Michael R. Sisak

The Diocese of Rockville Center in New York City's suburbs became the largest in the U.S. to declare bankruptcy, seeking relief from a torrent of lawsuits filed after the state suspended the statute of limitations for suing over sexual abuse by priests.

A knife-wielding man stormed into a rabbi's home and stabbed five people as they celebrated Hanukkah in an Orthodox Jewish community north of New York City, an ambush the governor said Dec. 29 was an act of domestic terrorism fueled by intolerance and a "cancer" of growing hatred in America.