World: Two Palestinians armed with knives, axes, and a gun stormed a Jerusalem synagogue complex this morning, killing four people and wounding others. Three of the dead were Americans with Israeli citizenship.

Police killed the two men in a gun battle that left one officer seriously wounded. It was the worst terrorist attack in Jerusalem for years and some Israelis found it particularly disturbing because it was a murder of Jews at prayer in an ultra-orthodox neighborhood.

Ferguson: Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon declared a state of emergency for his entire state in advance of a grand jury decision on whether to indict a Ferguson police officer for last summer’s shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown. Authorities are bracing for the possibility of civil unrest in the event that the grand jury does not indict officer Darren Wilson. No date has been set for the grand jury to report, but it is expected any day.

Winter: Parts of the Buffalo, NY area were covered with three feet of snow today and 105 miles of the NY State Thruway were closed. School’s out; fender benders are in. The storm is expected to dissipate as it moves east. Temperatures continue to run 20 degrees below normal from the Gulf Coast all the way into the Northeast.

Small Screen: Jamie Horowtiz, an executive hired away from ESPN to oversee NBC’s turbulent “Today Show”, has been fired. After only 10 weeks. The news comes only days after the New York Post reported a power struggle between third-string anchor Natalie Morales and rising star Tamron Hall. It’s not certain there’s a connection, but NBC has been sensitive about bad press for Today ever since the public knifing of host Ann Curry.

The Sports Page: Florida Marlins slugger Giancarlo Stanton swung for the seats and connected with a 13-year, $325 million contract extension… the biggest money in the history of American sports. Stanton missed the last three weeks of the season after he was smashed in the face with a pitch, but still led the National League with 37 home runs. He’s only 25, but the risk he takes is hitching himself to a team that can’t seem to pull itself together.

> The National Football League has suspended the Minnesota Vikings star running back Adrian Peterson without pay for the rest of the season. The league said Peterson violated the NFL’s personal conduct policy when he beat his four-year-old son with a switch. Peterson pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor. The league said Peterson showed “no meaningful remorse.”

Vapid: The Oxford Dictionaries have named “vape” the word of the year for 2014. That’s “vape,” a verb meaning to smoke an electronic cigarette, and it’s a noun as in “vape shop”.

Age of Aquarius: Charles Manson, the madman behind the 1969 murders of Sharon Tate and six other people, has been granted a license to get married to a woman who’s been visiting him in prison. He’s 80 and his fiancée, Afton Elaine Burton, is 26. She calls herself “Star.” Burton told the Associated Press, “I love him.” Manson, of course, is serving life in prison. Comedian Jimmy Kimmel asked, “I wonder if it’s going to be a destination wedding?”

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