Good Tuesday morning, CivMixers. It’s going to be another hot and humid one, with temperatures heading into the 90s.
A heat advisory has been issued by the National Weather Service, so please be careful out there. Take precautions. Avoid over-exerting yourself outside. Push that water. Check on elderly neighbors.
You know the drill.
Also be on the lookout for more scattered thunderstorms in the afternoon, which may contain strong, gusty winds. Tomorrow, we should be back down into the 80s.
It’s a big night for political junkies, as Part I of Round II of the Democratic 2020 debates will be held in the battleground state of Michigan.
Tonight the focus will be on Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren vs. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. Tomorrow, we’ll get a reprise of California Sen. Kamala Harris vs. Joe Biden, but other candidates – including New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, will be taking aim at the former Vice President, too.
Also appearing tonight: Steve Bullock, Pete Buttigieg, John Delaney, John Hickenlooper, Amy Klobuchar, Beto O’Rourke, Tim Ryan, and Marianne Williamson. CNN’s Dana Bash, Don Lemon, and Jake Tapper will moderate.
Warren, a 2020 contender, rolled out a new plan revealing how she’d handle trade policy if elected to the White House, breaking with Donald Trump and past presidents of both parties.
The Democrats will no doubt make much of the racist comments employed recently by Trump, who widened his war on critics of color with new attacks on the Rev. Al Sharpton and other political opponents even as he gathered his own African-American allies at the White House to defend him.
Also today, American rapper A$AP Rocky’s trial on assault charges will begin in Sweden.
In other news…
Capital One, the Virginia-based bank, which announced a data breach identified earlier this month exposed personal information of its customers – including social security details and bank account numbers.
This was one of the largest-ever thefts of data from a bank. Capital One expects the breach will cost it up to $150 million, including paying for credit monitoring for affected customers.
About 140,000 Social Security numbers of Capital One’s credit card customers were impacted in the March breach, around 80,000 linked bank account numbers, and one million Canadian Social Insurance numbers were compromised.
A hacker, 33-year-old software engineer Paige Thompson, of Seattle, was arrested yesterday in connection with the breach. A criminal complaint says Thompson she tried to share the information she obtained from the bank with others online.
U.S. Attorney General William Barr ruled that immigrants fearing persecution due to threats against their family members are no longer eligible for asylum.
Siena College President Br. F. Edward Coughlin, O.F.M., Ph.D., 71, has died following complications from non-emergency heart surgery at UR Medicine – Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, the college announced.
Br. Ed, as he was known by the Siena community, had announced only last month that he planned to step down as president when his contract expired in August 2020.
Before the ink was dry on the marijuana decriminalization bill signed yesterday by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, drug advocacy groups said they are pressing ahead with a renewed effort to legalize marijuana in New York in the next state legislative session in 2020.
A lawsuit has been filed by civil rights and voting rights groups to block Rensselaer County from disclosing voter registration information to ICE.
The NYC Board of Elections may have declared Queens Borough President Melinda Katz the winner in the borough’s Democratic DA primary – the culmination of a 34-day election battle that was one of the closest and most bitter in recent city history – but the fight is not over, and the fallout has only just begun.
Jeffrey Epstein got slapped with legal papers in a Lower Manhattan lock-up one day before he was found sprawled in his cell with injuries to his neck, a court filing revealed.
A person was struck and killed by a train yesterday afternoon near Stone and Depot roads in Guilderland, CSX Railroad officials confirmed.
A 34-year-old man is accused of forcibly touching several female patrons at the Saratoga County Fairgrounds, according to the Ballston Spa Police Department.
Albany police are investigating a shooting that happened shortly before 11 p.m. last night.
The region engaged in clean-up yesterday in the aftermath of a fast-moving thunderstorm that tore a swatch of destruction through Schenectady, Scotia and Glenville and left as many as 12,000 people without power.
A family in Charlton is lucky to be alive after the storm sent a tree crashing down on their car, trapping them all inside.
Former Fort Plain Police Officer Jim Glorioso Jr. is credited with risking his life in an attempt to save a man struggling to swim at an Atlantic City beach.
The Ulster County Fair starts today, and officials are trying to move past the controversy caused by the cancellation of Southern country-rock group Confederate Railroad’s performance.
Katelyn Ohashi, a gymnast known for her rocking floor routine that went viral online, will soon be in Albany for the Aurora Games. She spoke to local reporters on a conference call.
A jury’s verdict that Katy Perry’s 2013 hit “Dark Horse” improperly copied a 2009 Christian rap song represents a rare takedown of a pop superstar and her elite producer by a relatively unknown artist, and sets up a battle over damages that will begin today.
The longest-running No. 1 single in the 61-year history of Billboard’s Hot 100 chart is Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road.”
This is pretty amazing.
Some of the upstate Buffalo are still on the loose, while others have been corralled by the Cobleskill farmer who owns them.
Did you catch last night’s double meteor shower?
Photo credit: L.A. Sokolowski, first posted on “Looking Good, Albany!” Facebook page.
