Good Monday morning. Happy Flag Day!
This it NOT, by the way, to be confused with Independence Day, which, of course, is July 4. Flag Day is held in remembrance of when our country’s first American flag was introduced by the Continental Congress as the official American flag on June 14, 1777.
According to the 5th item on the day’s agenda, it was resolved in the Journal of the Continental Congress “that the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes alternate red and white: that the Union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.”
Apparently, this tradition has its roots in Waubeka, Wisconsin, where Bernard J. Cigrand, 19, placed a 10” 38-star flag in an inkwell on his desk at the front of his one-room classroom, and prompted his students to write an essay about what the flag meant to them, referring to that day, June 14, as the flag’s birthday.
From that day on, Cigrand dedicated himself to inspiring not only his students but all Americans to reflect on the grand significance of “Old Glory.” A little over three decades later in 1916, President Woodrow Wilson declared June 14th as National Flag Day.
He came up with a proposal to establish an annual observance for the nation’s flag and penned an article called the “Fourteenth of June” in the Chicago Argus newspaper. To this day, he is regarded as the “Father of Flag Day.”
On June 14, 2004, 108th U.S. Congress unanimously voted on H.R. 662 declaring Flag Day originated in Waubeka, Ozaukee County, Wisconsin. Cigrand’s old school house is now a historical site.
There have been 27 versions of the American flag since Cigrand’s day. The current version dates to July 4, 1960, when Hawaii became the 50th state.
To be clear, today is a national holiday and its observance is proclaimed every year by the president. It is NOT a federal holiday, which means we don’t get the day off.
Some towns and cities hold parades and other events to celebrate this day, and the American flag is flown at all government buildings. Two states celebrate it as a state holiday – Pennsylvania and New York, which recognizes the second Sunday every June as a state holiday in honor of the flag.
It’s also the 246th birthday of the U.S. Army. There will be a virtual wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Ceremony this morning to mark the occasion.
After a spate of absolutely fantastic early summer weather, we are in for some not-so-great forecasts. Today will be in the high 60s with a chance of thunderstorms, and we won’t be seeing the 80s again until Friday at the earliest.
In the headlines…
President Joe Biden will this week confront two relentless forces that could seriously hamper his presidency: Vladimir Putin and Capitol Hill deadlock.
Central and Eastern European nations are anxious about the coming summit meeting between Biden and Putin, wary of what they see as hostile intentions from the Kremlin.
The Wednesday meeting is expected to be frosty, and the White House has set expectations low, saying Biden’s goal is to put the U.S. on a path to a more predictable relationship with Moscow.
Biden kept his sunglasses on when meeting Queen Elizabeth II – an apparent breach of royal protocol.
The queen hosted the president and first lady Jill Biden at Windsor Castle, her royal residence near London.
Biden told reporters that the Queen was “extremely gracious” and reminded him of his mother. She asked him about China’s Xi Jinping and Putin during their time together.
Churchgoers in a seaside resort in England say they were left “gobsmacked” when the Bidens dropped in for a Sunday church service.
Benjamin Netanyahu compared the Biden administration’s planned return to the Iran deal to U.S. neglect of European Jews during the Holocaust, in his final speech as prime minister.
A new Israeli coalition government led by commando-turned-tech entrepreneur Naftali Bennett ended Netanyahu’s 12-year run in power, but now faces as series of challenges.
Biden announced plans to name Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, FL a national memorial five years after the shooting, in which 49 people were killed.
World leaders attending the Group of Seven summit issued a call for a new study into the origins of Covid-19, including in China, after an initial report was deemed lacking because Beijing had refused to cooperate.
The leaders of the world’s seven richest countries agreed to donate1 billion coronavirus vaccine doses to poorer countries over the next year and to take a harder line against China, which Biden hailed as a return of U.S. leadership on the world stage.
Vaccines are the latest flashpoint inflaming cross-strait tensions between China and Taiwan.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson today is expected to announce a delay in lifting COVID-19 restrictions due to the rising threat posed by the Delta variant of the virus.
Johnson yesterday joined calls for further investigation into claims that COVID-19 originally leaked from a Chinese lab but said at the moment he doesn’t believe that’s what sparked the global pandemic.
A federal judge in Texas has dismissed a lawsuit brought by employees of Houston Methodist Hospital who had challenged the hospital’s Covid vaccination requirement.
According to the ruling, U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes of Houston said that lead plaintiff Jennifer Bridges’ claims that vaccines are “experimental and dangerous” were “false” and “irrelevant” and requiring them as a condition of employment is not coercion.
As coronavirus testing continues to decline in the U.S., public health experts are warning that the trend will make it more difficult for the country to identify outbreaks and track the spread of highly contagious variants.
As of Friday, the country was averaging just over one million Covid-19 vaccine doses administered per day over the past week, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Almost one in five Americans say they won’t get the COVID-19 vaccine, according to a new CBS/YouGov poll that continues to find the resistance to the shot is divided heavily along party lines.
The United States had administered 309,322,545 doses of Covid-19 vaccines and distributed 374,398,105 doses in the country as of yesterday morning, the CDC said.
The news about a potential link between the Covid-19 vaccine and a cardiac ailment in young people may be striking fear in the hearts of some parents.But pediatric cardiologists have a message for these parents: Covid-19 should scare you more.
The CDC’s advisory committee on immunization practices will be meeting this week to talk about mRNA-based vaccines, which are the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, in teenagers and young adults.
Canada has rejected 300,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine from the U.S. after it was made at a Baltimore facility riddled with contamination issues.
A Baltimore factory that rendered useless 75 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine failed for weeks to seal off a preparation area for vaccine ingredients and allowed production waste to be hauled through the area, the FDA said.
The FDA said J&J must throw away millions of doses of its COVID-19 vaccine that were manufactured at the problem-plagued Baltimore factory but also cleared millions for use.
Mining companies are throwing their weight behind vaccination efforts as Covid-19 continues to ravage much of the developing world.
As pandemic-weary Americans head for the most popular national parks this summer, nearby towns are getting overrun.
More U.S. workers are quitting their jobs than at any time in at least two decades, signaling optimism among many professionals while also adding to the struggle companies face trying to keep up with the economic recovery.
According to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office, the statewide single-day COVID-19 positivity rate dropped to a new record low on Saturday, landing at 0.35 percent.
The news comes as New York hits its 68 consecutive day of declining virus rates and more than two weeks of record lows since the start of the pandemic, according to the state.
New York’s powerful hospital groups have taken steps to get a federal COVID-19 lawsuit against a Long Island nursing home tossed — calling it a potentially precedent-setting case that could have damaging, “far-ranging consequences” for the industry.
New York state troopers assigned to protect Cuomo have been interviewed by investigators amid a probe into allegations he sexually harassed female subordinates, the head of their union said.
The interviews with current and former members of the governor’s Protective Services Unit indicate the investigation has crossed into a realm that is rarely pierced by outside investigations.
Cuomo notched a key win in the session’s final days last week when the state Senate confirmed his picks to fill two vacancies on the state’s highest court – both of whom would sit as jurors in a possible impeachment trial.
Cuomo’s political power has diminished since his administration was buffeted by scandals, investigations and calls for his resignation from members of his own party.
None of the thousands of court cases that have been filed in New York under the Child Victims Act have yet gone to trial and many details of the alleged institutional coverups that shielded the abuse remain cloaked in secrecy.
People found in possession of hypodermic needles and syringes may no longer risk arrest or jail time in New York under a bill that passed the state Legislature last week.
The New York State Legislature ended its official 2021 session without taking action on a vital piece of the state’s recent law legalizing marijuana.
Environmentalists are not pleased by the two Cuomo loyalists who were appointed to the PSC.
A push to make Alcohol-to-Go permanent at restaurants and bars did not get extended on the final day of the legislative session.
New York City’s affordability problems were laid bare by the pandemic. Mayoral candidates offer solutions, but steep political and logistical obstacles remain.
Voters trickled into polling sites in New York City over the weekend to pick the next mayor in the first big test of the city’s ranked-choice voting system.
Voters seem most concerned about quality of life issues and public safety. They are also trying to figure out ranked-choice voting.
The June 22 primary contests for mayor and other city offices are critical, if imperfect, tests of the mood of Democratic voters on the cusp of a summer that many experts believe will be marked by high rates of gun violence in cities across the U.S.
The New York City mayor’s race has been a nightmare for left-leaning voters.
Leading mayoral candidate Eric Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, came under attack over comments earlier this year suggesting one teacher could handle hundreds of students at a time during virtual summer school.
An armed feud between two men on an MTA bus spilled into the street outside of Adams’ Brooklyn campaign office yesterday, where the gunman tossed his firearm before fleeing, police and witnesses said.
The head of the union representing 4,000 New York State Police Troopers is backing Adams for mayor.
Adams decried the “open disorder in our parks” after The NY Post reported on the recent violence and vandalism at Washington Square Park — but he proposed a less “heavy-handed” solution than cops in riot gear.
Mayoral hopeful Maya Wiley has been endorsed by fellow Democrats who regularly decry the power of special interests and big money in politics — even though she has for decades been bankrolled by hedge-fund billionaire George Soros.
The Brooklyn Liberation march took place this weekend amid a wave of legislation targeting transgender children and violence that disproportionately affects Black trans women.
MTA officials are looking to identify which of the agency’s employees recorded a computer screen as it played an internal video of last week’s bus that crashed into a Brooklyn brownstone.
Instances of train cars caked with feces, blood, vomit and garbage have seen a troubling rise since the start of the year, according to hundreds of internal MTA incident reports.
New York City crime is surging after decades on the decline because of “disastrous” liberal criminal justice reforms, former NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton said.
It was a quiet first day for early voting in the Capital Region ahead of the primary election June 22.
Hundreds of people gathered on Lark Street this weekend for the inaugural Capital Pride Block Party.
The HBO production of the five-part Watergate series, “The White House Plumbers,” is coming to Albany this week.
A much-anticipated Juneteenth celebration this month at the Altamont Fairgrounds has been canceled due to permitting issues.
Great white sharks are swimming near the coasts of New York and surrounding states, a tracker says.
The teenager who recorded the infamous video showing George Floyd’s murder at the hands of Minneapolis police was awarded a 2021 Pulitzer Prize Special Citation.
A 25-year-old man, one of at least 13 victims in a mass shooting in Texas over the weekend, has died of his injuries, Austin authorities said.
The Justice Department subpoenaed Apple for information in February 2018 about an account that belonged to Donald F. McGahn II, President Donald J. Trump’s White House counsel at the time, and barred the company from telling him about it.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland will meet with leaders from CNN, The New York Times and The Washington Post today to discuss the leak investigations that were carried out by the Department of Justice (DOJ) under the Trump administration.
Former Attorneys General William Barr and Jeff Sessions should answer for the Trump Justice Department’s secret seizure of data about House Democrats, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said.
Wasabi, a low-slung Pekingese named through bloodlines for a Michigan sushi restaurant, won Best in Show at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.
An auction winner paid more than $28 million for an 11-minute ride into space alongside Jeff Bezos, on a reusable rocket launched by his space company, Blue Origin.
Over 5,800 USPS workers were attacked by dogs last year, the agency recently announced ahead of a campaign to highlight the issue.
A TV reporter in Alabama who broke the story about the 2016 meeting between former President Clinton and then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch was found dead from an apparent suicide Saturday morning. He was 45.
Ned Beatty, Oscar-nominated actor best known for his role in the 1972 film “Deliverance,” died yesterday at the age of 83.
NOTE: Usually, we bring you amazing local photos from George Fazio. But as I am unable to access my Gmail account for some reason, today we are making do with a photo of Henry living his best lake life.
