Here’s some of what I’m reading up on this morning:

• 83 people are arrested in New York while protesting a Staten Island grand jury’s decision not to indict NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo, who choked Eric Garner to death on camera in July. 

• New York Mayor Bill De Blasio, who believes that police chokeholds should be legal, cancelled his appearance at the Rockefeller Christmas Tree lighting Wednesday evening, but has not explicitly condemned the grand jury’s decision or called for a federal investigation into Pantaleo. 

• Al-Qaeda in Yemen threatens to kill hostage Luke Somers, a British-born U.S. citizen who’s a freelance photographer. 

• As more victims step forward, the number of military sexual assaults increases by 8 percent. 

• Seventeen states sue Obama over his executive action on immigration. 

• Jobless claims continue to decline–although that doesn’t help a slow holiday shopping season. 

• Apple deleted music from your iPod without letting you know about it. 

• Azealia Banks goes in on Iggy Azalea.  

• A new drug may heal spinal cord injuries by regenerating nerve cells. 

• The half-million-year-old zigzag design on this shell was etched at a time when we were still Homo erectus.