Connecticut Teachers Union Steps Into Schools Debate

As Connecticut lawmakers head into a February session devoted to education policy, the state’s largest teachers union on Tuesday came out with an agenda intended to shape the upcoming debate.

Connecticut Education Association, which represents more than 41,000 public school teachers, called for expanding early-childhood programs, crafting a mandatory yearly teacher evaluation process, and making changes to current tenure and dismissal rules.

The proposals in some cases overlap with Gov. Dannel Malloy’s broad outline for changing public schools, which was released last month. But there are key areas of dispute, including the scope of teacher evaluations.

Suspect Questioned in Queens Fire-Bombings

Police on Tuesday were questioning a 40-year-old man who is suspected of throwing Molotov cocktails at several buildings in Queens on Sunday, including an Islamic center and a home used for Hindu services, a law enforcement official said.

The man, who has not yet been charged, was taken into custody early Tuesday as he exited a Queens Village home. Detectives had been monitoring the home for hours after discovering a vehicle that fit the description of one used in the attacks parked outside, the official said.

It was unclear if the suspect was believed to have been responsible for a similar Molotov attack in Nassau County on Sunday evening at a private residence.

The law enforcement official said the man has nine previous arrests for a variety of crimes, including drug possession and grand larceny.

Weather Journal: A New Year Blast of Real Cold

Just two weeks away from what is historically Greater New York’s temperature nadir of the year, a brutal Arctic blast will envelop the region Tuesday. Although the thermometer will register in the teens and twenties across the five boroughs, blustery north winds will make it feel much colder, pushing wind chills down below zero. The result will be the coldest day of the season so far, drawing a sharp contrast to the anomalously warm December just completed.

Tuesday’s temperatures will be about 10 degrees below average in the city and perhaps even more extreme in the Hudson Valley and Suffolk County, Long Island, where clear skies will make for nearly ideal cooling conditions overnight. Actual temperatures in the single digits (above zero) may appear in some of the more protected valleys away from urban areas.

But New Yorkers shouldn’t worry too much about hibernating away until spring. The weather should quickly warm back to roughly average by Thursday, and back into the 50s by the weekend. So much for winter…

Happy New Year, With Novelty Glasses

The year 2011 is just about finished, and a million of your closest Greater New York friends — with perhaps a few tourists — are set to take Times Square by storm in the usual New Year’s Eve celebration. Before you head to wherever you’ll be when the calendar flips to 2012, take a look back at the 15 most-read blog posts from Metropolis in the past year. Two big stories from the past year are well represented on this list: Occupy Wall Street (3) and Hurricane Irene (2). Apple is in there, but not in relation to the death of founder Steve Jobs, an event that touched off WSJ.com’s highest-traffic day in 2011. Two posts tied to the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks are also on the list. After the jump, see the full list of our most popular blog posts for the year.

Christie’s 2011 Education: A Year of Frustration Over Schools

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie declared 2011 the “year of education reform,” saying he wanted to overhaul parts of the state’s education system. His platform included paying teachers based on merit, altering tenure rules, implementing a new teacher-evaluation system and creating a voucher-like program for students in poor-performing schools.

At the end of the year, none of his proposed bills have been passed. In radio interviews Thursday, he said the stalling of his education agenda has been his biggest disappointment.

After the jump, a look back at Christie’s difficult year in education.

Moishe’s Moving Into a Mini Art City

Behind the heavy metal doors at an old tobacco factory on Newark Avenue in Jersey City, portraits by the artist Chuck Close—of Hillary Clinton, of the composer Philip Glass—hang on pristine white walls.

Inside the warehouse is a honeycomb of art activity in a space designed with the cool aesthetic of a Chelsea gallery: storage, framing, restoration, galleries, supply stores. The facility holds dozens of artists’ studios and there are plans for a restaurant, dance space and recording studios.

The arts complex is the newest venture from Moishe’s Moving and Storage. Eugene Lemay, the moving company’s president and chief executive, acknowledges that it isn’t an obvious match.

“Movers don’t understand anything about art,” he said. “Everything is an item for them.”

Funeral Planned for Christmas Fire Victims

A memorial service for the three young girls who were killed in a Christmas morning house fire in Stamford, Conn., will be held Thursday at Manhattan’s Saint Thomas Church.

The service at the Episcopalian Church on Fifth Avenue will be open to the public, said George Amato, president of Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel. The Upper East Side funeral home is helping the family handle memorial services for the children of New York advertising executive Madonna Badger, who survived the fire, and the girls’ father Matthew Badger, who is separated from Badger and lives in Manhattan.

Stamford fire investigators determined earlier this week that improperly discarded fireplace embers sparked the blaze that ravaged the home shortly before 5 a.m. on Christmas.

Weather Journal: Warm New Year Ends Snow-Free December

Greater New York will round out a weird weather year with a benevolently dry and mild New Year’s Eve. Temperatures should hover at about 39 or 40 degrees in Times Square at the moment of the ball drop, with barely a cloud in the sky for much of the day.

As most New Yorkers are well aware, this kind of weather has been nothing new lately around these parts. But the scale to which this month has been unusually warm may be shocking: Saturday will mark the 25th warmer-than-average day of the month and only the third time since 1869 that New York City has not recorded a single flake of snow during the month of December.

Snow flurries may appear on the first day of 2012, but don’t expect any accumulation. A cool down should follow during the first week of the new year.

NYC Traffic Deaths Reach All-Time Low

Fewer people died in traffic crashes in New York City in 2011 than in any year since 1910, the first year the city started keeping records — and two years after the first Model T rolled out of Henry Ford’s plant in Detroit.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced the all-time low at a news conference on Thursday. It was the third and apparently final installment in a string of public appearances this week at which the mayor touted statistics showing life in the city improving under his watch. (At this time last year, New York was under two feet of snow and the mayor faced a barrage of questionsabout why it was taking so long to dig out.)

The mayor said that so far this year, 237 people have died in traffic. In 2001, that number was 393. The rate of fatalities per 100,000 residents also declined.

Quinn Under Fire for Seabrook’s Spending

Under a barrage of criticism Thursday, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn stood behind her decision to give Councilman Larry Seabrook access to a pool of taxpayer funds that he allegedly abused.

A federal judge declared a mistrial in the corruption case against Seabrook earlier this month after jurors said they could not reach a verdict. The Bronx councilman has pleaded not guilty to charges he directed more than $1 million in taxpayer funds to a network of nonprofit organizations that he controlled. U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said he intends to retry the case.

Quinn, a potential 2013 mayoral candidate, has been the target of fresh criticism this week for her decision to allow Seabrook access to these funds while he remains under federal indictment. On Thursday, Democratic mayoral hopeful Tom Allon lashed out at Quinn and argued that she failed to properly police Seabrook. The editorial boards of the New York Post and the Daily News also excoriated the speaker.