Good morning — and Happy New Year’s Eve! Be careful out there tonight.

On this date in 1907, the first New Year’s Eve celebration in New York City’s Times Square — then called Longacre Square — was held.

Most NYC arrests unnecessary? –> In what Gawker’s Taylor Berman calls a “continuation of the childish and embarrassing protest against Mayor de Blasio’s response to the non-indictment of Daniel Pantaleo” in the Eric Garner killing, NYPD aren’t issuing tickets, and are only making “necessary” arrests. The total number is down by 66 percent: the irony is that reformers have long criticized the department for making unnecessary stops and arrests as part of its “broken windows” theory of policing.

Setback –> A Palestinian bid for Israel’s withdrawal from the West Bank and the creation of a Palestinian state by 2017 failed to pass the UN Security Council. The US opposed the resolution, after asking the Palestinians to delay any action at the UN until after Israeli elections in March. Louis Charbonneau has the details for Reuters.

The year that was –> At Slate Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern look at the “worst civil liberties violations in 2014.”

“The generation-long stagnation of middle-class incomes continues” –> At the NYT, John Harwood writes that both parties are grappling with how to get incomes rising again for the bottom 99 percent — but are coming at it from dramatically divergent perspectives about the underlying problems.

“A delectably good year for sleaze” –> The Daily Beast’s Patricia Murphy recalls the political scandals of 2014.

Myth-busting –> At Mother Jones, Alex Park uses some handy charts to reveal Ronald Reagan as a fan of big government and big national debt.

2014 in review –> Here’s Robert Reich’s year-end wrap-up…

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