FRIDAY. Hello.
Sometimes doing what’s good for you is really hard. Like finding time to work our regularly, or saying “no” to unhealthy food, or cutting out vices like cigarettes and booze.
That’s sort of how I feel about the National Day of Unplugging, which, for the past decade, has been observed during the first weekend in March. (It runs from sundown tonight to sundown tomorrow).
I flatter myself and believe that I am a fairly well educated person. I have read a lot of articles about the ills of too much screen time. I certainly FEEL the negative impacts of too much screen time in my life – it definitely complicates interpersonal communication and makes sleeping a heck of a lot more difficult.
And yet, there I am, sitting in bed and mindlessly scrolling through Instagram for the umpteenth time. It just feels good AND bad at the same time, and maybe I’ve forgotten how to do nothing, which, they say, actually helps spur bouts of creativity.
Anyway, I have never actually made it through an entire National Day of Unplugging, even when I start out with the best of intentions. The purpose of this day, according to the official website, is to “inspire healthy life/tech balance for their communities… Participation is open to anyone who wishes to elevate human connection over digital engagement.”
This past year, we’ve all had more screen time than ever before, and there are plenty of articles being written about the pitfalls and fallbacks of that. Did someone say Zoom fatigue? I’m thinking that I might try to ease into an unplugging experience – maybe try half a day instead of the full 24 hours. Or maybe half a half a day?
Anyway, I’ll report back on how it goes.
Today is St. Prian’s Day, which is observed in Cornwall, the southwesternmost county in England. This holiday honors the legend of the saint who, after being thrown into the sea in Ireland, miraculously drifted ashore in Cornwall and blessed the local miners with the secrets of tin extraction.
The holiday is (in non-COVID times) typically celebrated with parades, re-enactments, and parties.
It’s going to be chilly again today, with temperatures in the high 20s and a mix of sun and clouds. And that bone-chilling wind is still with us, with some higher gusts of up to 25 mph possible.
In the headlines….
Top aides to Gov. Andrew Cuomo successfully pushed for the rewriting of a state Health Department report last summer, removing a frighteningly higher number of COVID-related nursing home resident deaths in New York, which at the time was close to 10,000.
The intervention came as Cuomo was starting to write a book on his pandemic achievements, was the earliest act yet known in what critics have called a monthslong effort by the governor and his aides to obscure the full scope of nursing home deaths.
“The out-of-facility data was omitted after DOH could not confirm it had been adequately verified,” Beth Garvey, a special counsel and senior adviser to Cuomo, said in a statement.
DOH spokesman Gary Holmes said in a statement: “While early versions of the report included out of facility deaths, the COVID task force was not satisfied that the data had been verified against hospital data and so the final report used only data for in facility deaths, which was disclosed in the report.”
Those involved in changing the report included Melissa DeRosa, the governor’s top aide; Linda Lacewell, the head of the state’s Department of Financial Services; and current SUNY Chancellor Jim Malatras, a former top adviser to Cuomo brought back to work on the pandemic. None had public health expertise.
Cuomo’s aides ignored his own executive order requiring formal investigations of sexual harassment complaints against state employees, when it came to a complaint against their boss by then executive branch staffer Charlotte Bennett.
Under terms of the order, the June complaint against Cuomo by Bennett, 25, should have been referred to the Governor’s Office of Employee Relations. Instead, the complaint was handled by Judith Mogul, a special counsel to the governor.
Bennett said in a TV interview that she understood the governor was propositioning her for sex during a June meeting in which he said he was lonely and said he was comfortable being with anyone over the age of 22.
Bennett said that on June 5, she was taking dictation from the governor when he asked her to turn her recorder off. “And then he explains at that point that he is looking for a girlfriend,” she recalled. “He’s lonely. He’s tired.”
“I thought, He’s trying to sleep with me,” Bennett said. “The governor’s trying to sleep with me. And I’m deeply uncomfortable and I have to get out of this room as soon as possible.”
During an earlier, May 15 conversation, Bennett recalled, Cuomo seemed fixated on her history of surviving sexual assault. “So he goes, ‘You were raped. You were raped. You were raped and abused and assaulted,’” she said.
Cuomo created a toxic work environment that dates back at least to his time as state attorney general — and includes rages that can last for days, former aides and associates said.
A majority of New York voters — 54 percent — now believe Cuomo did sexually harass two former staffers following his emotional mea culpa issued during his Wednesday press conference, the Emerson College/WPIX-TV/News Nation survey found.
State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said yesterday that another woman would have to come forward with allegations of sexual harassment by Cuomo before she would call for him to resign.
Stewart-Cousins said after seeing Bennett’s TV interview that her recount of her dealings with the governor was “heartbreaking.”
Republican Rep. Tom Reed, who has mulled challenging Cuomo in next year’s gubernatorial race “for months”, compared him to disgraced ex-Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner while discussing the newfound urgency of his 2022 run.
Cuomo’s first accuser, Lindsey Boylan, said: “I have interacted with Charlotte, and I’m in awe of how she’s handled herself. There is a tremendous amount of love and connectivity that I feel for others who have had these kinds of experiences.”
“I just want the abuse to stop,” Boylan said. “I’m really not focused on punishment. I’m focused on accountability.”
John Catsimatidis has been gearing up to run again for Big Apple mayor — but with Cuomo’s woes in Albany, the billionaire businessman is now considering a run for governor, saying: “I want New York to be fixed.”
Sen. James Skoufis, a Hudson Valley Democrat who chairs the chamber’s investigations committee, issued a statement calling for Cuomo to step down in the wake of the sexual harassment allegations leveled against him.
A majority of New Yorkers do not want Cuomo to resign as he faces dual scandals over allegations of sexual harassment and claims he hid the number of deaths of nursing home residents, according to a new Quinnipiac poll.
New York state Democrats are slated to vote today on a measure scaling back Cuomo’s expansive emergency pandemic powers.
The years-long feud between Cuomo and Bill de Blasio escalated further as the mayor accused the governor of portraying New York City as a hellscape to distract from his own unfolding scandal and did not rule out his own statewide run in 2022.
GOP Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin, who for years has been the target of complaints of sexual harassment and bullying, is raising campaign funds off of the travails of Cuomo, who faces similar allegations in a scandal that has rocked the state Capitol.
The U.S. Senate released its version of the third COVID relief package. Lawmakers made several changes, but two were particularly notable – narrowing eligibility for the stimulus checks and nixing an increase in the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.
Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson forced the Senate to begin reading President Biden’s entire $1.9 trillion COVID bill aloud on the chamber floor, threatening to further delay its passage as the Senate clerk reads through the hundreds of pages of the bill.
The Senate voted to proceed with H.R. 1319, which is the budget reconciliation bill that includes Biden’s $1.9 trillion plan, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the 51-50 tie-breaking vote.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki defended Biden’s comparing some Republican governors’ decision to lift mask mandates to “Neanderthal thinking,” calling it a “reflection of his frustration” about Americans refusing to follow public health guidance.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell reiterated his intention to keep easy-money policies in place but provided no sign the central bank will seek to stem a recent rise in Treasury yields, prompting them to rise further.
In an attempt to prevent the detention of migrant families for weeks or months at a time, the Biden administration plans to release parents and children within 72 hours of their arrival in the U.S., a new policy already being carried out along the Texas border.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled against an undocumented immigrant who has been living in America for more than 25 years but faces deportation because of a misdemeanor conviction in state court.
The court’s opinion will make it more difficult for some undocumented immigrants who have lived a substantial time in the United States to challenge deportation orders, especially because they are often poor and unable to afford counsel.
Weekly jobless claims edged higher last week but rose less than expected for an economy struggling to shake off impacts from a pandemic that has been around now for nearly a year.
The U.S. Labor Department reported that first-time filings for unemployment insurance in the week ended Feb. 27 totaled a seasonally adjusted 745,000, a touch below the Dow Jones estimate of 750,000.
“We’re almost getting used to these high numbers,” said AnnElizabeth Konkel, an economist at jobs site Indeed. “The only thing that’s going to fix it is getting the public health situation under control.”
An independent market monitor said the Texas power-grid operator made a critical mistake that resulted in $16 billion in electricity overcharges last month, and recommended that the charges be reversed.
YouTube’s chief executive said the company still sees a risk of violence in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 Capitol Hill riot and that it would only lift its suspension of former President Donald Trump from its platform once “the risk of violence has decreased.”
It was quiet at the U.S. Capitol yesterday, despite warnings about a possible plot by a militia group to storm the building.
Worried about continuing threats, the acting chief of the U.S. Capitol Police appealed to congressional leaders to use their influence to keep National Guard troops at the Capitol, two months after the law enforcement breakdowns of the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection.
The F.B.I. arrested a former State Department aide on charges related to the attack on the Capitol, including unlawful entry, violent and disorderly conduct, obstructing Congress and law enforcement, and assaulting an officer with a dangerous weapon.
The White House vociferously slammed the military coup in the Asian nation of 53 million residents and is calling for officials to halt their vicious suppression of pro-justice demonstrators while demanding the freeing of detained journalists and protesters.
Online marketplace eBay said it is working to prevent the resale of six Dr. Seuss books that were pulled earlier this week by the company in charge of the late author’s works because they contain offensive imagery.
A WHO team investigating the origins of Covid-19 is planning to scrap an interim report on its recent mission to China amid mounting tensions between Beijing and Washington over the probe and an appeal from one international group of scientists for a new one.
An itchy rash may be a side effect of receiving the Moderna vaccine, doctors said.
The most recently approved Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine — which requires only one dose — arrived for the first time in New York City yesterday.
State lawmakers are urging Cuomo to set aside 30 percent of COVID-19 vaccine appointments at the Jacob Javits Center for Manhattan residents — after learning that scores of non-city residents are getting shots at the site.
Connecticut is lifting all capacity limits on offices, retail shops and restaurants in the state’s most expansive rollback of restrictions since the Covid-19 pandemic began, but is keeping its mask mandate.
“I don’t know why they’re doing it but it’s certainly, from a public health standpoint, ill-advised,” the nation’s top infectious diseases expert, Anthony Fauci, said of states that are relaxing COVID restrictions.
The San Diego Zoo has vaccinated nine great apes for the coronavirus after a troop of gorillas in its Safari Park became infected.
New York Police Department Commissioner Dermot Shea says he is sorry for past racist practices by the NYPD and is working to change the department, including hiring more people of color as officers.
New York City published a trove of NYPD disciplinary records including all misconduct complaints brought before the Civilian Complaint Review Board against active department personnel.
Shootings rose 75 percent in February across New York City while other crimes took a nosedive, according to the New York Police Department.
New York City’s largest police union is seeking to intervene in a federal lawsuit against the NYPD over the department’s response to George Floyd protests last summer — claiming in a court filing that city leadership may not have officers’ best interests in mind.
Queens Councilman Robert Holden is calling for the reinstatement of the Gifted and Talented entrance exam in the wake of schools Chancellor Richard Carranza’s abrupt resignation last week.
A Brooklyn Hasidic anti-crime patrol founder has been arrested and charged with coercing a 15-year-old girl to engage in illicit sexual conduct, federal prosecutors said.
Ranked-choice voting, the balloting method debuting this year in New York City, could eventually come to federal elections, under legislation from Bronx Rep. Ritchie Torres.
Amazon has spent the pandemic embarking on a warehouse shopping spree in New York, significantly expanding its footprint in the biggest and most lucrative market in the country.
State and national teachers’ unions are calling on school districts to ramp up COVID testing efforts for students and staff as many explore ways to bring more students back for in-person instruction for the remainder of the school year.
State lawmakers recently scaled back a study of road salt pollution in the Adirondacks, apparently bowing to concerns that the study could expose the state to liability from residents with unsafe water.
CDPHP purchased Hometown Healthcare pharmacy in Watervliet last November and is opening another pharmacy in Clifton Park in May in hopes of filling the pharmacy healthcare gaps in the communities Walgreens and Rite Aid closures have left behind.
Troy Democrats have declined to endorse the leaders of the Rensselaer County Legislature’s Democratic minority, instead endorsing two others as candidates to represent the city on the legislature.
Troy City Hall will reopen to the public on Monday, March 22, when it resumes its regular hours of 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. as vaccination for COVID-19 expands, the city announced.
The Mechanicville City Council on March 10 will discuss the six recommendations from its Police Reform Committee that include restarting a civilian internal review commission, implementing diversity and bias training, and working toward state accreditations.
Scientists at General Electric Co. believe they may have found a potential breakthrough obesity treatment — using an everyday medical device: Ultrasound.
Free Food Fridge Albany and its founder Jammella Anderson will be featured in Time’s double issue on Women and the Pandemic.
Six Flags , Great Escape is looking to hire 1,500 people for the 2021 season by holding a virtual job fair.
Buffalo’s Dyngus Day Parade is a go.
