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freezing.
• Blame it on a return of the "polar vortex."
• "That is the buzzword this winter, the polar vortex. That cold air just kind of migrates around the poles and the extreme northern latitudes all the time," said Jim Lee, meteorologist in charge at the National Weather Service in Sterling, Va. "The jet stream enables that colder air to move down the East Coast."
• Monday's snowstorm followed a pattern that's become routine. Schools and government offices were closed. Federal workers stayed home -- the fourth weather-related shutdown this season. Young adults gathered on the sloppy, slushy National Mall for a semi-organized, afternoon snowball fight.
• ___

• TORONTO (AP) -- Embattled Toronto Mayor Rob Ford laughed off Jimmy Kimmel's suggestion that he get help for his drinking problem and was reported to be upset about his appearance on the late night TV talk show.
• Ford's appearance Monday night on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" in Los Angeles was the culmination of months of wooing by the talk show host to get Ford to appear as a guest.
• Ford tossed T-shirts to the audience to loud applause as he came on stage after Kimmel introduced him by saying "our first guest tonight has tripped, bumped, danced, argued and smoked his way into our national consciousness."
• Kimmel told Ford that if he's an alcoholic, and drinking enough that he would try crack cocaine in his 40s, "and you don't remember it, maybe that's something that you might want to think about, like talking to somebody."
• Ford shot back his head and laughed before saying he "wasn't elected to be perfect."
• ___

• DETROIT (AP) -- The author of a controversial study of adult children often cited by opponents of gay marriage defended his work in court on Monday but also said it was too early for social scientists to make far-reaching conclusions about families headed by same-sex couples.

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