Two of Brooklyn’s largest hospitals are in early exploratory talks about joining forces.

A major sticking point in this week's pre-trial hearings for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other men accused of plotting the September 11 terror attacks has been how the military commission will handle classified evidence.

For 14 years, Harry Jacobs has spent just about every weekend at a gun show, signing up members for the National Rifle Association.

“If Sandy had happened three weeks before when it did,” she said, “we would have lost the Belt Parkway.”

Senate Republican Leader Dean Skelos says he’s strongly opposed to Governor Cuomo’s reproductive health act, saying it would lead to too many late term abortions. Pro choice lawmakers and advocates say they disagree with the Senator’s interpretation.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg wistfully touted his achievements as he outlined his final, $70 billion budget proposal on Tuesday, and he warned that whoever follows him will likely face the same difficult budget constraints that he has. 

Gun groups plan to sue the state of New York over a new gun control law.

New Jersey state officials are beginning to discuss how to manage the spending of their portion of the $50.5 billion Sandy relief package that was approved by the Senate yesterday, and some officials are concerned there are not adequate controls in place to monitor how the money is spent. 

Residents of this Brooklyn neighborhood aren't happy that they're on the map. Gerritsen Beach, a working-class Brooklyn neighborhood of low-slung bungalows hard hit by Sandy, is among the communities included in FEMA's updated flood maps released this week.

Declaring "now is the time" to fix broken immigration laws, President Barack Obama on Tuesday heralded a rare show of bipartisanship between the White House and Senate lawmakers on principles for putting millions of illegal immigrants on a pathway to citizenship, cracking down on businesses that employ people illegally and tightening security at the borders.

Three months after Sandy hit, we're interested in your feelings about the recovery. Are you optimistic? Pessimistic? Neutral? 

We're collecting people's thoughts, and are tracking them by zip code, to see where people fall on the spectrum -- and whether geography plays a role in everyone's perspective.

One person’s disaster is another's opportunity.

+ Comment | Your Post-Sandy Sentiment
+ See | Sandy by the Numbers
+ Follow | #CoastCheck Road Trip

The episode lasted just about ten minutes. But it wasn’t the only dramatic moment of the first day of a four-day hearing on pre-trial motions.

The $50.5 billion dollar Sandy Relief package that passed the US House earlier this month, has passed the US Senate and will now head to President Obama's desk for his signature.

Twice as many homes and businesses in and near the city would be in flood zones under new maps that may force more property-owners to buy flood insurance, complicate post-Sandy rebuilding for some and confront others with the choice of building higher or paying considerably more for insurance.

During testimony before a legislative hearing in Albany Monday about the Governor's budget, the mayor had a testy exchange with Assembly Education Committee Chair Kathy Nolan of Queens.

Downtown Hospital, the last large healthcare facility below 14th Street in Manhattan, is being primed for a takeover by New York-Presbyterian, one of the region’s largest networks.

Three months after Sandy,  some New Jersey shore communities remain uninhabitable, without utilities and other amenities. There’s a rush to rebuild, but some geologists endorse what they call "strategic retreat" from the ocean front, especially on barrier islands.