Good Friday morning. Many of us have an unexpected day off today after President Joe Biden signed into law a bill that made Juneteenth a federal holiday.
“All Americans can feel the power of this day, and learn from our history,” Biden said at a ceremony yesterday, noting that this is the first national holiday established since Martin Luther King’s Birthday in 1983, and adding that signing this bill was one of the greatest honors he would have during his White House tenure.
This annual holiday commemorating the end of slavery in this country, has been celebrated by African-Americans since the 1800s.
It marks the day – June 19, 1865 – about two months after the Confederate general Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox, Va., that Gordon Granger, a Union general, arrived in Galveston, TX, to inform enslaved African-Americans of their freedom and that the Civil War had ended.
Granger’s announcement put into effect the Emancipation Proclamation, which had been issued more than two and a half years earlier on Jan. 1, 1863, by then-President Abraham Lincoln.
On January 1, 1980, Juneteenth became an official state holiday in Texas through the efforts of Al Edwards, an African American state legislator. This was the first emancipation celebration granted official state recognition, and Edwards subsequently sought to spread the observance of Juneteenth across the country.
The bill Biden signed took effect immediately, which is why this feels a little rushed. The holiday is being observed on a Friday because Juneteenth falls on a Saturday this year.
The holiday legislation passed this week with overwhelming support in both chambers of Congress. The Senate approved the bill unanimously Tuesday night, and the House passed it in a 415-14 vote. The only votes against the bill came from Republicans.
The New York Stock Exchange will not close for Juneteenth this year, but will evaluate closing markets for the holiday in 2022.
It’s not a bad day to have an unexpected day off. We’ll have a mix of sun and clouds in the morning, followed by mostly clouds in the afternoon, with temperatures in the low 80s.
P.s.: Happy birthday to Sir Paul McCartney, who is turning 79 today.
In the headlines…
Russian President Vladimir Putin praised Biden describing him as a “professional” who is “completely knowledgeable on all issues,” according to a Kremlin transcript of Putin’s televised remarks.
Donald Trump has told Fox News he “didn’t win” the 2020 presidential election, and wishes Biden well. He did not drop his lie that the Democrat won thanks to electoral fraud.
The Affordable Care Act has survived its third major Supreme Court challenge — what Justice Samuel Alito described in his dissenting opinion as an “epic trilogy.”
The decision secures the health law as a major legacy of the Obama era — the largest expansion of health coverage in decades — after years of hard-fought and politically painful battles.
The Court also ruled unanimously that a Catholic social services agency in Philadelphia could defy city rules and refuse to work with same-sex couples who apply to take in foster children.
Senate Democrats have begun privately weighing a sprawling economic package that could be $6 trillion even as a bipartisan group of senators works to draw support for a much narrower infrastructure plan.
Singapore’s government said it will further ease Covid-related restrictions next week, but at a slower pace than previously announced as local infections have not declined significantly.
More than 350 doctors and medical workers have caught COVID-19 in Indonesia despite being vaccinated with Sinovac and dozens have been hospitalised, officials said.
Dr. Scott Gottlieb , the former FDA chief, warned about the potential for long-term brain loss associated with Covid, citing a new study from the United Kingdom.
England’s top medical officer has warned that the coming winter will continue to be difficult for the country’s health system despite the country’s successful coronavirus vaccination program.
The U.S. is pouring more than $3 billion on a neglected area of research: developing pills to fight Covid-19 early in the course of infection, potentially saving many lives in the years to come.
The Antiviral Program for Pandemics plan will spur clinical trials and the manufacturing of promising treatments for Covid-19, with the goal of gaining authorization from the FDA for some antivirals and making them available to the public within a year.
“Antivirals can and are an important complement to existing vaccines, especially for individuals with certain conditions that might put them at a greater risk for those whom vaccines may not be as protective,” Dr. Anthony Fauci said.
No playing field, court, ring or fairway is safe from the disruptions of the coronavirus, a contrast to the spirit of reopening that has taken hold in many quarters.
Big Blue and Gang Green’s home will welcome fans at 100% capacity when the season starts the end of the summer, the team announced.
The Delta coronavirus variant, which devastated India and forced the UK to delay lifting its remaining coronavirus restrictions, is now on the rise in the US. What that means for you will depend on whether you are fully vaccinated and where you live.
Federal health officials keep pushing for more Americans to get vaccinated as the delta variant accounts for a bigger share of new cases in the United States.
A booming U.S. economy that is driving inflation higher around the world and pushing up the dollar is pressing some central banks to increase interest rates, despite still-high levels of Covid-19 infections and incomplete economic recoveries in their own countries.
The Centers for Disease Control have relaxed safety recommendations for vaccinated individuals with a lowering in the warning level just one week before the first cruise in 15 months will depart from a U.S. port.
The U.S. Embassy in Kabul says it is suffering from a major COVID-19 outbreak that has largely confined staff to their quarters and is disrupting many of its operations.
Thus far, 114 employees have tested positive for the coronavirus and are currently in isolation, one person has died and several people have been medically evacuated. The embassy has been placed on lockdown.
Dawson’s Creek writer Heidi Ferrer died by suicide last month following a 13-month-long battle with COVID-19. She was 50.
New York is planning 12 pop-up Covid-19 vaccine clinics in the coming days to target areas with low vaccination rates.
Several different reports have been released to this point regarding New York state’s response to COVID-19, specifically in nursing homes. This week, the New York State Bar Association added another.
The state Capitol building, the legislative office buildings and the Empire State Plaza complex will be reopened to the public on today, the governor’s office announced.
The lights at Corning Tower no longer spell out “NY TOUGH.”
The state Republican Party plans to informally vote for a “presumptive nominee” to run for governor under the party’s ticket, which could help avoid a costly primary race.
Right now, U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin is seen as the frontrunner in the race and has already been endorsed by a majority of the Republican county chairs, accounting for 67% of the weighted vote at the GOP convention.
Andrew Yang faced criticism over his debate-stage comments about people with mental illness as the New York City mayoral candidates sharpened their focus on public safety during the race’s final days.
During the final Democratic mayoral debate Wednesday night Yang advocated forcing the dangerously mentally ill off the streets, including through the use of Kendra’s Law that mandates treatment for bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.
Without the big crowds or theatrics seen in some rival campaigns, Kathryn Garcia has been able to steadily improve her standing in the race, leading the latest polls alongside Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams.
Tali Farhadian Weinstein, who, along with Alvin Bragg, appears to be leading the Democratic field in the Manhattan DAs race, was attacked over her finances and ads during the only in-person debate of the campaign.
Farhadian Weinstein is buying television and social-media advertising with millions of dollars of her own money, a spending spree in the final days before Tuesday’s primary that observers say is rare for a prosecutor election.
Left-wing activists and leaders in particular are making an energetic push around City Council races, hoping to elect candidates who will advance a progressive platform regardless of the outcome in the mayoral election.
At least 10 people were shot, three of them fatally, in New York City overnight, police said.
Officials have announced the renaming of 16 parks across New York City in honor of the Black American experience in the city.
Plans to build a $2.1 billion AirTrain at LaGuardia Airport in New York City have been delayed after opponents raised concerns about the environmental review process for the project.
Work on the $2.1 billion monorail was supposed to have already begun, according to the Port Authority’s project timeline. But a Federal Aviation Administration rep said the feds are not quite ready to give the green light.
A former top official within the New York court system was charged for allegedly using her position to pull off a lucrative Manhattan real estate deal that netted her husband’s law firm $50,000.
Dozens of city daycare operators say the timing is wrong in city’s efforts to expand free preschool.
Violence, menacing behavior and raucous late-night partying in Manhattan’s Washington Square Park this spring have neighbors and police questioning how to make it safe, while some park users have pushed back at early closures meant to promote calm.
State Attorney General Letitia James has ordered Albany Medical Center to pay over $90,000 in restitution to seven of its former nurses after an investigation found the hospital’s recruitment and hiring of foreign nurses violates federal human trafficking laws.
Jurors convicted Georgios Kakavelos of first-degree murder and all other charges for savagely bludgeoning 22-year-old Allyzibeth Lamont in his Johnstown deli and dumping her lifeless body in a shallow grave off a Northway exit in Malta.
An Albany police officer cleared of internal disciplinary charges after he kicked open a First Street apartment door and used pepper spray on people in 2019 cannot collect workers compensation benefits for work-related stress and post-traumatic stress disorder.
A week after the Cambridge Board of Education unanimously agreed to a compromise that would keep “the Indian” as its mascot, it voted 3-2 to retire it instead.
The Business Council of New York State will return its annual meeting to the Sagamore Resort on Lake George with events including a keynote speech by Jim Boeheim, the head coach of Syracuse University’s men’s basketball team.
A new bike trail is in the works in Ballston Spa with the boldest of ambitions: to create a sense of community in a place where some people identify more with their subdivision than the town.
HBO’s “The Gilded Age” wrapped up local filming Wednesday with the shooting of scenes at Oakwood Cemetery that are expected to appear in two different episodes when the series debuts in 2022.
In another sign of comeback, Saratoga Springs will host its first major road race in a year and a half. Organizers say the “Firecracker 4” will provide the spark everyone’s been waiting for.
The Boy Scouts of America are nearing a settlement with lawyers for sex-abuse victims that marks a major step for the youth group’s efforts to end the largest bankruptcy case ever filed over childhood abuse, people familiar with the matter said.
The Wall Street Journal is shutting down its New York City section and launching two new sections.
Big companies are hiring for remote positions that can be performed in any state across the U.S. except one: Colorado.
A long-lasting heat wave continued to bring triple-digit temperatures yesterday, raising concerns that such extreme weather could become the new normal in the Western U.S.
The California Independent System Operator (CAISO) is asking residents to conserve electricity amid a heat wave that is affecting much of the Western U.S.
A group of about 50 police officers who had served voluntarily on a specialized crowd control unit in Portland, Ore., have stepped down from the squad after a year of sometimes violent clashes with protesters, the city’s Police Department said.
A woman hiking alone on an Alaskan trail told her husband that she was being charged by bears. Against all odds, she was found alive, but injured.
