Westchester Now

Newsday Westchester reporters made their picks for the year's most unforgettable and strange stories, but there's no better way of signifying which stories really sum up the year than by looking at those that were most popular with readers. Below are the most-viewed stories and photo galleries of 2012:

STORIES

1. Connecticut shooting: Sandy Hook victim Anne Marie Murphy mourned...

People began lining up at 10:30 a.m. on Christmas Day for an annual community dinner at St. John's Church in Yonkers. 

As they filed in, volunteers in Santa hats passed out eggnog and apple cider to those seeking a warm place to share in a festive turkey meal. In its 29th year of offering the dinner, the Sharing Community Inc. again served a dinner with all the fixings and gave Christmas...

What's a Jewish Christmas?

Urban Dictionary puts it concisely: "Chinese food and a movie. That's it."

For Jews, it long since has transitioned from a tradition to a cliche, and for good reason: For a long time, Chinese restaurants and movie theaters were among the very few places to remain open on Christmas day.

Here are some of the best local picks for Christmas Day:

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As Santa Claus makes his way across the globe, dropping down chimneys to deliver presents to children worldwide, the North American Aerospace Defense Command is giving viewers a chance to follow St. Nick’s journey in real time.

For the past 57 years, “NORAD Tracks Santa” has relied on volunteers working from the Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colo., to update children -- and...

A handful of Hudson Valley school districts are among about two dozen statewide that have yet to submit teacher evaluation plans to the state for approval.

School districts have until Jan. 17 to get state Education Department approval for the plans to receive state aid increases for the 2012-13 school year. Gov. Andrew Cuomo underlined last week that there will be no leniency for districts...

Catherine Marsh has just finished the complicated process of giving away $1.5 million to 68 groups that serve low-income communities throughout Westchester. And while she feels good about that, her mood is far from happy.

While Westchester is a wealthy county, it relies on its working poor folks to keep the suburban economic engine running as they fill low-paying jobs at stores, restaurants,...

Superstorm Sandy left an overabundance of felled trees. Tim Downey of Hastings-on-Hudson soon came up with an enchanting second life for them. He is a landscape contractor who has turned unkempt Dan Rile Memorial Park into a whimsical space filled with rustic log benches, wood-chipped trails and even a stump table-and-chairs set fit for a royal gathering of elves.

Tim made everything from...

Two New York politicians are seeking a law to ensure their constituents are safe from lead poisoning during the holidays.

State Sen. David Carlucci (D-Rockland/Orange) and Assemb. Sandy Galef (D-Ossining) said Friday their new consumer protection legislation would require warning labels on artificial Christmas trees and decorations that may contain dangerous levels of lead.

“The dangers...

If you're reading this, congratulations are in order: An alien mothership didn't appear above New York City, massive fissures didn't rend the earth to swallow continents, we weren't smote by a vengeful god or wiped out by comet on a trajectory toward Earth.

The Mayans were wrong, or at least misunderstood. The world didn't end.

Believers thought the world would end at 6:11 a.m. today,...

So this is it.

Hasta la vista, baby. Farewell to arms (and everything else). In the world of journalism, we'd call it -30-. That's the number we used to use to denote the end of the story.

If the 13th cycle of the Mayan calendar really does signal a calamitous coda to the human race on Friday, I, for one, need to tie up a few loose ends before the lights go out. For instance:

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