A large fire has broken out in a building at the corner of Houston Street and Avenue A in downtown Manhattan. Pic: joshspear Update: Looks like it's out!

The 30 Rock funnyman has moved into a new Manhattan pad in the west 50s, which had been renting for $15,000/month. It features four bedrooms, private parking and a 1,000 square foot terrace. Hopefully it won't burn down.

It's the New York Times new-ish headquarters and the American Institute of Architects has declared it the most unattractive in the city, more so than a T.G.I. Friday's and a Trump tower. Really? We're not so sure about that.

New York's first major Fourth of July fireworks-related casualty: A man on Long Island yesterday blew his arm off using a mortar tube. His friends packed the limb into a cooler with ice, and doctors are trying to reattach it.

A 30-year-old New Jersey man, Jijo Puthuvamkunnath, was killed yesterday near the Statue of Liberty when his 17-foot boat was hit by a larger boat, "Reel Impulsive," that was allegedly piloted by a drunk man. Puthuvamkunnath was with his fiancé.

Bedbugs are destroying New York! Invading CBS, teen-dream clothing store Hollister, and now Hollister's cooler older brother, Abercrombie & Fitch. Their South Street Seaport location is closed while they deal with an infestation. Meanwhile, the Aéropostale people giddily pop champagne.

First it was SoHo's naked-man-and-boardshort emporium Hollister. Now one of CBS' New York offices is being cleaned after an infestation of bedbugs. Nowhere is safe, people. Remember: If you don't go into the office, then the bedbugs have won!

Where's the best place in New York to drop a deuce? Depends who you ask. But two restrooms in New York are finalists in this year's "America's Best Restroom" contest—the Bryant Park public commode and Manhattan's Muse Hotel.

Governor Paterson went on a legislative earmark vetoing spree yesterday, but the NY state budget remains incomplete.

July 1st means new taxes start, and yay here's our favorite: the New York City cigarette tax has gone up once again, now making NYC cigarettes the highest taxed in the country. Average pack price in town is now $10.80.

In a recent survey of 1,000 adults, the Trojan condom company found that while Seattle residents tend to have the least sex of any major metropolitan denizens, they have sex outdoors the most. Quality, not quantity?

As sure a sign as any that New York is slowly returning to the recession-plagued madness of the '70s and '80s, Central Park is now full of rabid raccoons. There's an outbreak! 114 new cases this year alone. [NYDN]

New CNN host and former New York governor Eliot "Socks On" Spitzer thinks his important new show will sweep his hooker-sexing past away, priming him for a run at mayor of NYC when Bloomberg's term ends in 2013. [P6, Getty]

George Stephanopoulos, Clinton administration heartthrob and current Good Morning America co-host, and his actress wife Alexandra Wentworth have purchased a full-floor home at 30 E 72nd Street, for a cool $6.5M. Here are some pictures to drool over.

50-year-old Michoel Streicher, a singer who calls himself "The Michael Jackson of Jewish music" was sentenced yesterday to a year in jail for swindling a woman out of $36,000 he said he would use to buy a torah.

State budgets are pretty important. So it's up to paid, elected officials to figure this stuff out, right? Not in New York—the state that is still without a budget, and that doesn't seem to have one semi-competent lawmaker.

What a purrrrfect crime! A New York woman is on a cat burglary spree in the city, robbing several stores of nearly $600, all while wearing a cat mask. She is 5'6" and believed to be named Selina Kyle. [NYP]

Using a very sophisticated algorithm (or something), the folks at Craigslist have figured out that, per capita and per ride rate, the L train gets more Missed Connections mentions than any other train. The Brooklyn stops are especially bumpin'.

Faced with a government shutdown at 12:01am tomorrow, Governor Paterson said if lawmakers don't go along with his budget plans, he will "veto everything." Paterson wants to cut $500 million in new spending the legislature added to his budget proposal.

A tree branch fell on 33 year-old Karla Riccuitti of Union City, NJ and her baby girl yesterday as they posed for a picture outside Central Park Zoo. 6 month-old Gianna Riccuitti was killed, and her mother was seriously injured as the father looked on.