Whiteout: Snow is still falling in Boston and along the New England coast after a predicted “historic” storm struck a glancing blow in New York, leaving only about eight inches.

The storm moved on a line 50 to 75 miles east of where it had been predicted, sparing the city. The east end of Long Island is getting two feet as the storm moves toward Maine.

Boston, Providence, and Portland may end up with two feet of snow and up to three feet in some other areas. The roads and highways of coastal New England are nearly empty.

Travel bans have been lifted after New York City was shut down overnight. In a rare move all roads and public transportation had been closed in advance of the storm. Despite roads coated with snow, it’s the air travellers who might not be going anywhere soon. So far today 4,672 domestic flights have been cancelled.

Nation: Former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling was convicted of espionage yesterday for giving information to the New York Times about a secret operation to disrupt Iran’s nuclear program. Sterling told Times reporter James Risen about a CIA plot to have a Russian scientist give Iran intentionally flawed plans for a nuclear component. The evidence included CIA agents who testified from behind a screen to protect their identities. The case gained more notoriety because Risen refused to reveal his sources and battled prosecutors for years to stay off the witness stand.

World: Argentina’s President Cristina Fernandez has shut down the state intelligence service, the Secretariat of Intelligence, in the wake of the death of a special prosecutor who may have been murdered. Alberto Nisman was about to testify that President Fernandez was part of the cover-up of an Iranian terrorist bombing when he was found dead in his bathroom of a gunshot to the forehead. The president has said it was part of a plot by the SI to make her look guilty.

Money Talks: The conservative Koch brothers plan to deploy $900 million to sway the 2016 elections, they revealed at their annual winter retreat in Palm Springs. Weighing their financial power against the Democrats and Republicans, it makes Charles and David Koch a third political party unto themselves. They plan to spend their money to push Congress and Republican-run state governments to cut taxes and regulations while shrinking the size of government.

Permawar: Kurdish forces say they have driven Islamic State fighters out of the border city of Kobane that’s been embattled for months. The Kurds claim 90 percent of the town. Allied aerial bombing was critical in the turnaround, but some sources say ISIS controls more territory now than when the West began pummeling them from the air last year.

National Security: The amateur operator of a quadricopter drone that crashed into the White House lawn yesterday came forward to say the aircraft was his. The unidentified man is a government employee who was flying the drone at 3 am. It was harmless, but the violation of White House air space is another embarrassment for the Secret Service.

Chicken Little: The storm in the words of CNN: Epic, Life-threatening, Crippling, Taking Aim, Tidal Surge, Quadruple Threat, Deadly, Hurricane Force, Wreaking Havoc, Greatest Fear, Coastal Bomb, Massive Outages, Bracing, Monster, Historic, States of Emergency, Risking Your Life, Awful, Catastrophic, and “Live Blizzardmobile.”

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