New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg — who banned 16-ounce sodas, trans fats in restaurants and public smoking — has a new bug in his ear: young people who play their music too loud through their headphones.

The city's spending a quarter-million dollars to launch a Hearing Loss Prevention Media Campaign warning young people through social media and focus groups about the risk of losing their hearing, The New York Post reported Wednesday.

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"With public and private support, a public education campaign is being developed to raise awareness about safe use of personal music players ... and risks of loud and long listening," Nancy Clark, the city Health Department's assistant commissioner of environmental disease prevention, told The Post.

Researchers at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston reported in 2010 that nearly 1 in 5 Americans ages 12 to 19 have lost some of their hearing.

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The researchers didn't single out portable music devices, but cited a 2010 Australian study that linked them with a 70 percent increased risk of hearing loss in children.

Bloomberg has won a reputation for trying to ban things he considers unhealthy. Just last month, he proposed banning Styrofoam because it clogs landfills and might be harmful.

Other things and activities Bloomberg has banned since he was elected in 2001 include:

• Smoking in bars and restaurants.
• Trans fats, the artificial fats used to cook french fries and other greasy treats, which doctors consider the most dangerous saturated fat.
• Menu boards that don't include calorie counts.
• And most famously, soft drinks larger than 16 ounces.

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Related: 
Q&A: How loud is too loud?

Former New York City Mayor Edward Irving Koch, a man as colorful as the city he helped save from financial ruin, died Friday of congestive heart failure. He was 88.

His brashness and thumbs-up confidence – and “How’m I doin?” greeting – became symbols of Gotham chutzpah over his three terms at the city’s helm. And while New Yorkers did not always answer Hizzoner’s trademark question in the affirmative, Koch couldn’t have cared less as he tried to govern a city that many thought was ungovernable. He finally left City Hall in 1989.

“I’m the sort of person who will never get ulcers,” he told reporters in 1978. “Why? Because I say exactly what I think. I’m the sort of person who might give other people ulcers.”

Reverend Al Sharpton, who locked horns with Koch through his time as mayor, praised the man he criticized as forthright in a statement on his passing.

“He would not patronize or deceive you,” said Sharpton, an MSNBC host, remembering that his first arrest for civil disobedience was at a 1978 sit-in protesting a Koch policy. “He said what he meant. He meant what he said. He fought for what he believed in.”

Born in the Bronx in 1924, Koch and his family soon decamped to Newark, New Jersey, where he spent his childhood. After graduating from high school at the age of 16, Koch returned to the city he loved and enrolled at the City College of New York, but his undergraduate studies were interrupted by World War II when he was drafted in 1943.

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After serving as an infantryman in Europe, Koch enrolled at New York University Law School. He built up a law practice before he entered politics to support Adlai Stevenson’s presidential campaign in 1952.

Koch’s own political career began in earnest in the early 1960s, organizing for the Democratic party in Greenwich Village on Manhattan’s west side. In 1963, he ousted Tammany Hall chief Carmine DeSapio, winning a post as a district leader.

From 1969 to 1977, Koch served as a congressman representing New York’s 17th Congressional District. He mounted an unlikely run for mayor in 1977, ultimately defeating better-known candidates including incumbent Abraham Beame and congresswoman Bella Abzug.

Throughout his career, Koch was known for his Bronx-flavored bon mots. “If you agree with me on nine out of 12 issues, vote for me,” Koch once said. “If you agree with me on 12 out of 12 issues, see a psychiatrist.”

And he brought his forceful personality and attention to detail to the job of mayor, said New York City historian Fred Siegel.

“His campaign slogan was ‘Why not try competence?’ and he demonstrates it. He really knows the budget, he’s on top of things,” Siegel said of Koch’s first years in office. Later, however, Koch “lost interest in the details of running the city,” Siegel said.

Koch’s aspirations went beyond the five boroughs, but more illustrious offices eluded him. A bid for governor in 1982 was felled by Mario M. Cuomo.

Yet the same personality that helped bring Koch national fame also divided some New Yorkers against him over time.

In 2012, Koch recalled walking to the Brooklyn Bridge during a 1980 transit strike to exhort commuters. “I began to yell, ‘Walk over the bridge! Walk over the bridge! We’re not going to let these bastards bring us to our knees!’” Koch recalled.

“His mouth got in the way of his policies,” said investigative journalist Wayne Barrett, who chronicled the Koch years.

The mayor, however, remained forever close-lipped about the most private areas of his personal life, even as some speculated about his sexuality.

While opponents occasionally tried to make political hay of the whispers, Koch responded with silence: “Whether I am straight or gay or bisexual is nobody’s business but mine,” he wrote in his 1992 autobiography.

Koch’s final term was tarnished by corruption, as a scandal involving Queens Borough President Donald Manes threatened to ensnare the mayor, but never did. He lost a shot at a fourth term to the more reserved David Dinkins.

“The people have spoken,” Koch said on the occasion of his losing, “and they must be punished.”

But Koch, who became the first city mayor to host Saturday Night Live in 1983, did not allow his national profile to dim after losing the luster of the mayoralty. He also published a collection of newspaper columns critical of Rudy Giuliani in 1999 titled “Giuliani: Nasty Man.” And for two years in the late Nineties, he wore a black robe on the television show “People’s Court.”

On Friday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo – the son of former governor Mario -- paid tribute to the man who won’t be leaving New York, even in death. (Koch bought one of Manhattan’s last burial plots for $20,000 in 2008.)

“No New Yorker has – or likely ever will – voice their love for New York City in such a passionate and outspoken manner than Ed Koch,” Cuomo said. “Mr. Mayor was never one to shy away from taking a stand that he believed was right, no matter what the polls said or what was politically correct.”

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a statement that the city had lost “an irrepressible icon, our most charismatic cheerleader and champion.”

Senator Charles Schumer lauded Koch as a man of whom New Yorker’s could be proud: “Every atom in his body lived, breathed, spoke, and exuded the city. He helped save the city and, perhaps most important of all, gave it confidence when it was beginning to doubt itself, which helped pave the way for the growth and prosperity we’re still experiencing today.”

Koch died around 2 a.m. Friday after battling a variety of illnesses. He had been hospitalized in September with anemia and in December with a respiratory infection, before his final hospitalization this week.

A funeral service will be held on Monday.

Former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle "Gabby" Giffords, who survived a shooting at a campaign event in Arizona two years ago and now advocates stricter gun laws, plans to be in Newtown, Conn., on Friday for a private late afternoon meeting.

Giffords plans to be at a home in the town where 20 first-graders and six staffers were gunned down at Sandy Hook Elementary School, a spokesperson for Gov. Dan Malloy's office told NBCConnecticut.com.

The meeting, the details of which are unclear, comes a day after more than 400 Sandy Hook students returned to class in a new building. Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman's spokesman Steve Jensen later told the AP that the visit was "planned but not confirmed" for Friday afternoon.

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Full buses bring 'excited' Sandy Hook students to new school

Giffords was shot in the head outside a supermarket in Tucson at a meet-the-congresswoman event in 2011. Six people were killed in that attack.

Since then, Giffords and her husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly, have campaigned against gun violence and have been outspoken in their support of an assault weapons ban.

The day of the Sandy Hook shooting three weeks ago, Kelly tweeted, “20 - 5 year olds gunned down in their own classroom. When will we address this problem as a nation? The time is now.”

On his Facebook page, Kelly wrote a more lengthy statement, saying that “our response must consist of more than regret, sorrow, and condolence. The children of Sandy Hook Elementary School and all victims of gun violence deserve leaders who have the courage to participate in a meaningful discussion about our gun laws - and how they can be reformed and better enforced to prevent gun violence and death in America. This can no longer wait.”

Kelly also said that Gabby sends her prayers to the victims.

A week later, Kelly wrote he was disappointed by the NRA’s “defiant and delayed response to the massacre.” In a news conference that was the NRA's first public statement on the shootings, CEO Wayne LaPierre had blamed violent video games and movies, as well as the media, gun-free zones at schools and other factors.

On Wednesday, Kelly and Giffords met with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has been an outspoken leader for gun control and is founder of a group called Mayors Against Illegal Guns. On “Meet the Press” in February 2012, Bloomberg expressed outrage that the Giffords shooting hadn’t sparked more action on gun control by Congress.

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“You’d think that if a congresswoman got shot in the head, that would have changed Congress’ views,” Bloomberg said. “I can tell you how to change it, just get Congress to come with me to the hospital when I've got to tell somebody that their son or daughter, their spouse, their parent is not going to come home ever again.”

What Bloomberg, Giffords and Kelly discussed in their meeting has not been confirmed.

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Homicides and shootings in New York are at their lowest in a half-century, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Friday.

Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly credited stepped-up policing for the 19.6 percent drop in homicides (from 515 last year to 414 through Friday) and the 15.9 percent decline in overall shootings (from 1,608 last year to 1,353).

That's the fewest homicides since the city started keeping such statistics in 1963, and it's dramatically lower than the record high of 2,245 set in 1990.

The most recent FBI figures show that homicides have been falling in most major cities in recent years, but the drop in New York far outpaces the national average decline of 4 percent from 2010 to 2011, the last full year for which federal figures are available.

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Kelly said officers had taken 8,000 weapons "out of the hands of people we stop, 800 of them illegal handguns," while Bloomberg singled out the city's participation in Operation Impact, a 2003 state initiative that pairs new police recruits with veteran officers in specific high-crime areas, as a particular success.

"The fact that the safest big city in America is safer than ever is a testament to the hard work and determination of the men and women who put their lives on the line for us every day — and it also reflects our commitment to doing everything possible to stop gun violence," Bloomberg said in a statement.

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Neither man specifically mentioned the city's controversial stop-and-frisk policy, which allows officers to search someone as he or she leaves a private building if they have a "reasonable suspicion" that the person is likely to commit a crime.

The policy is under legal challenge from civil liberties groups, which contend that police use it as a pretext to stop and search anyone without cause and contend in court documents that three-quarters of all New Yorkers searched under it are African-American or Latino. A trial is set for March.

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Gun-control advocates responded with outrage and disbelief Friday after the National Rifle Association called for armed guards in every school and blamed music, movies and video games for firearms violence.

While some people in Newtown, Conn., said they supported the idea of police with guns in their schools, critics said a volunteer force was impractical at best, dangerous at worst.

"The last thing we need are the George Zimmermans of the world patrolling our schools," said Kristen Rand, legislative director of the Violence Policy Center, referring to the neighborhood watch volunteer charged with killing unarmed teen Trayvon Martin in Florida.

The slaughter at Sandy Hook Elementary School last week has prompted some gun-rights advocates to soften their position, and there was speculation that the NRA might put forth some type of concession.

But NRA chief executive Wayne LaPierre -- who will appear Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press" -- did not indicate the group would support new restrictions.

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Defiant NRA leader rejects gun controls, asks to put police in schools

"The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,'' he said, roughly outlining plans for an NRA-sponsored program to train and certify volunteers to protect schools from "the next Adam Lanza."

Former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said he was at a loss for words after hearing the proposal.

"I don’t even know where to begin," he said on msnbc. "As a supporter of the Second Amendment and a supporter of the NRA — even though I’m not a member of the NRA — I just found it very haunting and very disturbing that our country now is talking about arming our teachers and our principals in classrooms."

Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, D-N.J., said he was stunned by LaPierre's comments.

"It is beyond belief that following the Newtown tragedy, the National Rifle Association's leaders want to fill our communities with guns and arm more Americans," he said in a statement.

"The NRA points the finger of blame everywhere and anywhere it can, but they cannot escape the devastating effects of their reckless comments and irresponsible lobbying tactics.  The NRA leadership is wildly out of touch with its own members, responsible gun owners, and the American public who want to close dangerous loopholes and enact common-sense gun safety reform."

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg called the press conference "a shameful evasion" of the gun crisis, devoid of soul-searching.

"They offered a paranoid, dystopian vision of a more dangerous and violent America where everyone is armed and no place is safe," he said.

In Newtown, where funerals for the Sandy Hook victims were still going on, opinion was divided.

"I think that's a great idea," Elaine Bartell said of LaPierre's armed-guard proposal. "I would feel much safer, and children would be protected."

Mary Fernandes, a mother, said an increase in guns is the last thing schools need.

"I think it's sad that it's come to this state. We need do something about the gun control and I don't think that [armed guards] is the answer," she said. "I don't believe people need guns in their homes."

Some gun control advocates target ammo clips

Dennis van Roekel, president of the National Education Association, told NBC News the idea “that there be a policeman in every building” deserves to be part of a wide-ranging discussion about how to protect schoolchildren from bullets, but he scoffed at LaPierre’s call for volunteers packing heat.

“We have 90,000 [school] buildings in America, and you want to volunteers to come and have a gun at the school?” he said, noting that many schools already have armed safety officers. “When somebody has an assault rifle and blows out a window with it, you can’t stop that.”

Gun-rights advocates said LaPierre struck the right tone in his hotly anticipated announcement – the powerful lobbying group’s first comments since the Sandy Hook tragedy.

Robert Farago, publisher of a popular blog called TheTruthAboutGuns.com, said he did "a good job putting forth a positive solution to the problem of spree killing in schools."

He was disappointed, however, that LaPierre did not explicitly say the NRA would fight any proposed assault-weapons ban. And he thought LaPierre's criticism of video games and movies was off-target.

"I think the effect of the culture isn't the determining effect in an attack like this," Farago said.

On Facebook: Do you agree with the NRA's stance?

Dave Workman, senior editor of The Gun Mag, a publication owned by the Second Amendment Foundation, said the NRA news conference “just ramps up the attention to gun-free zones.”

“We’ve had shootings in shopping malls, movie theaters, schools, colleges – all gun-free zones – so maybe it’s time to take a look at that,” Workman said.

“The prevailing wisdom with a lot of the gun owners is -- it’s about time we started talking about something other than banning guns.”

For Dave Hoover, whose nephew A.J. Boik was killed in the Aurora, Colo., movie theater massacre, the time for talk is over.

“Nobody wants to come in and take your gun away from you, but I don't think it's too much for us to ask that if I'm an individual who has lost their mind and wants to go wreak havoc in a mall or at a church or at a theater -- for the love of God we should be able to stop that,” Hoover told NBC affiliate KUSA.

“We need to stop having these discussions about it, get down to work, roll up our sleeves and accomplish something.”

While LaPierre was still talking, Twitter lit up with reaction.

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence instantly asked  for donations to support its efforts to ban assault weapons and limit the number of guns that can be bought at one time.

"To all #NRA members who believe like we do, that we are better than this, we send this message … Join us," tweeted the group, which was formed after Jim Brady was shot with President Ronald Reagan in 1981.

Businessman Mark Cuban, who owns a movie distribution company and a chain of cinemas, wrote this on his verified Twitter account: "I think the NRA press conference is what the Mayans had in mind when they said the world would come to an end today."

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Updated at 2 p.m. ET -- NEW YORK -- New York drivers woke up Friday to the first widespread gas rationing since the fuel crisis of the 1970s, as the Northeast struggles to recover from the devastation of Superstorm Sandy and a subsequent snowstorm.

Officials said the gas rationing was imposed because something had to be done to ease the long waits for fuel, which they say has caused panic-buying and hoarding.

Police officers were assigned to gas stations to enforce the new system, beginning their shifts at 5 a.m. in Long Island and 6 a.m. in New York City.

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"This is designed to let everybody have a fair chance, so the lines aren't too oppressive and that we can get through this," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. Officers would also make sure people "don't get pushy in line," Bloomberg told WOR-AM radio on Friday morning.

The nor'easter brought gusting winds, rain and snow on Wednesday and early Thursday before it moved on. Snow blanketed several states from New York to New England and stymied recovery efforts from Sandy as additional storm-weakened trees snapped and more power lines came down.

In New Jersey, after a difficult commute Thursday night that saw heavily armed police trying to quiet crowds at area bus and train stations, authorities added free buses and ferries Friday to try and ease commutes that have been four and five times longer than normal all week. Meanwhile, temporary ferry service will be offered from the Rockaways to Manhattan while the area's subway service is suspended.

New York City’s program of gas rationing is modeled on one New Jersey implemented last week -- allowing drivers to fill up on alternating days depending on their license plate number -- that has reduced lines dramatically. On Thursday, Gov. Chris Christie, R-N.J., told reporters he plans to re-evaluate over the weekend whether New Jersey still needs to continue its gas rationing system, reported NJ.com.

"The last two days, I've barely seen any fuel lines anymore," Christie said. "There's order, there's easy access to gas."

In New York, however, Bloomberg indicated that the city had little choice but to implement the policy.

"It now appears there will be shortages for possibly another couple weeks," Bloomberg said, later adding, "If you think about it, it's not any great imposition once you get used to it."

Bloomberg said only a quarter of the city's gas stations were open. Some were closed because they were out of power, others because they have been unable to get fuel from terminals and storage tanks that cannot unload their cargoes.

Full NBCNews.com coverage of Sandy's aftermath

Gas will be available to drivers with license-plate numbers ending in an odd number or a letter on Friday. On Saturday, drivers with license plates that end in even numbers or zero can fuel up.

Buses, taxes and limousines, commercial vehicles and emergency vehicles are exempt from the plan, as are people carrying portable gas cans. Vanity plates that do not have numbers are considered odd-numbered plates. Out-of-state drivers are also subject to the system.

But, he added, with some evidence that it's made the lines for gas shorter in New Jersey, the system was worth a try.

New Yorkers, never known for holding their tongues, let their exasperation with the bad weather show.

"Kick in the gas," the New York Post blared in a headline on its website, a day after its print newspaper hit the streets with the cover headline, "God hates us!"

Anger at utilities
Hundreds of thousands of utility customers, mostly in New York and New Jersey, are still waiting for their electricity to come back on -- and some are losing patience, demanding investigations of utilities they say are not working fast enough.  

An angry New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo joined the calls for an investigation on Thursday, ripping the utilities as unprepared and badly managed.

"It's unacceptable the longer it goes on because the longer it goes on, people's suffering is worse," he said.

But New Jersey Gov. Christie praised his state’s utilities, saying he expects all of his state to have power back by early Sunday.

The utilities have said they are dealing with damage unprecedented in its scope and are doing the best they can.

There is no denying the magnitude of what they have done: At the peak, more than 8.5 million homes and businesses across 21 states lost power during Sandy. Early Friday, there were more than 288,000 outages in New York and about 273,000 in New Jersey.

Some people have lived for days in the dark in temperatures near freezing.

"We lost power last week, just got it back for a day or two, and now we lost it again," said John Monticello of Point Pleasant Beach, N.J. "Every day it's the same now: turn on the gas burner for heat. Instant coffee. Use the iPad to find out what's going on in the rest of the world."

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report. 

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At least five people are being questioned in connection with a shooting at a Bronx park Sunday night that killed a little boy who got caught in the crossfire, law enforcement sources said.

Detectives believe the shooting was between four members of one group and an unidentified individual, sources said.

Lloyd Morgan, 4, was caught in the crossfire when gunshots erupted in the Forest Houses Park in the Morrisania neighborhood of the Bronx.

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A 17-year-old individual among those being questioned admitted shooting a gun at the scene, sources said.

Read the original report from NBCNewYork.com here

The gunfire broke out on a basketball court during a game that was being played as part of a memorial for a victim of violence, a woman who died in the area more than a year ago, residents said.

Morgan was struck in the head by a stray bullet and pronounced dead at a nearby hospital a short time later.

"My baby is gone," said his mother, Shianne Norman.

Authorities say two other men were also shot. A 27-year-old was shot in the stomach and a 21-year-old was shot in the arm. Both are expected to survive.

"A massive amount of shots just out of the blue, and then another massive amount of shots out of the blue, and then my baby was gone," his mother sobbed.

Residents described chaos as people began running throughout the park and parents grabbed their children.  

The investigation is ongoing.

Community leaders at a rally Monday night called on anyone with information to come forward. 

"If you know who was involved in that crime, you need to come forward," said New York Council Speaker Christine Quinn. "It is saving a life."

"People deserve to have weekends where they can watch basketball," said Quinn. "People deserve to have weekends where they can be outside enjoying their city."

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has taken a lead role in calling for stronger gun control, extended his condolences to the child's family, as lawmakers, clergy and residents in the community planned to rally Monday afternoon to call for an end to the violence. A rash of shootings -- including several in playgrounds and ball courts -- has plagued the city in recent weeks.

Bronx Assemblyman Eric Stevenson called the shooting "the last straw."

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"The pastors who preach God's word are now called on to do God's work and come out and stand up for justice," he said in a statement. "If stop-and-frisk can prevent these types of crimes maybe we should have it."

Lloyd's mother begged anyone with knowledge of the shooters to come forward.

"Please please, if you find it in your heart," she said. "There's no snitching when it's a 4-year-old little boy."

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Potential candidates for New York City mayor are taking stands on the police department’s surveillance of Muslim students, ranging from support to worry that the police department may be violating civil liberties, the Associated Press has reported.

The NYPD used undercover officers and informants to infiltrate Muslim student groups at colleges across the Northeast. The monitoring was part of the department's anti-terrorism efforts. Officers tracked student websites and blogs, monitoring who was communicating with the groups. On one occasion, an undercover officer was sent on a whitewater rafting trip with students from the City College of New York.

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The AP’s investigation has triggered an uproar among civil liberties activists, but Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who leaves office after the 2013 election, has said that he finds "worrisome" the idea that his successor might abandon NYPD policies that have kept New Yorkers safe.

New York City Comptroller John C. Liu, who is expected to run for mayor, warned that "we should not as a matter of policy profile people based on religion or race — it goes against everything this city stands for."

Liu, a Queens Democrat, faces a federal investigation into his fundraising operation after reports of inconsistencies in his campaign finances.

At a hearing in October, New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said that a department squad called the Demographics Unit mapped the city’s Muslim population, according to The New York Times. 

Councilmembers at the hearing said they worried New Yorkers' civil liberties were being violated.

“It looks like we are targeting Muslim neighborhoods and communities,” Councilman Brad Lander said at the time. “That’s not good for us. We have people out there who are partners who feel the trust is betrayed.”

The Associated Press and The New York Times contributed to this report.

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