New York Post reports a man was killed in at a Queens house party gone bad marking the city’s first homicide of 2014, police said.The 22-year-old victim was fatally attacked in the basement of a home on 113th Avenue near Sutphin Boulevard in St. Albans, around 1:15 a.m., Wednesday, cops said. The man, whose name has not been released, was one of two young men killed as the city rang in the New Year.Investigators were waiting for an autopsy to determine whether the victim was shot or if he had been stabbed with a screwdriver, sources said. The victim died at the scene, authorities said.No suspects are in custody and it was not immediately clear what sparked the deadly assault but neighbors believe it was over a spilled drink.Shakeema Williams, 33, said the house was full of drunken revelers and cops were called several times.“There were a bunch of incidents there last night,” she told the Post. “The cops were here for the first incident before 11 and then they left. I heard people inside asking them to go. I was outside and I heard what sounded like a gunshot and we ran inside.”“It’s crazy,” Williams said. “There was all this commotion right after the ball dropped. It’s terrible.”A 17-year-old was also killed in Bushwick after leaving a house party around 2:55 a.m., Wednesday, police said.He was shot in the chest, cops said. The teenager was rushed to Brookdale Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival. No one is in custody and investigators do not have a motive in the slaying, police said.The murders began on New Year’s Day as incoming Police Commissioner Bill Bratton took over the NYPD with the challenge of maintaining or beating a record-low homicide rate that claimed 333 victims in 2012.
LA Times reports Utah’s attorney general asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday to restore a state law banning same-sex marriages by issuing an emergency stay of a lower court’s ruling that held gays and lesbians have a constitutional right to marry.For the high court, which has not been asked to rule on the topic since issuing two landmark rulings in June, Utah’s request could trigger a closely watched decision with nationwide implications on the future of gay marriage in the U.S.In considering Utah’s request, justices are in effect being asked to make a quick assessment of whether gays and lesbians should have an equal right to marry under the Constitution, a question they carefully dodged in June.In a 5-4 ruling last year, the court struck down part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act and ruled that legally married same-sex couples are entitled to equal benefits under the law. But in a second 5-4 ruling, they relied on procedural grounds to throw out an appeal involving California’s Proposition 8, a decision that had the legal effect of invalidating California’s ban on same-sex marriage without establishing a new constitutional right for gays and lesbians nationwide.
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Bloomberg reports Toni Fox plans to open the doors of her Denver marijuana shop at 8 a.m. tomorrow to a line of customers including some who camped overnight to be the first in the U.S. to legally buy pot for recreational use.
Fox has arranged for canopy tents, heaters and a food truck to offer donuts and pastries to patrons waiting for the state-appointed hour. She expects sales at her 3D Cannabis Center, operating since 2010 as a medical-marijuana dispensary near the Denver Coliseum, to surge to at least $250,000 a month from $30,000, she said.
“We’ll have people out the door,” Fox, 42, a Salida resident, said by telephone. “It’s going to be a very festive atmosphere. We all feel like we’re walking on sunshine right now.”More here
AP reports Bill de Blasio was to be sworn in as the 109th mayor of New York City on Wednesday, becoming the first Democrat to occupy City Hall in more than two decades while vowing to pursue a sweeping liberal agenda for the nation's largest city.The new mayor was elected two months ago by a record margin on the promise of being a sharp break from Michael Bloomberg, who leaves office after 12 years that reshaped New York, making it one of the nation's safest and most prosperous big cities but also one that has become increasingly stratified between the very rich and the working class.De Blasio was to take the oath of office moments after midnight at his modest Park Slope, Brooklyn home. His inauguration will be celebrated on a far grander scale at noon Wednesday on the steps of City Hall when he takes the oath again, which will be administered by former President Bill Clinton.More here
