It's the Brian Laird Show on WNYC.

I'm David First, WNYC Weekend Edition host, filling in for Brian today.

Happy Friday, everybody, before the big snow. I'm going to be here

all weekend, keeping you updated on the weather as we're hearing about a possible foot of snow

falling in New York City beginning as soon as tomorrow night. My boots and gloves are ready.

But first, coming up on today's show, we're going to talk about the

affordability issue in New Jersey that has been getting a lot of attention, both during the

recent gubernatorial campaign. And right now, this is rising utility costs. I know many of you

probably got a shocking high bill this month. I know I did. So we're going to hear

about what a brand new governor, Mikey Sherrill, has to say about what she's going to do about it.

And we're going to look into what is causing the rates to skyrocket in the first place.

Plus, the recent bankruptcy filing of the company that owns fancy department stores like Sacks,

Neiman Marcus, and Bergdorf Goodman got us thinking about the future of department stores.

As our shopping habits have changed, we're going to talk about that with New York Times fashion writer Vanessa Friedman.

And we will wrap up today's show with a conversation about Johnny Carson with the writer

and comedian Mark Malkoff.

Carson would be 100 years old if he were alive today.

And Mark has written a new book about the late night legend.

And he's going to be hosting a few events this weekend at the Museum of Moving Image that will celebrate all of the times that Johnny Carson brought Jim Henson's Muppets on the show.

That is all coming up this morning.

But we start with a battle over redistricting in New York.

This time, the focus is on the 11th congressional district in the state. That's the

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