Amy Eddings

New York, NY —

The oily and polluted Gowanus Canal, once dubbed "the Lavender Lake," will be going green with the help of the federal government. The Environmental Protection Agency designated the Brooklyn waterway as a Superfund site.

Photo Gallery: Take a Cruise Down the Gowanus Canal

...

New York, NY —

After more than a century of abuse from the industries along its shores, a polluted waterway in Brooklyn may be on the brink of becoming a federal Superfund cleanup site. So why is the city fighting to stop this? WNYC's Amy Eddings explains.

To see pictures ...

Oil and debris in the Gowanus Canal (by Stephen Nessen)

The Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn is a polluted industrial waterway, and it has been for most of its 140 years. Bill Appel found this out after buying a house in ...

New York, NY —

Every week on WNYC, we take a look at what's in season right now and encourage you to try these last chance foods.

At windfall farms in Montgomery New York, Morris Pitts grows speciality radishes that cater to foodies as well as farmers.

The prized variety is ...

New York, NY —

As New York State lawmakers return for another extraordinary session on the state budget, angry union members from New York City plan to be there. WNYC's Amy Eddings has more.

REPORTER: District Council 37, the city's largest municipal employees' union, is still smarting from the layoffs ...

New York, NY —

The city is starting its free, in-school swine flu vaccination program tomorrow.

Health officials say the first phase of vaccinations will take place at 125 small, public elementary schools with fewer than 400 students. Elementary schools with more than 600 students will start November 4th, and ...

New York, NY —

Terror suspect Najibullah Zazi is on his way to New York City, to face charges of conspiring to blow up bombs against the United States.

A federal judge in Denver ordered Zazi's transfer earlier today. At the hearing, prosecutors told the judge Zazi was in the ...

CBS coverage of Serena Williams' foot fault vs. Kim Clijsters, US Open semis

It took her two days, but Serena Williams has finally issued an apology for shaking her racket at a lineswoman, and threatening violence with a tennis ball, for a foot fault call in a crucial moment in Williams' semi-final match against Kim Clijsters at the US Open last Saturday. Serena may have done so because she finally realized that her reaction was an "inappropriate outburst," as she said in her statement. It also may be because she faces additional penalties for her unsportsmanlike conduct, including a possible suspension from a Grand Slam event. She's already been fined $10,000....a drop in the bucket for Williams, who earned $560,000 for her singles and doubles accomplishments at the US Open.

Serena's not the first tennis player to use foul language on the court, and to berate officials. Jimmy Connors famously called a chair umpire "an abortion." We all remember John McEnroe's tirades. And just yesterday, during the men's final at the Open, Roger Federer used an expletive while arguing with the chair ump during a changeover. The usually calm, cool and collected Fed was unhinged when his opponent, Juan Martin del Potro, took his time challenging a line call. Federer told ump Jake Garner, "Don't tell me to be quiet, OK? When I want to talk, I talk. I don't give a **** what he said."

New York, NY —

Counterterrorism officials are warning police departments around the country to be on the lookout for evidence of homemade bombs, following raids yesterday on at least two apartments in Queens. The joint FBI and Homeland Security intelligence warning, issued yesterday and obtained by the Associated Press, ...

New York, NY —

While the Mets were busy getting beat down by the Florida Marlins at Citi-Field last night, across the tracks at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, rain prevented Rafael Nadal and Fernando Gonzalez from finishing their quarterfinal match in the last remaining days of ...

New York, NY —

Forget swine flu, the fever sweeping Queens is not caused by the H1N1 virus, but by tennis upstart Melanie Oudin. The unseeded teen has doggedly worked her way past higher-ranked opponents at the US Open, including Elena Dementieva, Maria Sharapova, and Nadia Petrova. Tonight, she ...

Ten years ago, Serena Williams, all of 17, won the US Open at Flushing Meadows, Queens. in doing so, she became the first African American woman since Althea Gibson in the 1950's to win a Grand Slam. Her older sister Venus followed in 2000 with her first of five Wimbledon ...

New York, NY —

A local girl is looking to make good once again at the U.S. Open Junior Championships. Gail Brodsky toughed out a 7-5, 7-5 win against Veronica Royg and is on to the second round. The 18-year-old from Coney Island was the girls champion in 2007 ...

A record 37,388 fans attended Friday\'s day session. That\'s Jurgen Melzer serving.

Attending the US Open can be a bit like spending the day in Grand Central Terminal. It ...

The USTA bought 500 recycling bins, enough to put right next to every garbage can on U.S. Open grounds.

Over the course of its two-week run in Queens, the U.S. Open tennis championships are believed to generate about $420 million in economic activity for New York City. That's according to an eight-year-old estimate by the city comptroller's office. Many sports economists question such big numbers, saying they're overblown. But there's a different kind of influence the U.S. Open has that can't be overrated, and that's its effect on the environment.

GARZA: This grand slam is two weeks. We have 700,000 people come to this facility.

Rita Garza is senior director of corporate communications at the United States Tennis Association, which runs the U.S. Open.

GARZA: It's a lot of volume in a short amount of time.

That means lots of media, and their TV trucks and laptops, drawing energy. Hundreds of staff, printing out programs, stat sheets, and press releases. and thousands of players and fans, eating and drinking.

GARZA: We sell about 500,000 plastic bottles, between our water and our iced tea and Gatorade and things like that. And sell about 20,000 aluminum cans. That's a lot.

Garza and I are standing in one of the many hallways that lace through the guts of Arthur Ashe Stadium, the main showcase court at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. She just finished showing me the loading dock, where the USTA has installed a new chute and compactor just for recyclables. It's done so because this year, for the first time at the U.S. Open, the USTA is setting out recycling bins throughout its entire 43-acre site, to collect plastic bottles and metal cans. In the past, the organization relied on its waste carting company to recycle, trusting it was picking the materials out of the garbage. Another first: the USTA is recycling the 18,000 to 20,000 plastic tennis ball containers used at the Open.

New York, NY —

State Senate Democratic majority leader Pedro Espada has fired his newly-hired chief of staff, after learning that he was a slumlord. In a statement, Espada says he was "shocked and blindsided" by revelations in the New York Times that Onix Sosa managed about 35 buildings ...

New York, NY —

Amy Eddings speaks with Tennis Week writer Nate Chura about the first day of the U.S. Open in Flushing Meadows, Queens.

New York, NY —

"The Upset of the Century!" That could be the headline on every sports page tomorrow if 18-year-old American pro tennis rookie, Devin Britton, pulls off the unthinkable this afternoon, by defeating world Number One, Roger Federer. The man many consider to be the greatest tennis ...

New York, NY —

Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal could meet in the U.S. Open tennis final for the first time. Federer, the Number One seed, and Nadal, who's seeded third, were drawn into opposite halves of the field. At today's announcement of the draw in Midtown, a confident ...

New York, NY —

Governor Paterson is denying reports that he claimed negative media coverage of him is because he is black. In a statement, he says what he pointed out during this morning's interview with Daily News columnist and radio show host Erroll Lewis, was that, "certain media ...