 9.4 rebounds per game in the closeout games while shooting an average of 43.5 percent from the field. The only question is can he once again elevate his game to another level and get the Heat to a crucial Game 7 where anything can happen?

“We look forward to the challenge,” James said. “We’re going to see if we’re a better team than we were our first year together.”

A State Department spokeswoman said Tuesday in Washington, D.C., that the passenger ended his time at the department in 2006. She gave no details about his job or why he no longer works for the agency.

The man was detained after passengers on board United Airlines Flight 116 said he caused a disturbance. He is an American believed to be in his 30s, and claimed his name is Daniel Morgan Perry, during an anti-government rant recorded on a cellphone about nine hours into the 16-hour flight.

“Your life is in jeopardy!” he shouted. “Your life is in jeopardy if you work for the NSA, you work for the CIA, you work for the National Reconnaissance Office, your life is in jeopardy!”

The man had been pacing the aisles repeating his name, age and hometown of Binghamton, N.Y., passengers told WCBS 880′s Marla Diamond. He then began his rant about the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, WCBS 880’s Marla Diamond reported Monday.

“He complained about being shot with darts during the entire flight,” passenger Jacques Roizen told CBS 2’s Tracee Carrasco.

“He never threatened any individual on the plane. He didn’t threaten to blow up the plane. He didn’t threaten to divert the plane. He was just saying he had information relating to Ed Snowden,” passenger Peter Jones added.

“He said he worked for the U.S. Embassy in Abu Dhabi and he was being detained by the CIA and was being transferred and his life was in danger,” Jones told Diamond.

Passengers and flight attendants helped tackle the suspect when he reached into his pocket.

“People got scared and a few of us jumped on him, put him on the ground. With the help of a few passengers and flight attendants, we were able to handcuff him,” passenger Jacques Roizen told Diamond.

The flight crew gave the passengers plastic handcuffs to restrain the man.

The man spent several hours of the flight in plastic restraints. Flight 116, which had 238 passengers on board, landed in Newark at around 1:45 p.m. It taxied to an isolated area where it was kept near at least a dozen emergency vehicles. The man, who was wearing a blue hooded sweatshirt, was walked off the plane, placed in flex cuffs and taken into custody.

The FBI said he was hospitalized after being taken off the plane.

(TM and © Copyright 2013 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2013 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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Have you ever wondered which teams Governor Chris Christie has allegiances to? If so, you’re in luck.

While speaking at Samsel Upper Elementary School in Parlin, N.J., on Tuesday, the governor was asked by a student to name his favorite basketball team, baseball team and football team.

Christie started off his answer by stating that his favorite basketball team is the Knicks. (Clearly he wasn’t going to say the Nets after they bolted Newark for Brooklyn.)

And then the bombshell … the governor admitted that his favorite baseball team is the Mets, which resulted in a mixture of cheers and boos.

“These are probably Yankees fans, right, that are booing?” Christie asked. “Are those Yankees fans that are booing? Here’s what I don’t understand about Yankees fans. The Mets stink. We’re awful. And the Yankees are usually really good. So why do you boo us? You should feel badly for us. We root for this awful team that never wins, and yet the Yankees fans boo us. I don’t understand that.”

When it came to football, the governor knew that he would ruffle some feathers, but he gave the students his honest opinion.

“The last answer is one of the things that gets all of my political advisors nervous,” Christie said. “So get ready for a nervous moment … for them, they’re going to get nervous now. Because my favorite football team is not the New York Giants, it’s not the New York Jets and it’s not the Philadelphia Eagles. Get ready now. My favorite football team is the Dallas Cowboys.”

The governor also admitted that he’s a New York Rangers fan. But in his defense, he said, the Devils weren’t in existence when he was growing up.

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NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – Police have released surveillance video of a man wanted in connection with a robbery in the Bronx last month.

According to police, the suspect hit his victim in the head with a brick, stole the teen’s iPod and took off.

The incident happened around 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 25 outside 3344 Palmer Avenue in the Baychester section.

The suspect has been described by police as a black man, approximately 5’7″ tall with a light complexion.

Anyone with information in regards to this incident is asked to call Crime stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577.

All calls are strictly confidential.

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“Our mosque should be an open, religious, a spiritual sanctuary, but NYPD spying has turned it into a place of suspicion and censorship,” Hamid Hassan Raza, an imam named as a plaintiff, told a rally outside police headquarters shortly after the suit was filed in federal court in Manhattan.

The suit asks a judge to order the nation’s largest police department to stop their surveillance and destroy any related records. It’s the third significant legal action filed against the NYPD Muslim surveillance program since details of the spy program were revealed in a series of Associated Press reports starting in 2011.

“The NYPD and some of this city’s top officials have defended the police department’s activities as lawful and necessary, they are flat out wrong,” said Hina Shamsi of the American Civil Liberties Union. “No one questions that the NYPD has a job to do, but spying on innocent New Yorkers because they go to a mosque instead of a church or a synagogue is unconstitutional.”

The lawsuit said that Muslim religious leaders in New York have modified their sermons and other behavior so as not to draw additional police attention. The suit was filed against Mayor Michael Bloomberg, police commissioner Raymond Kelly and the deputy commissioner of intelligence, David Cohen.

“Through the Muslim surveillance program, the NYPD has imposed an unwarranted badge of suspicion and stigma on law-abiding Muslim New Yorkers, including plaintiffs in this action,” according to the complaint, which was filed in federal court in Brooklyn on behalf of religious and community leaders, mosques, and a charitable organization. The plaintiffs are represented by the ACLU, the Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility project at CUNY School of Law and the New York Civil Liberties Union.

Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne said the NYPD’s surveillance program is constitutional, it is not spying and it’s something that is done to protect American lives, 1010 WINS reported.

“In New York City, the NYPD follows Federal Handshu guidelines which provide that ‘The NYPD is authorized to visit any place and attend any event that is open to the public’ and ‘to conduct online search activity and to access online sites and forums on the same terms… as members of the public,’” Browne said. “The department is further authorized to ‘prepare general reports and assessments… for purposes of strategic or operational planning.’ Critics who suggest that it is unlawful for the police department to search online, visit public places, or map neighborhoods either haven’t read the guidelines or are intentionally obfuscating their meaning. Those criticisms, whether ill-informed or calculated, will not deter the NYPD from fully respecting the Constitution and protecting the public from those intent on killing more New Yorkers.”

The lawsuit, which accuses the city of violating the First and Fourteenth amendments, is the latest legal challenge to the activities of the NYPD Intelligence Division. A year ago, the California-based civil rights organization Muslim Advocates sued the NYPD over its counterterrorism programs. This year, civil rights lawyers urged a judge to stop the NYPD from routinely observing Muslims in restaurants, bookstores and mosques, saying the practice violates a landmark 1985 court settlement that restricted the kind of surveillance used against war protesters in the 1960s and ’70s.

“The NYPD’s strategic approach to combating terrorism is legal, appropriate and designed to keep our City safe,” said city attorney Celeste Koeleveld. “The NYPD recognizes the critical importance of ‘on-the-ground’ research, as police need to be informed about where a terrorist may go while planning or what they may do after an attack, as the Boston Marathon bombing proved. Cities cannot play catch-up in gathering intelligence about a terrorist threat. Our results speak for themselves, with New York being the safest big city in America and the police having helped thwart several terrorist plots in recent years.”

The lawsuit describes a pattern of NYPD spying directed at Muslims in New York since the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Raza said he began taping his sermons at a Brooklyn mosque because of concerns that the NYPD was monitoring what he said and would take his words out of context. In addition, Raza and other religious leaders became highly suspicious of new members eager to join their communities because of the department’s rampant use of secret informants, the complaint said.

Since news spread that an informant had infiltrated Raza’s mosque, “attendance has declined, and everyone in the congregation has become afraid to talk to the newcomers,” Raza told dozens of supporters of the lawsuit at Tuesday’s rally. “A once-vibrant community has become even more scared and suspicious. I cannot believe this has happened in a country that I know and love.”

The lawsuit also details how the NYPD used an informant to spy on 20-year-old Asad Dandia, a college student who ran a charitable organization called Muslims Giving Back. Dandia’s group gave food to the needy. An NYPD informant, Shamiur Rahman, acknowledged last year in an interview with the AP that he had spied on Dandia on others.

The informant had approached Dandia, claiming he “had a very dark past and he wanted to be a better practicing Muslim,” Dandia said at the rally. He invited the informant to volunteer and they “bonded,” he added.

Once the he learned of Rahman’s true identify, he said, “I felt betrayed and hurt because someone I had taken as a friend and brother was lying to me and used me.”

Dandia told the crowd that the charity’s ability to raise money and help the community has declined because it’s been targeted by NYPD counterterrorism programs.

The plaintiffs asked a judge to appoint a monitor to ensure the police department follows the law. This is second time this month that the prospect of a court-appointed monitor has been raised for the NYPD.

The department’s stop-and-frisk tactic that overwhelming targets minorities has come under fire, with a trial recently ending in federal court that could decide whether the policing practice is unconstitutional. If the judge rules against the NYPD in the stop-and-frisk case, the Justice Department said it would support appointing a federal monitor.

Kelly and Bloomberg have defended both programs and said federal oversight would put the city in danger.

Asked about the recent uproar once-secret surveillance by the National Security Agency, Kelly told reporters that he believes most Americans are accepting of the fact that the government collects data on phone calls and Internet usage but deserved to know it was happening.

“I don’t think it ever should have been made secret,” he said.

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(TM and © Copyright 2013 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2013 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

Youkilis will miss at least 10-12 weeks after he has the procedure in California on Thursday. He had gone back on the DL last Friday.

The three-time All-Star, who signed a one-year, $12 million contract with New York as a free agent on December 14, has played in only 28 games and is batting .219 with two home runs and eight RBIs.

Teixeira missed the first 53 games of the season because of a wrist injury. Both he and Youkilis returned from their previous DL stints May 31.

The switch-hitting first baseman got off to an encouraging start when he returned but has slumped to a .151 average with three home runs and 12 RBIs in 53 at-bats.

He left the team during its recent West Coast trip, went back to New York and received a cortisone shot Sunday. General manager Brian Cashman said Monday that Teixeira probably would be sidelined at least a week, and he was leaning toward putting the slugger on the DL.

The Yankees recalled outfielder Zoilo Almonte and right-hander Adam Warren from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and designated right-hander Chris Bootcheck for assignment.

Warren has appeared in 12 games for the Bronx Bombers this season. He is 1-0 with a 3.12 ERA and 27 strikeouts in 34 2/3 innings pitched.

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(TM and © Copyright 2013 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2013 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

Three teams have gone into Game 6 of the NBA Finals on their home court down 3-2 in the series and then gone on to win the Larry O’Brien Trophy. The 2010 Los Angeles Lakers knocked off the Boston Celtics in seven games, as did the Houston Rockets in 1994 over the New York Knicks. Finally, the Lakers also pulled off the feat in 1988 by beating the Detroit Pistons.

Now, the Miami Heat will try to join this very select club and avoid what happened just two years ago when the Dallas Mavericks came to Miami and knocked out the Heat in Game 6 and celebrated a NBA championship on the home court of the Heat.

“This is the reason that you play 82 games, to get home-court,” Heat forward Chris Bosh said. “And we have to defend home-court.”

One uniting factor running through two of the teams that did win Game 6 and the series is Miami Heat president Pat Riley. The former coach was in charge of the 1994 Knicks team that lost to the Rockets and also the head coach of 1988 Lakers that knocked off the Pistons after trailing 3-2.

Riley was also president of the last Heat team to bring the Finals back to the AmericanAirlines Arena down 3-2 in 2011. In three shots, Riley is 1-2 and has a chance to even his record if his latest handiwork with the Heat can come back.

Finally, if Heat fans want one more thing to worry about heading into Game 6; in the last 25 years, only one team from Texas that made the NBA Finals lost the series. On the other hand, the only to lose was the 2006 Dallas Mavericks which went down at the hands of Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat.

(TM and © Copyright 2013 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2013 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

MIAMI (AP) — They lost three times in three months in one of the most overpowering stretches the NBA has ever seen.

Now the Miami Heat have lost three times in five games.

So superb during the regular season, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and the Heat have to be something even more for the rest of the NBA Finals.

They have to be perfect.

“We look forward to the challenge,” James said.

The San Antonio Spurs can finish Miami off Tuesday night in Game 6, reaffirming themselves as one of the league’s greatest franchises.

If so, the Heat and their Big Three once again go from celebrated to devastated, just as they were two years ago when they came home from Texas facing this same predicament.

“We’re going to see if we’re a better team than we were our first year together,” James said.

The Spurs took a 3-2 lead with their 114-104 victory Sunday night. Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili were all brilliant again, and Danny Green added to what could become one of the most out-of-nowhere finals MVP campaigns ever.

One more victory makes the Spurs 5-0 in the NBA Finals, keeping pace with Michael Jordan’s 6-0 Chicago Bulls as the only teams to make it here multiple times and never lose.

“We understand Game 6 is huge,” Parker said. “Obviously, you want to finish in the first opportunity you get. We understand that Miami is going to come out with a lot more energy, and they’re going to play better at home. They’re going to shoot the ball better. Their crowd is going to be behind them.”

None of that mattered two years ago.

Clearly reeling and their psyches shaken after dropping two straight games in Dallas, the Heat were blitzed early in Game 6. They never recovered, Chris Bosh inconsolable as he made his way back to the locker room afterward while the Mavericks celebrated at center court.

James had to endure the criticisms that came with not getting it done in the finals, a story line that was put to rest last year but will be back again if the Heat don’t manage to put together consecutive victories.

“We challenge ourselves to see if we’re a better team than we were,” Wade said. “Same position no matter how we got to it.”

The Heat would also host Game 7 on Thursday. They’re trying to join the 1988 and 2010 Los Angeles Lakers and 1994 Houston Rockets as the only teams to rally from 3-2 down by winning the final two on their home floor since the NBA Finals went to a 2-3-2 format in 1985.

Of course, the Heat — who won 27 in a row during the second-longest winning streak in league history — haven’t put together consecutive victories now in close to a month.

“We’re in a position where it’s a must-win and everything that we’ve done all year comes to this point, and we have to win,” Heat guard Ray Allen said. “We’ve found ourselves in so many situations this year, and we’ve thrived in tough moments because this is a tough team. We will be ready for Game 6.”

So will the Spurs, and the Heat know it.

“I’m sure this team, they’ve been here before many times. They understand winning that last game is one of the hardest things you’re going to do. And we understand it as well,” Wade said.

“But you know what? It’s the game; we’ve got to play it. I like our chances, just like they like their chances, in this series and in Game 6. We’ll see. We’ll see which team, which style is going to prevail.”

Their four titles have made the Spurs respected but never beloved. Their first, in 1999, came following a 50-game lockout season, and they certainly weren’t the team to help the NBA regain its jilted fan base.

Victories in 2003 over New Jersey, 2005 over Detroit and 2007 over James’ Cleveland Cavaliers were all low-rated, lukewarm-interest series in which the Spurs were supposed to win and did, just not in a way that erased the idea that they had boring players with a boring brand of basketball.

Win this one, though, and they will surely get their due. They would be knocking off the league’s winningest team and the game’s best player, with Duncan at 37 and Ginobili soon to be 36, behind a more wide-open offense that has helped Green break Allen’s finals record for 3-pointers.

Not that they’re thinking about that, or anything else beyond Game 6 at this point.

“We’ll reflect back and let it hit us when it’s over. We still have a lot more work to do. There’s still some business to be done. We have to carry it out and finish it,” said Green, who was cut previously by the Cavaliers and Spurs and now has made 25 3-pointers in the first five games.

It looked as though the game was finally passing by the Spurs last year, when the young Oklahoma City Thunder blew by them with four straight victories after San Antonio had taken a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference finals.

The Heat routed the Thunder for the championship and the Spurs brought back essentially the same team, believing another year in their system for players like Green and Kawhi Leonard was a better option than seeking out some quick-fix outsider.

That’s almost always been the Spurs’ way, and it’s on the verge of again being the model for an NBA title — at the expense of the Miami one that once appeared to be the way champions would be built.

“I think every one of us wants this very badly from the top on down,” Duncan said. “We’re trying to play that way.”

___

Follow Brian Mahoney on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/Briancmahoney

(© Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

Even with all the stresses of daily life, nearly two out of every 10 people polled nationwide said they are completely happy with life in general.

A full 58 percent of respondents answered they were either completely happy or very happy.

UConn poll director Jennifer Necci Dineen said overall, the happiest people are those who are in a relationship.

“Those being with their family in general, with their spouse or partner in particular and even with friends are large contributors to happiness,” Dineen told WCBS 880 Connecticut Bureau Chief Fran Schneidau.

LINK: Full Poll Results (pdf)

Just three percent of respondents said money is most important in determining how happy they are.

However, 71 percent of Americans earning $100,000 a year or more reported feeling either completely happy or very happy with their lives, compared to 60 percent of those making between $60,000 and $100,000 annually and 49 percent of people earning under $60,000.

Those surveyed in the national poll responded that the stress is there, especially among women with children under 18.

“We see that the most stressed out people are those who are employed. So even having a job, which is a great thing, can cause you some stress. People with children under the age of 18 are also more stressed than people who don’t have children at home,” Dineen told Schneidau.

Eighty-three percent of those polled said they experience stress in their daily lives either frequently or sometimes.

Dineen added people in a good relationship who have a productive, meaningful job ranked towards the top of the happiness scale, a kind of happiness money alone can’t necessarily buy.

The national sample of 1,006 randomly selected adults were interviewed by landline and cellular telephone between June 4 and June 11, 2013. The margin of sampling error for the survey is +/- 3 percentage points for the entire sample.

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BOSTON (AP) — Five things learned in the Boston Bruins’ win over the Chicago Blackhawks in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup finals Monday night:

___

SUPAH TUUKKA: Tuukka Rask is proving the Bruins right for putting their faith in him. Rask watched the Bruins’ entire 2011 Stanley Cup run from the bench while Tim Thomas led Boston to the NHL title, winning the Conn Smythe Trophy in the process. But after the enigmatic Thomas decided to take a year off from playing there’s been no drop-off. Rask’s numbers this postseason are even better than Thomas’ were two years ago: 14-5 with a .946 save percentage and a 1.64 goals-against average. (Thomas was 16-9, .940, 1.98). Rask had 28 saves Monday night to post his third shutout of the playoffs and extend his shutout streak to more than 122 minutes. He’s the biggest reason the Bruins are ahead 2-1 in the series.

___

LIVELY LINE: The revamped third line of Daniel Paille, Chris Kelly and Tyler Seguin paid off for the second straight game. Boston coach Claude Julien bumped Paille up from the fourth line in Game 2 and he ended up scoring the winner in overtime. Kelly scored Boston’s other goal in the 2-1 win and assisted on Paille’s goal Monday that put the Bruins up 1-0. “I think we are just putting pucks on net and reading plays,” Paille said. “I think we are managing the puck a little bit better. Just on my goal, you saw Kells go in, and I went in and then I shot. I think we are just not giving them enough time to think with the puck and we are able to get it.” Kelly and Paille also drew penalties that led to Patrice Bergeron’s goal with 5:55 left in the second, giving the Bruins a 2-0 lead. “We’re having fun. The three of us are working hard and having fun, which is nice,” Kelly said. “It’s always fun, but some days are more fun than others.” Indeed.

___

FACE-OFF FOLLIES: Patrice Bergeron won 24 faceoffs on Monday night. That’s eight more than Chicago won as a team, and nobody had a worse night in the circle for the Blackhawks than Michal Handzus, who was a perfect 0-for-10 for a Bluto-like average of 0.00. “That’s definitely something that we take a lot of pride in and we talk about a lot,” Bergeron said. “We have some really good centermen, so it’s not just about the four centers, it’s about everyone on the ice chipping in and helping to get those battles.”

___

DAVE’S NOT HERE: Chicago defenseman Dave Bolland had a rough night. He was called for three of Chicago’s six penalties and made two mistakes that helped lead to Boston’s two goals. The first was a turnover that led to Paille’s goal 2:13 into the second period. The second was cross-checking Kelly into the net and Chicago goalie Corey Crawford with 8:00 left in the second. A second Chicago penalty led to a brief 5-on-3 for Boston. Bolland was out of the penalty box, but didn’t have time to get back into the play before Bergeron put Boston up 2-0 with 5:55 left in the second. Chicago coach Joel Quenneville didn’t have much to say about Bolland after the game. “Haven’t talked to him yet,” Quenneville said. “We’ll reassess and reevaluate the game.”

___

HISTORY MAY NOT HELP: The Chicago Blackhawks trailed the Detroit Red Wings 3-1 in the Western Conference finals then won the next three games. So a 2-1 deficit against the Boston Bruins certainly isn’t too big to overcome. It’s just that one comeback may not be the same as another. “I think they’re a little bit different team than Detroit was,” Chicago goaltender Corey Crawford said of the Bruins. “They’re able to sit back and wait for us to collapse defensively. You can’t block everything. But we made some plays, we had some good shots and had a couple of the chances went just wide.”

(© Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

The jury heard from Cachay’s personal physician on Tuesday. She told the jury that Cachay was taking five prescription medications at the time of her death for fibromyalgia, a chronic pain condition, and for insomnia.

Cachay’s boyfriend Nicholas Brooks, 26, has been charged with her murder. Her partially clothed body was found submerged in a bath tub at the posh Soho House Hotel in Dec. 2010.

The Medical Examiner ruled she died of strangulation and drowning.

Brooks’ defense attorney tried to show that, when acting together, those drugs could have caused Cachay to pass out, fall into the bath tub and drown accidentally.

On cross-examination, the doctor testified that the medications Cachay was taking would not have caused that scenario because none of the pills “have a great sleepiness result.”

She said Cachay was responsible in the way she managed her medications.

In testimony earlier in the trial, friends of Cachay, 33, said the swimsuit designer complained that Brooks was a directionless slacker. Some witnesses testified that Cachay told them she was planning to break up with Brooks just weeks before her death.

Brooks’ attorney has previously acknowledged that his client and Cachay had a rocky relationship, but noted that Brooks‘ DNA was never found near the bathtub faucets.

The trial is expected to go through early July.

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City police tell The Jersey Journal that a teacher supervising Monday’s ceremony at the Midtown Community School was holding some students’ purses as they went to get their diplomas.

When she smelled marijuana coming from one of them, she brought the purse to the principal’s office. School officials soon found the drugs underneath a white tissue.

Police were called to the school and the girl was arrested for possession of marijuana. She was released to her parent’s custody.

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(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

To those with a fertile imagination, Tuesday is a cornucopia of New York baseball. It is a kaleidoscope of icons, prospects and promises, a screen-in-screen morality play framed in the Bronx and Atlanta. The Mets trot two pitchers to the mound who double as tarot cards for a beleaguered fan base, while the Yankees welcome a wounded hero back to the Bronx.

I’ve watched every Matt Harvey start, and it doesn’t take a jeweler’s eye or Stick Michael to fathom his greatness. He’s the perfect hybrid of talent and temerity, of force and finesse. You can’t brand him a “can’t-miss prospect” anymore because he’s already shredded up every lineup that he’s faced. But alas, he’s a Met and hence has been cursed with a Gibsonian luck. Harvey should be about 9-0, not 5-1.

You had to be alive and lucid in New York to understand how big Doc Gooden was in 1984. Gooden’s rising fastball was like something from Stan Lee’s easel, and he had a spine-cracking curveball that made hitters who were expecting the heat look like babies holding a broom for the first time.

And for the first time since the good doctor made his pyrotechnic house calls, the Mets have found his replacement in Harvey, who has been sensational — his microscopic ERA certainly warranting more than his record implies.

Then, after Harvey’s start, in the second game of the doubleheader the Mets will flaunt Zack Wheeler, who reportedly throws even harder than Harvey. It’s understandable if the jaded Mets fans will wait a few months before speed-dialing StubHub for tickets, as Wheeler is making his first start and he hardly lit Las Vegas on fire. But neither did Harvey before making MLB his personal PlayStation.

In a very real sense, the Mets are doing something that the Yanks haven’t done since, well, maybe ever. In the 35 years that I’ve loved the Yankees, only Ron Guidry has splashed on the scene as a bona fide ace and progenitor of the two-strike battle cry.

But Guidry had to share the stage with Reggie Jackson and co., and Guidry was a rather modest mammal in the Bronx Zoo, where egos were commensurate to their paychecks. Harvey has New York dangling from his divine right arm should he remain healthy.

Joba Chamberlain and Phil Hughes were supposed to be the next dynamic duo long before Harvey was branded the “Dark Knight of Gotham.” But the Yankees famously ruined Chamberlain by firing him after he landed on the mound like a meteor and became a flawless relief pitcher. Then there were the pitch counts and pseudo-psychiatry and “Joba Rules” and all that gibberish. It wasn’t so complicated with Hughes. He was simply and vastly overrated.

Mets fans can’t play the class warfare card on the world because they have virtually all the resources as their eternal tormentors across the river. Both teams have new ballparks, an ATM-type television network and about 10 million New Yorkers to seduce. It’s time to produce, and if not on the scoreboard then in the souls of their followers who have put up with way more than anyone should be forced to endure.

Though I’ve been a Yankees fan since 1977, the Twitter ghouls assert that I somehow hate them because I declare that Derek Jeter can’t play forever or suggest that Mariano Rivera was more instrumental than Jeter to winning their five rings together. And surely I’m a closet Mets fan for saying that a Harvey-type pitcher has eluded the Yankees since Guidry.

How’s them “Killer B” pitchers working out? Brian Cashman allegedly traded for an All-Star pitcher 18 months ago, yet during that time Chien Ming Wang has thrown more pitches than Michael Pineda. Even the immortal Rivera was essentially an accident, nearly traded several times before his fastball magically jumped a few mph.

Maybe it’s a product of their titanic wallet, voracious financial palate, karma or bad luck. But the Yankees simply don’t produce pitching studs. Andy Pettitte, who just turned 41, is the last great pitcher spawned by their supposedly fertile farm system. And, frankly, Harvey is already better than Pettitte ever was. (I know, it’s time to cancel the Twitter account.)

The Yankees are welcoming some old salt to the Stadium tonight. Don Mattingly is returning to the place — well, near the place — he charmed with his blue-collar grit and white-hot bat. But Mattingly can’t catch a break. Donnie Baseball is the only cursed Yankee of the 20th century. He’s the only legend who never won a World Series.

Even when he returned to the bench under Joe Torre, he couldn’t bag a ring when rings were falling like brown leaves from the fall skies. Then Mattingly inherited a playoff team from Torre in Los Angeles — which, of course, belongs to Brooklyn — and they purged by trading for ancient players with opulent contracts, far closer to their pastures than their primes. But it will be good to see Mattingly, even if he’s swathed in those blasphemous, blue colors.

Both New York teams are in transition, even if only the Mets have the record to prove it. Where’s the next homegrown Yankee great? Austin Romine? Ivan Nova? They will make it rain on Robinson Cano because they must, but it should surprise no one if the bulk of Cano’s best days are behind him. At least the Mets can flex their forefinger at a pitcher and say with certainty that he will be an All-Star for the next decade.

If you can look past the putrid present, the Mets don’t have a woeful future. The de facto shuttle they’re running between New York and Las Vegas could produce some bona fide baseball players, and perhaps Wally Backman will follow them to Flushing next year. If Wheeler can just get a fraction of Harvey’s traction, the sun could finally shine on Queens, where they could someday be Kings.

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