A person dressed as Elmo shakes hands with a pedestrian in Times Square on Monday in New York. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday that he believes the people wearing character costumes in Times Square should be licensed and regulated. Dozens of people dressed as kids' favorites like Elmo, Cookie Monster and Batman stand near 42nd Street and pose for photos with tourists in exchange for money. De Blasio said the practice has "gone too far." A man dressed as Spider-man was arrested Saturday after punching a police officer who told him to stop harassing tourists. The City Council is working on legislation that would require the characters to get a city-approved license.

Debris is scattered by the storm-damaged home of Claiborne County Sheriff David Ray Monday near LaFollette, Tenn. The National Weather Service confirmed a F-3 tornado packing winds of 140 mph slammed into the Speedwell community, leveling 10 homes and a grocery store Sunday night.

A border patrol vehicle stands guard at a section of collapsed fence just west of the Mariposa Port of Entry in Nogales, Ariz., after severe storms in southern Arizona over the weekend knocked down a chunk of the metal border fence that divides Mexico and the U.S. Rain runoff from the storms destroyed about 60 feet worth of fence and caused damage to homes just north of it.

All of this is shown in Today in Pictures.

Today in Pictures is a daily collection of handpicked photos selected by AL.com photographers from the hundreds of Associated Press images of the day.