Good morning, Friday has arrived!
I am, as those of you who have known me for a while might already know, a nut butter fiend.
Rarely do I come across a version of smooshed, spreadable nuts that I do not like. Almond, cashew, peanut, walnut. I have them all. There might well be five or maybe even more different jars in various states of consumption in my fridge and pantry.
I am not, however, a big fan of Nutella. There, I said it.
I mean, look, I wouldn’t turn it down, necessarily. But it wouldn’t be my first choice, either. Too sweet, cloyingly so. And also too rich, like almost unctuous.
I know there are people who wholeheartedly disagree. A lot of them live in France. When I lived there, my friends were regularly shocked at how much I was willing to drop for a fancy jar of imported Skippy. (I missed home, OK??) Especially when there was so much Nutella that was cheap and readily available to be spread on warm baguettes, crepes and croissants.
In case you….I don’t know, are very healthy, or live under a rock, Nutella, which is a gianduia cream containing cocoa and hazelnuts, is the best-selling spread in the world. It actually originated in Italy, which still consumes about 60 million jars of the stuff annually.
Some 350,000 tons of this sweet spread is produced every year. It dates back to 1964 and is the brainchild of a guy named Pietro Ferrero.
There was an uproar in 2017 when the European Food Standards Authority warned that the contaminants found in the palm oil used in Nutella were carcinogenic, and some stores removed the product from their shelves as a precaution.
Nutella’s maker, Ferrero, which also makes some seriously delicious chocolate hazelnut candy, went to great lengths to insist that its palm oil was not only sustainably sourced but properly processed and therefore not dangerous.
Today, in case you hadn’t already guessed, is World Nutella Day. Again, I won’t be celebrating personally, other than to eat my daily allotment of peanut butter, or maybe almond. But you do you.
We are in for some more snow this morning, with accumulation of less than an inch predicted. That will give way to cloudy skies in the afternoon. Temperatures will be in the mid-to-high 30s.
In the headlines…
The House exiled Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from congressional committees, blacklisting the first-term Georgian for endorsing the executions of Democrats and spreading dangerous and bigoted misinformation even as fellow Republicans rallied around her.
Greene’s colleagues voted 230 to 199 to remove her from the Education and Budget Committees, with only 11 Republicans joining Democrats to support the move.
One of the Republicans who voted against Greene, Florida Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, said her past remarks were “unacceptable” but added there were “also members I’ve consistently said should be removed from committee assignments for their irresponsible, inflammatory speech.”
Staten Island Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis voted against Greene.
President Joe Biden said “America is back” and “diplomacy is back at the center” of U.S. foreign policy as he announced an end to all support for Saudi Arabia’s offensive operations in Yemen – one of several changes he announced in his first major foreign-policy speech.
Biden has beefed up his foreign policy team with several experts on Asia — a move analysts said signals renewed efforts to raise U.S. standing in a region where China’s influence is growing.
Biden announced he plans to increase the cap on the number of refugees allowed into the US after his predecessor Donald Trump slashed it dramatically while in office.
Sen. Bernie Sanders defused a middle-of-the-night fight over increasing the federal minimum wage, effectively allowing Democrats to sidestep going on the record on the issue for now.
By a voice vote, senators backed an amendment from Senator Joni Ernst, Republican of Iowa, to “prohibit the increase of the federal minimum wage during a global pandemic.”
The Senate signaled broad bipartisan support for the next round of coronavirus stimulus checks to be more targeted.
The Senate early this morning moved forward with a $1.9 trillion Covid relief package after a marathon voting session on resolutions attached to the bill.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer joined Sen. Elizabeth Warren and several of the most progressive Democratic lawmakers in urging Biden to use executive action to forgive $50,000 in federal student debt for all borrowers.
Former president Donald Trump is rejecting a request for his testimony at the Senate impeachment trial that begins next week.
David Schoen, a former Republican prosecutor in Pennsylvania who serves as Trump’s lead defense lawyer, wrote in a letter to the 10 House impeachment managers that their request for sworn testimony from the ex-president proves his claim that the trial is unconstitutional.
The SEC filed a lawsuit against Lev Parnas, a Florida businessman who helped Rudy Giuliani push for investigations in Ukraine to benefit Trump, accusing him of duping investors in a fraud-insurance company.
SAG-AFTRA delivered a memorable one-liner when Trump resigned from the actors union ahead of a disciplinary hearing over his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot: “Thank you.”
At least 21 of those charged in connection with the Jan. 6 uprising so far had ties to militant groups and militias, according to court documents and other records.
Former Vice President Mike Pence will be joining the Heritage Foundation as a distinguished visiting fellow, the conservative think tank said.
Voting-machine company Smartmatic USA Corp. sued Fox Corp.’s Fox News, seeking $2.7 billion in damages for what it alleges were defamatory on-air comments about the company’s products in the aftermath of the presidential election.
Hunter Biden, the son of the president whose overseas business ties received intense scrutiny from Republicans during the 2020 campaign, plans to release a memoir this spring. It will focus on his substance abuse and “torturous path to sobriety.”
The Biden White House is considering sending masks directly to American households, an action the Trump administration explored but scrapped.
Johnson & Johnson filed an application for emergency use authorization for its single-shot coronavirus vaccine, bringing it one step closer to helping the U.S. fight against the virus.
The addition of J&J’s vaccine could jump-start a U.S. mass-vaccination campaign that has been choppy since it began in December.
Confronted with the possibility of coronavirus variants that may evade current vaccines, therapies and tests for the virus, the Food and Drug Administration is readying a plan for action in the next few weeks.
In the near future, travel may require digital documentation showing that passengers have been vaccinated or tested for the coronavirus.
New claims for jobless benefits came in a bit less than expected last week though U.S. employment gains remain sluggish.
First-time claims for unemployment insurance totaled 779,000 for the week ended Jan. 30, the Labor Department reported. That was below the 830,000 estimate from economists surveyed by Dow Jones.
New York City won’t be permitted to use Covid-19 vaccine currently held in reserve for second shots to provide first doses to New Yorkers, the state’s health commissioner said.
“The CDC, which is now headed by President Biden’s team, does not recommend using second doses for first doses,” Commissioner Howard Zucker wrote. “I am in regular contact with the CDC, including as recently as this morning, on this topic when they affirmed their opposition to using second doses as first doses now.”
Medical professionals across the New York region are on their way to seeing their offices fully vaccinated, and after a financially difficult year some are advertising their new protected status in hopes of luring back patients.
Following State Senator Liz Krueger, Allesandra Biaggi becomes the second Democratic State Senator to demand that Governor Andrew Cuomo’s emergency powers to manage the COVID-19 pandemic be eliminated.
Hours after Cuomo and Zucker were served with a lawsuit over their failure to include incarcerated individuals in the early stages of the coronavirus vaccination rollout, state officials said they would begin inoculating more than 1,000 inmates who are 65 and over.
At least 5,700 people incarcerated or employed in New York’s prisons have tested positive in the past two months, and 13 have died, outpacing even the early days of the pandemic, though far less testing was being done then.
A group representing New York bars and restaurants wants Cuomo to relax the state’s 10 p.m. curfew in time for the Super Bowl — and give eateries a chance to prove they can keep diners safe from COVID.
Southern Tier Republican Rep. Tom Reed, a frequent Cuomo critic, said the governor’s “days in Albany are numbered” and “there’s leadership coming to Albany very soon.” But wouldn’t say if this means he plans to run himself.
Reporters at the state Capitol are calling on Cuomo to consider equity when picking which journalists get to ask questions during the governor’s virtual news conferences, including giving more transparency and accessibility to the press.
The Senate is preparing to pass a package of 10 bills to bolster accountability and oversight of nursing homes — and the health department — after an investigative report revealed Cuomo’s administration misled the public about the total number of nursing home residents killed by the coronavirus.
“This is just a series of bills, some of which have existed since the hearings we did last year, and some of them as a response to the report that we all were shocked to get last week,” said Sen. Gustavo Rivera. “But we’ve been consulting with advocates, working with families and stakeholders to really craft a group of legislation that is going to address some of the concerns we have about nursing homes.”
Public workers in New York could have an incentive to retire early under a proposal by a pair of state lawmakers unveiled yesterday.
The appointment of a new commissioner to run the New York City transportation department has raised hopes of progress on a stalled project to replace a deteriorating interstate highway bridge that cuts through Brooklyn Heights, an affluent neighborhood in Brooklyn.
New York City’s top doctor Dave Chokshi emerged publicly for the first time yesterday after announcing a day before that he tested positive for the coronavirus.
The mass vaccination site set to open at Yankee Stadium still has thousands of open timeslots for appointments, City Councilman Mark Levine noted, as he questioned whether New York has conducted enough outreach to drum up interest in the shots.
A Long Island Rail Road employee whose father was a Gambino hit man plotted with four co-workers to rack up outrageous overtime without doing any work, prosecutors charged.
Five Long Island Rail Road workers schemed with each other to pocket massive amounts of overtime “by repeatedly covering for one another’s absences from work,” federal prosecutors alleged.
The MTA’s chief operating officer is leaving the agency, the latest in a long line of transit executives who have stepped down or retired over the past year.
NYC’s largest police union called on the city’s Department of Education chancellor to apologize for teachers and students participating in Black Lives Matter at School “week of action” — which features an NJ cop-killer who remains one of the FBI’s most wanted.
De Blasio waved aside New Yorkers’ fears over a recent spate of shocking subway crimes — including the concerns of NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea, claiming that the top cop never sounded the alarm, as he sat just feet away.
Women were repeatedly being assaulted at or near a Williamsburg subway station, but the police failed to post warnings. One victim’s social media post finally led to an arrest.
Acclaimed New York journalist and writer Pete Hamill, who died in August at age 85, will be honored with the renaming of Seventh Ave. between 11th and 12th streets in Park Slope, Brooklyn, the neighborhood where he was born.
The mother of a distraught 9-year-old girl who was manhandled, handcuffed and pepper-sprayed by cops in Rochester wants them off the job.
Even as it threatens to remove a pair of Shinnecock Indian Nation electronic billboards in a sharp escalation of a two-year dispute, New York State confirmed that it had paid to advertise on one of them.
Racists spewing hate interrupted the online monthly meeting of a coalition of neighborhood groups on Wednesday during a discussion about Black History Month, the organization’s chairman said.
Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan released a statement condemning the incident.
Albany County Executive Dan McCoy said he will not open up COVID-19 vaccine availability to restaurant workers and food delivery people as the state is allowing, noting that those who suffer from chronic health conditions should be considered first.
An Albany man was charged in connection with a phone call that led to two Bethlehem-area schools to be placed in lockout on Wednesday afternoon.
Delivering his second state of the city address virtually yesterday, Cohoes Mayor Bill Keeler said plans for 2020 were sideswiped by the coronavirus and the city continues to deal with the pandemic.
With growing concern over the number of solar arrays popping up in open fields throughout Clifton Park, the town board has adopted a six-month moratorium on new ground mounted solar panels.
Siena College’s Alumni Recreation Center, where the men’s and women’s basketball team are playing their home games this season, will be renamed the UHY Center effective immediately.
Saratoga County’s top doctor laid out his plan to keep the estimated 1,100 student athletes playing high-risk high school sports safely.
An irate state judge in Lewis County accused of keying the car of a local official who denied him health insurance has resigned, the state Commission on Judicial Conduct said.
Tempers are once again flaring between staff and management at the New York Times, this time over the publication’s handling of inappropriate comments allegedly made by high-profile science reporter Donald G. McNeil, Jr. during a trip to Peru for high school students in 2019.
Gun control activist David Hogg — a survivor of the Parkland school massacre — said he’ll launch his own pillow company to compete with Mike Lindell, the conservative CEO of MyPillow.
Peleton said it would delay the U.S. launch of a much-anticipated new treadmill and start shipping exercise equipment by air in an effort to ease extreme delivery delays on its connected exercise gear.
This year’s Puppy Bowl was filmed in Glens Falls.
RRIP Pyramid Cos. founder Robert J. Congel, head of the shopping mall empire that includes Destiny USA, who has died at age 85.
RIP George McDonald, who walked away from a corporate career and spent 700 nights feeding mendicants, crack addicts and runaways in Grand Central Terminal, laying the foundation for a second act as the founder of the Doe Fund, a nonprofit that has provided housing and jobs to thousands of formerly incarcerated and homeless New Yorkers, He died of cancer at the age of 76.
