Good Wednesday morning. This week is flying by…for me, anyway. I hope you can say the same.
Today’s Google Doodle is worth a look – and a mention. It honors Dr. Wu Lien-teh, a Chinese-Malaysian epidemiologist who created a surgical face covering widely believed to be the forerunner of today’s N-95 mask. This would have been his 142nd birthday (if that was such a thing).
Wu worked for the Chinese government, and became vice director of the country’s Army Medical College in 1908. When a highly lethal and contagious plague epidemic broke out in northwestern China in 1910, Wu developed a mask made of cotton and gauze to filter the air people inhaled and reduce the spread of the disease.
Sounds so familiar, doesn’t it?
For his work containing this plague, which had a close to 100 percent fatality rate and claimed 60,000 lives in about four months, (a startling number, no doubt, but considerably lower than the number of people killed in the U.S. by COVID-19), Wu was nominated in 1935 for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine – a first for a person of Chinese descent.
Speaking of people who do amazing things, today is also Harriet Tubman Day, which as been held since 1990, thanks to a joint resolution passed by Congress, in honor of the anti-slavery activist.
Tubman had been a slave herself, but escaped and then went on to rescue approximately seventy enslaved families and friends, using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad.
Tubman worked for the Union Army during the Civil War, after which she retired to her family’s home in Auburn, NY, where she cared for her aging parents. She became active in the women’s suffrage movement, which, of course, also has New York roots. She died in Auburn on this day in 1913.
The Harriet Tubman home in Auburn is now a National Historic Park, which is usually open to visitors but closed last March as a result of the Covid pandemic.
Tubman has been honored in many ways over the years. Newark, NJ, for example, recently announced it had selected five artists to submit preliminary designs for a monument that will be erected in her memory. (Apparently, Newark was an important stop along the road to freedom).
But the most prominent effort has been the push to replace Andrew Jackson’s image on the $20 bill with Tubman’s – an undertaking that stalled in recent years, thanks to former President Donald Trump.
It has picked up steam again due to President Joe Biden’s public expression of support (which makes sense, given that his former boss, President Barack Obama, has announced that the switch would be made in time for the 2020 centennial of women landing the right to vote via passage of the 19th Amendment).
Jackson, as you may recall, was the nation’s seventh president and presided over the country’s expansion, but he was also a Tennessee plantation slaveowner who signed the Indian Removal Act and presided over the deadly Trail of Tears. Critics say his presence on the $20 is offensive and not appropriate for the modern era.
Another beautiful early spring day is on tap, with lots of sun and temperatures in the lower 50s!
In the headlines…
Another aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo has reported harassment by the governor, this time during an encounter at New York’s Executive Mansion, where she’d been summoned for work late last year, though few details of the incident are available.
The woman’s supervisors recently became aware of the allegation and alerted the governor’s counsel of it. The claim has been referred to state AG Tish James, who has appointed two outside counsels to investigate Cuomo’s sexual harassment scandal.
“First, I’m not aware of any other claim,” Cuomo said. “As I said last week, this is very simple: I never touched anyone inappropriately…I never made any inappropriate advances…(and) no one ever told me at the time that I made them feel uncomfortable. Obviously, there are people who said after the fact they felt uncomfortable.”
NYC mayoral candidate Andrew Yang has asked Cuomo to “step aside until both the Attorney General’s investigation is complete and until the legislature has a chance to act on it — and have LG Kathy Hochul serve as Acting Governor during that period.”
Manhattan Democratic Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, the longest serving member of the Legislature, is calling on Cuomo to resign.
The Cuomo administration’s leaking of his first sexual harassment accuser, Lyndsey Boylan, could have criminal implications, and could become part of the AG’s probe.
Cuomo’s approval rating in all of New York State is at an all-time low of 38%, according to a recent poll by Emerson College and News Nation. However, in New York City, it’s a much different story.
Cuomo’s spokesman reportedly went into damage-control mode when an ex-aide first alleged that he sexually harassed her — calling another former aide, Ana Liss, who later went public with her own accusations, while she was on her honeymoon.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said talk of Cuomo’s resignation “isn’t the right conversation we should be having” and actually puts female lawmakers in an unfair position.
“If some people want to know if I have talked to the governor, yes I have. I have talked to him a couple of times,” Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes said. “Kind of screamed on him a little bit about some of the negotiations we are having, regarding the marijuana bill.”
The families of seniors who died after contracting COVID-19 in New York nursing homes say Cuomo should donate the money he made off his book detailing how he took charge in the fight against the pandemic.
House Democrats aim to pass the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill today so President Joe Biden can sign it by the weekend. More on what’s in that bill here.
Despite united GOP opposition and a narrow Democratic majority, House Democratic leaders expressed confidence that they will have votes to spare. House Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries, of Brooklyn, said he was “110 percent confident” of success.
Chuck Schumer ascended to the top post in the U.S. Senate during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Now he faces a different challenge: Steering Biden’s agenda with zero margin for error.
After years of Democratic accusations that former President Donald Trump was too soft on Russia, the Biden administration is facing Republican criticism of its approach to Moscow.
The Pentagon has agreed to keep nearly 2,300 members of the National Guard at the US Capitol until at least late May — a nearly 50 percent reduction from the current force protecting the area.
White House Chief Medical Advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said Covid-19 cases in the U.S. may level off again at very high volume, even as the nation rapidly administers three vaccines.
The decline in cases seen since early January now appears to be “going down a little more slowly,” Fauci told the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “Which means we might plateau again at an unacceptably high level.”
Beginning today, all New Yorkers 60 years of age and older will be eligible to receive the COVID vaccine, while public facing essential workers from governmental and nonprofit entities will be eligible beginning March 17.
The morass of vaccine guidelines has set off a free-for-all among people with underlying health problems like cancer or Type 2 diabetes to persuade state health and political officials to add particular conditions to an evolving priority list.
Alaska yesterday broadened an already long list of people eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine to include anyone 16 and older who lives or works in the state, becoming the first state in the nation to do so.
Walgreens online vaccine-booking system stopped working for several hours yesterday, preventing people from making appointments to get a Covid-19 vaccine.
The Department of Health and Human Services’ watchdog is examining how the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention can improve the accuracy of its data on Covid-19’s toll by race and ethnicity.
While it issued recommendations that fully vaccinated people can gather together, maskless, indoors, the CDC still suggests that airline travel should not be undertaken – either by those who are vaccinated or those who are not.
The Covid-19 pandemic has forced the FDA to postpone hundreds of drug company inspections, creating an enormous backlog that is delaying new drug approvals and leading the industry to warn of impending shortages of existing medicines.
The nation’s second-largest school district – Los Angeles – is expected to start offering in-person instruction to elementary school and high-need students in about six weeks.
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson signed into law legislation banning nearly all abortions in the state, a sweeping measure that supporters hope will force the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit the Roe v. Wade decision but opponents vow to block before it takes effect later this year.
The House Democrats’ campaign arm, led by Hudson Valley Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, is officially ending its controversial ban on political consultants who work with candidates challenging sitting Democratic incumbents in primaries, clinching a major victory for progressives.
Manhattan prosecutors are intensifying their investigation into Donald Trump’s businesses, taking aim at a 213-acre Westchester County estate that the former president unsuccessfully tried to develop, according to people familiar with the matter.
A New York Supreme Court justice dismissed a Trump campaign lawsuit claiming the New York Times defamed the former president by publishing an opinion piece that accused him of colluding with Russia in the 2016 election.
The court ruled that an opinion essay that argued there had been a “quid pro quo” between the candidate and Russian officials before the 2016 presidential election was protected speech.
Angry at his critics in the GOP and seeking to keep his options for raising money open, the former president is trying to take charge of the online fund-raising juggernaut he helped create.
Manhattan Democratic Assemblywoman wants to amend state statute by removing psilocybin and psilocin—two of the main psychoactive ingredients in so-called magic mushrooms—from the list of controlled substances.
A case submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court could potentially block New York — and six other states — from collecting some income taxes from out-of-state workers whose jobs are based within their borders.
Pandemic-battered New Yorkers owe $1.14 billion in unpaid gas and electric bills, suggesting that the statewide moratorium on cut-offs will likely have to continue for the foreseeable future.
New York State United Teachers launched a $1 million statewide television and digital advertising campaign to draw attention to safety guidelines schools need to follow as they begin to reopen for in-person learning.
A sweeping study of COVID-19 spread in New York City schools offers the strongest evidence to date that virus transmission has remained low within in-person classes, experts and officials say.
A major new lawsuit could force fundamental changes to how New York City’s public school students are admitted into selective schools, marking the latest front in a growing movement to confront inequality in the nation’s largest school system.
New York City said it will aid struggling taxicab-medallion owners by providing them with $29,000 in loans to help restructure their debts – an effort funding by $65 million in federal Covid relief cash.
The plan was not the full bailout that taxi drivers had wanted. It would still leave them in debt, with large monthly payments.
Experts say the City’s mounting affordable housing and homelessness crisis should be a top priority for whoever succeeds Bill de Blasio as mayor.
Yang wants the subway to be free for a week “to let everyone know New York is back” — a move he said will cost the cash-strapped MTA $35 million.
The billionaire developer Stephen M. Ross is rallying fellow business leaders to commit tens of millions of dollars in an effort to push moderate Democrats to vote in the June mayoral primary in New York and “change the future course of the city.”
City Council Speaker Corey Johnson announced his bid for New York City comptroller, upending an already crowded race, with ten candidates other previously vying for the post. He had previously ended a mayoral bid, citing mental health concerns.
“I’m doing great. I’ve been taking care of myself. I have a lot of love and support from my boyfriend,” Johnson said. “And I am fully committed to this campaign and I am ready to serve as Comptroller for the City of New York.”
Johnson has tapped national heavyweights to head up his campaign — selecting Lis Smith, former senior communications advisor director Pete Buttigieg, and Avi Small, Nebraska press secretary for the Biden/Harris campaign.
City Parks Commissioner Mitchell Silver will be the latest department head to leave as de Blasio heads into his final few months in office.
The NYPD is investigating the actions of two cops who were called for a domestic dispute at a Harlem building a day before a 10-year-old boy was found beaten to death there — but decided there was nothing troubling afoot.
New Long Island Rail Road service cuts were ordered reversed yesterday, just a day after the railroad was converted to near-weekend schedules in a move MTA officials had called “rightsizing.”
NYC’s top lobbyist, Suri Kasirer, agreed to a $5,000 settlement with the state’s ethics watchdog, JCOPE, over her firm’s dealings with the non-profit group created to promote de Blasio’s agenda.
Wynn Resorts, Bally’s Corp. and Las Vegas Sands are all quietly positioning themselves to compete for a New York City-area casino license in anticipation of Albany putting out a request for proposals as soon as next month.
El Museo del Barrio, the Manhattan museum that focuses on the art and culture of Puerto Ricans and Latin-American communities in the U.S., is offering its first triennial exhibition, set to open Saturday.
Citing unfair working conditions exacerbated by the pandemic, employees at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) are trying to unionize.
A planned discussion of issues surrounding Capital Holiday Lights in the Park fell apart after neighborhood groups objected to how the event was planned and decided not to participate.
The City of Watervliet’s next police chief could just be a short ride away over the Congress Street Bridge in Troy.
The state DOT and DMV have made public dozens of internal documents that detail their enforcement actions against the Wilton limousine company involved in the infamous 2018 crash in Schoharie that killed 20 people.
Paychex founder Tom Golisano is investing millions of dollars into Kodak.
Piers Morgan, who prompted backlash and an investigation from the UK’s media regulator over comments about Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, will depart “Good Morning Britain,” ITV abruptly announced.
Queen Elizabeth expressed concern over allegations of racism in the royal ranks raised by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle this week, but said that the royal family would address them privately.
Roger Mudd, the revered political journalist best known for torpedoing then-Sen. Ted Kennedy’s White House aspirations during a piercing 1979 interview, has died at the age of 93.
