Good Thursday morning. Where is this week going?
On this day in 1945, the signing of the surrender of Japan to the Allies, bringing an official end to WWII, took place aboard the USS Missouri, in Tokyo Bay. There, representatives of nine Allied nations were present to accept the Japanese surrender.
The announcement of the surrender occurred on Aug. 15. Celebrations over the end of the war took place across the world for weeks, and the actual day of commemoration depends a lot on what country you happen to be in. It could be August 14 or 15. or September 2 or 3.
For the record, this is not an official federal holiday.
The famous kissing photo in Times Square, for the record, was taken on August 14.
That also happens to the day that the only state in the union that formally and legally observes so-called “V-J Day” (which, by the way, is a term that some find offensive and inappropriate) – Rhode Island – does its thing in tribute to the number of sailors it sent and lost in the Pacific front.
Despite what many residents might believe, the legal name of Rhode Island’s holiday was never “V-J Day” (short for “Victory Over Japan”). It has always been called “Victory Day” on the statute books, going back to its establishment in 1948.
Apparently, it’s also National Blueberry Popsicle Month, which seems harmless enough, but…are they even popular enough to get en ENTIRE MONTH to themselves? I mean, I’m all for popsicles, I guess, though come to think of it, I haven’t had one since I was about 12, or maybe even younger.
For the record, popsicles were created in the early 1900s by an 11-year-old boy in California, though frozen treats like sorbets have been enjoyed for many millennia – just not on a handy, easy-to-wield stick.
Today’s Google Doodle is worth a mention, as it honors the 138th birthday of Dr. Rudolf Weigl, a Polish biologist whose work on a vaccine for typhus during World War II saved countless lives – well worth noting, given all the discussion of vaccines that’s taking place these days. Also, he provided shelter for Jews at risk of execution during the Holocaust.
The Nazis ordered Weigl to create a typhus vaccine production plant, and he, in turn, hired Jewish friends and colleagues to staff said plant, preventing them from being deported to Nazi death camps. In addition, thousands of doses of his vaccine were smuggled into said camps, saving additional lives. It’s estimated he’s responsible for personally saving about 5,000 Jews.
About a half-century about his death in 1957, Weigl was honored by Israel as a Righteous Among the Nations.
There was a flash flood watch in effect through this morning due to periods of heavy rain that started last night. A lingering shower is possible early this morning, (like, really early), but that will give way to partly cloudy skies with temperatures in the high 60s.
The Mid-Atlantic and New England should anticipate three to eight inches of rain into today from Ida, the National Weather Service said.
The sudden inundation from the remnants of Ida transformed familiar scenes of life in New York into otherworldly and waterlogged chaos. Nearly every subway line in the city was shut down, and many flight were cancelled.
NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio declared a state of emergency just before 11:30 p.m., saying the city was “enduring a historic weather event” with “record breaking rain across the city, brutal flooding and dangerous conditions on our roads.”
Just before 1 a.m., the city issued a travel ban in effect until 5 a.m. this morning.
In the headlines…
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said that “there isn’t going to be an impeachment” of President Joe Biden over the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, noting that Democrats control the House and Senate.
“I think the American people have to decide what kind of government they want. I have a feeling the American people didn’t think they voted for this government,” McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said.
Clashes flared in northern and central Afghanistan between the Taliban and local militias, as the Islamist movement continued to consolidate its grip on power in the Afghan capital two days after the U.S. ended its 20-year presence in the country.
The conservative commentator Ann Coulter backed Biden’s defense of his military withdrawal from Afghanistan and said former President Donald Trump “abandoned” his promise to withdraw troops.
Just over a day after the last American service member left Afghanistan, the Pentagon’s top two leaders expressed wariness about continuing to cooperate with Taliban leaders who helped provide safe passage to the more than 124,000 people evacuated out.
Days after U.S. troops officially withdrew from Afghanistan following a chaotic and deadly evacuation process, school officials in Sacramento have confirmed that more than two dozen students still remain in the hostile nation.
The Taliban are preparing to set out their new Islamic government imminently, naming Sheikh Haibatullah Akhundzada, the insurgency’s top religious leader, as the country’s supreme authority, according to a Taliban official.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with Biden in Washington yesterday, the culmination of a years-long struggle to get a White House visit locked up that – at one point – saw him at the center of U.S. politics.
The meeting came six weeks after the Biden administration reached an agreement to allow the completion of a Russian natural-gas pipeline to Europe that would bypass Ukraine and help Moscow increase its economic and political sway across Europe.
A coalition of 16 attorneys general is pushing back against “interim guidance” issued under Biden’s administration which limits the number of deportations and immigration-related arrests by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Biden vowed to defend abortion rights after the U.S. Supreme Court let stand a Texas abortion law that bans the procedure after six weeks of pregnancy, calling the measure “extreme” and said it blatantly curtails constitutional rights.
But the White House has been vague about what the president would, or could, do in the near term. And some abortion rights advocates are calling for a more clear-cut strategy in the wake of the court’s latest move.
Democratic members of Congress expressed outrage at the court for not taking action, and a number revived the argument that the number of justices should be expanded to offset the three conservatives who were added by then-President Donald Trump.
Progressive groups are ramping up pressure on Senate Democrats to nix the legislative filibuster ahead of a voting rights fight set to come to a head in a matter of weeks.
Key industry groups pushed to give organizations at least three days to report cybersecurity incidents to the federal government, effectively opposing Senate legislation that would give them 24 hours to report breaches.
A Colorado grand jury indicted three police officers and two paramedics in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain, a young Black man who had been walking home when he was stopped by the police, put into a chokehold and injected with a powerful anesthetic.
Purdue Pharma, the maker of the highly addictive painkiller OxyContin, was dissolved in a bankruptcy settlement that will require the company’s owners, the Sackler family, to turn over billions of dollars of their fortune to address the deadly opioid epidemic.
The settlement shields members of the Sackler family from lawsuits accusing them of contributing to the nation’s opioid epidemic in exchange for providing funding to combat the crisis.
Lines were long, tempers were short and the heat was stifling as the recovery from Hurricane Ida logged its third day.
As Louisiana endured its third day of widespread power losses, residents faced compounding effects of the outages, including gas shortages and carbon monoxide poisonings.
Refineries that were caught in the path of Hurricane Ida could take weeks to resume operations because of widespread power outages.
Walmart is hiring 20,000 workers for its supply-chain operations ahead of the holidays, highlighting the growing role of distribution and delivery as the retailer competes with e-commerce giant Amazon.
Amazon said it is seeking to hire about 55,000 people globally among its corporate and technology ranks during a recruiting event set for Sept. 15, as the e-commerce giant continues a hiring spree begun at start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
States that ended enhanced federal unemployment benefits early have so far seen about the same job growth as states that continued offering the pandemic-related extra aid, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis and economists.
The U.S. reported almost 4.22 million new coronavirus cases in August alone, making it the fourth-worst month for infections.
COVID is killing one person in the U.S. every 1 minute, 5 seconds, and two people per minute are testing positive.
With COVID-19 cases on the rise in several states across the United States, due in part to the highly contagious delta variant, hospitals have been left overwhelmed, many of them on the brink of capacity.
Unvaccinated people should avoid traveling during the Labor Day holiday, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
People who experience breakthrough infections of the coronavirus after being fully vaccinated are about 50 percent less likely to experience long Covid than are unvaccinated people who catch the virus, researchers said in a large new report on British adults.
Florida Gov. Rob DeSantis’ office confirmed that state will start issuing $5,000 fines to businesses, schools and governments that require proof of COVID-19 vaccination.
The FDA announced the resignations of two top vaccine officials, who reportedly departed in anger over the Biden administration’s plan to roll out COVID-19 booster shots before officials had a chance to approve it.
Less than a week after Liberty University announced and enacted a temporary campus-wide quarantine amid rising infections, the school is reporting a sharp surge in positive COVID-19 cases and offering free vaccinations.
Parents are so worried about their kids’ health and the safety of their communities that many – especially Black and Hispanic parents – now say they’d rather keep them home learning remotely, at least part time, new research finds.
The World Health Organization is monitoring a new coronavirus variant called “mu,” which the agency says has mutations that have the potential to evade immunity provided by a previous Covid-19 infection or vaccination.
Scientists are struggling to understand why Delta outbreaks in the U.K. and India dissipated, even if temporarily, and what that may mean for similar surges, including the one in the United States.
Joe Rogan has tested positive for the coronavirus, he announced in an Instagram video, and is taking the dewormer drug ivermectin.
Rogan, who was rebuked by federal officials for suggesting on the podcast that young healthy people need not get Covid vaccinations, said that he started feeling sick on Saturday after he returned from performing in Florida.
With COVID-19 cases on the rise in several states across the United States, due in part to the highly contagious delta variant, hospitals have been left overwhelmed, many of them on the brink of capacity.
A Central Texas school district is temporarily closing after two teachers died of covid-19 in the same week, while parents and legislators in the state continue to clash over mask mandates in classrooms.
A 24-year-old woman from Illinois was arrested on Sunday while trying to enter Hawaii with a fake covid-19 vaccination record card.
The emptying of Manhattan’s office districts has benefited Brooklyn neighborhoods where residents worked from home, testing the balance of power between the city’s boroughs.
NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio has directed all of the city employees to return to the office full-time starting in less than two weeks, a signal he is intent on resurrecting the city’s office-dependent central business district despite the Delta variant of the coronavirus.
A group of raucous anti-vaccine protesters — some of whom claimed to be Education Department employees upset over NYC’s vaccination mandate for school staffers — disrupted a City Council hearing on school reopening.
All 700 city public middle and high schools will offer temporary vaccination sites during the first week of classes this month, according to city education officials.
New York State lawmakers extended sweeping protections against evictions into next year, moving to keep hundreds of thousands of people whose finances have been battered by the pandemic in their homes.
The 63-member state Senate voted to approve the bill by a 38 to 19 vote — accounting for five absences — around 7 p.m. following several hours of debate. The 150-member state Assembly followed around 9:30 p.m., approving the bill by an 80 to 60 vote.
Lawmakers also added another $400 million to the Emergency Rental Assistance Program, which covers arrears owed to landlords whose tenants can prove they can’t pay rent because of pandemic-related economic hardships.
Hochul’s bill extending New York’s eviction moratorium included language that suspends New York’s Open Meetings Law.
Hochul has tapped former mayoral candidate and de Blasio administration official Kathryn Garcia to serve in a senior role in her new administration. She’ll be the director of state operations.
The appointment of Garcia, a first-time candidate whose successful campaign defied traditional political wisdom, will add a familiar and well-trusted city government official as one of the governor’s top aides.
Garcia said she’s “honored” to be picked by Hochul. “I’ve spent my career serving New Yorkers and I want to thank @GovKathyHochul for the opportunity to continue that service,” she tweeted. “Now, let’s go get things done.”
The Senate confirmed two key gubernatorial appointees to cannabis regulatory bodies, enabling the state to finally move forward with creating a stalled adult-use program.
Christopher Alexander, a former policy director for the Drug Policy Alliance, will head the Office of Cannabis Management, while ex-Brooklyn Assemblywoman Tremaine Wright will chair the State’s Cannabis Control Board.
“This is something I’ve been committed to for a long time,” said Alexander, who pushed for and drafted the eventual cannabis laws in the state, and has worked on restorative justices issues in the past.
Four more members still need to be named to the board by the governor and legislative leaders, which is responsible for awarding licenses to cannabis sellers in the state. The appointees do not need to be approved by lawmakers.
Democratic mayoral nominee Eric Adams welcomed Hochul’s efforts to fast-track the growth and sale of recreational marijuana across New York — saying, “Bring the joints!”
Hochul is under growing pressure to extend unemployment benefits across the state, amid a looming federal deadline that will soon cut off pandemic financial assistance to more than a million New Yorkers.
Amid cows and crowds, the State Fair became a destination for potential challengers to Hochul in 2022, including Letitia James, the state attorney general.
A sham trade association set up to rig bids for city contracts meant to benefit victims of domestic violence and the homeless helped four Queens-based moving companies rake in $15 million in illicit revenue, James announced.
The number of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s appointees on New York’s ethics commission is dwindling.
New Hochul appointees could make it less likely JCOPE will block investigations of alleged wrongdoing by Cuomo or his cronies — as it has been accused of doing in the past.
Law enforcement authorities investigating the alleged groping of an aide by Cuomo have served six subpoenas for surveillance videos and other evidence to establish a “timeline” of events.
James’ office is complying with a request from local prosecutors to not release at this point transcripts of interviews generated by the independent investigation of sexual harassment allegations leveled against Cuomo.
Adams accused the court system of “contributing” to the city’s high crime rate and demanded more virtual proceedings to speed up the wheels of justice.
The Archdiocese of New York said that an investigation authorized by the Vatican had cleared Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, the leader of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn, of allegations made against him by two men who said they were abused as children.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said that he had recommended a trio of women with civil rights backgrounds to fill federal district court vacancies in New York.
An excessive force lawsuit accusing two Schenectady police officers of body-slamming a man in his home and severely damaging his knee could be delayed for months because one of the officers accused of wrongdoing is on Army deployment.
Ballston may join other municipalities in banning any future marijuana stores from allowing consumption on premises.
The Children’s Museum of Science and Technology in North Greenbush and the Children’s Museum at Saratoga in Saratoga Springs will combine their resources and reopen in a new shared location at the Lincoln Bathhouse in Saratoga State Park.
The state has asked the federal government to declare a disaster in Rensselaer County so that residents and business owners will be eligible to apply for loans to cover $4.195 million in damages from the torrential July 14 storms that slammed the county.
Drinking water at two homes near Algonquin Middle School have tested for PFOA above the new state standard of 10 parts per trillion, officials familiar with the test results said.
East Greenbush Town Hall closed after the ceiling collapsed in the town clerk’s office and there appeared to be structural damage to the entrance of the building.
What may be the first opt-out community choice solar program in the U.S. has gone live in the Villages of Brockport and Lima, New York, under the name Finger Lakes Community Choice Aggregation.
School leaders of the Onondaga Nation School, Tuscarora Nation School, and St. Regis Mohawk School have asked for $60 million in state money to renovate their school buildings. $20 million for each school.
A third woman accused R. Kelly of exposing her to herpes, and the minister who married the singer to Aaliyah when the bride was only 15 years old spoke publicly for the first time yesterday, the 10th day of Mr. Kelly’s racketeering trial in Brooklyn.
The Mets’ messy off-the-field antics took another troubling turn after acting general manager Zack Scott was charged with drunk driving in White Plains.
