Chopper Down: A tour helicopter crashed in New York’s East River just before nightfall last night, killing five of the six people on board. Only the pilot survived.

Video shows the chopper making a soft landing with its rotors still spinning, but the water was 40 degrees. The aircraft took on water and turned upside down.

It took divers a long time to cut the passengers out of their harnesses. Two were declared dead at the scene and three more at a hospital. The pilot managed to escape.

Triggerometry: The White House is pushing ahead with President Trump’s proposal to train and arm school teachers. In a call with reporters yesterday, The White House said it wanted to partner with local officials to provide “rigorous firearms training” to school personnel.

Trump appears to have gone soft on his proposal to raise the age to buy a gun. He also proposes to create a commission to look into the issue of schools and gun violence, a common way to dodge taking action in Washington.

Failing: On Saturday The NY Times ran a story saying President Trump was considering retaining a lawyer who represented President Bill Clinton during his impeachment proceedings.

The story struck a nerve with the ever-sensitive Trump, who tweeted yesterday, “The Failing New York Times purposely wrote a false story stating that I am unhappy with my legal team on the Russia case and am going to add another lawyer to help out.” He went on, “Wrong. I am VERY happy with my lawyers, John Dowd, Ty Cobb and Jay Sekulow. They are doing a great job and….. …have shown conclusively that there was no Collusion with Russia.”

That part we know is not true, because his lawyers have proved nothing. The NY Times says it stands by its reporting, which they attribute to multiple sources close to the President.

Reading Comprehension: President Trump crowed via Twitter that his approval ratings are on a par with President Obama and the mainstream media won’t give him credit for it. He wrote, “Rasmussen and others have my approval ratings at around 50%, which is higher than Obama, and yet the political pundits love saying my approval ratings are ‘somewhat low.’ They know they are lying when they say it. Turn off the show – FAKE NEWS!”

No, it’s “Fake President!” The Rasmussen approval rating from a March 6-8 poll is 44 percent and the disapproval rating is 54 percent. Rasmussen, which skews Republican, gives Trump the highest approval. Recent polls range from 41-44 percent approval and 51 to 54 percent disapproval.

Weather Report: New England is expected to get hit tonight and tomorrow by a third winter storm in less than two weeks. The nor’easter is projected to hit northern Connecticut, all of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, as well as Maine. Anywhere from 6 to 18 inches of snow are forecast.

New Jersey still has close to 8,000 customers without power since the storm early last week.

Gun Mom: A Florida woman who’s been vocal about gun rights was shot in the back yesterday by her four-year-old son wielding a .45 caliber pistol.

Jamie Gilt, 31, was driving and her son was in the back seat. The bullet went through her back and exited her abdomen. She’s in the hospital in stable condition.

On her Facebook page entitled “Jamie Gilt for Gun Sense,” Gilt once bragged about her son: “Even my 4 year old gets jacked up to target shoot with the .22.”

The content has been removed from her page and is being replaced by anti-gun hate messages.

Hoop Dreams: The NCAA loaded up its 68-team playoff bracket yesterday. The No. 1 seeds are Virginia, Villanova, Kansas, and Xavier. Virginia is the top overall seed.

The Washington Post has an interesting statistical system to project the most likely winners. We won’t explain it, but the top four are Virginia, Villanova, Duke, and Cincinnati.

Dying Up There: Comedian Kathy Griffin is beginning to book shows in the US again after her posting of a picture of herself holding a mockup of Donald Trump’s severed head drove her career into the ditch. Soon after she put up the picture last year her national tour dissolved into cancellations.

Griffin told host Bill Maher Friday night on HBO’s “Real Time” that, “I just booked today. I’m going to do a show at Carnegie Hall in New York, and I’m also going to go right to Trump’s back yard and do a show at the Kennedy Center.”

Griffin has apologized for the picture while accidentally proving that even in the age of Trump, it’s still possible to break social norms and face consequences.

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