Cop Leaves Patrol Car Running, Thief Steals it

A brazen car thief stole an NYPD highway patrol vehicle with a loaded shotgun inside this morning — and drove it all the way to La Guardia Airport — after a cop left it idling and unmanned while he got breakfast at a Bronx diner, authorities said.

Con Ed Wallet Shock

Eskimos, hula dancers and lobstermen are about the only Americans who pay more for electricity than Con Ed customers.

Con Ed again charged the highest residential rates of any major utility in the 48 contiguous states in 2008, federal numbers released yesterday show. Only folks in Alaska, Hawaii, Fishers Island, NY, Block Island, RI, and some tiny islands off Maine paid more.

Another Sick Call to ‘KILL JEWS’

BROOKLYN, NY — In a stunning display of intolerance, Sixth Avenue in Park Slope was littered with strips of papers reading “KILL JEWS” in capital letters from Fourth to Ninth streets on Wednesday.

Nearly two dozen of the strips were picked up by Karen Guilbert, who had just finished walking her daughter to school.

NYPD Cracking Down on Drivers on Cell Phones

NEW YORK — The NYPD has announced its first 2010 citywide crackdown on drivers using hand-held devices.

The initiative is aimed at promoting safe driving. In a statement, the NYPD said “texting or talking on a cell phone is dangerous and endangers both drivers and pedestrians.”

Power Line Accident Prompts Evacuation and Subway Halt

Workers installing a gas line into a Brooklyn building accidentally struck a power line that feeds the subway on Monday, sparking electrical explosions that blew manhole covers into the air, disrupted subway service and rattled nerves in a pocket of Brooklyn Heights.

Crew, Passengers Reunite on Anniversary of Splash Landing

Passengers and crew members from US Airways Flight 1549, including Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, reunited today on the anniversary of the splash landing on the Hudson River.

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.