Somehow, it’s Monday again. It always seems to roll around, which I guess is better than the alternative.
I hope you all had a restful and/or jam-packed weekend – depending on which one you were aiming for – and a nice Mother’s Day, if you celebrated it.
In case you’re jonesing for some warmer weather, there are 42 days until summer officially starts, though knowing upstate, it will be 90+ degrees and muggy long before that.
It’s World Lupus Day, which is held annually to bring awareness to the long-term autoimmune disease in which the body’s immune system becomes hyperactive and attacks normal, healthy tissue. Symptoms include inflammation, swelling, and damage to the joints, skin, kidneys, blood, heart, and lungs.
No one knows for sure what causes Lupus, but race appears to be a factor, as people of color – especially African Americans – are at a higher risk of being diagnosed with it, as are women. There’s no surefire way of getting diagnosed, either, though usually a combination of a blood test and certain telltale symptoms are a fairly decent indicator.
Lupus can sometimes be mistaken for Rheumatoid arthritis, Hashimoto’s disease, and Fibromyalgia, among other conditions.
A survey conducted by the World Lupus Federation found that people with Lupus suffered disproportionately during the COVID-19 crisis, with 10 percent reporting that they had contracting the virus – well above the average rate.
Switching gears entirely (and a little abruptly, but there’s just no good segue to deploy here), it’s also National Golf Day, which celebrates the game’s $84.1 billion economy, nearly $4 billion annual charitable impact and many environmental and fitness benefits.
I never understood the allure of the game – perhaps I simply don’t have the patience for it. The one time I played in a charity scramble, I think I made nine holes of the 18-hole course before calling it quits. I’m not even sure my club made contact with the ball all that terribly much during that time. So hats off to you, golfers.
After a brief lull due to COVID-related shutdowns, gold courses around the country reportedly saw an uptick in interest as Americans looked for socially distanced outdoor hobbies to pick up.
“Even during a stretch that saw an estimated loss of 20 million rounds, a total of 60 million additional rounds of golf were played by the end of 2020 vs. 2019, according to the National Golf Foundation. As a result, the industry saw the largest increase of new and returning players ever recorded, including an additional 630,000 youth golfers and 570,000 beginners.”
It’s raining as I write this, but that’s expected to stop sometime later this morning. We’ll have clouds, the occasional shower and temperatures nearing 60 degrees. The rest of the week looks lovely…or, at least drier than it has been of late.
In the headlines…
Biden administration officials said the U.S. is entering a new phase of the pandemic in which many vaccinated Americans can begin returning to normal activities and signaled a further relaxation of mask-wearing recommendations as more people get shots.
The White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients said the country is “turning a corner” on the pandemic.
The White House doubled down on President Biden’s continued use of face masks amid an ongoing criticism that he’s sending mixed messages on vaccines.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, in an interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press” yesterday, noted that mask-wearing dramatically impacted the most recent flu season. He said more Americans may start wearing masks seasonally to prevent respiratory infections.
Federal health officials this month decided to limit how they monitor vaccinated people who have been infected with Covid-19, drawing concern from some scientists who say that may mean missing needed data showing why and how it happens.
Variant COVID-19 infections skyrocketed following spring break in Florida and there have been more than 10,000 variant cases reported throughout the state.
Florida’s Department of Health has reported discovering a mutation of the highly infectious Brazilian variant of COVID.
Americans accustomed to years of low inflation are beginning to pay sharply higher prices for goods and services as the economy strains to rev back up and the pandemic wanes.
Policy makers are debating the root cause of a growing shortage of workers that threatens to restrain the pace of economic growth while the U.S. emerges from the Covid-19 pandemic.
The pandemic is accelerating growth in midsize cities, positioning them to lead the charge in the nation’s economic rebound.
Pfizer Inc. vaccine partner BioNTech SE said it would set up a new Asia headquarters in Singapore to produce its Covid-19 vaccine and other medicines, as global demand for the lifesaving shots continues to grow.
Several states are turning away Covid vaccine doses from their federal government allocations, as the daily average of coronavirus vaccine doses administered across the United States has fallen below two million for the first time since early March.
The Biden administration and state health officials are rushing to overcome logistical hurdles to get more Covid-19 shots into doctors’ offices, believing that physicians largely been excluded from the effort thus far could be key to boosting vaccination rates.
A quarter-billion dollars in federal aid to promote COVID-19 vaccines remains up for grabs — but only for nine more days, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said.
The campaign to vaccinate the world is floundering, and experts warn it will take more to reverse the trend.
China will set up “a line of separation” at the summit of Mount Everest to prevent the mingling of climbers from Covid-hit Nepal and those ascending from the Tibetan side as a precautionary measure, Chinese state media reported.
Even as fears of the coronavirus abate, many students are continuing to opt out of in-person learning. Some school leaders are trying to woo — or push — them back.
New York Rep. Joe Morelle is proposing a tax deduction for people who’ve had to start working from home because of the COVID-19.
The statewide seven-day COVID-19 positivity rate has dropped to 1.45 percent in New York – the lowest its been since late October, according to a press release from the governor’s office yesterday.
Spirits ran mostly high as 80,000 New York City municipal employees returned to work for the first time this past week, a taste of the new normal after 14 months of the relentless abnormal.
The state attorney general’s office has expanded its investigation of sexual-harassment allegations against Gov. Andrew Cuomo to look at whether one of his top advisers – Larry Schwartz – linked access to Covid-19 vaccines to support for the governor.
Huge numbers of employees at New York nursing homes still haven’t been vaccinated against COVID-19 — with more than 60 percent of staffers at some city facilities refusing to get the jab, state data shows.
As Cuomo relaxes coronavirus restrictions at indoor and outdoor venues around New York, the state Capitol, where the Democratic governor has his Albany office, still has no projected reopening date.
A top aide to Cuomo — communications director Peter Ajemian — is the latest to resign from the administration, as it faces multiple investigations into sexual harassment allegations and a probe of its handling of nursing home COVID deaths.
Cuomo is asleep at the switch when it comes to his appointees, failing to reappoint or name new members to the state boards he controls. In some cases, trustees serve years after their terms ended.
New York City’s party circuit is back.
Customers with take-out orders at restaurants in New York will continue to be able to order alcohol under an extension approved by the governor last week.
Alvin Bragg, the only Black candidate in the Manhattan DA’s race, has emerged as a front-runner in the crowded field seeking to replace the incumbent, Cyrus Vance.
Former state Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith was quietly sprung early from prison last year — and is being allowed to complete the remainder of his seven-year public corruption sentence at his home in Queens.
A 4-year-old girl in a stroller and two women were shot Saturday afternoon in Times Square, New York Police Department officials said, in an incident whose location and timing add to rising concern about gun violence and crime in the city.
A 31-year-old man has been identified as a person of interest in the Times Square shooting that injured three people, including a 4-year-old girl, after an argument.
The shooting has invigorated the debate over policing between the leading candidates running to be New York City’s next mayor.
Candidate Andrew Yang criticized the movement to defund police, drawing a stinging rebuke from rival Eric Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, who cast Yang as a Johnny-come-lately to the issue.
Yang held a news conference in Times Square yesterday morning. Not to be outdone, or even matched, Adams book-ended Yang’s appearance with a second Times Square visit yesterday afternoon.
Adams is a top fund-raiser in the New York City mayoral race, with key endorsements and strong polling, but he still faces questions about his preparedness for the job.
Adams is concerned about wealthy New Yorkers fleeing the city, and says a safer, cleaner city would help keep them here.
Mayoral candidate and NYC Scott Stringer and his sexual harassment accuser, Jean Kim, have very different recollections about their encounters, which he insists were consensual. She disagrees.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio says that crime on the subway is low, but his office is still launching a travel-buddy program for government employees who feel unsafe commuting to work.
A gunman turned a birthday party into a bloodbath in Colorado yesterday, killing six people before turning the gun on himself, authorities said.
Will a skyscraper at the South Street Seaport set a precedent for development in historic districts?
MTA Interim Transit President Sarah Feinberg lit into homeless advocates, accusing them of defending the status quo of unhoused individuals sleeping on trains and platforms.
The Met Council, one of the most prominent Jewish nonprofits, is teaming up with other organizations throughout the Big Apple to offer free food donations and a message of hope and inclusion amid an alarming spike in hate crimes.
Democratic Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone is calling on the state’s top judge, Janet DiFiore, to support an overhaul of how New York’s judges are selected and end the political influence typically dominating the process.
Not even a pandemic could slow down one of the longest-standing practices of shady lawyers in New York state: theft.
Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the House minority leader, officially endorsed Rep. Elise Stefanik in her bid to oust the No. 3 Republican, Rep. Liz Cheney, who has hemorrhaged support over her repudiation of former President Donald Trump’s lies about election fraud.
The vote on the House leadership switch is expected within the next week. Stefanik has in recent weeks began pursuing the job in earnest.
The Stockbridge-Munsee Community Band of the Mohican Indians has regained ownership of a culturally significant 156 acres along the Hudson River that was deeded to a Dutch colonist 386 years ago.
After nearly five years at the station, Emily DeFeciani is leaving CBS6 News.
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren says she will run for reelection in 2024.
The ransomware attack that forced the closure of the largest U.S. fuel pipeline this weekend showed how cybercriminals pose a far-reaching threat to the aging, vulnerable infrastructure that keeps the nation’s energy moving.
The operator of the largest petroleum pipeline between Texas and New York declined to say when it would reopen, raising concerns about a critical piece of infrastructure that carries nearly half of the East Coast’s fuel supplies.
The writer and poet Maya Angelou and the astronaut Sally Ride, the first American woman to fly in space, are the first women who will appear on a series of quarters to be issued by the U.S. Mint over the next four years.
Medina Spirit failed a post-race drug test just a week after winning the Kentucky Derby, Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert announced yesterday outside his barn at Churchill Downs.
As a result, Churchill Downs has suspended Baffert in the latest scandal to plague the sport.
Melinda Gates reportedly began meeting with divorce lawyers by at least 2019.
Actress Tawny Kitaen, who appeared on the big screen with Tom Hanks and, perhaps more famously, in a series of music videos for Whitesnake, is dead at 59.
