Morning Headlines | Must-Reads from the WNYC News Hub

TRANSPORTATION
MTA Will Remove More Trashcans from Stations to Reduce Trash (amNewYork)
Marc Beja reports:”The MTA is planning to expand a program that tries to reduce underground trash by removing garbage cans from subway platforms, amNewYork has learned. The agency took away bins in two stations -- the Flushing/Main Street No. 7 station and the 8th Street N/R station -- in October for what was supposed to be a two-month trial; it's still ongoing. And New York City Transit President Tom Prendergast said he wants to pull cans from more stations.”

TRANSPORTATION
LIRR’s GCT Access Cost Soars $1 Bil (NYPost)
Jennifer Fermino reports:”The MTA’s plan to bring the Long Island Rail Road into Grand Central is now nearly $1 billion dollars over budget, officials revealed yesterday. The stunning increase comes after a host of engineering and construction problems sparked major delays in the project, which has also seen its completion date moved back several times over the years. It is now expected to be finished in August 2019 — four years after the initial estimate of 2015 — at a cost of $8.24 billion.”

POLITICS
Business Tax Will Be Pushed in Albany Amid Minimum Tax Debate (Buffalo News)
Tom Precious reports: “Senate Majority Leader Dean G. Skelos has introduced a business tax cut program he says will create thousands of new private-sector jobs — and could be the Albany-style linkage that Assembly Democrats might use to get a minimum wage hike through the Senate.”

POLITICS
Bellone Eyeing Retiring Rep. Ed Towns’s Seat (Buffalo News)
Daniel Bush reports: “A Republican Sheepshead Bay T-shirt maker has his sights set on taking over a longtime Democratic congressional seat that now contains conservative-leaning neighborhoods such as Marine Park and Bergen Beach. ‘My odds are really good now,” Alan Bellone said about succeeding Rep. Ed Towns (D–Canarsie). “Republicans have a shot to take this seat.’”

TRANSPORTATION
Brooklyn Man who Impersonated his Dead Mom to Collect Social Security Gets up to 41 Years in Prison (NYDN)
Oren Yaniv reports:”A Brooklyn judge dressed down a “Psycho” son who donned his dead mom’s clothes to collect her Social Security checks, then sentenced him to 13 2/3 to 41 years in prison. “Mr. Parkin, you’re an amazing character. Even now you’re making false statements to the court,” Supreme Court Justice Vincent Del Giudice told convicted cross-dresser Thomas Prusik Parkin on Monday. When his mother, Irene Prusik, died at 73 in 2003, Parkin began impersonating her to steal more than $100,000 in government benefits and keep her $2.2 million Park Slope brownstone. The six-year scheme involved Parkin, 52, wearing a dress, a blond wig and oversized sunglasses to meet with clerks at government offices.”

EDUCATION
Helping Special Education Students, and Paying With His Career (NYT)
Michael Powell reports: “There was no particular moment when Harris Lirtzman decided to blow the whistle, and so close the door on his teaching career.. But in September 2011, school administrators placed uncertified teachers in classrooms filled with special education students...This violated federal regulations. Mr. Lirtzman, 56, decided to speak up. As he was not yet tenured, he stepped gingerly...He had received nothing but satisfactory evaluations. But in December, he said, the principal, Grismaldy Laboy-Wilson, said that she would not recommend him for tenure. The next day, she told him to leave immediately.”

LABOR
Union Gets New Election At a Target (NYT)
Steven Greenhouse reports: “A federal judge on Monday set aside an unsuccessful unionization election at the Target store in Valley Stream, N.Y., and ordered a new vote, finding that Target managers had intimidated workers and violated federal labor laws.”

WILDLIFE
Bee Swarm Traps Family in Car at Pier 92 Parking Lot (DNAInfo)
Jess Wisloski and Tom Liddy report: “A terrified family found themselves helpless and trapped inside their own vehicle Sunday afternoon, stuck in a parking lot at Pier 92 and engulfed in a massive swarm of bees. Officials said a call first came in at 3:31 p.m. for a family of three locked inside their vehicle on the uppermost floor of an open air parking garage on West 55th Street and 12th Avenue. Responders, including the NYPD's resident beekeeper Anthony Planakis, swooped in to find the family's black Volvo SUV immobilized by a swarm of at least 10,000 honey bees.”