Today is the 33rd anniversary of the disappearance of Etan Patz, the six-year-old New Yorker whose abduction in 1979 helped usher in a new age of terror and suspicion for American parents. Though Etan was declared legally dead in 2001, his case has never been solved. Yesterday, after three decades of false leads and a menagerie of suspects, the NYPD announced that a New Jersey man named Pedro Hernandez had confessed to strangling Patz and dumping his body somewhere in Manhattan. It's unclear at this point whether Hernandez's confession will hold water, if he acted alone, or if he is just a confused publicity seeker. Here's a look back at the case.

It looks like there is yet another lead in the 1979 disappearance of Etan Patz: New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly announced today that NYPD detectives had obtained an incriminating statement from a new suspect.

Today, in the year 2012, long after Martin Luther King Jr. and all those other guys marched and stuff, there still exists, right here in New York City, the type of discrimination that would have made Sojourner Truth stand up and say, "I don't think so!" [Pause for laughter.] That's right: salons are charging dudes different prices than women, for stuff, sometimes.

If I were to pick one person who should be the proper judge of all the world's morality, I would pick cheap tabloid columnist Andrea Peyser, who hates gays, Muslims, and minorities with the same fervor that she loves lurid sexual innuendo. She just seems like the best choice, to pass judgment on those who she deems to be insensitive. I don't see any problems with that.

Dharun Ravi, the 20-year-old Rutgers student convicted of bias intimidating and privacy invasion in the Tyler Clementi webcam peep case, has been sentenced to a relatively scant 30-day jail term, The Newark Star-Ledger reports.

The U.S. Justice Department has issued a new set of guidelines designed to stem prison rape, which "may afflict one out of every 10 prisoners," according to the NYT. The guidelines are mostly basic standards of staffing, planning, and other common-sense measures. But I submit to you that the following bit of the overview is as bracing a section as you're likely to find in a government report:

The deliciously slow-falling dominoes of the News Corp phone hacking scandal continue to falllllll: Rebekah Brooks, former News of the World editor, News International boss, and Rupert Murdoch bestie, is going to be charged with "conspiring to pervert the course of justice" for attempting to conceal documents and data in the hacking case. Brooks' husband and several others are being charged as well. Brooks denies the charges.

Leslie Sandoval doesn't remember much about the night his friend Seth Foster ended up dead and dismembered. He does, however, remember the location of Foster's severed foot, which authorities have not been able to locate — and he might use that as a bargaining chip.

On Friday, Jennifer Hudson's ex-brother-in-law William Balfour was convicted in the 2008 murders of Hudson's mother, brother, and seven-year-old nephew. It was the culmination of an emotional trial, during which Balfour was shown to be a jealous husband, acting out against Jennifer's sister Julia Hudson, his then wife.

The NYPD's "stop and frisk" program has garnered criticism in the past, in part because it is essentially one big "Racism License: Hunt Anyone That Your Personal Prejudices Cause You to Deem as 'Suspicious' At Will" license for NYPD officers, who are not, as a group, known for their unerring sense of racial fairness. In other news, the numbers show the stop and frisk program is being used racist-ly.

Beats by Dre headphones are reportedly a popular target for thieves and muggers in New York City today. How can you avoid becoming a victim?

Patricia Krentcil (pictured), a 44 year-old mom in Nutley, New Jersey, has been arrested for allegedly taking her five year-old daughter into a tanning booth with her, giving the child a "pretty severe sunburn."

The best/worst grandparents of all time took their granddaughter (not pictured) on a joy ride she won't soon forget. Paul and Belinda Berloni used dog leashes to tie their granddaughter's Hot Wheels car to their SUV's trailer hitch, then proceeded to drive her around. Also, Paul was drunk and driving without a license, because he had his revoked 10 years ago for a DUI.

It's a brutal and unsettling story, made all the more so by the fact that the perpetrator was a 22-year-old man with no connection to the victims. Bryan Clay was arrested Friday for the April 15 rapes and bludgeoning murders of a Ignacia Martinez and her 10-year-old daughter Karla.

TMZ is breathless to tell you that The Hunger Games' Josh Hutcherson "tricks grocery store into selling him whiskey." The up-and-comer, who plays Peeta in the film and its inevitable sequels, is only 19 and has thus probably never tasted alcohol before. What could have pushed him to such vile deceit?

Last year, 24 year-old Michael Ikoli was shot and killed in the Bronx. Wednesday night, his friends held a candlelight vigil in remembrance of him outside his old apartment. At that vigil, Jonathan Lewis, 22, was shot and killed.

Suspect payments totaling $24 million have tainted Walmart's operations in Mexico. In a statement released by the company, Walmart acknowledged an investigation related to compliance with the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. This follows a damning New York Times article, which alleges a cover-up of widespread bribery.

George Zimmerman, now charged with second-degree murder in the killing of Trayvon Martin, could soon be released from custody after a judge set a $150,000 bond for his release. Zimmerman's family will need $15,000, 10 percent of the total bond amount, to have him let out.

Dick: it's always popping up in the strangest places. Earlier this morning, a reader named Monique caught an eyeful on a Queens-bound F from a dude who was "dressed in a rumpled, cheap looking suit, and carried a Jet magazine."

The trial of George Zimmerman for the murder of Trayvon Martin has yet to begin, but there are already complications. Today, Zimmerman's defense team — led by lawyer Mark O'Mara — formally requested that the assigned judge remove herself from the case. Judge Jessica Recksiedler's husband works with a CNN analyst who has publicly commented on the Trayvon Martin case.