Good morning, CivMixers. It’s early. It’s Thursday. And it looks like it’s going to be a good one, from a weather standpoint, with just a few clouds in mostly sunny skies, temperatures in the mid-80s and a chance – just a chance – of a stray shower or thunderstorm.
Today’s Google doodle is worth checking out. It honors a legend in the food world: Ignacio Anaya García, the inventor of nachos born 124 years ago on Aug. 15.
In the headlines…
The global economy is under increasing stress as growth cools and trade tensions take a mounting toll. The tremors were felt worldwide.
Asian stock markets followed Wall Street lower today after the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged on mounting fears of a possible recession. Market benchmarks in Shanghai, Tokyo and Hong Kong all retreated.
In his most extensive comments on the months of unrest in Hong Kong, Trump said China should “humanely” settle the situation before a trade deal is reached – for the first time tying the fate of pro-democracy protesters to a trade deal, which is a top administration priority.
Despite his repeated refusal to accept any responsibility for inciting violence in American communities, a nationwide review conducted by ABC News has identified at least 36 criminal cases where President Donald Trump was invoked in direct connection with violent acts, threats of violence or allegations of assault.
Former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Elizabeth Warren are in a statistical dead heat in a national poll of 2020 Democratic presidential candidates, with Sen. Bernie Sanders coming in third, according to a poll released yesterday.
Philadelphia police arrested the suspected gunman who battled cops in an hours-long standoff and shootout that left six officers wounded and another injured in a car crash, authorities said.
A total of 427 claims were filed across the state on the first day of the newly enacted Child Victims Act. They name as defendants individuals and organizations, including the Boy Scouts of America, Catholic dioceses and other religious groups such as Jehovah’s Witnesses, which has its world headquarters in Orange County.
The names of more than 60 alleged predator priests were made public for the very first time in more than 275 suits filed by just two law firms against various dioceses.
The lookback window opened by the Child Victims Act may become a powerful lever for clergy abuse victims to find out how extensive the cover-up of sexual abuse was in the Catholic Church and whether top Vatican officials knew about it.
Other suits filed include one from 45 former Rockefeller University Hospital patients who say a renowned endocrinologist molested hundreds of boys over more than three decades.
One of the allegations of clergy sex abuse targets Howard Hubbard, former bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany. A Clifton Park resident identified only as P.R. alleges that Hubbard and the Rev. Paul Bondi molested him between 1994 and 1998.
Notre Dame-Bishop Gibbons School in Schenectady was named in at least 10 lawsuits alleging the institution and the Albany diocese failed to protect children from abuse at the hands of Catholic brothers working there in the 1970s.
There is a chance Israel will not let Democratic U.S. congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib enter the country for a visit they are expected to begin on Saturday, Israeli officials said.
U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, a 2020 Democratic contender, suggested she supports a mandatory federal buyback program for assault weapons and criminal prosecution for gun owners who do not sell those firearms to the government — a reform measure the vast majority of her fellow presidential candidates have been reluctant to embrace.
Former Democratic Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper is expected to end his 2020 presidential bid today.
The woman accused of hacking Capital One may have stolen information from more than 30 additional companies, federal prosecutors reportedly said.
In the days since financier Jeffrey Epstein’s death, a picture has emerged of the Metropolitan Correctional Institution in New York as a chronically understaffed jail, with guards working overtime and other employees pressed into service as correction officers.
Epstein’s autopsy determined the convicted pedophile suffered multiple broken neck bones – including the hyoid bone, an injury that experts told the Washington Post is more common in homicide victims.
Epstein told his lawyers that a hulking ex-cop inflicted the injuries that left him nearly unconscious in his cell last month, a source close to the convicted pedophile’s case told The NY Post.
A veteran cop became the ninth NYPD officer to commit suicide this year when he shot himself in the head at his Queens home last night — just a day after a fellow city policeman killed himself, authorities said.
Despite the recent rash of NYPD suicides, a mental health program pushed by NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio’s wife, ThriveNYC, pulled out of a seminar for first responders because a pro-cop group, Blue Lives Matter, was co-sponsoring the event.
The New York State Chiefs of Police Association is launching a campaign to get officers mental health resources in departments across the state as suicides among police officers is on the rise.
New Trump administration rules that could discourage legal immigrants from seeking public assistance or even publicly funded medical help will have wide impacts, according to those who work with immigrants in the Capital Region.
Responding to a disturbing December scuffle where a mother had her baby ripped from her arms by cops at a Brooklyn benefits center, the NYC Council passed a legislative package aimed at improving poor New Yorkers’ experiences at public benefits offices.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed three measures enacting a package of sweeping homeowner protections, and also a bill that extends the driver license suspension process for two years to further enforce child support obligations.
A Niskayuna woman faces felony charges for her alleged role in the fatal shooting of her friend at a Memorial Day cookout at an normally quiet apartment complex on the edge of town.
Police will be holding a press conference at the Niskayuna Town Court at 11:30 a.m. today about developments in the unsolved murder case of local basketball star Ayanna Hunter.
SUNY Empire State College has a new Bachelor’s Degree program: Addiction Studies.
Spurred on by an annexation battle in his district, a Capital Region lawmaker – Democratic Schenectady Assemblyman Angelo Santabarbara – has proposed a one-year moratorium on converting farmland into industrial sites through the annexation process.
A downtown Schenectady bank branch that featured a blank brick wall facing State Street will be demolished and replaced by a mixed-use building structure, Redburn Development Partners and Schenectady County Metroplex Development Authority announced.
Another Redburn Development project: In the former loading dock of 16 Sheridan Ave. in Albany – a building that has sat vacant for years and was once home to The Knickerbocker News – a new business called The Yard will give visitors an indoor outlet for ax-throwing, ladder ball, cornhole and other yard games.
State Sen. Julia Salazar’s Socialist chief of staff Boris Santos announced he will challenge Assemblyman Erik Dilan for his seat in Assembly District 54 in Brooklyn – a race that could have significant implications for the real estate industry.
Months after a vote in Albany to bring unprecedented monitoring to the Hempstead School District on Long Island, where for years fewer than half the students graduate, the bill has still not been signed into law.
The DEC is opening a form letting the public weigh in on the proposed plan to clean up the Brownfield Site on Hamilton Hill from Aug. 14 through Sept. 30.
Many more male state legislators hold outside jobs compared to their female colleagues, a POLITICO analysis shows, and those who do earn significantly more than women.
Seagram’s liquor heiress Clare Bronfman has coughed up $6 million to the US government for her role in accused upstate sex cult NXIVM, according to new court documents.
An array of weapons was found in the rear compartment of a luxury SUV, police said. The vehicle was driven by a prominent plastic surgeon in Westchester County, who allegedly told a friend he was thinking of committing a horrific act of violence.
Jonathan Herzog, a former staffer on Andrew Yang’s presidential campaign, announced that he will challenge New York Rep. Jerrold Nadler in the Democratic primary next year, making him the latest candidate to take on the House Judiciary Committee chairman.
The TU’s Steve Barnes went to “Hamilton” at Proctor’s and says that to see if for the first time “is to know you’re watching the evolution of an art form right before your eyes.”
Members of the New York Army National Guard visited Saratoga National Historical Park for a battlefield tour and study of leadership at the site of the 1777 American Revolutionary War Battles of Saratoga.
For the first time in nearly a quarter-century, New York Public Radio has a new leader: Goli Sheikholeslami, who has led Chicago Public Media, which owns the radio station WBEZ, since 2014, and is a former executive at The Washington Post and Condé Nast.
A day after Jay-Z announced that his Roc Nation company was partnering with the NFL, the rap icon explained that he still supports protesting, kneeling and NFL player Colin Kaepernick, but he’s also interested in working with the league to make substantial changes.
Attorneys for disgraced media mogul Harvey Weinstein claim a Netflix producer who accused their client of rape is trying to make herself look like more of a victim — by randomly redacting court documents in their civil court case.
Anonymous insiders say that while CNN brass stood by Chris Cuomo after he was caught on camera threatening a man who called him “Fredo,” the newsroom rank and file was “embarrassed” by the blowup.
The female players who sued the United States Soccer Federation for equal pay reported that talks broke down yesterday and said they were now turning their attention to the courts where they are “eagerly look forward to a jury trial.”
Photo credit: George Fazio.
