It’s Thursday, good morning. It’s the second day of fall, which is feeling very end-of-summer-like to me still.
It is also the International Day of Sign Languages, which the UN says is “a unique opportunity to support and protect the linguistic identity and cultural diversity of all deaf people and other sign language users.”
The World Federation for the Deaf has declared this year’s theme to be: “We Sign For Human Rights”. (This day was chosen because the WFD was founded on this date in 1951).
According to the Federation, there are more than 70 million deaf people worldwide. More than 80 percent of them live in developing countries. Collectively, they use more than 300 different sign languages.
I have always been fascinated by sign languages, which are structurally distinct from spoken languages and have a syntax and a grammar all their own. They are not, in other words, directly translated from the spoken version of a language, but rather their own unique and stand-alone entity.
There is no universal form of sign language, but there is an international form, which apparently individuals employ when they are traveling and socializing in informal settings or in professional meetings where not everyone speaks the same native language. It is a fairly rudimentary pidgin form of sign, and has a limited lexicon.
The different sign languages are so specific that a person who speaks ASL (American Sign Language) might not understand BSL (British Sign Language), and vice versa, though some countries have adopted ASL features.
ASL might have arisen more than 200 years ago from an intermixing of local sign languages and French Sign Language (LSF, or Langue des Signes Française). But today, while there are still some elements of LSF in ASL, the two are so separate and distinct that it would not at all be surprising if speakers of the two did not understand one another.
When most people who are not deaf are introduced to sign language, they probably learn some form of the alphabet – though these days it’s apparently popular to teach babies to sign – often before they are verbal. Fingerspelling is a way for sign users to spell out English words that don’t exist in their chosen language.
There is way too much to know about sign language and deaf culture for me to even start to scratch the surface here. If you’re interested in learning more, I recommend this book as an entry point. My fascination with sign language might have arisen from the fact that I went to school at the University of Rochester, which is near RIT, where there is a large deaf student community.
A friend once watched me stare in fascination at some kids signing on the bus, and reminded me that I was eavesdropping, technically speaking. Though I didn’t understand what they were saying, it was still rude. I have always checked myself since then in similar situations, no matter how beautiful I think sign is.
It’s going to be another warm-ish day, with temperatures in the high 70s. The skies will be cloudy and there’s a chance of showers in the afternoon.
In the headlines…
President Joe Biden spoke for the first time with French President Emmanuel Macron after a major diplomatic crisis exploded between the two longtime allies over a deal to equip Australia with nuclear-powered submarines.
A joint statement between the United States and France afterward said Macron and Biden “agreed that the situation would have benefitted from open consultations among allies on matters of strategic interest to France and our European partners.”
Biden met with key Democrats as party leaders try to salvage their two-part domestic agenda — a massive social safety net expansion and bipartisan infrastructure bill — amid a fresh round of hostage-taking from centrist and progressive members.
West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin said Biden urged a group of moderate lawmakers to come up with a top-line number they could support for Democrats’ sweeping reconciliation bill.
House Democrats quietly moved to restrict the GOP’s ability to use its limited power in the minority to press for investigations, an effort that has Republicans crying foul as they seek to pressure their foes over the Biden administration’s handling of Afghanistan.
Biden criticized Senate Republicans after the bipartisan talks around overhauling policing laws broke down without a deal, critiquing the GOP for rejecting even modest reforms.
“I still hope to sign into law a comprehensive and meaningful police reform bill that honors the name and memory of George Floyd, because we need legislation to ensure lasting and meaningful change,” Biden said in a statement.
“The goal from the very beginning was to get meaningful reforms that would end the policing problems we’ve had in this nation for generations,” New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker said in an interview. “But in the end we couldn’t do it.”
In a poll conducted earlier this month, Gallup found just 43 percent of U.S. adults approved of his job as commander-in-chief. For the first time, a majority of Americans—53 percent—disapproved of Biden’s performance.
The poll comes after Biden’s exit from Afghanistan, which Americans generally supported, the report notes. But the “chaotic and deadly way in which it was executed” has played a role in the decline in Biden’s approval rating.
Federal Reserve officials indicated that they expect to soon slow the asset purchases they have been using to support the economy and predicted they might raise interest rates next year.
The Fed’s rate-setting meeting at the end of a two-day gathering, indicated in its post-meeting statement that it could start to reduce, or taper, its $120 billion in monthly asset purchases as soon as its next scheduled meeting, Nov. 2-3.
The U.S. promised to buy 500 million more COVID-19 vaccine doses to donate to other countries as it comes under increasing pressure to share its supply with the rest of the world.
The stepped-up U.S. commitment marks the cornerstone of the global vaccination summit Biden convened virtually on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, where he encouraged well-off nations to do more to get the coronavirus under control.
The additional jabs will see the total U.S. commitment on vaccine sharing exceed one billion jabs. Experts say some 11 billion doses are required to vaccinate at least 70 percent of the global population.
But Biden’s plans face a tough road as pressure grows for big pharmaceutical companies to share their vaccine technologies with poorer nations.
The Biden administration’s schedule for shipping the newly announced Pfizer doses frustrated activists: Of the 1.1 billion doses that the United States has committed to donations, only 300 million are expected to be shipped this year.
The White House said it “strongly opposes” a provision in the 2022 defense spending bill that would block the Pentagon from dishonorably discharging a service member who refuses to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
The FDA said it would grant emergency use authorization for a booster dose of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine in people 65 and older, people at high risk of severe disease and people whose jobs put them at risk of infection.
The agency also included a broad definition of people from 18 to 64 “whose frequent institutional or occupational exposure” to the virus place them at a high risk of developing serious complications from Covid.
A third shot of the vaccine can be given at least six months after completion of the two-dose regimen of the Pfizer vaccine, according to the authorization.
The authorization sets up what is likely to be a staggered campaign to deliver the shots, starting with the most vulnerable Americans. It opens the way for possibly tens of millions of vaccinated people to receive boosters.
An FDA official said there isn’t enough data to support giving a Pfizer booster dose to people who have received other Covid-19 vaccines.
A study led by Pfizer and BioNTechSE evaluating their vaccine in expectant mothers has been complicated by slow enrollment, researchers say, delaying results that could help inform physicians about how the shots affect pregnant women and their babies.
A day after assuming his job, Florida’s surgeon general signed new protocols letting parents decide whether their children should quarantine or stay in school if they are asymptomatic after being exposed to someone who has tested positive for COVID-19.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the state has put out a revised rule which follows a “symptom-based approach” to quarantining students, meaning asymptomatic children exposed to Covid-19 in classrooms could be sent back to school by parents.
Health officials in Idaho are reporting dire circumstances as hospitals around the state continue to crumble under the delta-fueled surge of COVID-19 cases.
A group of six US Air employees sued the airline over its Covid-19 vaccine mandate, alleging that the airline hasn’t made reasonable accommodations for those seeking religious and medical exemptions.
All U.S. Olympians and Olympic hopefuls for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing must be vaccinated against COVID-19, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee announced.
A 40-year-old California mother of four who was “proudly” anti-vax, particularly anti-COVID-19 vaccine, died of complications due to the coronavirus.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson was released from a health facility in Chicago yesterday afternoon, a month after he was hospitalized to receive treatment for a breakthrough COVID-19 infection.
New York officials say an effort to force the state to allow religious exemptions to a Covid-19 vaccine mandate for health care workers would “gravely undermine” efforts to protect the public from the latest surge of the virus.
The MTA announced a crackdown on riders who skirt a state rule that requires them to wear a mask while on transit. The new enforcement push begins today.
Orange County legislators were set to take up a proposed resolution yesterday that would declare their opposition to any government orders requiring workers be vaccinated against COVID-19.
A Manhattan judge lifted a temporary restraining order on New York City’s mandate that public school staffers get vaccinated, clearing the way for the requirement to take effect on Monday.
Gov. Kathy Hochul announced an agreement to boost overtime pay at three state university-run hospitals in an effort to stem staff shortages amid the lingering coronavirus pandemic.
In a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Hochul said New York will need additional federal assistance to provide aid to tenants and landlords struggling due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the letter, Hochul noted that the state is slated to run through its $2.4 billion allocation by early October.
“New York’s need far exceeds available funding, and an additional allocation of federal funding will be required to address this crisis,” Hochul wrote.
Hochul is set to address The Business Council of New York State tomorrow at the organization’s annual retreat in Bolton Landing on Lake George, the group confirmed.
Hochul had a firm message for health care workers who face a deadline next week to be immunized for Covid-19: Get the shot or be replaced.
Hochul’s administration continued negotiations with multiple labor unions as vaccine mandate set to go into effect next week could result in thousands of unvaccinated health care workers facing suspension or potential termination from state-run hospitals.
The nearly 20 percent of workers at hospitals and nursing homes who refuse to get vaccinated against COVID-19 will be replaced — potentially by foreigners — once the state’s mandate goes into effect next week, Hochul said.
A new, state-commissioned study on the best site for a new Buffalo Bills stadium will wrap up soon and the state will release the document to the public, Hochul said.
Robin Chappelle Golston, the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Empire State Acts, is joining Hochul’s office as the executive deputy secretary to the governor.
Former Cortland mayor Marty Mack, who served in the administrations of two New York governors, is back for a third tour of duty. He’ll serve as Hochul’s appointments secretary.
Hochul announced her final two appointees to regulate the state’s adult-use marijuana market—a key step toward implementing the legalization law signed by her predecessor.
The newly named regulators – Reuben McDaniel III of the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York and Jessica García of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union – do not require confirmation by lawmakers.
Hochul’s support of two new electricity transmission lines to bring clean energy into the city is giving some hope to opponents of a proposed fossil fuel power plant in Queens.
Hochul was in Rochester yesterday to help announce Fortune 500 company Constellation Brands move its headquarters from Victor to the city’s downtown.
Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin and some 60 state legislators made the rounds in Greene County to get an inside look at the agriculture industry.
How affordable housing dollars are distributed may change as lawmakers move toward a new state housing plan next year.
The Assembly has committed to releasing its much-anticipated report into alleged wrongdoing by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo sometime in the coming weeks, though no one appears to know for sure exactly when.
The impartiality of the New York Independent Redistricting Commission was in question last week when it deadlocked on the proposed new boundaries for election districts — with Democrats and Republicans each releasing their own proposed maps.
A man who was being held at a New York City jail died, becoming the 12th person in city custody to die this year. Stephan Khadu, 24, died after being held at the Vernon C. Bain center, a floating jail barge that is docked just north of the Rikers Island jail complex.
After days of withering criticism over his handling of overcrowding on Rikers Island, Mayor Bill de Blasio squarely laid blame for the crisis at the feet of the union that represents corrections officers there.
De Blasio rebuffed demands by fellow Democratic lawmakers, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, for an instant release of all Rikers Island detainees due to increasingly dangerous conditions at the jail, refusing to “just open up the gates.”
The mayor could not say when he’ll visit the chaotic and dangerous Rikers Island, as advocates and politicians ripped the “missing in action” mayor for not touring the troubled lockup.
The de Blasio administration dropped its lawsuit against a correction officer union for allegedly enabling guards at the short-staffed Rikers Island jail complex to not show up for work after the group agreed to publicly rebuke jail guards who fake sick.
An Ulster County prison that had been free of COVID-19 knowingly admitted two inmates infected with the virus after Hochul ordered them transferred from Rikers Island — and another tested positive the next day,
As it reels from surging gun violence, NYC urged the Supreme Court to shoot down a lawsuit seeking to undermine local gun regulations.
The MTA today kicks off a lengthy public outreach process on its congestion pricing plan that will include 13 public hearings.
Councilmember Alicka Ampry-Samuel will join Biden’s administration after the commander in chief tapped the Brooklyn legislator to lead the HUD’s New York and New Jersey regional office.
Roughly 200 city schools saw a quarter of their kids absent from class on Tuesday.
A four-plus hour glitch in the FDNY Emergency Medical Services’ computerized dispatch system sent multiple ambulances to the same address while spawning delays of up to an hour in answering 911 calls.
R. Kelly was a predator who capitalized on his fame to prey on underage girls and boys and on women, a federal prosecutor said in her closing statements at the singer’s federal trial yesterday.
No matter the outcome of his federal trial in Brooklyn, Kelly still faces state and federal indictments in two other states, all stemming from what prosecutors describe as the R&B star’s sexual abuse of women and underage girls.
U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is backing a full reopening of the Canadian border, urging the Biden administration to allow non-essential travel of vaccinated Canadians into the country.
Tenants in the rapidly gentrifying City of Hudson could have their leases automatically renewed after the Common Council voted to pass a “good cause” eviction law this week.
Rensselaer County is expanding the area for testing wells for PFOA contamination to the south and east of Algonquin Middle School.
Best-selling author Stephen King agreed with fellow writer Don Winslow, who claimed news coverage given to missing Long Island native Gabby Petito over the past week was unlike the focus typically put on women of color who disappear.
A couple that lives across the street from Brian Laundrie’s Florida home said they saw the 23-year-old and his parents drive off hitching an “attached camper” on the same day that Petito was reported missing.
Netflix said it has agreed to buy the Roald Dahl Story Co., adding popular children’s stories like “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and “Matilda” to its stable as it looks to stock up on content amid rising competition in the streaming business.
It is not your imagination: There were more mosquitos biting unsuspecting outdoor enthusiasts than usual this summer. And they’re sticking around for a while.
