• Several hundreds of people took over Wall Street to protest the police's killing of Sean Bell and what they see as the NYPD's failure to punish the guilty. They were met with almost as many police officers, some undercover; for a march that called for a "war on the NYPD," the protest went without an incident. [amNY]
• The State Liquor Authority is cracking down on all-night New Year's Eve parties, nixing dozens of bars' requests to stay open late on December 31. (The permit is usually easily granted.) [NYP]
• In a similar crypto-Prohibitionist vein, the proposed alcohol ban on Metro-North and LIRR is about to deny suburban commuters one of their few remaining joys in life. Or is it? Meet Commuters Aligned for Responsible Enjoyment, or CARE, a quickly assembled opposition group. Vive la Resistance! [NYDN]
• It's a bit unexpected after all those mayoral pronouncements about the coming population boom, but NYC's birth rate is way down, at a 25-year low, in fact. Officials call it a quality-of-life achievement, however, since the most rapidly declining subset is teenage births. [NYS]
• And the Times tut-tuts the "phantasmagoric, Disney-esque experience" sweeping the suburbs: giant inflatable lawn figures causing an "intramural disagreement among the Christmas crazed." [NYT]