Well, CivMixers, here we are – a brand new year is underway.
To be totally honest, it kinda feels a lot like the old year, but more…hopeful?
I’m trying to cultivate hope and positivity. This is my New Year’s resolution. And believe me, given the headlines of the last week or so, it’s looking like that’s going to be tougher to achieve that originally thought.
I hope you had a joyful and safe holiday season. I wish I could report back on all the fun things I did. But really, there was a whole lot of nothing, which, if you know me at all, you are aware is not something that comes easily.
I read. I exercised (a lot). I slept. I started an infuriating puzzle (still not yet done). I rang in the new year in dreamland.
A whole slew of news occurred during the time were weren’t together. Too much to recap in full here. So, I’m just going to turn the page and start fresh by focusing on today, which just so happens to be National Spaghetti Day – not such great news for those whose 2021 resolutions include cutting out carbs.
The spaghetti origin story is highly disputed, but we know the practice of making noodles out of dough and boiling them before consumption dates back centuries.
There are records in the Jerusalem Talmud of itrium, a kind of boiled dough, commonly available in Palestine from the 3rd to 5th centuries AD. A 9th-century Arab dictionary describes itriyyaas as string-like shapes made of semolina and dried before cooking. In an 1154 writing for the Norman King of Sicily, itriyya is mentioned being manufactured and exported from Norman Sicily.
Dried pasta, of the sort that is ubiquitous today, (but not necessarily as good as fresh, IMHO), became popular in the 14th and 15th centuries due to its easy storage.
These days, you can get pasta made out of all sorts of things – cauliflower, lentils, black beans, and chickpeas, for example. I’ve sampled some of them, and can report that none of them are as good as the real thing, but they’ll all do in a pinch.
Today is also World Braille Day, which is held to coincide with the birthday of Louis Braille, who was born in 1809 in France and became blind after a childhood accident.
At 15, Braille created a system of writing for the blind based on one that was created by Charles Barbier, a French Army officer who created his system for communicating in the battlefield at night.
We’ll see mostly cloudy skies today, with temperatures in the mid-30s and a chance of snow flurries or showers…because, winter.
In the headlines…
President Donald Trump faced calls for a second impeachment after it was revealed that he had tried to pressure Georgia’s Republican secretary of state to “find” votes that would have overturned the result of the presidential election in the state.
“All I want to do is this: I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have,” Trump said on the call. “…Fellas, I need 11,000 votes, give me a break.”
That call raised the prospect that Trump may have violated laws that prohibit interference in federal or state elections, but lawyers said it would be difficult to pursue such a charge.
In an extraordinary rebuke of Trump, all 10 living former secretaries of defense cautioned against any move to involve the military in pursuing claims of election fraud, arguing that it would take the country into “dangerous, unlawful and unconstitutional territory.”
Republican Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said that Republican lawmakers’ “scheme” to overturn the presidential election results “makes a mockery of our system.”
Sen. Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican and a possible contender for the GOP presidential nomination in 2024, broke with his rivals by announcing he will not object to the counting of electoral votes on Jan. 6.
Vice President Mike Pence has welcomed the effort by a group of senators – led by onetime Trump foe, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz – to refuse to certify Joe Biden’s presidential election win.
Biden’s pared-down inauguration is slated to include a “presidential escort” to the White House and a virtual parade as the country continues to grapple with the coronavirus pandemic.
After taking the oath of office, Biden will conduct a traditional review of military troops meant to highlight the peaceful transfer of power, the Presidential Inaugural Committee said in a statement.
With the U.S. set to inaugurate a new president in just two weeks, the Georgia Senate runoffs have become the second most important election in recent history — with nothing less than control of the entire U.S. Senate at stake.
The House narrowly reelected Nancy Pelosi as speaker with 216 votes, giving the California Democrat a fourth – and likely final – term leading the House.
Pelosi, 80, is the third speaker in the last 25 years to win with less than 218 votes, after former Republican Speakers Newt Gingrich and Paul Ryan. Five Democrats did not support Pelosi on the floor, and instead voted for alternative candidates or “present.”
Several House members sick with Covid-19 missed the session altogether and others cast their votes from behind a plexiglass enclosure specially constructed in a gallery overlooking the chamber.
Trump is expected today to award California Republican Rep. Devin Nunes the Presidential Medal of Freedom — the nation’s highest civilian honor.
Hospitals around the United States are racing to keep up with surges of COVID-19 patients at numbers they have not seen at any other time in the pandemic.
Pope Francis criticized people who traveled abroad during the pandemic “to escape the lockdown,” saying they were ignoring those who were suffering.
California officials are investigating a head-on car crash that killed seven children and two adults in the state on New Year’s Day.
California reported yesterday that 45,352 people newly tested positive for Covid-19, continuing a surge that has pushed hospitals and their exhausted staff to the brink.
An air-powered, inflatable costume, worn by a staff member on Christmas to spread holiday cheer, may be to blame for a coronavirus outbreak that infected dozens of workers in a hospital in San Jose, Calif., a hospital spokeswoman said.
More than 40% to 60% of ICU patients in some metro areas are critically ill from Covid-19, according to an analysis of federal data by the University of Minnesota Hospitalization Tracking Project.
Saturday’s total of 299,087 new COVID-19 cases marks a new single-day high for the U.S. Though COVID-19 deaths on Saturday totaled 2,398, down from the record high of 3,750 on Dec. 30.
Britain recorded more than 57,000 coronavirus cases on Saturday, a single-day record in a hard-hit country that has seen its rate of positive tests spike dramatically in recent weeks.
India is embarking on one of the world’s most ambitious mass immunization programs ever undertaken, after regulators approved the country’s first two Covid-19 vaccines for restricted emergency use.
Israel has vaccinated a larger share of its population against the novel coronavirus than any other country in the world.
The U.S. coronavirus vaccine rollout is not keeping pace with the number of vaccines available or the new, more transmissible variant, former FDA commissioner and current Pfizer board member Dr. Scott Gottlieb said.
Gottlieb predicted that the contagious, new strain of COVID-19 will account for the “majority” of cases in the U.S. by March.
The head of the federal government’s Covid-19 vaccine program said that health officials are exploring the idea of giving a major group of Americans half volume doses of one vaccine to accelerate the rollout.
Moncef Slaoui, head of the White House’s Operation Warpspeed, said the new coronavirus variant “should be under control” with the vaccines.
Since even the first shot appears to provide some protection against Covid-19, some experts believe that the shortest route to containing the virus is to disseminate the initial injections as widely as possible now.
The U.S. government’s top infectious-disease doctor, Anthony Fauci, said the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines is picking up speed and could be fully on track within a week or so.
Thanks to the ongoing work-from-home trend, the daily commute has become easier for many who are still going into the office.
New York state has recorded more than 1 million positive COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began – the fourth state to hit that threshold after California, Texas and Florida.
As the Capital Region reels from the beginning of a record-breaking coronavirus spike experts predicted would happen during December holidays, data shows it is one of the worst-faring regions statewide.
With a new variant of the virus emerging elsewhere in the country, it’s crucial to vaccinate New Yorkers quickly. But so far, only about 88,000 have received the shots.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo vowed during a speech at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem that he will not take the COVID-19 vaccine until it is available for his group in Black, Hispanic and poor communities around New York.
” I want to take the vaccine … But I will not take the vaccine until the vaccine is available for my [age] group in black, Hispanic and poor communities around the state,” Cuomo said.
Cuomo is urging residents in Black and Hispanic communities across New York to get a coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine when it becomes available, dispelling mistrust with the government, based in part the nation’s infamous Tuskegee Experiment.
New York has now outpaced Florida in giving out the COVID-19 vaccine, but is still trailing other states including Alaska, Oklahoma and West Virginia, the latest CDC data shows.
The state’s new vaccine rollout plan will begin as soon today, with public health care workers in outpatient settings like in doctors’ offices eligible to receive it.
The state health department ordered county officials to quickly sign a “memorandum of understanding” giving the state full control of the coronavirus vaccination process in order to receive and administer the doses.
New York City officials plan to administer one million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine by the end of January, as the city moves to increase vaccination efforts beyond health-care workers and first responders and into communities hit hard by the coronavirus.
Positive cases of the coronavirus have prompted New York City leaders to close more than 100 school buildings.
Substance-abuse centers are shutting and relying on virtual programming, just as more and more people turn to drugs and alcohol.
Outgoing Staten Island Rep. Max Rose announced he won’t be running for mayor of New York City less than a month after appearing to throw his hat in the ring.
In a statement, Rose did not offer reasons for withdrawing from the race, which already has more than 12 other contenders. Reached by phone, Rose said, “The statement certainly speaks for itself.”
Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, a NYC mayoral candidate, shared a 24-page policy paper aimed at addressing issues including key challenges of the era: demands for police reform, saving the economy and protecting New Yorkers’ health.
Two City Hall hopefuls – Adams and NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer – panned the slow rollout of the coronavirus vaccine to city residents, while offering their own proposals to get the shots into the arms of New Yorkers more rapidly.
The 22-year-old tourist who wrongly accused a prominent musician’s Black teenage son of stealing her iPhone in a Manhattan hotel claims in a TV interview she was assaulted before the incident.
Civil-rights activists marched on a Los Angeles police station over the weekend calling for the arrest of “Soho Karen,” the woman who falsely accused a black teen of stealing her cell phone in Manhattan last month.
The Daily News asked some city leaders, a cross section of big thinkers and big doers for some ideas that could help pull New York City back from its pandemic-induced economic decline.
“We pledge, here and now, that we will never stop fighting to keep New York City alive as the city now claws dirt to dig out of the hole the COVID pandemic threw it into,” the DN’s editorial page wrote.
A crisis looms in the pandemic’s wake: Evictions that threaten to overwhelm schools, homeless shelters and food pantries.
The nation’s largest transit operator, New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority, is trying to figure out how to move people safely during the coronavirus pandemic. So far, it hasn’t been easy.
More than 6,000 people will be allowed to watch live when the Buffalo Bills compete in a playoff game next weekend at their Erie County stadium.
More than 100 religious leaders around the state have penned a letter to Cuomo calling for him to fund the next phase of his ambitious 2016 plan to build 20,000 units of supportive housing.
The coronavirus pandemic triggered some increased activity in congressional offices that have reported a barrage of calls, emails and tweets from desperate constituents.
A crazed man left 10 people injured and a wild trail of destruction behind him during a Manhattan rampage Saturday night that involved subway assaults, street beat-downs and two carjackings.
The heartbroken family of an 11-year-old Brooklyn girl killed in a crash during a chase with state troopers is meeting today with state Attorney General Letitia James.
The Metropolitan Opera is using the pandemic as an excuse to furlough its top musicians — and then fill their spots in the pit with cheap non-union talent, critics say.
New York’s minimum wage just went up in much of the state, but the increase comes at a bad time for many small business owners trying to make ends meet.
A ruling in favor of former state Sen. Jeff Klein’s lawsuit against JCOPE could limit the watchdog body’s authority to investigate future claims of sexual misconduct.
A panel’s recommendation to the state to stick to the 60-hour overtime threshold for farm workers is being both vilified and welcomed.
Albany Medical Center is asking for volunteers to help staff their vaccination clinics. They’ve been tasked as one of ten different regional vaccination centers across the state to administer the vaccine.
County Executive Dan McCoy walked back his statement from earlier in the weekend that urged schools to go remote, as the Capital Region Sunday continued to be one of the region’s most impacted by COVID-19 surging in New York.
A coronavirus outbreak at a convent near Albany – St. Joseph’s Provincial House in Latham – has infected nearly half of its roughly 100 residents, leaving nine sisters dead in December, the convent and local officials said.
Two incarcerated people died of COVID-19 at Coxsackie Correctional Facility in Greene County over the weekend, bringing the coronavirus death toll in state prisons to six over the last three weeks.
Albany Councilman Owusu Anane is proposing the city look at changing its flag because the Dutch flag it is based on was later used by Dutch Nazis.
Cases filed under the Child Victims Act are revealing widespread allegations of sexual abuse across New York, splitting many churches, families and friendships as people takes sides in some instances.
Cuomo remembered his late father, Mario Cuomo, on the six-year anniversary of his death – New Year’s Day, 2015.
Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg turned 18 yesterday, marking the occasion with a characteristically sardonic tweet.
RIP Bill Lambdin, a former WNYT reporter who was a presence on Capital Region television for decades. He died Saturday morning at the age of 69. The cause of death was cardiac arrest, said his sister, Beth Lambdin.
RIP Albany native and World War II veteran Hank Landau, who was one of the most prominent and active labor leaders in New York state. He died on Dec. 30 at the Stratton VA Medical Center at the age of 91.
Legendary broadcaster Larry King is in a Los Angeles hospital with COVID-19, according to multiple media reports.
