It’s Thursday, good morning. It’s late Spring, by the way. You wouldn’t necessarily know it from the weather.
I have to confess to being utterly disgusted by the fact that I had to put on a winter coat just now to take the dog out for a pee, and then wipe the snow – THE SNOW – off his head when we came inside.
WTF, Mother Nature? Haven’t we been through enough already? Cloudy, windy, 44 degrees – max – today?
Anyway, 51st annual Happy Earth Day, everyone. The celebration is largely virtual again this year, because pandemic. Also, since Earth Day is falling on a weekday this year, the festivities are in many cases being stretched to carry over into the weekend.
First held on April 22, 1970, Earth Day now includes a wide range of events coordinated globally by EARTHDAY.ORG (formerly Earth Day Network), and is observed by about 1 billion people in more than 193 countries.
This year’s theme for the day is “Restore Our Earth”. “Recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic is a chance to set the world on a cleaner, greener, more sustainable path,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in a statement.
Actually, if the pandemic could be said to have a silver lining at all, it’s that it gave the Earth something of a breather – traffic and travel were down, and so was air pollution, albeit briefly.
If nothing else, this phenomenon demonstrated once and for all that, yes, we humans are really doing a number on the planet, and we better straighten up and fly right – ASAP – or we won’t have much of a planet left to inhabit.
President Joe Biden is getting into the spirit of Earth Day by hosting a two-day climate summit with world leaders. (You can watch it here). The U.S. is expected to announce its ambitious 2030 emissions target as its new Nationally Determined Contribution under the Paris Agreement.
Also, if the Earth isn’t your jam…(who ARE you?)…maybe this will be more your speed: It’s National Jelly Bean Day. Trust the folks over at Jelly Belly to have a full accounting of their candy’s origin story. Personally, I am not a fan. Chocolate any time of the day or night for me, thanks.
Apparently, there’s a really great meteor shower going on right now – the first of the season. But I saw nothing when I went outside to check because it’s completely overcast. Boo. Since I already got the weather out of the way by carping about the snow, let’s get right to the good stuff.
In the headlines…
White House press secretary Jen Psaki called the fatal police shooting of a Black teenage girl in Columbus, Ohio, “tragic” and said that President Biden has been briefed on the matter.
“The killing of 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant by Columbus police is tragic. She was a child. We are thinking of her friends and family and the communities that are grieving her loss,” Psaki said at a briefing.
Columbus, Ohio, officials released additional body camera video of a police officer fatally shooting the Black teenager, who charged two females with a knife.
Officials identified the officer who fired the shots that Bryant as Nicholas Reardon, who has been with the department since 2019. He was placed on leave.
The Justice Department will investigate whether the Minneapolis Police Department engages in patterns of unconstitutional policing, Attorney General Merrick Garland said a day after a jury convicted ex-officer Derek Chauvin in George Floyd’s murder.
“Good officers do not want to work in systems that allow bad practices,” Garland said. “Officers welcome accountability because accountability is an essential part of building trust with the community and public safety requires public trust.”
Police chiefs and unions across the country condemned Chauvin’s actions and applauded the jury’s verdict, but not always with the same zeal or for the same reasons.
Chauvin’s conviction on counts of murder and manslaughter in Floyd’s death means an uphill battle for three other former Minneapolis police officers charged in the matter when they go to trial later this year, defense lawyers and legal authorities said.
Leaders and protesters in a grieving North Carolina community want to know what happened yesterday morning when a deputy executing a search warrant shot and killed a Black man.
A wave of new anti-protest legislation, sponsored and supported by Republicans, has swept across the country in the 11 months since Black Lives Matter protests swept the country following Floyd’s death.
Biden this week challenged Republicans to offer their own alternative to his $2 trillion-plus infrastructure proposal, saying he’s open to looking at any idea that has bipartisan support and a way to pay for it.
Republicans say the $2.3 trillion infrastructure package will have a tough time getting through the Senate intact because of several key provisions that will open the legislation up to parliamentary challenges under the arcane Byrd Rule.
The President is preparing to declare the massacre of an estimated million or more Armenians under the Ottoman Empire a “genocide” this week, risking a potential fracture with Turkey but fulfilling a campaign pledge.
Biden is expected to announce the symbolic designation on Saturday, the 106th anniversary of the beginning of what historians call a yearslong and systematic death march that the predecessors of modern Turkey started during World War I.
Biden will announce today that the United States intends to cut planet-warming emissions nearly in half by the end of the decade, a target that would require Americans to transform the way they drive, heat their homes and manufacture goods.
Voting 218 to 208, mostly along party lines, the House passed the No Ban Act to restrict the president’s wide-ranging power to control immigration by requiring that travel bans be temporary and subject to congressional oversight.
Biden chose Stacey Dixon, an intelligence technology expert, to be the country’s No. 2 intelligence official. If confirmed, she will be the highest-ranking Black woman in the intelligence community and the first Black person to serve in one of its most senior posts.
Staten Island Rep. Nicole Malliotakis is among five Republican lawmakers pressing the Biden administration to publicly release FBI and CIA documents that they say may disclose the Saudi government’s possible involvement in the 9/11 terror attacks.
India reported a global record of more than 314,000 new COVID infections as a grim surge in the world’s second-most populous country sends more and more sick people into a fragile health care system critically short of hospital beds and oxygen.
There were 314,835 new cases In India over a 24-hour period, according to government data. That surpassed the word’s previous highest single-day increase in cases held by the United States. India also reported 2,104 deaths.
Meanwhile, Biden announced that the U.S. has administered 200 million COVID vaccine doses. Biden said statistics released today will show that the threshold was crossed Wednesday.
The President announced a tax credit for employers offering vaccine-related paid leave as the White House urges more Americans to seek out Covid shots amid a slight decline in vaccinations.
The chief medical officer of BioNTech said that people will likely need a third shot of its two-dose Covid-19 vaccine as immunity against the virus wanes, agreeing with previous comments made by Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla.
In an early analysis of coronavirus vaccine safety data, researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have found no evidence that the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines pose serious risks during pregnancy.
Pfizer says it has identified in Mexico and Poland the first confirmed instances of counterfeit versions of the Covid-19 vaccine it developed with BioNTech SE, the latest attempt by criminals trying to exploit the world-wide vaccination campaign.
The U.S. will likely reach a “tipping point” over the next few weeks when supply of the COVID-19 vaccine will outpace those willing to receive it, according to a report released this week.
Corona, Queens, home to many essential and immigrant workers, had New York’s the highest rates of death and infection – and vaccine uptake remains low.
Starting tomorrow, New Yorkers over the age of 60 years old no longer need vaccine appointments to get their COVID-19 shots.
Around half of adults in the New York City are yet to get their first dose — even though everyone age 16 and over has been eligible for weeks and appointments are widely available.
Antibody test results for more than 45,000 city residents last year suggest that Black and Hispanic New Yorkers were twice as likely as white New Yorkers to have had antibodies to the coronavirus — evidence of prior infection.
At least 1,100 Capital Region residents have now died due to complications from COVID-19, an analysis of county data shows.
Twenty children and teenagers in the Utica area tested positive for COVID-19 and 300 students are under quarantine after dance school students with virus symptoms attended a competition near Syracuse, county officials said.
COVID-19 numbers in New York City are still not where they need to be to lift all remaining business restrictions like Connecticut plans to do next month, Mayor Bill de Blasio says, but he hinted outdoor mask rules may not be so stringent come summer.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo cut off a reporter during a virtual news conference to keep from being pressed about whether he’d resign if an investigation concludes that he sexually harassed female aides.
Investigators seeking to determine whether the New York state Assembly should move to impeach Cuomo have received more than 200 tips about his conduct.
New York State Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Lavine revealed the number of tips received during the committee’s public meeting yesterday, which was the first gathering that focused on impeachment in almost a month.
Lavine said that investigators with Davis Polk, the law firm retained to head the probe, have so far spoken to about 70 people who may have “relevant information.”
Cuomo appeared in public with state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins for the first time yesterday since she called on him to resign over accusations that he sexually harassed several women.
State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli is pushing back against claims from Cuomo’s spokesperson that a recent referral to the state attorney general is politically-motivated piling on.
With a $225,000 salary, Cuomo is the country’s highest paid governor. The next highest paid is California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who made $202,000 last year.
Andrew Giuliani, the son of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and a former public liaison official inside the Trump White House, will meet with the former President at Mar-a-Lago next week as he finalizes his plans to launch a campaign against Cuomo.
Central NY Republican Rep. John Katko confirmed that he has been asked to challenge Cuomo, but declined in part because “I value my marriage.”
Cuomo signed the fiscal 2022 budget into law, ending months of negotiations and years of legwork to get mobile sports betting in New York passed.
Supporters of the NY HERO Act, a measure to ensure better workplace safety during future pandemics, are urging Cuomo to sign the bill, which was passed by both houses of the state Legislature this week.
Even though the state is still months away from actually taking legal sports bets, New York State Sen. Joseph Addabbo Jr. said he expects the first bets to be taken on Feb. 13, 2022 – the same day as the Super Bowl.
Andrew Yang, a leading candidate in the race to become New York City’s next mayor, says embattled Cuomo should “step aside” and that the state has a “better chance” of serving its citizens without him, but also said he would take Cuomo’s endorsement.
Yang attempted to address skepticism on the left to his candidacy by announcing that he had landed the support of a former rival, Carlos Menchaca, a city councilman from Brooklyn.
Rep. Ritchie Torres gave a Bronx cheer to a proposal from Biden to only temporarily extend a popular pandemic-era child tax credit, warning that the watered-down request would cause a “colossal” setback in the war against poverty.
Sex workers in Manhattan no longer face criminal prosecution, District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. announced yesterday, as a judge dismissed thousands of minor sex work-related offenses at his request.
New York City will spend $30 million on a tourism campaign set to launch in June, aiming to revive a sector that has struggled throughout the pandemic, officials said.
Penn Station would transform into a spacious, light-filled train hall for the first time in 50 years under plans presented by MTA leaders.
Transit officials vowed to add more security cameras throughout the New York City subway and two regional commuter-rail systems to combat crime and help riders feel safer on their commutes.
Spc. Abigail Jenks of the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division. Jenks, of Gansevoort, 21, was killed during a training jump at Fort Bragg this week.
Damage to an overpass across the Northway caused by “an illegally sized commercial vehicle” has required that a section of the bridge be taken down, state officials said.
Seven years after problems first emerged, state health and environmental officials have settled on a proposal for a new municipal water system in Hoosick Falls – looking to use two new wells south of town.
Parking restrictions have been added on traffic-clogged parts of an Adirondacks High Peaks road that have grown increasingly popular with hikers in recent years.
The city of Albany fenced off the sidewalks around the police department’s South Station early yesterday morning – five days after protesters began a sit-in in response to a confrontation there last week.
The Albany Empire have filled out their coaching and front-office staff for their first season in the National Arena League under new coach Tom Menas.
Lawmakers and mobile app companies took aim at Apple and Alphabet Inc.’s Google in a hearing yesterday focused on competition concerns about the companies’ power over their smartphone ecosystems.
Nathan’s Famous is bringing back 5-cent hot dogs to Coney Island just in time for its reopening.
Gov. Doug Ducey of Arizona has vetoed legislation that would have imposed some of the country’s most restrictive rules regarding L.G.B.T.Q. education, calling the bill “overly broad and vague.”
Republican North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum vetoed a transgender sports ban, saying that the state already has sufficient rules for sports leagues regarding transgender people.
