Good morning, CivMixers, it’s Tuesday, and a very big day for the electoral calendar.
Now, normally, I probably would not have written that sentence. But this is not a normal year – far from it.
This is a year in which a sitting president is trying increasingly desperate measures to hang onto power by overturning the will of the people, as expressed through a legal and largely trouble-free (note: I did not say “perfect”) election.
December 8 marks the federal election “safe harbor” date, the date mandated in federal law by which any state’s selection of its presidential electors that has been finalized six days before the formal Electoral College voting date (which is December 14 this year) is final and presumptively cannot be challenged in court or in Congress.
States are not required to finalize their electoral votes by the safe harbor date, but if they do, those determinations are protected.
The safe harbor date exists as a result of passage of the Electoral Count Act in 1887. And that occurred after four states sent in votes from two different sets of electors from the 1876 presidential race between Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel Tilden.
At that time, Congress had established no mechanism to resolve fights over competing slates of electors. The Act was adopted in hopes of preventing future disputes.
In case you’ve forgotten with all the back-and-forth lawsuit wrangling, President-elect Joe Biden has 306 electoral votes to President Donald Trump’s 232. It takes 270 electoral votes to win the White House.
On this date in 1980, rock legend John Lennon, formerly of The Beatles, was shot to death outside his Upper West Side apartment building, The Dakota, by Mark David Chapman. Lennon was 40 at the time. Chapman, who pleaded guilty to shooting Lennon hours after Lennon had autographed an album for him, is now 65. He was denied parole for the 11th time this past summer.
Chapman is serving out his sentence at Wende Correctional Facility in Alden, near Buffalo. His next parole hearing is scheduled for August 2022.
Also, today is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, which celebrates the primarily Roman Catholic doctrine that the Virgin Mary was born without sin. It’s a holy day of obligation.
It’s going to be cold today – down in the lower 30s – with clouds in the morning and sun in the afternoon. Tomorrow, there’s some snow on tap, but not a lot (as far as I can tell). And after that we’re in for a warm snap, with temperatures heading up into the 40s. Downright balmy.
In the headlines…
The United Kingdom has become the first Western nation to begin vaccinating its citizens with a Covid-19 shot outside of clinical trials — a landmark moment in the coronavirus pandemic.
The first Briton to get the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine – 90-year-old Margaret Keenan – received the first of two doses at 6:31 a.m. local time this morning at University Hospital in Coventry, less than a week after the UK became the first country to approve it.
“I feel so privileged to be the first person vaccinated against Covid-19,” said Keenan, who turns 91 next week. “It’s the best early birthday present I could wish for because it means I can finally look forward to spending time with my family and friends in the New Year after being on my own for most of the year.”
A lack of trust is hobbling Russia’s rollout of a vaccine: the country’s scientists may well have made great strides in battling the pandemic, but many Russians are not ready to believe it.
The United States has recorded more than 15 million coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic.
Both Pfizer and Moderna, the two major drug manufacturers likely to receive emergency authorizations for a Covid-19 vaccine in the coming weeks, have rejected invitations from President Trump to appear at a White House “Vaccine Summit today.
Before Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine was proved highly successful in clinical trials, the company offered the Trump administration the chance to lock in supplies beyond the 100 million doses the pharmaceutical maker agreed to sell the government. But the administration never made the deal.
U.S. hospitals are rushing to firm up plans for deciding which health-care workers can receive the Covid-19 vaccine first, with initial supplies widely expected to fall short of the amount needed to vaccinate all high-priority workers.
A California nurse says she suffered such grueling side-effects as a participant in Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine trial that she worried that she may have contracted the virus.
The large amounts of dry ice needed to speed Covid-19 vaccine candidates to pandemic-weary populations will call for special attention from airlines and safety regulators.
More than a quarter of America’s coronavirus cases have been reported since Nov. 16, showing how widespread and aggressive the current COVID-19 surge is.
Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents raided, at gunpoint, the home of the former Department of Health employee who had claimed she’d been told to censor COVID-19 data before being fired in May.
As coronavirus cases continue to surge and field hospitals reopen in Massachusetts, more are joining a chorus of calls on Gov. Charlie Baker to implement more stringent restrictions.
The D.C. government has released a new set of COVID-19 data — the first to arrange clusters of cases by setting — that shows restaurants and bars are among the most common environments where the virus spreads.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo warned that indoor dining in New York City could be shut down again as soon as next week if COVID-19 hospitalization rates keep rising.
Restaurant owners are warning that the industry, which employs thousands of low-income workers and is vital to the city’s culture, risks even further collapse without some form of aid.
Cuomo said parts of the state, including New York City, would shut down again if hospitals reach 90% capacity, the most significant sign that officials are worried that the rising number of coronavirus hospitalizations could strain the healthcare system again.
Cuomo compared himself and the nation’s top infectious-disease doctor to the “Godfather’’ Mafia-character actors at a press conference — where Dr. Anthony Fauci warned that January has the potential to be “a really dark time’’ for the country amid the pandemic.
Inspired by Fauci’s example in leading the fight against COVID-19, administrators said interest in medical careers has soared amid the coronavirus crisis.
Cuomo also ordered the state’s hospitals to increase their 54,000-bed capacity by 25% to accommodate an influx of Covid-19 cases expected to continue to mount through mid-January.
A week after The NY Post pointed out that the governor’s panel of aides sat mask-less during his indoor press briefings, Plexiglas dividers were put up to separate staffers, who also wore face coverings to guard against the spread of coronavirus.
The state Health Department has put out an urgent appeal for staffers to go to Rockland and Orange counties to perform COVID-19 community outreach and enforce mask and social distancing safety protocols amid fears of a second wave of the virus.
President-elect Joe Biden reportedly will nominate retired four-star Army general Lloyd J. Austin to be secretary of defense. If confirmed by the Senate, Austin would be the first Black leader of the Pentagon.
Biden’s choices for his health care team point to a stronger federal role in the nation’s COVID-19 strategy, restoration of a guiding stress on science and an emphasis on equitable distribution of vaccines and treatments.
Biden tapped the mayor of Los Angeles to help plan his upcoming inauguration amid continuing protests aimed at keeping Eric Garcetti from any role in the new administration.
The House is hoping for a holiday miracle that includes preventing the U.S. government from shutting down on Friday, a COVID-19 relief package with bipartisan support, and wrapping up their end-of-session business before the new Congress in January.
The House is eying a vote tomorrow on a one-week continuing resolution to prevent a government shutdown, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, said. It would move the Dec. 11 government funding deadline to Dec. 18 – one week before Christmas.
U.S. employers last month cut 128,000 core information-technology jobs, largely erasing hiring gains in October, as companies brace for a second wave of Covid-19 cases, lockdowns and business closures, IT trade group CompTIA reported.
The Department of Homeland Security said it will begin accepting new applications for the “Dreamers” program that shields from deportation certain immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children.
U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said he has successfully gotten his $25 billion domestic computer chip manufacturing bill included in the final version of the fiscal 2021 defense budget. It’s unclear, however, if Trump will sign it.
Congress’s annual national defense bill will curb the use of products containing long-lasting, toxic pollutants that have contaminated hundreds of military bases around the country.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio debuted new daily health indicators, including the rolling hospitalization rate per 100,000 residents, as part of an effort to provide a more complete picture of the city’s standing in its ongoing war against coronavirus.
More than two weeks after the nation’s biggest school district shut down in-person learning, de Blasio welcomed elementary school students back into classrooms yesterday.
Kindergarten and elementary students will be the only NYC public school students going back for in-person learning in the foreseeable future. That’s about 190,000 students – just a fraction of the 1.1 million students enrolled in the public schools.
Some parents said they were relieved that classes were resuming. But they said they were wary of de Blasio’s pronouncement that he expects in-person instruction will continue uninterrupted for the remainder of the academic year.
There will likely be more closures of individual school buildings as the amount of testing increases.
With an unemployment rate of 26 percent in September, West Farms in the Bronx has become an epicenter of New York’s economic crisis, one of the hardest hit urban communities in the country and emblematic of the pandemic’s uneven toll.
Students and elected officials huddled in the cold yesterday to urge Biden to show some holiday spirit and wipe the slate clean on more than $90 billion of student loan debt across the state.
The Manhattan federal judge who sentenced a hedge fund founder for his role in the bribery of a correction officers’ union boss allegedly had a major conflict of interest.
NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer’s bid to force the de Blasio administration to turn over COVID-related documents is just an effort to stay in the headlines, the city’s top lawyer suggested in a new court filing.
A Burning Man-style festival in Mexico turned into a coronavirus super-spreader event — with several attendees bringing COVID-19 back with them to New York City.
A Brooklyn synagogue that was stopped by the state before it could host a massive wedding in October finally succeeded in pulling off another potential super-spreader event — a jam-packed funeral.
The Staten Island bar owner who allegedly drove into a sheriff returned to his watering hole last night for another Fox News interview — and said he’s happy for the financial backing he’s received from supporters online.
A lawyer for the Staten Island bar owner who allegedly rammed a sheriff with his Jeep says the department is lying about the injured law man’s legs being broken.
“You don’t attack a law enforcement officer who is doing his or her job,” thundered Cuomo in a press briefing at his Midtown Manhattan office. “No, it’s repugnant to the values of any New Yorker. You never assault any police officer.”
The “King of Staten Island” should get out of his ivory tower, a local activist said, trashing comedian Pete Davidson for looking down on his home borough and small business owners struggling with coronavirus restrictions.
New York City had hoped a minor-league baseball team, an outlet mall and a Ferris wheel would revitalize Staten Island’s North Shore. Now it is unclear whether the ballpark will host a minor-league baseball team next year.
The Metropolitan Opera, facing a massive loss in revenue from the COVID-19 forced cancellation of the 2020-21 season, was reportedly set to lock out stagehands resisting proposed pay cuts — setting off howls of protest.
The Met says it needs to slash its workers’ long-term contracts by 30 percent to survive — a proposal rejected by the union representing its employees.
A pricey Department of Correction K-9 died after eating chemicals in his kennel – and jail sources blame budget cutbacks that resulted in the poor pooch suffering overnight.
De Blasio’s plan to quickly install 20 miles of “busways” and bus lanes across the city to help move essential workers during the coronavirus pandemic has fallen short.
Marco Carrión, one of e Blasio’s longest-serving aides, is leaving City Hall to lead the nonprofit group El Puente.
Over 50 people gathered at the Governor’s Mansion, pleading for mass clemency in New York for vulnerable inmates during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Candlelight Vigil was coordinated by the organization RAPP—Release Aging People in Prison.
OSHA sent Albany Medical Center two notices demanding answers about COVID-19 protocol at the hospital involving personal protective equipment or employees who become sick with the coronavirus.
The Capital Region’s COVID-19 death toll climbed by three yesterday, as daily cases and hospitalizations in the region hit a new record high.
All of North Colonie’s schools will switch to remote learning today after a presumed positive case in the transportation department.
The Albany County Legislature approved $800,000 in funding for small businesses hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.
Court proceedings in the still uncalled NY-22 race — pitting Republican Claudia Tenney against Democratic Rep. Anthony Brindisi — began yesterday, but with an added complication: the entire Oneida County board of elections office may have been exposed to COVID-19.
Judge Scott DelConte had sharp words for both sides in a hearing that could decide the final NY-22 outcome.
Jeremy E. Clawson, a captain and the only minority member of the Albany Fire Department, has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit accusing city leaders of rescinding his promotion to the position of battalion chief early last year after he was treated for hypothermia by paramedics during an off-duty incident.
The embattled owner of downtown Schenectady’s Wedgeway building, which city officials say has fallen into disrepair, has a new attorney and trial date, according Andrew Koldin, the city’s top attorney.
Need to find the perfect Christmas gift for the “Cuomosexual” in your life? Or a 2020 souvenir for that special someone who loves to mock New York’s coronavirus restrictions? Try Etsy.
MSNBC named Rashida Jones as the network’s president, a major shake-up at a news channel that has raised its profile with political coverage but struggled to keep pace with rivals this year. She’s the first Black female executive to run a major general news cable network.
Bob Dylan has signed a blockbuster deal to sell his entire song catalog that spans more than 600 copyrights and 60 years to Universal Music Publishing.
RIP Chuck Yeager, the pioneering Air Force pilot who broke the sound barrier and was featured in “The Right Stuff,” who has died at the age of 97.
