New York City Travel

• New York City Council, Bloomberg at Odds Over Call for Muslim School Holidays The New York City Council is at odds with Mayor Michael Bloomberg over a resolution calling for the school system to observe two Muslim holidays. The council overwhelmingly passed the resolution Tuesday, citing the city's growing Muslim population and the fact that the system observes comparable Jewish and Christian holidays.
• New York police expand dirty bomb security Thousands of additional law enforcement officers within 50 miles of New York City will have access to radiation detectors for dirty bombs and nuclear devices, New York police said on Wednesday.
• New York’s Defective Legislators If ever there was an example of the very real consequences of the idiocy in the State Senate, it was in New York City on Wednesday. The state senators’ failure to extend mayoral control of city schools had officials scrambling to figure out how to restore the old, failed Board of Education. And the Senate’s refusal to pass a sales tax increase is expected to cost the city $60 million in July alone.
• New York City Sees Slide in Tourism New York City, one of the world's most visited places, is seeing a downward slide in tourism this summer even as it battles other economic woes. City tourism officials project about 11.3 million people will visit this summer, down nearly 6% from last summer's 12 million. Industry officials say they need the long July 4 holiday weekend to reverse the momentum.

• New York Yankees fall to Mariners, 8-4, to snap seven-game winning streak The wackiest, nuttiest and most shameless Yankee homers never believed they would win forever. On a night when the home fans dusted off The Wave, of all things, the white-hot Yankees finally cooled off in an 8-4 defeat that snapped their seven-game winning streak. CC Sabathia (7-5) struggled from the get-go for the Yankees, who dropped to 45-33.
• New York Mets: Five Keys To an Amazing Second Half With the second half of the baseball season rapidly approaching, the time is now for Major League teams to evaluate where they stand in their pursuit for the post season. In other words, if a team feels they are still in playoff contention, they will probably opt to fill their holes with a quick fix aimed at putting them over the top for this season. If a team feels they are a long shot to be playing baseball into October, they may make moves that focus on building a team to contend in the future.
• Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake wins New York State Sportswriters' title The New York State Sportswriters association has named the Spartans the Class A boys and girls all-sports championship based on a scoring system for the 14 boys and 13 girls tournaments of championships conducted by the New York State Public High School Athletic Association.
• NFL suspends Jets LB Pace for four games New York Jets linebacker Calvin Pace has been suspended without pay for the first four games of the 2009 season for violating the NFL's policy on performance enhancing substances, the league announced Thursday.

• Spare Times DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, handwritten by Thomas Jefferson, on view through Aug. 1 at the New York Public Library, Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III Gallery, Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street. Also on view: early printings of the document and a letter to George Washington from Benjamin Franklin. Holiday hours this Friday through Sunday: 1 to 5 p.m. (917) 275-6975; nypl.org.
• Spike Lee joins thousands in New York to pay tribute to Michael Jackson Thousands of bereaved fans waited for hours Tuesday to attend a memorial for Michael Jackson at New York's Apollo Theater, the New York Times reported. Director Spike Lee and the Rev. Al Sharpton gave speeches and fans shouted the lyrics to songs like "Beat It" and "Billie Jean."
• July 4 Travelers Grab Vegas Trips, $92 New York Hotel Rooms Americans traveling this Fourth of July weekend may take advantage of last-minute deals such as $92 Manhattan hotel rooms and $200 weekend hotel-flight packages as the recession damps more extravagant plans. Downtown New Orleans, the Las Vegas Strip, Chicago’s Millennium Park and New York’s Times Square are among the sought-after destinations, according to Internet travel agent Priceline.com. Beach hotels in Ocean City, Maryland, and Fenwick Island, Delaware, still have vacancies and are attracting customers this week, Hotwire.com President Clem Bason said.
• Michael Jackson turned to old friend and entertainment lawyer John Branca in times of trouble However many needle marks his body may or may not have, however many drugs he may or may not have been taking, Michael Jackson sure seems to have chosen the right lawyer to handle his will and serve as executor.

• Brooks Will Serve as Acting New York Insurance Chief New York’s insurance department will be led by First Deputy Superintendent Kermitt Brooks as the governor seeks a replacement for Eric Dinallo.
• Marshals Arrive, Ruth Madoff Leaves as Manhattan Home Is Seized U.S. marshals seized Bernard Madoff’s $7 million Manhattan penthouse apartment following a federal judge’s order that the Upper East Side residence be forfeited by the convicted con man. Madoff’s wife, Ruth, moved out yesterday as they arrived, her lawyer said. “Ruth moved out voluntarily pursuant to prior agreements we had reached with the government,” attorney Peter Chavkin said. He declined to say where she will live.
• 4th UPDATE: NYSE Extended Trading Until 4:15 PM EDT Thursday Trading on NYSE Euronext's (NYX) U.S. equity markets closed at 4:15 p.m. EDT Thursday after officials extended the close due to a connectivity problem. An additional 15 minutes were added to the session to allow the exchange to "execute customer orders impacted by system irregularities," according to spokesman Eric Ryan.

Approximately 40 million foreign and American tourists visit NYC annually. Major destinations include the Empire State Building, Ellis Island, Broadway theatre productions, museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and additional tourist draws including Central Park, Washington Square Park, Rockefeller Center, Times Square, the Bronx Zoo, New York Botanical Garden, luxury shopping along Fifth and Madison Avenues, and events such as the Halloween Parade in Greenwich Village, the Tribeca Film Festival, and free performances in Central Park at Summerstage. The Statue of Liberty is a leading tourist draw and one of the most identifiable icons of the U.S.A.. A lot of NYC cultural enclaves, such as Jackson Heights, Flushing, and Brighton Beach are leading shopping destinations for first and second generation Americans up and down the eastern United States Coast.

NYC has over 28,000 acres of parkland and 14 miles of public beaches. Manhattan's Central Park, configured by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, is the most visited city parkland in the United States. Prospect Park in Brooklyn, also planned by Olmsted and Vaux, has a 90 acre (36 hectare) meadow. Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens, the city's third largest, was the setting for the 1939 World's Fair and 1964 World's Fair.

NYC's food culture, molded by the city's immigrants and multitude of dining frequenters, is diverse. Jewish and Italian immigrants made the NYC renowned for bagels, cheesecake and New York-style pizza. Approximately 4,000 mobile food vendors are licensed by NYC, a lot of immigrant-owned, have made Middle Eastern foods such as falafels and kebabs standbys of modern-day New York street food. NYC is also home to numerous of the high-grade haute cuisine restaurants in the U.S.A..