MTA Chief Joseph Lhota

As much as you may absolutely loathe the Metro Transportation Authority -- and, in many cases, for good reason -- credit must be given where credit is due; the public transit agency did a bang-up job getting the City moving again after the devastation of last month's Hurricane Sandy.

The quick recovery has led to chatter that MTA Chairman Joseph Lhota should throw his hat in the ring to run for mayor in next year's election -- again, despite the fact that the MTA doesn't exactly have the best reputation amongst the millions of New Yorkers who rely on it to get around every day.

What a difference a hurricane makes.

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Pedro Hernandez

The Manhattan District Attorney's Office yesterday announced that a grand jury has returned an indictment charging 51-year-old Pedro Hernandez with the 1979 murder of 6-year-old Etan Patz.

Authorities won't say much about the case, but it appears to be based on little more than Hernandez's confession to police, and the testimony of family and clergy members who say Hernandez confessed to them, too.

As far as physical evidence goes, however, there doesn't appear to be much -- if any.

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As you know, weather happened in New York City this week, leaving dozens dead, millions without power, and pundits arguing about whether "Global Warming" is an actual thing.

Mayor Mike Bloomberg appears to be on the side of Al Gore and the Inconvenient Truth-ers -- yesterday, the mayor endorsed President Barack Obama in this year's presidential election, citing "climate change" contributing to Hurricane Sandy's wrath as his primary reason.

Governor Andrew Cuomo fell short of blaming the hurricane on Global Warming during a press conference Wednesday, but he noted that New York needs to come up with a better way to prepare for "a 100-year flood every two years."

Global Warming is a touchy subject -- many look at it as a serious problem that could potentially lead to the destruction of the planet. Others see it as a left-wing conspiracy dreamed up by Gore -- et al -- to scare the shit out of people.

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Felicia Garcia, 15, threw herself in front of a train after she was apparently bullied by students at her Staten Island high school.

As the story now goes, 15-year-old Felicia Garcia threw herself in front of a train in Staten Island as dozens of horrified students watched on Wednesday afternoon after getting tormented by several members of her high school's football team.

The alleged bullying followed a weekend party, at which she reportedly had sex with four football players at the same time.

Friends of the Staten Island teen tell multiple media outlets that the bullying by members of the football team was brutal -- online, at school, and at the train station just before she decided to take her own life; the bullies apparently were relentless.

Outraged New Yorkers are now calling for justice -- they want the bullies punished. Problem is, legally, no such punishment is available -- despite Governor Andrew Cuomo signing a "cyber-bullying" bill into law earlier this year.

As we noted at the time, the bill the governor signed does little to actually prevent punks from bullying their classmates. And no law currently exists in New York that punishes people for being bullies (however, according to a July 2012, review of each state's bullying laws, a law including criminal sanctions for convicted bullies has been proposed in the Empire State).

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The Brooklyn District Attorney's Office announced yesterday that it has dropped charges of assaulting a police officer -- and other less-serious offenses -- against a Crown Heights man who earlier this month got the crap kicked out of him by a police officer for no apparent reason.

The D.A.'s Office tells the Voice that it's yet to make a decision about whether to charge the officer.


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www.someecards.com

An anti-abortion group recently commissioned a survey of New York City parents to find out whether they approved of the Department of Education's policy of dishing out Morning After pills ("Plan B") to students as young as 14 years old.

The pill, as you probably know, can prevent a pregnancy as long as it's taken within 24 hours of unprotected sex.

Surprise, surprise, the survey commissioned by the anti-abortion folks found that more than 50-percent of parents disapprove of the DOE's policy.

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Jason Lewis

If you went to the Jay-Z concert at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn last month, getting into the arena probably felt like you were getting on an airplane -- concertgoers were put through airport-style metal detectors.

However, if you caught Barbara Streisand at the same venue last week, the same security measures were not in place -- security officers used a much less intrusive metal-detecting wand to check concertgoers for weapons.

The two different policies for two different performers -- who have two very, very (very) different fan bases -- caused a bit of a stir; charges of racism were made against the arena for putting rap fans through the wringer, while Streisand fans were only checked with a wand.

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Last week, Fox News accidentally aired a video-feed of a car-jacking suspect blow his brains out on live TV.

The dead suspect has been identified as 33-year-old Jodon Romero, a multiple felon who led police on an hour-long chase after at firing at cops following the car-jacking.

The fact that Romero killed himself -- and Fox aired the suicide on live TV -- is unfortunate. The fact that Romero's kids watched the footage is what makes it tragic.

Our sources in Phoenix, Arizona, confirm to the Voice what's been reported in local media outlets: Romero's kids watched their father shoot himself in the head. They didn't watch it live, but they found the footage on the Internet.

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www.pewforum.org

So, you've been given six months to live but you don't want to wait. Should you really be forced to suffer through your final months when all you want to do is cash in the chips?

According to a New Jersey lawmaker, no, you shouldn't -- which is why he's introduced a bill into the New Jersey state Legislature that would give doctors the permission to give end-of-life patients lethal doses of drugs so they can take their own lives.

Yes, it's doctor-assisted suicide, which some call an act of God-less heathenry, and others call a humane way to let someone die with a little dignity.

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Freedom of expression(s)?

It took just over 24 hours for several subway ads featuring an offensive, anti-Islamic message were vandalized, which, somehow, has led to a debate about the First Amendment, as apparent in the comment section of our story abut the vandals posted yesterday.

The entire debate is a bit of an enigma/completely contradictory -- it seems many of the people who detest the ads and want them taken down are the same people advocating for the free speech rights of those vandalizing the ads.

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