http://www.nypress.com/articles.sec-9-1-features-news.html At 71, Fredericka Nelson should be the one being taken care of. After 40 years of cleaning offices to support a family on her own, the Brooklyn mother of six and grandmother of 21 thought she’d enjoy growing old in peace.]]> Michael Gruson, a successful attorney, got the worst possible news from his doctor in March 2005: His persistent headache was more serious than anything an aspirin could cure. It was the symptom of a malignant brain tumor. A partner at Shearman & Sterling and the head of an eight-member household, Gruson, 69, was accustomed to success and responsibility. Now, with stage-four brain cancer, he was at life’s mercy.]]> HE WEARS A black hoodie to protect himself from the cold rain. The baby-faced guy is Dominican, probably in his early twenties. He rushes by me at the Graham Avenue L train entrance, pauses and asks, “Matt?” I nod. He leads me down the stairs, examines me silently. Once he’s satisfied that I’m not a threat, he takes $30 from my left hand and pushes a sealed bag of Cheez Doodles into my right jacket pocket. Without another word, he splits for the opposite staircase and races back above ground. I check my watch. It’s 6:30 on a Saturday night under a busy Williamsburg intersection, and I’ve just scored three bags of “Nike” heroin, all hidden inside a re-sealed bag of chips.]]> "IF SOMETHING HAPPENS, you have nowhere to complain,” says Anna, a 38-year-old West-African nanny. “It makes me worried.” For most of her seven-year career as a nanny, Anna has been fortunate to work for two families that have paid her a decent wage for roughly nine hours of work a day. Her duties usually include taking the children for a stroll or to play dates, cooking dinner in the evening and cleaning.]]> Unemployed restaurant deliveryman Jianhua Wang says there’s no help left for him in New York’s Chinatown. Not in this economic climate. “Chinatown is full of compatriots,” he says, “but there are many cheaters.”]]> The first time the police handcuffed Yolanda Hernandez, her child-sized wrists slipped through the rings, so she handed the metal restraint back to the cops. “You don’t need these,” she said, going peacefully to the police station. “I don’t hurt anyone.”]]> TWENTY-SIX MINUTES after last call on August 23, a loud pop sent a wave of jitters through the weekend drunks, bouncers, desperate lonely-hearts and wide-awake cokeheads hanging out on the Avenue A strip between East 12th and 14th streets. Just as they settled back into their cigarettes and drawn-out good-byes, another bang! rocked them.]]> IN THE UNITED STATES alone, statistics show that nearly 200,000 women may be diagnosed with breast cancer this year, and more than 40,000 might die from the disease.]]> Recent reports claim that we may have weathered the worst part of the current recession. But the economic slump hasn’t seemed to abate the new development that continues apace on Manhattan’s West Side. As construction workers hammered away at a high rise on the northeast side of West 53rd Street and 10th Avenue last Tuesday, politicians and community members gathered across the street at P.S. 111 to voice their concerns about the severe overcrowding in Hell’s Kitchen public schools projected for the next decade.]]> TWO GIRLS IN skimpy white bikinis soak their feet in the fountain at the center of the Oval. Nearby, a couple of muscular guys casually flex as they toss a football back and forth for the admiring girls.]]> LADIES, PUT ON your mothers’ pearls: Yetta Kurland is comin’ a-courting…for your votes, that is. A dapper lesbian, known to wear custom dress shirts and blazers, Kurland has been going door-to-door and bar-to-bar throughout the West Side of New York City looking to woo as much Sapphic support as needed to defeat Speaker of the New York City Council Christine Quinn in the September 15 Democratic primary. ]]> WE LIVE IN an era of unrivaled design choices. Due to technological advances, graphic artists can now easily market and sell their work, reaching an audience inconceivable just a few years ago.]]> Traffic halts while the five blondes flash their popsicle-colored thongs as they drunkenly pile into a cab on East Houston Street. Car horns blare. Wolf-whistles and shouts pierce the air as a FDNY truck zooms close by. Adding to the carnival-like feel, the air is thick with the smell of vendors barbecuing street meat at nearby pushcarts. Standing here, watching scores of barhopping twentysomethings stagger around bleary-eyed on a warm Friday night, the deep recession looks like it might be over. ]]> With the flick of the acupuncturist’s finger, a small needle penetrates the skin of a young freckle-faced woman searching for a treatment for her infertility. What used to be a last resort for many couples aching to get pregnant has now become a frequent complementary treatment for in-vitro fertilization (IVF) patients. A breakthrough study published in the Fertility and Sterility journal in 2002 revealed that the combination of IVF and acupuncture could increase fertility chances.]]> The latest development in the search for a male birth control pill isn’t a pill at all—it’s an injection. A May study in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism revealed that Beijing researchers have successfully tested a testosterone-based injection, intended to be used monthly by men to induce temporary sterility. It proved to be 95 percent effective, almost equivalent to the female birth control pill, but some doctors—and potential patients—are skeptical.]]> THE CAST OF Hair was late. Instead of palpable political unrest, the tardy Broadway belters caused more anxiety in the crowd than anything else.When the young, attractive cast of men and women did arrive, they sang “Let the Sunshine In.” It’s got to be the first time in history that a free-love anthem was used to endorse the institution of marriage. That’s right: Instead of angry, fist-pumping protest, the love that dare not speak its name now holds concert rallies in the middle of Midtown.]]> BEFORE YOU REACH for the power bar or sports drink powder, maybe you should take a moment and see whats really in there. One of the main ingredients in your energy boost might actually be harming you. The culprit has always seemed so innocuous: soy.]]>