What can 2,976 counts of murder and dozens of other charges of conspiracy, terrorism and hijacking get you? At Guantanamo Bay, Khalid Shaikh Mohammad and the other masterminds behind the September 11th attacks are about to find out the hard way.More >>

City Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez, talking to reporters about his arrest back in November.

Turns out City Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez was not "resisting arrest" or "obstructing governmental administration" on the day of the infamous clearing of Zuccotti Park in November when the New York Police Department raided Occupy Wall Street at the height of its protests.

Or at least those charges have been dropped -- nearly five months after he was first arrested.

Rodriguez, who represents parts of Upper Manhattan and has become a loud voice for Occupy Wall Street, was arrested on November 15th in the dramatic early morning eviction of OWS's camp city in Zuccotti Park.

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SaraCartwright

Refuse to have your iris photographed, and your bail could go up.

​The first of the more than 70 Occupy Wall Street protesters arrested Saturday afternoon and evening were arraigned yesterday in Manhattan Criminal Court.

Exhausted by a night and day in jail and shaken by the violence of the police response to Occupy Wall Street's six-month anniversary celebration, many burst into tears of relief when they were finally released to the friendly welcome of the movement's Jail Support team.

Unlike many of the other defendants with whom they shared cells, the protesters could feel confident that they would soon be released -- Occupy posts bail for those arrested during movement actions.

But protesters and their legal advisers were surprised yesterday to learn that the size of their bail was being affected by whether defendants were willing to have the distinctive patterns of their irises photographed and logged into a database.

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Congressional district proposals for parts of Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens.

Asian Americans in New York City may actually have the voting power they deserve in Congress if the lines drawn this week by a judge become reality, advocates said today.

If you haven't been following the redistricting drama closely, here's what you need to know: Since state legislators, stuck in partisan disagreements over the course of 11 months, failed to draw proposals for congressional districts, a federal magistrate stepped into create districts for New York state. Earlier than expected, this so-called "special master" released those maps this week, giving interested parties a tight deadline to submit comments. The special master has until Monday to submit the plan to a panel of three judges.

This plan could actually be adopted, although the Legislature could also come together to pass its own map before the court's process is complete -- and with a signature from Governor Andrew Cuomo, that redistricting plan could go into effect.

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And you thought losing Jose Reyes was bad.

A short time ago, U.S. District Court Judge Jed S. Rakoff ruled that Mets principal owners Fred Wilpon, the Wilpon family, and their businesses and charities must pay at least $83.3 million to the trustee -- that's Irving Picard, in case you haven't been following this for the past year and a half -- who has been trying to recover funds in the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme scandal.

That's just part of it -- and what may eventually prove to be a small part. Judge Rakoff also ruled that the two sides will go to trail March 19 over an additional $303 million that Picard is seeking, turning down a request from the Wilpons' attorneys to limit their liability to the $83 million and thus remove the need for a trial.

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As Albany continues to struggle with redistricting, a federal judge from Brooklyn has formally called for a "special master" to oversee the process, signaling a lack of faith in the state legislature to get things done in a timely or fair manner.

Judge Dora Irizarry, who serves in the US District Court in Brooklyn, sided with a group of voters who brought a lawsuit against the state, seeking to intervene before new district lines are permanently drawn. In her five-page decision, Irizarry said that the state should appoint a panel of three judges to oversee the lawsuit, and a "Special Master" to oversee the redistricting practice.

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A U.S. District Court hearing in downtown New York today could determine the eventual fate of several organic farmers from across the country, including some in upstate New York.

The hearing centered on a "pre-emptive" suit led by the Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association (OSGTA), against agricultural giant Monsanto. In it, OSGTA says it brought "this action to protect [farmers] from ever being accused of infringing patents on transgenic seed." Monsanto filed to dismiss the case, and today lawyers for both sides made their arguments in front of U.S. District Judge Naomi Buchwald.

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Activists took up song to protest a "public" foreclosure auction in Brooklyn Supreme Court this afternoon. Many of those gathered (from FUREE, Housing Is a Human Right, Organizing for Occupation, and a new group called Occupied Real Estate) had taken part in another singing act of protest last October to temporarily halt foreclosure proceedings and bring attention to the fact that every week, week after week, foreclosure auctions take place which leave families homeless when members of the "public" successfully buy the homes.

But this time was rather different. Far more people participated, with the courtroom being filled with about 60 people initially, according to Michael Premo of Housing is a Human Right; we personally saw over 20 people arrested, and organizers say approximately 35 were taken into custody.

And, since after court resumed and everyone but people the guards thought were buyers were barred from the courtroom (including members of the press), it couldn't really be called a "public" auction at all.

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Nick Pinto

OWS legal team after the ruling.

Judge Michael D. Stallman of the Supreme Court of New York just issued a ruling denying Occupy Wall Street's request for a temporary restraining order that would allow them to return, sleeping gear and all, to Zuccotti Park.

Two most interesting parts of the ruling, to us, are these. First, in a way, the judge sided with the protestors on their underlying message (emphasis ours):

It is undisputed that, since its inception on about September 17, 2011, Occupy Wall Street began occupying Zuccotti Park on a 24-hour basis for the demonstrations. Occupy Wall Street brought attention to the increasing disparity of wealth and power in the United States, largely because of the unorthodox tactic of occupying the subject public space on a 24-hour basis, and constructing an encampment there.

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Michael Cunningham was fired from his job at the New York Department of Labor in August 2010 after working for the state for 30 years. The D.O.L. suspected Cunningham of committing time-sheet violations and once they accrued enough evidence to confirm their suspensions they terminated his employment. How they gained that evidence, however, has become a matter of contention. Wired reports that Cunningham's employers implanted a GPS device into his car to trace his every move. Cunningham and the ACLU have filed a petition against the state, and they are currently awaiting a ruling from the appeals court.

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