Good Tuesday morning that feels like a Monday (for those of you who didn’t work yesterday), CivMixers.
It’s Mardi Gras, AKA Fat Tuesday, named for the practices of eating fatty delicious food and celebrating before the ritual sacrifices of Lent begin.
This holiday is observed in many places, but New Orleans has really made Mardi Gras its own, and the first parade associated with the festivities is recorded to have taken place in 1837. The city is now synonymous with the phrase “Laissez les bonnes temps rouluez” (let the good times roll, in French, that is).
Popular colors associated with Mardi Gras are purple, green and gold. The celebrants are often masked and/or costumed, and there’s the infamous tradition of women showing their bare breasts in exchanged for beads thrown from floats.
Now we get to the downer part of this post…Mardi Gras parades have been cancelled this year as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Crowding a lot of people into the streets of New Orleans would be a surefire superspreader event if there ever was one.
Last year’s revelry is believed to have contributed to an early surge that made Louisiana a coronavirus hot spot.
Not all celebrations are cancelled, however. Some – but not all – Krewes are still holding their traditional Balls, which are invite-only and not open to the public. New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell ordered bars closed during the Mardi Gras weekend that started Friday and runs through today.
This isn’t the first time parades have been called off in New Orleans. Since 1857, parades and more have been cancelled 13 times. The most recent cancellation was in 1979, due to a police union strike, making this the first cancellation in 42 years.
New Orleans, which relies heavily on tourist dollars, has undertaken some creative ways for people to still celebrate safely, which include a call for people to decorate their houses like floats. And, you can always eat King Cake (if you can find one to buy).
It’s also Kyoto Protocol Day, marking the day when, in 2005, the international agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming took effect.
Rather infamously, as you know if you’re the sort of green-minded person who follows such things, the protocol has been ratified by 191 countries and the European Union, but not the U.S., which signed but never ratified its participation and then dropped out in 2001. After initially participating, Canada has also since withdrawn from the protocol.
You may also recall that Vice President Al Gore was instrumental in putting the protocol together in 1997, and then President Bill Clinton signed it in 1998, but the U.S. Senate refused to ratify over fears that the restrictions required would cause economic harm.
President Joe Biden has, early on in his tenure at the White House, begun the formal process for the U.S. to rejoin the Paris Climate agreement, which recently marked its fifth anniversary and aims to drastically slash greenhouse gas emissions, making good on a campaign pledge to do so.
Former President Donald Trump announced his intention to abandon the accord in June 2017, angering countries worldwide. The U.S. became the only country to pull out of the pact on Nov. 4, 2020 – the day after the election and the first possible day for the country to bow out under the agreement’s terms.
We are still under a winter weather advisory in the Capital Region until 4 p.m., with mixed precipitation creating icy road conditions. Temperatures will be in the mid-to-high-30s.
A winter storm that has pummeled much of the United States is moving through the Northeast, leaving a trail of destruction across some states unaccustomed to such harsh weather.
Texas was blanketed by one of its largest snowfalls on record and grappling with power outages, flight cancellations and urgent warnings from government leaders and emergency supervisors to stay put and reduce electric consumption.
In the headlines…
Donald Trump’s acquittal in the Senate impeachment trial – and the backlash facing Republicans who voted to convict – have exposed the deepening rift in the GOP over whether to continue to embrace the former President or move past his divisive brand of politics.
Eleven members of Illinois Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger’s family sent him a vitriolic letter accusing him of being a member of the “devil’s army” in light of his criticism of Trump after the January 6 insurrection.
The North Carolina Republican Party voted unanimously to censure Sen. Richard M. Burr for voting to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial.
A majority of Americans do not think Trump should be allowed to hold elected office in the future, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll.
Trump waved to hundreds of cheering fans who rallied to support him on Presidents Day.
Congress will move to establish an independent commission to investigate the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, including facts “relating to the interference with the peaceful transfer of power,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California announced.
Leaders of both political parties suggest that impeachments, Electoral College standoffs and Supreme Court nomination blockades may become frequent fights in American politics.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, facing the prospect of campaigns from the pro-Trump wing of the GOP, signaled his willingness to get involved in primary elections to improve the party’s chances of regaining control of the chamber in the next round of elections in 2022.
As President Biden presses ahead with plans for a $1.9 trillion stimulus package, he and his top economic advisers are brushing aside warnings of inflation aside, as is the Federal Reserve under Chair Jerome H. Powell.
Biden is scheduled to travel to Wisconsin today, one of the first official stops of his presidency, where he’ll participate in a CNN Town Hall at 9 p.m. ET.
Biden directed the federally run HealthCare.gov to reopen enrollment from Feb. 15 through May 15, the 14 states that operate their own insurance exchanges don’t have to go along.
Republicans continued to press Biden to use his influence to help reopen schools, pointing out that government scientists say virtually all schools can reopen safety — even in hard-hit areas if COVID-19 tests are used.
Biden has expressed a preference for a fire built in the Oval Office fireplace, and sometimes adds a log himself to keep it going. His dogs, two German Shepherds called Major and Champ, sometimes join him.
While more than 64,900 new COVID-19 infections were reported on Sunday, it was the country’s lowest case count since October. Just last month, reported infections were topping 200,000 a day. But experts remain worried – especially with variants circulating.
A bipartisan group of governors expressed concern with the Biden administration’s vaccine rollout, writing in a letter that better coordination is needed between the federal government and states to prevent confusion and duplicative efforts.
Vice President Kamala Harris claims the Biden administration is “starting from scratch” to develop a national vaccine distribution plan because Trump left them with nothing, contradicting Dr. Anthony Fauci, who disputed that contention last month.
The U.S. government distributed millions of fast-acting tests for diagnosing coronavirus infections at the end of last year to help tamp down outbreaks in nursing homes and prisons and allow schools to reopen. But some states haven’t used many of them.
The World Health Organization gave emergency use approval to the COVID-19 vaccine developed in coordination between AstraZeneca and Oxford University.
Doctors across the country have been seeing a striking increase in the number of young people with Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children or MIS-C, and more of them are very sick than when the first wave of the virus hit.
U.S. workers have failed to return to the office in greater numbers this month, frustrating hopes that the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines and falling infection rates would start to lure employees back and help revitalize city economies.
Admitting a degree of fault for the first time, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said that his administration’s lack of transparency about the scope of coronavirus-related deaths in nursing homes in New York was a mistake.
Cuomo said that “lessons were learned’ in not releasing the data and that things “should have been done differently. “The last thing I wanted to do was aggravate a terrible situation,” he aded. “There were people’s requests, press requests that were not answered in a timely manner.”
“Everyone was busy,” Cuomo said. “We’re in the midst of managing a pandemic. There was a delay in providing the press and the public all that additional information.” Not immediately giving the state the data created a “void” of facts, he said, allowing misinformation to thrive.
But he stopped short of a full apology for his handling of information about the death toll in the state’s nursing homes, an issue that has engulfed his administration in recent weeks.
“Apologize? Look I have said repeatedly, we made a mistake in creating the void,” Cuomo said. “The void allowed misinformation and conspiracy, and now people are left with the thought of ‘Did my loved one have to die?’ And that is a brutal, brutal question to pose to a person.”
“I don’t think there is anything to clear here,” Cuomo continued. “That’s a fact, there’s nothing to investigate there, and then we provided information to DOJ,” he said, adding again, “There is nothing to investigate.”
Lawmakers seeking to use the threat of probes or subpoenas for leverage over budget negotiations better think again, Cuomo warned. “Legally, you can’t use an investigation to leverage a person in another matter, he said. “That’s illegal, it’s just illegal.”
Assemblyman Ron Kim, a Queens Democrat whose uncle died from COVID-19, rejected Cuomo’s explanations, saying “all of it is BS” and a cover-up.
New Yorkers who lost loved ones to COVID-19 in nursing homes blasted Cuomo’s attempts to cover up the real death toll, saying he needs to be investigated for “killing” their family members.
Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay urged the Legislature to cancel its winter break this week and hold a special session to address Cuomo’s nursing home deaths “cover up” scandal — including stripping the governor of his emergency powers.
The first of millions of New Yorkers with chronic health conditions lined up to receive the Covid-19 vaccine at sites around the city yesterday, a day after people inundated a state website and call center when they became eligible for the shot.
New Yorkers suffering from 9/11-related illnesses can sign up for vaccinations now that the state has expanded eligibility parameters, but advocates for survivors of the terrorist attack say it’s too little, too late.
Cuomo announced the tri-state’s first known case of the South African variant of the coronavirus in the region. The case is in a patient from Connecticut who was transferred to a New York City hospital for care; there is no evidence of any spread in the state.
The overnight shutdown of New York’s subways will start coming to an end next week — more than nine months after the system was closed to the public from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m., MTA chairman Pat Foye said.
A mentally ill man accused of fatally stabbing two people during a grisly A train stabbing spree, and seriously wounding two others, was ordered held without bail.
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez is running for reelection after four years heading the office in the city’s most populous borough.
In the crowded field to replace Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. , two camps are emerging among the eight Democratic candidates: insiders and outsiders.
The head of the NYPD’s sergeants union, who faces up to a two-month discipline over social media posts that include calling the Big Apple’s former health commissioner a “bitch” and a lawmaker a “first class whore”, has defended his actions and won’t apologize.
The state Health Department ordered changes Friday to coronavirus protocols on Albany Medical Center’s oncology floor after a third COVID-19 outbreak in three months that has sickened more than 50 patients and staff, according to the New York State Nurses Association.
Eighty percent of people working for Uber, Lyft, Doordash, Postmates, and Instacart work less than 15 hours a week, according to new data from the New York Coalition for Independent Work, a group consisting of the five companies.
Budget negotiations for 2022 are underway and within Cuomo’s proposal is additional funding for the Adirondack Diversity Initiative. Its executive director, however, wants more.
Although the overall budget for the state Office for People With Developmental Disabilities is expected to increase nearly 3 percent, those who provide direct services to people with disabilities say the cuts are falling on them.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, in his first visit to upstate New York in his new leadership role, lauded a restaurant relief fund policy he’s folding into the broader COVID-19 stimulus package that in the works in Congress. (He would not answer questions about Cuomo and the nursing home scandal).
A number of state universities and community colleges across the Capitol Region hope that the Biden administration will make colleges more affordable to lower-income students and minority groups as well as provide relief for those paying off student loans.
Rivers Casino & Resort in Schenectady said it has extended its hours of operation to 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., after Cuomo extended the closing time for bars and restaurants to 11 p.m. Previously, the closing time had been 10 p.m.
Albany-based Mechanical Technology Inc. says the EPA wants it to help pay for $358,000 in cleanup costs at a former government rocket test site next to the GlobalFoundries factory.
The New York State Humane Association is asking a Columbia County club to call off their annual squirrel hunting contest scheduled for Feb. 27, saying it focuses on the “wanton destruction of helpless animals.”
Two young cows are still loose two weeks after 174 animals including other livestock, cats and dogs, were removed from the Town of North Greenbush’s last farm on Hidley Road, police said.
Martin Gugino, 76, who was shoved to the ground by two Buffalo cops during a Black Lives Matter demonstration says he bears the officers no ill will after last week’s decision by a grand jury to dismiss criminal charges against the officers, which he called a “welcome twist.”
Convicted cult leader Keith Raniere has contracted the coronavirus. Raniere was transferred to a prison in Tucson, Ariz., in January.
Attendance at New York’s 180 parks and 35 historic sites hit a new attendance record in 2020 with 78 million visits, a 1.2% increase from 2019.
Urban Outfitters is coming to Crossgates Mall.
Actress Cicely Tyson lay in repose at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, where she had been a member for three decades.
