A little over a week ago Rupert Murdoch’s Wall St. Journal launched its new local New York City section to great fanfare. It’s since been one hell of a week for local news, and if there was ever a time for the Journal to shine and impress the past five days were a better opportunity than anyone could reasonably expect. Alas, as far as I can tell they’ve made nary a blip. Here’s some suggestions on how to change this.

Shahzad Faisal, a U.S. citizen of Pakistani descent, has been identified as the main suspect in the May 1 Times Square car bomb attempt and arrested at JFK airport [Update: He had boarded a plane to Dubai], according to authorities. Investigation into the history of the vehicle used in the attempt led to the suspect, officials said. Video of Attorney General Eric Holder‘s press conference after the jump. [UPDATED]

The Metro, a chain of commuter tabloids handed out free in New York City (and other places), this morning led with a macabre story – the discovery of the skeleton of a woman missing since late 2008. Laura Garza was last seen alive on December 3, 2008, leaving a nightclub in the company of a convicted sex offender. The discovery of her body near Scranton is, of course, as bad an ending as such stories can have.

Forgotten former New York mayor and failed non-candidate to every possible public office in New York State (and President) Rudy Giuliani, KBE appeared on Fox and Friends this morning to analyze the passing of the Democrats’ health care bill. For what it’s worth, he thinks the bill will be, at the very least, a “disaster for New York.” Also, what is up with all these terrorists living such great lives in Gitmo, and other concerns from 2003.

A web developer and former Columbia student undertook a unique project: sketching the evolution of a New York City block, from 1795 to today. The resulting animation, dubbed “The Block” (specifically, Eldridge Street between Rivington and Stanton), is rough in its details but gives a good sense of the highs and lows of the street’s [...]

News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch is planning to introduce a New York city edition of the Wall Street Journal, and is reportedly going “all in” to do it. John Koblin reports for the NY Observer that he is “ready to roll out a budget of $15 Million,” in an effort to compete directly with the NY Times.

E.L. Doctorow has been called many things in his lifetime, most notably one of the greatest writers of all-time. At a panel last night, he spoke about his new book Homer and Langley, based on New York City’s Collyer brothers, as well as his fortunate timing, character development and the risk he always takes with his wife.

There is a natural inclination for us to want to explore a world we know without the general limitations we usually experience. This is the fascination with The Sims, in which we can be trimmer, richer and have non-Ikea furniture. (For those of you with non-Ikea furniture already — ooh, aren’t you fancy?) It’s why, [...]

The real star of Yankees baseball this season? New York City congressman Anthony Weiner. When ESPN tried to switch the start time of a nationally televised September 27th Yankees match-up with the Boston Red Sox, Weiner sent a letter to baseball commissioner Bud Selig requesting the game be moved to avoid conflicting with the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur.

Robert Burke announced plans to challenge incumbent Mike Bloomberg for the office of New York City Mayor, and immediately received much attention from most, if not all, cable networks.

And why not? Burke is a well known fixture for both native New Yorkers and Time Square tourists alike.

As media-obsessed interns, we constantly wonder what the rest of New York is thinking about the media. So we were curious: how much do people know about this week’s Sotomayor confirmation hearings? In pursuit of taking the media pulse of our fellow city-goers, we hit the streets to ask people some questions. The results were… Umm… Interesting.