Here we are, CivMixers, embarking on the second week in December. As I write this, we are 17 days, 20 hours and 48 minutes (and counting) away from Christmas.
Chanukah, as usual, snuck up on me this year. For some reason, I can never keep track of when it starts and I’m always the idiot dashing out to Target as the sun sets on the first night, desperately hoping that the very minimal one shelf dedicated to all things related to the Jewish Holiday of Lights has not yet sold out of candles.
The first night, by the way, is this Thursday (Dec. 10), and no, I don’t have candles yet. Thanks.
Today is National Peal Harbor Remembrance Day, designated by Congress and signed into law by then President Bill Clinton in the summer of 1994. On this day, the American flag is flown at half staff until sunset to honor those who died in the surprise Japanese attack on U.S. military forces in Hawaii.
That attack, which occurred on this day in 1941, killed 2,403 U.S. citizens and led to this country declaring war on Japan the next day and thus entering World War II. Another 1,178 were injured in the attack, four U.S. Navy battleships were sunk and 188 aircrafts were destroyed.
The aim of the Japanese was to immobilize the U.S. Pacific Fleet, allowing them to advance into Malaya and Dutch East Indies.
This is not a federal holiday, which means governments, schools and businesses remain open, though some organizations and governments do hold special events to mark this day. The theme of his year’s day is “Above And Beyond The Call – Battlefield Oahu”. More on that can be found here.
Also established in 1994 was International Civil Aviation Day, the purpose of which is to, (and I quote), “help generate and reinforce worldwide awareness of the importance of international civil aviation to the social and economic development of States, and of the unique role of ICAO in helping States to cooperate and realize a truly global rapid transit network at the service of all mankind.”
Kind of a mouthful. Civil aviation, for the record, is one of two major categories of flying, representing all non-military aviation, both private and commercial.
There are two categories of civil aviation: 1) Scheduled air transport, including all passenger and cargo flights operating on regularly scheduled routes; and 2) general aviation, including all other civil flights, private or commercial.
Needless to say, the industry has taken a significant hit as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, which dramatically curtailed air travel. The UN has issued a statement commemorating today by highlighting the importance of international aviation in human affairs and calling on countries to take steps to sustain their air transport sectors.
The UN is also noting that the significant setback the industry has suffered as a result of the pandemic has presented the perfect opportunity for it to make itself both more resilient and climate friendly, as part of ongoing efforts to reach the goals of the Paris Climate Accords.
(BTW, President-elect Joe Biden plans to rejoin the global climate pact, forged five years ago by some 200 nations, and from which President Donald Trump formally withdrew the U.S. not long ago).
We’re going to continue to see some rather chilly weather, with temperatures in the low-to-mid 30s, and sunny to partly cloudy skies.
In the headlines…
Lawmakers closed in on a COVID-19 relief bill that would provide roughly $300 in extra federal weekly unemployment benefits but not another round of $1,200 in direct payments to most Americans, leaving that for Biden to wrestle over with a new Congress next year.
Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, who is part of a bipartisan group of senators hashing out a compromise on a stimulus bill, said that they are close to an agreement and that it could come as early as today.
The $908 billion aid package would be attached to a larger year-end spending bill needed to avert a government shutdown this coming weekend.
The day after Christmas could turn into one of the most dire of the pandemic as millions of Americans may lose unemployment insurance, U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer warned.
As U.S. health authorities continue examining the proposed COVID-19 vaccines, residents in the United Kingdom — the first Western country to issue approval for emergency use — are set to receive their first shots as early as this week.
Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, warned that a vaccine that could be authorized for use as early as this week is crucial but it will not be able to protect Americans from the recent hike in COVID cases across the country.
Asked about White House and State Department plans to throw indoor parties all month, Birx said it was “really important that every single person understands that the way this virus is spread is if you’re with anyone indoors without a mask, that’s a viral spreading opportunity.”
The Trump administration’s top health officials outlined an ambitious timetable for distributing the first coronavirus vaccinations to as many as 24 million people by mid-January, even as the accelerating toll of the pandemic filled more hospital beds across the U.S.
President Donald Trump said his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani has tested positive for the coronavirus, making him the latest in Trump’s inner circle to contract the disease that is now surging across the U.S.
Giuliani, 76, was exhibiting some symptoms and was admitted to Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington; the severity of his condition was unclear.
“Thank you to all my friends and followers for all the prayers and kind wishes,” Giuliani tweeted. “I’m getting great care and feeling good. Recovering quickly and keeping up with everything.”
Giuliani sought to calm concerns that he had exposed potentially hundreds of people to the risk of infection during his recent travels under his campaign to upend Biden’s election victory.
The Arizona state legislature will be closed this week as a precaution now that Giuliani — who recently testified before GOP lawmakers there — has tested positive for COVID-19.
Jenna Ellis, a legal adviser to the Trump campaign who has worked closely with Giuliani, tweeted that the legal team’s work “won’t be affected and we press on.”
Georgia’s governor is again telling lawmakers that he won’t call a special session to overturn Georgia’s election results and appoint 16 presidential electors who would support Trump instead of Biden.
In a TV debate, Sen. Kelly Loeffler, a Georgia Republican, declined to say that Trump had lost the election, arguing instead that the president had “every legal recourse available” to pursue his baseless assertion that the vote in Georgia was rigged against him.
A new Gallup poll finds that Biden has a 55 percent favorable rating and a 41 percent unfavorable rating, and is more popular than Trump has been at any point since he started running for president in June 2015.
Biden has tapped Rochelle Walensky as the next director of the CDC, bringing a respected infectious diseases expert to the helm of a critical but demoralized agency that has struggled in its response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Walensky, the chief of infectious diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and an expert on AIDS and HIV, will be tasked with rebuilding a critical health agency that has been sidelined by the Trump administration amid the pandemic.
Biden plans to nominate California Attorney General Xavier Becerra to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, selecting a legal advocate who has waged battles to preserve the Affordable Care Act.
Trump is considering a made-for-TV grand finale: a White House departure on Marine One and final Air Force One flight to Florida for a political rally opposite Biden’s inauguration.
U.S. Attorney General William Barr is reportedly considering leaving his post before January 20, the day Trump leaves office.
A government watchdog agency found no wrongdoing in the process that created a now-halted U.S. loan to Eastman Kodak to produce drug ingredients for the Covid-19 response.
The Internal Revenue Service currently has a backlog of 1 million unprocessed paper tax returns.
A professor accused of stealing technology for Huawei Technologies pleaded guilty to lying to federal agents, ending a chapter in the Justice Department’s investigation into both the giant Chinese firm and allegedly illegal actions by China-linked academics in the U.S.
Tens of millions of people in Southern California, the San Joaquin Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area are under new stay-at-home orders this week in an effort to slow the spread of Covid-19 and prevent hospitals from being overrun.
South Korea and Japan are deploying their respective militaries to assist healthcare workers in combatting COVID-19.
Costco will extend its senior shopping hours “until further notice” due to the recent uptick in COVID-19 cases.
COVID-19 killed more Americans last week than any other cause of death, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.
The statewide COVID-19 positivity rate has fallen slightly, but infection rates are still rising in Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Saturday.
A majority of FDNY members said they would not take the Covid-19 vaccine right now, though as first responders they’ll be first in line to do so.
A “real education issue” is partly to blame for a new poll that found more than half of FDNY firefighters plan on skipping the coronavirus vaccine, with some who have already beaten the bug believing they don’t need the shot, a union head said.
Mayor Bill de Blasio will publicly take the coming coronavirus vaccine in an effort to allay skeptical New Yorkers’ concerns and show them the shot is nothing to be afraid of, City Hall said.
New Jersey and New York hospitals are girding for a winter blitz of Covid-19 patients but say they are more prepared and are optimistic the mortality rate will be lower than the brutal spring months.
As of yesterday, the seven-day average infection rate was 5.12 percent for the city, according to the de Blasio administration. There were nearly 2,300 new cases reported yesterday and 165 new hospitalizations.
The New York City Health Department has issued a sweeping guide warning doctors that many patients who were infected with the coronavirus are still suffering from serious health problems months after the virus passed.
Social distancing is “discouraged” at a Brooklyn Whole Foods warehouse where six workers have tested positive for COVID-19 since October, according to former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich.
Onondaga County reported its most COVID-19 cases in a single day since the pandemic began.
Albany County saw 143 new positive coronavirus cases overnight, and a woman in her 60s died after contracting the virus, according to local health officials.
County leaders across the Capital Region held a joint briefing on Saturday and pleaded with residents to continue adhering to guidelines, particularly social distancing.
Saliva tests for COVID-19 will be made available for Albany airport workers and travelers this month.
Schenectady County health officials say “multiple positive COVID-19 cases” have been linked to a music event held at Frog Alley Brewing on Nov. 25.
During the past three days, the rolling seven-day COVID-19 positive test rate in Erie and Niagara County Yellow Zones has continued to rise. Now the test rate for both zones is above 9 percent.
“COVID-19 is spreading, and it affects all New Yorkers, Upstate and downstate,” Cuomo said. “This is a war and we continue to adapt to the enemy by making decisions based on data and science — not opinion and fear.”
When Cuomo announced more details on plans to vaccinate society’s most vulnerable, he offered a word of caution to everyone else: Don’t expect a coronavirus vaccine anytime soon.
A group of Big Apple parents rallied outside City Hall yesterday to demand the return to hybrid learning for all grades — the day before only K-5 students were set to head back into classrooms.
As the virus rages across Westchester County, it has returned to New Rochelle, a city hit so hard during the outbreak’s earliest days that it was for a time the epicenter of the pandemic in the region.
The co-owner of a Staten Island bar that authorities said has been defying coronavirus restrictions was arrested early yesterday after hitting a New York City Sheriff’s Deputy with a car, authorities said.
Defiant Staten Island pub owner Daniel Presti slammed his Jeep into a sheriff’s deputy in a desperate effort to evade arrest after obstinately continuing to serve patrons despite coronavirus restrictions, authorities said.
After New York State distributed just $40 million of $100 million in federal funds intended for struggling, low-income tenants, Cuomo announced last week that he would rework the program so that more renters would be eligible for help.
Reeling from the pandemic, transit agencies are grappling with drastic reductions in ridership and pleading for help from Washington.
New York City Transit Interim President Sarah Feinberg told transit workers that overnight subway service won’t be back until the summer at the earliest.
A posh New Jersey restaurant was abruptly closed for hosting a mask-less open “secret” gala for the New York Young Republicans last week, touching off a politically charged culture war as COVID-19 infection rates soar.
A disgruntled former member of de Blasio’s NYPD detail can pursue claims he was unfairly ignored for promotion while being assigned demeaning duties, an Appeals Court has ruled.
Queens Assemblyman David Weprin will make his run for NYC comptroller official today.
A fire in a vacant building in the East Village early Saturday morning spread to a 128-year-old church that houses the New York Liberty Bell, destroying its Gothic-style sanctuary and blowing out the Tiffany stained-glass windows that adorned the stone facade.
New York City politico Lindsey Boylan said on Twitter that Cuomo’s office was the “most toxic team environment” and that people were “deathly afraid of him.”
Newsday published an op-ed by Cuomo in which he argued that schools and teachers offer important lessons on how to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
The next battle between Big Apple builders and anti-development activists is set over sprawling plans to redevelop Queens’s Flushing waterfront with new towers that would bring apartments, office space and hotel rooms.
Goldman Sachs Group is weighing plans for a new Florida hub to house one of its key divisions, in another potential blow to New York’s stature as the de facto home of the U.S. financial industry.
State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins appears to have achieved the unachievable: Taming the unwieldy Democratic conference in her chamber into a unified bloc.
The rematch between Republican Claudia Tenney and Democratic Rep. Anthony Brindisi will slog on in a central New York courtroom this week as the Democratic incumbent urges a judge to open more ballots, while Tenney asks to be certified as the winner—by 12 votes.
As he predicted the day after Election Day, Democratic Rep. Antonio Delgado’s bid to be reelected to the 19th Congressional District seat was never as close as it appeared; he won by a comfortable close to 12-point margin.
After being forced to shut down early in March, Gore Mountain opened their slopes to kick off ski season on Saturday.
The Masten House, an Adirondack mansion owned by the State University of New York’s Environmental Science and Forestry College Foundation, has been sold and will be a private residence, according to an attorney for the buyer.
