Do loopholes let doctors go unreported after allegations?

She felt 'like a human septic tank.' [View this email in a browser.]( Gothamist relies on your support to make local news available to all. Not yet a member? [Consider donating and join today.]( [She felt 'like a human septic tank.' Do loopholes let doctors go unreported after allegations?]( [first image]( [Today's newsletter curated by James Ramsay]( Weather: 🌧️ Rain and patchy fog, with highs in the lower 60s. Sue Ackerson had urine collecting in her body with essentially no way for it to escape. Eighteen days earlier, in October 2005, an OB-GYN named Dr. Thomas J. Byrne — who’d previously been stripped of his medical license in New York — had performed a vaginal hysterectomy on her at a small hospital in rural Oklahoma. "I was like a human septic tank," Ackerson recalled in an interview with Gothamist. "I actually looked like I was about nine months pregnant. I thought my stomach was going to explode." In this fourth installment of our five-part investigative series, "Imminent Danger," we follow Ackerson’s journey — and explore how loopholes in the federal system for physician oversight have allowed some doctors with questionable track records to keep practicing. [Read the story]( and listen to the podcast [here](. - Early voting is underway in New York City. [Here's your guide to the Nov. 7 election](. - There's a makeshift vigil for Matthew Perry, the sitcom star who died Saturday at the age of 54, outside [the Greenwich Village apartment seen in "Friends"](. - The NYPD says it’s searching for [a woman who allegedly made an "anti-ethnic statement"]( and slapped a man’s face during Saturday’s pro-Palestinian protest on [the Brooklyn Bridge](. - Saturday's march, which saw [thousands of people stop traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge]( came after [Friday's demonstration at Grand Central Terminal]( forced the transit hub's closure for nearly two hours. - Police said [two men were shot and killed]( in an East Flatbush apartment building Sunday night in what officials suspect was a dispute among neighbors. - Attorney General Letitia James said her office [would not charge an NYPD officer who fatally shot a man]( during a foot pursuit in Far Rockaway last year because prosecutors wouldn't be able to prove that the officer illegally used deadly force. - Israeli officials, U.S. media outlets and President Joe Biden himself have all [explicitly compared Hamas' attack on Israel to 9/11]( — bringing back fears among some Arab and South Asian New Yorkers of the racial profiling and undue suspicion they faced after the September 11th attacks. - [It happened]( eight rainy weekends in a row. - The New York Times asked more than 37,000 New York City residents where exactly they live. [There were some discrepancies]( in what each neighborhood is called and where the borders are. - The city's program for forcing repeat speeding- and red-light-camera offenders to take a driving class or have their car impounded [has expired after being barely enforced](. - The current ban on smoking inside city parks would expand to cover [sidewalks surrounding parks]( under a new City Council bill. - New York's Office of Cannabis Management has [stopped holding enforcement hearings]( for unlicensed weed shops, despite Gov. Kathy Hochul's promise of a crackdown earlier this year. - Come January 14th, Sutton Foster and Aaron Tveit will replace Annaleigh Ashford and Josh Groban in Broadway's current production of "Sweeney Todd." ([According to "a source."]( - Mike Pence [is no longer]( running for president. - Living in Salem, Massachusetts, during Halloween [seems like hell](. - Congrats (?) to the dozen racewalkers who broke the 20K world record time at the Pan American Games over the weekend in [a race that might've actually been about 17 kilometers]( thanks to a measuring error by officials. “[You think about ‘Friends,’ you think about New York and when you think about New York, you think about ‘Friends.’]( - Achille Truchot, who moved to NYC from paris last year and attended [THE MAKESHIFT VIGIL FOR MATTHEW PERRY]( More from Gothamist [second image]( [How an 8-acre green roof atop the Javits Center is boosting NYC’s biodiversity]( Green roofs provide urban habitats for wildlife as well as benefits for humans, including protection against floods, heat and cold. But less than 1% of New York City's potential building top spaces utilize them. [In one of NJ's highly segregated school districts, students and parents seek accountability]( At a forum on race and the student experience in Newark, teens, teachers and families said segregation is only one issue costing students opportunities. [We Rely On Your Support]( [Mayor Adams taps two officials to lead NYC's racial justice efforts]( Almost a year after New York City voters overwhelmingly approved ballot measures on racial justice matters last November, the city has finally announced who will lead those efforts. [See Misty Copeland, the RZA, Yvonne Orji and others at the Urbanworld Film Festival in NYC]( This year’s 27th edition opens Wednesday, Nov. 1, with the New York premiere of a highly anticipated release: "American Fiction," the directorial debut of writer Cord Jefferson, starring Jeffrey Wright and Tracee Ellis Ross, with Sterling K. Brown, Issa Rae, and others. 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