WNYC Newsroom

The flight attendant who flamboyantly quit his job at JetBlue, making him a folk hero for millions of disgruntled employees, will undergo a psychiatric evaluation as part of a possible plea deal to avoid serving jail time.

Sir Paul McCartney and Oprah Winfrey are among the recipients.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has named country singer-songwriter Merle Haggard; composer and lyricist Jerry Herman; dancer and choreographer Bill Jones; songwriter and former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney; and television host and producer Oprah Winfrey as this year's honorees.

Republicans attacked President Barack Obama's $50 billion plan to build the nation's infrastructure even before he announced it at a Labor Day event in Milwaukee.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said the plan would raise taxes, even as Americans are "still looking for the 'shovel-ready' jobs they were promised more than a year ago" in the $814 billion economic stimulus measure. And House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio said, "We don't need more government 'stimulus' spending."

But New York's construction industry applauded the plan.

"It's especially timely because we're starting to run low on state and city infrastructure funding and the previous federal stimulus funding is also starting to run out," said Richard Anderson, president of the New York Building Congress. 

The Obama plan calls for rebuilding 150,000 miles of roads; building and maintaining 4,000 miles of rail lines and 150 miles of airport runways, and installing a new air navigation system to reduce travel times and delays.

Anderson says the construction industry hasn't suffered as badly in New York City as it has in other parts of the country, but that total construction spending in the Big Apple is off 25 percent from its peak in 2008. "We're starting to see declines and that's where the real concern is, and some of the building trade unions are starting to report 20 to 30 percent unemployment."

The infrastructure spending is part of a package of economic proposals President Obama is expected to announce this week. 

A 10-mile-long ribbon of red tide has been spotted in the New York Harbor, according to the Associated Press.

The Coast Guard says a nearly 10-mile-long ribbon of red tide has been spotted in New York Harbor.

Israel's Holocaust museum, Yad Vashem, has signed an agreement with Poland to gain access to the country's World War II-era documents, according to the Associated Press.

Four members of an Orthodox Jewish volunteer patrol in Brooklyn are recovering after they were shot last night by a man in a car. The patrol members had confronted the driver, saying he had been acting suspiciously.

Four members of an Orthodox Jewish volunteer patrol in Brooklyn are recovering after they were shot last night by a man in a car. The patrol members had confronted the driver, saying he had been acting suspiciously.

Fourteen human cases of the mosquito-borne West Nile virus have been reported in the city this summer. That's the highest number since officials in New York first registered the disease in 2000.

The East Coast is still on watch for strong winds and rain.

The hurricane predicted to spoil Labor Day weekend plans has been downgraded to a category 1. The National Weather Service is still predicting wind gusts of more than 70 miles an hour on Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard in Massachusets.

Some family members of September 11 victims want a truce on the debate over the Islamic cultural center when the ninth anniversary of the attacks comes around next week.

Eastern Long Island and the New Jersey coast are under a tropical storm warning, while New York City, northern Jersey and southern Westchester are under a tropical storm watch. Ea...

Three of eleven teachers who were fired from a public charter school in Queens this summer will be allowed to return to their jobs in the fall.

New York City officials are still encouraging residents to prepare emergency supply kits and the Office of Emergency Management says those kits should include a battery-powered radi...

A tropical storm watch has been issued for northwestern Suffolk County as Hurricane Earl pushes further north. A tropical storm warning is in effect in New Jersey from Cape May to Middlesex County.

After a record-breaking 6 percent increase  in 2009, enrollment in the CUNY system is up yet again in 2010--this time by 2.5 percent, according to preliminary numbers. Most of the additional 6,000 students were added to the city's community colleges, while enrollment at baccalaureate colleges remained about the same.

Hurricane Earl is threatening the East Coast, but New York is not likely to get a direct hit. Meteorologists still predict high winds and heavy rains starting this Thursday night.

Rudolph Giuliani's daughter has made a deal to have her shoplifting charges go away.