New York City school principals receive their budgets from Chancellor Joel Klein's office today, Klein says the schools face cuts of about 5-percent next year, not as deep as he feared. While there will be no major layoffs, he predicted some schools would be forced to lay off teaching assistants and aides.

The number of confirmed swine flu cases in New York has now climbed past the 200 mark. Today, P.S. 130, the Hernando Desoto School on Baxter (near Grand Street), closes.

The New York Comptroller's Office is concerned about the cuts in MTA station agents. On their web site, you can look up how many agents have been eliminated from your stop. For instance, one part time agent was eliminated from both the F train stop at East Broadway and the F/J/M/Z Essex Street stop.

Frank Bruni can't get enough of those crunchy breadsticks at Sorella on Allen Street. He also seemed to enjoy the "duck fat-soaked muffin that’s not only slathered with a thick
chicken-liver mousse but also, in case that’s not heart-stopping action
enough, topped with a soft-yolked fried egg and bacon."