Good morning, CivMixers. It’s Monday, the last day of November and also the last day of Fall, though the winter solstice won’t occur until December 21, so we have some time to get used to the idea yet.
The weather has been downright fabulous…unseasonably warm, and I’ll take it. There were many long weekend walks with the dog at the golf course, which occurred in lieu of family visits over Thanksgiving. However you spent the holiday, I hope it was a happy and safe one…we’ll discuss the alarming COVID-19 infection rates in a moment.
And if you’re struggling to figure out what to do with more turkey etc. leftovers than usual this year, take comfort because you’re not alone.
I guess it’s worth mentioning that it’s Cyber Monday, although really, hasn’t every day during the pandemic been a cyber shopping day? Also adding to the confusion is the fact that a number of Black Friday deals – some of which launched online BEFORE the traditional Friday after Thanksgiving – have been extended.
To wit: U.S. shoppers went online to purchase holiday gifts and score Black Friday deals they once crowded into malls to grab, as the coronavirus pandemic accelerated the yearslong remaking of the U.S. retail landscape.
Also, in between there was Small Business Saturday, and a lot of local stores have also beefed up their online shopping options in order to stay alive amid new public health protocols like social distancing and reduced capacity requirements.
I guess it might just be easier to say: The holiday shopping season is officially underway.
Also rather fittingly, it is National Computer Security Day. This is something we should all be paying a bit more attention to these days, as we are living so much more of our lives online.
Getting hacked is a risk we all run (ahem, we know a little something about that around here). Here’s a helpful list of things you can do to make yourself a little safer online – reviewing your social media settings is a good place to start.
Another irony: It’s National Personal Space Day. Now look, I am a big fan of personal space. I happen to enjoy spending a lot of time alone – only child syndrome, maybe. But these days, I’m feeling a bit TOO isolated and in my own head. I’m worried that the habit of giving people a wide berth when I see them at the park or on the street is getting to be a little too second nature.
A future as a professional hermit might be in the cards for me.
If you have happened to have been outside over the past 24 to 48 hours or so and noticed the moon, it is not, for the record, full, but rather a penumbral lunar eclipse is occurring – the last one of 2020.
It’s going to be very warm again – in the high 50s – but there’s wind and rain in the forecast. A lot of it. The rain could be heavy at times, and we could get up to an inch of it, as there’s a big storm coming out of the Deep South – something to keep in mind if you’re headed out and about.
The governor has directed state agencies to prepare emergency response assets as a weather system is expected to bring thunderstorms, high winds and Lake Effect snow to various parts of the state beginning this morning.
In the headlines…
President-elect Joe Biden will have an all-female senior communications team at his White House, led by campaign communications director Kate Bedingfield.
“I am proud to announce today the first senior White House communications team comprised entirely of women. These qualified, experienced communicators bring diverse perspectives to their work and a shared commitment to building this country back better,” Biden said in a statement.
Biden is expected this week to announce a diverse group to lead his economic team.
A spokesperson for Republican Texas Sen. John Cornyn said Biden’s reported pick to head the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has “no chance” of being confirmed by the Senate should Republicans remain in control next year.
Biden’s doctor said that the president-elect suffered hairline fractures in his right foot after twisting his ankle while playing with his dog, Major, and will likely require a walking boot for several weeks.
The president-elect, 78, sprained his right foot and initial x-rays did not show any obvious fracture, Dr. Kevin O’Connor said. However, more detailed imaging also revealed hairline fractures in his mid-foot.
Biden and future first lady Jill Biden will bring a cat into the White House along with German shepherds Champ and Major.
Biden’s victory over President Donald Trump in Wisconsin was reaffirmed yesterday after a recount was completed in one of the state’s largest counties. The recount cost Trump $3 million, and the results will be certified today.
Trump acknowledged his vanishing path to overturning the results of the 2020 election in court yesterday during his first full interview since losing to Biden earlier this month.
Following yesterday morning’s Fox News interview with Trump – his first since the election – anchor Maria Bartiromo faced criticism for not challenging the president on his unsubstantiated claims of widespread election fraud.
A Pennsylvania state senator abruptly left a West Wing meeting with Trump last week after being informed he had tested positive for the coronavirus.
The Democrat-controlled House of and GOP-led Senate will return to Washington this week, but have shown no signs they can get together to ease the consequent economic pain of millions of unemployed Americans.
Several newly-elected Republican House members, including New York’s Nicole Malliotakis, have banned together to create a group they’ve dubbed the “Freedom Force” — to oppose “The Squad” of progressive Democratic congresswomen.
Chris Ruddy, the C.E.O. of Newsmax, has found a business opportunity in feeding Trump supporters the fantasy that the president could still win the election.
Trump ripped CBS News’s “60 Minutes” after an interview with his former cybersecurity chief, Christopher Krebs, was broadcast on the program.
The number of hospitalizations from the coronavirus set yet another record on Saturday, as cases continue to surge and public health officials warn of a worsening outlook with the holiday season just weeks away.
“We may see a surge upon a surge,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci. “We don’t want to frighten people, but that’s just the reality. We said that these things would happen as we got into the cold weather and as we began traveling, and they’ve happened.”
We’re entering this post-Thanksgiving surge with three, four and 10 times as much disease across the country,” said White House coronavirus response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx. “…We are deeply worried about what could happen post-Thanksgiving.”
Colorado Democratic Gov. Jared Polis and his spouse have tested positive for Covid-19 and are both asymptomatic, according to a statement from the governor’s office.
People with Covid-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, are most infectious about two days before symptoms begin and for five days afterward, according to a new analysis of previous research.
Some restaurants are rejecting a new round of shutdown orders, saying that serving customers indoors is their only way to stay in business and that they can do so safely.
The federal government must spend around $30 billion to distribute COVID-19 vaccines to hundreds of millions of Americans in the coming months, U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said.
England is poised to begin vaccinating health care workers as soon as Dec. 7. In the U.S. the first vaccine could receive emergency use authorization as soon as Dec. 10, and vaccinations could start just days later.
The U.K. government has agreed to buy more than 350 million doses of vaccines from seven different producers, should they prove effective, as it prepares to vaccinate as many of the country’s 67 million people as possible.
Neighborhood grocery stores are aiming to become major providers of Covid-19 vaccines, and are rushing to secure freezers, thermometers and other medical gear for administering shots.
California has more people hospitalized with COVID-19 than at any time since the pandemic began, an ominous development that comes as officials warn of further virus spread after the long holiday weekend.
A three-week stay-at-home order in LA County begins today.
The NFL has ordered team facilities to be closed to in-person activities early next week in a bid to slow the spread of COVID-19 among players and staffers.
Merriam-Webster announced “pandemic” as its word of year.
New York State’s COVID infection rate reached 4.27 percent on Saturday, the highest level since May, according to Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
New York City health officials are ramping up Covid-19 testing to prepare for an expected surge in coronavirus cases as New Yorkers return from traveling over the Thanksgiving weekend and the holiday season begins.
The weekend after Thanksgiving met expectations that it would be the busiest travel period in the U.S. since the coronavirus pandemic began, aided by clement weather and lower gas prices that encouraged some to drive rather than fly.
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced he’ll reopen public elementary schools, abruptly shifting policy in the face of widespread criticism that officials placed more of a priority on economic activities like indoor dining than the well-being of New York City’s children.
Schools will reopen on Dec. 7 for 3-K, pre-K and kindergarten through fifth grade, followed by District 75 schools that provide special education on Dec. 10. Middle and high schools will remain closed, and plan for reopening them is still under development.
The New York State Assembly plans to hold a hearing in mid-December on whether mayoral control of the New York City school system should be extended or gutted when the law is up for renewal in 2022.
An ex-prostitute who was busted in a police sting is running to become the first trans woman on the City Council — representing the heart of the Bronx.
New York City officials said they shut down an illegal club over the weekend that hosted nearly 400 people in violation of health precautions amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Deputies shut the party down and arrested four people. The episode reflected the way that, despite the onset of a second wave of the coronavirus, people are continuing to gather at large events in New York City in violation of public health safeguards.
The city sent taxi sheriffs to crack down on a Staten Island bar owner who crowed about defying COVID-19 restrictions — only for the tough-talking proprietor to lock the door and say he was closed.
Staten Island councilman Joe Borelli said he and his family enjoyed an 11-person Thanksgiving Day holiday, complete with turkey, kids playing outside and a massive cutout photo of Cuomo leering in their front window.
Borelli took to Twitter to offer an explanation, an apology and some criticism on Saturday after his tweet about his family’s Thanksgiving plans last week drew criticism.
Cuomo’s senior advisor Rich Azzopardi took to Twitter Saturday morning to address a report by Artvoice that the governor was in Western New York on Thanksgiving visiting a new girlfriend, saying there was “no truth to it.”
An ex-aide to Cuomo tore into the governor’s fit of pique at a news conference earlier this month — calling him a “snarling attack dog” and mocking his popularity after TV news briefings in the spring when COVID-19 was ravaging New York.
As New York’s budget deficit ballooned this spring, state budget director Robert Mujica sought to dramatically slow spending by imposing a “strict” freeze on all hiring by state agencies, which was subsequently ignored by the governor himself.
Cuomo’s executive order limiting the size of religious gatherings in New York’s “orange” and “red” zones was shot down by the U.S. Supreme Court, but the governor says the court’s ruling won’t have “any practical effect.”
The court signaled that if unconstrained religious observance and public safety are sometimes at odds, then religious freedom should win out.
Nearly one-third of small businesses in New York and New Jersey remain closed since January amid the coronavirus pandemic.
A plan to toll cars driving in Manhattan south of 61st St. could be bogged down for two more years because of slow-walking by the Trump administration, MTA officials revealed in a financial disclosure form.
Soon after the presidential inauguration is over, a crowded field of candidates vying for Cy Vance’s job will have New Yorkers focusing on the 2021 race for Manhattan District Attorney. Vance has not yet said if he’ll seek re-election.
Democrats who dominate the state Assembly will meet virtually this week to discuss strategy for the coming months and start to work out how the conference will absorb progressive insurgents who are succeeding some of the chamber’s most senior members.
Top New York lawmakers say they will continue to wait for a federal coronavirus relief package before making any adjustments to the state budget even as fiscal issues pile up for the state’s localities and public authorities. A post-2021 session is still possible.
As state agencies are being directed to cut their spending, service providers and activists are pleading with officials to preserve funding for critical programs for the homeless, developmentally disabled and other vulnerable New Yorkers.
A new plan to bail out New York City’s debt-ridden taxi drivers is getting support from top city and state officials — but critics say the numbers don’t add up, and claim that it threatens to wreck the market that finances yellow cabs for good.
While delivery drivers have been essential to feeding New Yorkers and keeping them safe, but their working conditions, already precarious before the pandemic, have gotten worse.
Some high-end Japanese restaurants in New York have reinvented themselves to accommodate migrations to the Hamptons and Hudson Valley.
People who want to see the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree this year will have to get tickets first.
Beloved Brooklyn pizzeria Roberta’s — which has hosted celebrities including Beyoncé and the Clintons — was closed abruptly this week after workers contracted the coronavirus.
Cuomo said that the state is working on proposals to close loopholes that allow police officers to keep their credentials despite misconduct.
Saying it would be cost prohibitive, Cuomo vetoed a bill that would have required permits to alter some 40,000 miles of mostly small unregulated “Class C” streams across the state.
Reducing the use of solitary confinement in prisons could save New York and its localities $132 million annually over the next 10 years, according to a report released by the Partnership for Public Good.
New York hospitals are expected to see losses and new expenses of up to $25 billion as a result of the pandemic, and are asking Congress for more help on top of the $9 billion in direct federal payments they’ve already received.
Guilderland Elementary School will switch to all-remote learning until Dec. 9 due to the fallout from a new COVID-19 case.
Watervliet Elementary School will switch to remote learning today through Dec. 4 after two people associated with the school tested positive for COVID-19.
Two new cases of COVID-19 were reported by the Bethlehem Central School District on Saturday – bringing the total confirmed cases since the beginning of the school year to 23.
Britain’s culture minister thinks the Netflix TV series “The Crown” should come with a disclaimer: It’s a work of fiction.
A 10-foot, three-sided gleaming metal column that has received international attention after it was discovered Nov. 18 embedded in Utah’s remote Red Rock Country has disappeared without a trace.
Taylor Swift’s new concert film was recorded in the Hudson Valley.
