Good Monday morning, CivMixers, welcome to Christmas week.
AND, perhaps more importantly, for those of us who have been really feeling the weight of the long, dark nights, welcome to the Winter Solstice.
Technically speaking the Winter Solstice marks the start of winter in the Northern hemisphere, which, thank to the big storm and massive amounts of snow we received last week, you could be forgiven for thinking was already well underway.
On the December solstice, the sun reaches its southernmost position in the sky – no matter where on Earth you happen to be.
But, after we get over the “longest night of the year” thing, the amount of daylight starts to get just a little bit longer with every 24 hours that pass. In other words, it’s all downhill to spring – and summer! – from here.
Before we start that countdown to a warmer and sunnier time, it should be noted that this year’s Winter Solstice is extra special, as it corresponds with a very rare occurrence – the first visual “double planet” in 800 years.
Yup. That’s a Very. Long. Time.
This is also known as a “great conjunction” (thank you, Galileo) as the bright planets Jupiter and Saturn come together. Some are also calling this phenomenon a “Christmas Star.” The planets haven’t been this close together in nearly 400 years, and haven’t been observable this close together at night since medieval times, in 1226.
So, yeah, it’s a big deal.
Tips on how to view the Christmas Star: look in the southwest sky as it gets dark after sunset from a viewing spot that has a clear view of the horizon and is free of trees, buildings and bright lights.
Binoculars will enhance the view but what you really want here is a telescope, which, when properly adjusted, will display Jupiter and Saturn in the same field of view.
I also want to take a moment to talk about yesterday’s Google doodle, which remembered the last surviving male northern white rhinoceros, Sudan, who was known as an affectionate “gentle giant.”
On Dec. 20, 2009, Sudan and three other northern white rhinos arrived at their new home in Ol Pejeta Conservancy, a wildlife sanctuary in Kenya. Sudan died in 2018 at the age of 45 – that’s about 90 in human years. He serves as a symbol of ongoing rhino conservation efforts and a reminder of the danger of extinction faced by far too many species on this planet.
There will be areas of patchy fog this morning, so watch out for that if you’re out and about. Otherwise, it will be a fairly unremarkable day from a weather perspective, with cloudy skies and temperatures in the mid-30s. Whomp. Whomp.
In the headlines…
Lawmakers struck a deal on a $900 billion stimulus package that includes emergency COVID-19 relief checks for Americans in dire need of economic relief caused by the pandemic, and money to deliver vaccines that could help finally bring it to an end.
It will be merged with a spending measure to keep the government funded for the remainder of the fiscal year, creating a $2.3 trillion behemoth whose passage will be Congress’s last substantive legislative achievement before adjourning for the rest of 2021.
The full details of what’s in the relief package have yet to be released, but it is expected to include $600 direct stimulus payment for Americans under a certain income level, among other programs aimed at helping the economic fallout of the pandemic.
The aid package will keep millions from losing jobless benefits. But it comes too late to prevent lasting damage to many families and businesses.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called the plan inadequate and noted they would soon push for more relief spending after President-elect Joe Biden takes office on Jan. 20.
The NYT editorial bill deemed the relief package “good enough,” adding: “It should be larger. It should have happened months ago. But an agreement on coronavirus aid is still a welcome dose of good news.”
Congress is planning to send out a second round of smaller stimulus checks to many people. But it’s likely hundreds of people in New York and thousands around the country are still waiting for their first check to arrive.
After years of being stymied by well-funded interests, Congress has agreed to ban one of the most costly and exasperating practices in medicine: surprise medical bills.
President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign made a long shot bid at the U.S. Supreme Court to challenge Biden’s victory in Pennsylvania in a petition that asked the justices to effectively reverse the outcome of the race.
Trump reportedly held a meeting at the White House on Friday evening in which he discussed naming appellate lawyer Sidney Powell as a special counsel to investigate voter fraud in the election.
Powell was back at the White House yesterday to push Trump and his administration to issue an executive order to seize voting machines for examination.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blamed Russia for the SolarWinds hack that compromised numerous federal agencies and U.S. corporations, while Trump said he was skeptical of a growing consensus in Washington about the country’s role.
As the government grapples with a vast hack, the Pentagon is weighing whether to separate management of the National Security Agency from the United States Cyber Command.
Biden’s selection of Rep. Deb Haaland to lead the Department of the Interior — potentially the first Native American to do so and serve as a Cabinet secretary — is being viewed as a fresh start for tribal relations with the federal government.
“A voice like mine has never been a Cabinet secretary or at the head of the Department of Interior,” Haaland said. “Growing up in my mother’s Pueblo household made me fierce. I’ll be fierce for all of us, our planet, and all of our protected land.”
Countries across Europe and beyond barred travelers from Britain yesterday in an effort to keep out a highly infectious new strain of the coronavirus that is spreading rapidly in England.
The rapid spread of a new variant of coronavirus has been blamed for the introduction of strict tier four mixing rules for millions of people, harsher restrictions on mixing at Christmas in England, Scotland and Wales, and other countries placing the UK on a travel ban.
Canada has become the latest country to halt flights from the UK following the discovery of a new variant of Covid-19, which is said by officials to spread faster than others.
Much about this variant remains unknown, such as whether it is a new strain — a functionally different version of the virus.
Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer for England, warned that the virus is considered to be spreading more quickly. But he said there was no evidence so far to suggest that the new strain is more potent in terms of severe illness or death.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo called it “reprehensible” and “grossly negligent” to allow UK travelers to fly into JFK Airport without being tested despite a contagious new mutation of the coronavirus shutting down London.
“It’s so apparently dangerous the U.K. imposed its own shutdown,” Cuomo said. “You have 120 countries who demand that a test be taken on the U.K. side before a person gets on the flight to come to their country. The U.S. does not require it.”
Cuomo penned a letter to Trump, calling on him to force Congress to include relief for families, states and local governments in the next COVD-19 stimulus package.
Biden will receive his first dose of the coronavirus vaccine on live television today as part of a growing effort to convince the American public the inoculations are safe, just as a second vaccine, produced by Moderna, will start arriving in states.
Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, traveled with family out of state over Thanksgiving weekend — disregarding her own advice to stay home and not gather during the holidays.
Doctors are treating a new flood of critically ill coronavirus patients with treatments from before the pandemic, to keep more patients alive and send them home sooner.
Hospitals around the country were thrown into confusion after the Trump administration informed state after state that they’ll be getting 25 to 40 percent fewer COVID vaccine doses next week than they’d been expecting.
People ages 75 and older and front-line essential workers will be next in line to receive Covid-19 vaccines, according to recommendations from a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory committee.
Companies, unions and industry trade associations are lobbying governments to include their workers in the next round of virus vaccines.
Health officials are closely monitoring six people who experienced severe side effects from Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine in the U.S., where more than a quarter million shots have been given so far.
Admiral Brett Giroir, an assistant secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services, said a third COVID vaccine could be approved for emergency use sometime next month.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recorded her experience getting the COVID-19 vaccine and shared it with her 8.2 million Instagram followers, writing: “I would would never, ever ask you to do something I wasn’t willing to do myself.”
U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Rep. Antonio Delgado also joined the small, but growing number of Americans being vaccinated against the coronavirus, when the immunization became available to members of Congress at the U.S. Capitol.
At least seven of the state’s lawmakers between the Senate and House have received the vaccine since Friday, including Schumer and Republican Rep. Tom Reed.
Nursing home residents and staff across New York are set to receive COVID-19 vaccinations today.
In a pair of addresses at predominantly Black churches yesterday, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio delivered a passionate plea for Black New Yorkers to take the COVID-19 vaccine as it becomes available.
In the days leading up to Thanksgiving, health experts had warned against travel, large gatherings and flouting face-mask guidelines during the holiday, and new data shows COVID-19 took a toll on New Yorkers who ignored that advice.
New York and New Jersey, early hot spots during the COVID-19 pandemic, have so far declined to release detailed breakdowns of their spending on personal protective gear and medical equipment during the first frenzied months of the virus outbreak.
Cuomo said he wants to be at Bills Stadium in Orchard Park when the Bills host a playoff game next month after the team clinched the AFC East division title on Saturday, but it remains to be seen if fans will be allowed in.
When asked if fans would be allowed back inside the Orchard Park stadium, Cuomo said the decision will be up to the state Commissioner of Health Dr. Howard Zucker.
At least 164 maskless revelers partied in a crammed, illicit, makeshift underground bar in Rosedale, Queens, yesterday morning, according to authorities.
Based on the current numbers for regional positivity rates, all new York regions except the Southern Tier and the North Country would be in complete shutdowns. But that has not happened, as governor’s office changed the policy last week.
More than a dozen senior managers have retired or resigned from the MTA in recent months — a “brain drain,” in the words of one senior transit boss, that raises serious concerns over how prepared the agency is for a long-haul recovery from the pandemic.
New York City is on course this year to record the highest number of deaths of drivers and passengers since it launched a traffic safety initiative in 2014. The rise in deaths comes even as crashes and traffic plummeted during the coronavirus pandemic.
A bunch of city bike lanes are still blocked by piles of powder days after a blizzard hit the five boroughs — and cyclists are seething.
Fernando Mateo, who was born in the Dominican Republic and has long headed the state Federation of Taxi Drivers and more recently the Bodegas Association of America, is considering a 2021 run for NYC mayor as a Republican.
The Democratic candidates running for mayor differ on many issues, but they tend to agree on one thing: All aspire to be different from de Blasio, a Democrat in his second term whose approval rating dropped after his failed run for president last year.
A watchdog report finding that the NYPD “lacked a clearly defined strategy” and used excessive force during the summer’s George Floyd protests was an early step in the right direction, criminal justice experts said, but meaningful change will be difficult.
The city’s Department of Investigation said the NYPD’s response eroded public trust and called on the police department to overhaul its strategies for handling protests.
Four Minneapolis cops charged in Floyd’s killing will be tried on live TV, a judge ruled over the objections of prosecutors.
Cuomo says he’s asked the state police’s Hate Crimes Task Force to help find a pair of vandals who scrawled a swastika on a Brooklyn yeshiva.
An investigation into who leaked an image of Harvey Weinstein in custody at Rikers Island is focused on Commissioner Cynthia Brann’s inner circle.
A foreclosed Queens apartment building erupted in flames early Saturday, killing three people, injuring four others and leaving surviving residents stranded in the frosty December air.
Advocacy groups are disappointed that the New York state Capitol remains closed to the general public on the eve of a legislative session where lawmakers will consider raising taxes, adjusting the state budget and legalizing marijuana for recreational use.
Legalizing cannabis for adult use is again going to be on the table when the state Legislature returns to Albany in 2021, but Democrats still remain divided on certain aspects of the issue that are likely to complicate negotiations.
The Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican Nation is wondering why promised murals honoring the tribe’s culture haven’t yet been installed on the Interstate 87 Exit 3 overpass that leads to the Albany International Airport.
More than a year after Exit 3 opened in 2019, the murals are paid for and printed. But the DOT is asking the tribes to reconsider the deal, instead suggesting the state build a park-like path that would feature the images in a nearby, less-trafficked area.
The state DEC released its final report on alternate drinking water supplies for the village of Hoosick Falls, which five years ago learned its underground wells had been contaminated with a toxic manufacturing chemical.
The storm that blanketed a wide swath of upstate made one motorist’s car disappear in Owego until an ingenious state trooper found it.
About one in three small businesses have closed their doors in Connecticut since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, a setback for a state that never fully recovered from the last recession.
When it came to reading material this past year, New Yorkers turned to books that helped them make sense of our increasingly challenging world, particularly in terms of race relations and social justice.
A 20-year-old soldier from Tennessee who went missing from Fort Drum was found dead in New Jersey, officials said, adding that an investigation has been launched.
This Chris Churchill column is causing quite a stir on social media.
Derek Becker, a standout baseball player at Cohoes High School who went on to play Iona College, was shot and killed over the weekend in Florida.
The Food and Drug Administration proposed to revoke the standards of identity for French dressing after decades of antiquated rules governing the identity of the American staple.
One of the Midwest’s most influential newspapers apologized yesterday for what its top editor described as decades of racist coverage of Kansas City, Missouri.
In a letter to readers, Mike Fannin, who has been The Kansas City Star’s editor since 2008, wrote that the newspaper “disenfranchised, ignored and scorned generations of Black Kansas Citians. It reinforced Jim Crow laws and redlining.”
Just hours after Jim Carrey said he would no longer play Biden on “Saturday Night Live,” the NBC variety show introduced its new Biden: “SNL” cast member Alex Moffat.
The pop star Ariana Grande is engaged to the luxury real estate agent Dalton Gomez, she announced on Instagram.
It’s that time of year again.
