Good morning, it’s Tuesday, and Kathy Hochul is now governor of New York – the first woman in the state’s history to hold that post.
Hochul was sworn in just after midnight by Chief Judge Janet DiFiore during a ceremony at the State Capitol.
Afterward, Hochul told WGRZ, a Buffalo television station, she felt “the weight of responsibility” on her shoulders. “I’ll tell New Yorkers I’m up to the task. And I’m really proud to be able to serve as their governor and I won’t let them down,” she said.
Hochul will hold a “ceremonial swearing in” at 10 a.m. today, where she will be joined by immediate family members, the Democratic leaders of the State Legislature and some members of the press.
At 3 p.m., she will deliver her first formal address to the people of New York as governor.
Hochul made two key appointments, both of which are women: Karen Persichilli Keough will be secretary to the governor, and Elizabeth Fine, will be counsel to the governor.
State Budget Director Robert Mujica and Health Commissioner Howard Zucker are staying on – for now.
Before she was sworn into office, Hochul spent the weekend raising campaign cash in the Hamptons.
Andrew Cuomo left office at 12:00 a.m, two weeks after he announced he would resign rather than face a likely impeachment battle. He submitted his resignation letter late yesterday to the leaders of the state Assembly and Senate.
Stepping down amid a flood of sexual harassment allegations and myriad other investigations into his administration’s handling of the COVID crisis, Cuomo used his farewell address to again defend himself as he refused to accept blame for his own downfall.
Despite reports to the contrary, Cuomo insisted (on Twitter) that he did not abandon Captain, his dog, when he left the executive mansion.
Cuomo granted clemency to five men, including the commutation of the 75-years-to-life sentence of David Gilbert, a former member of the radical Weather Underground who in 1981 took part in the robbery of a Brink’s armored truck in Rockland County.
The decision does not mean Gilbert will automatically be released from prison, but rather that he will be granted a parole hearing in the weeks to come.
As Cuomo departed Albany last week, U-Haul in tow, questions remain about the preservation of his official records, all of which become personal property once he leaves office.
At a special meeting on Thursday, New York’s ethics commission, JCOPE, is expected to vote on whether to revoke its staff’s approval of Cuomo’s lucrative book deal last year.
Thirty-three staffers assigned to Cuomo’s tight-knit executive chamber resigned or were reassigned from Jan. 1 through Aug. 11 of this year, according to personnel records kept by state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli’s office.
Happy William Wilberforce Day.
Ah, you had no idea, right? Same. In fact, I had no idea who William Wilberforce even was until I did my usual 3 a.m. Google search for interesting nuggets to include in this morning memo.
Wilberforce, as it turns out, was a British abolitionist who was born on this day in 1759 in the British city of Hull, in the county of East Riding of Yorkshire. He was elected to the House of Commons at the age of 21 and served there for 45 years.
Wilberforce’s abolitionism was derived in part from evangelical Christianity, to which he was converted in 1784–85. The interwebs tell us the following:
“His spiritual adviser became John Newton, a former slave trader who had repented and who had been the pastor at Wilberforce’s church when he was a child. In 1787 Wilberforce helped to found a society for the “reformation of manners” called the Proclamation Society (to suppress the publication of obscenity) and the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade—the latter more commonly called the Anti-Slavery Society.”
Interestingly, Wilberforce University is a private, historically black institution (the oldest of its kind in the country) located in Ohio – the first college to be owned and operated entirely by African Americans. During the 1890s. W.E.B. DuBois taught there.
On a much less historically significant note, but, in my humble opinion, still of considerable cultural significance, today is National Waffle Day. And guess what, Capital Region? We’ve got a claim on this one?!
“On August 24, 1869, Cornelius Swarthout of Troy, New York received his patent for the waffle iron. While waffles existed long before then, the invention made waffles more readily available.” (Waffles themselves, however, date back considerably earlier).
According to the restaurant chain Waffle House, approximately 145 waffles are sold at the eatery throughout the United States every minute. EVERY MINUTE!
If you have never had the good fortune to eat at a Waffle House, I am so sad for you. Waffle House is life.
Looks like Henri has finally passed us by. We’ll have sun again today, with temperatures in the low 80s.
In the headlines…
President Joe Biden pressed businesses and public leaders to implement vaccine mandates after the federal government issued its first full approval of a Covid-19 vaccine.
The FDA marked a pandemic milestone as it approved the first Covid-19 vaccine for use in adults, raising hopes that the decision will convince some holdouts to get vaccinated and spark a wave of employer and school immunization mandates.
FDA scientists evaluated “hundreds of thousands of pages” of vaccine data from 40,000 trial participants, according to the U.S. agency.
Of the three authorized vaccines in the U.S., only Pfizer had submitted all the required information to the FDA for full approval, according to the companies, and analysts expected it to be the first to receive clearance.
Within hours, the Pentagon, CVS, the State University of New York system and the New York City school system, among others, announced that they would enforce mandates they had prepared but made contingent on the FDA’s action.
“If you’re a business leader, a nonprofit leader, a state or local leader who has been waiting on full FDA approval to require vaccinations, I call on you now to do that,” Biden said. “Require it.”
“This is a game-changing moment,” NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio said. “We’ve been waiting for this for a long time, to have the full approval of the vaccine. We now have it.”
Union leaders representing 350,000 city workers plan to file a legal action to stop de Blasio from implementing a vaccine mandate for Department of Education employees without their input.
A looming deadline for New York State employees to get COVID-19 vaccines could mean problems for mass transit service as tens of thousands of MTA employees continue to refuse jabs.
New York’s 15,600 court workers across the state have until Sept. 7 to get vaccinated or submit to weekly COVID-19 testing, the state’s top judge said.
When U.S. schools reopened for in-person learning last year, many districts had clear metrics for thresholds that would trigger school closures due to Covid-19. This year, more are taking a wait-and-see approach.
Dr. Anthony Fauci walked back his prediction that it will take the United States more than one year to get control of COVID-19.
Fauci said if more Americans sign up to take the vaccines – as well as those who have already recovered from the virus–the country could get “some good control in the spring.”
Nearly 75 doctors in South Florida took part in a symbolic walkout to protest the overwhelming number of unvaccinated coronavirus patients receiving care at their hospital in Palm Beach Gardens.
A passenger and 26 crew members aboard the Carnival Vista tested positive for the coronavirus and the passenger later died. The company says its protocols successfully stopped further spread.
The House scrapped a planned vote to advance two key economic proposals as centrist Democrats and party leaders failed to break a stalemate over how to proceed with Biden’s sprawling economic agenda.
After hours of negotiations, Pelosi late last night failed to strike a deal with the leaders of a 10-member bloc of centrists who are demanding a vote on the Senate-passed bipartisan infrastructure bill before considering a budget resolution.
Pelosi said the chamber would vote on the measure today as she left the Capitol after midnight.
The U.S. Capitol Police announced they had cleared a lieutenant who fatally shot a rioter inside the Capitol during the Jan. 6 attack, after an extensive investigation found he acted lawfully and potentially saved lawmakers and aides from serious harm or death.
With logistics and conditions at the Kabul international airport growing more dire, the Biden administration is scheduled to discuss with allies a withdrawal from Afghanistan beyond an Aug. 31 deadline that left just eight days to evacuate thousands of people.
As a desperate U.S. effort to evacuate Americans from Afghanistan gained momentum on Monday, Taliban leaders rejected a suggestion from Biden that American forces might remain past an Aug. 31 deadline to complete the operation.
A new ferry route between Staten Island and Manhattan that’s been in the works for six years went into service yesterday, marking an expansion of the city’s popular, but costly network of waterway transit options.
Some of the most powerful players on Broadway have signed a pact pledging to strengthen the industry’s diversity practices as theaters reopen following the lengthy shutdown prompted by the coronavirus pandemic.
A public art exhibition with 78 fiberglass cows in the boroughs may be scaled down from 21 years ago, but the herd is delighting passers-by.
An innocent bystander who was heading to New Jersey was struck in the leg by a stray bullet outside Penn Station during rush hour last night, police and sources said.
IBM unveiled a new high-powered computer chip developed in Albany that it says is the first-ever designed to efficiently use artificial intelligence to perform high-volume, complex tasks.
Sales tax numbers from Capital Region-area counties are rebounding from the pandemic.
Citizens opposed to a GOP-supported appearance by anti-Muslim activist Scott Presler will gather for a vigil tomorrow evening in Congress Park.
Local economic development officials and those from the Port of Albany and Port of Coeymans are going to be promoting the Capital Region this week at the Business Network for Offshore Wind’s International Partnering Forum in Richmond, Va.
R&B superstar R. Kelly shamed a 17-year-old girl he gave herpes – and later beat her with his size 12 Air Force 1 shoe, the still-traumatized victim testified.
