You can exhale now, CivMixers. It’s Friday at last.
I haven’t been doing this on the regular, but in case you needed a gentle reminder: Christmas is in 14 days.
And happy second night of Chanukah. Good news there, by the way…I unearthed some candles from the recesses of a kitchen drawer. Not sure how many nights they will last. I think I need a personal Chanukah miracle.
Today is International Mountain Day. I found this on the interwebs, with which I most wholeheartedly agree: “Mountains, potentially terrible and dangerous, remind us of how small and imperfect we humans are and, especially, that the world doesn’t revolve around us.”
If you have ever done any of the moderate-to-difficult hikes available to us within a short driving distance of the Capital Region, which is conveniently located smack in the middle of the Catskill and Adirondack parks, you probably can identify with that.
Mountains cover nearly 27 per cent of the Earth’s land mass and play a crucial role in sustainable economic growth. They are also are home to 15 percent of the worlds population and host about half of its biodiversity hotspots, while also providing fresh drinking water to half of the lives on the planet.
Yeah, I would say mountains are pretty darn important. #mountainsmatter.
It would be a great day to sneak out for a hike, if you can swing it. But this is also a good time for me to get back on my soapbox about overuse of our amazing park resources here in New York. Tread lightly, folks. Practice pack-in/pack-out. Dig yourself a cat hole, and please, dig it far away from the trail. Your fellow hikers thank you.
In keeping with the “save the planet” theme we’ve got going on here, today in 1997 the first Kyoto Protocol was adopted for the purpose of limiting greenhouse gas emissions. The environmentalists among us know that the success of this effort was decidedly mixed, and American never ratified its participation…long story. For more, click here.
It’s going to be in the mid-40s today with a mix of sun and clouds. Like I said, a good day to hit those hiking trails. Wear layers. Pack smart with extra food, water and perhaps a space blanket or two – just in case. And bring micro-spikes or snowshoes if you’re headed above the tree line. And think of me, slaving away at my desk. Sigh.
In the headlines…
A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel recommended approval of the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, clearing the way for the FDA to grant emergency authorization of the vaccine as early as today.
The initial shipment of 6.4 million doses will leave warehouses within 24 hours of being cleared by the F.D.A., according to federal officials.
“We want to make sure that we impress the American public that decisions that involve their health and safety are made outside of the realm of politics, outside of the realm of self-aggrandizement and are made in essence, by independent groups,” Dr. Anthony Fauci said.
A member of a federal panel that voted to move forward with an emergency use authorization for Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine said that she voted against the candidate citing a lack of data on younger participants.
An Australian produced coronavirus vaccine candidate has been scrapped after trial participants returned false positive test results for HIV, developers announced.
An experimental COVID-19 vaccine developed by Sanofi and Britain’s GlaxoSmithKline showed an insufficient immune response in clinical trial results, the French drugmaker said, a blow to efforts to fight the pandemic.
The airlines industry will play a vital role in moving billions of doses aboard hundreds of flights in the months ahead, putting underused planes and crews to work while circulating the very medicine that airlines hope will get people to book tickets again.
Walmart is getting ready to administer Covid-19 vaccinations across the country once a vaccine is approved, the company’s chief medical officer said.
Facebook’s tens of thousands of employees will not be required to take the coronavirus vaccine before heading back to work in the social-media titan’s offices.
An ER physician at Mount Sinai Morningside Hospital in Harlem will be among the first New Yorkers to receive the vaccine early next week.
About 1,600 New York National Guard members who are helping the state fight COVID-19 will be among the first members of the U.S. military to be vaccinated.
The U.S. death toll from COVID-19 surpassed the number of World War II combat fatalities last night.
The novel coronavirus will kill more people in the United States every day for the next two to three months than died in the attacks on 9/11 and Pearl Harbor, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Robert Redfield said.
An emerging $900 billion COVID-19 aid package from a bipartisan group of lawmakers has all but collapsed after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Republican senators won’t support $160 billion in state and local funds as part of a potential trade-off in the deal.
The threat of a brief government shutdown is growing as the annual defense bill and a stopgap funding measure hit snags that could delay them into the weekend or next week.
Few signs of progress toward a coronavirus relief deal emerged yesterday as Congress inches closer to letting millions of Americans fall deeper into financial peril.
Congressional bickering over a new economic relief package escalated as lawmakers traded blame and put negotiations over critical legislation on the brink of collapse.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested that lawmakers may have to stay on Capitol Hill over Christmas in order to hash out another coronavirus relief package and avert a looming government shutdown.
Rep. Dick Hinch, a Republican who was elected speaker of the New Hampshire House just one week ago, died of COVID-19 on Wednesday.
After being discharged from a premier hospital, Rudy Giuliani revealed his treatment for COVID-19 included an experimental drug in such short supply that some states have set up lotteries to determine which patients should be lucky enough to receive a dose.
President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris were named Time magazine’s Person of the Year, besting President Trump, front-line health care workers and racial justice protesters as the year’s most influential newsmakers.
Biden named two senior officials from the Obama White House to key jobs, putting Susan Rice, a former national security adviser, in charge of his Domestic Policy Council and nominating former chief of staff, Denis McDonough, to be secretary of veterans affairs.
Democratic leaders are pressing the president-elect to cancel $50,000 in debt per student borrower by fast executive action, but he wants Congress to pass more modest relief.
Two Trump-boosting New York Republicans – reps. Lee Zeldin and Elise Stefanik – were among dozens of congressional conservatives who offered official support for an improbable lawsuit that calls on the Supreme Court to overturn Biden’s election.
In blistering language denouncing GOP efforts to subvert the election, the attorneys general for Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Georgia asked the Supreme Court to reject a lawsuit that seeks to overturn the victories in those states by Biden.
The number of workers seeking unemployment benefits, a proxy for layoffs, climbed sharply by 137,000 to 853,000 last week, the Labor Department reported.
The number is nearly four times the pre-crisis level but is well below the peak of almost 7 million that was reached when stay-at-home orders were first issued in March.
Unemployment filings, which have been far above previous recession levels, had been edging down in the fall, providing some hope that businesses could avoid another round of job cuts. That hope is fading.
The U.S. budget deficit widened 25 percent in October and November from the same period last year to $429 billion, a record for the first two months of the fiscal year, the Treasury Department said.
The Trump administration carried out its 9th federal execution of the year in what has been a first series of executions during a presidential lame-duck period in 130 years, putting to death a Texas street-gang member in the slayings of a religious couple from Iowa more than two decades ago.
Attorney General William Barr has known about a disparate set of investigations involving Hunter Biden’s business and financial dealings since at least this spring and worked to avoid their public disclosure during the heated election campaign.
The Justice Department announced a $488 million payout to victims of Bernie Madoff’s historic Ponzi scheme, bringing the total recovery from losses to 80 precent.
Patrick Gaspard, a longtime pal of NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio who served as a top aide to former President Obama, is in the running to become the next U.S. Labor Secretary.
Over 5,000 New Yorkers are now hospitalized for COVID-19 — the most since May — as the pandemic rages in a second wave resurgence, according to new data released by the state Department of Health.
New York City plans to administer new low-stakes assessments to public-school students to gauge the depth of learning loss from trauma and school closures during the Covid-19 pandemic, officials said.
“It’s time to really reckon with a challenge that we’re seeing very, very clearly, which is the way that COVID has stood in the way of our kids’ education,” de Blasio said during a City Hall press briefing, alongside Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza.
New York City is home to a sizable and ever-growing population of artists from abroad, according to a new report. But they face myriad challenges, particularly during the coronavirus pandemic.
A Big Apple comedy club owner is angry that “Saturday Night Live” is shooting with a live audience, while the city’s comedy clubs remain empty because of COVID.
The NYC Council passed a bill enabling artists to perform on the streets of New York.
Staten Island DA Michael McMahon slammed de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo as “irresponsible” for speaking out against the borough bar owner accused of using his Jeep to ram a sheriff’s sergeant, with the case still in its early stages.
Former de Blasio administration aide Kathryn Garcia said she’s the best prepared candidate to run all of New York City government as the next mayor, because, well, she’s already managed half of it.
Staten Island’s soon-to-depart congressman, Democrat Max Rose, is already eyeing his second act in New York City politics — becoming Gotham’s mayor.
Neither Rose nor anyone associated with him returned calls seeking comment on the filing. But the congressman did post a cryptic message on Twitter at around 7:30 p.m. that appeared to telegraph an imminent announcement.
Cuomo is being recognized with the Edward M. Kennedy Institute Award for Inspired Leadership for his role in steering the state during the pandemic.
A judge ripped leaders of the Brooklyn Democratic Party for illegally filling 2,400 vacant party positions without input from other members of the organization’s county committee.
The NYC Council easily signed off on a dramatic overhaul of the Flushing waterfront in Queens, okaying plans that will bring more than a dozen high-rises to land currently occupied by parking lots and a storage yard.
NYC bodegas, which a few months ago were seen as islands of normal life, have become prime targets in a growing crime wave.
The pandemic has created a crisis in New York City’s commercial real estate industry. Some leaders think it’s time to reimagine the city’s business districts and turn empty offices into apartments.
A coalition of NYC housing groups released a blueprint that includes rezoning affluent neighborhoods, legalizing basement apartments and turning hotels into affordable housing.
State lawmakers have proposed a slew of tax-the-rich moves — including hikes on wealthy earners, those who own more than one home and a stock buyback and stock transfer tax — to plug the budget gap and are pushing for an emergency session to pass them.
Cuomo and state Budget Director Robert Mujica have warned that increasing taxes on wealthy New Yorkers would not be enough to close the state’s multi-billion-dollar deficit and could prompt those residents to move elsewhere.
Chad Dawson, an Adirondack Park Agency board member who has advocated for protecting the park’s wilderness character, said at the end of a contentious meeting that he will submit his resignation to Cuomo.
Advocates and Sen. Tim Kennedy are calling on Cuomo to sign a bill that would eliminate license suspensions for people who can’t afford to pay fines.
Two members of the Albany Police Communications Division have tested positive for COVID-19 and 10 others are experiencing symptoms, the department said.
One patient died and five others were hospitalized after a coronavirus outbreak at the Capital District Psychiatric Center, according to one of the unions that represents employees at the state-run facility.
The question of whether Tri-Village Little League should hang a Black Lives Matter banner at its fields in 2021 has caused a months-long stir in Bethlehem.
Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren is petitioning the state court to have her upcoming trial on campaign finance charges moved out of Monroe County.
