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Growth among national retailers is slowing down in New York City, according to a new report from the Center for an Urban Future.

Retail giant Wal-Mart announced plans to move its New York City apparel office to Bentonville, Arkansas, where the company's headquarters is located.

New York City firefighters said they're disappointed the city isn't making room for them at this Sunday's ceremony honoring the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. The mayor's office said due to space constraints at the newly-opened Memorial Plaza, the priority is to accommodate victims' families, and that first responders can gather in neighboring Zuccotti Park.

For more than a decade, many of New York City's prisoners have -- in the name of safety and contraband control -- been required to sport canvas sneakers that have come to be known by a memorable nickname.

On August 6, 13 and 20, New Yorkers will have access to about seven-miles of Park Avenue, without cars, from the Brooklyn Bridge to Central Park.

Students aren't the only ones looking forward to summer adventures. Dozens of city teachers are heading abroad on travel grants, and hoping to bring their experiences back to the classroom in the fall.

March 25 marks the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, New York's landmark industrial disaster that killed 146 of the factory's employees — most of them young immigrant women and girls of Italian and European Jewish descent. The tragedy sparked nationwide debate on workers' rights, representation and safety.

Paul McCartney is writing an original score for a world premiere ballet for the New York City Ballet company's 2011 season.

The midterm elections are over and the 2012 campaign for President has not officially started, but in New York City, a campaign of a different sort is already underway.

The back-and-forth between Wal-Mart and its opponents heated up in the days before a city council hearing to examine the retailer. But due to the pending snowstorm expected to blanket the city on Wednesday, the council postponed the hearing until Feb. 3.

State Education Commissioner David Steiner has granted a waiver allowing Hearst Magazines chair Cathie Black to serve as the city's next schools chancellor.

The holidays are often a time when more people consider volunteering. So many, in fact, that volunteer organizations sometimes have to turn them away.

The number of hungry New Yorkers has increased by almost 7 percent since last year, according to a survey by New York City Coalition Against Hunger and half of the feeding organizations surveyed had to turn hungry people away.

Despite the recession, New York City balanced its budget and even eked out a $5 million surplus. It helped that the City put aside nearly $3 billion last year to offset expected budget gaps for the fiscal year that ended on June 30.

In a speech from the White House Briefing Room on Friday afternoon, President Barack Obama confirmed that suspicious packages found overseas did contain explosive material.

The president said he was informed on Thursday night of suspicious packages from Yemen, en route to the U.S. — specifically, two Jewish sites in Chicago. Those packages were intercepted, and found in Midland, England, and Dubai. Obama said additional precautions are being taken at the nation's airports — including additional checks of cargo — as investigations continue.

The New York City Housing Authority says it doesn't have enough staff to handle the millions of calls that come in to a centralized call center each year. The cash-strapped authority says between 2004 and 2009 it shed more than 1,500 jobs. At the same time, certain types of work orders have increased dramatically. The result? Tenants waiting years for repairs.

Even the chairman of the MTA forgets to check for subway diversions before he goes out on weekends.

Buildings account for 80 percent of the green house gasses emitted in New York City and lighting can make up to 40 percent of that.

City officials say there are still thousands of 9/11 first responders who haven't accepted their share of a $712 million settlement.

After nearly ten years of dramatic decline, New York City's murder rate is on the rise. As of last Sunday, the Police Department says 386 people have been murdered this year. That's a 13.2 percent jump from the 341 murders at the same period last year. The number of people shot has increased too, by 4.5 percent.