Via Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley and and Neighborhoodr: apparently, there were/are two taxis underneath that mess. Police and firemen are on the scene.

Scaffolding collapses don't happen so often in New York, but they definitely do happen enough to make you want to walk a little more briskly under it if you have to; this scaffolding (right in front of The Gap, which it apparently wanted to fall into) is in a snazzy location that sees lots of tourists. It's essentially next to a subway stop, too.

So: enjoy your Monday commute! In fear.

Update: New York Post reporter Justin Rocket Silverman Twitters:

Two taxis crash, spin, and bring down and a scaffolding on Broadway and 8th. Mailbox is down too. Ouch!

Oh, even better. Dueling taxis making scaffolding collapse. Remind me when Astor Place-ish became Death Race 3000? Super.

[Top image by Jesse Chan-Norris.]

1010 Wins says a dead body was found on the tracks. No word on whether or not it was the result of a suicide. But we'll go ahead and post all these tips, just to illustrate how messed up a city can get by one single incident...

These videos are not the most enthralling things ever. Watch them if you will. But we got this report from a person on the train in the video:

The L train stopped underground between the Bedford and the 1st Avenue station around 10:44a.m.- give a few minutes here or there. Being just prior to 1st avenue, we waited underground for 15 minutes if that, and moved a couple of inches every few minutes. The announcement was then stated that we were to be evacuated onto a train in front of our own... I'm assuming that it was backed up into the tunnel to provide a link for us to arrive at 1st avenue by foot. The train operator having come out from the conductors closet told another passenger that "no, someone isn't sick... it's an injury". This was my first understanding of what had caused us to halt the transit. When we all had quietly and patiently (I felt quite in awe by the patience of the crowd) onto the 1st avenue platform we came upon a grouping of New York's finest, all guarding the first train car. There were stretchers and such. I couldn't say for sure if someone was laid out on the seat in the first train car, nor if they were alive, though that was the glimpse of things, and based on assumption that someone was injured, it seemed that car was providing the medical and emergency assistance either he or she required. We stepped above ground just after 11am.

And, we heard from another L train rider who told a similar story about going to work this morning—probably on that very same train:

I was riding on it, toward the back of the train. Train slows down,
then just stops. The front cars reached the First Avenue platform, the
back cars—where I was—were still in the tunnel. After a couple of
minutes of delay, they said there had been an "injury" to a passenger
and we would have to all evacuate. Anyway, since the back of the train
wasn't even at the platform, we all had to walk toward the middle of
the train and get off there. We were at the far end of the platform
and had to walk down.

We got off, and then it was all crazy. Dozens and dozens of firemen
(carrying axes, which was particularly odd) and lots of police
officers.

They had a gurney laid out near the front of the train, but again, had
no idea what happened from there

How bad was it? Another L train passenger tells us that much later, everything was still totally fucked: "I was actually one of the hundreds of people waiting for the L to arrive at 1st Ave, around 12:30. The station was open, and there hadn't been any announcement over the loudspeaker, but they didn't have that countdown to the next arrival displayed. Then there was an announcement on the screen that usually displays the next arrival, saying there was an investigation at 1st Ave. But I didn't see any cops, paramedics, or anything on the tracks or anything like that."

Okay, fine. Maybe questions about rape and specific instances that go transcend our typical definitions of crime are more interesting, but this one's definitely the most fun. Our tipline's been blowing up with it.

Business Insider caught it before anyone on the front pages of Forbes. We got some pretty great screengrabs of it from the Times. Basically, instead of the Polanski story, this went up instead:

Swiss arrest Polanski on US request in sex case
Associated Press, 09.27.09, 10:41 AM EDT

OK, can you do some more probing? New York will want to know
frank's out today.
i checked already, and so did zurich. they say the question is irrelevant. he answered me with the quote i used, about we knew when he was coming this time. he's been here many times in the past, we think.
thx brad. aptn is aware, but unfortunately won't make it in time, but is hoping to catch tail end.
i'm pushing out another writethru with some more background details before press conference.
no surprise, new york is really hot on this.
they particularly want to know why now. (has he never set foot in switzerland before?) sheila, theorizes that's because they're under intense pressure over ubs and want to throw the U.S. a bone, but can you check with justice department sources there?
is frank around too, or are you alone?
u can tell aptn press conf 1700 (15 gmt) in bern at the parliament
i'll watch it live on internet

Heh. Who uses the word "probing" anymore? Also, isn't "probing" in relation to a rape story slightly off-color, even in notes? Maybe my mind's in the gutter. Then again, I am in New York, and I would want to know, and want to know WHY. New Yorkers: we love a good Hollywood rape extradition saga!

Also, looks like the AP gets stonewalled by those goddamn Swiss quite often. Good to know they like to theorize about countries throwing one another "a bone" sometime before checking with their Swiss Justice Department sources over whether or not those hot chocolate drinking narcs, you know, owe us one. The Associated Press: who needs to steal their content when they can just give us their notes instead?

It's a cute story, but O'Brien might be getting a little old. He was filming a stunt teasing Teri Hatcher for competing in triathlons in what sounds like a somewhat bizarre bit of O'Brien's stripe of humor. Says Hatcher, via US:

"We did this bit and at the very end, when we ran in to cross the finish line, he slipped as he was crossing the finish line and hit his head," Hatcher tells Entertainment Tonight of O'Brien's accident.

"He didn't get off floor right a way, but then he [seemed] like he recovered and [pulled] it together, and they did an instant replay, and you could really see his head hit the floor," the actress said. "He did go to hospital and he does have a concussion."

Eegh. Scary. TMZ says that he was cracking jokes in the ambulance, and the statement he put out:

"Last thing I remember I was enjoying the play with Mrs. Lincoln, and the next thing I knew I was in bed being served cookies and juice" O'Brien said in the statement.

would seem to indicate that he's fine. But! US closes with a mysterious:

There is no word yet from NBC about plans for future Tonight Show episodes.

And TMZ goes with:

An NBC spokesman tells us, "Conan is resting comfortably at home. He is expected to return to work on Monday."

Even though TMZ posted four hours earlier. Either way, we wish Conan a speedy recovery. NBC execs, however, are probably slightly concerned about keeping up with Conan's physical humor: he's their late night guy, he's expensive to insure, and they can't be pleased about the whole "not getting off the floor right away thing." One's gotta wonder if someone from above hasn't called down to let Conan know to take it easy, or if they did, whether or not Conan would listen (my guess: no). Still: good to know he's staying scrappy.

Allison Viva, president of "adult entertainment studio Pink Visual," woke up this morning thinking that the Gingrich PAC "American Solutions For Winning the Future" was rewarding her for her impressive business acumen and American can-do spirit. Then someone from the PAC called her up and told her that she would not actually get to enjoy a private dinner at the Capitol Club with the former majority leader himself. Sad!

According to the notice from ASWF, should Vivas attend a private dinner scheduled to occur Oct. 7 at the historic Capitol Hill Club, she will "dine privately with Newt," who will then take the occasion to present Vivas with her "well deserved award" and pose for a photo with her.

The notice from ASWF also informed Vivas that Gingrich is "looking forward to finally meeting [Vivas] face to face – and get[ting] your thoughts on Cap and Trade and Obama's Tax Policy."

Vivas expressed her intention to use the occasion as a chance to educate the former Speaker about issues pertinent to her industry.

Yes, right, that's what everyone said, and so on.

Last week the media world was rocked as if by a meteor when Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart neglected to name his own newspaper as one of the papers he reads in the morning, in an appearance on MSNBC's morning amusement program "Way Too Early." Now, we have "obtained" an exclusive email from Jon Capehart, to us, explaining this bombshell blooper: "The reason I didn't mention the Washington Post on 'Way Too Early' is because the paper arrives AFTER I've worked out on the elliptical (around 6:30am). I can't believe people don't have other things to worry about. Maybe that'll change now that Labor Day is over. :-)" Stay tuned to Gawker.com: Your source for the latest EXCLUSIVE developments in the Jon Capehart vs. MSNBC morning newspaper-with-exercise preference war.


Minor late pass on this, but a laid-off white Chicago journalist got socked in the grill by a black teenager for no reason and wrote an admirably honest article about all the race-related feelings it brought out in him. You should read it. Although I'm pretty sure the underlying lesson in this whole incident is "Teenagers are assholes."


A Colorado sports editor had three vertebrae shattered in an accident while covering a football game and had to be life-flighted out. Here are the first two grafs of the story on the horrific injury:

Valley Courier Sports Editor Lloyd Engen was severely injured Saturday afternoon when he was hit while taking photographs on the sideline at the Sangre de Cristo and Norwood High School football gam.

Norwood won the contest 48-8.

Then later they get to the shattered vertebrae, etc. It's called "inverted pyramid."


Crrrrazily, military paper Stars & Stripes has a new editor who's saying "There is a tradition here of people pulling their punches when it comes to covering the Pentagon," and talks about making the paper more aggressive, and—witness their story last week about the Pentagon vetting reporters—actually does it! An awesome development, if it lasts.

Per the Post, the guy who was supposed to be on watch from Teterboro was on his cell with a contractor, talking about a dead cat who was removed from the airport when the crash happened.

The phone call, to an airport contractor, was a "silly conversation" concerning a dead cat that had been removed from the airport, a retired union official said, in an account supported by transportation officials also familiar with the contents of the call. The controller and his supervisor at Teterboro have been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration. "He was on the phone, and we have made no determination about what role this may have played in the accident," said NTSB spokesman Peter Knudson. "It was a lot of things happening in just a few minutes."

To say both of them have probably had the worst week of their lives would be an understatement. If this is, in fact true, one guy's small mistake, not made, could've possibly prevented a collision where everyone in it ended up dead.

And now, footage taken by a tourist on a boat below the crash is circulating around the internet; it's been around for the last week, but a New York news station did a frame-by-frame of the crash; one wing goes spinning off of the body of the plane the moment it comes in contact with the helicopter. The FAA's using the footage for their investigation.

Surely, there's something trite to be said for representing yet another step in the progress of eyewitness accounts becoming even more readily available following tragic accidents, so we can learn from them and use them to prevent future instances as technology progresses forward. Sadly, this is the last thing that'd occur to some people, as it mostly just presents another opportunity for a dumbass to make another dumb joke on YouTube:

And he thinks it's a plane crash that'd make us look ridiculous to aliens. Go figure.

It appears that there were two passengers and a pilot on the plane, including one child. The helicopter was carrying five Italian tourists, and had just taken off when it was hit in the tail end by the plane.

Former CNN anchor Miles O'Brien has some interesting insight on what may caused the crash over at True/Slant. Basically: this kind of thing isn't a freak accident; the corridor is a hotbed of sketchy aviation traffic. Also, the pilot may or may not have seen the chopper due to the make of their plane, which was the same one JFK Jr. flew to his death.

One of the busiest spots in this busy corridor is right near the Heliport at 30th St. on a pier on the Manhattan side of the river. The tour choppers there come and go frequently. They take off, go straight across the river and then turn down to the south for a trip to the statue. The chopper involved in this collision was doing just that. The plane was flying south – unsure what speed or altitude.

But here is an important point: it was a Piper PA-32 – A Cherokee Six or Saratoga (the sort of plane John Kennedy Jr. flew to his demise). It is a low wing airplane with a rather long nose. In level flight, downward visibility for the pilot is not so good. So the ascending chopper might very well have been completely obscured by the wing and engine cowling.

Meanwhile, the chopper pilot might not have seen the plane either. You have to wonder if the plane pilot was issuing radio reports as he flew down the river. It is quite possible that each aircraft was in the other's "blind spot".

[Screengrab via Anthony De Rosa]

"THE DEMON OF SCREAMIN IS NOT DEAD.

Yes it's true my dad walked the wrong way and landed on his head. He broke his left shoulder and had to get a few stitches on his noggin.

He is now at home resting and will be back on his feet just as soon as he can to rock the world once more."

Wonderful, no? That's how you give a press release. Meanwhile, E! found footage from the fall, which is simply funny.

It resulted in a few stitches and probably a few canceled tour dates. So goes the perils of being a crazy-old-rock-star who's still kicking and screaming and doing the twirly dance like you always did. While a few amyl nitrates would normally clear this kind of thing right up as recently as ten years ago, sadly, the wear-and-tear of rock star aging requires more than a few poppers. So it goes. Getting old, like falling in love, is hard on the knees.

Apparently a small plane and a Liberty Tours helicopter had a mid-air collision. There's been one reported death, but there are survivors. There's an FDNY live feed where you can watch the rescue efforts. And the Twitteratti, of course, are reporting this story first. The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder believes that other than one DOA, everyone else made it:

They're being transported to the 30th Street helipad. Non-blogger Michael Orell happened to be at Chelsea Piers; this is the second time he's watched a plane get fished out of the Hudson.

Some guy supposedly posted a picture on Twitter of a tire from the plane that crashed:
While one Twitterer claims to have actually been on a Water Taxi and seen it happen:

One guy notes that they're fishing people out of the Hudson right now:

The New York Times' Brian Stelter is crowdsourcing Q & A's from on-the-scene witnesses. This person, who was thankful to be alive (and having brunch), seems to have a new appreciation for mortality:

Beleaguered Mets fan and Mediaite blogger Anthony "SoupSoup" DeRosa's also on the case. He's picking up reports from an FDNY scanner:

So, basically, that awful Nicolas Cage movie Knowing where the entire world falls apart due to (SPOILER ALERT) solar flares is basically becoming true because everything's fucking crashing. Avoid going outside, live in fear, wear lots of seatbelts. We'll be updating here as we get news.

When the accident happened, the father of two was en route to work, where Blair-Goldesohn worked on answering natural-language queries like "What is the population of Texas?" (such queries were the focus of his Ph.D. work at Columbia University). The engineer's lung was damaged in the incident and he remains in intensive care.

(Pic via Blair-Goldensohn's home page)

It doesn't look too bad; there don't appear to be any fatal injuries. People are reporting different stories about the train's conductor, which some said were waving his hands (as if he had no control over the car), the other noting that he was slumped over. Authorities have yet to comment.

The accident occurred just before 3 p.m. Sunday afternoon when a westbound Metro line-L Taraval train slammed into the back of a Metro line-KT Ingleside/Third Street train that was stopped in the station. The front of the L car was totally smashed in, the car itself bent and its windshield shattered from the impact.

This is the third trainwreck in less than a month on fairly famous lines, one which happened in front of a bunch of families and children at Walt Disney World on the Monorail, killing an employee, the other at the DC Metro which killed nine people. There's the idiom about bad things coming in threes; hopefully, this'll be the last trainwreck we see for a while. Then again, three train crashes in a month? Really? In the recent (trainwreck of a) Nicolas Cage movie, Knowing, there's a subway crash and soon thereafter the world ends. But only one subway crash. Three: you think we're being told something?

Dozens Injured In MUNI Crash [KCBS]

Details on what caused the crash are sparse, but it appears to eerily mirror the DC subway collision. Video of the crashed monorail is here; there's nothing too graphic about it other than the Disney employee doing his best to get any and all cameras out of sight. Whether that was due to Disney's well-known penchant for secrecy or for the dignity of the employee, who knows. As someone who took great pleasure in riding the Monorail at one point in his life, though, I can definitively report one thing: this is as strangely sad as it is simply depressing. Also, bad things happen in threes, as we all learned last week. Avoid trains.

[CNN]

Update: the employee's name was Austin Wuennenberg. It appears he took great pride in his job:

According to Wuennenberg's Facebook page, he was a computer science major at Stetson University and was set to graduate in 2010. Wuennenberg, who graduated from Celebration High School in 2006, served as a teacher's aide from August 2007 to May 2008, the Facebook page said.

Wuennenberg listed his position as "Monorail Pilot," a role he had held since October 2008. He described his job as "running the highway in the sky!" The Facebook page also stated that Wuennenberg worked at Disney in "Sunset Attractions" from June 2006 to September 2008. His interests included video games, computers, programming and comedy.

He appears to be the first fatality from the Monorail at Walt Disney World since it first opened, though this isn't the first incident the Monorail's had.

Something else I learned about the Monorail today: Disney guests can join the pilots in the front cab - where Wuennenberg died in the crash's impact - and receive a special commemorative co-pilot's license (pictured here) for doing so.

The Romanian teen was way, way too addicted to the microblogging service. Not only was she using it in the bath, she ran down her laptop battery doing so, and then tried to plug the thing into the wall. Reports the Croatian Times:

Flavia's mother... said her daughter had tried to plug the power into the socket with wet hands after the battery had died as she used the device for a lengthy period in her home in Brasov, central Romania... Her only injury was a burn mark on her hand.

The lesson, of course, is to always dry your hands before connecting your electrical Twitter device to a power source and bringing it into a tub of water.

(Pic via ebertek on Flickr)

Update 3: DC's ABC-7 reports six dead at the scene, still possibly seven deaths, and two still in critical condition at the hospital.

Update 2: One train was stopped on the tracks, waiting for clearance into the Fort Totten station. The second one "plowed right into the tail end of the first train without slowing down," according to a reporter at WJLA. The driver of the second train is among the confirmed dead. 70 have been transported to hospitals, with two in critical condition. Four officially dead, up to seven may be dead altogether (meaning, probably, that there are still three people trapped in the wreckage).

(Mother Jones Washington bureau chief David Corn is taking photos of the wreckage with his iPhone.)

Update: Three people possibly still trapped in a train car. More news photos here, eyewitness reports here. A train operator is one of the dead, and while the logistics of the crash are still unclear to us, the eyewitnesses seem to be saying that a speeding train ran into a stopped one. In addition: the Metro may have been single-tracking on the Red Line this afternoon due to "mechanical problems." If you're wondering if a family member was on one of the trains, you can reach the DC police at 202-727-9099.

The Red Line is the busiest line on the Metro, and this crash—reportedly initially caused by a six-car train derailing and colliding with an oncoming train—happened around 5 pm, at the height of rush hour.

D.C. Fire and EMS spokesman Alan Etter tells WTOP rescue crews are setting up for the "possibility of mass casualties."

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.
There's full, live coverage available via streaming video here. (It pops up.) DC police and fire are still rescuing people from trains. The Red Line is elevated at the site of the crash, and ambulances are unable to reach the tracks.

Top photo: MyFoxDC. Additional photos: Inside transit.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.
The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.

Obama's first Supreme Court nominee tripped at LaGuardia, where she was boarding a plane to DC to meet with Senators. She made it all the way to the Old Executive Office Building in Washington before deciding she should maybe get that ankle looked at.

X-rays revealed a small fracture, and she was released after less than two hours. Now she is on crutches, so she will probably say that crippled Latinas are way wiser than dumb white men, any day now.

[Photo: Getty]

He stepped out in a red jumpsuit, looked like he had gained some lbs. Picture depicts the confrontation to follow.