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BOSTON (AP) - Schools across New England have closed and thousands of flights have been scratched as the Northeast hunkers down for a storm poised to dump up to 2 feet of snow.

The snow is expected to start this morning, with the heaviest amounts falling at night and into Saturday. Wind gusts could reach 75 mph. Widespread power failures were feared, along with flooding in coastal areas still recovering from Superstorm Sandy in October.

Boston could get more than 2 feet of snow, while New York City was expecting 10 to 14 inches. To the south, Philadelphia was looking at a possible 4 to 6 inches.

Amtrak says its Northeast trains will stop running this afternoon.

In New England, it could prove to be among the top 10 snowstorms in history.

WASHINGTON (AP) - A small, bipartisan group of senators is quietly trying to reach a compromise on expanding the requirement for background checks to cover nearly all gun purchases. A deal could give political momentum to one of the key elements of President Barack Obama's gun-control plan.

The private talks involve liberal Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, who is the No. 3 Senate Democratic leader, and West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a National Rifle Association member and one of the Senate's more moderate Democrats.

On the Republican side, participants are Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, another NRA member and one of the more conservative lawmakers in Congress, and moderate Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois.

The NRA says expanding background checks would do little good because criminals largely get their guns illegally.

Although the housing market may be picking up, assessed home values in St. Louis are expected to decline for the third time in a row.

St. Louis County's first elected assessor, Jake Zimmerman says preliminary computer models show values dipping slightly. Zimmerman told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that human assessors may tweak the figures after examining individual homes.

He says anyone whose assessed property value increases will be notified by mail right away so that there's plenty of time for an appeal before the bills go out in the fall.