It’s Thursday, good morning and happy April Fool’s Day!
I never before really thought about the fact that a day all about playing practical jokes also happens to be the constitutionally mandated deadline for an on-time state budget.
HA, HA, New Yorkers! Joke’s on you! Here’s how we’re going to 1) tax you, and 2) spend your money for the coming year. Also, thus far it’s looking like there won’t be a budget deal before the midnight deadline. But, since this is Planet Albany and time works differently here, one never knows.
As for April Fool’s Day….it has been celebrated for centuries for different cultures, but its exact origins are unknown, which is poetically fitting somehow. Some historians believe it dates back to 1582, when France switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, as required by the Council of Trent in 1563, moving the beginning of the year from April 1 to January 1.
People who failed to get the message and continued to celebrate the new year around the same time as the spring equinox became the butt of jokes and were known as April fools.
Apparently, a popular prank at the time was to place a paper fish on the back of the subject of ridicule and call them a “poisson d’Avril” (this translates into “April fish” in French – like a young, easily caught fish/gullible person. Odd.
Another thought is that April Fool’s Day has its origins in an ancient Roman festival known as “Hilaria” that was celebrated at the end of March by followers of the cult of Cybele, who dressed up in disguises and mocked fellow citizens.
OR, maybe it’s really just all about the fact that the weather is really screwy this time of year – and that’s kind of a joke? (No, joke, that is something some scholars suggest).
In terms of memorable public pranks…how about that time in 1996 when Taco Bell took out an ad in six major newspapers, declaring its plans to buy the Liberty Bell in Pennsylvania and rename it the Taco Liberty Bell! Yup. If you don’t remember it, that’s a true story, and people across the country fell for it – they were, of course, suitably outraged.
There was also the time in 1998 when Burger King announced – again in a full-page newspaper ad – its plans to launch a left-handed Whopper sandwich. Customers across the U.S. were caught by the prank, lining up at fast food joints across the country to get this special treat, in which the condiments were allegedly rearranged especially for them.
And then there was the time that Volkswagen supposedly was going to change its name to Voltswagen in order to sell electric cars. Oh, wait, that JUST HAPPENED. Maybe you missed it? Click here.
Whatever the origin, and however you choose to mark this day, just be careful and kind out there, OK? It has been a difficult year, and we’re all feeling a little more sensitive than usual. I know I am.
It will be cloudy with periods of light rain (better than snow) today. Temperatures will be in the low 40s.
In the headlines…
President Joe unveiled a more than $2 trillion infrastructure package yesterday as his administration shifts its focus to bolstering the post-pandemic economy.
Biden said his “American Jobs Plan” would be the most wide-ranging economic transformation since FDR’s New Deal if enacted by Congress. It would also transition the U.S. economy away from fossil fuels and “rebuild the backbone of America,” he added.
“It’s not a plan that tinkers around the edges,” Biden said during a speech in Pittsburgh, where he kicked off his presidential campaign. “It’s a once-in-a-generation investment in America.”
The plan, which was met with swift Republican opposition, includes roughly $2 trillion in spending over eight years and would raise the corporate tax rate to 28 percent to fund it.
The proposal is an investment in poured concrete, electric car chargers, artificial intelligence and social engineering, and also a bet that government can do colossal things that the private sector cannot.
Biden’s expansive infrastructure proposal includes $50 billion for the American semiconductor industry, whose lobbying efforts have gained momentum amid a global chip shortage and fears that China might be overtaking the U.S. in a critical technology.
Absent a seismic political shift, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will have to draft a sprawling bill that can only afford to lose three Democratic votes in the House and zero in the Senate.
The extension of the Second Avenue subway uptown and the Gateway project to shore up rail tunnels under the Hudson River are ripe for funding under Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure package, according to Schumer.
Speaking the night before major league ballparks reopen to fans across the U.S., Biden stressed the importance of wearing masks and continuing to follow health and safety protocols, calling it “a mistake” for the Texas Rangers’ stadium to open at full capacity.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez last night slammed the overcrowded conditions for immigrants at the US-Mexican border under Biden as “inhumane”, “horrifying,” “unnaceptable” and “barbaric.”
Workers at a Baltimore plant making two COVID vaccines accidentally conflated the ingredients several weeks ago, contaminating up to 15 million doses of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine and forcing regulators to delay authorization of the plant’s production lines.
The drugmaker didn’t say how many doses were lost, and it wasn’t clear how the problem would impact future deliveries.
Senior Biden administration health officials, including some within the White House, knew two weeks ago that a Johnson & Johnson contractor’s production problems could delay delivery of a significant number of future vaccine doses.
Pfizer has now shipped more than 100 million doses to the U.S. and it said this week it has successfully met its goal of 120 million doses released and ready for shipment by the end of March.
The Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine is extremely effective in young adolescents, perhaps even more so than in adults, the companies reported – a finding that could ease the return to normalcy for millions of American families.
Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin says she and members of her family have tested positive for COVID-19, which indicates to her that no one is safe from deadly pandemic that has already taken the lives of 550,000 Americans.
COVID-19 was the third-leading cause of death in the United States in 2020, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.
The list of potential hosts for the coronavirus has expanded to include mice, according to an unnerving new study.
As New York races to vaccinate residents while variants spread, the state’s positive test rate and case counts are likely to remain stable for a while.
A “technical glitch” caused a city-run mass COVID-19 vaccination site in the Bronx to overbook 600 appointments yesterday, forcing the facility to cancel all those shots.
The CEOs of Delta Airlines and Coca-Cola decried the new voting law passed by Georgia Republicans as “unacceptable” and said it was “based on a lie” that former President Donald Trump really won the 2020 election.
Biden said he would “strongly support” Major League Baseball moving its All-Star Game from Atlanta after the executive director of the players’ union said he was open to discussing such a move after Georgia Republicans passed a law to restrict voting access.
Four people were killed in a shooting yesterday evening in Southern California, police said. One of the victims was a child.
Derek Chauvin defended his actions to a bystander after holding his knee on George Floyd’s neck for about nine minutes, in a new video played at the ex-Minneapolis police officer’s murder trial, presenting his own words about the encounter for the first time.
The use of knee holds by police officers to restrain suspects is back in the spotlight after a Schenectady lawmaker’s “no” vote on the recently adopted police reform package has reignited public debate over the technique.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s top aide, Melissa DeRosa, and other junior staffers helped him with the manuscript of his COVID-leadership book, potentially running afoul of state laws prohibiting the use of public resources for personal gain.
The governor was on the brink of landing the $4 million book deal just as an impending Health Department report threatened to disclose a far higher number of COVID-related nursing home deaths than the Cuomo administration had previously admitted.
The draft of the book that DeRosa worked on didn’t include any mention of the Health Department report or its findings, but did have a searing indictment of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Cuomo spokesman Richard Azzopardi rejected any link between book and the Health Department report, saying: “There is no connection between the report and this outside project, period. And any suggestion otherwise is just wrong.”
Azzopardi also said that “every effort was made to ensure that no state resources were used in connection with this project,” and top aides like DeRosa who worked on it had volunteered their time.
It’s not just the general public that’s in the dark on details of Cuomo’s book deal: Even some members of the state Joint Commission on Public Ethics are having trouble getting information.
The ethics watchdog gave Cuomo permission to write the book as long as its subject matter was “unrelated to the governor’s duties” in office and he used neither state personnel nor property to work on it, according to documents released last night.
Crown Publishing recently said it was halting promotion of Cuomo’s book, which saw sharply declining sales after scandals began engulfing the governor.
Add questions about Cuomo’s lucrative book deal to the growing list of issues that will be investigated in a sweeping probe by the Assembly Judiciary Committee into myriad allegations against the embattled governor.
Nursing home advocates and Assemblyman Ron Kim ripped into state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli for “slow walking” a request to initiate a probe into Cuomo’s handling of nursing homes during the coronavirus pandemic.
In a far-reaching move that will fundamentally change life behind bars in New York, Cuomo signed into law a bill that will end the use of long-term solitary confinement in prisons and jails.
Cuomo and state lawmakers were still negotiating the final details of a mammoth $200 billion spending proposal for the next fiscal year late yesterday, meaning Albany will officially blow past its April 1 state budget deadline, though the first bills have passed.
On the heels of New York’s cannabis vote, New Mexico’s Legislature has approved the legalization of recreational marijuana for adults 21 and older in a bill that the governor plans to sign, extending the legal cannabis market across the American Southwest.
Without much fanfare, Cuomo signed the adult-use cannabis bill into law.
“This is a historic day in New York — one that rights the wrongs of the past by putting an end to harsh prison sentences, embraces an industry that will grow the Empire State’s economy, and prioritizes marginalized communities so those that have suffered the most will be the first to reap the benefits,” Cuomo said in a statement.
The law signed by the governor immediately legalizes the possession of up to 3 ounces of marijuana for people 21 and over. However, it will take as much as a year to finalize regulations for retail sales.
Mayors of the Long Island beach towns near New York City’s Queens border say they will forbid the sale marijuana in their communities.
The hate-fueled attacker accused of stomping a 65-year-old Filipino woman on a Hell’s Kitchen sidewalk was freed from prison 16 months ago after doing time for the savage 2002 stabbing murder of his mom, authorities said.
Democratic mayoral candidate Andrew Yang praised police for promptly arresting a suspect for the hateful stomping attack on an Asian woman that has shaken the city.
A radio debate between the two GOP New York City mayoral contenders – Curtis Sliwa and Fernando Mateo – got heated.
Guardian Angels founder Sliwa went for the jugular right away, seeking to paint Mateo as a “de Blasio Republican” for raising campaign cash for the Democratic mayor.
The Manhattan District Attorney is looking for dirt on the Trump Organization’s long-serving chief financial officer in an intensified effort to get him to flip on his boss.
In recent weeks, the prosecutors have trained their focus on the executive, Allen H. Weisselberg, in what appears to be a determined effort to gain his cooperation. He has not been accused of any wrongdoing.
Investigators at two city agencies had access to over 1,500 mistakenly recorded phone calls between inmates and their legal advisers, expanding the number of people who may have heard confidential conversations of nearly 400 defendants.
New York Rep. Carolyn Maloney, 75, announced that she will run for reelection next year, prompting her perennial primary opponent, Surarj Patel, a Manhattan attorney, to unveil plans to challenge her for a third time.
Ocasio-Cortez boosted a fellow Brooklyn Democrat’s bid to become the Big Apple’s top budget watchdog, endorsing progressive Councilman Brad Lander for comptroller.
“Brad understands that for government to be able to deliver the bold transformative change we need, it has to work for and with the people,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a statement.
Republican leaders in Albany are up in arms over the news that Richard Rivera — who killed an off-duty NYPD officer in a Queens bar 40 years ago — now sits on a police reform board for Ithaca and Tompkins County.
The Schenectady School District appears to be keeping all its options open as it looks to rebound after negotiations with its top choice to lead the school district fell through.
A decade after Tropical Storm Irene left parts of Schenectady’s Stockade neighborhood underwater, the city has released details on its plans to relocate the homes located within the most vulnerable portions of the floodplain.
Albany County Democrats are calling on county Legislator George Langdon IV, a Republican from Coeymans, to resign after he made homophobic comments over the weekend at a seminar on constitutional liberty.
The fight over dust emissions coming from the Norlite plant in Cohoes has now led the state DEC to ask the attorney general’s office to get involved.
Paul G. Feinman, the first openly gay judge on the state’s highest court, who left the Court of Appeals just over a week ago due to a health issue, has died at the age of 61.
To promote the voting process and give young people a platform for civic engagement, the Ulster County Board of Elections is launching its “I Voted” sticker art work contest.
Matthew McConaughey confirmed he’s considering a run for political office (perhapsTexas governor) saying, “I have a new chapter for myself…I believe it is in some sort of leadership role.”
