On May 25th, 1979, six-year-old Etan Patz waved goodbye to his mother at his front door in Soho to take the bus by himself to school for the very first time. Etan never made it to school, and President Ronald Reagan named May 25th National Missing Child Day in his honor. Now, 33 years later, police began scouring the basement of a building just two blocks from his home, following a lead that there may be evidence there. Janet Babin, reporter for Takeaway partner WNYC, was at the scene yesterday.

Most New York University professors oppose the university’s downtown expansion plan, according to a new survey.

New York University has agreed to scale back massive downtown expansion plan, following requests from Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer.

Port Authority officials are waiting to find out whether the federal government will allow a project involving the Bayonne Bridge to move through a faster permit process.

The contractor hired by the MTA to operate the crane that collapsed Tuesday was hired after it submitted the lowest bid for the job. Yonkers Contracting Company is a large firm that's worked on a number of public works projects, like the World Trade Center site. But it also was fined by Occupational Safety and Heath Administration for safety violations at least four times in the last decade.

On city subways at least, New Yorkers know the drill.  For the most part people give up their seats to an elderly or disabled person and often let people get off the cars before entering. But city bus etiquette can be more confusing.

Engineers have found defects in the hoisting system of the construction crane that crashed down at a Manhattan worksite, killing a worker, according to the New York City Department of Buildings.

The city and the MTA are trading shots over who owns the site of a crane collapse that killed one worker and injured four others on Tuesday.

More than a dozen City Council members sported hoodies at City Hall Wednesday, to show solidarity with the unarmed sweatshirt-clad Florida teen who was gunned down at the hands of a neighborhood watch captain.

Brooklyn firefighter Robert Wiedmann is finally home after being badly injured in a Crown Heights blaze three months ago.

The team’s owners reached a deal Monday with the trustee responsible for recovering money for victims of the Ponzi scheme run by imprisoned financier Bernie Madoff.  But it may take a bit more than a court settlement to break the Mets slump.

Owners of the New York Mets have eked out a settlement with the trustee responsible for recovering money for victims of Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. Under the deal, the Mets will pay a $162 million settlement.

For 35 pet travelers, 2011 was the year they met their maker.

Mass transit users are one step closer to getting a pre-tax transit benefit restored.

The MTA told New York City Council’s Transportation Committee Tuesday that its proposed fare hike next year will bring in about $400 million, and none of it will likely be spent on service enhancements. The MTA plans a 7.5 percent increase in fares and tolls next year and again in 2015.

Bus riders in Nassau County, Long Island, are gearing up for some unwanted changes in the Nassau Inter County Express bus service, known as NICE.

New legislation set to be introduced Wednesday could make it twice as costly to speed on an electronic bike in New York City.

As part of the next installment of the MTA's Fastrack program, portions of the Sixth Avenue Subway line will be shut down from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. for the next four consecutive nights starting February 27, so that repairs and track maintenance can be completed uninterrupted. 

A federal transportation bill that threatened to cut billions from mass transit budgets around the country has been scrapped.  But as lawmakers return from a congressional recess, new fears are emerging about what will replace that bill.

Commuters had high hopes that Congress would restore the full federal transit tax benefit, cut late last year, as part of the massive payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits bill passed today. But it didn’t happen Friday.