Must-read headlines from around the city, curated by the WNYC Newsroom.

POLITICS
Likely Mayoral Hopeful Leaves Democratic Party (NYT)
David Chen reports: “Adolfo Carrión Jr., a former Bronx borough president and Obama administration official, is all but certain to jump into the 2013 mayor’s race, not as a Democrat, but rather as an independent seeking the Republican nomination, according to his spokesman and others.”        

LABOR
City Unions Waiting Out Mayor's Term  (WSJ)
Michael Howard Saul reports: “For the first time since the fiscal crisis of the 1970s, every New York City public-employee union—all 152 bargaining units—is working without a contract. The situation is symbolic of the frosty turn Mayor Michael Bloomberg's relationship with organized labor has taken since he began his third term in 2010. The Bloomberg administration has told labor leaders they can't expect raises during a time of fiscal austerity. In turn, many union officials said they would wait out Mr. Bloomberg's tenure and make a deal in 2014 with a new mayor they hope will be labor friendly.”              

SANDY
NYCHA Head Says Tenants Without Power Will Get Credit - in January (NYDN)
Greg Smith reports: “Public tenants without heat, hot water and power for weeks will still have cough up their full rent before getting a credit in January — a refund that NYCHA Chairman John Rhea called "a nice little Christmas present." Rhea made the Scrooge-esque comment Monday when he showed up at the Red Hook Houses in Brooklyn, where tenants have lived in deplorable conditions since Hurricane Sandy hit Oct. 29... On Monday, Public Advocate Bill DeBlasio blasted Rhea, suggesting that the holiday gift was akin to a lump of coal.”      

MEDIA
NBCU Lays Off 450, Shakes Up ‘Today’ (NYP)
Claire Atkinson reports: “ Comcast’s NBCUniversal is laying off hundreds of staff in another round of belt-tightening. The pink slips will take place across the board and will affect about 450 employees, or 1.5 percent of the total staff, according to insiders. Earlier this year, NBC cut about two dozen staffers on “The Tonight Show” to trim the show’s budget. Host Jay Leno took a 50 percent pay cut. Cable giant Comcast acquired a 51-percent stake in NBCU from General Electric last year, and may buy GE’s remaining 49 percent stake in 2014. ‘They’ve become like General Electric,’ said one source. ‘They’re cost cutters.’”     

SANDY
Flood Insurance, Already Fragile, Faces New Stress (NYT)
Three Times reporters write: “Early estimates suggest that Hurricane Sandy will rank as the nation’s second-worst storm for claims paid out by the National Flood Insurance Program. With 115,000 new claims submitted and thousands more being filed each day, the cost could reach $7 billion at a time when the program is allowed, by law, to add only an additional $3 billion to its onerous debt.”

SANDY
NY Fed Mum on Gold’s Storm Fate (NYP)
Michael Gray reports: “As New York City continues to dry out after Hurricane Sandy and the nor’easter, some are looking at just how smart it is to place critical pieces of infrastructure of the leading capital marketplace in a flood-prone area... [W]hat became of the nearly 15 million pounds of gold bricks stored at the New York Fed? They’re safe for now, in theory. The bullion is so heavy that its vault sits 80 feet below street level, and 50 feet below sea level, on the bedrock beneath downtown Manhattan at 33 Liberty St. The New York Fed is tight-lipped about how it secures the planet’s largest concentration of gold. It said that it would not comment on the status of the vault after the storm.”