News

Gothamist reports: With little public attention, New York City has reversed how it polices prostitution, going from 20,000 annual arrests in 1985 to barely more than 100 this year. The plunge in arrests, gradual over the last decade, accelerated last year with decisions by borough district attorneys to stop prosecuting sex workers and dismiss thousands of open cases against those …

ABC News reports: A Lufthansa flight from Los Angeles to Frankfurt, Germany, made an unscheduled landing at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport after a passenger’s laptop caught fire, the airline said. Monday night’s landing at O’Hare was a precautionary step after an overheated laptop caused a small fire in the passenger cabin, the airline said. None of the passengers were injured, …

Agence France-Presse reports: Polar bears are disappearing fast from the Western part of Hudson Bay, on the southern tip of the Canadian Arctic, according to a new government survey. The number of female bears and cubs in particular has seen a dramatic decline. Researchers have flown over the region — which includes the town of Churchill, a tourist destination touted …

Law & Crime reports: The zookeeper turned convicted would-be hitman who was launched into the national spotlight during a 2020 streaming series about big cat breeding will not be able to reduce his decades-long prison sentence. Joe Exotic — real name Joseph Maldonado-Passage — had hoped to get his 21-year prison sentence knocked down by 10 years following a recalculation …

The Associated Press reports: Jair Bolsonaro told supporters that the future could only bring him three possibilities: arrest, death or a second term as Brazil’s president. None of those outcomes came to pass. Many of Bolsonaro’s far-right supporters remain in his thrall and have camped outside military buildings, pleading futilely for army intervention that would keep the president in power. …

The Guardian reports: Buffalo residents gathered around space heaters, hunted for cars buried in snow drifts and looked for more victims on Monday, after 28 people died in one of the worst weather-related disasters ever to hit western New York state. Up to 12 inches more snow could fall in some areas of western New York through Tuesday, the National …

The BBC reports: Russian sausage tycoon Pavel Antov has been found dead at an Indian hotel, two days after a friend died during the same trip. They were visiting the eastern state of Odisha and the millionaire, who was also a local politician, had just celebrated his birthday at the hotel. Reports in Russian media said Mr Antov, 65, had …

The Associated Press reports: Officials confirmed that a fourth electrical substation in Washington state was found vandalized on Christmas Day, this coming after three others were attacked earlier in the day which left thousands without power. According to the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office, the vandals broke into a fenced area and destroyed equipment at the substation which caused a fire. …

The Associated Press reports: The death toll from a pre-Christmas blizzard that paralyzed the Buffalo area and much of the country has risen to 27 in western New York authorities said Monday as the region dug out from one of the worst weather-related disasters in its history. The dead have been found in their cars, homes and in snowbanks. Some …

The New York Times reports: Louis R. Gigante was always larger-than-life. A Roman Catholic priest, the son of Italian immigrants and brother of New York mobsters, Father Gigante swaggered through the crime-ridden and crumbling South Bronx with a baseball bat and a development company that built thousands of apartments for the poor. But it turns out even the legend could …

ABC News reports: City officials in Jackson, Mississippi, on Christmas Day announced that residents must now boil their drinking water due to water lines bursting in the frigid temperatures. “Please check your businesses and churches for leaks and broken pipes, as these add up tremendously and only worsen the problem,” the city said in a statement, adding: “We understand the …

USA Today reports: More than 3,000 flights were cancelled across the U.S. on Christmas Day as a brutal winter storm and frigid cold weather swept much of the country over the weekend. Flight-tracking website FlightAware reported 3,487 cancellations on Sunday and 7,163 delays in the U.S. As of Monday morning, another 1,452 flights were canceled and 980 were delayed across …

The Washington Post reports: Britain’s King Charles III delivered a message of empathy and unity, and paid homage to the past, in his first Christmas address as monarch — taking up a tradition associated with defining moments in the reign of his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II. The Christmas message, watched by millions in Britain and the Commonwealth nations, has …

Bloomberg News reports: Billionaire Elon Musk is warning against something he himself has done — borrowing against the value of securities one owns — because of the risk of “mass panic” in the stock market. “I would really advise people not to have margin debt in a volatile stock market and you know, from a cash standpoint, keep powder dry,” …

Politico reports: Ill-fated hopes that a Democratic-controlled Washington might loosen decades-old restrictions on the drug have given way to a market glut and plummeting prices that have put scores of businesses at risk of collapse. In Colorado, prices have dropped by 51 percent over the last two years. The price of a pound of weed has plunged by 36 percent …

Buffalo’s NBC affiliate reports: A glimmer of sunshine on Christmas Day provided Western New Yorkers with hope that the region is ready to dig itself out from the longest sustained blizzard in history. Not so fast, was the message from government officials. “It is not over,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said on Sunday. “I cannot overstate how dangerous conditions …

The Associated Press reports: The storm unleashed its full fury on Buffalo with hurricane-force winds causing whiteout conditions. Emergency response efforts were paralyzed. Three people died in the Buffalo area, including two who suffered medical emergencies in their homes and couldn’t be saved because emergency crews were unable to reach them amid historic blizzard conditions. Deep snow, single-digit temperatures and …

CBS News reports: Emergency responders evacuated a JetBlue flight at JFK International Airport in New York City as a result of a small fire in a passenger’s laptop on Saturday evening, officials said. Officials from the FAA, JetBlue and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said the aircraft was taxing to a gate at Terminal 5 when …

Via press release from West Point: Long Gray Line Teammates and the West Point Community: During the holiday break, we will begin a multi-phased process, in accordance with Department of Defense (DoD) directives, to remove, rename or modify assets and real property at the United States Military Academy (USMA) and West Point installation that commemorate or memorialize the Confederacy or …

Reuters reports: An arctic blast that has gripped much of the United States this week, disrupting daily life and holiday travel for millions of Americans, was expected to produce the coldest Christmas Eve on record in many cities. Temperatures are forecast to top out on Friday at just 8 degrees Fahrenheit (-13 Celsius) in Pittsburgh, surpassing its previous all-time coldest …