Good morning, it’s Wednesday – already in the middle of a nice, short, four-day workweek. A good way to ease back into the swing of things with summer over.
It’s also International Literacy Day, established by the UN in 1966 to highlight the importance of the ability to read and WRITE, which is critical to the success of any individual in our modern world. (Editor’s note: Clearly, I need to review my spelling and grammatical capabilities early in the morning).
A staggering 773 million young adults all over the globe lack literacy skills. In the U.S. alone, an estimated 32 million adults are illiterate.
If you can’t read, you are unable to take part in the most fundamental aspects of society – like, say, voting – but also can’t safely take medication or drive or simply order in a restaurant.
The theme of this year’s day is “Literacy for a human-centerd recovery: Narrowing the digital divide.”
The coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated the digital divide, exposing the fact that far too many people lack the connectivity necessary to access services, programs, work, classes, healthcare and just basic information in an ever more virtual reality.
The pandemic also wrecked havoc on education at all levels, forcing students into online learning in an effort to curb the spread of Covid-19. This was not optimal even for the best-prepared and most connected kids, but really took a tool on those living in marginalized, lower-income and/or rural communities where online access was limited.
In addition, many families can’t afford either computers or internet service, and as a result, you heard a lot of stories of kids trying to attend class or do their homework on hand-held devices while parked in library or fast foot lots, which was the only place they could get sufficient online access.
I, as you know, am a BIG fan of reading. (Some of you reading this might have been the beneficiaries of my book care packages at the height of the lockdown last year…there might be more where that came from, because my bedside table is getting very crowded again).
I prefer reading to pretty much every other form of entertainment – watching TV, movies, listening to the radio. I have, however, become a very big fan of podcasts, and listen to them while running very long distances.
I have become an expert on many obscure topics as as result of my newfound podcast obsession, but am always looking for new recommendations. Please send them my way.
It’s worth mentioning today’s Google Doodle, which honors the Swedish DJ known as “Avicii” (AKA Tim Bergling), who would have turned 32 today had he not taken his own life in 2018. The date falls this year amid National Suicide Prevention Week.
If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), text “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 or go to suicidepreventionlifeline.org.
After a spate of absolutely glorious weather, we are in for a bit of a downer, with sun early on in the day, giving way to clouds and thunderstorms later in the afternoon. Some of those storms could be severe, so be on the alert. Temperatures will be in the low 80s.
In the headlines…
President Joe Biden toured storm-ravaged areas of New York and New Jersey and placed blame for the devastation on climate change.
Biden declared climate change “everybody’s crisis” after touring the neighborhoods severely damaged by Ida. He said it’s time for America to get serious about the danger or face even worse loss of life and property.
“My message to everyone grappling with this devastation is: We’re here. We’re not going home til this gets done. I really mean that. We’re not leaving. We’re going to continue to shout as long as it takes to get real progress here, folks,” Biden said.
“They all tell us this is code red,” Biden said from a neighborhood in Queens, referencing research that shows more Americans are vulnerable to extreme weather events. “The nation and the world are in peril. And that’s not hyperbole. That is a fact.”
Biden received a hostile welcome from some North Jersey residents who heckled him and flashed middle fingers.
The Biden administration also said it will call on lawmakers in Washington to pass a short-term funding measure including upward of $24 billion for recovery efforts stemming from Hurricane Ida and other natural disasters.
The president is seizing on destruction wreaked by Hurricane Ida and its remnants to push for infrastructure and spending bills packed with funds to fight the climate crisis that could cement his legacy — and which sit on a knife-edge on Capitol Hill.
Biden expressed confidence Democratic Washington State Sen. Joe Manchin will get on board with Democrats plans for a multi-trillion-dollar reconciliation bill after the centrist senator called for lawmakers to hit “pause” on the package.
Congressional committees this week begin drafting tax increases on the wealthy and corporations to pay for a $3.5 trillion social policy bill, but the targets are putting up a fight.
Democrats and reproductive rights activists pressed the Biden administration to take more aggressive action to stop the Texas abortion law, even as administration officials and legal experts acknowledged it would be difficult to do.
Criminalizing abortion is unconstitutional, Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled, setting a precedent that could lead to legalization of the procedure across this conservative Catholic country of about 130 million people.
A 7.0 earthquake rattled south central Mexico last night, knocking out power in parts of Mexico City and threatening buildings in Acapulco.
Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law a Republican-backed bill tightening voting rules, as voting activists mobilize to fight the legislation with lawsuits.
Former President Donald Trump will hold two more campaign-style rallies in the coming weeks — one in Georgia and one in Iowa — as speculation continues to grow that he will make yet another run for the White House in 2024.
As COVID-19 case rates remain at a level not seen since before vaccines were widely available in the U.S., Biden is set to deliver remarks on a new strategy to stop the spread of the contagious delta variant, White House officials confirmed.
White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters traveling with Biden aboard Air Force One that he will lay out the six-pronged strategy “working across the public and private sectors to help continue to get the pandemic under control.”
Biden’s speech will also take place as his administration works to convince more Americans to get vaccinated against the virus, and with pressure increasing for vaccines to be authorized for children younger than 12 following outbreaks in schools.
Covid-19 is likely “here to stay with us” as the virus continues to mutate in unvaccinated countries across the world and previous hopes of eradicating it diminish, global health officials said.
The Covid-19 pandemic has severely set back the fight against other global scourges like H.I.V., tuberculosis and malaria, according to a sobering new report released yesterday.
At universities, some instructors are finding the return to the classroom a nerve-racking experience, especially in states that don’t have mask mandates. A few have quit — one in the middle of class.
Two tropical islands half a world apart and popular with tourists – Jamaica in the Caribbean and Sri Lanka in South Asia – are now among the highest-risk destinations for travelers, according to the CDC.
Despite the emergence of the more transmissible and vaccine-resistant mu variant of COVID-19, officials from the World Health Organization are calling the delta variant the “most concerning” strain.
The vaccine-resistant mu COVID variant might not be as much a cause for concern as some have predicted, according to New York City health officials, who said the strain appears to be less virulent than the now-predominant delta variant.
Dr. Anthony Fauci has been accused by critics of lying after newly released documents appear to contradict his claims that the National Institute of Health did not fund gain-of-function research at China’s Wuhan lab.
The National Institutes of Health has announced a $1.67 million study to investigate reports that suggest the COVID-19 vaccine may come with an unexpected impact on reproductive health.
The U.S. economy is facing a slowdown in September, rather than the takeoff once hoped for.
A year and a half into the pandemic, many workers have yet to return to offices. But plenty others have been coming in since the early days of Covid-19 – and they have much to say about what to expect.
Roughly $463 million in weekly unemployment assistance for New York City residents is ending, threatening to upend the city’s economic rebound and slashing the only source of income for some to pay rent and buy groceries in a city rife with inequality.
A mandate that required New York state employees to either be vaccinated or tested weekly for COVID-19 was pushed back from Sept. 7 to Oct. 12.
Good-government reform groups urged Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration to publish more than 100 datasets related to COVID-19 to help the public better understand the pandemic and ongoing public health crisis.
Andy Pallotta, the president of New York State United Teachers (NYSUT), said that the union supports mandatory testing, but not mandatory vaccinations.
The NYC Department of Education has allocated $350 million in federal funding to combat educational damage wrought by the coronavirus pandemic.
Hochul directed the state health commissioner to label the virus a highly contagious disease that presents a serious risk of harm to the public health. It essentially makes the HERO Act, passed back in May, official.
Patrick Foye has informed Hochul that he won’t be taking the helm of Empire State Development, after he was tapped as interim chief by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Disgraced, ex-Cuomo may be gone but the long shadow he cast over the New York government empire over a decade — filled with entrenched loyalists — will remain for years.
Hochul announced that $6 million is available for 150 climate justice fellowships, which will provide opportunities for people who are a part of historically disadvantaged or from priority populations.
The NYC medical examiner’s office is still working painstakingly to identify 9/11 victims. There are 1,106 victims whose remains have not been found.
Nearly 20 years to the day that terrorists slammed hijacked airplanes into New York’s World Trade Center, the city’s medical examiner identified the remains of two of the attack’s nearly 3,000 victims.
Marvel heroes Captain America and Spider-Man remember those lost on Sept. 11 in an eight-page story that is included in some Marvel comics out today.
The city’s Department of Correction hired a telemarketing firm to ring up recent retirees and convince them to come back to work amid historically low staffing levels at Rikers Island, Commissioner Vincent Schiraldi said.
An inmate awaiting trial on Rikers Island was found dead of a suspected overdose at the city’s jail yesterday morning – the 10th prisoner to die there in 2021.
Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said that he met earlier this year with actor Michael K. Williams — who died this week of a suspected heroin overdose — and discussed efforts to “collaborate” with the NYPD.
Park Strategies, the Albany lobbying firm founded by U.S. Sen. Alfonse D’Amato, says it has created a new practice based in Syracuse and focused on the regulation of cannabis.
As Nancy Salzman awaits sentencing, some who fell prey to the NXIVM cultlike group say her enabling made the group’s misdeeds possible.
Lawyers for Salzman say the NXIVM co-founder deserves no time in prison for the federal crimes she committed as Keith Raniere’s fiercely loyal underboss.
The state Inspector General’s office is investigating the state’s troubled oversight of Prestige Limousine, the firm that rented the flawed limo that crashed in the Schoharie County countryside, killing 20 people when its brakes failed on a steep road.
A group of Black Lives Matter activists were detained by police outside of Saratoga Springs City Hall last night as they were protesting ahead of a City Council meeting.
State Police said a 66-year-old Saranac Lake man was drunk when he drove the wrong way on the Northway last Friday night and crashed into a car head-on, killing two people.
Elected officials announced last night that former 19th Congressional District GOP candidate Kyle Van De Water has died at the age of 41; the circumstances surrounding his death are unclear, but it appears to be an apparent suicide.
Britney Spears’s father, James P. Spears, who agreed earlier this summer to eventually step down from his own role in her conservatorship, filed a petition asking the court to “now seriously consider whether (it) is no longer required.”
In a court filing, the elder Spears cited his daughter’s pleas at two separate court hearings over the summer in his request to terminate the 13-year conservatorship.
His petition also argued that probate code doesn’t require Britney Spears to undergo a new psychological evaluation to terminate the guardianship, which she told the court she refuses to do.
