Good morning. It’s Friday. Boy, did that come fast, or what?
Today is Global Handwashing Day, which would be worth mentioning even if we weren’t still in the midst of (at the tail end of? at the stay of the next wave of? who knows anymore?) the coronavirus pandemic.
There is perhaps no easier and more worthwhile endeavor in which one can engage to protect oneself from dirt, chemicals, germs, bacteria, and viruses – COVID, flu, you name it – than a vigorous scrub with some good old soap and water.
It’s even better than hand sanitizer, and also cheaper. Win-win.
At the beginning of the pandemic, we were all washing our hands like crazy, and reviewing some of that basic kindergarten knowledge about the right way to do so. I’m sure you know the drill by now: wash often for at least 20 seconds, especially after you have been in a public place and also after blowing your nose, coughing or sneezing.
Also, you should turn off the tap BEFORE you apply the soap, rub your hands together vigorously while humming “Happy Birthday” twice through, pay attention to your nails, in between your fingers, AND the backs of your hands, rinse and then turn the tap off with a paper towel (or even your sleeve, in a pinch).
Air drying is also effective, though it certainly does take longer.
Back to Global Handwashing Day, which precedes the pandemic by quite a lot. It was established by the Global Handwashing Partnership in 2008 to help motivate people to improve their hand washing habits.
The day was promoted by the UN General Assembly when it first took place during World Water Week in Stockholm, Sweden. (That, by the way, is a a week-long global water conference that addresses the issues of sustainability with water consumption and development).
This year’s theme, according to the official Global Handwashing Day website, (because of course we have one of those), is: “Our Future is at Hand – Let’s Move Forward Together.” It calls for coordinated action as we work toward universal hand hygiene.
Sadly, our week of dry weather is coming to an end today. We will have rain showers, starting in the evening today and then continuing on and off through the weekend, which is a serious bummer.
In the headlines…
The two leading Democratic moderates made clear to their colleagues this week that a deal on the party’s sweeping economic package is far from secured, raising new questions about the fate of President Joe Biden’s first-term agenda.
U.S. Senator Kyrsten Sinema, a key moderate, told fellow Democrats in the House this week that she will not vote for a multi-trillion dollar package.
Biden signed a bill raising the debt ceiling, averting a default for at least another month.
Biden is visiting Connecticut today.
The White House has been consulting with the oil industry to seek a remedy for rising gasoline prices as surging inflation threatens to tarnish the economic recovery.
Proposals to expand the size of the Supreme Court face skepticism from some members of the commission Biden appointed to consider overhauling the federal judiciary. But there is something closer to a consensus that term limits for justices is worth exploring.
Biden’s pick for a top banking regulatory position said that she was an “anti-communist” while attending school in the Soviet Union and that critics accusing her of radicalism are lashing out against her because of her heritage and gender.
The Senate will hold a procedural vote next week on voting legislation, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has announced.
Initial jobless claims fell below 300,000 for the first time since the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Labor Department said.
In another sign the jobs market is getting closer to its old self, first-time claims for unemployment insurance totaled 293,000, the best level since March 14, 2020, which saw 256,000 claims just as the Covid-19 spread intensified.
Companies are holding on tightly to employees at the same time few other workers are available and prices are rising in wholesale markets facing supply constraints, both factors contributing to higher inflation.
Some economists are concerned that worsening worker shortages reflect longer-term shifts, such as the pandemic-driven acceleration of retirements, that won’t reverse.
Vaccine experts advising the Food and Drug Administration voted 19 to 0 to recommend authorization of an extra dose of Moderna Covid-19 shot, a key step in making booster doses available to millions more people.
A Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel will vote on whether to back a booster dose of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine later today after two days of debate between scientists from the U.S. and abroad.
Biden encouraged the 66 million Americans who are eligible to receive a coronavirus vaccine but remain unvaccinated to get their shots, stressing that immunization status shouldn’t be a cause of further division in the country.
Biden said medical experts will make a decision on whether young children should be vaccinated within the next few weeks.
The White House is closing in on former Food and Drug Administration commissioner Robert M. Califf as its choice to serve again as the agency’s leader.
The U.S. Navy announced that it is preparing to discharge sailors who refuse vaccination for COVID-19 as mandated by the Pentagon, and the service members who get the boot over their noncompliance run the risk of losing some veterans benefits.
New rules allowing fully vaccinated travelers returning to England to take lateral-flow coronavirus tests instead of more expensive PCR tests will come into force on October 24.
Coronaviruses discovered in Laotian bats are surprisingly adept at infecting human cells, showing that such deadly features can indeed evolve outside of a lab.
An Alaska state senator’s refusal to wear a mask on a plane forced her to drive 750 miles and take a ferry to vote against a public health emergency bill. Now, she has COVID-19.
Biden announced the donation of millions of coronavirus vaccines to a group of African countries during a meeting with President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya, which is contending with the pandemic and an unfolding humanitarian disaster in neighboring Ethiopia.
Six million New York City residents have received at least one dose of the COVID vaccine — a milestone Mayor Bill de Blasio touted as “unbelievable.”
A Manhattan matrimonial judge has suspended a Long Island father’s visitation with his 3-year-old daughter unless he gets vaccinated or submits to weekly COVID-19 tests.
New York’s state tests will go on as they did before the pandemic, which upended the tests for two consecutive school years, department officials confirmed.
Emily’s List, the fund-raising juggernaut dedicated to electing women who back abortion rights, threw its support behind Gov. Kathy Hochul’s campaign for a full term as New York governor.
Laphonza Butler, the president of EMILY’s List, pointed to Hochul’s leadership in the wake of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s resignation – specifically her focus on a culture of sexual harassment in Albany – in her statement endorsing the governor.
Three Democratic county leaders from Onondaga, Monroe and Albany also endorsed Hochul’s bid for a full term next year ahead of what could be a competitive party primary come June.
U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand won’t be running for governor in 2022.
De Blasio isn’t a serious enough candidate to land a spot on the Marist Institute for Public Opinion’s shortlist comparing the likely success of Democratic hopefuls in a 2022 gubernatorial primary.
There are five statewide ballot proposals this year. One of them would amend the apportionment and redistricting process in New York State.
Hochul wants to “blow up” JCOPE, she told good-government advocates, but it’s unclear how she plans to do that.
Albany County District Attorney David Soares called for cashless bail but also increased discretion for courts to weigh a person’s perceived dangerousness before releasing them during an Assembly committee hearing on gun violence.
North Country Rep. Elise Stefanik led a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) requesting an investigation into New York State’s practice preventing broadband buildout in the state by imposing fees in violation of federal law.
A teenager who last month pleaded guilty to murder in the killing of an 18-year-old Barnard student was sentenced to nine years to life in prison.
The trial of ex-Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas took a bizarre turn when his lawyer accused a prosecutor on the case of threatening to shoot him.
New York real estate heir Robert Durst was sentenced to life in prison without chance of parole for the murder of his friend Susan Berman more that two decades ago.
The notorious Manhattan federal jail where Jeffrey Epstein hanged himself in 2019 will be empty by the end of the week, court papers reveal.
NYPD officer Yvonne Wu was charged with murder and attempted murder for allegedly shooting her ex-girlfriend and killing the woman’s new lover in a jealous fit of rage, police said.
The number of prisoners who killed themselves while in the custody of the city’s Department of Correction in 2021 is more than the past five years combined, according to data released by a federal monitor.
New York City mayoral candidate Eric Adams declared his administration “won’t be sitting back” amid a spike in shoplifting that has emboldened thieves stripping some store shelves bare.
An obscure city commission that was poised to rubber stamp the removal of Thomas Jefferson’s statue from City Hall because he was a slave owner will now hold a public hearing on the matter.
Businesses along New York State’s northern border were celebrating the news that fully vaccinated Canadians would soon be allowed into the United States again.
Fights on school grounds and poor working conditions are contributing to widespread burnout among educators at two urban Capital Region districts that last year saw their programs decimated by pandemic-related cuts.
Five Albany schools were forced into a 90-minute lockout yesterday morning after the city district received a bomb threat against three South End schools.
In the aftermath of a deadly shooting at a private club, the City of Albany is defending its oversight of problem properties on their watchlist.
Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin is proposing a 2022 budget with a 10 percent property tax cut.
Former President Bill Clinton, 75, was admitted to a hospital in California this week with an infection unrelated to Covid-19, a spokesman said.
Two people familiar with the matter said that Clinton was hospitalized due to sepsis. Another source said he is doing well and is currently in the ICU for privacy reasons.
Former President Donald Trump is expected to testify on Monday at Trump Tower as part of a lawsuit brought by a group of activists who said that they were violently attacked by his bodyguards in 2015.
A city panel approved a new operator to take over a Bronx public golf course run by Trump’s company — but two members cast “no” votes, citing concerns about what one called a “rushed” process.
Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz, now 23, will reportedly plead guilty to all 17 counts of premeditated murder and 17 counts of attempted murder.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allowed Texas’s restrictive abortion law to remain in place.
Johnson & Johnson placed into bankruptcy its liabilities for tens of thousands of lawsuits linking talc-based products to cancer, betting the move will help drive a settlement of personal-injury claims that are expected to grow for decades to come.
A federal grand jury in Texas indicted a former Boeing pilot, alleging that he deceived air-safety regulators about a flight-control system later blamed for sending two 737 MAX jets into fatal nosedives.
