11/02/2012
Commuters pack into a train on Thursday, November 1, in New York City. Limited public transit has returned to the city, where 14 of 23 subway lines are running. 
Commuters ride the subway. Public transit is operating in New York City, but travel times are long, up to five hours in some cases. 
A police officer directs passengers waiting on Thursday to board city buses into Manhattan at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. About 4,000 buses are replacing the subway lines still closed by Superstorm Sandy damage. 
Thousands of people wait to board city buses into Manhattan, and some subway lines remain underwater. Getting water out of the tunnels is "one of the main orders of business right now," Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Thursday. 
A police officer directs traffic entering the Brooklyn Queens Expressway into Manhattan. 
A police officer checks cars entering the Brooklyn Queens Expressway to confirm that they have three occupants before allowing them to cross into Manhattan on Thursday. Limited public transit has returned to New York, and most major bridges have reopened. However, vehicles must have three occupants to pass. 
Parts of lower Manhattan are still without electricty on Thursday. Superstorm Sandy, which made landfall along the New Jersey shore on Monday, October 29, left much of the Eastern Seaboard without power, including much of Manhattan south of 34th Street. 
Residents of New York City's East Village enjoy a bonfire on Wednesday, October 31. 
East Village residents charge their phones with power from a generator on Wednesday. 
Traffic snarls in New York City on Wednesday. Residents and businesses across the Eastern Seaboard are attempting to return to their daily lives in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy. 
A Caring Foundation worker hands out food to residents of the heavily damaged Rockaway section of Queens on Wednesday. 
Water floods streets in the Rockaway section of Queens on Wednesday. 
Traders stand outside of the New York Stock Exchange in New York on Wednesday. Stocks advanced as U.S. equity markets resumed trading for the first time this week after the storm. 
A man surveys damage on Wednesday, October 31, in the Rockaway neighborhood of Queens, New York, where the historic boardwalk was washed away during Superstorm Sandy. 
Residents walk with their belongings through the Rockaway section of Queens on Wednesday. 
The remains of homes burned down in Rockaway are seen Wednesday, a day after an inferno spread across the flooded neighborhood. 
Firefighters continued to survey the damage in Rockaway on Wednesday. At least 80 homes were destroyed. 
People wait for buses on Sixth Avenue in New York on Wednesday as New Yorkers cope with the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. 
People attempt to squish into a crowded bus on First Avenue in New York on Wednesday. 
Con Edison crew members work on a steam pipe on First Avenue on Wednesday. 
The foundations to the historic Rockaway boardwalk in Brooklyn are all that remain after it was washed away Wednesday during Hurricane Sandy. 
People walk to work Wednesday on a normally busy street near the New York Stock Exchange. 
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday after it had been closed for two days. 
Commuters arrive in Manhattan by ferry from Jersey City, New Jersey, on its first day back in business after Sandy. 
CNN iReporter Jordan Shapiro captured this view of the Williamsburg Bridge in New York at 11 p.m. on Tuesday, October 30. Half of the bridge and Brooklyn is lit, while the Manhattan side and the surrounding part of the island remain shrouded in darkness. 
A subway station and escalator sit underwater in New York on Tuesday. 
Much of the New York City skyline sits in darkness Tuesday evening after damage from Superstorm Sandy knocked out power. About 6.9 million customers are without power in 15 states and the District of Columbia, according to figures compiled by CNN from power companies. 
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, center, views the damage Tuesday in the Breezy Point neighborhood of Queens, where a fire broke out during Superstorm Sandy and destroyed at least 80 homes. 
A resident looks through the debris of his destroyed home in Breezy Point, Queens, on Tuesday. 
Burned-out vehicles and destroyed homes line a street in Breezy Point, located on the western end of the Rockaway peninsula in New York. 
A fire continues to burn Tuesday in the remains of a structure that was destroyed by the Breezy Point blaze. 
A New York City man hands a dog to first responders while being evacuated on Tuesday. 
A bartender at the International Bar in the East Village neighborhood of New York City makes drinks in the dark on Tuesday as electricity remains out for many in the city. 
Water floods the Plaza Shops in New York, in the wake of Superstorm Sandy, on Tuesday, October 30. 
Con Edison employees monitor the drainage of water being pumped out of Seven World Trade Center in the Financial District of New York on Tuesday. 
Onlookers watch a construction crane dangling from a $1.5 billion luxury high-rise after collapsing in high winds. 
The construction crane dangles from a high-rise in midtown Manhattan. 
Ramiro Arcos clears debris from a storm drain in the Financial District of New York after Sandy swept through the city. 
A couple walks in the rain Tuesday, with the East River and the Lower Manhattan skyline as a backdrop. 
The Manhattan skyline remains dark after much of the city lost electricity in the storm. 
Cars float in a flooded below-street-level parking area in the Financial District on Tuesday. 
People take a Tuesday morning walk on the Brooklyn Bridge, which remains closed to traffic after the city awakened to the storm damage. 
A car sits crushed by a tree in the Financial District on Tuesday. 
Opinion: Jersey Shore, I'll miss you
Me and my brother Mike in Wildwood, 1969 
Me and my grandmother in Wildwood, 1972 
My grandmother (far left) in Atlantic City, 1932 
My mom in Cape May, 1962 
My mom (far right) and my Aunt Olivia (next to my mom) at the shore, 1958 
My T-shirt from the summer of 1977 
Teachers' unions push to get educators elected
 Ohio Education Association Donna O'Connor and Maureen Reedy are running for state House seats in Ohio. By Sarah Butrymowicz, The Hechinger Report COLUMBUS, Ohio — Special-education teacher Donna O'Connor and 23 of her colleagues gathered at their union's headquarters here in January for a first-of-its-kind campaign boot camp. Prompted by an intense battle over collective bargaining that has pitted unions against a Republican-controlled State Assembly, the Ohio Education Association started grooming its own candidates to take back control of state education policy. O'Connor, who is currently running for a House seat in the Columbus suburbs, felt her own sense of urgency as she learned how to fundraise, write speeches and debate during the union training sessions. "I started connecting the dots about seven years ago [that] I couldn't just shut my classroom door and the politicians would leave me alone," she said. Teachers have long run for office, often with encouragement and support from their unions. This year, however, educators in states with some of the biggest labor disputes and most controversial education policies have been campaigning in record numbers, according to state-level union officials. It's one of the most direct ways that teachers and unions are showing their frustration over mounting attacks on tenure, the growth of nonunionized charter schools and efforts to evaluate teachers based on student test scores. "You're starting to see a lot of teachers say, 'Enough is enough. I want to run for office,' " said Joe Williams, executive director of Democrats for Education Reform. The group works to elect Democrats committed to making dramatic changes to education policy, including many that the unions oppose, such as eliminating tenure. Williams said he expects the trend of educators vying for office to continue. Official statistics aren't kept on how many teachers are running, but anecdotal evidence from several states suggests the numbers are up. The teachers union in Wisconsin, which was the center of a lengthy battle over collective bargaining last year, has six members competing for statewide office. In Tennessee, the first state to pass a law tying teacher evaluations to test scores, nine out of 11 teacher-candidates survived state legislature primaries to advance to the November elections. (Typically, two or three teachers in Tennessee run for any sort of office in a given year, according to the state's teachers union). And in Minnesota, where mounting class sizes and debates over changing the seniority system have upset teachers, 35 educators are on the ballot. Members of the Minnesota teachers union, Education Minnesota, have estimated that that number is about a third higher than normal. "Unfortunately for the past two years, the Legislature has ignored the real problems and focused on bashing teachers," Education Minnesota president Tom Dooher said in a written statement. "We're hopeful more people with classroom experience will be elected and re-order its priorities next year." Stay informed with the latest headlines; sign up for our newsletter Ohio was thrust into the national spotlight last year when its legislature passed Senate Bill 5, which banned unions from collective bargaining. A ballot initiative that November repealed the law, but the memory — and the anger it inspired — has not faded. Although many potential candidates who attended the OEA's training sessions decided not to run this year (and one lost in a primary), 10 remain on the ballot for state office — an unprecedented number, according to the OEA. In the last six years, just three other OEA members have run. This year, an 11th educator, a former member of the Ohio Federation of Teachers (OFT) in his first year of retirement, is also running. The Republicans have a stronghold in both houses of the Ohio State Assembly. In the House of Representatives, they are one member away from a super-majority, which would mean that any law passed as an "emergency measure" would take effect right away. State congressional districts were redrawn in Ohio this year, in what supporters of the teachers union claim was gerrymandering meant to help Republican candidates. Still, the changes created new seats for some teachers to run and prompted others to challenge incumbents. Many teachers are now locked in tight races in districts that lean heavily red. More stories from The Hechinger Report
O'Connor, the special-education teacher, lost her current representative, Democrat John Carney, to another district during the redistricting process. Faced with an incumbent who had voted against collective bargaining and for a budget that cut state education funding by more than 10 percent, O'Connor decided it was time for her to get directly involved. She described the bill that outlawed collective bargaining as the "icing on the cake" in motivating her to run. Tom Schmida, an OFT retiree up for election to the House in the Akron suburbs, was also spurred to run by a host of issues. A Democrat, Schmida is concerned about the future of collective bargaining, charter school accountability and a provision in the approved budget bill that will tie teacher evaluations to test scores. "An overreaching agenda by the extreme elements of the Republican Party, especially in the State House, [goes] beyond Senate Bill 5," he said. Watch US News videos on NBCNews.com Schmida is in a close race against incumbent Republican Rep. Kristina Roegner, a staunch proponent of charters, vouchers and the elimination of collective-bargaining rights. Schmida's grassroots campaign has knocked on about 7,500 doors and made 9,000 phone calls. Many of his volunteers are teachers and union members themselves, he said. Both of the state's teachers unions have endorsed all of the teacher-candidates. The OEA has also sent out mailings to members about its teacher-candidates, organized phone banks and helped produce a campaign video. "We've supported them through every means we possibly can," said OEA president Patricia Frost-Brooks. OEA declined to give specifics on the amount of money it has spent to help teacher-candidates get elected. To Williams, these steps are a logical extension of unions' long-time political involvement. "Teachers unions all over the country have been pretty successful at keeping the pipeline for potential candidates for office filled with good candidates," he said. "We're starting to see the unions take their message up a notch. It's not just about good candidates … [but] getting teachers to be recruited." Yet Williams worries that too many teachers in office might derail the current education reform agenda. "As we move into an area where there's lots of debates about teacher-quality issues and teacher-tenure issues, [the unions] are going to want people who will shut that debate down," he said. He believes having more educators in office will be helpful only if they offer perspectives from the trenches without sidetracking the reform conversation. Several Ohio teacher-candidates say they're open to discussion and compromise. They add that their larger goals—like a better system of funding education—need not be divisive. It's more about ensuring a teacher voice, they say. "In 2011, that really showed us what happens when we don't elect officials that are pro-workers, pro-public education and pro-teacher," O'Connor said in her OEA-produced campaign video, referring to Senate Bill 5. "Electing pro-public education candidates is most important this time around. I think the teachers that are running, we can help protect and improve public education from the inside out." This story was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, nonpartisan education-news outlet based at Teachers College, Columbia University. More content from NBCNews.com:
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Near-freezing cold, potential nor'easter add to misery
| TODAY's Al Roker takes a look at the European model forecast that predicted Sandy, and its new forecast of a potential Nor'easter next week, bringing wind gusts of up to 45 mph. By Miguel Llanos, NBC News Millions trying to recover from Superstorm Sandy were not getting much cooperation from Mother Nature: Lows this weekend were set to dip into the 30s, an issue for elderly and others without power, while a nor'easter winter storm is possibly on its way. "No rest for the weary" was how the National Weather Service's prediction center characterized the brewing storm in a Friday morning update. The system won't be another Sandy, but it is expected to build off North Carolina next Tuesday, then move up the coast and affect New Jersey, Long Island and other hard-hit areas by Wednesday. "The possible storm next week is not of the same make up as Sandy," prediction center forecaster Jim Cisco told NBC News, "though any more rain, snow, or wind would certainly pose exacerbating effects on the impacted regions." "This is just what we don't need," added NBC News meteorologist Al Roker, saying winds could gust up to 45 miles per hour. "You look at those winds coming counterclockwise, bringing in with it the potential for one to two more inches of rain ... and wet snow inland just along the New York/New Jersey border," he said. "We're talking about wet snow mixing in." Those gusts along with waves in "already compromised beaches along New Jersey and Long Island ... could cause big problems," Roker added. Homeowners in suburban New York are depending on generators until electricity is restored as others are rushing to buy them – to prepare for future storms. TODAY's Jenna Wolfe reports. "It's not definite," he emphasized, but two key models used by weather forecasters are in agreement "that this is going to happen. It's just a matter of how strong this system is going to be." The Weather Channel echoed that concern. Watch US News videos on NBCNews.com "At this point we do not expect the impacts to 'break anything that is not already broken'," weather.com winter weather expert Tom Niziol wrote Friday. "However the combination of weather impacts will add insult to injury for the recovery process along the East Coast." NBC News meteorologist Bill Karins said that while the new system would have only a fraction of Sandy's power it comes at a vulnerable time. "Its greatest impact will be battering waves along the Sandy impact zone," he predicted. "Beaches/structures have no protection from wave action at high tide cycles until the dunes can build back up." "Other impacts are very minor," he added. "Rain/winds could delay line crews restoring power and there would be some danger of falling already loosened tree branches." Even before any nor'easter, Northeast residents were told to expect evening low temperatures to dip a few degrees into the low-to-mid 30s over the weekend. Stay informed with the latest headlines; sign up for our newsletter In New York City, the utility ConEd is working to restore power to some 200,000 customers in Manhattan by Saturday, but that would still leave more than 400,000 of its customers elsewhere in New York City potentially in the dark beyond Saturday. ConEd said it hoped the vast majority of those would have power by Nov. 11. As for a potential nor'easter, ConEd spokeswoman Sara Banda told NBC News that "we're going to have to take that into account." The areas taking the longest for restored power, Banda said, are those with overhead lines. "It's taking a bit longer," she said, noting that crews have had to deal with 100,000 downed lines. Across the region, 3.7 million homes and businesses still were without power as of Friday morning, according to a tally from the federal government. More content from NBCNews.com:
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'I will scream': Backlash erupts as NYC preps for marathon
| Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer tells TODAY's Savannah Guthrie he believes Mayor Bloomberg should postpone the New York City marathon as congressman Michael Grimm from Staten Island says he's "angry" over plans to continue with the race By NBC News staff and wires New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's decision to proceed with the world's largest marathon on Sunday is stirring up controversy in the storm-ravaged metropolis. "If they take one first responder from Staten Island to cover this marathon, I will scream," New York City Councilman James Oddo said on his Twitter account. "We have people with no homes and no hope right now." As emergency workers wade through flooded homes to look for survivors and millions of people remain without power in the U.S. Northeast, the death toll from Superstorm Sandy swelled to 95. At least 37 of those deaths were in New York City. "The prudent course of action here — postpone the marathon, come back a different day," Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer told TODAY's Savannah Guthrie. "Our first priority, let's help people who lost their homes, who are missing loved ones." Stringer said downtown Manhattan, the city's financial hub, "looks like a wasteland" and is nowhere close to being ready for the race, which goes through each of New York's five boroughs. Still, the city is planning to go ahead with the race, which kicks off on Staten Island, the hardest-hit borough, on Sunday. The island, home to 500,000, suffered some of the worst destruction. At least 19 people who died in New York City lived on Staten Island. On Thursday, the bodies of two children who had been missing on Staten Island since the storm were found. The boys, ages 2 and 4, were swept away from their mother's arms Monday night after the car they were driving was swamped by floodwaters. Bloomberg has vowed the marathon will not divert any resources from victims, and expects power to be restored to downtown Manhattan by race day. In defending his decision to go forward, the mayor cited the thousands of out-of-town visitors who come for the marathon. "There's an awful lot of small businesses that depend on these people. We have to have an economy," Bloomberg told a news conference on Wednesday. "It's a great event for New York, and I think for those who were lost, you know, you've got to believe they would want us to have an economy and have a city go on for those that they left behind." "If the city is able to put on the marathon safely and it doesn't divert resources away from rescue, then runners should take to the street," said Lisa Tobin, 35, a pastry cook from the Bronx who will be running in the ING New York City Marathon for the first time. Dave Jaffares, who tends bar at Mullanes Bar & Grill, said they usually make $2,000 to $3,000 more on marathon day. The bar is along the marathon route in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. "It needs to happen. The marathon is coming at a great time. It gets people back into the idea that we are New York," said Jaffares. "This is what we do, we do a marathon every year. Nothing stops us." The New York Road Runners, which organizes the marathon, said the event will bring $340 million to the city. The club also announced on Thursday that it will donate at least $1 million, or $26.20 for each of the more than 40,000 runners expected to participate, to aid New Yorkers affected by Sandy. Nineteen bodies have been found in Staten Island following Hurricane Sandy and many fear the number will rise. A growing number of Staten Islanders are outraged by what they describe as the slow response from relief organizations. NBC News' Ann Curry reports. The Rudin Family, one of the founding members of the marathon, said it would donate $1.1 million and the ING Foundation said it would give $500,000. "We're not looking to be a drain on any of the city resources," NYRR spokesman Richard Finn told Reuters. NYRR had hiked the race fee this year, in part to pay police overtime. On Thursday, there were signs of recovery in city life: some subway service was restored, and Bloomberg said city parks would re-open on Saturday. But much of the region was still a disaster zone. The southern third of Manhattan was largely without electricity, and many towns in New Jersey remained crippled from record flooding. Many trees in Central Park, where the race ends, were uprooted by near hurricane-force winds. The Marathon will shut more than 20 miles of city roads and typically requires more than 1,000 police to man the route. "Things are everything but normal for so many people," said Patricia Profita, a teacher who lives in the Great Kills neighborhood of Staten Island. "People should not be running through the boroughs, but instead running to aid those people." The NYRR club announced on its Facebook page last night that this year's marathon is dedicated to the City of New York, the victims of the hurricane and their families. But the majority of the more than 270 comments on the page were critical of the decision. Dana Donadio wrote, "As a former Staten Island resident, current Manhattan resident and runner of 2 NYC Marathons I have to say this is an extremely bad idea. The city's resources could be put to much better use at this time." Scott Cohen, 52, who is running his 18th New York City Marathon in a row, admitted it "seems frivolous in light of the death, disruption and despair in parts of the city." Still, the fitness trainer expects that by Sunday most New Yorkers will be supportive. "The race has always been a 26.2 mile block party and the city feels the love." Reuters contributed to this report. More content from NBCNews.com:
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