Good Thursday morning, CivMixers.
Lots of options to choose from today, but I think I’m going to start with the fact that it’s the International Day of Girls and Women in Science, and, not surprisingly, this year’s theme is about women scientists at the forefront of the COVID-19 battle.
Established by the UN General Assembly in 2015, this day “aims at raising awareness on the issue celebrating women’s excellence in science and reminding the international community that science and gender equality have to advance hand-in-hand to address major global challenges and achieve all the goals and targets of the 2030 Agenda.”
UNESCO is hosting an online forum featuring experts from around the world who are united in the common goal of working in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
Women researchers have played a key role in battling COVID-19, contributing to the science that has led to both treatments and the vaccine. But the pandemic has also had an outsized negative impact on women in the field of science, (like pretty much every other profession, as job losses are weighing more heavily on women than men).
Women in the early stages of their science careers have been particularly affected, which has only served to further widen the gender gap in the profession and highlight its considerable gender disparities, underscoring – yet again – the need to support and encourage girls interested in STEM.
Today is also Fat Thursday, which comes six days before Ash Wednesday, and is the traditional beginning of festivities in many European cultures that lead up to the beginning of Lent.
Most Americans celebrate Fat Tuesday at the final day of indulgence before Lent, but Fat Thursday is more popular across the pond, particularly in Poland, where it’s traditional to celebrate by making and eating a pastry called Pączki, (pronounced “POONCH-key”).
The Paczki is sort of like a doughnut, but richer and without the hole. They don’t have a hole because they’re usually filled – most often with some sort of jam.
And Google, as per usual, has further expanded my musical knowledge today, using its daily doodle to celebrate the life of Mexican singer and songwriter María Grever, who is considered to be one of the country’s greatest composers. She moved to New York in 1916, where she composed background music in films for both Paramount Pictures and 20th Century Fox.
We’re in for a fairly nice day, it appears, at least as far as February goes, with partly cloudy skies and temperatures in the high 20s.
In the headlines…
The House impeachment managers opened their prosecution of Donald Trump with a meticulous account of his campaign to overturn the election and goad supporters to join him, bringing out never-before-seen security footage from the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
The emotions inside and outside the Senate chamber were raw as the sun set yesterday after the House managers sought to use the montage of wrenching pictures to drive home their case against Trump.
Serving as a House impeachment manager for the Democrats in the Senate trial, Rep. Ted Lieu of Southern California painted Trump as desperate and out of options.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer ran down a hallway at the U.S. Capitol to escape Trump supporters who violently forced their into the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, the new security footage shows.
Even after witnessing the deadly violence firsthand, and being reminded of it again at the scene of the crime, many Republican senators appeared no closer to convicting Trump on the charge of “incitement of insurrection.
A spoof advertisement for Trump’s impeachment lawyers popped up in a New York City subway train car Wednesday morning after the duo drew widespread ridicule for their at times meandering defense arguments at the ex-president’s Senate trial.
Dozens of former Republican officials, who view the party as unwilling to stand up to Trump and his attempts to undermine U.S. democracy, are in talks to form a center-right breakaway party.
Senior Justice Department officials repeatedly sought to block federal prosecutors in Manhattan from taking a crucial step in their investigation into Rudy Giuliani’s dealings in Ukraine, delaying a search warrant for some of his electronic records.
President Biden yesterday spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping for the first time since taking office.
The White House said Biden raised “fundamental concerns” about Beijing’s “coercive and unfair economic practices, crackdown in Hong Kong, human rights abuses in Xinjiang, and increasingly assertive actions in the region, including toward Taiwan.”
Biden paid tribute to Black Americans serving in the military as he made his first visit to the Pentagon since taking office, vowing to embrace diversity as a strength at a time of racial reckoning inside the Defense Department.
The U.S. will impose fresh sanctions against military leaders in Myanmar in response to the military coup there earlier this month, in what Biden called a push for an “immediate return to democracy.”
Superfund cleaning monies have dwindled in the past 20 years to a fraction of what’s needed for cleanup, leaving one in six Americans living within three miles of a dangerously toxic site.
Regional transportation officials hope a $2 trillion infrastructure plan proposed by Biden’s administration will provide money to help them realize plans to increase the number of electric buses, ramp up road and bridge repairs and replace aging rail cars.
Japan’s Olympic chief plans to resign after making derogatory remarks about women, a person close to him said, creating an unusual and disruptive leadership transition less than six months before the Games are scheduled to begin in Tokyo.
The Biden administration is backing off Trump’s attempts to ban TikTok, asking a court to postpone a legal dispute over the proposed ban as the government begins a broader review of the national security threats posed by Chinese technology companies.
About 90 people were hospitalized with Covid-19-like symptoms in central China two months before the disease was first identified in Wuhan, according to WHO investigators, who want further testing to determine whether the new virus spread earlier than previously known.
Top members of Biden’s COVID response team are warning internally that the U.S. may not reach herd immunity until Thanksgiving or even the start of winter—months later than originally calculated—according to two senior administration officials.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new research that found wearing a cloth mask over a surgical mask offers more protection against the coronavirus, as does tying knots on the ear loops of surgical masks.
Researchers found that layering a cloth mask over a medical procedural mask, such as a disposable blue surgical mask, can block 92.5% of potentially infectious particles from escaping by creating a tighter fit and eliminating leakage.
Coronavirus vaccine acceptance is steadily rising, and it’s now all the way up to 71%, a new Gallup Poll reveals. That’s an all-time high, and up from just 50% in September.
People who have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 do not need to quarantine if they are exposed to the coronavirus, the CDC said.
Dr. Anthony Fauci said about 20,000 pregnant women have received the COVID-19 vaccine “with no red flags.”
In a bid to get more residents age 75 and older vaccinated, Massachusetts officials say they will also inoculate the people accompanying them, regardless of age, to mass vaccination sites, which can be confusing to navigate.
Instagram took down the account of controversial anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. His Facebook page is still up.
An Instagram spokeswoman said that the company permanently removed the account “for repeatedly sharing debunked claims about the coronavirus or vaccines.” Kennedy had more than 800,000 followers.
Facebook said it is beginning to reduce how much political content users see in their news feeds, potentially diminishing the role that the world’s largest social network plays in elections and civil discourse more broadly.
Two mass vaccination sites, run jointly by the federal and state governments, will be opened downstate in “socially vulnerable” communities to ensure equity in the distribution of coronavirus vaccines.
Vaccination distribution kicked off at the Mets home turf, Citi Field, yesterday, with Mayor Bill de Blasio heralding the move just days after launching a distribution center in the Bronx at Yankee Stadium.
A limited number of fans will be allowed to attend sports and entertainment events at venues with 10,000 or more seats in New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said.
This means that sports franchises like the Nets, Knicks, Rangers, Sabres and Islanders may be able to have attendees in the stands as soon as Feb. 23, provided that seating is limited to 10 percent of the venue’s capacity.
The Cuomo administration has quietly set up 19 “COVID-only” nursing homes throughout the state to treat patients recovering from the killer bug who are discharged from hospitals.
New York’s top health official provided answers late yesterday about the state’s handling of COVID-19 in nursing homes — six months after lawmakers sought the information.
De Blasio joined a growing call in Albany for Cuomo to lose his emergency pandemic powers.
The state’s ethics panel chairman, appointed by Cuomo, stepped down yesterday and is slated to be replaced by another former staffer to the governor.
Cuomo’s office confirmed the departure of Michael Rozen from JCOPE and said that Camille Joseph Varlack had been named by the governor as a new commissioner and chairwoman of the beleaguered ethics panel.
New York could receive as much as $23 billion in federal aid to state and local governments from the coronavirus relief bill that Congress is expected to pass in the next few weeks, but Cuomo says it’s not enough.
The head of the Big Apple’s lead economic development agency, James Patchett, is stepping down to head to the private sector after seven years as de Blasio’s top aide overseeing housing programs and business partnerships.
Real estate and business executives have donated more than $1.47 million to an independent expenditure committee looking to influence some of the dozens of races for seats on the New York City Council this year.
Ray McGuire has lived a grand New York life, conquering Wall Street and kibitzing with Steve Martin. But in his campaign for mayor, he is eager to reach beyond his wealthy supporters.
New Yorkers shouldn’t have to wait more than six minutes for a train or bus at any hour of the day, says city Comptroller Scott Stringer, who released a transportation agenda for his mayoral campaign.
Subway riders and transit workers in major cities are being exposed to levels of air pollution that could increase the risk of heart and lung problems, according to a new study from New York University.
The MTA’s top honcho said he couldn’t figure out how to clean the city’s subway system without leaving it closed to passengers from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. each night.
MTA officials have quietly cut service on a pair of subway lines over the past year — and the longer waits for some riders are expected to continue for the foreseeable future because the agency is short on train crews.
Albany should pass a plan to impose harsher punishment on people who attack and spit on transit workers, the MTA’s inspector general said.
A far-right activist and his pal were charged with allegedly planting a fake bomb on a car adorned with “Black Lives Matter” signs at the Queens Place Mall last month — and leaving a dog stuck inside the vehicle.
Manhattan Councilman Ben Kallos is re-introducing legislation this week that would compel the NYC DOE to reveal which schools offer services like vision care and HPV vaccines.
The state Assembly has advanced a bill to rename New York’s Donald J. Trump State Park – something Democrats have been trying to do sine 2015.
The Fiscal Policy Institute’s annual report backed a variety of new and increased taxes on wealthy individuals and businesses, including an unearned income surcharge, a corporate tax surcharge, a Global Intangible Low-Tax Income, a pied-a-terre or second home tax and a stock transfer tax.
The legalization of retail marijuana sales in New York has the potential to create a multi-billion-dollar industry within the decade, according to an economic analysis by New School economist James Parrot and labor market consultant Michele Mattingly.
Have no fear Albany residents, Nipper isn’t going anywhere.
An attorney for the Hussain family who owned the limousine that crashed and killed 20 people in Schoharie two years ago, argued before a state appeals court to try and get restrictions lifted on the sale of a motel and several rental properties they own.
A year after terminating an annual payment of $100,000 to the city for public safety expenses, Norlite’s parent company has proposed resuming the donation for 2021, a proposal to the Cohoes Common Council shows.
Bruce Springsteen was allegedly busted in Sandy Hook, New Jersey when he pulled over to take pictures with fans — and then took a shot of tequila offered by one of them in full view of the cops, a music industry insider said.
After spending years courting Springsteen to appear in his first commercial, Jeep took down the ad after news broke that the rock legend had been charged with drunken driving in November.
The New York Times is familiar with breaking some of the biggest stories related to culture, race, and gender. But events over the past several weeks reveal the nation’s paper of record is largely divided when it discovers such issues sitting in its own backyard.
Larry Flynt, the controversial publisher who founded Hustler magazine, has died at age 78.
Flynt was a ninth-grade dropout who built a $400 million empire of raunchy publications, strip clubs and “adult” shops around his magazine, and spent decades battling obscenity and libel charges as a self-promoting champion of freedom of the press.
