(Courtesy ALLDAYEVERYDAY)

You've probably never heard of it.

In a world littered by  the used copies of The New York Times, USA Today, and The New York Observer, an independent newsstand is taking a stand against traditional media.

It's called "The Newsstand," but since its in Williamsburg, it doesn't sell much news. Independently published books, comics, erotica, and a record player are the main attractions.

"Zine culture has been producing influential independent publications for decades and a recent rise of awareness has given this platform a renewed life With a focus on personal creative expression these modern zines offers a deeper look at culture in a way rarely seen in mass media," a press release for the pop up news shop reads.

Such esteemed publishers such as Hamburger Eyes, Miniature Garden, and Toilet Paper Magazine are available at the store at the Metropolitan station in Williamsburg, between the L and the G trains.

“It’s really attractive and unexpected to find a store like this in a subway station,”  Esme Boyce, 26, told the NY Daily News. “It’s a great way of utilizing unused spaces and introducing people to independent magazines.”

There's no word as to if there will be an extra tax on the items for being so annoying.

The NYPD’s bee expert showed a Bushwick swarm who’s boss Wednesday morning after receiving a complaint from a nearby firehouse.

Bee (Getty Images).

Detective Anthony “Tony Bees” Planakis vacuumed up the 12,000 insects out of a tree and transported them to a hive in Queens, reported DNAinfo. Mr. Planakis said he arrived just before they would have begun stinging passersby.

"They're relatively docile now but as soon as they sense a swarm coming they get antsy...they'll get ticked off," Mr. Planakis told DNAinfo. "They know they're stuck here then and they get protective.... Just as the weather affects us it affects them."

To prevent future swarms from returning to old the gathering spot, Mr. Planakis smoked the spot out with horse manure to mask the bees’ previous scent.

“You can’t get a better smoke than horse manure,” he told DNAinfo. No bees were harmed in the capture of the swarm.

We are pretty sure the scent of manure is going to keep more than the bees away from that spot, Mr. Planakis.

(BrooklynCastle.com)

Intermediate School 318’s chess team isn’t the only after-school activity that might be affected by upcoming budget cuts, but it is perhaps the most beloved.

The City of New York currently supplies $20,000 of the program’s $60,000 budget, with I.S. 318 and fundraising efforts accounting for the rest of the costs.

“Our funding has been reduced every year for several years now and, as a result, we’ve had to make very deep cuts,” I.S. 318’s website reads. “We won’t be able to take many students to Nationals or go to many of the tournaments we regularly win or do well in."

(BrooklynCastle.com)

The championship winning chess team was the subject of the critically acclaimed documentary, Brooklyn Castle, a touching chronicle of a group of youths’ resilience and resolve at a school where more than 60 percent of students live below the federal poverty line. The team became the first middle school to win the United Chess Federation’s national high school championship in 2012.

Mayor Bloomberg has also been photographed posing with the team as it is one of the most high-profile programs in the city. Right now, it is unclear where the city will make cuts, the complete proposal due on June 30.

According to the Campaign for Children, a coalition of over 150 childcare and after-school provider and advocacy groups, the proposed $130 million in cuts would put 8,000 children at risk and broadly affect more than 41,000.

A slew of programs across the five boroughs will feel the sting of these cuts, but I.S. 318’s chess team stands out because of its visibility. But the narrow focus of attention isn’t necessarily a bad thing–rallying to save one program could rescue scores more in the process.

(via YouTube)

Psychotherapist Lynne Rosen and her partner, John Littig, famous for hosting their self-help radio show “The Pursuit of Happiness,” were found dead in their Park Slope apartment on Monday. The couple had suffocated themselves with plastic bags, The Post reported.

Ms. Rosen and Mr. Littig’s radio show, which aired monthly, offered advice to listeners on how to lead more productive and fulfilling lives. In a show from February, they urged one caller to fight back in her battle against depression.

"Push yourself when there's nothing left to go on," Ms. Rosen counseled. "Remember, positivity is precious."

Their bodies were found when neighbors complained of a foul smell coming from the first floor. Once police arrived on the scene, neighbors told the Daily News that they were informed the couple had been dead for a week.

Ms. Rosen and Mr. Littig left behind two notes, the News reported. Ms. Rosen’s apologized for ending her life, while Mr. Littig wrote that he could not watch his wife suffer any longer.

545 46th Street.

These days, the housing crisis seems a distant memory in many areas of Brooklyn, as buyers arrive at overcrowded open houses in Park Slope and Cobble Hill, ready to sign a contract on the spot and sellers from Red Hook to Greenpoint vie to set new neighborhood records. But the crash and its aftereffects have not vanished from the borough, as the plight of tenants in a trio in Sunset Park buildings illustrates.

While billionaires grapple over ever-loftier trophies, tearing out onyx to install carrara or vice versa, the tenants of 545, 553 and 557 46th Street in Sunset Park are still mired in the foreclosure crisis, living in decaying buildings with 684 housing violations spread over 51 apartments, according to the department of Housing Preservation and Development.

The Sunset Park buildings, like a number of other overleveraged apartment buildings in the city, fell into disrepair when their owners realized that they would not be able to flip the buildings quickly, or at all. The tenants were trapped in a hell not of their own making. In 2011, Astoria Savings Bank foreclosed on the three buildings and sold the note to private equity company Seryl LLC.

But unlike any other distressed assets that can be bought and left to lie fallow until the time is ripe to sell, apartment buildings with tenants in place must be repaired and maintained—a responsibility that numerous politicians and tenants rights' activists say Seryl has neglected. In January, the buildings entered the HPD's Alternative Enforcement Program, which targets the 200 most physically distressed buildings in the city to hold the landlords accountable for their repair.

While the market turnaround might be helping homeowners in the tonier precincts of Brooklyn, its impact has yet to be felt in many of the multi-unit buildings that fell into disrepair during the recession. The all-too familiar tale of two Brooklyns? Yes, but when it comes to real estate in New York, no owners needs to be stuck with a property that they can't afford to maintain. This isn't Detroit, after all, or the Inland Empire, and recently, residents, tenants advocates, as well as city council speaker Christine Quinn, congresswoman Nydia M. Velázquez and council member Sara M. González rallied to ask Seryl LLC to sell the building to an owner willing or able to make repairs.

“To the landlords who refuse to respect their residents and our community I have only one message: just leave. Brooklyn has no room for delinquent property owners—we have some of the most sought after real estate in the country and it should be no problem for this company—and others like it that refuse to take care of their tenants’ needs—to find a willing and responsible buyer,” Marty Markowitz said in a release asking Seryl to fix the violations or sell.

The only question is whether Brooklyn's new housing boom will ultimately prove a boon for such tenants or a curse—as any long-term resident of Williamsburg or the East Village can attest, having some of the most sought after real estate in the country does little to safeguard tenants' rights. In a housing market like New York, low-income tenants suffer in both boom and bust.

(YouTube)

Wonders never cease.

One New Yorker has taken the trouble to record a song about Brooklyn's most hated subway line–the G train–and it blows the TWU's subway safety PSA right out of the water.

In his tribute to the much-maligned G, musical comedian and apparent crummy-train enthusiast Rob Paravonian calls the line a bastion of “originality,” not for the “idiot herd.”

“People laugh and say that it should try to go somewhere,” he sings. “But the G train does its own thing, it doesn’t really care.”

He also dismisses common G train complaints like, “the G train takes forever to show,” “it’s half the size of the other trains,” and “the G train doesn’t even go to the city,” in clever rhyming couplets, and points out that "girls are cuter" on the G, and "it's like a dive bar on wheels" (this is true). He fails to address the omnipresent smell of urine, however.

Mr. Paravonian even bothered getting an exterior shot of every single stop. Factoring in a wait time of approximately two hours between trains (fairly standard for the G), that means it took him at least 42 hours to make this three-minute video. Now that’s dedication.

There’s a subway line that all of the time everybody’s always mockin’
But that’s just the words of the idiot herd ‘cause I think it’s pretty rockin’
You’d realize that if you prized individuality
This particular line is one of a kind, there ain’t nothing like the G

People laugh and say that it should try to go somewhere
But the G train does its own thing, it doesn’t really care

(Oh wait, thought it was coming there for a second
Guess we gotta wait on the platform
That’s alright, that’s alright.)

“The G train takes forever to show!”
That means it’s just reclusive
“But it’s half the size of the other trains!”
That just makes it exclusive
“The G train is just too darn slow
When’s it gonna come?”
Psh, you don’t know
“The G train doesn’t even go to the city!”
No Bridge-and-Tunnel crowd? What a pity!

If the G train doesn’t go there, it’s no place that I wanna be
You can have those main lines, I’ll keep ridin’ on the G

This is where it’s at man, on the G train (on the G train)
We don’t go to Manhattan, no we refrain (on the G train)
There’s no other subway that matches (on the G train)
It’s not for the masses
It’s transit in small batches

(That’s right, this is artisanal transit right here
Each ride is unique
Know what I’m sayin’?)

They say the G train goes nowhere, well I’ve got to beg your pardon
Greenpoint, Gowanus, Fort Greene, Bedford-Stuy and Carroll Gardens
The G train will get you there, though it might take a while
But when you finally get there, you’re someplace that’s got style

It’s all about Brooklyn and a little bit of Queens
And people who have yet to let the city kill their dreams

All the girls are cuter on the G train (on the G train)
They’re not mindless commuters with little pea brains (on the G train)
It’s a challenge, so you riders must be able (on the G train)
It’s unknown and unstable like it’s on an indie label

You don’t have to dress up for the G train (on the G train)
There’s no one to impress so you’ve got free reign (on the G train)
On the G train you can be however you feel (on the G train)
The G train keeps it real, it’s like a dive bar on wheels

(Flickr)

The NYPD uncovered a grisly murder scene at a Brooklyn apartment last night. According to The Post, police discovered a woman's corpse in a Midwood basement, accompanied by a note that read, “I killed my wife, she was casting spells on me.”

Police found the body in the basement of a two-family home after a Midwood resident complained of a “foul smell," The Post reported. The woman, who the Daily News identified as Chava Friedfertig, was 55-years-old and had been stabbed in the stomach multiple times. Her body was badly decomposed.

Neighbors told the Daily News that she and her "emotionally disturbed" husband were observant Jews who were frequently heard arguing. Mr. Friedfertig was allegedly taken into custody after police tracked him down to a psychiatric facility, where he said that his wife had cast spells on him.

An NYPD spokesman told The Observer that a person of interest has been identified in the case, but that no charges have been made. He was not authorized to comment further, and could not confirm whether a note was found with the body.

In an almost motion picture-esque turn of events, police said a 10-year-old Brooklyn boy deterred two burglars with their own gun.

Officials say that two men forced themselves into an East 80th street home in Canarsie on Monday, telling the two teens they found inside to stay put. They began searching the house for valuables, without knowing that a third child was upstairs in his bedroom, police told The Observer.

After going through much of the house, the burglars tried to enter the 10-year-old's bedroom, gun first. The child slammed the door on their hand, forcing them to drop their firearm, police said. Then, the boy picked up the weapon and fired a shot at the intruders.

While he didn't hit the thieves, the bullet was enough to cause them to flee the scene, according to the NYPD.

As of Tuesday morning, the police are still looking for two suspects in their early 20s. The boy's identity has not been released.

Stephanie Hendricks. (LinkedIn)

A Brooklyn-based lawyer was arrested this weekend after trying to skip out on a $6 taxi fare, then stripping off her underwear and throwing them at police officers who tried to intervene.

A surveillance video obtained by The Post shows Stephanie Hendricks, 39, entering a Williamsburg delicatessen followed by police. A few seconds pass and she emerges bottomless and lunges at the officers.

The official police report states that police "saw her getting out of the taxi, trying to avoid paying the legal fare,” an NYPD spokesperson told The Observer. “She yelled at the officers, calling them derogatory names, and asked them to perform a certain sexual act on her. She lifted up her dress, exposed her nether regions and ran toward the officers, trying to punch and kick them as they attempted to arrest her. She resisted arrest by lying down on top of her arms so that the officers couldn’t handcuff her.”

According to The Post, Ms. Hendricks allegedly yelled, “Suck my pu--y,” and “Eat my ass, you f--ing pigs!” at police. Mohammad Rahman, the deli’s owner, told The Post that “she opened her clothes in front of the police officer. She looked crazy.”

Ms. Hendricks spoke to The Post, “My boyfriend broke up with me. I went out. I got drunk. I had a bad night. … I have no recollection from a certain point in the evening.”

“I was wasted – all caps bold. You couldn’t get bigger, all caps bold, wasted,” she added.

She was charged with intent to defraud by obtaining transportation without pay, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and exposure of her person. She told The Post that she regrets her behavior, and has tried to apologize to police.

Ms. Hendricks’s law firm, based in Brooklyn, serves New York businesses, startups, and entrepreneurs, according to their website. One client review praises Ms. Hendricks’s “analytical, rational-minded and strategic approach … It was her ability to tackle and resolve issues with poise and professionalism that allowed us to work seamlessly and efficiently.”

Ms. Hendricks told The Observer that she has no further comment on the matter.

(expressbiker.com)

The city that never sleeps no longer has to wait to until morning for bike repair.

Amateur cyclist Shimon Kivman has launched Express Biker, a 24-hour bike repair kiosk that provides tubes, lights, patch kits and everything else needed for emergency repair. The items range from $5-30.

"We want to revolutionize bike riding and its shopping experience with an innovative new automated retail shop and support cyclists by making it easier to fix their bike while out on the road," Mr. Kivman said on their website.

As of now, Express Biker is set up outside two retail locations. One is located at the Emporium Gas Station on Flushing Avenue and another at the Mobil Gas Station at 415 Empire Blvd., a few blocks away from Prospect Park.

In addition to just aiding cyclists, Express Biker also has the average New Yorker covered in case of a storm. They have bags to protect an iPhone, in addition to umbrellas. No word on whether hairspray and mascara will also be added if the stations spread to Manhattan...