Good morning, it’s Monday, and let’s just get this out of the way: It’s going to rain.
Deal with it.
No seriously, you can deal with it. Because we’re only in for showers in the morning (if you’re living in the Albany area…I can’t vouch for elsewhere in the state or nation or even world…do we have global readers?)
Anyway, if you can make it to the afternoon, you’ll be rewarded with “some sunshine,” the forecast says. Temperatures will be in the high 70s.
After the weather we’ve been having lately? I’ll take it.
This evening is also the beginning of Eid al-Adha, also known as the “Festival of Sacrifice” – one of the most important celebrations in the Muslim calendar. (BTW: Islam uses the lunar calendar, so the date for Eid changes every year depending on the sighting of the new moon, which signals the start of the month).
The holiday occurs upon the completion of Hajj and will last through Friday, July 23. It is marked by offering a sacrificial animal (typically a goat or sheep, but also sometimes a camel, apparently) to honor the willingness of the Prophet Ibrahim – known in the Old Testament as Abraham – to sacrifice his son to God.
The purpose is to remind Muslims to place their relationship with God before worldly concerns, though buying something new for oneself, or as gifts for others, is also traditional, as is giving money to the poor and charities.
On the morning of Eid, Muslims will typically decorate their homes, wear their best clothes and head to a mosque for Eid prayers. The Holy Pilgrimage of Hajj in Makkah, Saudi Arabia is visited by millions of Muslims each year to celebrate Eid al-Adha.
Most of the foods that are traditionally consumed for Eid are, not surprisingly, meat-based stews, roasts and barbecues, including fattah, which features a bed of white rice topped with pieces of lamb and toasted pita chips, and a garlic and tomato sauce. This dish can also be made with chicken with a sauce of yogurt or tahini.
Here in the U.S., on a far less serious note, it’s National Daiquiri Day, in case you’re looking for a reason to celebrate. It’s definitely 5 o’clock somewhere. This popular fruity drink has its roots in Cuba.
I hope you took advantage of some of the deals available yesterday to mark National Ice Cream Day. (Looks like the president enjoyed celebrating).
Since we’ve already been through the whole weather thing, let’s jump right into the news.
In the headlines…
Lawmakers have dropped plans to help fund a roughly $1 trillion infrastructure package by boosting tax-collecting enforcement at the IRS, adding new difficulties to funding the bipartisan measure ahead of a looming deadline for agreement.
Congressional Democrats are exploring ways to include financial incentives for states to expand voting access as part of a multitrillion-dollar infrastructure bill, a key senator said.
One of President Biden’s stalled infrastructure packages is showing signs of life, now that a proposed crackdown on tax dodgers has been removed, a leading Republican negotiator said.
Facebook and the Biden administration engaged in an increasingly rancorous back and forth over the weekend after the administration denounced the social media giant for spreading misinformation about the Covid-19 vaccines.
Facebook refuted remarks made by Biden that social media platforms are “killing people” by allowing coronavirus vaccine misinformation on their services and argued that vaccine acceptance among its users has actually risen in the U.S.
Biden’s attack on Facebook followed months of mounting private frustration inside his administration over the social-media giant’s handling of vaccine misinformation, bringing into public view tensions that could complicate efforts to stop the spread of Covid-19.
Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz accused the Biden administration of being “in bed with Big Tech,” arguing that comments made by the White House press secretary strengthened former President Trump’s lawsuit accusing Facebook and Twitter of censorship.
Former President Trump claimed that one of the reasons some people are unwilling to take the COVID-19 vaccine is because they “don’t trust the Election results” from November 2020.
Approximately 65 percent of misinformation about the vaccine that’s spread on social media can be traced back to 12 people, says the Center for Countering Digital Hate in a recent report.
Hot spots have mushroomed across the world in 2021, adding multiple international crises to Biden’s formidable domestic to-do list.
Biden is set to host King Abdullah II of Jordan during one of the most difficult moments of the Jordanian leader’s 22-year rule and at a pivotal time in the Middle East for Biden.
A New Jersey lawmaker wants Twitter to apologize after the social media giant suspended his account for a Tweet questioning whether governments should force residents to be vaccinated.
A new requirement that masks be worn indoors in Los Angeles County went into effect at midnight on Saturday, as officials try to blunt a sharp spike in new coronavirus cases.
Two lawsuits filed in D.C. federal court this month challenged a city law passed last year that allows minors to be vaccinated without their parents’ knowledge, saying the legislation violates religious liberty.
Indonesia has become the new epicenter of the pandemic, surpassing India and Brazil to become the country with the world’s highest count of new infections.
Three fully vaccinated members of the Texas House delegation in Washington, D.C., tested positive for Covid-19, the state’s House Democratic Caucus said.
Two more Texas Democrats have tested positive for coronavirus during their trip to Washington, D.C., just one day after three of their colleagues learned they had contracted the virus as well.
Vice President Kamala Harris doesn’t need to quarantine after meeting with Texas lawmakers who later tested positive for coronavirus, according to a spokesperson for the veep.
Harris went to Walter Reed Medical Center for a “routine doctor’s appointment” yesterday.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain and his top finance official, Rishi Sunak, went into self isolation yesterday – hours after Downing Street said they would avoid a quarantine – after contact with a cabinet minister who tested positive for the coronavirus.
The vast majority of patients driving up Covid-19 hospitalizations in parts of the U.S. are unvaccinated, according to hospitals, some of which are reactivating surge plans used in the peak of the pandemic.
Israeli officials are warning that the Pfizer vaccine is “significantly less” effective against the Delta variant of the coronavirus, the strain first seen in India that now accounts for 31 percent of cases in the U.S.
Twenty percent of Americans believe in the conspiracy theory that microchips may have been planted inside COVID-19 vaccines that millions of people have already taken worldwide, according to a study by YouGov and The Economist.
China and Australia have found another battleground for their deepening diplomatic standoff: the Pacific Islands’ pandemic response.
The second dose of a COVID-19 vaccine induces a powerful boost to a part of the immune system that provides broad antiviral protection, according to a study led by investigators at the Stanford University School of Medicine.
Smallpox and polio would still be spreading in the U.S. if “false information” about vaccines was as rampant then as it is now, Dr. Anthony Fauci has claimed.
Fauci reiterated his belief that the natural origins theory of the novel coronavirus is still the most likely.
A new study suggests that exposure to wildfire smoke is linked to an increased risk of contracting COVID.
Personal recommendations from doctors may not help revitalize the United States’ stalling COVID-19 vaccination drive, a new CBS News/YouGov poll found.
More counties across the nation may follow Los Angeles’ lead and impose indoor mask mandates as they battle new COVID-19 surges caused by highly contagious Delta variant, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy said.
Canada’s vaccination rate is now higher than the United States rate, as the country has overcome months of production and shipping delays that had left it lagging behind its southern neighbor.
The long-feared possibility that the Covid-19 pandemic could disrupt the Tokyo Olympics is rapidly emerging as a reality, as Games organizers scramble to deal with a rising load of athletes and officials who are testing positive upon arrival in Japan.
Coco Gauff will not make her Olympic debut after all. The young tennis star revealed that she tested positive for the coronavirus and will not play in the Tokyo Games.
With less than a week before the opening ceremonies begin at this year’s Tokyo games, at least two players on the South African soccer team have tested positive for COVID-19 inside the Olympic Village.
Olympic Games contender Jakob Fuglsang believes that his Tour de France was affected by his second COVID-19 vaccine and that he felt ‘limited’ during the three-week Grand Tour as a result of the inoculation.
Two NFL teams remain under 50% vaccinated less than two weeks from the start of training camp, a person familiar with the vaccination rates told The Associated Press.
Chancellor Angela Merkel met yesterday with survivors and thanked volunteers as she made her way through a village wrecked by the massive floods that have killed at least 183 people in Germany and Belgium, calling the level of destruction “surreal and eerie.”
A federal judge in Texas on Friday ruled unlawful a program that has shielded hundreds of thousands of undocumented young adults from deportation, throwing into question yet again the fate of immigrants known as Dreamers.
In his 77-page opinion, district court Judge Andrew Hanen concluded the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, violates the Administrative Procedure Act by evading the normal “notice and comment” process in adopting new rules.
Biden said he was “deeply” disappointed with a federal judge’s decision to strike down DACA and said the Department of Justice would appeal the decision.
Biden also said: “It is my fervent hope that through reconciliation or other means, Congress will finally provide security to all Dreamers, who have lived too long in fear” by granting them a permanent pathway to citizenship.
A pandemic passport backlog is causing New Yorkers to cancel honeymoons, skip vacations, miss family celebrations and nix business trips, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said.
The U.S. economy’s 2021 growth surge likely peaked in the spring, according to economists who expect to see a slower but still-strong expansion into next year.
Dozens of school districts and states are spending big chunks of their historic federal stimulus cash on one-time bonuses to teachers and staff, over the objections of some parents and others who claim such payments violate the intent of the funding.
New York state’s COVID numbers crept higher over the weekend, according to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office, as the highly infectious delta variant of the virus sparked surges around the country.
The state’s coronavirus positivity rate continued to rise, as the number of New Yorkers newly diagnosed with COVID-19 passed 1,000 for the first time since May, state data released Saturday shows.
Mark Levine, chairman of the City Council’s Health Committee, is claiming that masks should be required again indoors in the Big Apple even for the fully vaccinated, given the alarming recent rise in COVID-19 cases.
Fed-up New York City parents are demanding no masks in the classroom when school reopens in September.
Nearly a third of staffers at Big Apple hospitals are still unvaccinated — more than nine months into the campaign to inoculate medical workers and all New Yorkers against the killer bug, state data reveals.
Cuomo was interrogated by investigators on Saturday related to the more than half dozen accusations of sexual harassment that have been levied against him.
Cuomo spent nearly 13 hours in Manhattan Saturday as he was slated to face probers investigating sexual harassment claims by his female aides.
Cuomo used campaign funds to pay the attorney representing him in his sexual harassment case despite previously stating that he would use state financing to pay for his legal fees.
The TU editorial board: “It’s no wonder that most New Yorkers say (Cuomo) shouldn’t run again, and why we continue to call on him to resign. He squandered the public’s trust, and time will not restore it.”
A series of edits to state voting law were signed into law by Cuomo over the weekend.
Virtual weddings, one of the more endearing traditions to emerge during last year’s pandemic-related lockdowns, are no longer legal in New York now that Cuomo has lifted his April executive order.
While the Me Too movement led to greater awareness about the prevalence of rape, prosecutors in New York City still struggle to prove sexual assault accusations.
In a NY Daily News op-ed, Democratic NYC mayoral nominee Eric Adams wrote: “As our city and country begin the long, rocky road of recovery from COVID, we still must avoid the pitfalls of another deadly public health crisis: gun violence.”
GOP state Sen. Andrew Lanza wants an investigation of the arrest of Staten Island activist John Tabacco, charged with criminal trespass after refusing to wear a face mask during a ballot-counting session at the Board of Elections’ borough headquarters.
GOP mayoral nominee Curtis Sliwa announced he’s adding $5,000 to the $1,000 reward a local patrol group offered for information that leads to cops catching the duo who beat a Jewish man in Brooklyn and robbed him of his religiously required prayer property.
The New York State Hate Crimes Task Force will assist in an investigation into a violent antisemitic attack on a Brooklyn man as he walked to a synagogue.
Young doctors from around the world come to New York City’s busy hospitals to learn how to save lives, but in one hospital in the South Bronx, at least two resident physicians have committed suicide – allegedly over abuse they endured from supervisors.
New York City’s worst-in-the-nation gridlock is creeping to pre-pandemic levels just as businesses seek to lure people back to the office — igniting new calls for much-delayed congestion pricing.
The MTA is required to talk with New Jersey and Connecticut officials before launching its congestion pricing program to toll motorists driving south of 61st St. in Manhattan — but top transit officials haven’t even met their Garden State counterparts.
The arts — Broadway, nightclubs, museums, concert halls — are coming back to life after the shutdown. Getting it right will be vital to the city’s comeback.
Subway ridership increased in June while crime dropped in the system, according to new data released ahead of this week’s MTA board and committing meetings.
Poor management by city government deprived programs for New York schoolchildren hundreds of millions of dollars in federal aid, an audit by city Comptroller Scott Stringer found.
A classic Cold War aircraft, after a decades-long absence, is about to touch down at its old home: the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum.
Triple shifts amid a growing jail population contribute to “inhumane conditions” faced by NYC Department of Correction employees, the union that represents correction officers alleged in a lawsuit.
Barstool Sports has now given nearly $40 million to almost 400 businesses across the country, after founder Dave Portnoy launched the financial support for small business owners in December.
Ghislaine Maxwell, a disgraced socialite accused of serving as Jeffrey Epstein’s madam, is one of the worst income tax scofflaws in New York state — owing $1,520,558.84, according to a warrant filed by the Tax Department.
Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren and her husband Timothy Granison have both been charged with criminal possession of a firearm, two counts of endangering the welfare of a child and two counts of failure to secure firearms.
SUNY Chancellor Jim Malatras spoke about how SUNY schools are preparing for students to come back on campus this fall and what steps they’re taking to get back to a normal routine.
The Albany County Legislature’s Rules Reform and Return to Chambers Task Force drafted a letter asking the New York State Legislature to amend the state’s Open Meetings Law to allow remote meetings to continue.
The Bolton Landing Brewing Company is so desperate in its search for workers amid New York’s attempted pandemic recovery that it has created a new beer called “Help Wanted” — with a job posting on the can.
Three new officers have joined the ranks of the Schenectady police and were the first to be vetted by a community panel designed to weed out problem cops.
Facing a spend it or lose it deadline on state grants for developing the 1 Monument Square site, Troy will hire The Chazen Companies as construction manager to oversee the $2.8 million in utilities work required for the estimated $30 million project.
A new state law will allow the Town of Guilderland to establish conservation easements.
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is investigating a series of recent fox attacks in Saratoga Springs.
Wildlife experts are watching an outbreak of a mysterious illness that is causing some songbirds in various U.S. states to go blind, have apparent seizures and die.
Americans could soon be using a $20 bill featuring Harriet Tubman if Republican Central New York Rep. John Katko gets his way.
Home-delivered marijuana has arrived in Massachusetts.
Three people were shot outside of Saturday night’s Nationals game causing players to run off the field and fans toward the exits.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki threw out the first pitch at Nationals Park yesterday – one day after a shooting outside the stadium halted the game in the sixth inning.
Sports venues across the Big Apple reportedly have game plans in place to deal with emergencies such as the Saturday night shooting that hurled a Nationals Park baseball game into chaos.
Fresh out of the hospital after having part of his colon removed, 84-year-old Pope Francis urged people to unplug from their busy modern lifestyle and take a break, as God intended.
The Buffalo Newspaper Guild is putting up a fight against the owners of The Buffalo News. They’ve put up a billboard in downtown Buffalo, calling out Lee Enterprises and mounted a byline strike.
RIP Harry Rosenfeld.
