1 dead, 600,000 without power from ongoing blizzard

A monster blizzard has left at least one person dead and hundreds of thousands of New Englanders in the dark and in the cold Friday night, thanks to a storm that's already delivered whipping winds and more than a foot of snow in some parts, with prospects of even double that by the time it's done.

The storm -- actually the convergence of two powerful systems -- began in earnest Friday morning in parts of New York and is expected to continue well into Saturday in Rhode Island, eastern Massachusetts and Maine.

Snow was more or less continuous for much of the region all day, with some lulls as well as times when it picked up considerably. At one point Friday night, for instance, Connecticut's emergency management agency warned on Twitter that "a wide ban of extremely heavy snow" was moving through the central and eastern parts of the Nutmeg State, dropping snow at a staggering rate of 4 to 5 inches an hour.

Smithfield, Rhode Island, had 14 inches of snow by 9 p.m. Friday, one of several towns in that state, Connecticut and Massachusetts to be buried under more than a foot of snow -- with much more, potentially, on the way.

"I couldn't believe the amount of snow that had piled up, as well as the many fallen branches," said CNN iReporter Molly Schulson in Providence, Rhode Island.

She was among the tens of millions of people stranded in the blizzard's path.

Many were prohibited by authorities from driving as a preemptive measure while other roads were closed in the thick of the bad weather, as was the case late Friday for New York's Long Island Expressway and Sunrise Highway, according to the Suffolk County Police Department.

Others saw their travel plans squashed when more than 5,000 flights from some 60 airports were canceled. And Amtrak nixed several of its scheduled runs, citing the weather, while commuter rail service in and out of New York and other locales were also impacted.

Track the storm on map, timeline

That helped transform several New England communities into ghost towns, as streets that typically would be choked with traffic were quiet, except for whistling winds; and empty, except for a blanket of thick, sticky snow.

CNN iReporters sent in photos and video from Boston, for instance, that showed sheets of white on the ground -- except when whipping winds made for near whiteout conditions on camera -- and little movement on the streets.

"Boston is kind of eerie at the moment," said Chris Moran, a veteran snowplow driver doing his best to keep the roads clear. "People are off the streets, and it looks like it could be 3 o'clock in the morning."Strong winds made this storm especially biting. By Friday night, the National Weather Service reported wind gusts around 70 mph along the Massachusetts coast and through greater Boston, including a 74-mph gust in Buzzards Bay on Cape Cod.

"The wind is just pounding," CNN iReporter Jordana Fleischut said from Nantucket, off Massachusetts' southern coast. "It's currently moving the Jeep that we're in -- that's how powerful it is."

Such strong winds threatened to rustle up flooding along the coast at high tide Saturday morning. In the seaside Massachusetts town of Marshfield, for instance, the emergency management agency noted there may be a storm surge of between two to three feet and forecast a "serious event with moderate to major impact" around 10 a.m. Saturday.

Police in Poughkeepsie, New York, said one person died in a storm-related vehicle accident there, the first fatality that CNN has confirmed from the blizzard.

The storm also damage for those not living directly on the coast, as evidenced by extensive power outages around the region.

For many more people, the storm's impact will be in the form of widespread power outages. By early Saturday, more than 600,000 customers -- most in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut -- were without electricity, a number that could grow.

Apps to help get you through

For some, it all evoked memories of the "Blizzard of '78" and the "Presidents Day Storm of 2003" -- two of dozens of winter storms in Massachusetts that Moran has been out on the streets.

The Framingham resident bundled up to brave the bitter cold and clear snow off the roads. But with a storm this powerful, it sometimes seems like a losing battle.

"I just finished plowing a 40-car parking lot," said Moran. "But if you were to look at it now, you never would have guessed. It's completely covered."

Alarms raised, events canceled ahead of the storm

Authorities have been sounding the alarm about the coming storm for days, urging people to stock up and stay off the roads. The worries were especially pronounced in places slammed by Sandy.

That late October storm tore through Nick Camerada's Staten Island home, leaving him personally "destroyed" and cognizant that there may be more hits coming.

"You can't mess with Mother Nature," an emotional Camerada said.

Lines of customers snaked around storefronts as many braced for the worst.

When Reading, Massachusetts, resident Elizabeth Frazier arrived at a grocery store late Thursday night, shoppers were already buying up the store.

"It's a zoo in there," she said. "There's nothing left on the shelves," she told CNN affiliate WHDH.

Governors across New England and New York have declared states of emergency, and all cars and trucks -- except emergency vehicles -- must now be off Massachusetts and Connecticut roadways. A similar ban in Rhode Island took effect at 5 p.m.

Violating that ban could incur a penalty of up to a year in jail and a $500 fine.

By Friday night, the storm had already led to hundreds of cancellations of public school classes to sporting events. The storm even prompted the cancellation of ACT tests, for would-be college students, around the Northeast.

Utility companies tried to get a head start on the storm, by having additional crews ready to respond to outages caused by downed power lines.

The fear is that, as happened after Sandy, such outages could persist for days. Still, for all the alarms being raised, the mayor of Boston -- which forecasters expected would be the city hardest hit by the storm -- said he expected residents of his community and others to hunker down and weather the storm.

Said Mayor Thomas Menino, "We are hardy New Englanders."

US north-east battered by 'historic' snowstorm

Thick snow is blanketing the north-eastern US as a major storm cuts power to thousands of homes and plays havoc with transport schedules.

Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, Connecticut and Maine are all on an emergency footing, with millions of residents being warned to stay indoors.

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick has temporarily banned all non-essential traffic on the state's roads.

Meteorologists say the storm could be New England's worst for decades.

Airlines cancelled more than 4,300 flights - including all those to and from the three major airports in New York City - and the train operator Amtrak has suspended nearly all services north of the city.

People have been warned to stay off the roads, and stock up on food and other supplies as the storm affects 25 million people in the region.

More than 330,000 power cuts have been reported in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut.

A nuclear power station in Massachusetts also lost power and was forced to shut down. Back-up generators are operating equipment and there is no threat to the public, officials said.

Worse to come?

Blizzard warnings are in effect for much of the coastal section of the north-eastern US, from Newark to southern Maine.

Forecasters said the storm could dump as much as three feet (90cm) of snow in some places as it hammered swathes of territory, with winds of up to 75mph (120km/h) expected to create deep drifts.

Police in New York say hundreds of cars are stuck on the Long Island Expressway, with officers trying to help the drivers to safety.

Parts of Massachusetts were already under a foot of snow by Friday night, with more expected over the weekend.

"This is a storm of major proportions," warned Boston Mayor Thomas Menino. "Stay off the roads. Stay home."

Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy said: "People need to take this storm seriously. Please stay home once the weather gets bad except in the case of real emergency."In New York City, which is expecting a 12in dousing, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said snow ploughs and 250,000 tonnes of salt were being put on standby.

The storm has also disrupted New York Fashion Week, which is held under a big tent. Organisers say they will bring in extra crews to help with snow removal and add an extra layer of tenting to the venue.

Some neighbourhoods in the city are still recovering from Sandy, an October storm that brought record flooding. Many of those areas face a renewed risk of storm surge and flooding from the winter storm.

Fuel shortages were being reported from Connecticut to New York City as motorists queued at petrol stations to fill up vehicles, generators and snow blowers.

Mayor Bloomberg urged residents not to panic-buy fuel.

The National Weather Service had earlier said the combination of two weather systems from the polar and sub-tropical jet streams would produce a "potentially historic" storm.

Snow was being blamed for a 19-car pileup in Maine on Friday morning.

Further north, meanwhile, Ontario has already seen 200 vehicle accidents, the CBC reported. At least three people have been killed.

US north-east braces for 'historic' snowstorm

The north-east US coast is braced for a big snowstorm that has already caused hundreds of flight cancellations.

The storm is set to cause power cuts and transport chaos as it arrives from the Great Lakes and brings blizzards to parts of New England on Friday.

It is expected to peak on Saturday morning east of Cape Cod.

Schools have already been closed in Boston, where sustained strong winds are set to exacerbate heavy snowfall - as much as two feet in some areas.

The National Weather Service said the combination of two weather systems from the polar and subtropical jet streams would produce a "potentially historic" storm, with weather warnings extending from New Jersey to Maine.

Winds of up to 35mph (55km/h) with significantly stronger hurricane-strength gusts were expected to create deep drifts.

Airlines have already cancelled hundreds of flights across the region.

In Boston, Mayor Thomas Menino urged businesses to consider allowing staff to stay home to reduce the risk of commuters getting stranded.

"We are hardy New Englanders, let me tell you, and used to these types of storms," said Mr Menino.

"But I also want to remind everyone to use common sense and stay off the streets of our city. Basically, stay home,"

In New York, where memories of October's Hurricane Sandy are still fresh in the mind, the famous Staten Island ferry has had its schedule reduced. While schools remain open for now, residents are being advised to prepare for the worst.

"Due to potential power outages and transportation difficulties, New Yorkers are advised to stock up on potential supplies, including medicine," said the city's mayor, Michael Bloomberg.

With up to a foot of snow expected over the next two days, Mr Bloomberg said snow ploughs and 250,000 tonnes of salt were being readied for use.

Gay rights: How U.S. leads the way

Philippe Coste is the staff New York correspondent for the weekly L'Express. He also writes a blog on "lexpress.fr." His book, recently published in France, is about populism and the American justice system: "Quand la justice dérape" (When Justice goes off track).

A week before Barack Obama became the first U.S. president to mention gay rights in his inauguration speech, the French had already made history on that matter. Believe it or not, on January 13, there were half a million people on the streets of Paris, demonstrating against gay marriage.

The French Catholic church is supposed to be at its last gasp, but it seemed strong enough to mobilize parishes, religious school parents and the common conservative citizen against a project of "mariage pour tous" (marriage for everybody), that had long been part of the new Socialist President François Hollande's election platform. Now that the law is being debated in parliament, it will likely pass within a month, but the ruckus will have stripped it of provisions deemed essential to the gay community: the equal rights, even if they are married, to start a family and raise their children. It may also trigger off a new culture war.The Church would not have enjoyed that success alone, had it not found the most unexpected and efficient leader, in the person of Virginie Tellenne, alias "Frigide Barjot." The nom-de-scène of this enterprising entertainer, known for her long-time connection to the RPR, the party of Jacques Chirac, means "cookoo," and was a rallying cry for silly demonstrations, in the 80s, against cold weather in Paris, before she met God in 2004, and proclaimed herself "Jesus's PR person."I saw her recently on a French TV channel while, in her trademark miniskirt and fishnets, she was debating a lesbian activist named Caroline Fourest, who asked Barjot how she felt about "gathering hundred of thousand of people in a demonstration against the equal rights of another community." She answered that she "loved gays," reminding the audience she often "partied like crazy" at Bananas, a well known hangout of the hip Parisian LGBT crowd. Translation: gay was okay as long as it stayed in the "cage aux folles," in drag, in an entertaining margin, but certainly not in the mundane realities of everyday life, where it is way more complicated.Indeed. Frigide, just like a majority of the French, supported the civil union enacted in 1999, the so-called Pacs, designed mainly for same sex couples. It gives some rights, but doesn't legitimate partners as parents. Marriage would. And there is the rub: adoption, medically assisted procreation. "What about the bloodline? What about mother nature, and the right of kids raised that way to know their true origin?, shrieked Frigide, oblivious to the fact that children adopted or medically procreated with donated eggs by straight parents have the same problem. It all boiled down, at the minute of truth, to that question: "What about their right to be raised normally? she asked. By a mommy and a daddy?"Having witnessed the debate on same-sex marriage in the United States, that episode confirms one more difference between our cultures. Contrary to the Americans who, in spite of blunt evidence, still worship the act of marriage, with its fairy-tale rituals of proposing and funny kneeling, the French have a much more pessimistic, more realistic even, vision of the knot. But when it comes to families and raising kids, they seem to believe in the enchanted world of yore.In America, the same-sex unions were often seen as the sinful problem, as the Christian banners, "Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve" proclaimed around the country. But children were nobody else's business for those willing to adopt, or procreate with the methods available to anyone able to pay for donated eggs, sperm or a surrogate mother.France is another story. In a country where unrealistic conditions slacken usual adoption, gay prospective parents have had to act as any straight single person would, ask for an adoption authorization, and, to improve the chances ... get the child in another country. The law debated these days may grant their partner equal parental rights for adoption. As for medically assisted procreation, it is another problem: As of today, it is simply forbidden unless the couple is heterosexual and married or able to prove they has lived together for at least two years. Surrogate mothers are prohibited in France, plain and simple.

Hollande himself, though he promotes gay marriage as a progressive symbol, admitted he doesn't personally favor allowing medically assisted reproduction to homosexuals, and with the assent of many socialist party officials, had these corresponding measures postponed -- for parliament to decide -- as another law to a future debate, in March.

One reason, besides the obvious fear of a culture war with the conservatives about sacred family values, maybe the fact that the government already pays four attempts of medically assisted procreation to heterosexual couples and doesn't wish to have to extend this costly favor to gays, nor, more importantly, does it want to change at any price the national moral doctrine.

Assisted reproduction is considered in France only as a way to treat the medical condition of infertility. Being gay is not an illness, neither is, for a woman, the fact that she has no man. As a consequence, French babies are born en masse from single and not-so-single mothers in nearby Belgium or Spain, where specialized services are legally available for a price. "These children already exist in France," concluded Caroline Fourest on the show."They were born from gay parents and they simply deserve to have it recognized."

Senators reach deal on immigration changes

A bipartisan group of leading senators has reached agreement on the principles of sweeping legislation to rewrite the nation's immigration laws.

The deal, which was to be announced at a news conference Monday afternoon, covers border security, guest workers and employer verification, as well as a path to citizenship for the 11 million illegal immigrants already in this country.

Although thorny details remain to be negotiated and success is far from certain, the development heralds the start of what could be the most significant effort in years toward overhauling the nation's inefficient patchwork of immigration laws.

President Barack Obama also is committed to enacting comprehensive immigration legislation and will travel to Nevada on Tuesday to lay out his vision, which is expected to overlap in important ways with the Senate effort.

The eight senators expected to endorse the new principles Monday are Democrats Charles Schumer of New York, Dick Durbin of Illinois, Robert Menendez of New Jersey and Michael Bennet of Colorado; and Republicans John McCain of Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Marco Rubio of Florida and Jeff Flake of Arizona.

Several of these lawmakers have worked for years on the issue. McCain collaborated with the late Democratic Sen. Edward M. Kennedy on comprehensive immigration legislation pushed by then-President George W. Bush in 2007, only to see it collapse in the Senate when it couldn't get enough GOP support.

Now, with some Republicans chastened by the November elections which demonstrated the importance of Latino voters and their increasing commitment to Democrats, some in the GOP say this time will be different.

"What's changed, honestly, is that there is a new, I think, appreciation on both sides of the aisle — including maybe more importantly on the Republican side of the aisle — that we have to enact a comprehensive immigration reform bill," McCain said Sunday on ABC's "This Week."

"I think the time is right," McCain said.

The group claims a notable newcomer in Rubio, a potential 2016 presidential candidate whose conservative bona fides may help smooth the way for support among conservatives wary of anything that smacks of amnesty. In an opinion piece published Sunday in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Rubio wrote that the existing system amounts to "de facto amnesty," and he called for "commonsense reform."

According to documents obtained by The Associated Press, the senators will call for accomplishing four goals:

    Creating a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants already here, contingent upon securing the border and better tracking of people here on visas.
    Reforming the legal immigration system, including awarding green cards to immigrants who obtain advanced degrees in science, math, technology or engineering from an American university.
    Creating an effective employment verification system to ensure that employers do not hire illegal immigrants.
    Allowing more low-skill workers into the country and allowing employers to hire immigrants if they can demonstrate they couldn't recruit a U.S. citizen; and establishing an agricultural worker program.

The principles being released Monday are outlined on just over four pages, leaving plenty of details left to fill in. What the senators do call for is similar to Obama's goals and some past efforts by Democrats and Republicans, since there's wide agreement in identifying problems with the current immigration system. The most difficult disagreement is likely to arise over how to accomplish the path to citizenship.

In order to satisfy the concerns of Rubio and other Republicans, the senators are calling for the completion of steps on border security and oversight of those here on visas before taking major steps forward on the path to citizenship.

Even then, those here illegally would have to qualify for a "probationary legal status" that would allow them to live and work here — but not qualify for federal benefits — before being able to apply for permanent residency. Once they are allowed to apply they would do so behind everyone else already in line for a green card within the current immigration system.

That could be a highly cumbersome process, but how to make it more workable is being left to future negotiations. The senators envision a more streamlined process toward citizenship for immigrants brought here as children by their parents, and for agricultural workers.

The debate will play out at the start of Obama's second term, as he aims to spend the political capital afforded him by his re-election victory on an issue that has eluded past presidents and stymied him during his first term despite his promises to the Latino community to act.

"As the president has made clear for some time, immigration reform is an important priority and he is pleased that progress is being made with bipartisan support," a White House spokesman, Clark Stevens, said in a statement. "At the same time, he will not be satisfied until there is meaningful reform and he will continue to urge Congress to act until that is achieved."

For Republicans, the November elections were a stark schooling on the importance of Latino voters, who voted for Obama over Republican Mitt Romney 71 percent to 27 percent, helping ensure Obama's victory. That led some Republican leaders to conclude that supporting immigration reform with a path to citizenship has become a political imperative.

Flu season fuels debate over paid sick time laws

NEW YORK (AP) — Sniffling, groggy and afraid she had caught the flu, Diana Zavala dragged herself in to work anyway for a day she felt she couldn't afford to miss.

A school speech therapist who works as an independent contractor, she doesn't have paid sick days. So the mother of two reported to work and hoped for the best — and was aching, shivering and coughing by the end of the day. She stayed home the next day, then loaded up on medicine and returned to work.

"It's a balancing act" between physical health and financial well-being, she said.

An unusually early and vigorous flu season is drawing attention to a cause that has scored victories but also hit roadblocks in recent years: mandatory paid sick leave for a third of civilian workers — more than 40 million people — who don't have it.

Supporters and opponents are particularly watching New York City, where lawmakers are weighing a sick leave proposal amid a competitive mayoral race.

Pointing to a flu outbreak that the governor has called a public health emergency, dozens of doctors, nurses, lawmakers and activists — some in surgical masks — rallied Friday on the City Hall steps to call for passage of the measure, which has awaited a City Council vote for nearly three years. Two likely mayoral contenders have also pressed the point.

The flu spike is making people more aware of the argument for sick pay, said Ellen Bravo, executive director of Family Values at Work, which promotes paid sick time initiatives around the country. "There's people who say, 'OK, I get it — you don't want your server coughing on your food,'" she said.

Advocates have cast paid sick time as both a workforce issue akin to parental leave and "living wage" laws, and a public health priority.

But to some business owners, paid sick leave is an impractical and unfair burden for small operations. Critics also say the timing is bad, given the choppy economy and the hardships inflicted by Superstorm Sandy.

Michael Sinesky, an owner of seven bars and restaurants around the city, was against the sick time proposal before Sandy. And after the storm shut down four of his restaurants for days or weeks, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars that his insurers have yet to pay, "we're in survival mode."

"We're at the point, right now, where we cannot afford additional social initiatives," said Sinesky, whose roughly 500 employees switch shifts if they can't work, an arrangement that some restaurateurs say benefits workers because paid sick time wouldn't include tips.

Employees without sick days are more likely to go to work with a contagious illness, send an ill child to school or day care and use hospital emergency rooms for care, according to a 2010 survey by the University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center. A 2011 study in the American Journal of Public Health estimated that a lack of sick time helped spread 5 million cases of flu-like illness during the 2009 swine flu outbreak.

To be sure, many employees entitled to sick time go to work ill anyway, out of dedication or at least a desire to project it. But the work-through-it ethic is shifting somewhat amid growing awareness about spreading sickness.

"Right now, where companies' incentives lie is butting right up against this concern over people coming into the workplace, infecting others and bringing productivity of a whole company down," said John A. Challenger, CEO of employer consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

Paid sick day requirements are often popular in polls, but only four places have them: San Francisco, Seattle, Washington, D.C., and the state of Connecticut. The specific provisions vary.

Milwaukee voters approved a sick time requirement in 2008, but the state Legislature passed a law blocking it. Philadelphia's mayor vetoed a sick leave measure in 2011; lawmakers have since instituted a sick time requirement for businesses with city contracts. Voters rejected a paid sick day measure in Denver in 2011.

In New York, City Councilwoman Gale Brewer's proposal would require up to five paid sick days a year at businesses with at least five employees. It wouldn't include independent contractors, such as Zavala, who supports the idea nonetheless.

The idea boasts such supporters as feminist Gloria Steinem and "Sex and the City" actress Cynthia Nixon, as well as a majority of City Council members and a coalition of unions, women's groups and public health advocates. But it also faces influential opponents, including business groups, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who has virtually complete control over what matters come to a vote.

Quinn, who is expected to run for mayor, said she considers paid sick leave a worthy goal but doesn't think it would be wise to implement it in a sluggish economy. Two of her likely opponents, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and Comptroller John Liu, have reiterated calls for paid sick leave in light of the flu season.

While the debate plays out, Emilio Palaguachi is recovering from the flu and looking for a job. The father of four was abruptly fired without explanation earlier this month from his job at a deli after taking a day off to go to a doctor, he said. His former employer couldn't be reached by telephone.

"I needed work," Palaguachi said after Friday's City Hall rally, but "I needed to see the doctor because I'm sick."

Six All-Americans lead record list of early NFL Draft entries

NFL drafts

A record 73 underclassmen, including six first-team All-Americans, have been approved for the NFL draft on Saturday.

That overall number of early entries is eight more than last year.

The six All-Americans are safety Matt Elam of Florida, tight end Zach Ertz of Stanford, tackle Luke Joeckel of Texas A&M, defensive end Bjoern Werner of Florida State, linebacker Jarvis Jones of Georgia and cornerback Dee Milliner of national champion Alabama.

Also approved former LSU cornerback-kick returner Tyrann Mathieu, a 2011 All-American who was kicked off the Tigers before last season.

The NFL draft will be April 25-27 in New York.

Seastreak Wall Street ferry crash hurts 57 in New York

Seastreak Wall Street ferry crash

A New York passenger ferry has hit a dock during the Manhattan rush hour, injuring 57 people and tearing a hole in the vessel's bow. Eleven people have been seriously injured, the Associated Press reports.

The Seastreak Wall Street ferry hit the mooring as it docked about 08:45 (13:45 GMT) after a trip from New Jersey. The ferry, which was carrying about 340 passengers and five crew members, was able to dock and witnesses say people rushed to disembark.

Of the 57 people injured, two were in a critical condition and 29 had minor injuries, New York City Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan told reporters. She said the boat had struck the dock at about 10-12 knots (11.5mph - 13.8mph; 18.5km/h - 22.2km/h).

Passengers who had been standing, waiting to disembark, were hurled to the deck or launched into walls as the Seastreak hit the dock. 

"We just tumbled on top of each other," Ellen Foran of Neptune City, New Jersey told the AP. "I got thrown into everybody else... People were hysterical, crying."

The most seriously injured passenger suffered a severe head wound by falling down a stairwell. The BBC's Barbara Plett says Pier 11 in Lower Manhattan has not closed as a result of the collision, avoiding a major disruption to water traffic. A woman who witnessed the crash from the dock told CBS News the 140ft (43m) vessel did not appear to have been coming in at high speed, but said "it was a very hard hit".

"It had pulled in - starting to pull in - and what it did was it hit the right side of the boat on the dock hard, like a bomb," Dee Wertz told the television station.

In a statement, the ferry company said it would work with investigators to determine the cause of the accident.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with those that were injured," the firm said.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has visited the scene of the crash, along with senior police, fire and emergency management officials. Police said the boat's crew passed alcohol breath tests given after the crash. The cause of the accident was under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board.

The ferry, built in 2003, had recently undergone a major overhaul that gave it new engines and a new propulsion system, but officials said it was too soon to tell whether the upgrades had played any role in the crash. Manhattan, an island, is served by several commuter ferry lines, the largest of which brings passengers from the Staten Island borough.

 

In 2003, 11 people were killed and dozens injured when a Staten Island ferry boat crashed into a pier on Staten Island, across New York Harbor from Manhattan. Dozens more were injured in a State Island ferry crash in 2010.

(bbc.com)

Olivia Culpo is new to New York and looking for a date

Olivia Culpo - Miss Universe

Olivia Culpo was judged the most attractive woman in the universe — but it’s not her long dark hair, popping eyebrows or killer looks that draw you in. It’s that she’s real.

"I was at my parents house on my hands knees scrubbing the floor just two days ago," said the 20-year-old Rhode Islander on her first official day as reigning Miss Universe. "I was taught to value hard work. At the end of day, I'm just Olivia.

 Single Olivia, to be exact. Not that she’ll stay that way.

"I want a gentleman," she said, smiling. "Someone with manners. I may date this year. Maybe Prince Charming will come along. You boys better step it up."

So far, spies say crooner Joe Jonas and “Family Guy” creator and 2013 Oscar host Seth MacFarlane have come knocking. So has Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte — but Miss Universe pageant owner Donald Trump said the Olympian doesn’t stand a chance.

"That swimmer is all over her like a puppy dog," Trump said. "She's rebuffed all kinds of celebrities. Olivia is focused on being Miss Universe. She's a smart, good girl."

All the attention is a far cry from Culpo’s life last year, when she was at Boston University, where she studied acting and communications. She entered her first beauty pageant 15 months ago, winning Miss Rhode Island and then Miss USA. Now she's Miss Universe.

Her parents, classically trained musicians who met in a college orchestra pit, weren't exactly supportive.

"They hated the idea of me in a beauty pageant," said Culpo, the middle child in a family of five kids. "They thought it was narcissistic. They showed up to Miss Rhode Island in their sweatpants."

On her first day back in New York since the pageant, Culpo moved into the big bedroom in the free W. 57th St. apartment she shares with the new Miss USA. Then she was off to dinner with friends and a date with Hugh Jackman (alas, only on the screen in "Les Miserables").

Culpo first came to New York when she was in the second or third grade when she played Carnegie Hall with the Rhode Island Youth Philharmonic. In two weeks, she departs for Indonesia on her initial trip as Miss Universe. Her cause is HIV awareness.

Trump, who recently won a lawsuit against a former Miss USA contestant, thinks he got lucky with Culpo.

"You never know what you're going to get and sometimes it can hurt the brand," said Trump. "With Olivia, we have a major star. What's different about her is she's really nice. It's no act."

So she won’t be hanging out at nightclubs while she’s underage?

“Not unless I want to end up in the Daily News gossip pages,” laughed Culpo.

 Here’s all you need to know about Miss Universe Olivia Culpo:

-- She’s from Rhode Island

-- She wears size zero

-- She went to an all-girls high school

-- She sings and plays cello

-- She eats egg whites every morning

-- She’s a Taurus (but doesn’t believe in horoscopes)

-- She was the first Miss USA since 1997

-- She’s attractive, and nice.

article source: Daily News