It's been a hot summer so far in the city. Perhaps the heat motivated a Brooklyn restaurant cook to steal frozen lobster tails from his restaurant by stuffing them down his pants. Raymundo Flores was arraigned by the Brooklyn District Attorney on charges of petit larceny and criminal possession of stolen property. Police, responding to a 911 from restaurant workers, said they found lobster tails that Flores allegedly stole hidden in his pants and in bandages on his legs.

It will be a hot summer in this Chicago neighbor this year, not only because of the rising temperature but a ban on window-mounted air conditioner units. The prohibition is the result of an ordinance approved by the village board in March. It specifically banned the installation of window-mounted air coolers on walls that face the street or in side windows 12 feet or less from the street.

Low thermostat settings in the office is driving up the sales of space heaters even during summer. According to Tom Flippo, manager at Bering's on Bissonnet, while the bulk of their heaters are sold during winter, an average of 100 space heaters are purchased during the hot months. Most of the buyers are office workers who find the thermostat setting too low for comfort. According to Don Young, vice president of the International Facility Management Association, the top two complaints of office workers in various countries were the office was too cold or too hot.

New York's commuters are up in arms against the five-hour simultaneous closing of all 78 subway toilets from midnight to 5 a. m. The New York Transit, through spokesman Charles Seaton, defended the new policy implemented the past few weeks, as its way of making the riding public more comfortable by setting exclusive window hours for its maintenance staff to clean the toilets.

Canadian Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier continues to be hot copy. After his diplomatic faux pas in Afghanistan and questions over his former girlfriend's links with biker gang members, there is now a question over his excessive airfare. According to the Toronto Star, Bernier charged to federal funds $22,573 to cover his airfare to Laos, where he attended a two-day conference in November. The trip included a stopover in Paris. Bernier's travel details were in the Foreign Affair Department's website.