society

New York City teachers rated "highly effective" for two years in a row would get a $20,000-a-year salary increase under a proposal by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

It was only a few nights after the Occupy protesters began sleeping in his church sanctuary when Pastor Bob Brashears realized that his laptop was missing. The refugees from Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park had found their way to his cavernous Presbyterian church on a cold winter evening, hoping to stay for a few nights, maybe longer. It was the latest stopover for the nomadic group, which has been living in a rotating series of churches since Mayor Michael Bloomberg shut down their camp in November.

In a stark depiction of the rapid spread of prescription drug use and abuse in New York State, a new report shows that prescriptions for oxycodone, a widely prescribed narcotic painkiller, rose by 82 percent from 2007 to 2010.

For the first time, New York City is closing a charter school for the offense of simply being mediocre.

The Doomsday Clock, a figurative timepiece used as a barometer of humankind’s fate, was moved one minute closer to midnight on Tuesday, the first time it has been nudged forward since 2007. It is now 11:55, five minutes before the appointed hour.