Good Tuesday morning, CivMixers.
I’m here to strain your brains and make you recollect grade school Social Studies. Here’s a pop quiz, quickly now! Who was Amerigo Vespucci?
Yes, it sounds so familiar. And no, he did not invent the Vespa.
Amerigo Vespucci, born on this day in 1454, was a Florentine merchant and explorer who figured out in 1502 that this guy Christopher Columbus, who boasted all over the place that he had found the New World during a 1492 trip across the ocean blue, was actually full of it. He thought he had found the East Indies, when what he really did was tool around the Bahamas.
Anyway, Vespucci ended up setting the record straight, more or less, and getting what we now know as “America” named after him, even though neither he nor Columbus actually were the first here…I mean, that distinction goes to the Native people who called the land home long before any non-Native individual set foot on the place.
But the first explorer to get to the continent was probably the Viking Leif Ericsson about five centuries before Columbus set sail from Spain.
Or maybe, it was the Chinese.
In March of 1959, then New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller proclaimed the 9th of the month “Amerigo Vespucci Day.”
Rockefeller apparently thought that since Vespucci had continents named after him, was one of the first Europeans to arrive in the Western Hemisphere, was one of the great Italian mariners of the Age of Discovery, and opened up a new world and a new era of freedom that he should get a day all to himself.
Some people, however, suggested Columbus Day and Vespucci Day ought to be combined. And, of course, these days, there’s a growing movement to scrap Columbus Day altogether and replace it with “Indigenous Peoples Day” – as some communities and states already have.
It’s also National Meatball Day, which is something that needs no explanation, really, other than to say that savory morsels made of meat, fish, chicken, or even some sort of veggie/soy substance are delicious and one really shouldn’t require an excuse to enjoy them. Ever. Full stop.
And, rather depressingly for some people who are tired of telecommuting and long for a little office gossip around the actually physical water cooler or coffee machine, it’s Organize Your Home Office Day, which traditionally falls on the second Tuesday in March…so here we are.
It is a steamy 36 degrees as I write this, and the forecast is calling for 50 with a mix of sun and clouds. Thursday we’re now looking at temperatures in the 60s. YEEEEEEHAW. I am feeling you around the corner, you lazy summer days on the pontoon boat staring at the sky. Just a little while longer and we will be complaining about how hot it is in the Capital Region.
In the headlines…
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued new guidance for vaccinated people, giving the green light to resume some pre-pandemic activities and relax precautions that have been in place.
Specifically, the new guidance says, people who are fully vaccinated can visit indoors with other fully vaccinated people without wearing masks or social distancing.
The new recommendations are intended to nudge Americans onto a more cautious path with clear boundaries for safe behavior, while acknowledging that most of the country remains vulnerable and many scientific questions remain unanswered.
An overwhelming majority of people who have been hospitalized, needed a ventilator or died from Covid-19 have been overweight or obese, the CDC said in a new study.
Many people who experience long-term symptoms from the coronavirus did not feel sick at all when they were initially infected, according to a new study that adds compelling information to the increasingly important issue of Covid-19’s lasting health impact.
Women report experiencing worse side effects from the Covid-19 vaccine than men.
The House is expected as early as today to approve President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief plan, his chief legislative priority as he begins his presidency.
Democrats in the chamber are expected to approve the bill — which includes a dramatic expansion of pandemic aid and federal safety net programs — despite changes to critical elements of the stimulus adopted by the Senate over the weekend.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer vowed that $22 billion is coming very soon to eligible New Yorkers’ bank accounts.
The cash wipes out New York State’s projected budget deficit, possibly negating the need for hefty tax hikes or spending cuts, according to Schumer’s office.
The $1.9 trillion pandemic relief package moving through Congress advances an idea that Democrats have been nurturing for decades: establishing a guaranteed income for families with children.
Thousands of migrant children are backed up in U.S. detention facilities along the Mexico border, part of a surge of immigration that could overwhelm Biden’s attempt to create a more humane approach to those seeking entry into the country.
The president directed the Education Department to review policies on school sex and gender discrimination and violence, beginning a promised effort to dismantle Trump-era rules on sexual misconduct that gave greater protections to students accused of assault.
Biden will deliver his first primetime address this Thursday, commemorating the milestone of one year since the global pandemic coronavirus shut down much of the nation.
Biden announced he has nominated two female generals to positions as 4-star combatant commanders after their promotions had been delayed under the Trump administration.
The two German Shepherds belonging to the president and first lady were returned to the Biden family home in Delaware last week after aggressive behavior at the White House involving Major Biden.
The Biden administration is under escalating pressure to push for a U.S. boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics, scheduled for Beijing next February, over China’s rampant human rights abuses.
Swedish teen environmental activist Greta Thunberg says Biden isn’t doing enough to “treat the climate crisis like a crisis,” accusing him of being “not nearly enough in line with the science” on the issue.
Republican Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri became the fifth GOP senator to announce he won’t seek re-election next year, opening another challenge for plans to flip control of the Senate.
Trump is in New York City this week to get up to speed about the ins and outs of his embattled namesake company, a person close to him said, as the former president and his business associates remain in the crosshairs of multiple state prosecutors.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office subpoenaed documents from an investment company that loaned the Trump Organization millions of dollars for its Chicago skyscraper in a sign that the investigation into the former president’s finances continues to expand.
Trump is set to fulfill his civic duty as a private citizen and vote in the town of Palm Beach’s municipal election. He requested a mail-in ballot for the third time in his local voter history.
Jury selection was scheduled to begin today in the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin after jurors were sent home yesterday as the court grappled with an appeal over the possible reinstatement of a third-degree murder charge.
The state attorney general has named Joon Kim, a former acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Anne Clark, an employment discrimination lawyer, to lead the investigation into sexual harassment accusations made against Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
“We are committed to an independent and thorough investigation of the facts,” AG Tish James said in a statement. “Joon H. Kim and Anne L. Clark are independent, legal experts who have decades of experience conducting investigations and fighting to uphold the rule of law.”
Kim, a partner at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton who specializes in internal investigations and regulatory enforcement, served as acting U.S. attorney in Manhattan for 10 months, succeeding Preet Bharara after he was forced out of office by Trump.
Kim was involved in Bharara’s probe of Cuomo’s disbanded Moreland Commission and also, before trial, in the prosecution of Joe Percoco, a former top Cuomo aide and close friend of the governor who was convicted of federal corruption charges in 2018.
Other high-profile cases involving ex-lawmakers in which Kim had a hand: Former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, former Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and former Rep. Anthony Weiner.
The publisher of Cuomo’s book on his leadership during the pandemic said it had stopped promoting the title because of an inquiry into the withholding of data on the deaths of nursing home residents.
Signaling a split in New York Democratic ranks, a group of 23 Democratic women in the state Assembly said an attorney general’s investigation of Cuomo should be allowed to be completed — a pushback against those calling for the governor’s resignation.
“We believe the attorney general will exercise due process and expediency in her deliberations,” the lawmakers wrote. “We continue to support our attorney general, the first Woman, and the first African American woman to be elected to this position as she launches this investigation.”
Republicans in the State Assembly announced an impeachment resolution against Cuomo, saying they believe the Democratic governor has lost “credibility and trust” and has an “inability to lead” the state of New York.
Daily News columnist Linda Stasi writes: “Have people forgotten how the whole country tuned in every day to watch Cuomo’s honest pandemic updates — and how he gave us the only hope we had that somehow we’d get past it?”
Kumiki Gibson, who was named Counsel to the Governor in September 2019, is jumping ship for a job with a non-profit — the latest departure amid scandals that have besieged the administration.
Cuomo’s mother and sister broke their public silence and voiced strong support for their politically wounded family member. “I have always had the utmost admiration for Andrew, and I still do,” said his mother and former state first lady, Matilda Cuomo.
A day after defiantly resisting calls for his resignation amid mounting scandals, Cuomo turned his attention to vaccination efforts during a tour of the Javits Center in Manhattan with Black clergy members.
Here are four ways the current mess in which Cuomo finds himself could play out.
As Cuomo teeters on the edge of career disaster, more attention is being paid to Lieutenant Gov. Kathy Hochul.
Cuomo’s calls for due process amid his sexual harassment scandal set a double standard given his history of demanding other embattled figures resign their posts without waiting for the results of a full investigation, critics said.
Cuomo’s pledge to keep fighting Covid-19 amid allegations his administration underreported nursing home deaths for political gain came after he repeatedly chastised other states and federal officials for obscuring information in a way that put Americans at risk.
For now, his focus is on the COVID-19 pandemic. But Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro is considering runs for higher office in 2022 – possible for governor (again), or maybe Congress.
Acting US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Seth DuCharme announced his resignation after less than eight months on the job.
After a turbulent year of coronavirus chaos that saw multiple school system shutdowns and a halting reboot, all of New York City’s schools will once again be open for in-person classes by the end of the month, city officials announced.
City high school sports — including football — will finally resume next month, officials said.
After years of shielding police officers’ bad behavior from the public view, New York City released on the police department’s web site a searchable database of every active-duty NYPD cop’s disciplinary history.
The department released partial disciplinary records dating back to 2014 in an online dashboard containing profiles of all 35,000 active police officers. Separately, officials posted redacted copies of more than 200 decisions by judges in administrative trials, going back to 2017.
New York City’s Correction Department released nearly two years worth of disciplinary records for over 370 cases involving agency staffers detailing years of alleged misconduct.
State Sen. Zellnor Myrie, a Brooklyn Democrat, has sponsored a bill that would bar any police force in New York from lying to someone being interrogated and would mandate the judicial review of any confession entered into evidence.
Mayor Bill de Blasio and his top aides “panicked” at the prospect of speaking frankly to New Yorkers about the coronavirus’ deadly potential during the pandemic’s early days, former city Health Commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot says in a new documentary.
With just over 100 days to go before New York City’s mayoral primary, Andrew Yang continues to enjoy a significant lead over the competition, according to a new poll.
Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams won a key mayoral stamp of approval from former Rep. Charles Rangel, the influential Harlem leader who was a dominant political force in New York City for decades.
LIRR riders faced packed commutes yesterday as the MTA reduced service on the railroad to near-weekend schedules on weekdays in a move transit officials called “rightsizing.”
The Y.M.C.A. of Greater New York is selling three summer camps – Talcott, McAlister and Greenville – that have been a bucolic retreat for generations of poor children from the city, part of the pandemic’s economic fallout.
Armed robbers are targeting delivery workers in New York, stealing the expensive electric bikes that are the key to their livelihood.
In a time of takeout, two New York restaurants have come up with different ways of making pies that still taste good half an hour later.
A Skidmore College student who wanted to bring a Libertarian-leaning group to campus said she was a victim of a threatening smear campaign that resulted in her Young Americans for Liberty chapter being blocked from forming.
A man who State Police say used a Taser to strike a counter-protestor in the neck at a Jan. 6 rally for Trump in Albany’s East Capitol Park has been charged with misdemeanor assault and weapon charges.
As a result of overtime in 2020, 77 Troy city workers – all but one in the police and fire departments – earned more than $100,000.
A civilian-led panel has completed its review of proposed changes to the Schenectady Police Department and have sent their recommendations to City Council. A public hearing is scheduled for Monday.
Cornel West is abandoning his quest for tenure at Harvard and going back to Union Theological Seminary, where he first taught 44 years ago, the New York seminary announced.
Oprah Winfrey narrowed down the suspects in the game of who in Britain’s royal family was worried that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s baby wouldn’t be white enough, saying it was neither Queen Elizabeth, nor her husband, Prince Phillp.
About 17.1 million people watched Winfrey’s Sunday night interview with Harry and Meghan on CBS, making it one of the most-watched events of the TV season but still well behind the Super Bowl.
A “Queen’s Gambit” musical could eventually land on Broadway.
New York City’s notorious “Naked Cowboy” took his Times Square show on the road — and got arrested at a motorcycle festival in Daytona Beach, Florida, authorities said.
