Millions of residents in the Northeast braced for a powerful blizzard set to sweep across the region, states announced travel bans and the suspension or reduction of public transit, thousands of flights were grounded, and officials urged people to leave work early before heavy snow and high winds would make travel treacherous

It is the bane of many female subway riders. It is a scourge tracked on blogs and on Twitter.
And it has a name almost as distasteful as the practice itself.It is manspreading, the lay-it-all-out sitting style that more than a few men see as their inalienable underground right. Now passengers who consider such inelegant male posture as infringing on their sensibilities — not to mention their share of subway space — have a new ally: the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.