How did Friday get here so FAST! Gotta love a four-day holiday week.
Actually, the past four days are sort of a blur – a blur of snow and snow and more snow. And there will be more – though not a lot – coming today, according to the forecast.
It’s National Caregivers Day, which falls on the third Friday in February and was started by the Providers Association for Home Health and Hospice Agencies in 2015.
Caregivers provide necessary assistance in everything from personal care to medical aid. And yet, they are overlooked, under-appreciated, and often (if the situation is information as opposed to formal, with a family member, neighbor or friend doing the work) unpaid.
The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index reports that caregivers spend six days a month feeding, dressing, grooming, walking, and bathing the individuals for whom they are responsible, and 13 hours a month researching disease and care services, coordinating physician visits, and managing financial matters.
That’s a lot.
According to the National Alliance for Caregiving, approximately 43.5 million caregivers have provided unpaid care to an adult or child over the past 12 months. Most caregivers care for one adult, while 15 percent care for two, and 3 percent take care of three or more adults.
Over 75 percent of caregivers are female, and they spend as much as 50 percent more time providing care than males, according to the Institute on Aging.
And, someday I will be able to stop writing these words, but the pandemic has really kicked caregiving up a notch and made it all the more challenging. So if you have a caregiver in your life, or know someone who is involved in providing this kind of care, take a minute today thank them for their work.
On this day in 1847, rescuers reached what was left of the infamous Donner Party, a group of California-bound emigrants stranded by snow in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Eventually reduced to cannibalism to survive – at least according to legend – only 45 of the original 89 emigrants reached their ultimate destination after leaving Springfield, Illinois in April 1846.
We’re going to have periods of snow today, with additional accumulation of about an inch. Temperatures will be in the low 20s.
In the headlines…
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said a large stimulus package is still necessary to get the economy back to full strength, despite momentum suggesting that growth is off to a faster start than anticipated in 2021.
“We are digging out of a deep hole,” Yellen said of the economic slump induced by the Covid-19 pandemic. “We think it’s very important to have a big package that addresses the pain this has caused.”
Power began to flicker back on across much of Texas yesterday, but millions across the state confronted another dire crisis: a shortage of drinkable water as pipes cracked, wells froze and water treatment plants were knocked offline.
Cities including Austin, Houston and San Antonio are under boil-water notices until Monday. Some residents are bringing in shovelfuls of snow to flush their toilets.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz faced fierce blowback for fleeing his state for a luxury resort in Cancun as a disaster unfolded. Text messages sent by his wife revealed a hastily planned trip away from their “FREEZING” family home.
Cruz now claims it was “obviously a mistake” to escape Texas for Cancun as his home state reels from catastrophic power outages and deadly winter weather. He returned home with an armed escort.
Power outages and supply problems tied to the frigid weather in Texas and surrounding states are constraining operations at restaurants and supermarkets throughout the region and with auto makers’ nationwide.
President Joe Biden’s allies on Capitol Hill unveiled a far-reaching overhaul of the nation’s immigration system, describing it as a humane response to four years of former President Donald Trump’s assault on immigrants.
The U.S. took a major step toward restoring the Iran nuclear deal that the Trump administration abandoned, offering to join European nations in the first substantial diplomacy with Tehran in more than four years, Biden administration officials said.
When Biden met with a group of mayors and governors last week he bluntly told them to get ready for a legislative defeat: his proposed minimum wage hike was unlikely to happen, he said, at least in the near term.
Walmart said it would raise wages for about 425,000 of its employees after a year in which the Covid-19 pandemic boosted its business and demand for workers who handle online orders.
First-time filings for unemployment insurance jumped last week in a sign of continuing strife for the labor market. That’s nearly 100,000 more claims than economists had predicted and the highest number in a month.
New claims totaled 861,000, above the Dow Jones estimate of 773,000, the Labor Department reported.
Thirty-five Capitol Police officers are under investigation — including six who have been suspended with pay — for their actions in the deadly January siege, according to the department.
Robinhood Markets Inc. Chief Executive Officer Vlad Tenev offered an apology for the company’s decision to temporarily curb trading in some stocks, including GameStop, on Jan. 28 amid extraordinary volatility.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told Tenev that his firm’s faulty business practices undercut its promise of free trades, while urging him to share revenue it makes selling stock orders with customers.
WHO investigators are honing their search for animals that could have spread the new coronavirus to humans, identifying two—ferret badgers and rabbits—that can carry the virus and were sold at a Chinese market where many early cases emerged.
Scientists in southern Finland have discovered a new COVID-19 variant, called Fin-769H.
New York City and its suburbs braced for several more inches of snow yesterday as winter weather here and across the country further delayed vaccine shipments, Mayor Bill de Blasio said.
Vaccine providers across the Capital Region and state were awaiting word on when delayed shipments of COVID-19 vaccine would arrive after storms in the South caused distribution hubs to temporarily close and vaccination clinics to be postponed.
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn sought data this month on nursing-home deaths from Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, after state officials took months to respond to a separate inquiry by the Justice Department.
State Assembly Republicans are moving to form an impeachment commission “to gather facts and evidence” surrounding Cuomo’s “handling and subsequent cover-up of the COVID-19 crisis in nursing homes” across New York.
Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay called on Democrats to back a plan to create an impeachment commission that would “gather facts and evidence” about the administration’s withholding of data related to the deaths of thousands of seniors and other actions.
Republican Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin, a former assemblyman and longtime Cuomo critic, has drafted articles of impeachment against the governor.
The Cuomo administration’s controversial directive for nursing homes to accept COVID-19 patients amid the pandemic likely did lead to a spike in resident deaths, an analysis by the Empire Center of the state’s own data revealed.
Assemblyman Ron Kim said he’s received overwhelming support from his colleagues amid his clash with Cuomo over the nursing home death toll from COVID-19, and Speaker Carl Heastie is “150 percent on my side.”
De Blasio publicly backed Kim over Cuomo, saying: “It’s a sad thing to say…that’s classic Andrew Cuomo. A lot of people in New York State have received those phone calls.”
Cuomo’s attacks could alienate more members of his own party and create an opening for his Democratic opponents to strike harder.
CNN host Chris Cuomo was mocked on Twitter for lambasting a Texas politician while his brother, the New York governor, faces calls to resign and impeachment inquiries after his administration covered up thousands of nursing home COVID-19 deaths.
As the Manhattan district attorney’s office steps up the criminal investigation of Trump, it has reached outside its ranks to enlist a prominent former federal prosecutor, Mark Pomerantz, to help scrutinize financial dealings at the former president’s company.
New York state lawmakers are considering an unprecedented form of wealth tax as they search for revenues to plug a budget hole exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic.
The state released the results of an investigation that found Facebook had improperly collected highly invasive personal data — including tracking of menstruation and fertility — from outside app developers that used Facebook’s Software Development Kit.
New York City health officials issued new guidance to prevent the spread of coronavirus — and its growing number of variants — urging people to wear two masks now, instead of just one.
The MTA said it has staved off forecasted deficits over the next two years, allowing it to defer service cuts and increase spending on upgrades to its subway, buses and commuter rail lines.
The MTA has threatened draconian cuts to public transit could be on the way, including a 40 percent decrease in subway service, but a new infusion of federal aid and better-than-expected tax revenue helped steady the system’s finances.
Crossing the MTA’s nine bridges and tunnels is about to get more expensive under a round of 7% hikes for all vehicles approved by the agency’s board.
The MTA plans to authorize up to $506 million of borrowing repaid in part with revenue from a yet-to-be-implemented program to charge motorists in certain areas of Manhattan.
New York Attorney General Letitia James has abandoned her threat to sue New York City into providing financial relief to taxi drivers burdened by debt from medallions purchased at inflated costs at city-sponsored auctions, her office said.
An ex-staffer who sued disgraced former City Councilman Andy King — for allegedly mishandling and mocking her health problems — has settled her claims with the city, new court papers show.
The New York City Council held a heated hearing over the future of school safety agents — with one councilman calling the proposed removal of NYPD safety agents “absurd.”
The Sergeants Benevolent Association says it may have to defend the NYPD from the New York attorney general’s lawsuit over the police response to the George Floyd protests because NYC is “unlikely to adequately represent their interests or the SBA’s interests,” new court docs say.
Ten people were hurt, none of them seriously, when a gas explosion ripped through a three-story house in the Bronx yesterday, officials said.
New York City will run a pilot program to test electric-scooter share systems for at least a year in an 18-square-mile section of the East Bronx, transportation officials said.
An NYPD officer is shown repeatedly punching a man in the head as three other cops hold the suspect down in a video posted on the internet.
Employees from a Schenectady nursing home joined hundreds of other nursing home workers statewide in picketing outside their facilities yesterday to advocate for increased investment in resident care and staffing.
The deaths of eight snowmobilers this season is the backdrop for a state safety advisory urging caution and attention to the law.
A lawsuit between a pair of chef-proprietors who have been friends for more than 35 years potentially threatens the future of Osteria Danny, a popular Saratoga Spring restaurant for upscale Italian fare.
Ella Emhoff made her surprise New York Fashion Week runway debut yesterday, a month after captivating the couture crowd at stepmom Kamala Harris’ vice presidential inauguration.
Scientists have cloned an endangered U.S. species for the first time, creating a black-footed ferret named Elizabeth Ann in an attempt to increase the fragile species’ genetic diversity.
A one-of-a-kind draft of President Abraham Lincoln’s preliminary Emancipation Proclamation is on display at the University at Albany this month.
The NASA Perseverance rover safely landed on Mars after its 292.5 million-mile journey from Earth, the agency confirmed. The rover landed itself flawlessly, according to the mission’s team.
The rover is the most technologically advanced robot NASA has ever sent to Mars. NASA spent about $2.4 billion to build and launch the Perseverance mission, with another $300 million in costs expected for landing and operating the rover on the Mars surface.
Bob Dole, 97, a former longtime senator and the 1996 Republican presidential nominee, announced that he has been diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer.
Bruce Blackburn, a graphic designer whose modern and minimalist logos became ingrained in the nation’s consciousness, including the four bold red letters for NASA known as the “worm” and the 1976 American Revolution Bicentennial star, died on Feb. 1 at the age of 82.
