The company earned $58.9 million, or 39 cents per share, compared with $67.1 million, or 44 cents, a year earlier. Excluding one-time items, the company earned $68.1 million, or 45 cents, surpassing Wall Street’s expectations by four cents.

Revenue fell 3 percent to $643 million from $662 million. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected $646.5 million.

The archdiocese says in a statement that its staff and outside auditors spotted Collins’ theft and alerted the Manhattan district attorney’s office.

A coalition of Muslim groups is calling for Police Commissioner Ray Kelly’s dismissal. Kelly appears in the controversial documentary The Third Jihad, widely available on Youtube. It portrays even ordinary Muslims as suspects in a radical Islamic quest to destroy Western civilization and take control of the United States.

“About 18 percent, at last count, of prisoners in New York State are Islamic,” he stated.

Police officials initially denied using the film at training sessions.  But a Freedom of Information request revealed documents confirming such use.  Kelly has issued an apology and enjoys the support of Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

“Commissioner Kelly should not step down,” Bloomberg said. “I think it’s fair to say that it was a little bit of an embarrassment that this film was made.”

Activists say actions, not apologies are needed, first of all Kelly’s resignation or dismissal.  Shahid Farooqi represents the Islamic Circle of North America, an organization of mostly South Asian Muslims.

“Second is [an] independent investigation.  The third is to start respecting our Muslim community members,” Farooqi demanded.

The Third Jihad is filled with images of Muslim violence accompanied by threatening rhetoric and music.  It was produced by the Clarion Fund, a conservative non-profit organization and played on a continuous loop in the last quarter of 2010 on the sidelines of police counterterrorism training sessions.  Muslim activists say the documentary poisoned the minds of New York City Police officers.  They demand that those officers be retrained.

An earlier controversy over alleged random police surveillance of New York’s Muslim community triggered protests and also a boycott by some Muslim clerics of Mayor Bloomberg’s annual prayer breakfast.

The probe into Greg Kelly, co-anchor of the popular Good Day New York show on local Fox 5 television, was immediately transferred from the police to the district attorney’s office, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said, in order to avoid any conflict of interest.

The store changes will take until 2015 to complete. Shares of J.C. Penney fell 3 percent.

The store revamp and pricing plan were the first strategic announcements from Ron Johnson, who in November was hired away from Apple Inc (AAPL.O) — after building that company’s retail chain — to turn around the 110-year department store chain as its chief executive.

His proposal would increase state spending by 2 percent, or about $89 million. But the overall plan, including federal funding tied to state spending, is a fraction of 1 percent lower than the current budget, and it would eliminate a $2 billion deficit.

The Joint Landowners Coalition of New York said in comments submitted to state regulators a day before Wednesday’s deadline that the proposed 4,000-foot buffer around New York City’s watershed extends to land on the other side of ridgelines where the water flows away from the city’s watershed.

Curious onlookers and TV satellite vans staked out Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan’s posh Upper East Side, waiting for a glimpse of Blue Ivy Carter, born Saturday, and her proud parents.

Jay-Z, originally Shawn Carter, released a newly recorded song “Glory” with a little accompaniment from his crying daughter, and New York tabloids celebrated with front-page spreads.

GlobalFoundries Inc. and IBM announced a deal Monday to manufacture chips at the new GlobalFoundries plant, which is being built about 20 miles north of Albany in Malta. Initial production of the speedier 32-nanometer chips for IBM began at the site this year and will ramp up to full production in the second half of 2012.

Pope Benedict XVI made the announcement on Friday following an Epiphany Mass that ends the Vatican’s top Christmas celebrations.

The Archdiocese of New York said Dolan will speak to the media after celebrating Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan Friday morning.

Cardinals are the pope’s key advisers and are members of the group that will eventually elect Benedict’s successor.

The pope also named prelates from Hong Kong, Berlin, Prague, Toronto and Florence, Italy, and some Key Vatican offices.