New York

As part of the ongoing recovery from Hurricane Sandy, New York's plan is to buy and demolish hundreds of homes on Staten and Long islands and let nature return as a barrier to future storm surges.

The drama continues. For months now, unions have been negotiating with the Metropolitan Opera's leadership over compensation and benefits; employees also accuse the Met of financial mismanagement.

The death of Eric Garner, like the shooting of Michael Brown, sparked protests. But the reaction in New York has been entirely peaceful, thanks partly to quick responses by police and civic officials.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo is supporting the drug Truvada as part of the state's ambitious plan to fight AIDS. But some advocates worry it will encourage risky behavior or won't reach the most vulnerable.

As a Dec. 23 enrollment deadline for health insurance that starts Jan. 1 looms, New York state is staffing up its call center and smoothing out the rough spots on its application to meet growing demand. As time runs down, the state is trying to fix technical and design issues that came up when the site debuted in October.

In the unregulated heyday before Prohibition, distilleries in New York produced whiskey, gin, rum and other spirits. Then the industry was all but wiped out for the next 80 years. But state laws regulating distilling have been loosened and now dozens of new distilleries have sprung up.

This summer, New York City is expanding food waste recycling into more neighborhoods, with an eye toward eventually making the program mandatory. Officials are hoping the changes will help improve on the city's dismal recycling rate, which remains stuck at 15 percent.