10 things you need to know today: January 2, 2015

Marcus Mariota is already a Heisman winner. Next up, national champion?

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1. Mario Cuomo dies at age 82
2. Judge tells Florida counties to start issuing gay marriage licenses
3. Search intensifies for AirAsia crash victims
4. 2014 was the Syrian civil war's deadliest year yet
5. Oil hits a five-year low on the first day of trading in 2015
6. Gambia makes arrests after coup attempt
7. Italian hostages in Syria say they fear for their lives
8. Marxist group says it was behind attempted attack in Turkey
9. GM starts 2015 with another recall
10. Oregon and Ohio State advance to the college football title game

last updated 13 January 2015

1. Mario Cuomo dies at age 82

Former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo died Thursday at his home in Manhattan. He was 82. The liberal Democrat served three terms, and died hours after his eldest son, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, was sworn in for his second term. The elder Cuomo served from 1983 through 1994, battling two recessions and repeatedly using his veto to block the restoration of the death penalty. He described America as a "Tale of Two Cities" in a widely praised prime-time 1984 Democratic convention address that fueled calls for him to run for president.

A federal judge ruled Thursday that all county clerks in Florida must start issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples on Jan. 6. U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle of Tallahassee had ruled that the state's gay marriage ban was unconstitutional in August, but stayed the decision through Jan. 5 to give Florida officials time to appeal. "The defendants did that," Hinkle wrote. "They lost." The U.S. Supreme Court declined to extend the stay.

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Search teams from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, and the U.S. are helping in an attempt to step up the search for flight recorders and the bodies of passengers from AirAsia Flight 8501 on Friday. Rough weather on Thursday afternoon forced recovery crews to temporarily suspend the search for the main wreckage of the plane, which crashed in the Java Sea on a flight from Indonesia to Singapore on Sunday.

Oil prices fell to below $56 per barrel, the lowest level in more than five years, on Friday, the first trading day of 2015. The decline came due to a continuing glut that has cut prices in half since June. The oversupply has come as Saudi Arabia, the top exporter, and other Persian Gulf countries have decided not to cut production despite rising U.S. shale oil production. Some analysts are predicting prices will bounce up this year as major oil projects are canceled.

Authorities in Gambia arrested dozens of civilians and soldiers after a foiled coup attempt, an intelligence official said Thursday. A military official said that three suspects, including the alleged ringleader, were killed. Gambian President Yahya Jammeh, who seized power in a 1994 coup, was out of the country during the Tuesday attack on his palace. He denied the attack was an internal attempt to overthrow him, saying it was an invasion by foreign "dissidents."

Two Italian women kidnapped in Syria last July appeared in a video released Thursday wearing black veils and saying, "We are in big danger and we could be killed." The women — Greta Ramelli, 20, and Vanessa Marzullo, 21 — were working as aid volunteers when they were abducted in the besieged city of Aleppo. They had just arrived in the country days earlier. They are believed to have been captured by an al Qaeda branch, Jabhat al-Nusra, not the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, which has beheaded five Western hostages.

An outlawed Turkish Marxist group claimed responsibility on Friday for an attack on an Ottoman-era palace that houses the offices of Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. The offices were used by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan when he held the post from 2003 to 2014. Neither was present during the attack. The suspect, identified as Firat Ozcelik, allegedly threw two grenades at a guard post, but they didn't explode. He also had a small gun and an assault rifle.

General Motors announced three new recalls on Thursday, a sign that a series of problems with ignition switches is continuing to give the automaker problems in the new year. The latest round of recalls involve 83,572 sport-utility vehicles and pickup trucks. The company says the defect — an ignition lock actuator that doesn't meet specifications — has not been linked to any crashes or injuries. GM recalled 2.5 million vehicles over other defects in 2014 after accidents that caused 42 deaths.

The No. 2 Oregon Ducks smashed No. 3 Florida State's 29-game winning streak on Thursday with a 59-20 Rose Bowl victory in the College Football Playoff semifinals. The game featured a rare matchup of the last two Heisman Trophy winners — quarterbacks Marcus Mariota of Oregon and Jameis Winston of Florida State. In the other semifinal at the Sugar Bowl, No. 4 Ohio State upset No. 1 Alabama. Ohio State and Oregon will play for the national championship in Arlington, Texas, on Jan. 12.

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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.