Some dude in Brooklyn has been arrested for selling weedheads some gross thing that would probably make you puke so much.

A day after Gov. Paterson announced that New York would introduce new license plates—and charge every motorist $25 for the privilege of switching over to the "Empire Gold" plates—and he's already backing away from the plan. Following a storm of protest, Paterson now says he's prepared to abandon the fee. As long as someone can figure out how to make up for the $129 million gap in the state's budget. The governor says he doesn't know how to do it. Do you? Call 518-474-8390 and ask for Dave. [NYP]

If you were one of the lucky ones to catch "Criminal Minds" last night, it featured a murderous Gavin Rosdale covering Joy Division while looking like a cross between Robert Smith and a drag queen that just got off work.

[City mouse Tinsley Mortimer hangs out with small-town boy Levi Johnston last night at the awards show our dirty sibling Fleshbot put on [NSFW, naturally] at The Box. Our comprehensive party report is over here. Image via Getty]

The recession is over and America's economic recovery is well underway! How do we know this to be true? Because the NASDAQ "has brought its confetti machine out of the closet, where it had been collecting dust," that's how. And there's no better indicator than that, is there? [NYT/Bits]

Richard and Mayumi Heene, the parents of that cute vomiting boy who did not get lost in the air in a balloon, will plead guilty tomorrow to charges that they concocted the story in order to become famous, which happened.

And now they fight balloons. Can we really call this progress?

Thanks to the recession-era glut of job-seekers, Starbucks barista jobs now require a postgraduate degree. But you shouldn't worry about that, because you can no longer even get into community college.

A menage is a long way to go to keep your man. How about putting up with your husband's gay rumors, or your bandmates' pornographic proclivities? There's love and marriage, but these are some fucked up horses and carriages.

As if Peter Brant didn't have enough to worry about now that he's in the middle of a messy divorce from Stephanie Seymour, a silk-screen painting by Andy Warhol which Brant put up for auction at Christie's on Tuesday night—and was estimated to be worth $6-8 million—found no takers. [NYT]

An Arkansas man has been convicted of killing Anne Pressly, the 26 year-old Arkansas TV anchorwoman with a small role in the movie W who was attacked and stabbed in her home last year. The motive was not grand.

• Liev Schreiber and Naomi Watts continue to hunt for a new home, apparently. Although they still own the full-floor condo at One Madison Park that they purchased in 2007 for $6.05 million (and which they haven't had an easy time selling), they were recently spotted touring an unfinished loft at 120 11th Avenue that's on the market for $9 million. [NYP]
• Daniel Straus, co-founder of the insurance company Aveta Health and a major NYU donor, has purchased a new apartment on Park. Straus and his wife Joyce paid $5.4 million for an apartment at 888 Park Avenue. [Cityfile]

Can you guess what movie this image comes from? Check back for the answer at 4pm today.

Anne Hathaway turns 27 today. Fashion darling Julia Restoin Roitfeld is turning 29. Ryan Gosling turns 29 today, too. Actress Megan Mullally is turning 51. Billionaire mogul Ron Burkle is 57. Paper co-founder Kim Hastreiter is 58. Sammy Sosa is turning 41. Author Naomi Wolf is 47. Neil Young turns 64. Actor Wallace Shawn is turning 66. Gymnastics legend Nadia Comaneci is 48. R&B singer Omarion is 25. Simon & Schuster publisher David Rosenthal is 56. And disgraced figure skater Tonya Harding turns 39 today.

First a recession starts and there are a lot of personal recession features. Then everyone gets bored and there are no personal recession stories. Now, they're back! Along with some war, a sad President and more on Fort Hood.

• Did you catch dethroned beauty queen Carrie Prejean's hissy fit on Larry King Live last night? It was awkward TV at its finest. [TMZ, YouTube]
• Mike Tyson had a meltdown of his own yesterday. When a paparazzo got a little too close for comfort at LAX, Tyson dropped the photog to the floor with one punch to the face. Both men were later arrested. [LAT, NYDN]
• The latest recorded phone call courtesy of Michael Lohan has Dina Lohan telling her ex that "time is running out" for Lindsay and she's started drinking again. As for how LiLo feels about having her dad air the family's dirty laundry: "My father knows nothing other than now to sell stories for money instead of getting a real job like normal people do, including myself." Lindsay is a normal person with a real job? Who'd have guessed? [Radar, MSNBC]
• Marc Jacobs and Lorenzo Martone were supposed to get married over the summer. But it never happened and now Martone says the couple's decided to wait until after the holidays to tie the knot. "Who wants to get married during a busy season like this? I don't want my friends having to use their lunch break to get me gifts." How thoughtful! [P6]

In some of the mildest, most cowboy-hatted humor I've seen in a long time, some country music people I've never heard of mocked Kanye for interrupting Taylor Swift at the VMAs... about a decade ago.

Police in Fort Greene say two shootings and a stabbing earlier this week were the result of a cheap wings deal. Put down the buffalo sauce, and step away from the bucket.

Supposedly eco-friendly cloth made from bamboo is in fact evil and made with toxic chemicals and you might as well wear panda-hide while driving a Humvee and shooting rockets at pretty little birdies.

The official story is that Sergeant Kimberly Munley took down Nidal Malik Hasan all by herself. But a witness tells the Times that this Oprah-friendly narrative is not true — that she was possibly shot without firing her gun.