NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea has tested positive for the coronavirus. "He's in touch with his executive staff. He's at home and he is running the department remotely," NYPD spokesman Rich Esposito told ABC News.
NEW YORK CITY (WABC) Amy Reisenbach remembers her older brother who was killed 30 years ago in Greenwich Village. I would say John had a real passion for life. He was really fun. He really loved New York, Amy Reisenbach said.
John A. Reisenbach s murder remains unsolved, but the foundation created in his name continues to make New York a better place. We are a grant-making foundation focused entirely on New York City, Amy Reisenbach said.
The John A. Reisenbach (JAR) Foundation has focused on education, housing, and safety.
This year it s expanding its grant-giving to help those affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
NEW YORK (WABC) Usually a million people pack Times Square on New Year s Eve, but 2020 is not a usual year.
There weren t any of the normal crowds at the Crossroads of the World Thursday night due to the coronavirus pandemic, but Mayor Bill de Blasio who was on stage to watch the ball drop offered a remarkably upbeat prediction for the event that ends a universally panned year.
Times Square, he said, would be magical, joyous, exceptional, wonderful, and amazing, and the mayor vowed it will singlehandedly unite the country into the new year. In a country, in a city that sometimes could use some more unity, one thing that unifies us all as Americans, we want to get the hell rid of 2020, he said. I think it s going to be an amazing moment.
Just to have some semblance of normalcy, he said. We didn t want or skip a year.
It was a sentiment echoed by Rob Terry and his family, visiting from Philadelphia a tradition for 13 years. It doesn t feel like Christmas without coming, he said. It makes us feel happy, gives us something to look forward to heading into the new year.
And for the kids, even with so much loss and change, their sense of wonder is still there as they wait for Santa and his team.
As for the jolly big man himself, he urged people not to lose hope and believe in themselves, and that we can always overcome.
NEW YORK CITY (WABC) Attending church services on Christmas Eve and particularly Midnight Mass is a family tradition for millions across the nation, but it is yet another holiday custom decimated by the coronavirus pandemic.
In a normal year, people lined up an hour in advance to take part in the Christmas Eve Mass at St. Patrick s Cathedral in Manhattan.
But in 2020, Midnight Christmas Mass will still be celebrated by Timothy Cardinal Dolan, but there will be no public lottery for seats.
Attendance is limited to 500 people, and those tickets have already been distributed. Others are asked to view on the archdiocese s livestream.