Good Thursday morning.
I made the mistake of checking the calendar today and found out there are only 41 days left until fall.
I saw some pumpkin spice granola displayed at the grocery store the other day and thought: I am not ready. But apparently Dunkin’ is, because they’re going to debut their fall menu on Aug. 18. (WHAT?!) At least they’re including a pumpkin cream cold brew in the line-up.
Starbucks hasn’t officially released its fall menu start date yet, but there’s reportedly something new brewing along with all the traditional pumpkin favorites: Apple Crisp Macchiato, which is supposedly similar to a Caramel Macchiato but with the addition of an all-new apple brown sugar syrup and a spiced apple drizzle.
Personally, I prefer my coffee black, unless it’s crummy coffee, in which case almond milk and disgusting fake sugar, please. Also, I’ve recently started to have a hankering for iced skim matcha lattes. How basic am I?
Today is the 10th anniversary World Elephant Day, which was launched to bring attention to the urgent plight of Asian and African elephants.
According to the office World Elephant Day website, escalation of poaching, habitat loss, human-elephant conflict and mistreatment in captivity are threatening these massive creatures. The organization urges us “to experience elephants in non-exploitive and sustainable environments where elephants can thrive under care and protection.”
The Asian elephant is endangered with less than 40,000 remaining worldwide. The African elephant (Forest and Savannah) is threatened with less than 400,000 remaining worldwide.
Asian elephants range in 13 countries. In the past 50 years, the Asian elephant range has shrunk by more than 70 percent. In Asia there are approximately 70,000 people to 1 elephant across their range.
There were over 100,000 elephants in Thailand at the beginning of last century. There are less than 4,000 today.
Man, this is depressing. BUT, if you’re interested in learning more about elephants, hop on over to the Rosamond Gifford Zoo social media sites for fun elephant facts and photos tomorrow. Better yet, if you happen to be in the Syracuse area, maybe pay the elephants a personal visit.
They will most likely be trying to cool off, because it’s going to be HOT tomorrow. In fact, there’s an excessive heat warning in place from 10 a.m. through 8 p.m. Heat index values of more than 100 are expected. You know the drill: Fluids, light colored and loose clothing, stay indoors if at all possible, etc. and so forth.
It will be in the low 90s with some clouds and the possibility of an isolated thunderstorm.
In the headlines…
Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul distanced herself from outgoing Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who resigned in disgrace a day earlier with impeachment looming following the release of a report that found he sexually harassed 11 women.
“I think it’s very clear that the governor and I have not been close, physically or otherwise, in terms of much time,” Hochul told reporters at her first news conference.
Hochul, a Buffalo native who is poised to become the state’s first female governor, insisted that she had not been previously aware of the allegations in state Attorney General Tish James’s damning investigation and vowed to clean house in the executive chamber.
“I’m going to stand right here at the end of my term, whenever it ends, no one will ever describe my administration as a toxic work environment,” Hochul said, pledging to purge anyone “named as doing anything unethical in the report” from her administration.
“I’ll build out my senior staff, and I’ll do what I’ve always done; I will travel the state to meet New Yorkers, to listen to them, to assure them that I’ve got their backs,” Hochul said.
“How many shitty men does it take to get a woman as governor in New York, and why do state troopers always seem to be involved?”
Hochul has a very conservative past (comparatively speaking, for New York).
Hochul’s husband, former former federal prosecutor William Hochul, will remain a top executive with Delaware North, a Buffalo-based concessions and gambling giant, after she becomes governor, despite the possible conflict of interest between the two roles.
Hochul will be able to choose who leads the State Gaming Commission, which regulates sales and acquisitions of betting facilities. She’ll also control the Thruway Authority and the Office of Parks and Recreation, with which Delaware North has big contracts.
Hochul’s team asserted that there is “already a recusal process in place” to keep away any conflicts of interest. But it is unclear how that process works.
Hochul told reporters she expects to name a lieutenant governor possibly by the time she’s sworn in.
The 14-day waiting period was “not what I asked for,” Hochul said, though she added that Cuomo had promised her the transition would be a smooth one.
Former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said he was surprised Cuomo intends to wait two weeks to resign and hopes there is nothing “nefarious” in the works.
Richard Ravitch, a former LG, said he anticipated that Hochul would offer a significant break from Cuomo’s often-truculent style, and that whether she succeeds in moving the state forward would be a vital factor in shaping the landscape of the 2022 race.
Before Hochul was repulsed by the outgoing Cuomo’s treatment of female staffers, she helped prop him up as a leading protector of women in the workplace.
Cuomo’s fall from grace will come with a nice golden parachute in the form of a $50,000-per-year lifetime pension that he will remain eligible for despite his resignation — provoking outrage from the disgraced executive’s critics.
In a state still just teetering toward normalcy, women met the news of Cuomo’s resignation with sometimes warring impulses.
Cuomo should stay away from the Hamptons social scene, a society columnist tells Fox News.
The State Police investigator who said Cuomo sexually harassed her had moved up in the ranks of his protective detail quickly, securing a position as the governor’s driver in a much shorter timeframe than is normal.
No matter what lawmakers want, proceeding with impeachment proceedings against Cuomo might not be possible anymore – legally or financially.
Cuomo’s resignation speech was a last-ditch attempt to preserve and cement his legacy as one filled with early and significant achievements.
Harry Siegel: “After a decade dominating the stage and insisting on himself as the indispensable man, it’s hard to imagine the state without Cuomo front and center – and clearly he feels the same way.”
Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani says Cuomo will “resurrect himself in some way” because he’s “smarter and more talented” than other disgraced pols.
In an afternoon email blast, the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America said that “with Cuomo gone, we have removed the biggest roadblocks to our socialist platform.”
Leading figures connected to the #MeToo movement believe it reached a significant milestone with Cuomo’s resignation.
In what may have been one of Cuomo’s last bill signings, he earlier this month approved a measure that prohibits homeowners associations from restricting the use of rooftop solar power systems on people’s homes.
Critics have long grumbled that the governor championed women’s rights when it suited him but also used the cause for his own purposes.
An Albany man who rented billboards bashing Cuomo hired a plane to fly over the state Capitol with the message: “GOODBYE GOVERNOR BAD TOUCH! YOUR FRIEND BRIAN.”
CNN anchor Chris Cuomo’s female viewership took a dive after the release of the AG report that found his gubernatorial brother had sexually harassed women.
Sandra Lee feels betrayed by her ex-boyfriend, Cuomo, taking credit for legalizing same-sex marriage — when she believes she had pressured him into agreeing to it, according to friends.
In other news…
President Joe Biden said his administration is taking steps to crack down on illegal activity that might be contributing to a rise in gas prices.
As the Taliban blitz across Afghanistan and U.S. officials scramble to assess just how quickly the government in Kabul could fall, Biden is recalibrating his message to Americans.
When Biden first announced his plan to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan, the politics seemed simple: Many polls showed Americans supported ending the nearly 20-year involvement in a war with now-obscure goals. But the situation has changed.
Hours after the Senate passed a $3.5 trillion budget framework, Democratic leaders quickly confronted looming challenges in keeping the party united, as centrist and progressive lawmakers aired rival concerns over the package set to be finalized this fall.
Accusations of Islamophobia and anti-Israel bias are bogging down the confirmation of an under-the-radar Biden administration nominee who’d be the highest-ranking Muslim in its ranks if he’s confirmed.
The Texas House sergeant-at-arms spent his day delivering 52 civil arrest warrants to Democrats who fled rather than enact the Republican voting agenda.
Biden met with the chief executives of United Airlines Holdings Inc. and Kaiser Permanente in a bid to encourage more companies to follow their lead and require workers to get vaccinated against Covid-19.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is recommending that all pregnant women get vaccinated against COVID-19.
A new analysis by the CDC found that pregnant women who get vaccinated aren’t at higher risk of miscarriage than during an average pregnancy.
Three new conditions reported by a small number of people after vaccination with COVID-19 shots from Pfizer and Moderna are being studied to assess if they may be possible side-effects, Europe’s drugs regulator said.
The FDA is expected to announce within the next 48 hours that it is authorizing Covid-19 vaccine booster shots for some people who are immunocompromised, according to a source familiar with the discussions.
The agency is closing in on the booster-shot authorization amid evidence that vaccines are less effective protecting immunocompromised people from Covid-19 than they are in protecting the general population.
A third dose of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine substantially improved protection for organ transplant recipients whose weak immune systems don’t always rev up enough with the standard two shots, Canadian researchers reported.
A group of researchers has called on the FDA to pull certain popular sunscreen brands after they said they’ve found evidence of a potential cancer-causing chemical.
A nurse is being investigated by police in Germany for allegedly replacing Covid-19 vaccines with saline solution.
A stubborn Delta outbreak has kicked a complacent Australia into gear, with community members working to fill gaps in the government’s sputtering vaccine rollout.
California will become the first state in the nation to require all teachers and school staff to get vaccinated or undergo weekly COVID-19 testing, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced.
The move represents an escalation in the state’s effort to ensure schools start on time and in-person amid a recent nationwide surge in Covid-19 cases triggered by the Delta variant.
Across Texas, health officials warned of a growing crisis not seen in months, with more than 10,000 Texans hospitalized and intensive care units stretched thin.
Southwest Airlines said the recent surge in Covid-19 cases is causing bookings to slow and cancellations to rise, showing how quickly the Delta variant is denting economic activity.
McDonald’s said in a note to employees that all of the company’s U.S. corporate workers must be fully vaccinated by Sept. 27 as businesses impose new employee rules amid rising Covid-19 cases
Inflation remained elevated in July as the economic recovery continued, but prices showed evidence of cooling amid pandemic-related supply problems and signs that the recent rise in coronavirus infections is starting to crimp some business activity.
New York’s number of patients hospitalized with the coronavirus is now more than 1,300 patients, the highest since late May. The death rate has hit double-digit numbers four days in a row after weeks of single-digit daily deaths.
Counties around New York are struggling to determine the impact of coronavirus cases among vaccinated people, and say the state is not sharing data that would help them assess the effect of such so-called breakthrough cases.
The top lawyer at a Queens public defender’s office is patient zero of a COVID-19 outbreak — sparking an ongoing conflict over her decision to keep colleagues in the dark about her diagnosis for three days.
Just 10 days out from the New York State Fair, Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon issued a new executive order that will require all fairgoers, regardless of vaccine status, to wear a mask inside all buildings at the fairgrounds.
A federal judge dismissed Amazon’s lawsuit to block New York’s attorney general from investigating the online retailer’s ability to protect warehouse workers from COVID-19.
Michael Bublé has postponed his planed August concert at Nassau Coliseum due to rising coronavirus cases. It’s not the first time the singer has had to push back the concert.
A federal judge ordered former President Donald Trump’s accounting company to hand over two years of his tax returns to Congressional investigators.
Mayoral nominee Curtis Sliwa held a campaign rally to allege the de Blasio administration’s “reign of non-transparency” on the homeless crisis would continue under rival Eric Adams and the state’s incoming governor.
The Albany County Legislature unanimously passed a law this week designed to protect restaurants from delivery services such as GrubHub being able to sell their food on the web platforms without a restaurant’s knowledge.
It will take the Niskayuna school district several months to select a new school superintendent.
Five months after the federal government announced the City of Schenectady will receive millions in federal coronavirus relief funds, a road map for their expenditure remains unclear.
Once-renowned horse trainer Jorge Navarro finished out of the money after pleading guilty in a wide-ranging doping scandal.
Emmy Award-winning actor Judd Hirsch, known for playing Alex Rieger on the television comedy series “Taxi” and John Lacey on the NBC series “Dear John,” is selling his 77-acre compound in the Ulster County town of Napanoch for $4.5 million.
After weeks of speculation, “Jeopardy!” said on Wednesday that the show will have not one, but two new hosts for the American game show: Mike Richards, the show’s executive producer, and actress Mayim Bialik.
