Samantha Gross

NEW YORK — It is a place of sacrifice. A place of mourning. A place people pass on their way to grab lunch. It's a place where tourists crane their necks to snatch a glimpse around barriers walling off an enormous construction site, which is also…

( / AP) ONONDAGA NATION, N.Y. — A group of young men have gathered in the longhouse for the feather dance, and the sounds of their singing filter outside, where Mohawk Chief Howard Thompson sits. His people call him Onerekowa, the name his…

By SAMANTHA GROSS NEW YORK (AP) — Step into Charlene Barton’s apartment, and the first thing you smell is mold. The air by the door is thick with a vile steam. In the bathroom, a broken tap never stops running. The holes in the walls are covered…

Eighteen months without a job. Fourteen months. Twelve.It’s been a long, dry spell for many of the suit-clad Wall Streeters who were handed their pink slips before hardly anyone was talking recovery.But sit down with a handful of ex-finance industry…

Colin Beavan sat under the light of a single bulb, freaking out. Along with his wife and young daughter, he had just spent a year trying to reduce their net environmental impact to almost zero. With a flip of a switch, they had cut their Manhattan…

By SAMANTHA GROSS and DAVID CARUSO and MICHAEL RUBINKAMIf he chose to listen, Najibullah Zazi could hear the calls for violence all around him.The Afghan immigrant accused of plotting a terror attack on New York City spent his earliest years in his…

Looking around at this party to celebrate the newest Star Trek film, no one can deny that these fans are hard core.Some guests are wearing starship uniforms. One guy just went out into the streets of midtown Manhattan in captain’s garb to pick up a…

NEW YORK  -- The most terrifying moment came when Vallie Collins was caught in the back galley of the plane -- water seeping in from exits that would open only a crack, and dozens of passengers bearing down on her, frantic to get out."Trying as…

( / AP) NEW YORK — For the hundreds of camera-toting tourists who visit Wall Street every day, the New York Stock Exchange presents an imposing sight. The building-sized American flag draped over the exchange’s towering Corinthian columns. The…

BUSKIRK, N.Y. — A few years ago, Kathleen Breault was just another suburban resident, driving countless hours every week, stopping for lunch at McDonald’s, buying clothes at the mall, watching TV in the evenings.That was before she heard an author…

NEW YORK - The year was 1987, the boy’s name was Rob, and 13-year-old Ingrid Wiese had some pressing concerns.“He kisses weird,” she wrote in her diary. “I just hope it doesn’t stick and I don’t end up kissing like that forever.”Twenty years later,…

NEW YORK - When Florika Dima's husband died while serving in Iraq, she began telling stories.About the patriot who left his family behind to serve the country that hadn't yet awarded him citizenship. About the man who bought his wife's needy friend…