FRIDAY.
That seems to speak for itself. Good morning.
So, today’s Google doodle, which was more or less the first thing I saw when I launched my web browser, celebrates a moment of pride for the city of Springfield, MA, which is not too terribly far from the Capital Region – the creation of basketball by Springfield College alum Dr. James Naismith, who was a graduate student and instructor when he invented the iconic game and unveiled it on this day in 1892.
Naismith was responding to a challenge issued to him by the school’s physical education superintendent to come up with a new indoor activity the students could play during the long New England winters. (Actually, the college at the time was known as the International YMCA Training School, but no matter, it was still in Springfield).
What Naismith, a Canadian-American, came up with was actually a combination of a number of games that were popular at the time, including American and English rugby, lacrosse, soccer and something called Duck on a Rock, which involved a ball and a goal that could not be rushed.
The original game had 13 rules, and play – as continues to this day – would begin with a jump ball between two players at center court.
By 1936, basketball was included among the sports at the Olympic Games and it is now played in 170 countries. The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame opened in Springfield in 1968.
Pretty cool. And a nice diversion from the harder news stories that continue to unfold all around us.
Also on this day in history – January 15, 1929, to be exact – Michael Luther King Jr. was born in Atlanta, GA. (He later had his name changed to Martin, which, of course, is how the iconic civil rights leader is now widely known).
At the age of thirty-five, King became the youngest man to have received the Nobel Peace Prize. On April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee, where he had traveled to lead a protest march in sympathy with striking garbage workers of that city, he was assassinated.
We celebrate MLK Day, a federal holiday, on Monday, Jan. 18 this year. It is observed on the third Monday of January annually, which means it can land anywhere from Jan. 15 to Jan. 21.
It’s also National Bagel Day, which is something I can really get behind. I love a good bagel – a GOOD bagel, mind you. The travesty of the modern world is the number of BAD bagels out there has proliferated. Blueberry? Chocolate chip. No. I’m sorry. It’s plain, onion, poppy, sesame, everything, and raisin or pumpernickel MAYBE.
Appropriate spreads include, but are not limited to, (in no particular order): Butter, cream cheese, chive cream cheese, lox or lox cream cheese (NOT on a raisin bagel, sorry), whitefish salad (so good!), peanut butter and jelly in a pinch and maybe tuna or egg salad.
There. I said it. I’m a bagel traditionalist and snob. So, come at me. I can take it.
We’re experiencing a bit of a warm spell, with temperatures inching up toward 40 degrees. That feels downright HOT these days. Today will be cloudy and tomorrow it’s supposed to rain.
In the headlines…
Joe Biden’s crisis presidency effectively began last night, when he urged Americans to mobilize behind a $1.9 trillion plan to end the pandemic, save the economy and revive the weakened heartbeat of a nation.
The so-called “American Rescue Plan” would bankroll $1,400 stimulus checks to most U.S. taxpayers and provide billions of dollars in more relief for unemployed workers, small businesses and states in a bid to steady the country’s pandemic-ravaged economy.
“It’s not hard to see that we are in the middle of (a) once in several generations economic crisis, with the once in a generation public health crisis,” Biden said. “The crisis of deep human suffering is in plain sight. There is no time to waste. We have to act and we have to act now.”
In response to Biden’s plan, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said that the $1,400 checks he proposed were not enough, and pushed for a round of $2,000 payments, meaning many Americans would receive $2,600 overall.
Ocasio-Cortez revealed that Congress is looking into creating an investigative commission to “rein in” the media in the wake of the U.S. Capitol siege.
Biden has agreed to increase the federal government’s reimbursement of states and local governments for COVID-19-related costs, a change that will result in roughly another $2 billion for New York, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said.
Trump has reportedly has made clear to aides in separate conversations that mere mention of President Richard Nixon, the last president to resign, are banned.
Democrats are wrestling with when to start the Senate’s Trump impeachment trial, with some pressing for the party to move immediately as others call for a delay to gather more evidence and clear the calendar for confirming cabinet nominees and passing Covid-19 aid.
Many Senate Republicans are torn over whether Trump’s actions warrant the unprecedented step of prohibiting him from ever serving in office again after he leaves the White House next week.
Tump plans to fly to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida the morning of Biden’s inauguration, where several current White House staff are expected to work for him or his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, after his presidency.
White House officials are universally angry with Rudy Giuliani and blame him for both of Trump’s impeachments. But he remains one of few people still willing to join the outgoing president in the foxhole.
Actor Macaulay Culkin fully supports the removal of Trump’s cameo from Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.
The attorney representing the so-called “QAnon Shaman” who stormed the U.S. Capitol in a bizarre getup says Trump should pardon his client before he leaves office next week.
Harold Bornstein, Trump’s former personal physician, has died. He was 73.
A nonprofit organization named TB Alliance is looking for ways to move out of its space at 40 Wall Street, the president’s skyscraper in downtown Manhattan.
North Country Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik’s unbending support of Trump puts her at odds with local GOP committee members who are wrestling with which direction the party should take after the president leaves office next week.
A Syracuse man faces charges in connection with the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol, according to the FBI in Albany.
Federal investigators are looking into a city Department of Sanitation employee after he was caught on video at the Capitol Hill riot last week when thousands of Trump supporters stormed the building.
Lawmakers who interacted with the pro-Trump protesters who rioted at the Capitol last week could face criminal charges and will almost certainly come under close scrutiny in the burgeoning federal investigation into the assault, former prosecutors said.
A rehearsal for Biden’s inauguration scheduled for Sunday has been postponed because of security concerns.
Thousands of armed National Guard troops were on their way to Washington to bolster security for the inaugural celebration as federal investigators turned their attention to how many military and police personnel took part in the attack on the Capitol
Biden will be only the second Catholic president in U.S. history, but America’s more than 51 million Catholics are sharply divided in their views on him.
Biden is tapping former South Carolina Democratic Party chair Jaime Harrison to lead the Democratic National Committee – a major victory for state party heads and the powerful House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn.
Biden won’t be allowed to bring his Peleton bike to the White House.
As a result of the ongoing pandemic, plans for the postponed Tokyo Olympic Games are growing more uncertain by the day.
The recorded death count from the Covid-19 pandemic as of Thursday is nearing 2 million. The true extent is far worse. More than 2.8 million people have lost their lives due to the pandemic, according to a WSJ analysis of data from 59 countries and jurisdictions.
While newly-approved vaccines offer hope for relief from the pandemic, Biden described the sluggish initial delivery of the shots as a “dismal failure.”
New York Rep. Adriano Espaillat announced he had tested positive for the coronavirus, as concerns continue to mount on Capitol Hill that efforts to corral lawmakers into secure locations during the attack by Trump supporters may be a super-spreader event.
New York state is reporting more than 200 coronavirus deaths for the first time since May.
An initial national health report in Israel indicates that Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine curbs infections nearly by half two weeks after the first of two shots is administered.
Scientists from Southern Illinois University have identified a third U.S. variant of the virus that causes COVID-19 — and it may be the most contagious strain yet, researchers said.
Tech companies are working with health groups on an effort to help people easily show they have received a Covid-19 vaccine.
More than half of the Capital Region’s weekly supply of coronavirus vaccines are being sent to the University at Albany, where the state is opening a mass-vaccination site today.
An unpublished link to schedule appointments for COVID-19 vaccinations at several state-run sites was shared without authorization, allowing some New Yorkers to make appointments at sites that have not even opened yet.
Rumors on social media of soon-to-expire COVID-19 vaccines up for grabs at the Brooklyn Army Terminal sparked a frenzy of people rushing to the site in the hopes of scoring a shot last night, before the city showed up with a dose of reality.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New York-Presbyterian announced the launch of a new COVID-19 vaccination site for New Yorkers at the Fort Washington Armory in Washington Heights.
The number of workers filing for jobless benefits posted its biggest weekly gain since the pandemic hit last March and the head of the Federal Reserve warned the job market had a long way to go before it is strong again.
Applications for unemployment claims, a proxy for layoffs, rose by 181,000 to 965,000 last week, the Labor Department said, reflecting rising layoffs amid a winter surge in coronavirus cases.
Just days earlier, the government announced that employers had shed 140,000 jobs in December, the first net decline in employment since last spring, with restaurants, bars and hotels recording steep losses.
New York City police police violated New Yorkers’ First Amendment rights by suppressing “overwhelmingly peaceful” protests over the death of George Floyd, state Attorney General Letitia James charged in a lawsuit.
James’ suit claims officers unlawfully used pepper spray and battered protesters with fists and batons, detained observers and medics for curfew violations and corralled large groups of demonstrators without giving them a chance to disperse.
Police are receiving more and more tips about New York-area extremists linked to the U.S. Capitol riot, a top NYPD official said.
Cuomo unveiled a vision of new rail and bus complexes that would replace the Port Authority Bus Terminal and expand New York’s Penn Station to improve commuter access to a commercial and residential hub rising on Manhattan’s west side.
Citing New York’s long history of spearheading major public works projects, Cuomo announced an ambitious $306 billion infrastructure improvement program, which he called the largest ever undertaken by any state in the nation.
The I-81 project in Syracuse will break ground in 2022, Cuomo announced.
The governor attempted throughout his fourth and final State of the State speech to draw a line from himself to former New York governor and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
State Senate Racing and Wagering Chair Joe Addabbo criticized Cuomo’s plan to authorize mobile sports betting through a competitive bidding process, highlighting the obstacles ahead for legalizing online gambling in the state.
New York will allow upstate restaurants in “orange zones” to reopen indoor dining after a judge indicated he was likely to side with eateries in Erie County suing the state over COVID restrictions.
A judge found that the state has offered no “rational basis” for continuing the harsher restrictions on eateries in these zones while not imposing them on other parts of the state with higher hospitalization rates.
New York City may face a long-term budget nightmare as the coronavirus crisis cuts deeply into key sources of tax revenue, leaving City Hall scrambling to fill a $5.3 billion shortfall next year alone, Mayor Bill de Blasio warned.
De Blasio made those remarks as he rolled out a $92.3 billion spending proposal for city government in 2022, which is $5 billion less than the initially projected $97.4 spending level.
The city’s property tax revenues are projected to decline by $2.5 billion next year, the largest such drop in at least three decades.
A group of mom-and-pop restaurateurs, bodegas and grocers are launching a campaign against a New York City Council move to nearly double the number of street vendor permits over the next decade.
New York City’s high-school graduation rate continued edging up in 2020, as students dealing with the coronavirus pandemic likely benefited from eased graduation requirements such as canceled standardized testing.
New York City’s rent-regulated tenants owe more than $1.1 billion in back rent, with nearly 20 percent of them more than two months behind on their payments, according to a new survey.
Demand is outpacing supply in New York City, where at least one hospital was forced to cancel appointments for coronavirus vaccinations because there aren’t enough doses to go around.
With a picturesque view of an upper Manhattan park as his background, Andrew Yang kicked off his New York City mayoral run, throwing a wild card into a contest that is very much up for grabs.
NYC mayoral candidates are registering their fundraising efforts with current Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams was ahead with $8.6 million after funds are matched eight-to-one.
The husband of the chief of staff to New York State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie pleaded guilty to cocaine trafficking charges and faces the possibility of a lengthy prison term and nearly $1 million in fines.
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn took aim at the leadership of the transnational MS-13 gang, announcing terrorism charges against what they called the criminal organization’s “board of directors” — 14 of its highest-ranking leaders, most of them jailed in El Salvador.
Nine people were taken to hospitals late yesterday when a tandem MTA bus veered over an overpass in the Bronx toward the Cross Bronx Expressway, authorities said.
A coalition of more than 25 New York lawmakers and 250 of the state’s criminal and social justice reform groups announced they are pressing two pieces of legislation this year that would reshape the parole process in New York.
School districts will be limited to a 1.23% hike in the property tax levy this year as education officials around the state could be facing a scramble for raising revenue amid a historic downturn in the economy amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
New York won’t tax businesses on the forgivable loans they secured to survive the coronavirus pandemic, a spokesman for the state Department of Taxation and Finance said.
Capital Region lawmakers and business promoters took a victory lap to tout Cuomo’s State of the State announcement that an expanded Port of Albany would host what they said will be the nation’s first facility for manufacturing giant wind turbine towers.
The Albany City School District says it will send students home with academic materials again today in case civil unrest related to next week’s presidential inauguration triggers the sudden need for distance learning.
Leesa Perazzo has resigned from Schenectady City Council, setting up the first of two vacancies on the panel this month.
The ironic Saratoga Springs bar The Parting Glass received a grant from a fund launched by Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy, which will help stave off its closure – for now.
A dozen more Saratoga County residents have died due to complications from COVID-19, county data show.
Matt McCabe, the owner of of Saratoga Guitar, a regular musical guest at the Olde Bryan Inn and former city commissioner of finance died of COVID-19 at the age of 63.
The union representing laid off employees of the Remington Arms gun factory in Ilion says they are now in negotiations with the plant’s new owners.
U.S. Figure Skating has reached a $1.45 million settlement with a former skater who had accused the organization of failing to protect him from sexual abuse by Richard Callaghan, a once-prominent coach of Olympians.
“Law & Order: SVU” showrunner Warren Leight has designs on hiring as many Broadway actors not working due to the coronavirus crisis as possible.
Joanne Rogers, the piano-playing widow of Mister Rogers who tended to her iconic husband’s legacy, carrying on his message of kindness, died yesterday morning at home in Pittsburgh. She was 92.
Siegfried Fischbacher, one-half of the flamboyant big cat illusionist act Siegfried and Roy, died earlier this week at his home in Las Vegas. He was 81.
The Girl Scouts of Northeastern New York (GSNENY) will start selling cookies through a digital campaign that starts today.
