School lunches have come a along way from chicken nuggets and cardboard pizza. These days, New York City public schools are using culinary expertise to develop new recipes that are nutritious and delicious. But are they student approved? WNYC's Amanda Rozon headed to a test kitchen where every week, public school students are invited to taste test potential menu items. 

Albany's Empire State Plaza Performing Arts Center is finishing up a $19.5 million renovation. It's the first major overhaul of the space, locally known as the Egg because of its striking appearance, since it opened in 1978. 

The flu is hitting New York and New Jersey hard and early this year.

Dr. Andy Anderson is the Chief Medical and Quality Officer at the RWJ Barnabas Health network in New Jersey. He joined WNYC host David Furst to talk about the outbreak and how to help keep yourself and your loved ones safe. 

Supporters say the legislation would allow courts to consider how someone has changed. It would also give the justice system a chance to revisit sentences handed down during New York's tough-on-crime era, when extreme terms were common and judges had little guidance on how youth, trauma or rehabilitation should factor into punishment. While a growing number of states have judicial review mechanisms, there are few options once once a sentence is handed down and appeals are exhausted in New York. 

A group of New Yorkers braved frigid temperatures on East 68th Street earlier this month to wait in line for the hottest ticket in town.

Among them were married couple Pat and Chick Schissel, 87 and 97 years old, respectively. They waited 30 minutes to speak with an MTA worker inside a van parked on the street. It’s one of dozens of outreach events the transit agency held across the city this month where New Yorkers could transfer any money left on their near-obsolete MetroCards over to brand-new OMNY cards.

“ I really don't know if there is money on here or not, so if there is and we are able to switch it over, I'll feel great,” Pat Schissel said.

The group assembled on the Upper East Side was running out of time to make the switch. Come Jan. 1, the MTA will no longer sell MetroCards, completing a transition to the new fare system that dragged on for nearly a decade. But the Schissels soon discovered the MTA’s mobile van was not the place to transfer their senior discount MetroCards — each bearing their portrait — to OMNY versions. To do that, they’d have to schlep downtown.

“ They told me that I need to go to one of the customer service places, which is hard for us,” Pat Schissel said.

The Schissels are just two of roughly 1.5 million New Yorkers enrolled in the MTA’s discount program that provides half-priced transit fares to seniors. And like many aging New Yorkers, they tend to struggle with the type of modern digital technology that powers OMNY.

Along with a lack of options for a city of its stature, the public restrooms that New York does have are regularly closed or dirty or lacking basic amenities. That's according to a recent City Council report called "Good to Go?" that investigated nearly 200 facilities around the Five Boroughs. 

Councilmember Shekar Krishnan leads the Council’s Committee on Parks and Recreation and he talked with WNYC's Sean Carlson more about the city's public bathrooms.

Parsnips are like carrots if carrots were sweeter, chewier and nuttier in flavor.

Amelia Tarpey, Program and Publicity Manger for GrowNYC Greenmarkets, said the root veggie costs between $3 to $6 per pound this time of year at city farmers markets. She said you can add parsnips to your latke recipe for Hanukkah, or swap potatoes for parsnips for a starchy Christmas dinner side.

The MTA says turnstile modifications to fight fare beating are showing promise. That and more in this week's On The Way roundup of New York City transit news.

We asked, and you delivered: More than 400 readers sent us their Christmas tree prices — and among reader submissions and data collected by our staff, we found that the average price for a Christmas tree in New York City is $116.

The cheapest was a fun-sized, 1-foot-tall tree from Trader Joe’s for $10. The priciest was a 9-foot-tall Fraser on the Upper West Side for $633. And while the prices in between are all over the map, Gothamist readers seem to agree that prices are way too high.