In the News: Terror Trial Without the Lockdown

••• “Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, a son-in-law of Osama bin Laden who once served as a spokesman for Al Qaeda, pleaded not guilty at his arraignment in federal court in Manhattan on Friday morning, where he was charged with conspiracy to kill Americans. […] n 2010, the Obama administration abandoned plans to bring five men charged with plotting the Sept. 11 attacks […] to trial in the same courthouse in Lower Manhattan where Mr. Abu Ghaith will appear Friday, blocks from the World Trade Center site. The turnaround came in the face of nearly unanimous pressure from New York officials and business leaders after Mayor Bloomberg withdrew his initial support for the plan, saying the security costs and disruption would be too great. The police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, had outlined a plan for securing the trial that involved transforming a section of Lower Manhattan into an armed camp, blanketed with police checkpoints, vehicle searches, rooftop snipers and canine patrols. But should Mr. Abu Ghaith go to trial, officials said, the proceedings would most likely draw far less attention and create far fewer problems.” Said Bloomberg: “No street is going to be closed because of this.” —New York Times

••• “The MTA will reopen the old station at South Ferry in the first week of April.” —Wall Street Journal

••• The New York Times visits Nancy Whiskey Pub in a roundup of bars where you can play tabletop shuffleboard: “A neighborhood staple since 1967, Nancy calls itself the home of the city’s only “bank” shuffleboard table. It features padded bumpers along the sides and carries with it an unwritten rule: All slides, or throws, require a bank shot. Amateurs need not apply.”

••• Downtown Deli’s Reuben sandwich gets reviewed by Downtown Lunch. If I ate that thing I’d have to lie down afterward.

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