Good Monday morning.
Was that an amazing first weekend of spring, or what? I mean, really. Mother Nature DELIVERED.
I needed all that sun and warm weather. I don’t think I even realized how much I needed it until I got it. So, to whoever is in charge of the weather these days, thank you from the bottom of my cold, isolated, pandemic-shrunken heart.
Also, happy belated Nowruz, (or is it Novruz? I’ve seen it both ways on the interwebs now), for those who observed the Persian New Year this past Spring Equinox.
Over 300 million people across the globe celebrate this festival, which marks the renewal of nature, including those from Iran, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, India, Pakistan, Turkey and other countries in Central and West Asia. The most important part of the celebration is Haft Seen/Haft Sin (Seven S) – a table set up with seven items whose names start with the letter ‘s.’
Also, the food that goes along with this holiday looks amazing, with lots of fresh, green herbs and spices. I only wish I had some Persian friends who would make it for me, because 1) I am a crappy, inattentive cook, and 2) it seems kind of labor intensive.
My kitchen skills are largely limited to…microwaving. I am an AMAZING microwaver, for the record.
Moving on to today, it’s World Water Day, which honors, commemorates and raises awareness about one of the most vital and important resources we’ve got. We can’t live without water, folks, and, by the way, did you know that it covers about 71 percent of the planet? (Most of that is in the oceans).
As a result of the pandemic, (yes, that’s going on still), the celebration of World Water Day is occurring mostly online.
And, not to bum you out, but it’s important to recognize just how dire the water situation is these days. Only 3 percent of the world’s water is fresh water, and two-thirds of that is inaccessible to us because it’s in frozen glaciers or otherwise unavailable.
As a result, some 1.1 billion people worldwide lack access to water, and a total of 2.7 billion find water scarce for at least one month of the year. Inadequate sanitation is also a problem for 2.4 billion people, which leaves them vulnerable to disease and illnesses. Two million people, mostly children, die each year from diarrheal diseases alone.
Climate change, which causes draughts in some areas and flooding in others; overdevelopment; big ag; and pollution are all threatening our water supply. If we keep this up, by 2025, two-thirds of the world’s population may face water shortages.
Not good.
Now that I’ve really put a damper on your Monday…maybe what you really need is another day off? TAKE IT! It’s National Goof Off Day. Tell your boss I said so, and also remind him/her/them that the key to being more productive overall is to do more…nothing.
And in case you do decide to play a little hooky, it’s going to be a perfect day – weather-wise – to do so. We’re in for another brilliant early spring day, with temperatures in the mid-60s and sun, sun and more sun. Soak it up.
In the headlines…
Joe Biden is pledging to take new steps to ease a surge of child migrants at the southern border as his White House parries Republican attacks over a wrenching humanitarian challenge that threatens to tarnish his fast start as president.
Biden said his administration will rebuild a system that allows potential child migrants to seek asylum in their home countries to prevent them making the perilous journey through human trafficking networks to the US border with Mexico.
U.S. government officials are scrambling to find bed space for some 15,500 unaccompanied immigrant children who have poured over the southern border in record numbers.
On the anniversary of the United States’ closing of its borders to its neighbors to the north and south, lawmakers and families across the country separated by the border continue to languish with no clear end in sight.
Republican Rep. Tom Reed said he would not run for reelection or for governor of New York in 2022 after a woman accused him of inappropriate touching at a bar four years ago.
The congressman apologized to former lobbyist Nicolette Davis after The Washington Post reported Friday that an intoxicated Reed rubbed her back, moved his hand outside her shirt, unfastened her bra and continued to grope her in a bar in Minneapolis.
Reed said in a statement that he was “struggling” in early 2017, when the incident occurred, and entered treatment for alcohol abuse that year. (Read the full statement here).
“I hear her voice and will not dismiss her. In reflection, my personal depiction of this event is irrelevant,” Reed said of Davis. “Simply put, my behavior caused her pain, showed her disrespect and was unprofessional. I was wrong, I am sorry, and I take full responsibility.”
Reed’s admission came after he initially insisted that Davis’s account of his actions in 2017 was “not accurate.”
One in 4 Americans, including nearly half of Asian Americans, in recent weeks have seen someone blame Asian people for the coronavirus epidemic, a new USA TODAY/Ipsos Poll finds.
A diverse crowd gathered Saturday near the Georgia state Capitol and around the U.S. – including in NYC – to demand justice for the victims of recent shootings at massage businesses and to denounce racism, xenophobia and misogyny.
Parishioners at the Crabapple First Baptist Church voted to remove Robert Aaron Long, 21, from the congregation after he shot up three Atlanta spas, killing eight people, including six Asian women.
Miami Beach Police fired pepper balls into crowds of partiers and arrested at least a dozen people late Saturday as the city took extraordinary measures to crack down on spring breakers who officials have said are out of control.
One day after the spring break oasis of South Beach descended into chaos, with the police struggling to control overwhelming crowds and making scores of arrests, officials in Miami Beach decided to extend an emergency curfew for up to three weeks.
The findings of a large U.S. trial have shown that the coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford is 79% effective in preventing symptomatic illness and 100% effective against severe disease and hospitalization.
Pharmacy retail giant Rite Aid has apologized to two undocumented immigrants who the company said were “mistakenly” denied COVID-19 vaccinations at Southern California stores.
The Tokyo Olympics were initially set to take place in 2020 but were pushed back to 2021 due to the pandemic. Because COVID-19 is still prevalent, Olympic organizers announced international spectators won’t be allowed at the games.
Evidence the government obtained in the investigation into the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol most likely meets the bar necessary to charge some of the suspects with sedition, said Michael R. Sherwin, the federal prosecutor leading the Justice Department inquiry.
The outer fencing put up to protect the U.S. Capitol following the January 6 insurrection has started to come down, allowing the public to regain access to the iconic building’s grounds.
An NYPD officer under scrutiny for his ties to Roger Stone is “friends” with an accused member of the right-wing Oath Keeper militia on a cash-sharing app.
Former President Donald Trump is planning to return to social media with his own social network, according to spokesman Jason Miller.
A wax figure of former President Donald Trump was temporarily removed from Louis Tussaud’s Waxworks in San Antonio, Texas, after sustaining damage from customers.
Michael Cohen, Trump’s former fixer, is meeting for the eighth time with the Manhattan District Attorney’s office on Friday, according to a person familiar with the matter.
In the latest allegation against Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a current aide, Alyssa McGrath, described a series of unsettling interactions with the governor, saying he would ogle her body, remark on her looks, and make suggestive comments to her and another staffer.
A federal investigation into Cuomo’s handling of nursing homes during the pandemic has focused in recent weeks on whether the governor and his senior aides provided false data on resident deaths to the Justice Department.
Cuomo must be held accountable for his administration’s botched handling of COVID-19 in nursing homes and adult-care centers, Assemblyman Ron Kim said at a Brooklyn memorial for the more than 15,000 facility residents believed to have died from the virus.
Cuomo is leaning on Black leaders for support and focusing on governing as he confronts an impeachment investigation, calls for his resignation over accusations of sexual harassment and criticism over the state’s handling of Covid-19 in nursing homes.
While Cuomo may eventually be impeached and removed from office, he’s unlikely to step down if his poll numbers continue to look anything like they do now.
“He’s not resigning. There’s been no notion of him resigning,” said one insider of Cuomo. “There’s no rationale to resignation. There’s no upside.
Democrats and Republicans alike are taking a close look at the growing prospects of running against a damaged Cuomo if he seeks reelection to a fourth term in 2022 or seeking an open seat should he be impeached, resign or choose not to run.
Cuomo’s first sexual harassment accuser, Lindsay Boylan, a Manhattan borough president candidate, spoke to a crowd rallying for Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie to take action and begin an impeachment investigation immediately.
Attorney Rita Glavin, who has represented trainer Jason Servis in a federal race-doping court case, has an even higher profile client in Cuomo.
Glavin, 49, was until days ago a partner with the Manhattan firm of Seward & Kissel. Her bio is no longer listed on the firm’s website, and state records show she recently formed her own firm, Glavin PLLC.
“The saddest part about New Yorkers’ loyalty to Cuomo is that it traces how we the people of this state have lost faith in our own ability to run a democracy.”
The New York state investigation into whether Cuomo sexually harassed multiple women is also looking at whether his top officials enabled the behavior, how the administration handled the complaints, and whether it took steps to intimidate his accusers.
Guidance for indoor and outdoor gatherings in New York State changes today. Outdoor gathering capacity will increase from 10 to 25 people. Indoor gatherings remain at 10. The limit for public spaces goes up to 100 people indoors and 200 for outdoors.
New York has joined a growing list of more than a dozen states that have confirmed at least one case of a worrisome and highly contagious coronavirus variant first found in Brazil.
The patient with the Brazil variant, detected by scientists at Mount Sinai hospital in New York City, is a Brooklyn resident in their 90s with no travel history.
New York’s homegrown COVID-19 variant may be infecting people who have already had the virus — or even been vaccinated, the former head of the Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, said.
More than 5 million New York state residents have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
While New Yorkers are still getting COVID-19 at about the same rate as they did a month ago, the severity of illness appears to be easing, based on lowering hospitalizations and deaths.
Pharmacies can now vaccinate those with comorbidities, rather than just teachers or people older than 60.
Public health will be one of the biggest issues for the next mayor of New York City, even as more people are getting vaccinated and cases of Covid-19 are decreasing, officials say.
Mayoral candidate Andrew Yang was cheered and jeered at a #StopAsianHate rally in Chinatown Sunday — as he called for more funding for the NYPD’s Asian Hate Crimes Task Force.
Bronx GOP Chair Mike Rendino, a retired firefighter who responded to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, is seeking the Republican nomination to run for Congress against Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez next year.
The dean of the CUNY School of Law has decided to cancel herself — saying she is retiring in atonement for referring to herself as a “slaveholder” during a faculty meeting.
A massive gaffe that led to the wrongful recording of hundreds of confidential jailhouse calls between New York City inmates and their legal advisers spread well beyond the Bronx and Brooklyn — and dates back for at least a year.
New York City high schools are set to reopen for in-person learning today, the latest in a series of steps toward normalcy even as the Big Apple’s COVID-19 numbers remain concerning.
New York City’s public school system, the nation’s largest, will give families another chance to enroll their children in in-person classes following new guidance released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Mayor Bill de Blasio said.
Not everyone agrees that reopening New York City is safe, partly because the presence of variants that are more contagious, and possibly deadlier, complicate the short-term outlook.
Nightclubs are still officially closed in New York, but underground parties are there if you know where to look.
In the wake of accidental inmate releases, deaths at Rikers Island and a shocking clerical error that led to improper recording of inmate phone calls with their lawyers, the City Council is set to grill top jail officials today.
New York, still reeling from a once-in-a-century pandemic, now faces a host of tax increases to fuel a massive 23-percent surge in state spending proposed by Albany Democrats.
Homelessness rose in the U.S. last year but it was down a bit in New York state, according to a recently released snapshot survey by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, which didn’t fully account for the wreckage caused by COVID-19.
Environmentalists are happy with the way the state budget is coming together, at least so far.
This November New York voters will decide whether the state constitution should be amended to include a right to clean air and water, as well as a “healthy environment.”
A regulator charged with policing organized crime and fair hiring at the Port of New York and New Jersey for nearly seven decades is waiting to see if the U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case that could decide its fate.
A white Long Island Catholic school headmaster forced a Black 11-year-old student to kneel down and apologize to a teacher — calling it the “African way” to say sorry.
As the real estate market remains on a boil in New York’s Hudson Valley, heated in large part by second-home buyers re-evaluating their commitment to urban living, longtime residents are experiencing both prosperity and pain.
Police arrested a 22-year-old Schenectady man Saturday evening after he drove his ATV into an officer, sending the officer to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries, the Schenectady Police Department announced.
Howard Hubbard, the former Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Albany, was accused of sexual abuse in a Child Victims Act lawsuit filed last week — the seventh such action containing allegations against him.
A special task force has recommended a plan for the Troy Police Department that includes a web-based complaint system and “citizen police academy” to educate the public about how the police operate as part of the department’s state-mandated police reform effort due April 1.
The State Police admit their agency owns a missing AR-15 they’ve asked the public for help finding — and an internal affairs investigation is under way to determine how the high-powered weapon came to be lost on a roadside in the Adirondacks.
A magnitude 2 earthquake struck an area approximately three miles southwest of the village of Altamont on Saturday evening, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, which maintains an active website listing earthquakes.
A forthcoming government report will detail a number of “difficult to explain” UFO sightings, former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said.
Rapper Nicki Minaj’s mother, Carol Maraj, has filed a $150 million lawsuit against the man who is accused of killing Minaj’s father in a hit-and-run crash last month, an attorney for Maraj said.
