Extra, Extra

Photo taken in Central Park by any.g on Flickr

• From the Gothamist Newsmap: a tree on top of people in Central Park at 66th St and 5th Ave, a propane leak on Northern Blvd in Queens and a shooting at Story Ave and Rosedale Ave in the Bronx.
  
• President-elect Obama's mother was part of a panel back in the '90s who had to select a speaker for a UN conference to help inspire lending small sums to poor women. Any guesses on the one famous woman she thought could do the job?
  
• The Times takes a closer look at the fall of WaMu with their "lax lending" as they "opened branches at a clip worthy of a fast food chain."
  
• Someone stole a $10,000 statue outside Bernard Madoff's $9.4 million Palm Beach home.
  
• It looks like The Rocket's steroid use has caused him to really shoot himself in the foot (and not just the butt anymore). Houston's Memorial Hermann Medical Center announced Saturday that it is removing Clemens' name from the Roger Clemens Institute for Sports Medicine, a facility that opened three years ago.
  
• Atlantic City wants more airline carriers to fly to the boardwalk casino haven.
  
• Jennifer Aniston (with the help of Owen Wilson and really adorable golden retrievers) vanquished Adam Sandler and her ex Brad Pitt at the box office as Marley & Me was number 1, over Sandler's Bedtime Stories and Pitt's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
  
• And what suburban teenager doesn't love Christmas break? That is, until one of them on Long Island gets arrested at 3 a.m. with pot in the car while his friend was vomiting out the window.