Stormy Monday:  Snow and freezing rains caused accidents, snarled air travel and complicated football games Sunday as a major winter storm blanketed the East. A fatal crash on the Pennsylvania Turnpike caused a chain of accidents involving nearly 50 vehicles. There was a 20-car pileup south of Milwaukee. Groundskeepers had to keep the lines and hash marks swept in Philadelphia yesterday as the Eagles played the Lions in a blizzard. Tackled runners fell to the ground in clouds of snow. Ice and snow are expected to slow commuter traffic in Washington today and 3-6 inches of snow could still fall in New England.

World: Ukrainian riot police have surrounded thousands of demonstrators in the center of Kiev, where dissidents are reinforcing barricades made of planks and park benches as well as occupying city hall.

Yesterday protesters toppled and broke up a statue of Vladimir Lenin, the hero of the Russian Revolution, in what was the biggest demonstration so far against the Ukrainian government. The streets of Kiev were filled with people angry that President Viktor F. Yanukovich is turning away from closer economic ties with Europe. Ukraine is having a financial crisis. Yanukovich wants an $18 billion bailout from Russia, the kingpin of the old Soviet Union.

Family Ties: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un kicked out the second most powerful man in government, his uncle by marriage, Jang Song Thaek. Jang was accused of corruption, “womanizing” and drug-use. The state news agency said, “Jang and his followers committed criminal acts baffling imagination and they did tremendous harm to our party and revolution.”  Outside analysts say Kim is consolidating power in the name of cleaning house.

• After a series of protests demanding that she leave office, Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said she will call a parliamentary election. The opposition believes the government is really controlled by Yingluck’s brother, the ousted leader and billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra. They’ve vowed to stay at it until she’s gone.

Nation: The Senate today takes up a bill to extend the ban on plastic guns for another 10 years. The guns are undetectable at security checkpoints.

She Dreamed: Scottish singer Susan Boyle said she’s been diagnosed with Asperger syndrome and was relieved to hear it. Asperger is at the low end of the autism spectrum. People who have it tend to be socially awkward and disconnected. Boyle said she always knew something was different about her, but thought it was because she had been deprived of enough oxygen at birth. She told the Observer newspaper, “Now I have a clearer understanding of what’s wrong and I feel relieved and a bit more relaxed about myself.” Boyle gained instant fame singing  “I Dreamed a Dream” from “Les Miserables” on the television show “Britain’s Got Talent,” and has since made fortunes on records.

Rocky Mtn. High: The Denver Post is taking jabs for assigning a reporter to cover the marijuana beat. On Jan. 1 Colorado becomes one of two states where recreational use of marijuana is legal. The paper believes legal marijuana will affect politics, culture, and cuisine and is worthy of coverage. So do the joke writers. From Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update: “The Denver Post this week announced that they’re looking for a marijuana editor for their website. They have one. They’re just looking for him.”

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