Overnight Briefing & General Reality Check

Small-town politics:

A couple of Newark residents have taken the art of griping about snow removal to a new level.
   On New Year's Eve, barbieblack88 tweeted CoryBooker, the mayor of Newark, to ask when crews were going to get around to clearing the streets. Booker responded that they were already out. A few minutes later, BigSixxRaven had a personal plea for Booker: "Can u send someone over 2 my dad's He's going 2 try to shovel. he's 65."
   At 7 the next morning, Booker tweeted back: "I will do it myself where does he live?" About 20 minutes later, he knocked on BigSixxRaven's dad's door, shovel and salt in hand and volunteers in tow. Not long afterward, she was back on Twitter: "My daddy is a happy man," she wrote. "He took pictures of his Mayor shoveling his driveway! lol." (Maiman)

Sucking the life out of the wire services:

Latest word on CASEY JOHNSON's death is that she apparently had been dead for several days in her home before her body was discovered Monday morning. As we mentioned at the time, she had diabetes and TMZ.com says she also had been hospitalized at least twice after she slipped into diabetic coma, with one occurring just last year.
   The LAPD is investigating Casey's death and toxicology results are still pending.

Meanwhile, the untimely death of CASEY JOHNSON is the talk of the tabloids this week, and CINDY ADAMS of the NY Post chatted with the late heiress before her death. Sadly, she said her greatest regret in life was not nabbing the lucrative role on "The Simple Life" with PARIS HILTON. Meanwhile, gossip monger JANET CHARLTON brought up a good question --what will happen with the gigantic engagement ring TILA TEQUILA received from the socialite? And --what are the chances it's real? (Lee)

The Reel Deal:

After striking box office gold, "Avatar" sets record for piracy.
   Despite bold pronouncements that "Avatar" wouldn't be pirated, JAMES CAMERON's 3-D epic has become the fastest-pirated movie on the internet.
   According to statistics posted on TorrentFreak.com, "Avatar" was downloaded 500-thousand times within the first 48 hours of its release, and since then, the number has risen to 980-thousand.
   The next most pirated movie, the "Twilight" sequel "New Moon," has been downloaded 610-thousand times.
   Illegal downloads, however, haven't seem to put much of a dent in "Avatar's" box office sales. The movie has already grossed more than $1 billion internationally and has even boosted Imax stock through runaway ticket sales.
   Avatar is likely to be more heavily downloaded after it's released on DVD, when there will be less of a difference between the pirated and official 2-D versions.

Going Geek-dot-com /Caught in the Web:

Whoops! Ever wonder if that computer virus thing happens to anybody else? Feel better --one of 'em caught the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission the other day!
   FCC Chairman JULIUS GENACHOWSKI is on Facebook and the other day all his friends got a message from him, saying "Adam got me started making money with this" and a link.
   That's right --his computer picked up a worm which was sending out spam to all the people on his Facebook list.
   Although a spokesperson for the Commission had no comment, Facebook did --it suspended his account. A spokesman for the social networking site says the Commish can get his account back as soon as he can "resecure his account and learn security best practices."
   In the meantime --remember, don't click on strange links, even if they've been sent by friends, and be wary of sites that ask you to download or upgrade software.