Good Monday morning. We’re nearing the end of April already; spring is just galloping by. Soon we’ll all be complaining about the oppressive upstate mugginess and heat.
One thing that happens in the spring is that the birds wake up and go wild. Every morning, while I’m out with the dog, they’re singing their hearts out. I assume it’s a mating thing, but since I’m not a bird nerd, I haven’t been motivated to do much digging on the matter.
I do happen to be married to someone who discovered his inner bird nerd during the pandemic – who knew? Now the backyard has not one, but THREE bird feeders. The deer and the squirrels are very happy.
I bring up this seeming non sequitur as a lead in to the announcement that today is National Audubon Day, which honors the birth (in 1785) of John James Audubon, the French-American ornithologist, naturalist, and painter noted for his extensive studies of American birds and his detailed illustrations of the birds in their natural habitats.
Audubon was the author of The Birds of America, considered one of the finest ornithological works ever completed. It contains more than 700 North American bird species with 435 hand-colored, life-size prints of 497 of them.
According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, approximately 45 million people watch birds (though this number anecdotally surged during the pandemic). Writ large, wildlife watchers contributed close to $80 billion to the U.S. economy in 2016. Yup. Billion, with a B, you read that one right.
Says no less an authority than the New York Times: “According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, birders set a world record on May 9 for Global Big Day, an annual bird-spotting event. Participants using the lab’s eBird platform reported more than two million observations – the most bird sightings documented in a single day – and recorded 6,479 species.”
I actually tagged along on some of the early pandemic birding trips with by other half and his bestie. They were heavily into the Peebles Island eagles for a while.
But I wasn’t allowed to bring the beloved fur child because he ostensibly “scared the birds away.” Right, an 18-pound mini Goldendoodle sniffing his own butt and barking at the occasional chipmunk was scaring a pair of massive birds of prey. Insert eye roll here.
Whatever. I stopped going. Or maybe I stopped getting invited. One or the other. Like I said, not my thing.
Today’s Google Doodle (not to be confused with the aforementioned Doggie Doodle) celebrates the 94th birthday of British scientist and author Dame Anne McLaren, widely considered one of the most significant reproductive biologists of the 20th century. (She died in 2007).
Her fundamental research on embryology helped lead to the development of in-vitro fertilization (IVF) – technology that has enabled thousands of couples to have children.
The peripatetic spring weather continues this week. Today it will be in the low 50s and sunny. Wednesday through Friday? In the 60s – or even the 70s – but rainy.
OH, look for the Supermoon tonight!
In the headlines…
More than half of Americans say they support President Joe Biden’s performance in office so far and approve of his sweeping infrastructure proposal, according to a new NBC News poll.
But Biden also faces criticism from respondents over his handling of an influx of migrants arriving at the southern border, and the poll underscores the apparent durability of Republican voter fraud lies.
The President can report at the end of his first 100 days in office to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday night that he has successfully embarked on a mission he defined on Inauguration Day to “repair,” “restore,” “heal” and “build.”
Vice President Kamala Harris said she feels “a great, great sense of responsibility” as the highest-ranking woman of color in the U.S. and that her boss has kept his promise to keep her closely involved in top decisions as their first 100 days milestone approaches.
The U.S. will send desperately needed vaccine supplies and experts to India, overwhelmed by one of the worst coronavirus surges the world has seen, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told his counterpart in India.
India reported a record number of Covid-19 cases for the fifth straight day today while the official death toll also jumped.
With a devastating second wave of Covid-19 sweeping across India and supplemental oxygen in short supply, India’s government ordered Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to take down dozens of social media posts critical of its handling of the pandemic.
More than five million people in the U.S., or nearly 8 percent of those who got a first shot of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, have missed their second doses, according to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
After three months of vaccination across the U.S., a majority of American adults have gotten shots, and the effort will soon shift from mass inoculation to mop-up.
American tourists who have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 will be able to visit the European Union over the summer, the head of the bloc’s executive body said.
“The Americans, as far as I can see, use European Medicines Agency-approved vaccines,” von der Leyen said, according to the Times report. “This will enable free movement and the travel to the European Union.” (He offered no firm timeline).
Israel’s Health Ministry said it is examining a small number of cases of heart inflammation in people who had received Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, though it has not yet drawn any conclusions.
Even as vaccines roll out, more younger people in Michigan are being hospitalized than at any other point in the pandemic. And they’re coming in sicker.
Leaders of a business masquerading as a church sold a toxic bleach solution as a religious sacrament and marketed it as a “miracle” cure for Covid-19, cancer, autism, Alzheimer’s disease and more, federal prosecutors said.
Social distancing inside at 60 feet is no safer than at 6 feet — and “exposure time” indoors is actually far more important, according to a new study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Nationwide chains and independent eateries alike said they can’t hire enough workers to staff kitchens and dining rooms, just as Covid-19 restrictions relax and more consumers want to eat out again. They’re offering signing bonuses and higher pay.
More than 75 percent of New York restaurants have difficulty filling open positions, according to a survey by the National Restaurant Association, and 93 percent believe hiring will be much more difficult after the pandemic ends than prior to it.
The NYPD will deploy dozens of officers to commercial districts in Manhattan as part of New York City’s push to encourage the return of workers to offices and help tourism rebound from the Covid-19 pandemic, police and city officials said.
New York City hits a milestone today: Another 51,000 students are returning to schools for in-person learning, most for the first time in a year. But about 582,000 students, or 61 percent, are choosing to continue remote learning, according to DOE estimates.
A 61-year-old Chinese American man who was the victim of what was called an “outrageous’’ assault was in critical but stable condition yesterday in a New York hospital.
Yao Pan Ma, a Chinese immigrant, was collecting cans when he was attacked from behind and repeatedly stomped on as he laid helpless on the ground. A bus driver called the police after seeing him unconscious.
“I feel very unsafe and I am very worried that my husband is not going to make it,” the victim’s wife, Baozhen Chen, said through tears. “I want the police to capture the person as soon as possible.”
This attack comes during a surge in reports of anti-Asian hate crimes in several cities across the country.
Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have growing concerns about their safety amid attacks that have targeted them during the pandemic, a new Pew Research Center survey shows.
Fifteen people were shot in New York City on Saturday, compared with just one person on the same day a year ago, police said.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s recent extension of a statewide curfew on bars and restaurants shows the limits of a law intended to curtail the unilateral powers he received in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, Republican lawmakers say.
A billboard supporting Cuomo has been erected along I-787 in Albany.
Nearly one week before the state’s eviction moratorium is set to expire, two state lawmakers have introduced a bill to extend the deadline to August 31st, aiming to provide further relief to New Yorkers who continue struggling to pay rent.
The Seneca Nation of Indians on Friday launched one more attempt to overturn a ruling by an arbitration panel that the tribe must make required revenue sharing payments to New York state.
Under new legislation introduced in the state Senate, police officers from other states who resigned or were fired due to misconduct allegations would be barred from working in law enforcement in New York.
NYC Council Speaker Corey Johnson will introduce a parallel bill at the city level.
A rock-throwing vandal in a green camo jacket shattered windows at four synagogues in the Bronx over the weekend, and police were investigating the incidents as possible hate crimes.
New York is a city known for its rush-rush attitude. Now, some entrepreneurs are hoping to cash in on that idea by offering grocery delivery to locals in as little as 15 minutes.
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that non-represented New York City employees will be able to reclassify unpaid furlough days during the pandemic. The move impacts 9,500 city workers and returns $21 million.
Mayoral candidate and Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams will be endorsed today by Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Dr., a onetime mayoral contender himself, in a move that could help Adams reach Latino and Bronx voters.
“Borough President Diaz is the city’s strongest, most effective leader on behalf of the Bronx and Latino New Yorkers — and I am honored to have his support,” Adams said.
The Yang Gang, a crew of rabid Andrew Yang supporters who defend the mayoral candidate online and attack detractors, can be an unruly bunch and has come under criticism of late.
New York’s Democratic mayoral candidates will square off Wednesday on WABC radio in their first live in-person debate. Former Gov. David Paterson will help moderate. Yang won’t be attending.
The brother of George Floyd, the victim of murder by a former Minneapolis police officer, has endorsed Councilman Antonio Reynoso for Brooklyn borough president.
If elected NYC mayor, Maya Wiley pledged to “stop treating environmental racism as a latent product of development and take specific and bold steps in partnership with local environmental justice organizations to actually address this crisis.”
Juan Ardila, 27, the liberal candidate challenging moderate Queens Councilman Robert Holden in the June Democratic primary, recently yanked down racist and homophobic slurs he posted online as a teen.
Federal authorities are investigating claims that anti-terror cable shields on the Kosciuszko Bridge are falling apart as the result of a botched job by an allegedly crooked contractor.
The NYPD’s recent use of a robotic dog has prompted elected officials to criticize the police department’s surveillance equipment, while police maintained the department has done nothing wrong.
More than half of the officers in New York City’s jail system who were disciplined over a 20-month period gave false, misleading or incomplete accounts on official forms or in statements to investigators, according to a New York Times analysis.
The MTA is on a path to buy only electric buses starting in 2028, and use almost no gasoline to power its fleet by 2040, officials said.
“A bunch of kindergartners,” now in seventh grade, worked years to urge the City Council to approve a ban on toxic pesticides in parks, playgrounds and other spaces. They finally succeeded.
A state Department of Motor Vehicles office assistant was arrested for illegally accessing DMV records of family members and other persons for personal financial gain, the state Inspector General’s office said.
Plans to add six community officers to the Troy police department rekindled the debate about policing in the city and whether money should be put in social and youth services.
A former in-house attorney for Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics, which owns a Hoosick Falls manufacturing plant, alleges he was fired last year after pushing corporation leaders to investigate whether their other U.S. plants polluted public water supplies.
DMX’s memorial at Barclays Center was closed to the public, but hundreds of fans congregated outside to honor the rapper’s life.
Kanye West — a close friend of the late DMX — reportedly helped raise $1 million for the late rapper’s family through the sale of tribute T-shirts.
“Nomadland,” Chloé Zhao’s meditation on grief and the damaged American dream, won Academy Awards for best picture, director and actress at last night’s ceremony – a stage show broadcast on television about films mostly distributed on the internet.
Women tallied up a record 17 wins at the Oscars, buoyed by McDormand and Zhao.
“Please watch our movie on the largest screen possible,” said Frances McDormand, a producer of “Nomadland” and its star, in her acceptance speech, urging viewers to return to movie theaters “shoulder to shoulder in that dark space.”
The end of the Oscars didn’t go according to script. Anthony Hopkins won Best Actor for his performance in “The Father,” receiving the award over the late Chadwick Boseman, whom many considered to be the favorite.
If you missed the broadcast – and really, why wouldn’t you have? – the whole recap is here.
