By SARAH GARLAND

Steampipe Explodes in Midtown Manhattan

New York Sun

July 19, 2007

A steam pipe explosion rips open a street next to Grand Central Terminal, sending jets of steam and rocks into the air during the afternoon rush hour and killing one person.

The New York Times
August 8, 2006 Tuesday
Group Teaches Immigrants About AIDS, Hoping to Head Off a Crisis
BYLINE: By SARAH GARLAND
Section B; Column 1; Metropolitan Desk; Pg. 6

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Javier Soriano has made it his personal mission to combat a health crisis he fears has been building for years in New York City, unnoticed and unchecked.
His main worry was that language and cultural barriers were preventing agencies that have traditionally done H.I.V. outreach to Hispanics to make inroads with newly arrived Mexican immigrants, many of whom come from villages in the states of Puebla, Oaxaca and Guerrero and speak any of a number of local dialects.

The New York Times
September 5, 2006 Tuesday
A Return to East Harlem For the Dance of the Giglio
BYLINE: By SARAH GARLAND
SECTION: Section B; Column 1; Metropolitan Desk; Pg. 6

East Harlem Giglio

Frank Uvenio, 73, stood on Pleasant Avenue in East Harlem one recent Saturday and pointed toward the brown choppy waters. Over there was the dock where they would dive into the East River on hot summer days. He pointed toward the rooftops of the gray buildings. That’s where they would lie out on the tar to dry off. Down that street past the vacant lot was where they would hold the feast for Our Lady of Mount Carmel. And here, on this dead-end block, they would play stickball.
”This was like a paradise,” Mr. Uvenio said. ”That’s why we always come back.”

The New York Times
August 19, 2006 Saturday
A Home for a Group of Artists in Search of a Family
BYLINE: By SARAH GARLAND
SECTION: Section B; Column 3; Metropolitan Desk; Pg. 2

A Home For a Group of Artists

At first glance, it could have been any art opening in any converted warehouse in any hip neighborhood in the city. Dressed in ragged T-shirts, homemade jewelry and horn-rimmed glasses, the crowd at a nonprofit art gallery in Queens called Local Project sipped Coronas while contemplating a sculpture made of Band-Aids and a video installation of a Muslim artist shoving bacon into his mouth.
But a closer look at the people gathered at Local Project in Long Island City one recent Saturday night revealed a different crowd than the sort usually assembled at art galleries in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, or the Lower East Side.

The New York Times
July 18, 2006 Tuesday
Late Edition - Final
From Bowery to the Side Streets, to Where?
BYLINE: By SARAH GARLAND
SECTION: Section B; Column 3; Metropolitan Desk; INK; Pg. 2

MICHAEL AZEEZ, who describes himself as the only American Indian street food vendor in New York, opens for business on the Bowery as dusk nears.
His braids swing as he chops and stirs and turns to chat with customers. Blue silk flowers and fluffy white foxtails hang from his cart, fluttering around him in the breeze. Red and green peppers, carrots and other vegetables are arrayed in a rainbow pattern. ”American Indians, we like to do things in a fanciful manner,” he explains.
Mr. Azeez, 45, who lives in Westchester County, is having a rough year. First, he said, city health code regulations shot down his dream of selling wild game and other traditional Mohawk dishes in the street. Then, a building owner forced him to move from his high-traffic spot on the Bowery, next to CBGB, to a less-traveled side street nearby. The final blow: CBGB, the storied punk rock club, is closing for good in October, after a long battle with its landlord.
But the tears Mr. Azeez frequently sheds are not from the bad news, but from the spices he sprinkles over his kebabs.
”Why should I be upset?” he says.
”It’s about destiny,” he says. ”Whatever happens, we’re not in control.”
For now, he is staying afloat. ”The way I put things out, it makes people stop,” he says. He operates the cart, named From Atlantis With Love, from 7 p.m. to 4 a.m. Usually, one of his volunteer assistants helps out. The ”consultants,” as one called himself, live in a nearby homeless shelter and are drawn by free kebabs and Mr. Azeez’s cheerful company.
Mr. Azeez says he charges on a sliding scale, from as much as $5 a kebab to as little as nothing for customers he thinks need the money more than he does. He says he makes $500 a week on average.
Asked if he is worried about what will happen when the club closes, he frets for a while and says, ”I’m like a species on the brink of extinction.” Then he grins, and says, ”Or I’ll just move.”

The New York Times
June 24, 2006 Saturday
Late Edition - Final
On His 21st Birthday, a Marine Is Mourned
BYLINE: By SARAH GARLAND
SECTION: Section B; Column 1; Metropolitan Desk; Pg. 3

On His 21st Birthday, a Marine Is Mourned

Lance Cpl. Nicholas J. Whyte did not tell anyone he was signing up for the Marines, his father recalled yesterday. The war in Iraq had just begun, and he knew his family would be upset. They were.
But yesterday, as he stood outside the family’s home in Marine Park, Brooklyn, mourning the death of his son on what would have been his 21st birthday, Andre Whyte, a captain with the city’s Department of Correction, said, ”He never did anything a father couldn’t be proud of.”

The New York Times
June 22, 2006 Thursday
30 Are Arrested in Breakup of Major Heroin Smuggling Ring
BYLINE: By SARAH GARLAND
SECTION: Section B; Column 3; Metropolitan Desk; Pg. 4

Heroin Smuggling Ring

Law enforcement officials yesterday announced the arrests of 30 people in New York, Florida and Colombia accused of being members of a major heroin smuggling ring. It ended what the officials said was the biggest heroin trafficking investigation in New York history.

The New York Times
June 1, 2006 Thursday
Free Love, Hate and an Ambush At a Commune on Staten Island
BYLINE: By ANDREW JACOBS and SARAH GARLAND; Nate Schweber contributed reporting for this article.
SECTION: Section B; Column 1; Metropolitan Desk; Pg. 1

Free Love and Hate At Commune

A few rules exist at Ganas, a collection of 100 souls who live on Staten Island in what may be New York City’s only commune.
Shared meals and wife-swapping are O.K.
Freeloading, violence and pointless negativity are not.

The New York Times
May 5, 2006 Friday
Mistrial Called In Federal Case Of Man Who Knew Hijackers
BYLINE: By MICHAEL BRICK and SARAH GARLAND
SECTION: Section B; Column 5; Metropolitan Desk; Pg. 1

Mistrial in Case of Man Who Knew Hijackers

After six days of angry deliberations audible through courtroom walls, the trial of a man accused of lying to a panel investigating the Sept. 11 attacks ended yesterday in a mistrial after all but one juror asked the judge to dismiss the lone holdout for acquittal.

The New York Times
May 1, 2006 Monday
Voice of Bronx Immigrant Group Is Accused of Defrauding Clients
BYLINE: By MANNY FERNANDEZ and SARAH GARLAND
SECTION: Section B; Column 1; Metropolitan Desk; Pg. 1

Voice of Bronx Immigrant Group Accused of FraudFor years, the Garifuna people came to Southern Boulevard to mourn their past. Then they started going there for another reason, not out of grief but pride. They came to see Maria Elena Maximo.
Ms. Maximo was arrested in connection with a scheme to charge illegal immigrants $500 to $2,500 each to apply for work permits and green cards for which they were not eligible. State and federal prosecutors said she submitted more than 1,300 fraudulent applications in 2004 and 2005, receiving an estimated $1 million from her customers.