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...More than a foot of snow had fallen in New Jersey by early Saturday morning. ...Rhode Island issued a travel ban for all non-emergency vehicles on Saturday... ....A snow emergency was declared in Boston.. ....Maryland activated National Guard troops. ....Coastal residents in one Massachusetts town were told to consider leavin

President Obama hit the links and enjoyed high temps in Hawaii as a massive blizzard bore down on much of the Midwest and the Northeast, and meteorologists predict the storm could tie traffic, cut power and give headaches to 40 million or so Americans.

Snowzilla the giant snowman rose from the dead Tuesday morning after some holiday pranksters thumbed their noses at city orders and rebuilt him overnight. When news of the controversial and world-famous Anchorage snowman's demise exploded on the Internet this week, hundreds of Alaska and Lower 48 readers had two words for the city of Anchorage and anyone else who criticized the crowd-pleasing giant: "Bah humbug." And before dawn Tuesday, in downtown Anchorage, someone erected a small, misshapen snowman at the entrance to Anchorage City Hall: A crude mini Snowzilla brandishing a protest sign that read "Snowmen of the world unite!"

City codes slay Snowzilla Giant snowman deemed a public nuisance, safety hazard By ELIZABETH BLUEMINK ebluemink@adn.com Anchorage's famous giant snow man, Snowzilla, finally met its match. It wasn't the weather. It wasn't angry neighbors bearing shovels and pick axes. It turns out Snowzilla's biggest foe -- the one who felled the controversial but much-loved giant -- was a notice-bearing city code enforcement officer. That's right, Snowzilla was abated. It was just a few years ago that 16-foot-tall Snowzilla arose in a residential yard in Airport Heights, launching an annual procession of local gawkers and an international media blitz. Camera crews...

Snowzilla may be the only Alaskan getting more press than Sen. Ted Stevens. More than 16 feet tall, the giant snowman towering above homes on once-sleepy Columbine Street is drawing hundreds of locals and tourists and scoring airtime and headlines across the nation -- and even the world. "I guess they like snowmen in Russia, because they had a news team from Moscow here yesterday," said Billy Powers, Snowzilla's creator. "We get a traffic jam here at least once an hour. It must be people are just tired of hearing about Iraq or something." Powers stood across the street from...

With the help of his kids and neighbors, Billy Ray Powers built more than just a snowman -- they've dubbed his 16-plus-foot-tall creation "Snowzilla." After using up all the snow in the family's yard, they turned to neighbors' yards and carried buckets on sleds. They hand-packed the snowman like an ice-cream cone. "It's solid ice," he said. "I put the arms in with my power drill." It took a month to complete the project.