Erica Chang

Two members of Congress introduced a bill on Friday that would ban employers from requiring employees to hand over their social networking account information. The Social Network Online Protection Act was introduced by Democratic Congressman Eliot Engel of New York and Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky of Illinois.

One of the three men who had plotted to blow up the New York City subway system in September of 2009 appeared in Brooklyn Federal Court Tuesday to testify in the trial of co-conspirator Adis Medunjanin.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott announced the city's plan to open 54 new schools this fall, including a high school academy for software engineering. Come September, the Bloomberg administration will have closed 140 schools and opened 589 new ones since 2002, through a longstanding policy that has set out to replace poorly performing schools. The new schools will eventually serve more than 21,000 students.

An exhibit at the Mark Miller Gallery on the Lower East Side offers New Yorkers insight into one of Manhattan's most exciting endeavors: The Delancey Underground. The Let There Be Light Exhibit displays renderings of an underground park that a pair of NYC architects have set out to create in an abandoned trolley terminal in the Lower East Side.

A group of self-proclaimed anarchists clashed with police outside the Astor Place Starbucks in the East Village over the weekend, leading to the arrest of three people. The anarchists gathered outside the Starbucks on Saturday night and began to smash in the windows using metal pipes. Frightened customers dodged the shattered glass by ducking under tables, and luckily none were hurt.

New York City will launch a pilot program in which it will replace pay phones throughout the city with touch-screen like tablets. The program is scheduled to begin in May and will specifically target 250 of the city's 12,800 public pay phones to be replaced by the touch-screen kiosks. The kiosks will allow users to access local information in 10 different languages.

Over the last nine years, the National Rifle Association has doled out more campaign cash into New York than to any other state in the country. The NRA has reportedly given New York legislators and political committees $217,400 since 2003, with the primary goal of defeating Mayor Michael Bloomberg's push for the microstamping of bullet casings.

The Queens Library has installed security cameras throughout its stacks after a man fondled a young girl last August at the Steinway branch in Astoria. The cameras were implemented in response to an incident in which a man removed a 7-year-old girl's shoes and fondled her feet and rubbed them against his face, authorities said.

New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is reviewing the controversial practice of unjustified NYPD stop-and-frisks. Keeping to his 2010 campaign promise, Schneiderman is currently deciding whether his office should issue a formal report on the practice.

A Manhattan school teacher was beaten to death by her son in her Midtown apartment Tuesday. Police discovered 63-year-old Karyn Kay at 9:30 a.m. when responding to a 911 call made from West 55th Street and Eighth Avenue. Kay was found with severe head trauma, and was rushed to New York Hospital where she was pronounced dead.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind behind the September 11th attacks, will be arraigned at the beginning of May at Guantanamo Bay, according to U.S. Pentagon officials. Mohammed, along with four other co-conspirators, will face charges including terrorism, hijacking an aircraft and murder, for their roles in the 9/11 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in 2001.

A major Staten Island brush fire was brought under control Tuesday, as firefighters contained the flames at the old Fresh Kills landfill. The fire broke out Monday around noon. Officials believe the fire was caused by a spontaneously compustible mulch pile, and was further aggravated by the 20 mph winds that fanned the flames. More than 200 firefighters were called to contain the five-alarm blaze, until it was finally put out at 4 a.m. Tuesday. Three firefighteres suffered from minor injuries.

India's Sahara Group is eyeing New York City's iconic Plaza Hotel after Israeli owners at El Ad Properties have offered to sell the landmark for $600 million. According to the Economic Times, the Sahara group has already paid a 10 percent down payment for the 105-year-old building following exclusive negotiations between the two real-estate conglomerates. Furthermore, Sahara's founder, Subrata Roy, has made an all-cash offer through Aamby, a Mauritius-based subsidiary, according to the ...

A Queens man chased off a possible rapist who was attacking a woman outside his home yesterday morning, according to the NY Daily News. 54-year-old Mike Novak and his wife were preparing for their day at 5:45 a.m. in Sunnyside. Just as his wife was getting ready to leave for work at her nursing job, he heard a commotion downstairs. Thinking that it may have been his wife, Novak ran out to help.

Hundreds of grown children gathered in Washington Square Park Saturday for the city's seventh annual Pillow Fight Day. The fluffy free-for-all began at 3 p.m. and for three hours, Washington Square Park was turned into an epic and feathery battle field. The annual NYC event was organized by a group called NewMindSpace, that declared this year's Pillow Fight to be bunny-themed, in honor of Easter weekend. The pillow fight takes place in over 150 cities worldwide, and thousands participate e...

A gunman wounded four NYPD cops Sunday when police attempted to take him down in his Brooklyn apartment. 33-year-old Nakwon Foxworth reportedly grew angry when several men blocked the service entrance to his apartment while moving another woman into the building. Foxworth, who was arriving home at 3301 Nostrand Ave. with his pregnant girlfriend Jessica Hickling and their 4-moth-old son, started to scream at the men who had reportedly left a barrel in front of the entry way. Foxworth then proceed...

Earlier this week, the online streaming media company, Netflix, filed a statement with the federal government to create it's very own political action committee: FLIXPAC. The new PAC will allow Netflix to directly contribute to federal campaigns, thus boosting the media company's Washington profile. More specifically, A PAC can give $5,000 to a candidate per election (primary, general or special) and up to $15,000 annually to a national political party.

Michelle Obama will appear as a guest on The Colbert Report on Wednesday, April 11, following a number of talk show visits of late, including The Tonight Show With Jay Leno, Ellen and Late Night With Jimmy Fallon.

Michelle Obama will appear as a guest on The Colbert Report on Wednesday, April 11. Comedy Central released a statement in which Stephen Colbert said he is honored that the first lady is joining us and I trust that the feeling is mutual.

A crane at the No. 7 train subway-extension construction site collapsed Tuesday night, killing one worker and injuring three. An 80 and 40-foot section of the 170-foot crane broke off and plummeted to the ground at around 7:20 pm at the West 34th Street and 11th Avenue site, according to the NY Post.

A 50-year old Russian immigrant confessed to murdering his Brooklyn roommate in a fistfight during a party, after which he chopped up the body and attempted to dissolve the remains in Clorox bleach. Sergey Mamontov reportedly killed his 55-year-old roommate on March 25 in their Sheepshead Bay apartment and proceeded to stuff the victim's body parts inside his refrigerator.

An Upper East Side couple is suing it's Park Avenue apartment's co-op board after the couple was forced to order $27,000 worth of takeout food while the building underwent gas maintenance for ten months. Beverly Taki, 66, and Louis Maione, 68, live in a $5 million apartment at 850 Park Avenue where they spend $5,700 for monthly maintenance. But after the B line to their apartment was shut off, the couple was unable to cook for close to a year, according to the NY Post.

Jeremy Lin of the New York Knicks is to undergo surgery on his left knee that could potentially bench him through the rest of the regular season, according to NY1. The 23-year-old point guard has missed the last three games due to what he thought was a sore knee. But an MRI revealed that it was actually a torn meniscus. Lin addressed reporters, explaining that the surgery will allow him to play again.

The United States Census Bureau rejected New York City's challenge to the 2010 Census results on Sunday. The Bureau maintains that its numbers were accurate, totaling the city's population at 8.2 million. However, city officials argue that the number was actually closer to 8.4 million, according to NY1.

30 Rock star Alec Baldwin got engaged to his 28-year-old girlfriend Hilaria Thomas, just in time for his 54th birthday on Tuesday. Baldwin allegedly popped the question over a trip to Long Island according to NY Daily News.

The judge in charge of overseeing the trial of an off-duty police officer accused of raping a Manhattan teacher has declared a mistrial Wednesday as the jurors continued to disagree over two counts of rape charges.

The five-year court battle regarding legendary New York City philanthropist Brooke Astor's will has finally reached a settlement, according to her grandson, Philip Marshall. The settlement, which is to be filed Wednesday in Westchester County Surrogate Court, sets aside $100 million for charities. The recipients of the donations include the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New York Public Library, New York City public schools, Carnegie Hall, Rockefeller University and a number of other importa...

A couple arrested for keeping a disabled Queens woman prisoner for over a year has been charged with kidnapping, imprisonment, assault and endangering the welfare of the disabled, according to the NY Daily News.

A top New York City education official has been fired after unlawfully using his connections to create a job for his inexperienced wife, according to NY Daily News. Investigators found that Angel Namnum, the executive director with the Division of Finance at the Education Department, convinced an employee to fabricate a position that he could later offer his wife, who barely spoke English and did not know how to operate basic office functions such as email.