Tonight is the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting (a 74-foot Norway spruce from Mahopac is center stage), which means it's a Gridlock Alert day in NYC, but, given the recent attempted bombing at a Portland, Oregon tree lighting event, there are concerns about safety. Well, Mayor Bloomberg wants worry warts to quit worrying, "I'm going to be at the tree lighting and I'm going to feel perfectly safe. I don't think you should worry about it."
Bloomberg added, "Whenever there is a large collection of people getting together, a large group, we always ramp up security... We've been doing that for years, and particularly now."
As for Mohamed Osman Mohamud, the 19-year-old Oregon resident accused of trying to set off a bomb at the crowded Portland event, he pleaded not guilty to the charge of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. The FBI says that no one was in danger because the explosives Mohamud had in a van were actually fake explosives a FBI undercover operative gave the teen. Which is why Mohamud's lawyers are suggesting he may have been entrapped.
