Good Tuesday morning.
It’s the 20th anniversary of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, also known as SAAM, and today is the SAAM Day of Action, held on the first Tuesday in April to focus awareness on sexual violence prevention.
The idea here is to use education to try to prevent sexual assault, harassment, and abuse before they happen.
In part, teaching about consent and boundaries and respecting both of those is thought to perhaps help nip sexual violence in the bud. There’s also a public education component to this effort that hopefully one day will end the practice of blaming victims and thereby raising the likelihood that incidents will go both unreported and unpunished.
The National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC) has launched a new campaign this year about building safe online spaces, which is more important than ever before as we moved so much of our lives online over the past 12+ months due to the pandemic.
Says NSVRC’s press release:
“NSVRC encourages individuals and communities to commemorate SAAM and show support for survivors of sexual harassment and abuse by wearing teal — the color of sexual violence prevention — on April 6th and posting a selfie to Twitter or Instagram using #SAAM2021. Wearing teal signals that you support survivors and are a safe person to talk to if they need to reach out.“
There are some very scary and rather depressing statistics on this subject that you can peruse here if you are so inclined. Suffice to say that sexual assault happens far too frequently – most often involving women and girls, but also some men and a high percentage of LGBTQ individuals. This is not right. Period. Full stop.
In case you need a complete change of subject to something maybe a little less heavy to start your day, I’m happy to oblige…it’s National Twinkie Day.
Boom.
This iconic cream filled snack cake was first produced in 1930 by the Continental Baking Company in Illinois as a way to use shortbread pans that were no longer in use. The pastry was originally filled with banana cream, but bananas were in short supply during WWII and so the company switched to vanilla. (Thank goodness!).
It has been Team Vanilla for Twinkies ever since, though over the years it has flirted briefly with chocolate, gone back to banana, and even tried on a few other fruit flavors.
The name “Twinkie” is said to have been inspired by a billboard for “Twinkle Toe Shoes” near the bakery. Also, sorry to bust the urban legend, but Twinkies do not, in fact, last forever, though they do have a kind of disgustingly long shelf life. I try not to think about that too much.
Also something of a myth? The Twinkie Defense, although the phrase has come to encompass the general idea that consuming too much of a substance – junk food, MSG, medication etc. – can make a person crazy enough to commit murder.
Another nice day is on tap, with mostly sunny skies and temperatures in the low 60s.
In the headlines…
The Biden administration and top Congressional Democrats began detailing proposals for big changes to how the U.S. and other countries tax multinational corporations as they seek to raise revenues and finance the president’s $2 trillion infrastructure plan.
A top Senate official ruled that Democrats could use the fast-track budget reconciliation process for a second time this fiscal year, potentially handing them broader power to push through Biden’s agenda, including his infrastructure plan, over GOP opposition.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen argued for a global minimum corporate tax rate, seeking international cooperation that is crucial to funding the administration’s $2.3 trillion infrastructure proposal.
Biden accused Republicans of opposing his $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan even though “they know we need it,” signaling his frustration as the sprawling proposal faces stiff odds in Congress.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 surged to records yesterday as a strong jobs report and data showing a rebound in the services sector cheered investors hoping for a robust economic recovery.
The U.S. said that it was stepping up efforts to combat Covid-19 worldwide, appointing a veteran diplomat to run the Biden administration’s global coronavirus response and pledging to support the more equitable vaccine production and distribution.
Mutated forms of coronavirus continue to surge across the United States. Yesterday, Minnesota became the third state to report its 1,000th variant case.
White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said Americans should keep getting two doses of Pfizer and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines, despite a recent U.S. study that showed the shots are highly effective after just one dose.
Fauci said the U.S. government will not require Americans to use vaccine passports to prove they’ve been immunized against the coronavirus.
Valneva SE plans to start final-phase clinical trials on its Covid-19 vaccine candidate this month, a step forward for a French drugmaker’s low-tech shot that’s being backed by the U.K. government.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said there is no significant risk of catching the coronavirus from a surface or object.
North Korea has announced it will not take part in the Tokyo Olympics this year, saying the decision is to protect its athletes from Covid-19.
Ground zero of the world’s Covid-19 outbreak shifted to India as it recorded more than 100,000 fresh cases for the first time, topping the daily totals everywhere else in the world.
Millions of white evangelical adults in the U.S. do not intend to get vaccinated against Covid-19. Tenets of faith and mistrust of science play a role; so does politics.
A local bar opening in a rural Illinois county in early February was tied to at least 46 new coronavirus cases and a school closure that affected 650 children, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study.
Walgreens has inoculated hundreds of thousands of Americans against Covid-19 using the vaccine developed by Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech. But the pharmacy chain has not been following federal health guidance about the timing of second doses.
All New Jersey residents 16 or older will be eligible for Covid-19 vaccination beginning on April 19, Gov. Philip D. Murphy said.
New York City’s coronavirus positivity rate has remained stubborn for weeks — while new cases are only slowly inching downward — even as the city continues to ramp up vaccinations, the latest data shows.
The first successful direct transplant of a trachea is a medical milestone that could help thousands of people with airways damaged by ventilators and other causes.
A “staggering” 40,000 children in the U.S. have lost at least one parent to coronavirus, three-quarters of them teenagers, a new model has calculated.
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings has asked federal health authorities to let it sail from U.S. ports starting July 4, saying its vaccination requirement for passengers and crew is a sufficient precaution against Covid-19.
Actor Benedict Cumberbatch believes he could’ve been patient zero of the coronavirus pandemic.
Coney Island’s amusement parks are set to finally reopen to visitors Friday — after being closed all last season because of the pandemic.
Rep. Matt Gaetz declared he would “absolutely not” resign from House seat in a new op-ed after national news outlets reported he was under investigation for an alleged sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl and for paying for sex with other women.
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson vetoed a bill that would make it illegal for transgender minors to receive gender-affirming medication or surgery.
Hutchinson’s decision was a rare Republican rejection amid the growing conservative effort to restrict transgender people’s health care and participation in society.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he and legislative leaders reached a “conceptual agreement” on an already-late state budget that may include mobile sports betting, but the fate of several other big-ticket items remains unclear.
The deal would make New York City’s millionaires pay the highest personal income taxes in the nation, a stark result of the pandemic’s economic fallout.
If enacted, the deal would raise income and corporate taxes to generate an extra $4.3 billion a year and would potentially legalize mobile sports betting to raise an additional $500 million in new tax revenue.
Andrew Rein, president of the Citizens Budget Commission, called the planned tax hikes “economically risky and fiscally unnecessary” given the federal bailout and higher-than-expected tax receipts during the past fiscal year.
Cuomo and the Legislature’s tentative deal to hike state taxes by more than $4 billion amid the dig-out from coronavirus pandemic is unnecessary and will trigger an exodus from New York City, mayoral candidate Ray McGuire said.
Cuomo and Budget Director Robert Mujica both said the state is drafting an online sports betting bill to honor the terms of the existing Oneida Nation compacts. The bill would not cut the nation or upstate counties out of potential online gambling revenue.
The budget deal could pave the way for a casino in New York City, an idea long floated as a possible boon for the state’s tax revenues.
Also under consideration: A three-year freeze on any tuition increases at SUNY and CUNY, as well as bolstering tuition assistance for needy students.
The state budget is five days late and counting — an Albany tradition of tardiness that Cuomo, a three-term Democrat, had long boasted of ending.
As budget negotiations stretch days past deadline and scandals engulf his administration, Cuomo again surrounded himself with supporters during a visit to Queens where he spoke about COVID vaccination efforts.
The state Health Department doctor who reportedly administered and helped fast-track coronavirus tests to Cuomo’s relatives and friends, including his brother, Chris, at his Hamptons home, is employed by a nonprofit run by the governor’s health commissioner.
The Western New York region currently has the highest seven-day average percentage of positive test results in New York State.
Cuomo announced the start of the statewide “Roll Up Your Sleeve” ad campaign to encourage all New Yorkers, especially those from neighborhoods where COVID was most devastating, to get vaccinated.
The New York State Capitol store is now open online, the Office of General Services Commissioner RoAnn Destito said, offering items previously sold only at the Empire State Plaza Visitor Center and Gift Shop in Albany.
The MTA is on the lookout for top-notch transportation experts to oversee New York City’s congestion pricing program that will toll motorists who drive south of 61st St. in Manhattan.
Harvey Weinstein, the Hollywood producer found guilty of two felony sex crimes last year, appealed his conviction, saying several women who had accused him of sexual assault should never have been allowed to testify.
Mayor Bill de Blasio will change a rule that has created a paradox in the City’s school reopening plan: Classrooms that were reopened to students often closed again because school buildings had to shut temporarily when two unrelated virus cases were detected.
De Blasio said the policy was being rolled back so that parents could make an informed choice on whether to opt-in for in-person instruction for the remainder of the year.
Citing ongoing union negotiations, de Blasio said the new plan will be announced in “the coming days” — but would only pledge that more than two cases will now be required to lock up a building.
The city teachers union blasted City Hall for pledging to ease school COVID-19 closure rules, saying it can’t be done without approval from Albany.
Officials say updated state guidance on COVID safety in schools should be coming very soon – likely within the next week.
De Blasio insisted that the massive gap in COVID-19 vaccinations between residents of the Big Apple’s rich and poor neighborhoods will be cured in the coming weeks — even as city data continues to show a massive lag.
The Manhattan borough president’s office would help tenants and landlords hash out deals on back rent once the eviction moratorium is over, under a new proposal from state Sen. Brad Hoylman.
The reputed wiseguy behind Brooklyn’s Plaza Auto Mall has been handing out campaign cash to local Democrats — including the borough’s district attorney and its party boss.
The $550 million renovation of Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall, home of the New York Philharmonic, will be completed nearly two years ahead of schedule in fall 2022 thanks to the pandemic, officials with the arts complex and the orchestra said.
Many people living in homeless shelters and on the street have not received the federal stimulus checks they’re entitled to, stymied by misinformation and bureaucracy.
Most New Yorkers living on the street and subways have been through the city’s shelter system — and don’t want to go back, according to a new survey of 200 “unsheltered” city residents.
Legislation penned by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand would create a medical monitoring database designed to aid those poisoned by toxic chemicals – from firefighters to residents of Hoosick Falls sickened by a contaminated water supply.
The office of state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli is urging state transportation officials to adopt new protocols recommended by the NTSB in a critical report on the causes of the 2018 limousine crash in Schoharie that killed 20 people.
Albany County legislator George Langdon IV resigned yesterday afternoon, less than a week after a video surfaced of Langdon making homophobic remarks at a seminar in New Scotland.
Albany County is due to receive a supplemental allocation of 1,600 Johnson & Johnson vaccines earmarked specifically for area college students this week, officials say.
The Albany Common Council unanimously passed a law that increases the fines for people who illegally drive dirt bikes and ATVs in the city.
The massive Riverview Center in Menands, once home to the region’s Montgomery Ward building, is being sold at auction next month after the Brooklyn-based owner couldn’t repay the balance of a $34 million mortgage.
Early last Wednesday morning, residents of an Albany neighborhood woke up to find a giant mural of the mythological Minotaur on the side of a yellow brick building on Hamilton Street. It’s associated with a tasting room and meadery called The Bull and Bee.
Darrell Camp is leaving TALK 1300 and 98.7 FM to work with Dan Clark at WMHT Public Media, helping out with New York Now, among other projects.
An all-female Democratic ticket in Coeymans is aiming to flip a local government that is controlled by Republicans.
The MLB All-Star Game will relocate to Denver’s Coors Field after the game was pulled from Atlanta over Georgia’s voting laws.
Former President Donald Trump ripped into the New York Times for running a story on refunds issued to people who claimed they unwittingly signed up to be recurring donors to his campaign.
NRA leader Wayne LaPierre says he faced an unprecedented “security threat” after shootings at the Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut and a Parkland, Fla., high school — and had to seek refuge aboard his Hollywood producer pal’s 108-foot yacht.
Fans of Ruff Ryders legend DMX gathered for a vigil early yesterday evening at the Westchester hospital where the rapper is reportedly in critical condition after a weekend heart attack triggered by a drug overdose.
The only opponent Gonzaga could not beat was its last. The previously-undefeated Bulldogs took their first loss of the season, falling 86-70 to No. 1 seed Baylor yesterday in the NCAA Tournament championship game.
