As you can see in this photo (thanks, reader), 7th Avenue in Midtown has been shut down by police, due to a "suspicious package." Internal email warnings, continuous updates, and photos of the purported terror bag, below. Plus: David Paterson!

CNN is about where we all are when it comes to the earthquake in Haiti: Scouring social networks for eyewitness accounts. This live-streaming Canadian videoblogger just got called, on air, from a CNN producer looking for sources in Haiti.

A 7.0 quake has struck Haiti just outside Port-au-Prince causing widespread damage. The Haitian ambassador to the United States, Raymond Alcide Joseph, told CNN, "I think it's really a catastrophe of major proportions." The AFP spoke to a reporter with a Haitian TV station who described devastation in the capital:

NBC Nightly News took an uncharacteristically personal turn tonight, as anchor Brian Williams opened the broadcast with the news that Mark McGwire admitted past steroid use today in a letter to his former team. Inside, video of Williams' surprising statement.

"'The Jay Leno Show' will exit prime time on Feb. 11, NBC confirmed...the network does not yet know what its future late-night lineup will look like." Related, Brian Stelter's hangover will make for an interesting day in the office. [NYT]

Comical RNC chairman/urban-suburban hiphop settings expert Michael Steele has been called into an emergency meeting! It seems that Republican congressional leaders had no idea he was releasing a book until they saw their party head promoting it on cable news.

Gallup, New Mexico mayor Harry Mendoza saw Gallup newspaper publisher Bob Zollinger in a parking lot and what happened? Yes, they got in a fistfight. "Mendoza told police that Zollinger started poking him in the chest hitting his pacemaker."

Update 2: OK: Casey Johnson is actually dead. LAPD confirms it. Earlier tonight,TMZ reported embattled socialite Casey Johnson was found dead this morning in L.A of undetermined causes. She was 30.

While we debate the merits of intrusive screening methods, some guy at Newark International Airport foiled TSA with the ingenious plot of walking the wrong way through the exit of a terminal checkpoint. The terminal is on lock-down.

Rush Limbaugh was just rushed to a Honolulu hospital. According to KITV, Limbaugh "suffered from chest pains" and was taken to Queen's Medical Center in serious condition. Rush's arch-enemies, Obama and Pelosi are also in Hawaii now. Coincidence? [KITV] Update:

Cops have closed part of Times Square because a raggedy, tarp-obscured white van has been parked there two days, suspiciously. Well. If you had a parking spot in Times Square you wouldn't move, either. [CBS] UPDATE: Prestigious evacuations!

Mark Ebner of Hollywood Interrupted has posted a letter contradicting many of the accepted versions of events surrounding the Tiger Woods scandal. The letter is purportedly from Tiger's neighbor and close confidante of Tiger's agent. UPDATE: And a probable hoax!

Barack Obama cut short a game a golf for a "personal matter" and returned to his family compound on Hawaii in what pool reporters are describing as a "very high speed and dramatic" motorcade trip. An ambulance has been spotted outside their vacation home, but CNN's Ed Henry just reported that the incident concerns "a minor injury with a friend who's travelling with the first family." MSNBC's Chuck Todd adds (see the clip above) that the injury occurred "on the ocean."

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't this sound like today's Flight 253 was evacuated because a Nigerian was on the can for too long? Maybe he was reading Netherland. Who knows? But another flight in Detroit was just evacuated.

There were reports that 'firecrackers' had gone off on a flight from Holland to Detroit on Friday. Several people were slightly hurt. US Intelligence sources have now told the Associated Press the suspect said he was acting for Al-Qaeda.

The Vatican's Christmas Eve mass had an NFL quality tonight. A mentally unstable woman knocked over Pope Benedict XVI as he walked down the aisle at St. Peter's Basilica. The Pope is OK. Thank God. (Seriously, do it.) [AP]Update:

As many as five hostages are currently being held by a gunman in a Post Office in Wytheville, Va. Shots were fired, and the gunman is thought to have five pounds of plastic explosive strapped to his chest. [NYT] Update:

BREAKING: "President Barack Obama says the only Christmas presents he needs from his daughters are hugs."

Just in: Silvio Berlusconi was facepunched at a rally in Milan. He was seen being taken to the hospital; his mouth was bleeding, no word on his condition. A man's been arrested. Update: There's now video of the hit.

The NYPD shot and killed a CD vendor in Times Square this morning who was not only scamming tourists, but also packing a Mac-10, for chrissake. The reaction of tourists: Awesome!