Good FRIDAY morning. Amen. Hallelujah.
So, I realize that yesterday was Women’s Equality Day, which commemorates the 1920 adoption of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, prohibiting the states and the federal government from denying the right to vote to citizens on the basis of sex.
It was also, as you know, National Dog Day, which I chose to highlight over a significant milestone in the battle for women’s rights.
I guess it’s good to know I’ve got my priorities straight. And I am not at all ashamed.
But I do think that it’s worth belatedly giving a shout-out to women’s equality and the hard-fought battle the suffragettes waged to ensure that the previously disenfranchised (now) 51 percent of the population has the right to make their voices heard.
Of course, these days, we’re still fighting to protect ballot access, so how far have we come, really? That’s a bit of a bummer.
Maybe I’ll get us back on track by noting that it’s International Bat Night. Bats tend to get a bad rap – whether due to the Dracula myth or, more recently, the whole “where did Covid-19 come from?” question.
But bats are actually super helpful critters, as they eat a lot of insects – A LOT of insects. Also, fun fact: They are the only mammals that are able to fly, and they use echolocation (sometimes referred to as “nature’s own sonar system”) to navigate in the dark.
Also, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, bats save this country an estimated $1 billion annually on pesticide and crop damage fees, because they’re pollinators – and are, in fact, the ONLY species that can pollinate the agave plant! They also save the agriculture industry at least $3 billion a year by eating insects considered pests.
AND bats disperse seeds, which is key for growing new plants.
So, yeah, bats are super cool. And some of them are endangered, due to pollution, pesticides, loss of habitat and disease, among other things. For the record, I’m not suggesting that you run out and embrace a bat – if you could even find one – as they are small and delicate and not terribly friendly.
But contracting rabies from a bat, for the record, is highly unlikely, though they do lead the U.S. in rabies risk, all told, taking over for rabid dogs, which were the culprits of spreading the virus prior to the 1960s. Thanks to leash laws and vaccination requirements for pet dogs, the canine rabies problem has been significantly reduced.
If you do find a bat in your house, don’t panic. Here’s what to do instead. Also, if you think it’s possible the bat might have rabies and may have bitten someone, contact local animal control as the CDC does recommend that the bat be tested for rabies.
I don’t want to downplay the serious nature of a rabies infection – it’s deadly. And the treatment is preventative in nature. Once you actually HAVE the infection, there is no known cure. (Also, I don’t know what you’ve heard, but the infections go in your arm, not your stomach).
We are in for a slightly less scorching day, with temperatures in the mid-to-low 80s. Skies will be partly cloudy, with the chance of a stray shower or thunderstorm, as per usual.
In the headlines…
President Joe Biden vowed to retaliate for a terrorist attack that killed a dozen U.S. service members outside Kabul’s international airport even as he said the frantic mission to airlift Americans from Afghanistan would continue.
“We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay,” Biden said in remarks from the White House, hours after the Pentagon said 12 service members had been killed in two separate suicide blasts outside the airport gates.
The stunning attack — apparently conducted by two suicide bombers along with gunmen who unleashed a hail of bullets — represented the deadliest incident for U.S. forces in Afghanistan in a decade.
A long list of GOP politicians are calling for Biden to either be impeached or resign from office after the deadly attacks near Harmid Karzai International Airport in Afghanistan.
A potentially deadly blunder by the Biden administration effectively handed the Taliban a “kill list” to target Afghans who aided the U.S., and he admitted it may have happened when asked later at a White House briefing.
Following twin suicide attacks near the Kabul airport in Afghanistan New York City Mayor de Blasio reassured residents that the city was prepared if terror threat levels needed to be boosted.
The U.S. Supreme Court has blocked the Biden administration’s Covid-related eviction moratorium.
“Congress was on notice that a further extension would almost surely require new legislation, yet it failed to act in the several weeks leading up to the moratorium’s expiration,” the court wrote in an unsigned, eight-page opinion.
The ruling ends protracted litigation between the Biden administration and the Alabama Association of Realtors who have been fighting for months against the CDC’s ban on evictions.
Roughly 3.5 million people across the U.S. said they faced eviction in the next two months, per Census Bureau data from mid-August.
Initial claims for unemployment insurance were little changed over the past week, hovering around coronavirus pandemic-era lows as the jobs market shows further signs of healing.
First-time filings totaled 353,000 for the week ended Aug. 21, a slight increase from the previous week’s 349,000, the Labor Department reported yesterday. That was slightly worse than the 350,000 Dow Jones estimate.
The weekly count has fallen more or less steadily since topping 900,000 in early January as the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines has helped the economy — encouraging businesses to reopen or expand hours and luring consumers out of their homes.
PUA is one of several pandemic unemployment programs that will come to an abrupt end on September 6, cutting off 7.5 million unemployed workers from support, according to an estimate from the left-leaning Century Foundation.
Roughly 750,000 people in New York City will see unemployment benefits – often between $500 and $600 per week – disappear entirely, according to a new report published by the Center for New York City Affairs.
More than 100,000 people are hospitalized with Covid-19 in the US – the first time that level has been reached since January — as medical workers say they’re once again struggling to treat waves of patients.
It’s the highest number of hospitalizations seen since January, before the vaccine was widely available to the public.
Just 60.5% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
With the increased threat to unvaccinated young people, the U.S. Surgeon General is urging parents and officials to take measures that reduce the risk of a child’s environment.
Vaccination remains the best defense against Covid-19, health experts say. But some infections occur regardless, and can come as a traumatic surprise.
A group of scientists with the World Health Organization warned the window of opportunity to uncover the origins of COVID-19 is “closing fast,” as China continues to resist turning over critical information.
A recent analysis of state-reported data from the Kaiser Family Foundation found that more than nine in 10 Covid-19 cases that resulted in hospitalization and death occurred among people who were not fully vaccinated.
Several states seeing surges in COVID-19 cases are dealing with such an influx of sick residents that hospital beds are drying up.
Facing a 990 percent increase in Covid hospitalizations since July 9, Oregon leaders deployed the National Guard to hospitals, dispatched crisis teams to hard-hit regions and ordered educators and health care workers to get vaccinated or lose their jobs.
Demand for at-home Covid-19 tests has risen sharply in recent weeks as the Delta variant surges across the U.S., causing test makers to scramble to keep pace.
Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order banning any state or local mandates requiring people to be vaccinated against COVID-19, and he called on Texas legislators to vote it into law during their current special session.
Even as Africa has seen COVID-19 vaccinations triple this past week, the Africa director of the World Health Organization said it will be “a very daunting task” to inoculate 10% of the continent by the end of next month.
Japan suspended the use of more than 1.6 million Moderna vaccine doses after the health ministry said multiple vaccination sites reported contamination in unused vials.
A BBC Radio presenter who died in May after receiving her first shot of the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine fell prey to extremely rare blood clots resulting from the jab, a coroner has found.
With COVID-19 vaccines showing signs of waning effectiveness over time, the focus in the U.S. has shifted towards booster shots, and experts are now debating the best time to implement boosters to the general American population.
People who recovered from a bout of Covid-19 during one of the earlier waves of the pandemic appear to have a lower risk of contracting the delta variant than those who got two doses of the vaccine from Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE.
A Florida emergency room physician who saw the horrors of the COVID-19 pandemic first-hand has been selling off a chance for children to flout mask mandates.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Biden has failed to “end Covid” and should follow his state’s lead, even as Florida experiences record-breaking cases, deaths and hospitalizations.
A judge is expected to rule today on the contentious issue of mask mandates in Florida schools, after arguments from the state and parent groups were heard this week.
Companies unwilling to require employees to get vaccinations are increasingly considering healthcare-benefit surcharges and other more aggressive measures to make their workplaces safer from Covid-19, employment and benefit experts say.
Starting Aug. 30, the Charlotte, N.C.-headquartered Krispy Kreme company is giving anyone with vaccination proof two free doughnuts every day through Sept. 5 for its weeklong “Show Your Heart” offer.
A New York State Department of Health board voted unanimously to implement emergency authorization of a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for all health care workers, while also removing a planned religious exemption as an alternative to vaccination.
NYC officials unveiled some long-awaited details on COVID-19 protocols for the coming school year, laying out plans for in-school coronavirus testing and quarantining after positive cases.
The mayor laid out a safety plan aimed at reassuring parents and educators anxious about the return to classrooms, with different sets of rules for vaccinated and unvaccinated students, only days after he announced a vaccine mandate for all school staff.
New York’s $800 million COVID-19 Pandemic Small Business Recovery Grant Program has been expanded.
A new mandate requiring court workers get vaccinated against COVID-19 has sparked an ugly war between top state officials and the officers who protect New York City’s courthouses.
KISS canceled their night show in Pennsylvania after singer, NYC-native Paul Stanley, tested positive for COVID, the band said on Twitter.
Broadway producers and theater owners, concerned about whether fans are ready to return as dozens of shows prepare to start or resume performances, have banded together for a marketing campaign to persuade their core audience to purchase tickets.
Gov. Kathy Hochul introduced the incoming lieutenant governor, Democratic state Sen. Brian Benjamin, as her “partner” during a press conference in Harlem, telling New Yorkers to “get used to that word.”
The Rev. Al Sharpton introduced Hochul, calling her “the kind of governor we need, someone that looks beyond themselves,” before the announcement.
Hochul’s top aide, Karen Persichilli Keogh, is married to a lobbyist who represent clients such as Verizon, Airbnb and Alphabet’s Google.
Hochul again outlined the top three priorities for her administration as it takes shape, including increasing vaccinations and disbursing ERAP funds.
Hochul has pledged to ditch officials who were implicated in the state attorney general’s probe of Cuomo’s alleged sexual harassment of multiple women — but at least one, MTA Board member Larry Schwartz, says he’s not going anywhere just yet.
With the departure of Andrew Cuomo, who publicly endorsed congestion pricing but supported it tepidly in practice, Hochul has a mandate and an issue she can seize and make her own.
Embattled state Health Commissioner Howard Zucker took a swipe at his old boss and suggested he was just following Cuomo’s orders while also praising Hochul’s commitment to releasing more complete COVID-19 data.
The state inspector general’s office said a Department of Transportation engineer responsible for overseeing delivery of COVID-19 supplies was ditching or missing work.
In a startling reversal, New York’s ethics oversight commission passed a motion asking state Attorney General Letitia James to investigate whether confidential information was illegally leaked to Cuomo in 2019.
A majority of members on the Joint Commission on Public Ethics also voted during a rare public show of hands to make a criminal referral regarding the state Inspector General’s Office’s handling of its own investigation into the alleged misconduct.
Tina Tchen, the president and CEO of a prominent sexual assault victim advocate group, Time’s Up, resigned after it was revealed that her group advised Cuomo.
“Now is the time for TIME’S UP to evolve and move forward as there is so much more work to do for women,” Tchen said in a statement. “It is clear that I am not the leader who can accomplish that in this moment.”
The Time’s Up Board accepted Tchen’s resignation. Monifa Bandele, the organization’s chief operating officer, will be interim CEO starting Aug. 31.
The dysfunctional federal jail where Jeffrey Epstein hanged himself in 2019 will be closed “at least temporarily,” the Justice Department said.
Two New York City Councilmen want to make on-the-job fat-shaming a thing of the past with a new bill that aims to prohibit weight and height-based discrimination in the workplace.
The authorities in NYC are responding to a wave of gun violence by focusing on anti-gang tactics that have long faced criticism for unfairly targeting young Black people.
The NYC Council overwhelmingly passed legislation this week toughening regulations on street vendors and performers in Times Square, in the Big Apple’s latest bid to rein in out-of-control soliciting at the Crossroads of the World.
The pandemic-induced coin shortage, despite improving, still has a tarrying effect on a couple of Albany-area laundromats and one moderately-sized banking corporation in the area.
The Desmond Hotel in Colonie, which operates under the Crowne Plaza Albany moniker, says it has installed a new air purification system that it says combats the COVID-19 virus as well as other contaminants such as bacteria, mold and other viruses.
A court appearance next week for Nauman Hussain, the only person to face criminal charges in the 2018 limousine crash in Schoharie, will be held at the high school instead of the county courthouse due to the large crowd expected to attend.
A woman is suing the Grace Baptist Church in Lansingburgh, alleging its leadership ignored her daily sexual abuse as a child at the hands of a youth pastor – then claimed that she had “led him on.”
Three schools. One path to a law degree. That’s the latest possibility for Capital Region students under a new program launched with an agreement between the presidents of Hudson Valley Community College, the University at Albany and Albany Law School.
A month ago, Vice Media announced it would cut text articles on Vice.com, Refinery29 and other Vice-owned sites by 40 to 50 percent while shifting its focus to video. Yesterday, Vice Media laid off more than a dozen employees, many of them writers and text editors.
Seven U.S Capitol Police officers sued former President Donald Trump over the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol and his dangerous election falsehoods leading up to the riot.
R. Kelly compared himself to musician Jerry Lee Lewis — who notoriously married his 13-year-old cousin — and said there was nothing wrong with wanting to have sex with underage girls, an accuser testified.
Responding to criticism that an episode of his Sept. 11 HBO documentary series gave credence to conspiracy theories, filmmaker Spike Lee released a new final cut that removes all interviews about what caused the World Trade Center buildings to collapse.
Peloton lowered by 20% the price of its original stationary bike, a move that comes as the company expects more muted growth in the coming year.
ABC News President Kim Godwin told staffers on a conference call that she has requested an independent investigation into how the network handled allegations of sexual assault against the former executive producer of “Good Morning America.”
