Good Presidents Day/Washington’s Birthday morning, CivMixers.
Actually, our nation’s first president, George Washington, was born on Feb. 22, 1732. So, how did we get here? Like so many things, it’s complicated.
To cut to the chase, the action really got started in the 1960s with the proposal of the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which sought to shift the celebration of several federal holidays from specific dates to a series of predetermined Mondays.
The reason: To give workers more three-day weekend holidays, which was believed to reduce absenteeism.
Both the private section and labor unions got on board with the idea, for the former, it was due to the fact that retail sales were expected to go up as a result of more three-day weekends.
After a number of years – the Uniform Monday Holiday Act passed in 1968 and officially took effect in 1971 following an executive order from President Richard Nixon – we settled on the third Monday in February to also capture Lincoln’s Birthday, which, as we’ve discussed previously, is Feb. 12.
City, county, state and federal offices are closed today. Ditto most banks and schools, as well as the stock market.
Speaking of presidents and weekends, I don’t know how your weekend went – pandemic Valentine’s Day and all – but one person who had a very good weekend indeed? Donald Trump.
In case you were on a news blackout this weekend (and kudos to you, if so, by the way), and haven’t heard, Trump was acquitted in his second impeachment trial on charges that he incited the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, which means he’s able to run for the White House again in 2024. He’s also reportedly very excited about the 2022 midterms.
Yeah. He was acquitted even though a bipartisan majority (57-43) voted to convict him. We’ll get to more of the details in the headlines in a moment.
It’s also, BTW, Susan B. Anthony Day, which is held to celebrate both her birth and the birth of the women’s suffrage movement in the U.S. The concept of this day has been around since 2011, when Manhattan Rep. Carolyn Maloney first introduced it. That effort never went anywhere, though a handful of states commemorate this day.
Former Gov. George Pataki in 2004 signed legislation that made this a holiday in the Empire State. Anthony was actually born across the border in Adams, MA, but her family moved to Battenville, NY (a Washington County hamlet) when she was six. In 1845, the family moved to a farm on the outskirts of Rochester.
She made the city her home and was infamously arrested there for voting in the 1872 elections – just one instance of her long and storied career as an anti-slavery and women’s rights activist.
Anthony died in March 1906 died at the age of 86 of heart failure and pneumonia at her Rochester home. She’s buried in the Mount Hope Cemetery.
Shortly before her death, she uttered this famous phrase at her birthday celebration in Washington, D.C.: “here have been others also just as true and devoted to the cause – I wish I could name every one – but with such women consecrating their lives, failure is impossible!”
That memorable line – “failure is impossible” – has become synonymous with the women’s movement.
In case you were wondering, winter is definitely not over. Not even close. We’re under a winter storm warning, from today at 4 p.m. until tomorrow at about the same time. Heavy mixed precipitation is coming…snow, ice – the works.
But don’t worry, we are far from alone. A fairly large swath of the country is dealing with much the same situation.
So, run out and buy your milk and bread and then settle in. It’s going to get ugly out there.
In the headlines…
The seven Republican senators who joined all 50 Democrats in voting to convict former President Donald Trump of inciting the Jan. 6 riot in the Capitol are now facing heat from conservatives in their home states. More here.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, speaking from the Senate floor after the vote, denounced Trump’s “unconscionable behavior” and held him responsible for having given “inspiration to lawlessness and violence.” But also voted against conviction.
Democratic and Republican lawmakers have issued fresh calls for a bipartisan 9/11-style commission to investigate why government officials and law enforcement failed to stop the attack on the US Capitol in January, following Trump’s acquittal.
Such a commission appears to be the primary remaining option for Congress to try to hold Trump to account for his role in the assault.
Trump cheered his impeachment acquittal, while his successor, President Joe Biden, said his thoughts were with those who died in the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot, and that the facts of the impeachment case are not in dispute.
Trump took in the win at Mar-a-Lago, surrounded by friends and family. His lawyers celebrated with hugs and smiles. One joked, “We’re going to Disney World!”
After the U.S. Senate voted to acquit Trump, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer urged Americans to reject the twice-impeached leader at the ballot box if he runs for office again, as Trump hinted he may have a continued future in public life.
New York prosecutors are reportedly investigating financial dealings around some of Trump’s signature Manhattan properties, extending the known range of the criminal probe of the former president and his company.
Vandals targeted the home of one of Trump’s impeachment lawyers, spray-painting the word “TRAITOR” in red on his driveway in suburban Philadelphia, police said.
With the distraction of the impeachment trial over, Biden will quickly press for passage of his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan before moving on to a bigger agenda that includes infrastructure, immigration, criminal justice reform, climate change and health care.
Sorrow reverberated across the country yesterday as Americans, including Biden, joined a Florida community in remembering the 17 lives lost three years ago in the Parkland school shooting massacre.
Biden called on Congress to institute “commonsense gun law reforms,” including widespread firearm sales background checks and a ban on assault weapons.
Biden will participate in a virtual meeting of the Group of Seven industrialized nations on Friday, the White House said, joining a forum to discuss plans to defeat the coronavirus pandemic as death counts rise and the global economy remains sluggish.
WHO investigators looking into the origins of coronavirus in China believe the outbreak was much wider in Wuhan in December 2019 than previously thought, and are seeking access to blood samples from the city that China has not so far let them examine.
New Zealand put its largest city into lockdown yesterday, after just one family tested positive for COVID-19.
The number of average daily new coronavirus cases in the United States dipped below 100,000 recently for the first time in months, but remain well above levels from last spring.
In a study posted yesterday, a team of researchers reported seven growing lineages of the novel coronavirus, spotted in states across the country. All of them have evolved a mutation in the same genetic letter.
The genetic stretch that is mutated, or changed, is called 677. The various changes are so similar that the researchers think evolution favors these particular variants.
Just as states are again lifting mask-wearing mandates and loosening restrictions, experts fear that more contagious variants could undo all that progress.
Walmart Inc., the U.S.’s largest retailer and private employer, is set to become one of the biggest distributors of the Covid-19 vaccine as the federal government enlists retail pharmacies to accelerate what has been a choppy rollout.
Actually getting coronavirus vaccines into arms is hard, complicated by the special handling the doses require but also because of cumbersome data-management systems.
Public health experts including some at the CDC said available evidence suggested schools could safely open as long as precautions were in place.
But the much-anticipated CDC guidelines were, in fact, more measured than some expected, with full in-person schooling recommended only when levels of community transmission are quite low, a standard that almost no place in the U.S. meets today.
Elementary schools have been open in the Big Apple for months. As the city prepares to reopen middle schools, problems remain, but there is also cause for optimism.
Pediatricians are warning that the coronavirus pandemic’s protracted disruption of in-person schooling, sports and other activities is leading to weight gain that could have long-lasting impacts on children’s health.
New Yorkers with chronic health conditions that made them newly eligible for the Covid-19 vaccine flooded a state website and call center yesterday morning, leaving many unable to immediately schedule appointments at mass vaccination centers.
No New York nursing homes have lost their licenses yet despite widespread COVID-19 deaths at the facilities, aides to Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently said — griping that state laws are too soft and their hands are tied.
Democratic Rep. Antonio Delgado lent his voice to a growing bipartisan chorus calling for a probe of the bombshell admission by a top aide to Cuomo that his administration hid data on coronavirus deaths in nursing homes.
The increasingly nasty public battle between Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik and Cuomo – as well as his top aide, Melissa DeRosa – is a significant deterioration of a relationship that used to be cordial, if not outright friendly.
Some Democrats in Albany have floated the legally dubious idea of threatening to rescind Cuomo’s pandemic powers and issue subpoenas as leverage in upcoming budget negotiations.
The Legislature is supposed to have this week off, but Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay wants to change that, calling for a special session to address the alleged coverup of nursing home data by the Cuomo administration.
“Saturday Night Live” took a swipe at Cuomo’s looks and reopening plans, but didn’t mention his nursing home death scandal.
Cuomo faces intensifying accusations that he covered up the true death toll of the pandemic on nursing home residents, attacks that challenge his reputation for straight-shooting competency and could cloud his political future.
Cuomo issued an executive order pushing the statewide curfew for bars, restaurants and other establishments with liquor licenses from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m.
Some health and science experts said that such moves may be premature, warning that dangerous virus variants are continuing to spread and the number of people vaccinated in New York is a relatively small percentage of the state’s population.
The state is giving voters two more days (until Feb. 16) to change their party affiliations.
After months of pleading for funding, commissioners in charge of redrawing New York’s legislative and congressional districts received word last week that a contract granting $1 million for their efforts had been approved. They’re now refusing the money.
The House Democrats’ campaign arm has hired an ex-gangster turned high-profile criminal-justice advocate for a top leadership position.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sent a letter to New York’s congressional Democrats asserting the state’s deficit troubles have been “addressed,” despite Cuomo’s repeated complaints that the latest coronavirus relief bill does not contain enough federal funding.
Amazon is suing New York’s attorney general to prevent the state from potentially taking legal action against the company over its handling of worker safety during the Covid-19 pandemic and firing of one of its warehouse workers last year.
New York State asked the federal government for permission to cancel the math and ELA assessments for grades three through eight and certain Regents exams this year.
The MTA is asking for 1,500 additional cops to be assigned to the city’s beleaguered transit system — triple the number the NYPD said it would send in by today.
A homeless man with a history of psychiatric issues was arrested on charges that he stabbed four people who were sleeping in the subway, killing two of them, during a violent spree that raised alarms over safety in the transit system.
Rigoberto Lopez, 21 years old, was arrested yesterday and charged one count of first-degree murder, two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder.
A new report suggests New York City’s post-pandemic economic recovery will take longer than most hope – perhaps until 2023, or later.
Andrew Yang’s new campaign co-manager for his NYC mayoral run, Sasha Neha Ahuja, criticized the candidate in 2019 after he was accused of gender discrimination, writing, “Wish I could say it was unbelievable.
Yang has enough donations to qualify for taxpayer matching funds, his mayoral campaign said.
Billionaire business mogul John Catsimatidis is gearing up for another run for mayor of New York City — declaring himself a “Republican-Liberal” candidate.
Democrat Gwen Wright, who has been signing up volunteers and raising money for her campaign to unseat Republican Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin, has received the first of two expected party endorsements from the Working Families Party.
Backcountry downhill skiers, snowboarders, and others heading for steep and open terrain in the Adirondack High Peaks should be prepared for avalanche conditions, DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos advised Saturday.
Robert Maraj, the father of the rapper Nicki Minaj, died on Saturday after being struck by a vehicle in a hit and run on Long Island, the authorities said.
Jessica Pegula, the daughter of Bills owners Terry and Kim Pegula, has advanced to the fourth round of the Australian Open.
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are expecting their second child.
Nick Tahou Hots, home of the garbage plate, has seen a significant drop in sales over the course of the pandemic, and the future of this iconic Rochester eatery is in question.
Albor Ruiz, a prominent Cuban-born journalist whose columns for The Daily News, El Diario and Al Dia News advocated for Latino immigrants and demanded that the U.S. lift its longstanding trade embargo against his homeland, has died at the age of 80.
