Good Thursday morning. We’ll be keeping things on the short side today, as I slept through the alarm and am getting a bit of a late start, which means I woke up at 3 a.m. instead of the usual 2:30 a.m.
It doesn’t seem like much, but losing that half hour will have me running behind all day long.
This month, by the way, is Sourdough September, in celebration of what supporters are insistent on calling “real” sourdough, which is a mix of water and cereal flour containing a culture of naturally occurring yeasts and lactic acid bacteria that is then used to make bread (most often), pancakes or whatever else your mind can dream up.
There’s something called the “Real Bread Campaign,” which basically rejects what backers call “sourfaux” – products that are named or marketed using the word “sourdough” but that were in fact made using baker’s yeast and/or one or more additives. NOT REAL, they insist.
In my opinion, though, you do you. Blasphemous, I know, but if all you’ve got is baker’s yeast, which was (as you might recall) in very short supply, along with flour, at the outset of the pandemic when everyone got bit by the sourdough bug because they were going stir crazy locked down and hiding from Covid-19, then you have to make do.
Though “wild” yeasts are naturally occurring and are in the air, which means you supposedly can capture them to make your bread…but I’ve never managed to do it.
Also, confession: My sourdough was hard as a rock and my starter kicked the bucket long ago. It’s the Jim Lahey/Mark Bittman no-knead bread for me every time. It’s basically foolproof, unless you leave it in the oven too long (done that), and it’s delicious – especially hot and slathered with butter.
And yes, carbs (though preferably not the super-refined sort all the time) are good for you, they give you the energy you need to get things done. Team Bread, count me in.
Last night was a bit of a stressful experience, as the storm and the heavy thunder scared the daylights out of Henry. We’re both running a little ragged this morning. The showers will continue through the early part of the day, giving way to cloudy skies in the afternoon, with temperatures around 70 degrees.
The weekend looks glorious, so hang in there.
In the headlines…
The Biden administration has asked 18 members of military service advisory boards, including 11 officials appointed by former President Trump, to resign or be fired, the White House confirmed.
The officials include prominent presidential advisors — like ex-counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway and ex-press secretary Sean Spicer —who were appointed to Air Force Academy and Naval Academy boards respectively just before Trump left office.
Not surprisingly, neither of them were eager to depart, and they had a lot to say about Biden’s presidency – none of it good.
Trump responded to a message from the mother of Lance Cpl. Rylee McCollum, a 20-year-old Marine who was killed last month along with 12 other U.S. service members outside Kabul’s airport, consoling her for her loss.
More Americans in six critical swing states disapprove of the job Biden is doing than approve as the administration tries to recover from the bungled military pullout in Afghanistan and a resurgence of COVID cases across the country, according to a new poll.
The Biden administration reportedly is preparing to sue Texas over its new law banning most abortions, an action that would set off a federal-state clash at a time when the future of abortion rights becomes an ever-more-pressing question before the courts.
The White House is asking Congress to pass a law providing green cards for the tens of thousands of Afghans the Biden administration evacuated from Kabul and is bringing to the U.S. on temporary humanitarian grounds.
Only one day after the Taliban named an acting cabinet to lead the nation they spent two decades trying to conquer, the dizzying challenges that accompanied victory were coming into sharp relief.
Refugees have drawn an angry response from many in Pakistan, leading to discrimination and efforts to force them to go back to Afghanistan.
A centrist Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee said Biden should nominate Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to a second term, the latest volley in an intraparty rift over the future leadership of the Fed.
The Supreme Court late yesterday blocked Texas from executing an inmate who argued the state would violate his religious rights by refusing to allow his pastor to lay hands upon him and recite prayers as authorities put him to death.
The court also agreed to review the case on its merits, without noted dissents. The court’s brief order said the case would be argued in October or November.
The Biden administration released a blueprint showing how the U.S. could move toward producing almost half of its electricity from the sun by 2050 — a big step toward fighting climate change but one that would require vast upgrades to the electric grid.
Biden will announce today new steps in his administration’s COVID-19 response that involves testing, mandates, and school measures depending on a person’s vaccination status, the White House said.
The speech, which will include a “six-pronged strategy” focused on containing the delta variant and boosting vaccination rates, is a tacit acknowledgement that efforts have so far fallen short of Biden’s campaign promise to bring the pandemic under control.
His speech will coincide with a frightening new dimension of the emergency, with children now representing about one in four new infections, with hundreds in hospitals, a surge that is terrifying parents and threatening in-person school.
The Delta surge appears to have peaked in Florida and other states that drove the most recent Covid-19 surge, offering some relief after the variant upended what many thought would be a more normal summer.
United Airlines employees who are granted exemptions to a company vaccinate mandate for religious reasons will be put on temporary unpaid leave starting next month, the airline told staff Wednesday, citing the recent rise in Covid cases.
The UN-backed backed program to vaccinate the world against Covid-19 slashed its forecast for doses available in 2021, another setback for an effort that has been hampered by production problems, export bans and vaccine hoarding by wealthy nations.
The head of the World Health Organization called for a moratorium on using coronavirus booster shots until the end of the year — or longer.
Los Angeles is poised to become the first major school district in the nation to mandate coronavirus vaccines for students 12 and older who are attending class in person.
Amid the Idaho coronavirus surge that prompted officials to authorize hospitals to ration health care, Army soldiers sent to one hospital have traded their fatigues for personal protective equipment to help treat a flood of infected patients.
While COVID-19 cases continue to spike across the U.S., the overwhelming majority of deaths and hospitalizations from the virus continue to overwhelmingly be among unvaccinated Americans, according to data from the CDC.
In those rare cases when a fully vaccinated person gets infected, data suggests it’s older adults and those with multiple underlying medical conditions who are most at risk of serious illness.
Podcast host Joe Rogan wondered if he should sue CNN after the liberal network accused him of distributing misinformation after taking ivermectin, an antiparasitic drug that has recently prompted federal health warnings, during his battle with COVID-19.
A Manhattan court officer lieutenant who was ardently opposed to taking the coronavirus vaccine has died of COVID-19.
Employers in New York will soon be required to follow new COVID-19 safety standards, including mandatory mask wearing for many workers, under a newly enacted state law.
The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade will once again grace New York City’s streets after being forced to substantially scale back its offerings last year due to COVID.
New York has delayed its requirement that state employees get vaccinated against the coronavirus or undergo weekly tests by more than a month to Oct. 12, the same day telecommuting workers are now scheduled to return to their offices.
Unemployment insurance benefits are too low and the federal government should provide New York with the funds to raise the payouts, state Assembly Labor Committee Chair Latoya Joyner and 18 of her Democratic colleagues told federal officials.
Unvaccinated members of the NYPD will soon have to provide a negative COVID-19 test or be sent home without pay.
Gov. Kathy Hochul unveiled a “vax to school” campaign to encourage educators and students to be vaccinated and said state employees are to be vaccinated by Oct. 12 or face weekly testing.
Hochul did not rule out mandating vaccines for eligible teenagers in New York State.
Kids who 12 to 17 years old are lagging behind all of the other age groups in the state when it comes to getting vaccinated; 50% are fully vaccinated, and the governor says that number has to go up.
“We’re going to hit a crisis level with respect to staffing in health care facilities, hospitals, nursing homes,” Hochul said.
The status of up to 36,000 unvaccinated NYC Department of Education workers — including more than 15,000 teachers — remains in limbo this week amid ongoing talks between the city and union representatives.
Hochul vowed to “professionalize” the boards that control the MTA and other state agencies — and said she would be demanding the resignations of unqualified cronies appointed by her disgraced predecessor.
Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg publicly advised Hochul to avoid becoming a political “panderer” — and said homeless people need to be swept off the streets and subways to ensure the city’s comeback from the coronavirus crisis.
“I think what the governor has to do is reach out to everybody, not try to be everybody’s friend, not give everybody everything they want,” Bloomberg said. “She’s got to say, ‘This is what’s right for the city.’ She’s got to be a leader, not a panderer.”
Hochul signed a bill into law that will require all passenger vehicles sold in the state to be emission-free by 2035.
State Attorney General Letitia James has issued at least one subpoena to the state’s ethics agency for all records on disgraced ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s $5 million book deal, as part of her office’s criminal investigation into the matter.
The subpoena was issued in connection with a criminal investigation that the attorney general is conducting into whether Cuomo’s use of government workers to assist him in writing the book violated any laws.
The state Assembly Judiciary Committee’s wide-ranging investigation into Cuomo and a variety of controversies that faced his office over the last year could wrap up its work by Oct. 1, a lawmaker who sits on the panel said
The conviction of one of Cuomo’s top aides, Joe Percoco, for fraud and accepting bribes was affirmed by a federal appeals court.
During his appeal, Percoco’s lawyers argued that the jury was given improper instructions regarding bribery and honest services fraud. The three appellate court judges rejected that claim in an unanimous ruling.
The appeals court also upheld the conviction of Steven Aiello, a Syracuse real estate executive who was sentenced to three years in prison for his role in funneling bribes to Percoco to gain his influence in an ambitious Buffalo Billion development project.
Alain Kaloyeros, the former physics professor who founded Albany Nanotech and made the Capital Region one of the most important centers of computer chip research in the world, has lost his appeal of his 2018 conviction in a federal bid-rigging cases.
A Brooklyn federal judge has ordered that only COVID-19 vaccinated New Yorkers may serve on an upcoming criminal trial jury, issuing a terse ruling that defense lawyers fear will impact the panel’s racial makeup.
Two decades after the attack on New York City, the Police Department is using counterterrorism tools and tactics to combat routine street crime.
With the 20th anniversary of 9/11 quickly approaching, Mayor Bill de Blasio and NYPD officials said there’s no “specific and credible” terror threat against New York City, but that they’re treating the somber occasion as “an elevated threat environment.”
“We have developed a robust security overlay for the upcoming ceremony marking the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks,” Martine Materasso, chief of the NYPD’s Counterterrorism Bureau, said during the mayor’s daily press briefing.
A convoy of five Chevy Camaros featuring the names of every person killed in the 2001 terrorist attacks rolled into New York City on yesterday after another emotional tour across the country.
Democratic NYC mayoral candidate Eric Adams rarely speaks publicly about his role as an NYPD lieutenant securing the obliterated World Trade Center the night after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
Adam Perry, a lawyer from Buffalo whose expertise includes advising clients on the marijuana industry, was named to the state’s new Cannabis Control Board.
Perry is Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie’s pick to sit on the Board.
Nancy Salzman, the Nxivm “prefect,” left 20 years of “trauma and destruction” in her wake, a judge said as he sentenced her to 42 months in prison after she pleaded guilty to a single count of racketeering conspiracy.
Salzman also must pay a fine of $150,000 and serve three years of supervised release after her incarceration ends. The 67-year-old Halfmoon resident is scheduled to report to prison on Jan. 19.
Brian Downey, the deputy mayor of Airmont, N.Y., was arrested on federal and state gun charges after authorities found “an arsenal of weapons” along with more than a dozen fake police badges that spoofed various agencies.
Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan announced that the city’s unionized and non-union workers will receive extra pay from the pool of nearly $81 million the city is getting from the federal government’s coronavirus bailout plan.
The arrests of four Black Lives Matter activists on warrants for disorderly conduct sparked a protest rally outside the police station at Saratoga Springs City Hall Tuesday night.
Hoboken Brownstone Co. and the City of Troy revealed a $64 million plan last night to redevelop 1 Monument Square with a six-story mixed use building that delivers what residents and business owners said they wanted to see go up at the 1.1-acre site.
The State University of New York in Schenectady launched a new, “no-cost or low-cost” apprenticeship program for future brewers and or distillers trying to break into the profession, the school shared in a press release.
Matt Castelli, a Democrat, former CIA officer and counterterrorism official, is vying for GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik’s North Country congressional seat.
New York Yankees legend Derek Jeter is officially a baseball Hall of Famer. Jeter — along with Marvin Miller, Ted Simmons and Larry Walker — were inducted yesterday, a year after their original induction ceremony was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s been a hell of a ride,” Jeter said, closing out a long-overdue afternoon of speeches and remembrance.
During his induction speech, Jeter called out the one baseball writer who did not vote him into the Baseball of Hall Fame.
