Photo courtesy Gowanus Lounge.

During the depths of the Great Recession, Angelo Biondo, owner of K-9 Powerhouse Kennel in Park Slope, was doing great business. Mr. Biondo rented out his guard dogs to developers who needed someone—or some animal—to watch over their stalled sites, but couldn't afford a full-time human guard.

He told The Observer in 2009 that he charged $1,750 to $2,000 a month for the service—a steal compared to what a guard of the primate species would cost. "Brooklyn is the No. 1 area," he said at the time, though neighbors near stalled sites guarded by Mr. Biondo's dogs were not always so pleased—two dogs at a Robert Scarano site once escaped and bit a neighbor and his dog.

The market has since rebounded—there aren't many stalled sites left to guard—but when the next crash inevitably arrives, Mr. Biondo won't be around to rent out Great Danes and Rottweilers to unlucky builders.

"Police are investivating whether 58-year-old Agenlo Biondo of Prince's Bay," reported the Staten Island Advance, "is the man who leaped from the Verrazano at 12:30 a.m. Friday." Police on Staten Island found Mr. Biondo's identification in his Cadillac Escalade, parked on the Brooklyn-bound lanes of the lower level of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.

Mr. Biondo, who lived on Ormsby Avenue in Prince's Bay on Staten Island, is survived by his 2-year-old bulldog Marble, his landlord the Advance.

Mike Wallace, long considered one of the most fearsome interviewers in broadcast news, has died. He was 93.  A spokesman for CBS told the Associated Press that Mr. Wallace died Saturday night.

Mr. Wallace went into a kind of semi-retirement from regular appearances on 60 Minutes in 2006 but kept a promise made upon announcing his slowdown to do occasional new reports, profiling Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in 2007 as well as "suicide doctor" Jack Kevorkian.

Over the course of his 6 decades as a newsman Mike Wallace frequently went toe-to-toe with the famous and powerful in interviews legendary for their confrontational and emotional nature. As the A.P. reports in his obituary, Mr. Wallace once managed to break through Barbra Streisand's intensely controlled public persona:

In the early 1990s, Wallace reduced Barbra Streisand to tears as he scolded her for being "totally self-absorbed" when she was young and mocked her decades of psychoanalysis. "What is it she is trying to find out that takes 20 years?" Wallace said he wondered.

"I'm a slow learner," Streisand told him.

Mike Wallace was also one of the pioneers of the ambush interview, in which a news crew unexpectedly confronts a subject. He also disavowed this approach in later years, stating that it was a dramatic approach but ultimately not particularly informative.

Mr. Wallace leaves behind his fourth wife, Mary Yates Wallace, his son, Fox news stalwart Chris Wallace, stepdaughter Pauline Dora and a stepson, Eames Yates.

Mike Wallace's inimitable style has few imitators today. Aggressive, skeptical, challenging, wickedly well-prepared, he eschewed chummy, softball interviews designed solely to maintain journalistic "access" in favor of tearing his way through to whatever might be the truth. He wasn't the only journalist long-lived enough to have reported from hazy studios, cigarette in hand then later in videos broadcast over the Internet, but he was easily among the most feared and memorable.

"Living Waters" by Thomas Kinkade (Getty Images)

Artist Thomas Kinkade, whose light-filled Frank Capra-like visions of Americana turned spinster aunts nationwide into art collectors, has died. Kinkade's family issued a statement Friday indicating the 'Painter of Light' died of natural causes. Kinkade's wife Nanette also said the family was "shocked and saddened by his death."

The Mercury News reports Thomas Kinkade's mass-produced visions of a shimmering, mythic bygone America were enormously popular:

His paintings are hanging in an estimated one of every 20 homes in the United States. Fans cite the warm, familiar feeling of his mass-produced works of art, while it has become fashionable for art critics to dismiss his pieces as tacky. In any event, his prints of idyllic cottages and bucolic garden gates helped establish a brand -- famed for their painted highlights -- not commonly seen in the art world.

Kinkade, whose Media Arts Group was raking in upwards of $32 million a quarter a decade ago, preferred to describe himself as a "warrior for light." In a 2002 interview he said that he used his talents to "bring light to penetrate the darkness many people feel."

Though Kinkade was a wealthy family man and devout Christian there have long been hints of darkness behind the light. In 2009 the F.B.I. was investigating allegations that Kinkade had committed fraud and in 2010, he was picked up for D.U.I. Previously former employees and associates had testified that Kinkade was given to bizarre personal behavior, including heckling Siegfried & Roy, groping fans and allegedly urinating on a Winnie the Pooh statue at the Disneyland Hotel.

Thomas Kinkade didn't lack for confidence in his worth and work. As Susan Orlean reported in The New Yorker in 2001:

If you see his paintings before you meet him, you might expect him to be wispy and pixie-like, but he is as brawny and good-natured as the neighborhood butcher. He has the buoyant self-assurance of someone who started poor and obscure but has always been sure he would end up rich and famous. He is so self-assured that he predicts it's just a matter of time before the art world comes around to appreciating him. In fact, he bet me a million dollars that a major museum will hold a Thomas Kinkade retrospective in his lifetime.

Authorities won't know the exact cause of Kinkade's death until next week. On Friday, his family was reportedly "traveling to Australia and unavailable for further comment." As of Friday they were said to be planning private memorials.

"I have known him since I was 19-years-old and James Brown had me speak on Soul Train," he said. "He brought soul music and dance to the world in a way that it had never been shown and he was a cultural game changer on a global level. Had it not been for Don Cornelius we would not have ever transcended from the Chitlin circuit to become mainstream cultural trendsetters."

Apple founder Steve Jobs  died today at 56 years old. Mr. Jobs's battle with cancer that forced him to take a hiatus from, rejoin, and then relinquish his post as the head of Apple was well-documented in the press. Apple's press release, right here, via Yahoo Finance:

We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today.

Steve’s brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve.

His greatest love was for his wife, Laurene, and his family. Our hearts go out to them and to all who were touched by his extraordinary gifts.

Apple's Homepage:

And when you click through:

At a now-famous commencement speech from Stanford University in 2005, Mr. Jobs touched upon the rather delicate subject of mortality:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

Video of that speech here. Arguably Jobs' biggest rival over the course of his career, Microsoft founder Bill Gates has released a statement:

I’m truly saddened to learn of Steve Jobs’ death. Melinda and I extend our sincere condolences to his family and friends, and to everyone Steve has touched through his work.

Steve and I first met nearly 30 years ago, and have been colleagues, competitors and friends over the course of more than half our lives.

The world rarely sees someone who has had the profound impact Steve has had, the effects of which will be felt for many generations to come.

For those of us lucky enough to get to work with him, it’s been an insanely great honor. I will miss Steve immensely.

Via Newsweek's Tumblr, Mark Zuckerberg's statement on Jobs:

Jobs' family's statement was released a short while later:

Steve died peacefully today surrounded by his family.

In his public life, Steve was known as a visionary; in his private life, he cherished his family. We are thankful to the many people who have shared their wishes and prayers during the last year of Steve’s illness; a website will be provided for those who wish to offer tributes and memories.

We are grateful for the support and kindness of those who share our feelings for Steve. We know many of you will mourn with us, and we ask that you respect our privacy during our time of grief.

The Wall Street Journal appears to be first out of the gate with a comprehensive obituary that clocks in at over 3,000 words. Bloomberg has one as well, and it's 5,854 words long (a version of which they accidentally once ran prematurely, in 2008).

The New York Times—usually first out of the gate with well-prepared obituaries—at the moment only had a blog post up on their Bits vertical, but eventually posted John Markoff's 3,499 word obituary/tribute to Jobs less than an hour later. Gizmodo's Jesus Diaz made a "Think Different" tribute video.

As of this writing, #RIPSTEVEJOBS is the top trending topic on Twitter, and the President will reportedly release a statement on it later this evening. UPDATE: Here it is.

Michelle and I are saddened to learn of the passing of Steve Jobs. Steve was among the greatest of American innovators - brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it.

By building one of the planet’s most successful companies from his garage, he exemplified the spirit of American ingenuity. By making computers personal and putting the internet in our pockets, he made the information revolution not only accessible, but intuitive and fun. And by turning his talents to storytelling, he has brought joy to millions of children and grownups alike. Steve was fond of saying that he lived every day like it was his last. Because he did, he transformed our lives, redefined entire industries, and achieved one of the rarest feats in human history: he changed the way each of us sees the world.

The world has lost a visionary. And there may be no greater tribute to Steve’s success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented. Michelle and I send our thoughts and prayers to Steve’s wife Laurene, his family, and all those who loved him.

The flags at the Apple headquarters in Cupertino are also, it has been noted, at half-mast. And our favorite tribute, which is very easily BoingBoing's, who skinned their entire site to pay their respects:

[Photos via Getty]

fkamer@observer.com | @weareyourfek

The Jersey hyperlocal blog was launched at the same time as another one in Brooklyn. That blog still appears to run.

When The Times started these hyperlocal blogs — dubbed in-house as the "microblogs" — they did so by committing two full-time Metro reporters and a Metro editor. They also did it without any business model in mind. 

"As this venture grows, we're hoping that a business model will emerge from it," wrote Andy Newman, The Times' Brooklyn blogger. "If you're a fledgling Internet entrepreneur and you have an idea — well, you can contribute to The Local, too."

At least in New Jersey, it appears that no model emerged. The Times launched the two blogs at a time when all Web and newspaper people were talking about the importance of local, local, local news, and how Old Media had to begin to incorporate citizen journalists. The Times blog was also an attempt to cover New Jersey, after it virtually gave up on it once it closed its Trenton and Newark bureaus two years ago.

Tina Kelley, who was the gatekeeper of The Times' Local blog, took a buyout at the end of last year.

In its farewell post, The Times left a sort-of endorsement to its readers to go read the Northern Jersey local blog Baristanet.com, which will now cover the towns that The Times had covered.