Photograph by dietrich on Flickr

• From the Gothamist Newsmap: A hospital bomb threat at Ocean Parkway @ Coney Island Hosp in Brooklyn, an officer assist at 42 & 3rd Ave in Manhattan, and a person struck by a train at E 167th St & The Grand Concourse in the Bronx.
• The state's dire economic outlook means small, cash-heavy businesses--like pizzerias--are being warned that they better pay up back sales taxes or face audits.
• Si Newhouse, the owner of Star-Ledger's parent company, insists he and other executives are not bluffing when saying concessions must be met or else the paper will close January 5.
• Cobble Hill hospital Long Island College Hospital must close its pediatrics and dentistry divisions to stay open.
• A Columbia professor fell to his death from his Riverside Drive apartment. The ME's office is conducting an autopsy.
• Sad: Brooklyn's Green Church is being readied for demolition.
• It's been 10 years since Harry Potter was introduced to readers around the world, and Scholastic celebrated with a reading at its Soho headquarters.
• Suckapants has some titillating burlesque photographs.