Good Thursday morning. Happy World Bicycle Day!
Says the UN:
World Bicycle Day draws attention to the benefits of using the bicycle — a simple, affordable, clean and environmentally sustainable means of transportation. The bicycle contributes to cleaner air and less congestion and makes education, health care and other social services more accessible to the most vulnerable populations. A sustainable transport system promotes economic growth and reduces inequalities while bolstering the fight against climate change.
Hard to argue with any of that.
This is the fourth annual World Bicycle Day, and perhaps it has taken on new significant thanks to the rise in popularity of cycling over the past year when so many people dusted off their two-wheels and hit the road in the absence of other pastimes due to the pandemic-induced lockdown.
The problem, reportedly, was a combination of high demand and low availability due to pandemic-related disruptions in the supply chain. Some factories and raw material producers had to shut down due to COVID outbreaks and/or lockdowns of all but essential businesses.
The pandemic has been a mixed blessing for anyone in the business of selling or fixing bikes. But the shortage has persisted, and it doesn’t look like it’s going away any time soon….and the situation is clear right here in New York, too.
If are lucky enough to have a bike and want to mark this day by taking it out for a spin, you might want to do so on the earlier side. The weather forecast is calling for thunderstorms in the afternoon. It will be cloudy in the morning, and temperatures will again be in the mid-70s.
In the headlines…
President Joe Biden emphasized freedom as he launched a major push toward his goal of having 70% of American adults at least partially vaccinated against COVID-19 by July 4.
Biden announced an offer of free child care for parents and caregivers while they receive their shots and a national canvassing effort resembling a get-out-the-vote drive.
There have already been more COVID-19 deaths worldwide this year than in all of 2020, a USA TODAY analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows.
The Biden administration is joining the Black Coalition Against COVID, the University of Maryland Center for Health Equity and SheaMoisture to engage 1,000 Black-owned barbershops and beauty salons to support local vaccine education and outreach efforts.
GOP lawmakers lashed out at White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci after a bevy of his emails from the early days of the coronavirus pandemic were made public.
The emails show that he was inundated with correspondence from colleagues, hospital administrators, foreign governments and random strangers — about 1,000 messages a day, he says at one point — writing to seek his advice, solicit his help or simply offer encouragement.
Fauci also corresponded on multiple occasions with George Gao, a top infectious disease official in China.
The email prove that Fauci knew the Wuhan Institute of Virology was carrying out dangerous gain of function research, Kentucky GOP Sen. Rand Paul charged.
Around 10,000 volunteers have quit the upcoming Tokyo Olympics over COVID-19 concerns as the ongoing pandemic, and the Japanese public’s aversion, continue to throw the Summer Games into disarray.
West Virginia’s governor announced plans to give away firearms as a reward for residents who have received a COVID-19 vaccine — part of a Father’s Day lottery that also includes trucks, scholarships and $1 million in prizes.
As nations like the United States prepare for a summer of hugs, gatherings and other activities safe for the vaccinated, nations still scrambling for shots are seeing some of their worst outbreaks.
The European Union, Canada and other developed countries have signed deals to get hundreds of millions of doses of Covid-19 vaccines and boosters over the next two years, furthering a divide between rich and poor countries.
AstraZeneca is reportedly in talks to shift production of its coronavirus vaccine to a Maryland-based factory operated by Catalent, Inc.
The U.S. economic recovery is unlike any in recent history, powered by consumers with trillions in extra savings, businesses eager to hire and enormous policy support.
Biden congratulated Israel’s new president on his election amid the potential ouster of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Netanyahu’s rivals agreed to form a coalition government that would dislodge the country’s longest-serving leader, a major political shake-up as the nation seeks to protect a fragile truce with the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Once the epicenter of the pandemic, New York recorded the lowest COVID-19 positivity rate in the country this week as Gov. Andrew Cuomo hopes to entice tourists to return to the Empire State, publicly touting its new low infection rate.
As New York City municipal offices reopen, one department remains stubbornly closed: the marriage bureau. That is because there is a lot of kissing and hugging, and no way to do that in a Covid-safe way.
A recently filed lawsuit – one of the first of its kind in New York — will provide an important legal test of the controversial immunity provision pushed through by Cuomo to protect nursing homes, hospitals and other health care facilities during the pandemic.
New York officials are talking to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about its guidance on mask wearing at schools.
Taxpayers are being forced to shell out more than $900 an hour for Cuomo’s lead defense lawyer, to help him try and fend off multiple charges of and investigations into a myriad of misconduct.
“The executive chamber has retained counsel, and that is a state expense,” Cuomo said. “It has been in every investigation, so that’s where we are now.”
Cuomo’s office hired the firm, Morvillo Abramowitz Grand Iason & Anello PC, after receiving a Feb. 15 subpoena from prosecutors in the U.S. attorney’s office in the Eastern District of New York.
Cuomo will host a fund-raiser for the first time since overlapping scandals engulfed his administration and prompted calls for his resignation — the latest indication that he is gearing up to run for re-election.
Republican NYC mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa is calling for a state probe of scandal-scarred Cuomo’s high-dollar June 29 re-election fundraiser.
CNN is coming under internal and external criticism over its approach to conflicts of interest for journalists after host Chris Cuomo escaped disciplinary action despite advising his brother, Gov. Cuomo, on how to handle sexual misconduct allegations.
The state Senate, buoyed by its Democratic majority, passed a host of gun reforms that lawmakers said are intended to curb rising gun violence and bring justice for those who are the victims of gunfire, particularly from illicit firearms.
With the legislative session nearing an end, six government leadership-appointed nominees to key cannabis regulatory roles have yet to be announced or confirmed by the Senate, though the governor’s office said the nomination review process is underway.
The Upstate New York Poison Center says more children are swallowing marijuana products.
Assemblyman Danny O’Donnell wants to enable the release of grand jury minutes detailing the charging information that prosecutors present to the panels when they meet behind closed doors and decide if there is enough evidence to indict someone.
Democrats vying to become the next New York City mayor duked it out on stage last night during a chaotic, often rambling second debate that saw frontrunners Eric Adams and Andrew Yang drawing the most fire.
When candidates were invited to ask one another questions, Adams and Yang — widely seen as frontrunners for the June 22 primary — exchanged deeply personal criticisms.
Maya Wiley, a former counsel to Mayor Bill de Blasio who has campaigned on a progressive platform, also rebuked Adams for saying he would carry a gun as mayor and for encouraging others to legally arm themselves.
Every single one of the eight Democrats running for mayor vowed to protect illegal immigrants from deportation, solidifying the Big Apple’s often infamous status as a “sanctuary city.”
The eight Democratic contenders jousted over the economy, education and the fundamental question of who among them was qualified to run New York City.
The first major clash of the debate came early, after the candidates were asked to discuss their views on how to combat an increase in violent crime and the police budget.
Yang was the only mayoral hopeful who said he wants endorsements from de Blasio and Cuomo during the race’s first in-person debate.
In evaluating the tenure of de Blasio using a school grading system, some candidates doled out searing criticism of his eight years in office, while others offered praise for some of the mayor’s efforts.
Trash piled up on city streets and sidewalks because mayoral hopeful and former Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia’s department used a decades-old monitoring system and had poor internal communication, according to a damning state audit.
Mayoral wannabes hit rival Garcia for presiding over a two-tier system as Sanitation commissioner that paid women and minorities less than white male counterparts, with a leading candidate calling the situation “alarming.”
Speaking at a rally ahead of the debate, Adams told critics of his record on stop-and-frisk policing to “shut up.”
The candidates banded together to denounce the recent rash of anti-Asian attacks in the city — with Yang calling Monday’s sucker-punch assault in Chinatown “completely foreseeable.”
Dianne Morales’ “beautiful mess” of a mayoral bid got even messier as her recently resigned senior adviser announced she has been hired by Wiley’s rivaling campaign.
Two of the leading candidates in the Democratic primary field for Manhattan DA, Alvin Bragg and Tali Farhadian Weinstein, have had past contacts with Trump’s administration — dealings that could become an issue if one of them becomes district attorney.
New York’s subway system was targeted by hackers with links to the Chinese government in April, according to an MTA document.
The hackers did not gain access to systems that control train cars and rider safety was not at risk, transit officials said, adding that the intrusion appeared to have done little, if any, damage.
The NYPD didn’t have a plan to fill the void left by disbanding the controversial anti-crime unit tasked with firearm busts — a policing shift the former chief of department admitted was “probably a mistake.”
Controversial City Council candidate Harold “Heshy” Tischler says he was attacked by two men outside his Brooklyn home yesterday afternoon.
Federal regulators have cited the Shubert Organization for four serious workplace safety violations and proposed a fine of $45,642 in connection with the death of an employee who fell from a ladder while working at the Winter Garden Theater last fall.
The New York Mets will increase their seating to 90 percent capacity for vaccinated fans beginning June 11, adding to a series of recent reopening measures as the spread of COVID-19 declines, Cuomo announced.
A high-speed passenger rail proposal that would shave more than two hours off train trips between New York and Boston got a boost from Congress members from northeastern states.
Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan has hired former County DA candidate Matthew Toporowski as senior assistant corporation counsel focused on police accountability.
An ex-Amsterdam police officer who is Black alleges in a federal lawsuit that he endured years of hostility and a racist work environment working alongside white colleagues who referred to him as “hot chocolate,” and displayed white supremacist and neo-Nazi symbols.
A priest overseeing two congregations in Montgomery County has been placed on leave after appearing on a list of clergy offenders.
A veteran Troy detective sergeant accidentally shot himself in the leg during a training exercise at the department’s firing range near the Tomhannock Reservoir, the city police department said.
Niskayuna Councilwoman Denise Murphy McGraw apologized for voting last month for a resolution for the town to hire summer recreation employees when she should have recused herself because her college-age daughter was among the group of staffers.
Tesla has seven months to recover from the setback the Covid-19 pandemic – and the slow development of its solar roof – delivered to its taxpayer-funded South Buffalo factory.
A Dallas high school valedictorian is going viral after she marked the end of her secondary education with a secondary, unapproved speech blasting Texas’ recently passed abortion ban.
Activist investors who dealt a stunning defeat to Exxon Mobil last week secured a third seat on the company’s board when the oil giant announced updated results of a shareholder vote.
Derek Chauvin is asking for a sentence of only probation and time served when he goes back before a judge later this month to hear his punishment for the second-degree murder of Black man George Floyd.
Biden may be forced to hold a new lease sale for oil drilling in the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, despite his vows to slash fossil fuel pollution and effort to suspend Arctic drilling leases that had been awarded in the final days of the Trump administration.
The Trump Justice Department secretly seized the phone records of four New York Times reporters spanning nearly four months in 2017 as part of a leak investigation, the Biden administration disclosed.
Officials seized records from Jan. 14 to April 30, 2017, from reporters Matt Apuzzo, Adam Goldman, Eric Lichtblau and Michael S. Schmidt. The DOJ also got a court order to seize logs of their emails, but “no records were obtained.”
Former President Trump’s blog – a webpage where he shared statements after larger social media companies banned him from their platforms — has been permanently shut down, his spokesman said.
Amazon said it would hold its Prime Day on June 21 and 22 in the U.S. and other countries, returning the annual sales event to midyear after the pandemic altered its timing last year.
