Good Tuesday morning, CivMixers.
Welcome to National Take a Hike Day, or National Hiking Day – take your pick. Either way, it’s a great excuse to drop everything and get outside to enjoy the many benefits of immersing oneself in nature.
And those benefits are significant, according to multiple scientific studies.
If you spend 120 minutes outside, which does not, by the way, have to mean a trek up a massive Adirondack peak – although that’s a great thing, and something we’ll return to in a moment, but could be just walking in the park or at the beach – you can reduce your likelihood of everything from asthma to obesity.
And it’s good for your mental health, too. Apparently, a microbe found in soil, Mycobacterium vaccae, has the ability to trigger serotonin production, making us feel happier and more relaxed. They don’t say “nature heals” for nothing.
A lot of people have taken to the great outdoors during the coronavirus pandemic, because, let’s be honest, there’s only so much TV one can binge before losing it. This is great, but it comes with a catch – we’re loving some of our parks a little too hard.
Crowds, trash, trail erosion, human waste – dig a cat hole, folks, for lord’s sake, and carrying out what you carry in, it’s not hard. All of this and more has been the downside of more people taking a hike, especially when it comes to the Adirondack Park, which is an amazing resource and needs to be protected.
Also, the DEC rangers are working overtime responding to calls from lost and/or injured hikers. This is the tyranny of cell phones, which actually do work in some parts of the park – especially at the higher elevations.
The situation has gotten especially bad in the popular High Peaks region, where officials are now considering everything from shuttles and visitor centers to a permit system and limiting access to some private lands now open to hikers. Similar measures are going to be considered for the Catskills, which have also seen a surge in visitors.
Those of you who know me probably are aware that I love being outside, and I love hiking. I am from the Catskills and have long been a passionate advocate for the Adirondacks. I have hiked solo in parks across the country and in Europe, and our parks can compete against those (very beautiful) places any day.
And I’d like to keep them that way – beautiful, as unspoiled as possible, and available to enthusiasts for generations to come. I, personally, am in favor of a permit system for high traffic peaks on traditionally popular weekends and during foliage season, for example. I’m sorry if you disagree.
It also happens to be National Homemade Bread Day, which is something that a lot of people got into at the outset of the lockdowns required in the pandemic’s early days. There are even some folks who are harvesting 4,500-year-old yeast from ancient pottery and using it to bake bread. Yeast is an amazingly resilient thing.
If you’re still into the bread making thing – especially the keeping alive of a sourdough starter, which turns out to be a lot like having a really boring and not-at-all cuddly pet that lives in the fridge – kudos to you. I just couldn’t stay with it. I can barely remember to feed myself and my dog on a regular basis, much less a blob in a jar.
It’s going to be overcast and fairly chilly today, with temperatures in the low 40s. There might be some rain and even snow showers. Not the greatest day to be out hiking, honestly, but as they say in Scandinavia: There’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes. So get yourself some insulated gloves and get out there.
In the headlines…
The game of musical chairs among lawyers pursuing President Donald Trump’s court challenges to the election results continued, as the campaign tried to replace the entire team handling the campaign’s federal lawsuit seeking to block certification of Pennsylvania’s results.
Plaintiffs aligned with Trump in four states yesterday abruptly dropped recently filed lawsuits challenging ballots seen as giving President-elect Joe Biden his margin of victory in those locales.
More than 2,600 ballots in one Georgia county that have not been tallied were reportedly recently found during a recount in the state.
The Wisconsin Elections Commission said that a statewide vote recount would cost an estimated $7.9 million, which Trump’s campaign would have to pay in advance should it request one.
As officials in Nevada’s most populous counties certified results of the Nov. 3 election, Trump took to Twitter with a new attack on the vote that gave Biden a 33,596-vote statewide victory.
Nearly two weeks after the election, there are signs that Republicans are starting to accept the reality that Biden won.
National security adviser Robert O’Brien promised there will be a professional transition from the White House National Security Council “if” Biden is officially determined the winner, acknowledging “obviously things look that way now” despite Trump’s refusal to concede.
Biden, meanwhile, is building his administration and focusing on how to address the coronavirus pandemic once in office, without Trump’s cooperation.
Biden today will announce key members of his White House staff, naming Rep. Cedric L. Richmond of Louisiana to oversee public outreach and installing Jennifer O’Malley Dillon, who managed his presidential campaign, as a deputy chief of staff.
Biden will also announce that Steve Ricchetti, a longtime confidant and former healthcare lobbyist, will serve in the White House as a counselor to the president.
Union leaders are hoping to influence Biden’s pick for Labor secretary — but they’re increasingly at odds over who should get the job.
The top General Services Administration official who’s blocking Biden’s transition team from accessing government resources ahead of his inauguration appears to be looking for a new job.
Trump asked senior advisers in an Oval Office meeting last week whether he had options to take action against Iran’s main nuclear site in the coming weeks.
Biden denounced “all acts of violence” in a statement to Fox News after attacks on Trump’s supporters at the so-called Million MAGA March in Washington, D.C. this past weekend.
Former President Barack Obama suggested that rap music contributed to a rise in support for Trump among Black men.
Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton will step down at the end of the year, opening the door for Democrats to push for a more aggressive approach to regulation of Wall Street.
With Dr. Anthony Fauci, hailing “the light at the end of the tunnel”, the US biotech firm Moderna announced impressive results for its mRNA vaccine on Monday, a week after interim results for a Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine showed 90% effectiveness.
Officials said the two companies could produce enough vaccine for a little more than 20 million people in the U.S. by sometime in December, with the first doses going to people with the highest risk, like health care workers, emergency medical workers and nursing home residents.
Unlike Pfizer’s vaccine, Moderna’s shot can be stored at normal fridge temperatures, which should make it easier to distribute, a critical factor as COVID-19 cases are soaring, hitting new records in the U.S. and pushing some European countries back into lockdowns.
In a press conference the president-elect called the vaccine news “really encouraging” but warned “more people may die” unless the Trump administration starts cooperating with the incoming Democratic administration.
Fauci warned “it’s not going to be a light switch” back to normalcy even when a vaccine becomes widely available. In fact, he recommends people still wear masks and practice social distancing even after getting the vaccine.
More than 1 million U.S. children have contracted coronavirus, according to a new report by a pediatrics group.
Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered widespread closures of indoor operations as the state faces its fastest surge in cases since the Covid-19 pandemic began, pulling what he called the “emergency brake” on 94 percent of residents.
Republican Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds reversed course and issued a statewide mask mandate on Monday after previously resisting calls for the requirement as the coronavirus surges in the state.
Sens. Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat, and Dan Sullivan, an Alaskan Republican, quarreled yesterday over the necessity of wearing masks while on the Senate floor.
Alaska Rep. Don Young, who, at 87 is the most senior member of the House, says he’s on the mend and out of the hospital after announcing last week that he’d tested positive for COVID -19.
The World Health Organization has seen 65 cases of coronavirus among Geneva-based staff, some who work at home but about half of whom have been working in offices of the specialized agency of the United Nations.
U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer suggested that Biden should issue significant student loan forgiveness through an executive order, describing a possible FDR-style agenda during Biden’s first 100 days.
Biden could unlock billions in funding for two new Hudson River rail tunnels “with the flick of a pen,” Schumer said.
The Trump administration announced that it would begin the formal process of selling leases to oil companies in a last-minute push to achieve its long-sought goal of allowing oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.
Hate crimes in the United States rose to their highest level in more than a decade last year, while more murders motivated by hate were recorded than ever before, the F.B.I. said.
The University of California system has agreed to pay $73 million to more than 5,500 women who were patients of a former U.C.L.A. gynecologist who has been charged with 20 felony counts of sexual assault.
Several Orthodox Jewish groups asked the U.S. Supreme Court in a filing yesterday to lift Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s restrictions on gatherings at houses of worship during the coronavirus pandemic.
Nearly 2,000 New Yorkers were hospitalized for the coronavirus over the last 24 hours, a level last seen in May.
Cuomo is calling on New Yorkers to remain vigilant as coronavirus infections increase across the state, saying the deadly respiratory disease is not an “Upstate or downstate issue.”
Nearly 18 months have passed since the state’s Hepatitis C task force held its final meeting and its work hasn’t been released by the Cuomo administration.
Cuomo, members of the state Legislature, and judges in New York will not receive a pay raise next year due to the state’s $14 billion budget shortfall heading into 2021, according to a report issued by a state panel tasked with evaluating those salaries.
The state of New York has permanently shut down the Brooklyn funeral home where police discovered bodies decomposing in unrefrigerated U-Haul trucks during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in the spring.
The collapse of tourism has been a key reason that New York’s economy has been hit harder than most other major American cities, and a new forecast shows the industry won’t recover to pre-2019 levels until 2025.
After the coronavirus lockdown wiped out tourism in the city, souvenir stores remain empty.
New rules posted on the city DOT website require eateries to add seasonal safety features — including filling roadway barriers with sand or soil-filled and adding brightly-colored reflector tape and “snow sticks” to make them more visible.
Big Apple eatery owners say revenues dropped by roughly 30 percent over the weekend as they were forced to comply with the governor’s latest efforts to rein in rising COVID-19 cases.
As winter approaches, New York City’s beleaguered restaurant owners are doing their best to prepare while crossing their fingers that officials don’t reimpose bans on sit-down dining.
More upstate sheriffs have announced their refusal to enforce the state’s private gathering limit on Thanksgiving.
Jury trials across New York state were suspended once again as the second wave of COVID-19 takes hold, state Chief Judge Janet DiFiore announced.
Businesses are wary of reopening offices due to the risk of exposing employees to Covid-19. They are also worried about their own legal exposure should staff get sick.
Mayor Bill de Blasio has once again chosen to kick the can down the road over the Big Apple’s financial crisis, moving expenses from the current budget to next year’s spending plan — a shift that experts say will exacerbate coming deficits.
New York City’s public schools will remain open today as the city’s rate of positive test results for Covid-19 has stayed below the threshold that would trigger fully remote learning for all students, de Blasio said.
NYC officials refused to say whether they helped the homeless schizophrenic man accused of randomly attacking actor Rick Moranis and others, as police sources said the system failed New Yorkers.
Subway fare evasion has more than doubled since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, new MTA stats show.
The New York City Commission on Human Rights will investigate three of the Big Apple’s top hospitals to see if their drug testing policies of new moms and newborns is racially discriminatory, the agency announced.
City schools should provide hot and healthy meals instead of the current cold fare — the subject of numerous complaints, according to Brooklyn Councilman Mark Treyger.
Long Island Democrats declared victory as absentee ballots appeared to push incumbent Sen. Kevin Thomas to a second term.
Trump received over 31,000 more votes in New York in 2020 than in 2016, according to unofficial results from the state Board of Elections that do not yet include absentee ballot results, though Biden easily carried the state.
As part of his push to become New York City’s next mayor, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams will soon unveil plans to hire an “efficiency czar” and consolidate city data to address government waste and better connect New Yorkers to city services.
JCOPE has been short two commissioners for more than a year, due to Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, both Democrats, not following that law regarding the filling of vacancies.
Sander Saba, a nonbinary New York resident is suing the state for a lack of “X” gender on driver’s licenses.
Neighbors of an Upper West Side hotel that has housed homeless men throughout the pandemic have no right to intervene in a case concerning the men’s removal to another facility, a Manhattan judge ruled.
Yesterday was another record-setting day for new daily coronavirus cases in the Capital Region.
The Albany Common Council approved next year’s $180.8 million budget last night – a budget that is still dependent on yet-to-materialize state aid, a potential federal aid package and will raise the property tax levy by $1 million.
Two capital projects totaling $45.5 million to be spent to improve safety and security at the Averill Park Central School District schools, modernize part of the Algonquin Middle School and upgrade high school athletic facilities are up for a Dec. 8 vote.
RPI announced that the men’s and women’s hockey teams would not play the 2020-21 season.
Saratoga County Family Court is closed for a deep cleaning today due to a COVID-19 exposure.
Rensselaer County is reporting a large spike in cases of the coronavirus. County health officials reported 38 new cases between Sunday and yesterday, shattering the previous record of 32 cases in a single-day.
A Columbia High School student has tested positive for COVID-19, the East Greenbush Central School District said, after coming in close contact with another student who attended a Halloween party and tested positive.
The U.S. Army is considering six Adirondack-region sites for training exercises by the Fort Drum-based soldiers and helicopter pilots in the 10th Aviation Brigade and 10th Sustainment Brigade, according to members of an ad hoc committee reviewing the proposals.
