Hello, winter. Nice to know you’ve still got it.
Good Tuesday morning, all. There’s a winter storm warning still in effect through 7 a.m., and there will be snow showers on and off throughout the day.
I’m not sure what there is to talk about other than the weather, which, to be honest, is pretty par for the course here in the Capital Region. Outside my door, it looks like less than a foot of the white stuff accumulated thus far – more or less in keeping with the (very wide range) that was forecasted.
Parts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania reportedly received two feet of snow, while New York City got about 16 inches or so. Not historic, but still enough to shut down aboveground service on the subway system (until 5 a.m. this morning, anyway), and disrupt pandemic life as denizens of the five boroughs know it for a little while.
The last time aboveground subway service was cancelled due to a big snow storm was 2016 when a record 27.5 inches fell in NYC over three days. The last time it shuttered completely due to a blizzard was 2015 – compliments of Gov. Andrew Cuomo..
Emergencies were declared. Flights were cancelled, as were coronavirus vaccinations (for a second day). Cleanup efforts are likely to take a while.
Oh, and in case you were feeling sorry for yourself for having to deal with all this, just be thankful you’re not spending the night on top of Mt. Washington in New Hampshire.
It’s Groundhog Day, and I wonder if it’s harder for supposedly weather-predicting furry mammals to see their respective shadows 1) during a snowstorm, and 2) during a pandemic?
Soon we should know if there’s going to be an early spring. (Apparently, Punxsutawney Phil is an early riser). Hard to conceive of at this moment, but hey, it has been a pretty weird year already. Anything is possible.
Also some good news: It’s National Tater Tot Day, which is technically not really a thing – or wasn’t until some guy dreamed it up about ten years ago. But if ever there was a time for hot, crispy and salty comfort food, now is definitely it. Get your tots on.
Snow and wind and more snow, with one to three more inches on the ground before it’s all over. Winds will be between ten and 20 miles and hour, and temperatures will flit with 30, which is actually downright warm compared to what we’ve seen lately.
In the headlines…
Ten Senate Republicans attempted to sell President Joe Biden last night on a coronavirus relief compromise, even as Biden’s own party made plans to leave the GOP in the dust.
After the closed-door Oval Office sit-down, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden told the 10 centrist Republicans he’s not budging on his push for the next stimulus package to be in the range of at least $1.9 trillion.
Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the leader of the Republican group, said the discussion had been excellent, though “I wouldn’t say that we came together on a package tonight.” She said Biden and the senators had agreed to continue their talks.
Democrats considering a maneuver to forgo bipartisan support to pass Covid-19 relief are confronting an unintended consequence: Doing so could automatically cut Medicare.
House Democrats are gearing up to strip Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of her committee assignments this week, as momentum grows for booting the Georgia Republican from Congress altogether over her vocal support of violent conspiracy theories.
“Loony lies and conspiracy theories are cancer for the Republican Party and our country,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said after being questioned about Greene.
Somebody who’s suggested that perhaps no airplane hit the Pentagon on 9/11, that horrifying school shootings were pre-staged, and that the Clintons crashed JFK Jr.’s airplane is not living in reality,” McConnell said in a statement.
In an emotional Instagram Live video, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez narrated her harrowing experience during the Jan. 6 Capitol siege, revealing that she’s “a survivor of sexual assault.”
The congresswoman told her more than 130,000 viewers that no matter what kind of abuse or neglect they have experienced, “trauma compounds on each other.”
The California man who allegedly threatened the families of Rep. Hakeem Jeffries and a prominent journalist on Jan. 6 is an unhinged drunk who previously threatened police officers and their families, a prosecutor and his own defense attorney revealed.
More than 3,100 lawyers, including a former Attorney General, 14 ex-federal judges and three dozen former prosecutors at the office Rudy Giuliani once led, have joined a call for his law license to be revoked.
Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham rejected a Democratic request to schedule a confirmation hearing next week for Merrick Garland, President Biden’s pick to be attorney general.
Biden is reportedly considering former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel for a high-profile ambassadorship, potentially to China.
The White House is expected to announce a task force that will look at demands for restitution, expanded mental health services, the readmission of deported parents and possible permanent legal residency for families who suffered lingering damage from a policy intended to make it too emotionally punishing for migrant families to attempt to cross into the U.S.
Biden said the Myanmar military’s seizure of power was a direct assault on the country’s transition to democracy and that the U.S. would hold the leaders of Monday’s coup accountable.
In its new annual report, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) documented the state of hate groups in the U.S., revealing that a vast amount of extremist groups are socializing online.
The SPLC identified 838 active chapters of 320 organizations it calls hate groups within the U.S. as of 2020 – a decline from the 940 recorded chapters in 2019. A decline in recorded groups, however, does not equate to a drop in activity.
A preliminary investigation has not found enough evidence to criminally charge the U.S. Capitol Police lieutenant who killed Ashli Babbitt, a pro-Trump rioter who stormed the Capitol last month, according to law enforcement officials familiar with the inquiry.
Former President Donald Trump’s legal team is expected to use an argument at his impeachment trial next week that is already supported by the majority of Senate Republicans: The trial is unconstitutional because Trump is no longer the commander in chief.
A whistle-blower complaint said a top Trump homeland security official sought to constrain the Biden administration’s immigration agenda by agreeing to hand policy controls to the pro-Trump union representing Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Deborah Archer, a professor at New York University School of Law with expertise in civil rights and racial justice, has become the first Black person in the 101-year history of the American Civil Liberties Union to be elected its president.
Black Lives Matter has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize by a Norwegian legislator who praised the movement for its “struggle against racism and racially motivated violence.”
U.S. economic growth will recover “rapidly” and the labor market will return to full strength more quickly than expected, thanks to the vaccine rollout and a barrage of legislation enacted in 2020, according to a government forecast published yesterday.
A legion of essential employees have continued reporting to work during the pandemic to provide for others and keep their communities going. Their own lives have often been anything but normal.
With grocery store workers, public transit employees, educators and first responders now eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine, some employers are encouraging their employees to get vaccinated by offering cash stipends or hourly paid time.
A fast-spreading coronavirus variant first observed in the U.K. has gained a new mutation that could make it harder to control with vaccines, Public Health England reported – the latest evidence the virus is undergoing a worrisome evolution worldwide.
In a study posted online yesterday, researchers found Covid survivors had far higher antibody levels after both the first and second doses of the vaccine and might need only one shot.
Even people with asymptomatic Covid cases can have after-effects in their bodies, research indicates, raising questions about possible risks later in life.
More Americans have been vaccinated for COVID-19, as of yesterday than have been infected with the illness as the nationwide inoculation rollout continues.
Some of America’s biggest retailers are preparing to take a central role in administering Covid-19 shots, hoping to avoid logjams and other complications that have slowed the vaccine rollout’s early days.
While residents of nursing homes and their caregivers have been considered a top priority for COVID-19 vaccination, only 38% of nursing home staff accepted shots when they were offered, new data from the CDC revealed.
Over 5,000 New York state prisoners have tested positive for COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic — yet there’s still no sign inmates will be vaccinated anytime soon.
U.S. regulators could decide within a few weeks whether to allow Moderna, the developer of one of the two federally authorized Covid-19 vaccines, to increase the number of doses in its vials — which could accelerate the nation’s vaccination rate.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told business leaders in Albany Friday afternoon he thought vaccines could be distributed more quickly than the timeline Biden has suggested.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo is facing scrutiny over the distribution of COVID vaccines, how the state counted nursing home deaths and a new report detailing a rash of departures and plummeting morale among state health officials.
Democrats who control the state Senate blocked a motion made by a GOP lawmaker to subpoena records of the Cuomo administration seeking a fuller accounting of nursing home residents who died from the coronavirus.
Emails obtained by the NY Post reveal the hands-on role Larry Schwartz, a former top aide who was brought back by Cuomo to run the state’s vaccine program, has had in the highly-criticized effort.
Cuomo drove himself into New York City in the middle of the snowstorm while talking on his cellphone.
The governor shot down the idea of expanding the eligibility list for coronavirus vaccines to include restaurant workers — saying it was a “cheap, insincere” suggestion when state reserves of the shots are already stretched thin.
Even as more districts reopen their buildings and Biden joins the chorus of those saying schools can safely resume in-person education, hundreds of thousands of Black parents say they are not ready to send their children back.
The next coronavirus stimulus package will include $30 billion in relief for public transit agencies — and the MTA is on track to get the biggest chunk of that, according to a source close to Schumer.
Although a temporary remote-work agreement was recently extended to April, New York’s force unions say the majority of their members have returned to offices.
A little-noticed provision that pays New Yorkers interest when state refunds are delayed will dole out $18.2 million this year following 2020’s extended deadline to file taxes during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Sexual Harassment Working Group, a group of former Albany legislative aides who pushed successfully for new harassment laws in 2019, announced the half-dozen bills that form its agenda for this year’s session.
Cuomo has vetoed legislation that would have required the state to review access to high-speed internet, or broadband, in New York, and study the affordability and reliability of those services, saying he’ll propose a similar measure in the coming weeks.
Former State Sen. Monica Martinez has landed as a regional parks department deputy director on Long Island, earning a $122,092 salary, state records show.
CUNY appointed two new college presidents, naming new chiefs of Lehman College in the Bronx and Guttman Community College in Manhattan.
Officers involved in a Friday incident that resulted in a 9-year-old girl being pepper-sprayed in her face by police have been suspended, Rochester Director of Communications Justin Roj announced.
A North Carolina startup that bought a Rochester-area semiconductor manufacturing facility from SUNY Polytechnic Institute four years ago is greatly expanding the factory, where it makes radio-frequency chips designed for smart phones and wireless networks.
Pete Frisoni, a retired Scotia police chief who also served with the Schenectady Police Department, has won the endorsement of the Democrats in his inaugural bid to become a Schenectady County legislator.
A Schenectady council member has introduced legislation to ban ATVs and dirt bikes within city limits.
Yesterday was supposed to be the first day of practice for “high risk” high school sports in some counties across New York, but the snowstorm caused yet another delay.
Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan promoted the city’s response to the coronavirus pandemic and gave a preview of the planned projects that were delayed by it during her annual State of the City address.
SpaceX announced plans for the first all-civilian mission to space, a major milestone for private spaceflight and the nascent space tourism industry.
Former Mets manager Mickey Callaway reportedly bombarded women who covered him with unsolicited and unwanted sexual messages.
Dolly Parton was twice offered the Presidential Medal of Freedom by the Trump Administration, but turned it down, she revealed.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson is recovering from a “successful surgery” in Chicago, according to his Rainbow PUSH Coalition.
Rapper Silento was arrested for allegedly fatally shooting his older cousin outside of Atlanta last month, authorities said.
RIP Dustin Diamond, who was best known for playing Screech on the teen-themed comedy “Saved by the Bell.” He died yesterday at the age of 44, less than a month after being diagnosed with lung cancer.
