The last time New York City faced the cold it’s facing today, Grover Cleveland occupied the Oval Office, Utah was admitted as the 45th state, and the first modern Olympic Games were held in Athens, Greece.
Central Park in New York registered 4 degrees Tuesday morning passing the previous record of 6 degrees. The temperature on Tuesday was 50 degrees lower than Monday.
Wind chills throughout New York will remain well below zero throughout the next two days.
The weather in New York was so cold that Amtrak had to suspend service because their signals stopped working due to the cold weather.
Other record lows were set throughout the country. Chicago broke a record with -16 degrees, Fort Wayne, Indiana saw -13 degrees. Multiple towns in Oklahoma and Texas reported record lows along with wind chills passing -40 degrees.
A massive winter storm that has brought snow over New England for the last 36 hours will end up dumping as much as 30 inches of snow in parts of Boston.
The storm has also brought temperatures in the dangerous range.
Most communities across the northeast are reporting temperatures that are topping out in the single digits above zero with wind chills significantly below zero.
New York City told residents to stay home until the storm ends. Meteorologists with the National Weather Service said the wind chill through the northeast corridor is so low that exposed skin could start to freeze in 15 minutes.
School districts across the region were closed to keep children safe.
Officials believe that temperatures will rise into the 40s on Sunday with rain helping to clear roads.
A New York police officer is being hailed after literally giving the shirt off his back.
Officer Carlos Ramos, a member of the NYPD transit bureau’s anti-terrorism unit, was searching for suspicious packages or activity in Manhattan when he found a homeless man shivering and ripping up his T-shirt to wrap his bare feet.
The man, Robert William, had gotten his boots wet on a morning with temperatures well below freezing.
Ramos took off his sweatshirt and handed it to the man so he could warm up. Police officials say it’s not the first time the 29-year-old has taken extra steps to help those in need in the community.
“I’ve helped out other people, especially when it’s cold,” Officer Ramos told the New York Daily News. “A nice cup of coffee, a tea, whatever seems appropriate… always wanted to help those that need help, protect the city, protect the country.”
A new report in the New York Times says that homeless children in New York City have reached the highest level since the Great Depression.
The report shows a pattern in New York of rents rising while low-income wages such as jobs with fast food restaurants have stagnated making it impossible for many one-parent families to be able to afford a place to live.
However, at least two-thirds of the homeless children in New York do not have a working parent in their family and many of those children have parents addicted to drugs or alcohol.
The waiting list for public housing in the city has close to 250,000 people according to the Times report. The number of poor in the city has risen to the level that almost half of those in the city are living at or below the poverty line.
New York is not the only city dealing with a problem concerning homeless children. The United States is has the second highest rate of child poverty in any developed nation, behind only Romania.
Two more victims of the knockout game were reported to police as a New York official admitted the attacks are happening primarily to Jewish residents.
Eli Leidner, a 26-year-old Hasidic Jew, was attacked at 10:40 p.m. in the Williamsburg neighborhood of New York by a woman who ran up and sucker punched him. The woman then stood laughing as Leidner lay on the floor.
Leidner told police that two people came at him but only the woman struck him in the face.
While police officials are loathe to acknowledge the knockout game officially, some New York officials are at least admitting a pattern of assaults. New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind said he could see a connection in the attacks.
“It seems clear that overwhelmingly here in New York the victims have been Jewish, there’s no question about that,’ Hikind told New York radio station WCBS. ‘You have New Yorkers who are afraid to walk the streets, afraid to let their kids walk the in streets because you don’t know who the next victim is going to be.”
Meanwhile, a 63-year-old Philadelphia man was beaten by a group of four black youths according to a witness. She said that the gang attacked the man out of nowhere, knocked him to the ground with a punch to the head and cheered while two of the youths recorded the attack on their cell phones.
The man was hospitalized with head and chest injuries.
On November 13th, we reported in a story called Knock Out The Jew about Jewish residents in New York City being attacked over the previous months by gangs who attempted to knock out their victims with a single punch. A local rabbi said they were playing a “knockout game.”
Now, police in other northeastern cities are reporting that the “game” has made its way to their communities.
At least three knockout attacks have taken place in the Philadelphia area. Police in Lower Merion Township say two attacks took place in their jurisdiction. Philadelphia police detectives confirmed one attack taking place within the city.
Victim Mark Cumberland told CBS he is still suffering from blurred vision and having trouble breathing from the attack on November 11th. He was walking out of a pizza shop when he was attacked.
Two teens were arrested for attacking an elderly man on October 29th. Lower Marion police say the teens walked up to a 63-year-old man and just punched him in the mouth.
Police in Washington, D.C. confirm at least two attacks they believe to be “knockout game” incidents. In one attack, a woman riding a bike was punched in the nose and knocked to the ground.
The NYPD is investigating a series of attacks on Jews in Brooklyn which they speculate is part of a sick game called “Knock Out The Jew.”
Police have not officially connected the series of assaults but have released a video showing a group attacking a Jewish man. The video shows different angles of the man being beaten.
A witness told CBS New York that a gang beat his 12-year-old son while he was wearing traditional Jewish attire on a street. The gang then began to cheer, “we got him” as he fell to the ground after being repeatedly struck in the face.
Rabbi Yaacov Behrman said that the game is being played by gangs of African-American teens.
In addition to the assaults, several synagogues have been vandalized.
The NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating the attacks.
Newly elected New York Mayor Bill de Blasio says that he is going to target pro-life crisis pregnancy centers saying they are “sham” centers because they do not kill babies via abortion.
De Blasio also promised to partner with Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers to expand services and increase the number of abortions taking place in New York City.
He even said that he would offer city sponsored space for abortionists to open clinics.
De Blasio also said he would continue to appeal a court order striking down a law aimed at driving any pregnancy care center out of the city. He said if the appeal fails, he will create new laws aimed at preventing any center that does not provide abortions as being a legitimate health care provider.
He also said all doctors in the city will be forced to perform abortions as part of their training and will not be allowed to object on religious grounds.
Businesses in New York City remain unconcerned after a global terror alert was issued by the State Department on Friday. They believe that the threats will not keep tourists from visiting the city.
The alerts stated “al Qaeda operatives may focus efforts to conduct attacks in the coming weeks.” However, the alert did not mention that New York City faced a direct threat. Continue reading →
New York City was hit by rains so heavy that it caused flash flooding across the metro area.
The morning commute was severely hampered as many roads were too flooded to be passed by motorists. Manhattan, Staten Island, Brooklyn and Hudson County in New Jersey were all hit by the flash flooding. Continue reading →