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One neighborhood in the contentious battle over the location of the city's temporary garbage dumps is looking to up the stakes. This week, an Upper East Side community organization, Residents for Sane Trash Solutions, released a study highlighting the adverse impacts of putting a waste transfer station, or temporary dump, in their neighborhood. They also pledged to mobilize "thousands of New Yorkers to support only politicians who publically [sic] oppose the new garbage dump."

It's no secret that waste transfer stations are ugly, messy affairs. Essentially, they function as holding stations for garbage from all over the city until the trash is diesel-trucked out. Residents for Sane Trash Solutions claims that such a station in their neighborhood will result in an 8 percent increase in respiratory-related hospitalizations for children. A study by their partner organization, Pledge 2 Protect, also claimed that the location of the waste transfer station would disproportionately affect public housing and residents of color.

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In more ways than one, no one should really like Styrofoam. It has the half-life of most nuclear substances; it doesn't really keep your coffee that hot; it litters the streets of our beloved city; and, most importantly, it indirectly costs you money. How? Landfills.

Last week, the Sanitation Department requested a citywide ban on the material all together solely for the final reason. Besides the environmental aspects, the Department argued that the spongey substance is costing them bills to keep in landfills; all of which are filled to the brim. The legislation would target businesses that sell Styrofoam like hot cakes (read: Dunkin' Donuts) and put the responsibility of paying for its waste removal in the hands of the owners.

Also, it's not the first of its kind. The ban has been proposed to the City Council before but to no avail -- mostly because of the apparent economic strain it would potentially have on businesses.

However, the other day, the ban received a huge boost from a man who's never shy about his agenda: Mr. Michael R. Bloomberg.

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Anthony Weiner, the sext-loving, dick-pic tweeting, disgraced former congressman, used some $13,000 campaign money for damage control.

The Daily News says that Weiner paid private detectives to investigate the bogus claim that his Twitter account had been hacked, before he owned up to sending the porny photo and resigned.

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Here's some good news for the giant rats galavanting through our fair city (and bad news for the rest of us who want to avoid disease): Stats show that a decent amount New Yorkers are complete dirtbags who really like to dump their trash in public.

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Two neighborhoods in New York City are trashier than ever, at least, in a manner of speaking. According to a new study released today, there are more garbage trucks in Williamsburg and Greenpoint, where 19 of New York City's 58 waste transfer stations are located -- "362 trucks per hour at six major intersections across the neighborhood, up from 300 in 2004." Although the trucks pick up trash, they also spew "noxious pollutants into the air," which has neighbors in a -- sorry -- stink.

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Dustin Fenstermacher

"Who the hell is this guy? Get him out of here."

The second season of Bravo's Work of Art: The Search for the Next Great Artist, the gallery world's Top Chef, premieres tonight at 9pm. Completely randomly, the 14-person cast stars two recent Village Voice cover-story subjects: bike-accident victim/artist Michelle Matson and bootleg toymaker, the Sucklord.

As anticipated, the judges didn't know what to do with the latter, a huckster performance-artist who's made a name for himself by telling his collectors they're assholes for buying his work. In fact, at least one thought the 42-year-old who insisted he be called Sucklord was a practical joke.

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Bucky Turco at Animal NY, who is either the most vigilant police precinct passerby (or, if you listen to NYPD spokesman Paul Browne, something of a dumpster diver) has noted on two separate occasions that the NYPD might not be discarding their police paperwork properly. In one case, the very public trash can outside of the NYPD's Manhattan South Task Force station on 42nd Street was found to include an NYPD counterterrorism plan marked "law enforcement sensitive." More recently, police documents on how to identify drunks (and how much cops can drink, themselves, on duty) were found in that very same trash. At that point, we wondered not only about the wisdom of discarding business docs in a public garbage bin as a matter of security...but also, isn't it illegal to do that? Didn't a granny just get busted, with a hundred buck fine? (She did.)

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Back in May, Bucky Turco over at Animal NY discovered a bunch of seemingly rather sensitive NYPD documents -- just a counterterrorism plan and whatnot -- plopped in a garbage can in front of NYPD's Manhattan South Task Force station at 42nd Street. He wrote about it (and so did we) hoping to inspire the cops to be a little more careful, maybe even invest in and/or use a shredder. But yesterday, it happened again. Turco discovered "a new batch of papers .... in the same exact place." At Animal NY, he highlights some of the info contained within the 12-page document, including intelligence-gathering tips, how not to be racist, and how to tell if a suspect is drunk (open alcoholic beverages are a dead giveaway).

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Last winter, a fight broke out at the Trader Joe's on the Upper West Side over a vegan pad Thai meal. Today, the case goes to court. Marcella Caprario, a 37-year-old elementary school teacher and amateur opera singer, was shopping with her husband, Bill, when he reached to retrieve a Trader Joe's brand Frozen Vegan Pad Thai With Tofu from the freezer; Cathleen London's teenage son kept blocking his way. Bill perceived the boy's actions as intentional, and in frustration, he loudly remarked to his wife, "They don't even say excuse me." London overheard him and went ballistic. She told him, "He's just a child! Get that pole out of your ass!" At that point, Caprario reports that London charged at her, and that she slapped London across the face in self-defense.

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People who complain about trash on the subway are like vacationers who whine about the heat in Florida. Nonetheless, the MTA is trying to do something about all that subterranean rubbish. "Hauling reeking, rat-filled garbage" through the cars late at night didn't work, so they've put their thinking caps on and wrote a brand new slogan to put on trash receptacles: "Litter Stops Here."

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