Good Wednesday morning.
Things are a little delayed and curtailed today…there was a down-and-back trip to NYC yesterday that did not end until after midnight. I am not as young as I used to be. These things take their toll.
Today is National Wear Pink Day, which does not, as some might think, have anything to do with breast cancer awareness, though the pink ribbons have come to be synonymous with that effort in modern times.
Surveys in both the United States and Europe found pink to be most commonly associated with femininity, sensitivity and tenderness. Back in the day, (like before the 1940s), however, pink was worn by boys in infancy and was considered a “stronger” color than blue.
In the1700s, the word “pink” was first used to describe the color pale red, derived from the class of flowers called “the pinks.”
Completely unrelated, it’s also Public Service Day, established by the UN to recognize the value and virtue of public service to the community; highlight the contribution of public service in the development process; recognize the work of public servants, and encourage young people to pursue careers in the public sector.
That all took on a heightened meaning over the past year, which saw so many public servants step up to protect us during the height of the coronavirus pandemic.
We’re in for another unseasonably cool day, with temperatures in the low 70s and sunny to partly cloudy skies.
In the headlines…
President Joe Biden suffered a significant setback as one of his top priorities, a set of reforms to protect voting rights and shore up American democracy, was defeated in Congress.
All 50 Democrats voted for the procedural measure, but it drew no GOP backing, leaving it short of the 60 votes needed to overcome a Republican filibuster.
Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas called a special session of the Texas Legislature that will begin on July 8, a move that revives Republicans’ effort to enact what are expected to be some of the most far-reaching voting restrictions in the country.
Biden ramped up his push to move his legislative agenda forward in private meetings Monday with two key Democratic lawmakers and yesterday on his infrastructure team heads to Capitol Hill for further talks.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Germany as the Biden administration presses ahead with a diplomatic charm offensive designed to woo back wary Western European allies after four years of turbulent relations under former President Donald Trump.
Biden voiced support for two professional athletes who announced recently that they’re part of the LGBTQ community, saying he’s “proud” of their decisions to publicly share their identities.
The Biden administration said it will give asylum-seeking migrants sent to Mexico by the Trump administration another chance to make their claims in the U.S.
Biden will deliver remarks at former Virginia Republican Sen. John Warner’s funeral today.
Attorney General Merrick Garland expressed hesitancy at launching a broad review of the Trump administration’s politicization of the Department of Justice (DOJ), citing separate investigations already underway and concerns of potential claims of bias.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is considering whether to form a House select committee to investigate the Jan. 6 riot after Republicans blocked legislation to create a bipartisan panel.
The White House acknowledged the U.S. would fall short Biden’s July Fourth Covid-19 vaccination goals, saying the country has more work to do to get younger Americans vaccinated.
Jeff Zients, Biden’s COVID-19 response coordinator, blamed not being on track to hit the July 4 target on the lagging vaccination rates among adults 18 to 26, saying the administration has “more work to do” with the demographic.
The U.S. government is stepping up efforts to get younger Americans vaccinated for COVID-19 as the White House acknowledges it will miss two key vaccination benchmarks and as concern grows about the spread of a new variant.
The highly transmissible Delta variant of the Covid-19 virus is spreading so rapidly in the U.S. that it could become the dominant strain in the next two to three weeks, researchers said, adding urgency to the nationwide vaccination drive.
White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said the highly contagious delta variant is the “greatest threat” to the nation’s attempt to eliminate Covid-19.
Multiple countries that eagerly inoculated their people with China’s COVID vaccines face devastating new case surges.
The U.S. Secret Service says 881 employees tested positive for Covid-19 between March 1, 2020 and March 9, 2021.
That list included 447 members of the Special Agent division, which is responsible for the safety of the president, vice president, presidential candidates and visiting foreign leaders.
Across the country, one by one, mass vaccination sites are shutting down, an acknowledgment of the harder road ahead: a highly targeted push, akin to get-out-the-vote efforts, to persuade the reluctant to get shots.
More than 150 employees at a Houston hospital system who refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine have been fired or resigned after a judge dismissed an employee lawsuit over the vaccine requirement.
U.S. airports are set to receive $8 billion in government grants to help them emerge from the coronavirus pandemic that decimated travel last year.
While the Canadian border will remain closed to most U.S. tourists until at least July 21, beginning July 5, eligible travelers can skip a previously mandatory two-week quarantine if they have a vaccine approved by the country’s health department.
Recovering stock markets, soaring house prices and other economic factors “completely detached” from the coronavirus pandemic jacked up the number of millionaires globally by 5.2 million people, a new report from Credit Suisse reveals.
Morgan Stanley told its staff that workers and clients who are not vaccinated against Covid-19 will be barred from returning to New York City and Westchester County offices with a large employee presence beginning July 12.
The latest statewide seven-day average positivity rate is 0.36% in New York – the 25th straight day of a record low. That rate has now declined for 78 consecutive days.
Mayoral candidate Eric Adams, an ex-police officer who has made public safety the centerpiece of his campaign, held a strong lead in New York City’s Democratic primary, but didn’t get enough votes to reach the threshold to be declared the winner of the race.
Adams had taken 30.9 percent of the vote in the first round with 88 percent of ballots tallied as of 11:23 p.m. ET. He led civil rights lawyer Maya Wiley with 21.7 percent and former New York City Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia with 20.5 percent.
Despite his pistol-packing pledge, the former NYPD captain was joined by a phalanx of off-duty cops yesterday who shadowed the mayoral front-runner as he greeted voters across the city.
Adams led in every borough except Manhattan, where Garcia held a commanding edge. But because Adams seemed unlikely to earn more than 50 percent of the vote, the contest will be decided under New York’s new ranked-choice voting system.
Andrew Yang dropped out of New York City’s mayoral race, as early results showed him in a distant fourth place in the Democratic primary.
“You all know I am a numbers guy,” he told a gathering of volunteers and supporters in Midtown Manhattan. “I’m someone who traffics in what’s happening by the numbers, and I’m not going to be the next mayor of New York City…I am conceding this race.”
No other Democrats in the race had conceded late yesterday. Incumbent Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, is term-limited.
Scott Stringer, addressing supporters at a results-watching party on the Upper West Side shortly after polls closed, appeared to acknowledge that his longstanding dream of becoming mayor had come up short, without explicitly conceding the race was over.
No matter the primary results, the mood at Dianne Morales’s election party was festive and celebratory: it also functioned as the candidate’s birthday party. (She turned 54 on Monday.)
Progressive Councilman Brad Lander held a significant first-choice vote lead over Speaker Corey Johnson in the race for city comptroller, according to late election results.
Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa cruised to a big victory as the Republican nominee for mayor, handily defeating rival Fernando Mateo following a feisty and entertaining primary fight, according to Board of Election returns released last night.
Alvin Bragg appeared poised to pull away from the pack in a tight and crowded race for Manhattan district attorney.
With more than 80% of precincts reporting, Bragg had 34% of the vote to Tali Farhadian Weinstein’s 30%. Civil-rights attorney Tahanie Aboushi was in a distant third with 11%, while the other five candidates pulled in single digits.
When de Blasio leaves office, more than half the members of the City Council will follow him out the door, leaving a city still finding its footing after the pandemic in the untested hands of a new mayor and a legislative body packed with newcomers.
The internet is freaking and geeking out over a clip showing a masked person flying above Times Square on a hoverboard as stunned revelers look above in shock.
The New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission blocked electric-mobility company Revel’s bid to launch a ride-hailing service in Manhattan, citing concerns about traffic congestion and the potential economic hit to the beleaguered for-hire vehicle sector.
Tobacco company Philip Morris International Inc. said it would move its headquarters to Connecticut from New York City by next summer, marking a win for a state that lost some major corporate offices in recent years.
A state judge tossed the city’s controversial “diaphragm law,” which would make it a crime for police to restrain a suspect by restricting their breathing.
The Justice Department is deploying anti-gun trafficking strike forces to New York and four other major American cities this summer to crack down on a disturbing surge in shootings, Garland announced.
Whistleblower cops’ allegations of race-based arrest quotas will likely be investigated by the city’s NYPD watchdog — if the cops prevail in their federal court claims that failing to meet the quota derailed their careers.
NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea lamented the slow return of jury trials, citing a Daily News story detailing the lack of a single murder trial verdict in Brooklyn since 2019.
The American Museum of Natural History’s sculpture of President Teddy Roosevelt, flanked by a Native American man and an African man, will be sent to an institution dedicated to his life.
Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan declared victory in the contest for the Democratic spot in the general election this fall, defeating the Rev. Valerie Faust in an extremely low-turnout primary.
With all of the City of Schenectady’s electoral districts reporting, challenger Damonni Farley appears to have derailed incumbent city Councilwoman Karen Zalewski-Wildzunas in her bid for re-election.
Schenectady is relatively tranquil by day, but by nightfall speed demons navigate garbage-strewn streets as illegal fireworks explode overhead.
A truck hauling a trailer hit something yesterday under the Empire State Plaza, causing a fluid leak that dripped all the way to the Port of Rensselaer and left the highway to the Dunn Memorial Bridge so slick it caused two car crashes, State Police said.
GlobalFoundries is moving forward with a new computer chip factory – only it’s not being built in Saratoga County as some might expect. Instead, the company said they would spend $4 billion on a new factory, or “fab” in Singapore.
Town Board member Rosemarie Perez Jaquith, who was elected to a four-year term in November 2019, said she will be resigning effective July 1, as she and her husband are moving to the Washington, D.C. area.
The SUNY Research Foundation is appealing a state Supreme Court ruling last month that allowed a 2020 lawsuit filed against it by Alain Kaloyeros, the former head of SUNY Polytechnic Institute, to move forward.
Racing fans will be able to buy single-day tickets for the 2021 Saratoga racing meet, starting today.
Political newcomer and unabashed socialist India Walton is on the verge of defeating Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown in a Democratic primary. It would be a stunning loss for one of the most prominent figures in New York’s Democratic establishment.
Walton, a former nurse and community activist, was leading Brown, a longtime member of the Democratic establishment, by 7 percentage points, or about 1,500 votes, as of midnight with all of the in-person ballots counted.
Walton, 38, is on track to become the first female mayor in Buffalo history.
Rochester City Councilmember Malik Evans has defeated incumbent Mayor Lovely Warren in the Democratic primary election.
“Today we may have not won the race, but this is not over yet,” Warren said in a speech. “My journey isn’t over yet. The best is yet to come. So I thank you all for your support. I want to thank the Lovely team because you all stood there 100%.”
Steven Holden, a Democrat, is running for Congress in 2022. He is aiming to unseat Republican U.S. Rep. John Katko, who is in his fourth term representing Cayuga, Onondaga and Wayne counties, plus the western part of Oswego County.
Erie county says there’s no agreement on the table to build a new Buffalo Bills stadium.
Pay for factory jobs has grown so slowly in the U.S. that manufacturers are having trouble competing with fast-food restaurants.
After years of failed attempts, Connecticut legalized recreational marijuana, laying the groundwork to direct cannabis revenue into communities of color that have long been targeted by policies criminalizing the drug.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first new Alzheimer’s drug in decades over the objection of agency statisticians who said there was insufficient evidence to support approval, according to newly released internal memos.
U.S. home prices in May experienced their biggest annual increase in more than two decades, as a shortage of properties and low borrowing rates fueled demand.
A wrongful-death lawsuit in the case of of the helicopter crash that killed NBA superstar Kobe Bryant and eight others in January 2020 has been settled by his wife Vanessa Bryant and the family members of the other victims.
Employees at an Atlanta IKEA store were outraged after management arranged a Juneteenth menu that they deemed racially insensitive.
A New York Times analysis found no identifiable tuna DNA in Subway’s tuna sandwich, the newspaper reported over the weekend, citing tests conducted by a commercial lab.
