State Buildings

It's been 80 years since a giant ape climbed to the top of the Empire State Building and held on to a tiny actress while planes flew over trying to shoot him down. That scene in the original 1933 "King Kong" is one of the most memorable in cinema history. "I don't care how old you are, you feel for the poor gorilla and what happened to him," said "Kong" historian John Michlig, who has written for the "Kong Is King" website. Though there have been sequels and remakes - including Peter Jackson's CGI-driven 2005 hit - none have matched the magic and romance of RKO's original, produced and directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest Schoedsack.

Nuclear foolishness Re "New nuclear policy walks careful line," April 7 President Obama's nuclear arms initiative is ill-conceived and very dangerous for our country. It is foolish to pledge that we would not use a nuclear bunker-busting weapon to retaliate against the leadership of a country that attacked us with chemical or biological weapons. It is even more foolish to declare that we will abandon efforts to develop more modern nuclear weapons. It should be clear to anyone with a map that we have some potential enemies with whom we cannot compete on the basis of the number of ground troops.

A man who opened fire on the crowded streets outside the Empire State Building, shooting indiscriminately and hitting multiple people, appears to have been motivated by a workplace dispute, not terrorism, according to an FBI official who received the initial reports from police on the scene. “The preliminary indication is that there is no nexus to terrorism,” said the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly. Early reports said the gunman and at least one other person were dead.

A man who shot to death a former colleague in midtown Manhattan and then took aim at police never fired at the officers before they gunned him down in a hail of bullets that also wounded nine bystanders outside the Empire State Building. The New York City police commissioner, Raymond Kelly, said Saturday that three of the pedestrians suffered bullet wounds and the others “were struck with fragments of some sort” as a result of the two officers' shooting at Jeffrey Johnson after he pointed his .45-caliber handgun at them.

Gunfire broke out on the street outside the Empire State Building in Manhattan at the height of rush hour Friday, and initial reports said that multiple people have been shot and the shooter was dead. Media reports said at least three other people had been shot, but their conditions were not immediately known. The gunfire erupted about 9 a.m. EDT outside the iconic building at 34th Street and 5th Avenue. Police blocked off traffic around the building, which on a normal summer morning would be surrounded by tourists lined up to ride the elevator to its top floors, and commuters who work inside.

The observation deck atop the Empire State Building in Manhattan was scheduled to reopen Saturday, offering people a view from what is now the city's tallest skyscraper. Except for a brief trial period Sept. 15, the building has been closed to the public since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. One of the city's most popular tourist destinations, the observatory on the 86th floor will be open from 9:30 a.m. to midnight Saturday and Sunday.

Donald Trump's Empire State Partners has lost a round in its court fight to seize ownership of the landmark Empire State Building in Manhattan. Empire State Building Associates, headed by Peter L. Malkin, and Empire State Building Co., controlled by Leona Helmsley, sued Trump and his partnership in 1995. That suit sought to stop the Trump partnership from challenging Malkin and Helmsley's control of the 102-story skyscraper.

In the mid-1990s, Matthew Gross was the charismatic and creative frontman for the Bushpilots, a rock band that was playing to critical reviews in New York City and being scouted for a record contract. He wrote all the band's songs and seemed to go everywhere with a clutch of women in tow. Today he says he is lucky if he can remember the words to three of the hundreds of songs he wrote back then. He has written no more than three songs since that phase of his life ended and a new one began.

Los Angeles Times NEW YORK - Each morning, Jeffrey Johnson would put on a suit, leave his Manhattan apartment, and walk to a nearby McDonald's to pick up breakfast. Sometimes he would greet a neighbor and pet her dog along the way. Friday seemed no different to those familiar with Johnson's ritual, but this time, he did not return to his apartment with breakfast in a bag. Instead, he headed to Midtown Manhattan, to his former employer's shop near the foot of the Empire State Building, and shot an ex-colleague repeatedly in the head, police said.

The Empire State Building has new owners--and one of them, Donald Trump, wasted no time Thursday in shouting his involvement from the top of its 102 stories. Trump, the flamboyant owner of the Plaza hotel, Trump Tower and three Atlantic City casinos, cut a deal with a group of Asian and European investors to snap up the highest point in mid-town Manhattan's famous skyline. The arrangement did not cost Trump a dime, the developer said.