Happy Tuesday, CivMixers! It’s the eleventh day of summer already, with 83 days remaining until fall.
There’s a lot to know about Tuesday, which is named for Tiw (or Try), the one-handed Norse god of war. In French, Tuesday is “Mardi,” associated with the planet Mars.
It’s considered unlucky in the Greek world because the fall of Constantinople occurred on a Tuesday, but lucky in Judaism because it is mentioned twice as a good day in the first chapter of Genesis.
You’re in luck if you’re a big fan of tacos, and also, apparently, anisette.
On this day in 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law a sweeping civil rights bill passed by Congress, aviator Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to make the first round-the-world flight along the equator, and author Ernest Hemingway shot himself to death at his home in Ketchum, Idaho.
Also one year ago today, rescue divers in Thailand found 12 boys and their soccer coach, who had been trapped by flooding as they explored a cave more than a week earlier. Remember what a sensation that story caused?
Want to feel old? The Walkman, which revolutionized the way we listen to music, turns 40 – 40!!! – today.
Whatever did we do before Al Gore invented the internet?
It’s shaping up to be another typical summer day, with clouds in the morning giving way to sun in the afternoon and temperatures ranging from the mid-to-upper 80s, according to The Weather Channel. It’s going to get progressively warmed over the next several days, with temperatures reaching into the 90s. Get those bathing suits ready.
It’s going to be a big day for soccer fans, as the U.S. women’s team faces off against England in the semifinals in Lyon, France.
Absentee ballots will be counted today in the Cohoes Democratic mayoral primary, where former State Police Sergeant Bill Keeler is about one hundred votes ahead of incumbent Shawn Morse.
In other news from the Capital Region and elsewhere in New York…
A Lifetime movie, “NXIVM Cult: A Mother’s Nightmare,” will depict the Capital Region-based organization through the story of “Dynasty” star Catherine Oxenberg, whose daughter India joined the secret “master/slave” group led by NXIVM leader Keith Raniere.
The Albany Common Council approved a two-year pilot program that allows residents to have hens in their backyard. It now heads to Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan’s desk.
A funeral will be held tomorrow for Luis Alvarez, a former New York City police detective who was a leader in the fight for the Sept. 11 Victims Compensation Fund. Alvarez will posthumously receive a key to the city.
A former high school student was awarded nearly $60 million in damages after a Manhattan jury found the NYC Department of Education and his former teacher liable for an accident that left much of his body scarred from third-degree burns.
The Firemen’s Association of the State of New York wants people to leave Independence Day firework displays to the professionals rather than risking their safety.
Environmental groups are dismayed that Gov. Andrew Cuomo had failed to fill vacancies on the Adirondack Park Agency board with independent voices expert in law and land-use planning.
Cuomo claimed he has yet to endorse any candidate in the 2020 presidential race — after spending months talking up Joe Biden as the Democratic Party’s best shot to retake the White House from Donald Trump. (Cuomo also said he didn’t watch Biden debate because he was in Israel at the time).
Dante de Blasio, whose giant Afro was featured in his father’s 2013 bid for New York City mayor, is now playing a role in his presidential campaign.
In a bid to get around local health officials efforts to curb the measles outbreak, a group is suing over the requirement that campers in Rockland County get vaccinated — and provide the documents to prove it — arguing that the mandate puts campers’ private information at risk.
The SUNY Adirondack archaeological field school will return to work on Rogers Island this summer, after its year reprieve working on an 18th century merchant’s shop nearby. But the future of digs at the site is a bit murky.
This doesn’t happen often.
Apparently, owning your own private island – or two – isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Beware this Social Security Administration scam. I got the call, too, and it does indeed seem legit – at first. Know this: the Social Security Administration never calls to threaten you or your benefits, never asks you to wire them money, and won’t suspend your Social Security number.
In national and international news…
Women held in rooms without running water, sleeping bags set up on concrete and children left apart from their families: That was what Democratic lawmakers said they heard about as they toured two Texas border facilities.
…this came as ProPublica reported the existence of a secret Facebook group for current and former Border Patrol agents, with posts that included jokes about migrants’ deaths, obscene GIFs and doctored images of Hispanic lawmakers
Trump said the Pentagon would put military tanks on display on Thursday in Washington as part of his plans to turn the annual Fourth of July celebration in the nation’s capital into a salute to the country’s military prowess.
Iran violated a key provision of the 2015 international accord to restrict its nuclear program and signaled that it would soon breach another as it seeks more leverage in its escalating confrontation with the U.S. This was confirmed by international inspectors.
Europe is having a heat wave.
Beginning Monday, Walmart is raising the minimum age to buy tobacco products and e-cigarettes nationwide. The minimum age is now 21. The change also includes Sam’s Club locations.
Los Angeles Angels starting pitcher Tyler Skaggs died at the age of 27 in a hotel room several hours before his team was scheduled to play the Texas Rangers, team and local officials said. No foul play is suspected, but a cause of death has not yet been determined.
Also, ICYMI: Here’s 20 things you might not know about CivMix team member Joe Bonilla.
Oh, and a very happy birthday to Lindsay Lohan, 33.
Photo credit: Fred Coffey.
