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• The billionaire hasn't shied from using his political post and his personal fortune to push for gun control well beyond the city limits, garnering both plaudits and complaints that he's overreaching.
• The poisoned letters to Bloomberg and the group Mayors Against Illegal Guns essentially threatened that "anyone who comes for my guns will be shot in the face," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Thursday, shortly before the Secret Service disclosed that a similar missive was sent to President Barack Obama.
• Bloomberg didn't comment on the case Thursday, but he said Wednesday he didn't feel angry, threatened -- or inclined to back down.
• "We're not going to walk away from those efforts," he said.
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'German curse' no more: 13-year-old New York boy aces 'knaidel' to win National Spelling Bee
• OXON HILL, Md. (AP) -- As red and yellow confetti floated into his hair, the champ just stood there and cracked his knuckles, hardly the type of celebration expected from a 13-year-old. His smiles had come earlier, when he conquered "the German curse" on his way to spelling's top prize.
• New York City has its first Scripps National Spelling Bee winner in 16 years. Arvind Mahankali has never had a "knaidel," but he was able to spell the German-derived Yiddish word for a matzo ball Thursday night to earn the huge trophy and more than $30,000 in cash and prizes.
• "The German curse," Arvind said, "has turned into a German blessing."
• Arvind finished third the two previous years, eliminated both times on German words. He had everyone laughing two years ago when he pronounced "Jugendstil" as "You could steal" and saluted the crowd when he got it wrong. Last year he flubbed "schwannoma" and quickly proclaimed: "I know what I have to study."
• "I had begun to be a little wary of German words," Arvind said Thursday night. "But this year I prepared German words and I studied them, so when I got German words this year, I wasn't worried."
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Unusual, difficult or noteworthy words from the 2013 Scripps National Spelling Bee
• OXON HILL, Md. (AP) -- A look at some unusual, difficult or otherwise noteworthy words from the 2013 Scripps National Spelling Bee.
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