Week in Pictures for Feb. 28

Slide Show

A slide show of photographs of the past week in New York City and the region includes a cemetery on Staten Island, a new PATH station platform at the World Trade Center hub, and a memorial for Ukrainian protesters in the East Village.

This weekend on “The New York Times Close Up,” an inside look at the most compelling articles in Sunday’s Times, Sam Roberts will speak with The Times’s Bill Keller, Anthony Tommasini, Al Baker and Eleanor Randolph; and the lawyer James Goodale. Tune in at 10 p.m. Saturday or 10 a.m. Sunday on NY1 News to watch.

Read current New York headlines and follow us on Twitter.

Big Ticket | Cityscape Views for $12 Million

Marilynn K. Yee/The New York Times Built in 1940, 737 Park Avenue was recently reimagined for the 21st century.

A sponsor unit at 737 Park Avenue, an Art Deco-style brick-and-limestone apartment building acquired by Macklowe Properties and the CIM Group in 2011 and since converted to 60 luxury condominiums, sold for $12,057,366.08 and was the most expensive sale of the week, according to city records. The monthly carrying costs are $6,720.68.

Built in 1940 from a design by the architect Sylvan Bien and reimagined for the 21st century on a grand scale by Handel Architects, 737 Park Avenue dominates the northeast corner of the avenue at East 71st Street. The updates include new casement windows and white oak floors. There are Miele appliances and marble floors and countertops in the windowed kitchens, and heated Italian marble floors in the master baths.

The new owners of No. 15A, a three-bedroom four-bath residence with cityscape views, are Glen and Lynn Tobias of Scarsdale. N.Y. Mr. Tobias, an investor, has been a senior adviser to Behrman Capital, a private stock fund, and is a former national chairman of the Anti-Defamation League. Serena Boardman of Sotheby’s International Realty represented the buyers; Jarrett White, a Macklowe sales director, handled the sale for the sponsor.

Another sponsor unit, this one a full-floor apartment at One Madison, on the southeast corner of Madison Square Park, sold for $11,709,875 and was the week’s runner-up. The media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, in search of a post-divorce bachelor pad, caused a stir at One Madison by recently contracting to buy the unfinished triplex penthouse and the three-bedroom unit below it on the 57th floor for an aggregate $57.25 million. Other buyers of note at the building are the Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bündchen and her husband, Tom Brady, the quarterback for the New England Patriots, who paid $14 million for their Manhattan pied-à-terre.

From its perch on the 48th floor, the four-bedroom four-and-a-half bath condo that was recorded last week, No. 48A, will have “cinematic views” (an offering plan descriptor) of the city similar to those Mr. Murdoch will enjoy. Panoramic vistas are a major selling point at the slender 60-story glass tower that was rescued from fiscal meltdown limbo by the Related Companies, CIM, and the HFZ Capital Group. The monthly carrying costs for the 3,310-square-foot apartment are $7,884.

Leslie Wilson, a senior vice president of Related sales and the director of sales for One Madison, represented the sponsor. The buyer used a limited liability company name, One Madison. According to Ms. Wilson, One Madison is “75 percent sold with just eight units remaining.”

“With a billionaire of Rupert Murdoch’s stature buying in a downtown building like this one, it speaks to the confidence buyers have in both the product and the location,” she said.

Big Ticket includes closed sales from the previous week, ending Wednesday.

A version of this article appears in print on 03/02/2014, on page RE2 of the NewYork edition with the headline: Cityscape Views.

New York Today: Seeking the Homeless

Spencer Platt/Getty Images Helping those in need.

Good ice-cold Friday to you. It is 10 degrees with a wind chill of minus 2.

And more snow is coming.

This winter has been one of the 20 coldest on record in New York City, and there are many people without homes.

On Tuesday, the city updated its count of the homeless in shelters: 52,261 (29,747 adults and 22,514 children).

And, at last count, the number of homeless people on the streets and subways was 3,180, officials said.

The annual, four-weekend program, “Don’t Walk By,” which ends this weekend, sends volunteers to walk every block of Manhattan, engaging the homeless.

Those who want a hot meal are shuttled by van to a church, where they can meet with social workers and medical professionals.

In the last three weekends, volunteers talked to 652 homeless people; 477 agreed to a meal.

“For folks on the street, this has been one of the toughest winters in memory,” said James Winans, of the Bowery Mission, one of five organizations behind the walk.

Many days this winter, the mission has hosted as many as 300 people for meals and 200 overnight.

“We’ve never seen numbers like that,” Mr. Winans said. “After Sandy we had 160 staying overnight, and we thought that was a lot.”

Here’s what else you need to know for Friday and the weekend.

WEATHER

Penetrating, head-down cold. High of 18, with wind chills in the single digits and ample, pointless sunshine.

A day of respite tomorrow, with a high of 35 (only 10 degrees below normal).

Then: snow, Sunday into Monday, potentially eight inches or more.

COMMUTE

Subways: Delays on southbound 2 and 3. Check latest status.

Rails: L.I.R.R. Montauk Branch suspended between Patchogue and Babylon. Check L.I.R.R., Metro-North or N.J. Transit status.

Roads: Check traffic map or radio report on the 1s or the 8s.

Alternate-side parking is in effect.

Weekend Travel Hassles: Check subway disruptions or list of street closings.

COMING UP TODAY

- The City Council takes up a proposal to hang a historical sign on Wall Street at the site of an 18th-century slave market. 10 a.m.

- Mayor de Blasio speaks at the police promotion ceremony at 11 a.m.

- Students in East Harlem release balloons at 2:30 p.m. on the second anniversary of the death of a first grader hit by a truck on his way to school.

- Theater on skates at Bryant Park: “Fire & Ice: The Rise & Fall of the Norse Gods,” with the Frozen Feet Theater. 1 p.m. [Free]

- A nighttime gallery tour of Bushwick, “Beat Nite,” followed by a big after-party. 6 p.m. onward. [Free]

-”Blacks in Experimental Film” features clips and shorts going back to 1914, at Maysles Cinema in Harlem. 8 p.m. [$10]

- For more events, see The New York Times Arts & Entertainment guide.

IN THE NEWS

- A Roman sculpture of a reclining woman, stored in a Queens warehouse, may have been looted from Italy decades ago. Federal agents are seizing it. [New York Times]

- Before the George Washington Bridge lane closings, aides to Gov. Chris Christie joked about causing traffic jams in front of the home of a prominent rabbi. [New York Times]

- The mayor may be boycotting, but Police Commissioner William Bratton plans to march in the St. Patrick’s Day parade. [Daily News]

- Threats of a school shooting made on social media prompted heightened security at three Brooklyn high schools. [PIX 11 News]

- Mayor de Blasio moved to stop three charter schools from moving into public school buildings. [New York Times]

- Scoreboard: Heat scorch Knicks, 108-82. Nets crush Nuggets, 112-89. Hockey returns: Rangers top Blackhawks, 2-1. Devils over Blue Jackets, 5-2. Islanders beat Maple Leafs in overtime, 5-4.

Joseph Burgess contributed reporting.

New York Today is a morning roundup that stays live from 6 a.m. till late morning.

What would you like to see here to start your day? Post a comment, email us at nytoday@nytimes.com or reach us via Twitter using #NYToday.

Find us on weekdays at nytoday.com.

Warmth From a Trash Can

Dear Diary:

I came to New York in the late ’60s. On cold nights in the downtown area, on street corners, you could find trash-can fires. These fires were tended by street people.

There were many trash-can fires along the Bowery; for the folks who had no place to go, these fires kept them warm and busy looking for trash, scrap lumber, cardboard boxes to feed the 50-gallon drums, with holes cut near the bottom to give draft. On icy days and nights, much like this winter, these cheery fires were ornaments of warmth, available for those who could not afford the comfort of a coffee shop or the shelter of a hotel.

By 1990 or so, those little islands of comfort disappeared from the streets and parks of Manhattan, I don’t know about the other boroughs but I’d like to think this custom continues elsewhere in New York.

Read all recent entries and our updated submissions guidelines. Reach us via email diary@nytimes.com or follow @NYTMetro on Twitter using the hashtag #MetDiary.

New York Today: Winter’s Pesky Visitors

Zach Wise for The New York Times

Good Thursday morning. The biting cold continues.

The mice have taken note.

A New York exterminator’s calendar looks something like this:

March means termites.

May, ants.

Summer months are filled, like the air, with mosquitoes.

What’s winter’s pest?

Typically, mice.

PestWorld, an advocacy group for the pest control industry, says 45 percent of mouse infestations occur during the coldest months.

They’re not looking for food, but heat.

Within kitchen stoves, for example.

So has the bitterly cold winter caused a record infestation?

Actually, no. Mouse violations in multifamily dwellings are down from the previous three winters, the city says.

Inspectors issued 3,171 violations from October through Feb. 25 of this year, versus 3,514 in the same period last year.

And 4,600 in 2012.

A mouse expert and Harvard biologist, Hopi Hoekstra, gave this explanation:

“Mice populations fluctuate from year to year,” Professor Hoekstra said. “Because it’s been especially cold, it may have resulted in poor reproduction and many natural deaths.”

Brooklyn is still the leader in mouse violations.

If you have heard something go rustle in the night, we can offer this: a richly dotted map of the pest control professionals in our city.

Tell us your mice stories in the comments, or using #NYToday on Twitter.

Here’s what else you need to know for Thursday.

WEATHER

Get out your neck tube. A cold front is creeping in this afternoon.

Windy, with a high of 32.

Snow falls here and there after lunch. Temperatures fall everywhere after dinner.

The low is 10, but it will feel like zero.

COMMUTE

Subways: Check latest status.

Rails: Check L.I.R.R., Metro-North or N.J. Transit status.

Roads: Check traffic map or radio report on the 1s or the 8s.

Alternate-side parking is in effect.

COMING UP TODAY

- Mayor de Blasio holds a black history month youth event at Gracie Mansion and visits a police station in East Harlem with Police Commissioner Bratton.

- Beatles vs. Rolling Stones: a debate. Mike Myers argues that the Beatles were better; the comic Ophira Eisenberg argues for the Stones. At the Public Library for the Performing Arts. 6 p.m. [Free]

- Self-explanatory panel name: “Beyond the Kale: Urban Agriculture and Social Justice Activism in NYC.” At the New School. 6 p.m. [Free, registration required]

- A lecture about Mary Wells, the Motown star who sang “My Guy,” at Jackie Robinson Recreation Center uptown. 6:30 p.m. [Free]

- Lorrie Moore reads from her new short-story collection “Bark” at the Union Square Barnes & Noble. 7 p.m. [Free]

- For more events, see The New York Times Arts & Entertainment guide.

IN THE NEWS

- A rookie police officer was shot in the legs after he pulled a fare-beater off a bus in Brooklyn. [New York Times]

- An old school bus brings fresh produce to parts of the Bronx where it’s hard to find. [New York Times]

- Spike Lee’s anti-gentrification rant resonated a bit in his old neighborhood of Fort Greene … [New York Times]

- .. But Errol Louis of The Daily News called baloney on Mr. Lee. [Dailly News]

- The city comptroller, Scott Stringer, is looking into allegations of price-fixing by school-lunch milk suppliers. [Fox 5 New York]

- Scoreboard: Blazers shred Nets, 120-84.

Joseph Burgess and Andy Newman contributed reporting.

New York Today is a morning roundup that stays live from 6 a.m. till late morning.

What would you like to see here to start your day? Post a comment, email us at nytoday@nytimes.com or reach us via Twitter using #NYToday.

Find us on weekdays at nytoday.com.

A Pregnant Worker, Forced to Go on Unpaid Leave, Is Back on the Job

As readers of “The Working Life” column know, Floralba Fernandez Espinal was forced out of her job at a thrift store in the Bronx last month because she was pregnant and could no longer do heavy lifting.

Now, thanks to the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which took effect in January, after nearly two months without work, Ms. Fernandez is back on the job and rejoicing over her victory.

The law requires employers to make reasonable accommodations for pregnant workers, so long as those accommodations don’t cause undue hardship for the employer; Ms. Fernandez’s case was one of the first tests of the law. After several rounds of negotiations with her union representatives and lawyers, the thrift store’s management agreed to reinstate Ms. Fernandez in a light-duty capacity, which was what her obstetrician had ordered. This week, she has been pricing and hanging clothing instead of hauling heavy piles of clothing from the storeroom to the showroom as she was required to do in the past. Her employer, Unique Thrift, is a national chain of thrift shops with a store in the Kingsbridge section of the Bronx.

Unique Thrift also agreed to give Ms. Fernandez $1,088 in back pay, to maintain her level of seniority at the company and to comply with all of the requirements of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, her lawyers said.

Ms. Fernandez, who earns $8 an hour and has worked at Unique Thrift for about two years, desperately needs the back pay, her union representatives said. During her time out of work, she struggled to pay her bills. Ms. Fernandez, who is 22 and four and a half months pregnant, had to borrow money from her family to buy groceries, and her boyfriend, a livery taxi driver, worked double shifts to help pay rent and utilities.

Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, which represented Ms. Fernandez, praised her for “the courage to pursue her rights.”

Dina Bakst, co-president of a Better Balance, a legal advocacy group, represented Ms. Fernandez along with Larry Cary in the negotiations with Unique Thrift. She said she hoped that Ms. Fernandez’s victory “will give other pregnant women in New York City, especially those in low wage and physically demanding jobs, the courage to stand up for what they need to stay healthy and on the job.”

In a statement, Unique Thrift’s management declined to discuss the specifics of Ms. Fernandez’s case, but said the company “has had, and will continue to have, many pregnant employees on its active work force.”

New York Today: Bundle Up, It’s Almost March

Damon Winter/The New York Times Anorak, check.

Good Wednesday morning to you.

It is 27 degrees.

Here’s something odd: In 67 hours, it will be March.

Days are lengthening â€" there is as much light now as there is in mid-October.

The sun inches higher in the sky.

But the thermometer still seems convinced that it’s mid-January.

Temperatures for the next seven days will average about 12 degrees below normal â€" just below freezing during the day, down to 20 at night.

That would actually be well below normal in mid-January.

Oh, and it will also snow this morning.

Just a puff â€" probably less than an inch.

The cold, though, is not going away.

This afternoon, the mercury might nudge 30 for a moment, like a strong-man bell rung by a weak man.

But even as the temperature creeps up, so will the wind.

Wind chills will lurk in the teens all day and night, down to the single digits by tomorrow morning as the temperature drops to 15.

By Friday morning, the wind chill will be back in minus-land.

The normal high temperature for this time of year is 45.

It is not in the forecast any time soon.

Enough statistics. Here’s the advisory: Pull down your ear flaps.

And here’s what else is happening.

COMMUTE

Subways: Check latest status.

Rails: Check L.I.R.R., Metro-North or N.J. Transit status.

Roads: Check traffic map or radio report on the 1s or the 8s.

Alternate-side parking is suspended “to facilitate the winter weather response.”

COMING UP TODAY

- The Olympic ice-dancing champions Meryl Davis and Charlie White skate at Rockefeller Center at 8:30 a.m.

- A flash mob featuring the mayor’s Office to Combat Domestic Violence will dance, shout and otherwise rise up to “promote healthy relationships” at the ferry terminal in Staten Island at 7 a.m.

- Mayor de Blasio is having some New Yorkers over to Gracie Mansion tonight to talk about the importance of universal pre-K and after-school programs.

- There’s more to DNA than life. A chemist shows how DNA can be used on a nanoscale to produce objects, crystals and nanodevices, at New York University. 4:30 p.m. [Free]

- “Ask a Native New Yorker”: the author of that Gothamist column, Jake Dobkin, joins NY1’s Pat Kiernan at the Brooklyn Historical Society. 6:30 p.m. [$5]

- Imam Shamsi Ali and Rabbi Marc Schneier talk about the issues dividing and uniting Jews and Muslims, the subject of their book “Sons of Abraham,” at Barnes & Noble on 82nd and Broadway. 7 p.m. [Free]

- Elijah Wood talks about his soon-to-open film “Grand Piano” at the Film Society Lincoln Center. 6:30 p.m. [Free, arrive one hour early]

- Rosie Perez discusses her memoir, “Handbook for an Unpredictable Life: How I Survived Sister Renata and My Crazy Mother and Still Came Out Smiling (With Great Hair),” at St. Joseph’s College in Brooklyn. 7:30 p.m. [Free, R.S.V.P.]

- A show of new art exploring the legacy of Freud and his Austrian peers, “Vienna Complex,” opens at Austrian Cultural Forum New York on the East Side. 6 p.m. [Free]

- A philosopher, Zev Adams, muses on the subjective experience of color and what it means, at the Brooklyn Public Library. 7 p.m. [Free]

- For more events, see The New York Times Arts & Entertainment guide.

IN THE NEWS

- Spike Lee, multimillionaire resident of the Upper East Side, went on a rant against the gentrification of his native Brooklyn in a speech last night. [Daily News]

- A toxicologist took the stand in Kerry Kennedy’s defense at her driving-while-on-sleeping-pills trial. [New York Times]

Joseph Burgess contributed reporting.

New York Today is a morning roundup that stays live from 6 a.m. till late morning.

What would you like to see here to start your day? Post a comment, email us at nytoday@nytimes.com or reach us via Twitter using #NYToday.

Find us on weekdays at nytoday.com.

Imperfect Already?

Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times The first PATH station platform at the developing World Trade Center hub, for riders to Hoboken, N.J., opened on Tuesday.

Cartoons in the Elevator

Dear Diary:

Every Tuesday and Thursday morning, I swim at a pool on the glass-domed top floor of Le Parker Meridien Hotel, on 57th Street near Seventh Avenue. The hotel caters mostly to businessmen.

The elevators house small rectangular TV screens above the inner doors that show old silent movies of either Tom and Jerry cartoons or Charlie Chaplin.

One morning while I was waiting for the elevator to go up to the pool, the elevator door opened to reveal a businessman, attaché case in hand, looking up at the television screen.

Before I entered, I reminded him that he had reached the lobby level.

He pointed to the television screen and replied, “I have to find out what happens at the end of the cartoon.”

We rode up together.

Read all recent entries and our updated submissions guidelines. Reach us via email diary@nytimes.com or follow @NYTMetro on Twitter using the hashtag #MetDiary.

Share Your Stories of Street Harassment in New York City

Let’s consider this the beginning of what we hope will be a continuing conversation.

For a coming series of articles and first-person accounts, City Room would like to hear your stories of street harassment and subway harassment.

How has harassment or the fear of harassment affected your life in New York City? Please share your stories in the comments.

Some questions to consider as you write:

How safe do you feel in New York City? Have you been harassed, and how do you define harassment? Does it occur often? How have you dealt with this? Whom did you talk to about it, if anyone? What questions do you have about safety? How have safety concerns changed how you navigate the city?

If you are uncomfortable with posting your story here, please share your experiences with us at metro@nytimes.com.

We will follow up with you shortly if we select you as a potential interview participant.

You can read one Brooklyn woman’s story here.

New York Today: The Parking Dance

Yana Paskova for The New York Times Move the car.

Good Monday morning. Cold weather is returning.

And so is a time-honored New York City ritual.

The snow is mostly gone.

The trash is mostly gone.

If you own a car, it is, probably, no longer entombed by frozen muck.

Now you get to move it.

After 22 days of grace, the city’s alternate-side parking rules are back in effect.

Drivers will search for a legal spot or do their little double-parking dance.

And the bristles of the street sweeper and the blades of the plow shall try to scour the pavement of a winter’s worth of grime.

(For those unfamiliar: the law requires street parking spots to be vacated for an hour or two one or two days a week for street cleaning. Our colleague Winnie Hu explains it all this morning.)

Twenty-two days is a lot, but nowhere near the record of 62 days in the winter of 1978.

Still, the city seems to have gotten a little impatient.

Agents issued a flurry of tickets in the Bronx last week to cars parked at an angle to the curb â€" even in some cases where the curb was blocked off by hillocks of ice crust.

Perhaps it had something to do with revenue.

The city, after all, issues an estimated $270,000 a day worth of tickets for alternate-side violations.

This year, alternate-side rules have been suspended on 28 of the 42 days they would normally be in effect.

That’s $7.6 million to make up.

Here’s what else you need to know.

WEATHER

It will only get colder â€" about 40 degrees now, down to 34 this afternoon and 21 tonight. A sunny day, though.

A flurry may fall tomorrow night, but not much more.

COMMUTE

Subways: Check latest status.

Rails: Check L.I.R.R., Metro-North or N.J. Transit status.

Roads: Check traffic map or radio report on the 1s or the 8s.

COMING UP TODAY

- Mayor de Blasio is on the “Today” at 8 a.m. to cut a ribbon on Rockefeller Plaza renovations â€" and to make peace with Al Roker, who blasted the mayor’s decision to open schools when it snowed a foot.

- The mayor also meets with the Staten Island borough president, James Oddo, about Hurricane Sandy recovery.

- The City Council’s transportation committee holds a hearing on Mr. de Blasio’s set of traffic safety proposals at 10 a.m.

- One of two New York State residents to win a medal at Sochi, the luger Erin Hamlin, visits the Empire State Building (but does not sled down). 3:15 p.m.

- Cool but very expensive: Robert De Niro and Chazz Palminteri field questions after a 20th-anniversary screening of “A Bronx Tale” at Village East Cinemas, to benefit the TriBeCa Film Institute. 7 p.m. [$250]

- For more events, see The New York Times Arts & Entertainment guide.

Joseph Burgess contributed reporting.

New York Today is a morning roundup that stays live from 6 a.m. till late morning.

What would you like to see here to start your day? Post a comment, email us at nytoday@nytimes.com or reach us via Twitter using #NYToday.

Find us on weekdays at nytoday.com.

Subway Show Time Confession

Victor Kerlow

Dear Diary:

I know that, as a native New Yorker, I’m not supposed to look as if I’m actively enjoying any of the performances on the subway. And for the most part, I can appear apathetic when a full mariachi band or a man playing Kesha songs on a kazoo boards the downtown R train during my commute.

But there is a certain time when I just can’t act nonchalant. They call it “show time.” And I can’t get enough of it.

Nimble teenagers throw themselves through the air of my narrow subway car, using only the train poles and their upper body strength to entertain passengers. The uncertainty of whether they’ll hit one of the riders in the head during their act so wrongly thrills me.

Recently during show time, one of the performers hung upside down from his knees on the long horizontal pole above a row of seats, held his fist out to each passenger and asked them to “pound it” as he made his way down the line of seated commuters, one by one. All eight subway riders gave in. Three of them even cracked a smile. I was one of them.

Read all recent entries and our updated submissions guidelines. Reach us via email diary@nytimes.com or follow @NYTMetro on Twitter using the hashtag #MetDiary.

A Sharp-Eyed Squirrel, Leaping Into the Darkness

Animals Animals/Earth Scenes The flying squirrel does not actually fly â€" it glides.

Few of us ever get a good view of a flying squirrel, but then again, not many of us know they truly exist. Not unlike its cartoon depiction, as the brainy, be-goggled sidekick of Bullwinkle the Moose, the Southern flying squirrel is an impressively well-adapted resident of New York City. With a preference for older beech and oak woods, these squirrels are primarily nocturnal. An uncommon habitat and our very urban instinct to avoid late-night walks through obscure woodlands make finding one a deliberate effort.

The flying squirrel (Glaucomys volans) does not actually fly â€" it glides. When a squirrel leaps from its perch in a tall tree, it spreads its limbs, stretching out its two patagia (thick, furred membranes that extend from its wrists to its ankles). In this way, a squirrel less than 10 inches long (including a tail almost half that length) can, in a single bound, cover 150 feet or more, gliding through the treetops effortlessly.

A nighttime jump through a dense canopy of leaves and branches requires keen senses, and the squirrel is suitably equipped. The enormous, soft brown eyes that make them so irresistible to humans are actually a significant part of the squirrels’ survival strategy. A squirrel triangulates with movements of its head before making its longest leaps, suggesting an advanced spatial sense.

The squirrels are also equipped with some of the longest whiskers in the squirrel world. These long vibrissae point forward in flight, assisting in the navigation of the tight spaces among leaves and branches. The whiskers are also useful for negotiating small crevices and nesting cavities, where little or no light ever shines.

The squirrel’s flattened tail is more accurately described as a counterbalance than a rudder, and can break away, like the tails of some lizards and salamanders. An attacking predator may be left holding only a piece of writhing tail, rather than a tasty squirrel meal, if it grabs it at the wrong spot. Unfortunately, unlike lizards and salamanders, a flying squirrel cannot grow its tail back; it simply adapts to its loss.

It is hard to say how many flying squirrels populate New York City’s five boroughs, but surveys by the parks department in conjunction with universities and environmental groups have identified the tiny squirrels in Forest Park and Alley Pond Park in Queens. Inwood Hill Park in Manhattan also has a verified population, as do Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx and Blue Heron Park on Staten Island. Squirrels may also glide through Pelham Bay Park’s older woods, and any of several of Staten Island’s older forests.

Flying squirrels eat a wide variety of foods, from acorns and beech nuts to fruit, mushrooms and even eggs or nestling birds. But as a general rule, they are drawn to open water, so finding woodlands near a source of fresh water is often critical to finding a flying squirrel.

Commissioner Bratton on a Threat to Pedestrians

Dear Diary:

During two weeks in January there were three pedestrian fatalities in our Upper West Side neighborhood, around 96th and Broadway. Friends and family have been warning each other, talking solutions and hoping for police action.

On the day following one of the incidents â€" a young medical student was fatally hit on 96th Street â€" I crossed Broadway and spotted Police Commissioner William J. Bratton standing on the sidewalk conferring with what looked like top police brass. I didn’t want to miss the opportunity.

“Congratulations on your appointment, Commissioner,” I said, offering my hand. “Welcome to New York. How about some speed bumps on Broadway?”

“Speed bumps?” he replied. “What we need are trenches.”

I’m glad to see we have someone who is thinking outside the box.

Read all recent entries and our updated submissions guidelines. Reach us via email diary@nytimes.com or follow @NYTMetro on Twitter using the hashtag #MetDiary.

New York Today: Winter Interruptus

Richard Perry/The New York Times

Good Friday morning to you.

Winter is taking a brief winter break.

First comes the fog and the mist, as warm air drags its tendrils over the snow pack.

Later this morning: rain, maybe thunder.

But bear with this crazy weather.

Tomorrow comes a perfect, sunny Saturday, the likes of which we not been seen in, well, a long time.

And as the snow melts, who knows what it might reveal.

Some very old trash, sure.

But also grass.

Crocuses and snowdrops, said the urban ecologist Marielle Anzelone.

Maybe even mushrooms.

Tomorrow morning, the New York Mycological Society will fan out across Central Park.

“If we find any mushrooms at all it will be a success,” said Gary Lincoff, the mushroom master leading the walk.

“People were so antsy about this winter not ever ending that we figured, ‘Let’s just go out,’” he said.

New York Botanical Garden Witch hazel blooms at the New York Botanical Garden.

They’re hoping for oyster mushrooms on a tree trunk. In winter, Mr. Lincoff said, “They’re firmer and they have a better texture and a better flavor.”

The group will meet at 11 a.m. at Central Park West and 106th Street. You are free to join.

Mushrooms or no, the last couple of days have already nudged the season forward:

At the New York Botanical Garden, a witch hazel tree has thrust forth its yellow blossoms. Outdoors.

Today’s high: 50 degrees. Tomorrow’s: 53. Sunday’s not looking too bad either.

Enjoy it. It’s back to the deep freeze by Monday night.

Here’s what else you need to know.

COMMUTE

Subways: Check latest status.

Rails: Check L.I.R.R., Metro-North or N.J. Transit status.

Roads: Look out for ponding. Check traffic map or radio report on the 1s or the 8s.

Alternate-side parking is suspended. Meters are in effect.

Weekend Travel Hassles: Check subway disruptions or list of street closings.

COMING UP TODAY

- Mayor de Blasio and Public Advocate Letitia James talk about a plan to save Long Island College Hospital in Brooklyn. City Hall, 3:45 p.m.

- The mayor will also announce that the city is removing hundreds of children from homeless shelters because of bad conditions. The children include Dasani, the subject of articles in The Times.

- A room-size depiction of the Grand Canyon is on display in Times Square near Broadway and 42nd to promote a Smithsonian Channel show, “Aerial America.”

- The suitably heroic Italian Futurism show opens at the Guggenheim. “Epic,” says Roberta Smith of The Times. [$22]

- A show of woodcut illustrations in books from 1890 to 1935 opens at the Morgan Library. [$18]

- The Greenwich Village Antiquarian Book Fair opens and runs through Sunday, at P.S. 3 on Hudson Street. 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Longer hours on weekend. [$12 today, $8 Saturday, $4 Sunday]

- Kids Week at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum continues. Today’s theme is “Ports of Call.” [$28 and up]

- For lots more activities for children, see The Times’s Spare Times listings.

- For more events, see The New York Times Arts & Entertainment guide.

IN THE NEWS

- Cameras filmed the mayor’s chauffeured car speeding and running stop signs, days after he announced a safe-streets crackdown. The police said security concerns sometimes required such “techniques.” [CBS 2 New York]

- A man framed for murder by a rogue Brooklyn detective 23 years ago will get $6.4 million from the city. [New York Times]

- The leader of a Bronx gang that lured a gay man to an apartment in 2010, and then beat and tortured him for hours, will be sentenced to 14 years in prison. [New York Times]

- Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey got a chilly reception at his first town hall meeting since the bridge scandal broke. [New York Times]

- At 83, Jasper Johns will show new work at the Museum of Modern Art next month. [Gothamist]

- Members-only bathrooms, complete with showers, are coming to Midtown. Price: $24 for three days. [New York Post]

- New zoo baby: a painfully cute tamandua â€" that’s a kind of anteater â€" at the Staten Island Zoo. [Zooborns]

THE WEEKEND

Saturday

- Spot a soaring bald eagle before brunch on a guided bird walk at Inwood Hill Park. 9 a.m. [Free].

- Or hike the Siwanoy trail with an Urban Park Ranger in the Bronx. 11 a.m. [Free, R.S.V.P.]

- The two-day BAMkids Film Festival kicks off with an animated feature about Inuit nomads, “The Legend of Sarila,” and more. [$13 for adults, $9 for kids]

- “Batchery,” a market for artisan packaged food, pops up in Bushwick with customizable cookies and the like. 12 p.m.

- Artists, mainly, reflect on e-cigarettes and “what it means to ‘vape’,” at the New Museum. 3 p.m. [$10]

- Final weekend for the Jean Paul Gaultier exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum. Go for Nana, the teddy bear he outfitted with breasts when he was 5. [$12]

Sunday

- Happy Birthday, Mr. First President. A scavenger hunt, book reading, and opportunity to don colonial costume at the Morris-Jumel Mansion in Washington Heights. 11 a.m. [Free]

- Ballet, revealed: A talk for kids, with dancers from the School of American Ballet on hand to plié, at the Queens Theater. 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. [Free, R.S.V.P.]

- Mad as hell men: A screening of “Network” at the Museum of the Moving Image, with a talk by Dave Itzkoff, a Times reporter who wrote a book about the making of the film. 2 p.m. [$15]

- Last day for the “The Armory Show at 100: Modern Art and Revolution.” [$18]

Joseph Burgess contributed reporting.

New York Today is a morning roundup that stays live from 6 a.m. till late morning.

What would you like to see here to start your day? Post a comment, email us at nytoday@nytimes.com or reach us via Twitter using #NYToday.

Find us on weekdays at nytoday.com.

Wall Street: Working for the Weekend or Through It?

Last month, Bank of America Merrill Lynch told its junior bankers to take four days off a month, on the weekends. Credit Suisse discouraged its analysts and associates from working on Saturdays. Last year, Goldman Sachs recommended that its analysts take weekends off whenever possible.

Wall Street’s move to rethink the workload of interns and junior bankers, known as analysts and associates, comes after the death of an intern at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in London last summer. But old habits are hard to change, particularly in an industry where an intense work schedule can be a badge of honor.

Do you work on Wall Street as an analyst? Are you taking work-free weekends out of town? Or toiling as hard as ever? I would like to hear from you about how this transition is going, and how you are spending your new-found free time (if you have it). Please leave your comment below. I may follow up with select commenters for interviews.

You may also email me at swarns@nytimes.com. Thank you, I look forward to hearing your stories.

When a Wig Parts Ways With Its Scalp

Dear Diary:

The streets of Manhattan seem to grow more jam-packed with every passing day. It was raining heavily as I exited Saks one recent afternoon and the crowds were dense.

As an observant Jewish woman, I’ve worn a wig since my marriage - and wigs don’t take kindly to rain. I opened my umbrella, taking care not to gouge passers-by. I was heading uptown when I had an odd sensation: I felt the bangs that usually cover my forehead rise above my brows and beyond. There was a tugging of my scalp, and then a breeze. Yikes! My wig and I had parted company.

A tall, well-dressed gentleman going in the opposite direction had inadvertently hooked his umbrella into the mesh netting of the wig. Unaware that my “head” was dangling precariously from the spokes of his umbrella, he strode onward.

At first I stood frozen, watching my custom-made wig recede in the distance. Then I sprang into action and took off in his direction, determined to recapture my head before it fell into a puddle and was trampled underfoot. He was moving quickly but caught a red light at the corner. I tapped him on the shoulder, and pointed to my wig.

Read all recent entries and our updated submissions guidelines. Reach us via email diary@nytimes.com or follow @NYTMetro on Twitter using the hashtag #MetDiary.

New York Today: Chasing Garbage

John Moore/Getty Images Everything must go.

Updated 10:03 a.m.

Good Thursday morning to you.

The warming weather has brought back something we’ve all been missing.

That bumping, wheezing sound outside the window, more welcome than Santa’s sleigh bells.

It’s the garbage trucks, making their triumphal post-snow return.

Many New Yorkers complained it took far too long.

But the Department of Sanitation’s resident anthropologist, Robin Nagle, counseled patience.

“It’s an expected stage in a snowstorm,” she said. “The snow is the first half. The second half is ‘chasing garbage,’ ” she said.

That’s what the rank and file call catching up on backlogged trash.

About 24 million pounds are picked up in the city on a normal day.

A backlog of 10 days â€" it’s been more in some parts of the city, less in others â€" would mean 240 million pounds.

Dr. Nagle has chased garbage with workers after snowstorms before.

“Each pile was snowed on, frozen and shot through with dog waste,” she said. “The bags on the bottom, you had to kick them to loosen them because they were frozen to the ground.”

Dr. Nagle urged New Yorkers not to expect perfection. “It will be hard to do a ‘Tiffany,’” she said.

That’s when workers leave a curb spotless, as if swept and tidied.

She offered practical tips to help speed the chase.

Sweep snow off the bags.

Move trash to where workers can more easily get to it.

And curb your dog. A crowded pile is no excuse for an improper pee.

Here’s what else you need to know.

WEATHER

Another mild, increasingly sunny day, with a high of 49. No daytime rain, though it may drizzle tonight.

But streets are slushy. So may we suggest pairing your lighter coat with the same old salty boots.

COMMUTE

Subways: Check latest status.

Rails: Check L.I.R.R., Metro-North or N.J. Transit status.

Roads: Check traffic map or radio report on the 1s or the 8s.

Alternate-side parking is suspended through Saturday.

COMING UP TODAY

- Michelle Obama is in town. She attends a private Democratic National Committee fund-raiser and tapes “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.”

- The first lady will also check out the New Museum‘s “Taking Back the Streets” exhibit. That’s the indoor version of a street art show sponsored by the bottled water brand WAT-AAH! that sends kids “new messages about healthy hydration.”

- Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey travels to Middletown for his first town hall meeting - postponed twice because of snowstorms - since the scandal over lane closings broke out. The subject: Hurricane Sandy relief aid. 11 a.m.

- If your child was born in 2009, today is the deadline to register for kindergarten.

- How is the Bronx doing? Find out when Borough President Rubén Díaz Jr. delivers his State of the Borough address at 11:30 a.m.

- Mayor de Blasio makes an announcement at a street corner in Middle Village, Queens, at 11:30 a.m.

- Never too late for love. Stymied by snow last week, United War Veterans Council volunteers load Valentine’s Day cards and gifts outside 50 Lafayette Street for delivery to a military hospital in Maryland. 11 a.m.

- The Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey circus opens at Barclays Center. 7 p.m. [$24.20 and up] …

- … While animal rights groups protest outside at 5:30 p.m.

- A panel discussion at Columbia on the topic “Methamphetamine: Fact vs. Fiction and Lessons from the Crack Hysteria.” 6 p.m. [Free]

- Fort Tryon Park rocks: Hear a lecture on the geology and history of the park at a recreation center in Washington Heights. 6:30 p.m. [Free]

- The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts presents a trivia night at Le Poisson Rouge in NoHo, hosted by the identical twin performers Le Brothers Balliett. 7:30 p.m. [Free, bring your own team]

- And our daily offering for the winter-break child-burdened: 10 things to do while school is out, courtesy of the Department of Parks and Recreation.

- For more events, see The New York Times Arts & Entertainment guide.

IN THE NEWS

- New York State has agreed to prison reforms meant to curtail solitary confinement, including prohibiting its use in disciplining minors. [New York Times]

- Junior’s, Brooklyn’s cathedral of cheesecake, is selling its space but hopes to move back in as a tenant. [Daily News]

- Income inequality is sharply higher in economically vibrant big cities, like New York, than in more moribund ones, like Columbus, Ohio, a study found. [New York Times]

- The former corrections officer who had a child with a death-row murderer she was supervising was sentenced to a year in prison. The child is named Justus. [New York Times]

- It’s illegal to pay a surrogate to carry your child in New York. But a new law seeks to change that. [New York Times]

- Snow collapsed the roof of a CVS pharmacy in the Bronx. [New York Post]

- Watch local gentrification in GIF action. [Gothamist]

- What to do when you see someone you know on the subway â€" or worse, when they see you first. [Gothamist]

- Meet Mike Kaback, a New York tour guide seeped in the city’s history and known for “pointing out everything on every street.” [Narratively]

- Scoreboard: Knicks outmuscle Pelicans, 98-91. Nets mute Jazz, 105-99.

AND FINALLY …

Goodbye, Toy Fair.

As you go about your Thursday, employees from more than a thousand toy companies will be packing up their wares at the Javits Center.

The annual expo drew some 30,000 toy professionals this week â€" and covered a record 412,000 square feet.

Large toys were trending, which may have helped.

So were zombies.

“Thanks to a rise in popularity of zombie-themed movies, television shows and video games, zombie-themed products were also extremely popular at the Toy Fair,” Crain’s reported.

May the march of the zombie action figures transpire without incident.

Joseph Burgess and Andy Newman contributed reporting.

New York Today is a morning roundup that stays live from 6 a.m. till late morning.

What would you like to see here to start your day? Post a comment, email us at nytoday@nytimes.com or reach us via Twitter using #NYToday.

Find us on weekdays at nytoday.com.

Greek Speakers Unite

Dear Diary:

I speak Greek.

One day, I received in the mail from a linguist friend of mine a T-shirt, bright blue and proclaiming on the front, in Greek, “It’s all Greek to me.”

I lived near the Metropolitan Museum of Art at the time, so I quickly put on the shirt (it was a warm spring day) and decided to go strolling among New York’s cultural elite to see who would take note.

It didn’t take long. Almost immediately I was stopped by a cordial woman who peered at my chest and read out loud, “Eeneh ohla Ellinika ya mehna.”

I wasn’t surprised. This was, after all, New York. But I did think I detected a gentle lilt.

“Where are you from?” I asked.

She smiled warmly.

“Alabama.”

Read all recent entries and our updated submissions guidelines. Reach us via email diary@nytimes.com or follow @NYTMetro on Twitter using the hashtag #MetDiary.

New York Today: Olympian Dreams

Dita Alangkara/Associated Press John Daly, born in Queens and raised on Long Island, competed Saturday in skeleton.

Updated 5:53 a.m.

Good Wednesday to you from the Sochi Olympics, where the slopes are steep and the temperatures have hovered around 60 degrees.

Who would have thought winter in Russia would offer such a lovely break from New York City?

KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia â€" With the Winter Olympics heading toward the finish line, we thought it was time to ask a burning question: How’s New York doing?

There are 18 New Yorkers competing in Sochi, in everything from biathlon to hockey to something called Nordic Combined, which may sound more like a Brooklyn handcrafted clothing label than a winter sport.

Two have won two medals.

(Congrats, Erin Hamlin, a luger from outside Utica who won a bronze in the women’s singles, and Andrew Weibrecht, a skier from Lake Placid who won the silver in men’s super-G.)

None of the athletes live in the city, but we caught up with John Daly of Lake Placid, who was at least born in Queens.

He competed Saturday in skeleton, which involves whizzing down a frozen track head-first with your face an inch from the ice.

He finished 15th, thanks to an unusual mistake.

Daly, who grew up on Long Island, raced B.M.X. bikes as a kid. One of his favorite spots was in Brooklyn, beneath a bridge he declined to name.

“I would tell my mom I was going to a friend’s house,” he said. “Then we would take the train into the city with our bikes.”

Here’s what you need to know back in New York.

WEATHER

A fine day for muck boots:. The big melt continues, with showers during the day and a high of 44.

About a quarter-inch of rain is expected.

Then down to about freezing tonight.

Expect the same for the rest of the week: warmer, with rain.

COMMUTE

Subways: O.K. Check latest status.

Rails: Scattered delays on N.J. Transit and L.I.R.R. Check L.I.R.R., Metro-North or N.J. Transit status.

Roads:No major delays. Check traffic map or radio report on the 1s or the 8s.

Alternate-side parking is suspended all week. Meters remain in effect.

COMING UP TODAY

- New York’s attorney general, Eric Schneiderman, proposes legislation to make it easier for the wrongfully convicted to recover damages from the state. 8:45 a.m.

- Mayor de Blasio addresses the Real Estate Board of New York at 10:30 a.m. He’s on “All In with Chris Hayes” on MSNBC at 8 p.m.

- Lawmakers and advocates call for state legislation (PDF) to improve police response to emergencies involving emotionally disturbed people. City Hall steps. 11 a.m.

- Kids Week continues at the city’s parks. [Free]

- The singer Adele’s wax figure makes its U.S. debut at Madame Tussauds, to musical accompaniment. This is how she was made. 11 a.m. [$36]

- Rugelach is the cutest pastry. Make some at a workshop at the Museum at Eldridge Street on the Lower East Side. 11 a.m. [$20, R.S.V.P.]

- Then head to a discussion of the expression, “You are what you eat,” attributed to the 19th-century German philosopher Feuerbach, at New York University. 2 p.m. [Free, R.S.V.P.]

- A middleweight boxer, Lucius Benson, introduces a preview screening of “The Trials of Muhammed Ali,” at Roy Wilkins Recreation Center in Jamaica, Queens. 4 p.m. [Free, R.S.V.P.]

- “City Stages,” big black and white photographs by Matthew Pillsbury of New York and beyond, opens at Aperture Gallery in Chelsea. 7 p.m. [Free]

- “The Best of McSweeney’s Internet Tendency,” a collection from the eponymous website, is unveiled by its creators at Powerhouse Arena in Dumbo. 7 p.m. [Free, R.S.V.P]

- Justin Timberlake plays at Madison Square Garden. 8 p.m. [Tickets still available]

- For more events, see The New York Times Arts & Entertainment guide.

Joseph Burgess contributed reporting.

New York Today is a morning roundup that stays live from 6 a.m. till late morning.

What would you like to see here to start your day? Post a comment, email us at nytoday@nytimes.com or reach us via Twitter using #NYToday.

Find us on weekdays at nytoday.com.

A Loan to a Hungry Actress

Dear Diary:

After hours of pecking away at her laptop and conversing on her cellphone, the attractive woman at an Upper East Side Starbucks was packing up at closing time.

As we braced for the late January freeze, she told me she was in a jam: She had left her wallet, cash, ID, credit cards and key to her boyfriend’s flat at her home in Boston, and was weak with hunger.

I invited her for a late sandwich in a diner. She shared her story: Drama major, aspiring screenwriter. She was in New York to discuss a screenplay and to try to make her roller-coaster relationship with her boyfriend work. In Boston, she was in rehearsal for a Tennessee Williams play.

Soon enough, I was passing ten $20 bills across the table, along with my address. She thanked me profusely and assured me that the loan would be repaid. I had my doubts.

At 7 the next morning, she called. She was again at the local Starbucks and wanted to repay the loan.

I joined her. “I was glad to be helpful,” I said. “I guess things worked out with your boyfriend.”

“Not really,” she replied. “We actually broke up yesterday afternoon, but before I left him, I locked up my wallet, cash and credit cards at his apartment so that I could do that exercise last night. ”

“What exercise was that?” I asked.

“Oh, the one in which I was trying to understand what it was like to be Blanche DuBois and rely on the kindness of strangers.”

Read all recent entries and our updated submissions guidelines. Reach us via email diary@nytimes.com or follow @NYTMetro on Twitter using the hashtag #MetDiary.

New York Today: Snowstorm Number 14

Ruth Fremson/The New York Times The usual.

Updated 6:48 a.m.

Good Tuesday morning to you. It is 30 degrees.

You’ll never guess what it’s doing out there.

It is snowing.

Not a ton: two inches at most in the city, a bit more to the north and west. But it is timed perfectly to mess up the morning commute.

Here’s what’s happening:

- Many roads will be treacherous. Speed limits are reduced on the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway. Fresh snow will camouflage icy spots on sidewalks.

- The city called off alternate-side parking rules for the whole week “to facilitate refuse pickup” and the unfinished snow removal. Meters remain in effect.

- There are some delays and cancellations on the railroads. For details see “Commute” section below.

- By late morning, the snow will turn to light rain. The temperature should reach 40 degrees. The commute home could be gloppy.

- Some suburban schools are opening late. A few are closed. See list.

- After today, Mr. Snow takes an extended break.

- Temperatures will hit the 40s for the next six days. There’s rain in the forecast tomorrow through Friday, but no snow.

This seemed like a good time to take stock of our accomplishments, with help from the walking weather almanac Steve Fybish:

- This is the 14th snow event of the season. Three of them were spread out over two days, giving us 17 days of measurable snowfall.

- Since Jan. 1, at least a trace of snow has fallen on 22 days, or about once every 2.2 days.

- It has snowed 47 inches since Jan. 1. Another 0.4 inches today would be a record for most snow in the city in the first two months of the year.

- The snow depth in Central Park stands at 17 inches. There has been at least an inch of snow on the ground all month.

- The season’s total stands at 55.6 inches, making this the city’s eighth snowiest winter on record.

- This is the third fastest we have gotten to 55 inches.

Take a bow, Mr. Snow.

Here’s what else you need to know.

COMMUTE

Subways: Delays on southbound 4 and 5 trains. Check latest status.

Rails: Delays of 30 minutes on the Port Jervis Line. Some delays and cancellations on N.J. Transit. Scattered delays on L.I.R.R. Check L.I.R.R., Metro-North or N.J. Transit status.

Roads: Speed limits of 45 miles an hour on the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway. Check traffic map or radio report on the 1s or the 8s.

COMING UP TODAY

- Mayor de Blasio makes two announcements â€" at a public school on the Upper West Side at 12:15 p.m. and at City Hall at 3 p.m.

- Restaurant Week has begun. Also Off-Broadway Week and Social Media Week. What a week!

- A symposium at John Jay College on recent research about stop-and-frisk searches and changes in crime rates across the city. 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

- State Department officials take part in a panel, “Digital Diplomacy: Making Foreign Policy Less Foreign,” at the United States mission to the U.N. 2 p.m. Watch webcast.

- Looking for something to do with vacationing children? Check out the weeklong Culinary Kids Food Festival at the New York Botanical Garden. [$10 for children, $20 for adults]

- For a guide to break-week activities for kids, check out MommyPoppins.com.

- A preview screening of “Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me,” a new movie about the Broadway legend, with a Q.-and-A. with the director. At DCTV on Lafayette Street. 7 p.m. [Free]

- A screening of “Cutie and the Boxer,” the Oscar-nominated documentary about husband-and-wife artists. At BRIC in Fort Greene. 7 p.m. [Free]

- An illustrated lecture about body-snatching in old New York by Bess Lovejoy, author of “Rest in Pieces: The Curious Fates of Famous Corpses.” At Proteus Gowanus in Brooklyn. 8 p.m. [$8]

- For more events, see The New York Times Arts & Entertainment guide. Also check out The Skint, where we found several of these listings.

IN THE NEWS

- Jimmy Fallon made his official debut on the “Tonight” show, which is back in New York after 42 years. He was very nice about it. [New York Times]

- Forgetful suitor? Or just cold feet? Someone left an engagement ring in the bathroom at the Marc Anthony concert at the Barclays Center. The note on the box said it’s for Daniella. [CBS Local]

- Mammoth excavation projects for the city’s Third Water Tunnel and Second Avenue subway have been a godsend to geologists. [New York Times]

- A man was arrested for the sexual assault of a mentally disabled woman in a bathroom at Aqueduct Racetrack. [Daily News]

- The sledding has been awesome at the city’s parks. [New York Times]

Joseph Burgess contributed reporting.

New York Today is a morning roundup that stays live from 6 a.m. till late morning.

What would you like to see here to start your day? Post a comment, email us at nytoday@nytimes.com or reach us via Twitter using #NYToday.

Find us on weekdays at nytoday.com.