And what a twisted story, horrible in any venue of course, but especially troubling to have happened in New York's supposedly safe "crown jewel" in the middle of the day.
The victim, a birdwatcher, had been taking pictures in the park, when she saw a man exposing himself, and more, in the bushes last week. He apparently saw her taking the pictures, and, yesterday, cops say he attacked her from behind, raped her, and then took the woman's camera.
The woman talked to us on camera today - we are not identifying her and we're hiding her face. This afternoon, she picked him out of a line-up.
Lucy Yang has the latest, tonight at 11.
We're also on Long Island, where scores are expected to show up at a Dept. of Ed. Board meeting to support a janitor whose family says he was the victim of severe bullying - and then victimized again when he lost his job.
And we're following the latest developments in the Middle East. There are reports of at least one arrest in Libya for the murderous attack on the U.S. Embassy there. And it just doesn't seem like a coincidence that Al Qaeda has released 4 videos in the past 3 days. It's one reason that some intelligence experts believe Al Qaeda may have played a role in the attack on the embassy. We'll have the latest at 11.
The economy is also top-of-mind for our 11 p.m. newscast, after the Fed's action today to try to goose things along. It will buy, among other things, mortgage-backed securities, which should boost home sales and the value of your 401k. The Fed also predicted that unemployment for the rest of the year will not fall below 8%, although it did estimate that unemployment will drop to 7.6 next year, and 6.7 the year after.
And, perhaps not such good news for Pres. Obama's hopes of re-election, the Fed said it expects slower growth this year that previously predicted.
We'll also have any breaking news of the night, plus Meteorologist Lee Goldberg's AccuWeather forecast, and Rob Powers with the night's sports. I hope you can join Sade Baderinwa and me, tonight at 11.
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