Hey, just because the bomb that was set off outside an Upper East Side Starbucks on Monday morning was homemade—”fashioned from a water bottle and the same explosive powder used in fireworks,” the Daily News reports —doesn’t mean it wasn’t a threat to the public. NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said,”Had someone been walking by, this could have caused serious injury, if not death.” The police also revealed that a “metal bottle cap inscribed with the capital letters VET that was found amid the bomb remnants”— investigators are looking at whether “there’s a manufacturer that makes metal bottle caps that contain those letters”—and that the…

The BQE is back up and running after a massive accident left 59 people injured and closed off eastbound lanes for a good portion of the morning following rush hour. A school bus, a casino bus and a tractor trailed were involved with what the Daily News calls a chain reaction accident just before the Kosciuszko Bridge connecting Brooklyn and Queens near the McGuinness Blvd. exit and not far from the Midtown Tunnel. A large majority of the victims were treated at the scene for bumps and bruises. Six people were taken to local hospitals. Newsday says that two went to the Wyckhoff and Woodhull Hospitals in Brooklyn and the other four “were taken to an

      Time for an awwww break! Five peregrine falcon chicks were born atop the towers of MTA bridges! The MTA says that three were born at the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, while the Throgs Neck and Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Memorial Bridges each welcomed one chick. Some details about the fuzzy birds, which are 3-4 weeks old (their talons are already the size of an adult human hand!), from the MTA: The Verrazano-Narrows falcons are two girls and one boy; the other Throgs Neck and Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges falcons are both boys. All chicks were banded by a state volunteer wildlife expert. The falcons at the Verrazano nest at a tower that’s 693 feet above the water and they have returned every mating season since the …

It sounds like one bad apple really spoiled the barrel at Duane Reade…to the tune of $240,000! City Room reports that the company today settled a lawsuit brought on by the federal Equal Employment Commission for “a pattern of sexual harassment and retaliation,” but it sounds like it all stems from actions taking place at one Bronx location. The commission released a statement saying, “The store manager, Madiaw Diaw, frequently made vulgar remarks about women’s private parts, sexually propositioned female employees, made lewd comments about their pregnancies and bodies, assigned unfavorable job duties to pregnant employees and repeatedly grabbed female employees , including grabbing …

The gang from Sesame Street was out walking the red carpet last night for their 7th Annual Gala benefiting the Sesame Workshop. Held far away from their Astoria home at Cipriani on 42nd Street, the muppets ( friends of the First Lady ) greeted some bold-face names, and Sheryl Crow even performed a duet with Elmo. Here are some of your Sesame faves (glad to see Grover made it out!) with the likes of Mayor Bloomberg, Brian Williams and Al Roker. Why do you think muppets hate Al Roker so much; maybe he didn’t deliver enough “sunny days” to the street?