FDNY Axe’s Vollie Ambulances

The Fire Department has booted the city’s volunteer ambulance companies from its emergency 911 system, The Post has learned.

The volunteer ambulances “are no longer required,” a high-ranking EMS chief told dispatchers in an e-mail last month.

Deluge of Pests Enrages 2 Brooklyn Nabes

These Brooklyn nabes are where the wild things are.

Half of Brownsville’s buildings are infested with mice or rats, and more than half of South Crown Heights households have roaches, according to a new city Health Department Web site.

From Around the Globe, Serving New York

NEW YORK — The New York Police Department has sent its officers to 11 cities around the globe — even once dispatching a husband and wife to Abu Dhabi. But the return from the world has been far greater.

Of the 5,593 officers hired since July 2006, when the department began tracking the nationalities of police officers, 1,042 of them were foreign-born — hailing from 88 countries, according to department records.

New York City Publishes Drugs Guide Book

NEW YORK — Here’s the latest smack on taxpayers.

The city spent $32,000 on 70,000 fliers that tell you how to shoot heroin, complete with detailed tips on prepping the dope and injecting it into your arm.

The Health Department handout has outraged New York’s top drug prosecutors and abuse experts.

Meter Moron Issues Tickets to String of Manhattan Cars on New Year’s

Stupidity didn’t take a holiday on E. 38th St.

A traffic agent inexplicably hit at least 10 cars parked along a block in Murray Hill with $115 tickets Friday, even though rules were suspended for New Year’s Day.

When confronted by angry drivers, the meterman refused to back down. Instead, he insisted he was following the orders of a supervisor.

Mount Sinai Hospital Welcomes ‘Baby New Year’

Just 13 seconds after the ball dropped, baby “new year” came bouncing into the world.

“We’re proud, very happy, very excited,” said proud mom Brucha Strulevich, who hasn’t even picked out a name for the third addition to her family of all boys.

How to Find the Bridge? First, Pay Your Respects

The metal signs are impossible to miss. They are oversize, in a bold blue usually found on signs directing drivers to the nearest hospital. And there are lots of them — 13 in all, according to the city’s count — along a quarter-mile stretch of roadway and its approaches.

City ‘Looted’ for $563M

Settlements shot up to a near-record this year.

The city shelled out a near-record $563 million in 2009 to settle thousands of lawsuits ranging from car crashes to employee discrimination — and even made a six-figure payout to a criminal who sued the cops.

Alleged Queens drug dealer Roger Bissoon pocketed $150,000, the result of a nine-year-old police-brutality case in which he claimed cops broke his jaw while he was handcuffed.

Half of Brooklyn Receiving Food-stamps

Fort Greene resident and clothing designer Kathlene Williams never believed that one day she would have to apply for food stamps.

But two weeks ago, Williams lost her job designing clothes – and the single mother of two found herself in the same boat as 167,503 other Brooklynites who have been approved for the federal subsidy since January 2008.

Study: New York is the Saddest State in the Nation

WASHINGTON — People in sunny, outdoorsy states — Louisiana, Hawaii, Florida — say they’re the happiest Americans, and researchers think they know why.

A new study comparing self-described pleasant feelings with objective measures of good living found these folks generally have reason to feel fine.

First Snow falls in Brooklyn as Blizzard Bears Down on City

The first few flakes of an expected 10-inch snowstorm started falling Saturday afternoon as New Yorkers prepared for a two-day whiteout.

Snow began coming down in the outer boroughs as the storm moved into the metropolitan area from the south.

New Buses Bring Silence to the Streets

Any New Yorker who has ridden a city bus might be forgiven for believing a banshee is buried under the floorboards. Engines idle at an alarmingly high volume, and acceleration is often accompanied by a symphony of cracks and snaps, the squeals of aging machinery with little eagerness to perform its assigned task.

Video – 9/11 Terror Suspects To Plead Not Guilty

NEW YORK [NY1] — An attorney for one of the September 11th terror suspects says the men plan on pleading not guilty when their high profile trial begins in Lower Manhattan.

Attorney Scott Fenstermaker says his client, Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, and the others will not deny their role in the attacks, but rather explain why they plotted and pulled off the attacks.

Crown Heights Dad, Two Toddlers Die In Tragic Fire

CROWN HEIGHTS, Brooklyn — There appears to be two major mistakes that could have made the difference between life and death in a Crown Heights fire that took three lives.

First, fire officials say there were no smoke detectors in the apartment and secondly, it seems it took way too long to respond.

Video – Women File Discrimination Suit Against B&H

NEW YORK (WABC) — A sex discrimination lawsuit has been filed against one of the best-known electronics stores in New York.

Four women accuse B&H Electronics of workplace promotions that were discriminatory.