Laura June Kirsch

Michael Che, photographed for the Voice in June.

Ladies, do we really have to go over this again? Catcalls are flattering! The latest defense of street harassment comes not from the New York Post (where we would expect it) but from comedian Michael Che, late of The Daily Show, now the co-host of SNL's "Weekend Update," and recent Village Voice cover model.

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One World Observatory on YouTube

Disappointing news for Condé Nast employees: One World Trade Center's observatory won't be open when they start moving in this Saturday, November 1. In fact, the $3.9 billion building's observatory will not officially open until 2015 -- but you (yes, you!) can take a virtual tour of it today.

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Keanu Reeves in John Wick

On this week's Voice Film Club podcast, we welcome Village Voice contributor and filmmaker Zachary Wigon, who tells us about his paranoid thriller The Heart Machine (iTunes).

We also scoop out some time for John Wick, which helps restore our faith in violent movies, Horns, Nightcrawler (be sure to read our interview with Jake Gyllenhaal about the film), Citizenfour, Housebound, and Force Majeure.

As usual, your hosts are Amy Nicholson of LA Weekly, along with Alan Scherstuhl and Stephanie Zacharek of the Village Voice.

Follow @VoiceFilmClub

Photo Credit: f1uffster (Jeanie) via Compfight cc

New York City has allegedly squeezed millions out of Medicaid.

Federal authorities say they've uncovered a long-running Medicaid scam that extracted millions in fraudulent gains, and was run by...New York City.

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Albert Samaha

Betsy Head Park, across the street from Betsy Head Playground in Brownsville, BK

For years now, some Brownsville locals kept their kids away from Betsy Head Playground. One father, James, walked by the playground with his nine-year-old son one day over the summer. It was a nice, warm, bright day, and as father and son walked down Dumont Avenue, two boys inside the playground started calling the son's name.

"Can I go play with them?" the son asked James.

"Nah, not today," said James. "We gotta get home."

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Don't. Read. The comments.

As if you needed a reminder.

Filmmaker Rob Bliss and actress Shoshana Roberts teamed up with a well-known anti-street-harassment advocacy group called Hollaback to make a video of the daily sexual harassment so many women know about in New York City.

"We got an email from [Bliss] and he said his girlfriend got street-harassed all the time," said Hollaback executive director Emily May. "He thought, 'If they understood what it felt like, they wouldn't do it anymore.' "

And so the two-minute video, which has been spreading through the internet like a wildfire, tracks Roberts as she walks through Manhattan, putting together all the so-called "best" (worst) footage of guys trying to get her attention.

"It was a documentary," May said. "We didn't set anyone up. We didn't have to, unfortunately."

And as if trolls really, really wanted to prove that this video was necessary, some of the YouTube comments Roberts got were cruel.

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Screenshot via NY1

Senegalese-American schoolboys assaulted because of Ebola fears.

A group of middle-school students attacked two Senegalese-American boys and called them "Ebola" at their Bronx school on Friday.

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It's a fact: Taylor Swift's new single, "Welcome to New York," is bullshit, but now that we know it was a PR campaign coordinated by NYC & Company, the city's tourism bureau, some of her latest Instagram photos at least make more sense.

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YouTube screen capture.

Duke Ellington, legendary jazz musician, just lost a battle with his publisher.

Duke Ellington has been dead for 40 years, but his record company, EMI Music Publishing, is still playing hardball with the jazz great's cut of the loot.

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Illustrations by Tom Huck

Reynaldo Nazario had a twin sister, but she died when they were eight months old. His family soon realized that he was slower than most children. He didn't walk until he was five. He didn't know how to use his hands or feet. He couldn't speak, because he didn't know how to use his tongue. He took special-ed classes. The family lived in the Bronx, and didn't have much money, but spent what they could on doctors and speech therapists. One doctor told them that half of Reynaldo's brain worked fine but the other half worked at 40 percent of normal. He would never learn to read or write. "They say the other baby took away all the strength that he needed to have," his older sister, Mercedes, says.

As an adult, Reynaldo could spell only his name, which he wrote in big capital letters. He had the mind of an eight-year-old, one doctor explained to the family. He was trusting and gullible. "If you tell him the sky is going to be green tomorrow, he's gonna believe it'll be green," says his wife, Sylvia. He was eager to call someone a friend after two or three encounters. He was easily excited, even quicker to panic. He knew little about the world beyond what he saw and heard around him. And it seemed to him that life came easier to everybody else and there was nothing he could do about it.

But he could steal cars.

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Via Google Maps

About this time last week, New York City was preparing to dedicate part of a Morningside Heights street in honor of comedian George Carlin. The dedication came and went. Tributes poured in. We wrote about it. So did everybody else. By Wednesday afternoon, a block of West 121st Street -- between Amsterdam Avenue and Morningside Drive -- was officially renamed George Carlin Way. New York, essentially, had a new street. You just couldn't find it anywhere besides Google Maps.

See Also: George Carlin Gets His 'Way,' Has Final Say With His Former Church

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Photo Credit: o4orange via Compfight cc

Who knew something so delicious could be such a pain in the...ears?

A Dunkin' Donuts on East 14th Street and a Starbucks on Bleecker are joining a grand tradition in New York: food operations with air conditioning and heating units that annoy residents to no end.

Residents near a Dunkin' Donuts on East 14th Street between avenues A and B have begun complaining about the noise coming from HVAC equipment recently installed on top of the doughnut shop, which is flanked on both sides by apartment buildings.

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"Motion View Pictures" via Facebook.

A photographer posted graphic images of a hatchet attack on NYPD officers, and got an earful.

A local photographer who happened to capture a hatchet attack on two NYPD officers last week set off something of a firestorm on his Facebook page when he posted dramatic -- and graphic -- images of the immediate aftermath.

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https://twitter.com/nycgo

New York's new Global Welcome Ambassador

Last week when Taylor Swift released the song "Welcome to New York" we were confused. We were confused because it was bad. Very bad. So much worse than the single she released a few days earlier (which we sincerely love). Most of all, we were confused because there was nothing particularly familiar in this lab-engineered New York anthem.

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MSNBC screenshot

Congressman Peter King is saying crazy stuff again.

It's important to calibrate one's expectations in life.

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https://twitter.com/NYCMayorsOffice

Mayor de Blasio visited Bellevue Hospital on Sunday to thank doctors and nurses caring for New York's first confirmed Ebola patient.

After a weekend filled with debate over controversial quarantine measures instituted in New York and New Jersey, there are concerns Monday that there may be a second Ebola patient in New York City.

On Sunday night EMS Hazardous Material Tactical Units transported a five-year-old child from his home in the Bronx to Bellevue Hospital, responding to a report that the boy had developed a 103-degree fever after returning Saturday from a trip to Guinea with his family.

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Courtesy Oprah's Life You Want Tour

Following your passion in search of your purpose backfired on one party-planner over the weekend.

On Friday, as New Yorkers reacted to the news of the city's first confirmed Ebola case, two members of a queer Facebook group announced plans to throw a dance party fundraiser to benefit organizations battling the epidemic.

Instead, they got a big gay backlash.

Michelle Burnaby, a nurse at a New York City "Ebola-designated hospital," posted a photo of Oprah on a Facebook group called Queer Exchange and said, "I'm channeling Oprah right now...what I'm proposing is bound to make us all into our best-selves."

She proposed a "pay-as-you-can dance party" to the group's more than 14,000 members, with all proceeds going to a "direct-impact NGO." She suggested either Doctors Without Borders or the International Rescue Committee but added that she was open to other ideas.

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Via Twitter

We all know his name. We all know where he lives. We all know where he bowls. Social media has absolutely exploded in the 15-or-so hours since New York City announced its first confirmed Ebola case. New Yorkers have had much to say about the city's response (de Blasio's got this, btw), the fear-stoking media coverage, the alarmist public reaction, and the patient himself -- Dr. Craig Spencer, to those who passed out before 9 p.m. last night and are only just now waking up. The Village Voice is wading through Twitter to find our favorite responses to the thus-far-not-really-a-crisis. We'll keep adding to the list as long as you all keep sending your thoughts out into the world. Since there's no chance of that not happening, who knows how long we can keep this up.

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"In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups..."

By now you've heard the news: A 33-year-old doctor who recently traveled to Guinea to treat patients with Ebola tested positive for the disease on Thursday here in New York. Craig Spencer is currently in isolation at Bellevue Hospital. His girlfriend and two friends who had contact with Spencer are in isolation as well.

But don't panic -- de Blasio has got this, guys. If there was any doubt in your mind, just look at the photo he posted to Twitter last night, then let sweet relief cascade over you in slow, soothing waves.

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In 1989, then-16-year-old Jeffrey Deskovic confessed to the murder and rape of a 15-year-old classmate in Putnam County, New York. He was convicted and sentenced to 15-years-to-life in prison. He claimed that police had coerced the confession and that he was wrongly convicted. In 2006, DNA testing showed that Deskovic actually was innocent. DNA found on the victim matched that of another man in prison, Steven Cunningham, who had been convicted for murder.

Cunningham was exonerated and released. He sued Putnam County. On Thursday a federal jury ruled in Deskovic's favor and awarded him $41.65 million in damages.

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