Melanie Gray
Latest Articles
Nearsightedness spikes among kids as remot♚e𓆏 learning increases screen time
Doctors are sounding a warning for parents with grade-school kids who rub their eyes frequently, squint or complain of blurry vision. That's because they could be🐎 showing symptoms of myopia,...
'I can hear the Hudson calling me': Manhattanite braves cold to paddleboard river
Stefani Jackenthal drops her paddleboard in the river, steps on and🍌 chills. The air temp is near freezing. The water, 36 degrees. But despite the cold, standup paddleboarding is a...
One year on, NYC still has no clear ideas for a꧅ COVID-19 memor💃ial
Nearly 30,000 New Yorkers have died since COVID-19 touched down in the city one year ago. And while🦂 a patchwork of painters, poets and everyday citizens have honored the dead... 𒆙
NYCHA work orders reach record high amid COVID ♒and new tracking system
Robert Malone fills out four repair tickets every month for his studio apartment at NYCHA's Brownstones -- buckling walls, a rotted window fr⭕ame, cracks in the ce🎐iling, a crumbling subfloor...
M൩yanmar riot police kill two anti-coup protesters
Myꦿanmar riot police fatally shot two protesters Saturday at an anti-coup rally in Mandalay, the country's second-largest city, a local news magazine reported. One🍎 died at the scene from a...
๊ British mom fined for letting dau🀅ghter ride bike in empty parking lot
Tracy Smith figured nobody would mind if🎃 she pulled into an empty parking lot so her 4-year-old daughter could ride her bike for a half-hour or so. Instead, the Brit...
Parklaওnd shoo𝔉ting, COVID-19 bookend high school years for seniors
Three years ago, on Valentine's Day, a mass shooting at their Florida high ♐school linked them forever. Now, a pandemic is keeping them apart for the biggest year of their...
𝐆Myanmar erupts in biggest demonstrations since coup
As protesters against the military coup in Myanmar flooded the streets of the country's two largest cities Saturday, the military strengthened its griꦫp on the nation -- suspending laws "protecting...
NYC's Burmese community speaks out against military coup in homeland
Days after a military coup in Myanmar, the army's top general virtually shut down the internet as pro-Democracy protesters took to the stree🌃ts. The biggest rally yet against Monday's ꧃overthrow...
༒ Romancing the stone: Meteorite-crazy celebs morph into rock collectors ꦿ
Elon Musk thinks meteorites are out of this world. So do director Steven Spielberg, actor N⛎icolas Cage and cellist Yo-Yo Ma, who -- like the SpaceX CEO -ꦍ- have morphed...
Elon Musk's SpaceX reportedly violated terms of FAA license
Elon Musk's SpaceX rocket crashed and burned trying to come down from its first high-altitude flight -- and now the billionaire is ♔in hot water with the federal government for...
Massachusetts tow🦹n issues self-defense tips for run-ins with wild turkeys 💦
Turkeys can be downright foul when they come across a human, which is why a Massachusetts town dogged by a rash of wild🌞 gobblers is doling out self-defense tips. Maybe...
Bigfoot hunting proposal has Sasquatc🦹h enthusiasts crying foul 🃏
Bagging Bigfoot is something Upstaters Gary Robusto and Paul Bartholomew can't imagine doing. Not that they don't believe the 7-foot-tall, hairy, manlike creature exists. But they're committed to protecting ﷽☂the...
Man accꦕused of send♉ing fake bomb to COVID-19 vaccine factory
A Brit is accused of sending a fake bomb to a plant in Wales tha෴t bottles a COVID-19 vaccine. Anthony Collins, 53, of Kent, has been charged with using the...
Capitol fꦛenceไ wars: Police, residents at odds over permanent barriers
Washington is on the fence♛ about ringing the Capitol with permanent barricades. Most lawmakers🅷 and locals don't want them. The cops do. Temporary security fencing went up after a mob...
Al Franken sig♌𒁏hting sparks 2021 NYC mayoral run speculation
Al Franken for mayor? The former "🦋Saturday Night Live" mainstay and ex-Minnesota senator is a man about town again, spotted last weekend at a Fairwa꧙y grocery in his old stomping...
'This is our history': NYC activists fight to save Underground Railroad site from becoming condos
Clad in faꩲke stoneface and mostly shorn of its old clapboard and ornament, the dingy, two story house at Riverside Drive an🐭d 159th Street isn't much to look at. But...
Mass C💙OVID-19 vaccinat🅺ions accomplish more than targeted vaccine roll outs
Wearing masks and keeping our distance is how it needs to be until we reach herd immuni𝐆ty against COVID-19. And that's not goinꦐg to happen unless -- or until --...
How Ghislaine M🧸axwell was nabbed by the FBI via her cellphone
Ghislaine Maxwell spotted the agents, heard them shout "FBI" and ran to another room inside her secluded New Hampshire co🐻mpound, slamming the door behind her. On a desk was a...
COVID outbreak drives US ♛home sales to 1ꦯ4-year high
Americans went on a shopping spree in 2020, buying up more houses than they have in 14 years. Trigg♔ering the surge was the COVID-19 outbreak, which drove cramped apartment dwellers...