And, exhale. It’s Friday.
So, those of who you have been here a while know that I have transitioned from a cat person to a full-on dog lover. I’m not sure exactly how that happened, maybe I got soft in my old age?
You know, no longer into that whole aloof and obnoxious thing, but more about the unconditional love thing?
Or maybe I just never really gave dogs a fair shake. I thought the picking up of some other animal’s poo was really gross and something I could never understand, though have you ever cleaned a litter box? It’s 1,000 times more disgusting that picking up poo with a plastic bag any day.
You know I’m right, cat lovers. Litter boxes are gross. I don’t understand how Curtis Sliwa does it.
This is all a buildup to the big announcement, which I’m sure you’ve guessed by now: It’s National Cat Day.
A lifestyle writer named Colleen Paige has reportedly taken credit for establishing this day in 2005, to “help galvanize the public to recognize the number of cats that need to be rescued each year and also to encourage cat lovers to celebrate the cat(s) in their lives for the unconditional love and companionship they bestow upon us.”
According to the journal Science, all domestic cats descended from a Middle Eastern wildcat, Felis sylvestris, which literally means “cat of the woods.” Cats were first domesticated in the Near East – a process some speculate started taking place 12,000 years ago.
Some scientists argue that cats actually domesticated themselves, which would be SO TOTALLY IN CHARACTER. I dearly hope it’s true.
Compared to dogs, who have been more or less domesticated and controlled by humans for millennia, humans have been breeding cats for less than 1,000 years. Again: Totally fitting.
Cats are reportedly more popular than dogs in 91 countries across the globe – but not the U.S., or the UK. According to one recent report, New York City had the highest number of cat- or dog-tagged photos in the world, but 59.6% focused felines.
Also, if you’re looking to improve your IQ, you might consider adopting a furry feline friend. A 2017 report in the Human-Animal Interaction Bulletin, self-identified cat lovers tended to have higher intelligence than dog lovers, but were also less outgoing.
And here’s a bonus: adopting a cat tends to be less expensive than adopting a dog – at least when it comes to adoption fees, or so says the Humane Society.
We’re in for another nice day, with a few passing clouds but otherwise sunny skies and temperatures in the mid-to-high-70s. Sadly, the weekend is not looking so great. Why, Mother Nature? What have I done to you to deserve all this rain? Boo hiss.
Oh, and happy belated 135th birthday to the Statue of Liberty, I’m not sure how I missed that one yesterday.
In the headlines…
The Albany County Sheriff’s Office filed a criminal complaint against former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, alleging he forcibly touched a former executive assistant.
A misdemeanor criminal complaint filed in Albany City Court alleges that Cuomo, 63, “did intentionally, and for no legitimate purpose, forcibly place his hand under the blouse shirt of the victim…and onto her intimate body part.”
It said that Cuomo touched the victim’s left breast “for the purposes of degrading and gratifying his sexual desires, all contrary to the provisions of the statute.”
The complaint was a serious and potentially devastating development for Cuomo, as he continues to fight the allegations and attempts to discredit the report.
Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple said investigators filed the misdemeanor charge in Albany City Court, and a summons was issued to Cuomo to appear on Nov. 17. A state court system spokesman provided the complaint and confirmed a summons was issued.
Forcible touching is a Class A misdemeanor. If convicted, Cuomo could be sentenced up to a year in prison, to up to three years of probation.
The name of the victim was redacted from the complaint but a lawyer representing former Cuomo aide Brittany Commisso, 33, acknowledged it’s her.
The summons was reportedly issued without the consent of Commisso, or her attorney, Brian D. Premo, according to sources familiar with the matter.
“Like the rest of the public, we were surprised to learn today that a criminal complaint was filed,” Albany County District Attorney David Soares said in a statement.
In another statement, Cuomo’s personal lawyer, Rita Glavin, said the governor had “never assaulted anyone” and described Apple’s motives as “patently improper.”
“‘The truth about what happened with this cowboy sheriff will come out,” Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi said.
In a last-minute push before heading overseas, and after months of torturous negotiations, President Joe Biden announced a “framework” of his economic plan in an effort to get all Democrats behind his social spending and climate policy agenda.
The product of months of tense negotiations between moderate and progressive lawmakers, the new framework contains more details than anything else the White House has released thus far. But it may not be enough to win over key congressional holdouts.
The outline pegs the final price tag at $1.75 trillion and divulges key details on the majority party’s bid to turn many of President Joe Biden’s campaign-trail promises into law. But the real text of the bill is still being finalized.
Biden outlined $1.85 trillion in proposed tax increases and other revenue generators to pay for his social and climate agenda, offering a hodgepodge of strategies designed to navigate red lines set by the administration and congressional Democrats.
By last night, with Biden heading for Rome aboard Air Force One, the House Progressive Caucus had slammed the door shut on prospects of a quick win.
The House instead voted last night to temporarily reauthorize transportation funding, abruptly reversing course after Democratic leaders earlier vowed to pass a bipartisan Senate-approved infrastructure bill.
The move came after progressives refused to relent in their opposition to the $550 billion infrastructure bill amid a standoff over the Democrats’ separate, party-line $1.75 trillion social spending measure.
Lawmakers similarly passed a short-term patch a month ago when House Democrats were unable to clear the Senate-passed bipartisan infrastructure bill that would renew the highway programs for five years.
With just more than a year until the midterms, there are ominous signs for Biden’s Democratic Party as it faces losing control of Congress.
The Vatican abruptly canceled the planned live broadcast of Biden meeting Pope Francis, the latest restriction to media coverage of the Holy See that sparked complaints from White House- and Vatican-accredited journalists.
It will be the first time in more than half a century that a Roman Catholic U.S. leader has met at the Vatican with the head of the Catholic Church.
Biden announced that he has appointed Sara Minkara, who lost her eyesight when she was seven years old, to serve as U.S. special adviser on international disability rights.
Migrant families separated at the border by the Trump administration may be eligible to each receive hundreds of thousands of dollars in compensation for the damage inflicted on them by the policy.
The U.S. Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services are considering payments that could amount to close to $1 million a family, though the final numbers could shift.
The payments are under consideration to settle lawsuits filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and others on behalf of the families who crossed the border.
China placed a third city under lockdown to tackle Covid-19 numbers, with around six million people now under orders to stay home as Beijing chases zero cases before the upcoming Winter Olympics.
The rest of the world is reopening, including New Zealand and Australia, which also once embraced zero tolerance. China is now the only country still chasing full eradication of the virus.
Norway’s current increase in coronavirus infections is sowing concerns of a “bigger wave” come winter, despite widespread vaccination.
A recently discovered sub-variant of Covid-19′s delta strain now makes up 10% of new U.K. cases — but scientists have said there’s no reason to panic.
Recently released federal data sheds light on how common breakthrough Covid-19 cases really were this past summer, how severe they became and who was most at risk.
Federal scientists estimated that more than 40 percent of children aged 5 to 11 had been infected with the coronavirus by June. Outside experts aren’t so sure.
The state of Florida sued Biden’s administration over its coronavirus vaccine mandate for federal contractors, opening yet another battleground between Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and the White House.
The U.S. Department of Education (DOE) issued a “cease and desist complaint” to the Florida DOE after the latter department withheld funding from Florida public schools over mask mandates.
Florida has seen a dramatic reversal of fortune this week with some of the lowest COVID numbers in the country, marking a dramatic change from this summer when it ranked among the worst.
Some patients develop symptoms of psychosis after getting COVID-19, causing scientists to surmise that the virus is causing the body to attack the brain.
Missouri’s Republican Gov. Mike Parson said his administration won’t help enforce Biden’s federal COVID-19 vaccine mandate in some limited instances.
As more workplaces initiate a vaccine mandate policy for employees, nearly 5% of unvaccinated workers have decided to quit their jobs in protest, a new survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation said.
A Staten Island judge denied a police union’s request to temporarily halt the implementation of New York City’s vaccine mandate that is set to take effect November 1.
The NYPD’s largest police union is taking another shot at stopping the city from forcing cops to get the COVID-19 vaccine, filing an appeal to the judge’s decision.
City officials are bracing for the possibility that thousands of essential workers could be placed on unpaid leave starting Monday, when the sweeping mandate requiring that almost all municipal workers receive at least one dose of a vaccine takes effect.
The NYPD is planning a two-day retirement fair at police headquarters for what could be a surge of cops who’d rather end their careers than take the COVID shot.
Internal NYPD data on vaccination rates includes arresting figures: some city neighborhoods are patrolled by a workforce that is nearly 50% unvaccinated.
The president of the NYC firefighters union said: “I have told my members that if they choose to remain unvaccinated, they must still report for duty.”
Mountains of trash are piling up in front of homes across the city — and a lot of New Yorkers are bitter towards Sanitation workers who they suspect are in a work slowdown over Mayor Bill de Blasio’s looming mandate that they get COVID-19 vaccinations.
Anti-vaxxers took their fight against New York City vaccine mandates to the mayor’s front door, protesting outside Gracie Mansion a day ahead of a deadline for municipal workers to get a shot or be suspended without pay.
De Blasio didn’t bat an eye at flagging coronavirus vaccination rates for cops, firefighters and garbage collectors — even as the deadline for his municipal workforce vaccine mandate loomed just hours away.
“It is about overtime, it is about shifting assignments to where there’s particular need,” de Blasio said at a press briefing this week when asked about how the city will fill-in for first responders, if coverage is needed.
Eric Adams, who’s all but guaranteed to win the NYC mayoral election, won’t say whether the fast-approaching vaccine mandate deadline for city workers should be delayed despite predictions that 20 percent of fire companies and ambulances will go dark.
New guidance from the New York State Department of Health gives local health departments more autonomy in regards to how COVID-19 protocols are implemented in schools.
Weekly jobless claims fell in the latest week, setting a marginal new pandemic-era low as the labor market slowly recovers to levels before COVID-19 walloped the global economy.
Initial unemployment benefits, a proxy for layoffs, decreased to 281,000 last week from a revised 291,000 a week earlier, the Labor Department said.
The U.S. economy grew at the slowest pace of the recovery in the third quarter, but economists expect strong consumer demand and an easing pandemic to boost growth in the coming months despite lingering supply constraints.
New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams filed papers with the state Board of Elections to run in a 2022 primary against Gov. Kathy Hochul, getting a jump on state Attorney General Letitia James, who is expected to announce her own gubernatorial run.
Williams is exploring a run for governor even as he is poised to win his first full term as public advocate after five elections.
Fordham Law professor Zephyr Teachout, a scholar on political corruption, registered a campaign committee to raise money for an attorney general bid, according to a state Board of Elections filing.
Hochul has promised to recuse herself from all state business involving her husband’s company, Buffalo-based gambling and hospitality giant Delaware North.
Hochul, under pressure from government watchdog groups, released details of a plan to recuse herself from all matters involving Delaware North, the casino and concessions company where her husband is a top executive.
The plan also included recusal arrangements for Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin and Karen Persichilli Keogh, Hochul’s top aide.
William Hochul has also agreed – in a document the governor signed – to recuse himself from any supervisory role over Delaware North government affairs or corporate compliance staff, will not involve himself in any of the firm’s dealings in or with the state.
Responding to a pandemic surge in shootings that has spooked New York and the nation, Hochul signed a package of bills to crack down on ghost guns — kit-assembled weapons that law enforcement officials can’t trace.
Hochul announced nominations for roles at the Urban Development Corporation, Empire State Development, and the Department of Economic Development.
The family of Eric Garner urged a Manhattan judge to reconsider calling de Blasio and current and past NYPD commissioners to testify at a judicial inquiry scrutinizing the circumstances of the Staten Island father’s death.
Bronx bus riders would get two new bus routes and lose hundreds of bus stops under a plan to overhaul the borough’s bus network that was delayed by the pandemic.
Noise complaints about helicopters have surged since the pandemic changed the soundtrack of the city. For months last year, the city was quieter — and people noticed when sightseeing helicopters returned, especially on Sundays.
New York City is experiencing a surprising return of native wildlife, in numbers and diversity remarkable even to local ecologists and parks officials.
De Blasio dressed up like a “Star Trek” character for part of his press conference about Halloween, but admitted he got the color of the shirt wrong for Captain Kirk.
The 37-year-old skateboarder accused of vandalizing a George Floyd statue in Manhattan’s Union Square Park has reportedly been identified as a small-time actor who once appeared in “Parks and Recreation.”
Roughly 80 percent of New York City kids between third and eighth grades did not take annual state exams in the spring intended to gauge math and English proficiency, according to the state’s Department of Education.
The state Education Department won’t release 2020-21 statewide assessment data for third through eighth graders, citing incomplete figures since the tests were largely only taken by in-person students during the pandemic.
New York state’s mammoth pension fund is pulling $111 million in investments out of the firm that owns Ben & Jerry’s because of the ice cream maker’s boycott of Israel’s occupied territories.
State Sen. Peter Harckham this week introduced a bill that would require lawn care and landscaping equipment like lawn mowers, trimmers and leaf blowers sold in New York to be zero emissions by 2027.
A new law will make it easier for local governments to pursue demolition orders for derelict buildings.
The special election next Tuesday for Nassau County DA has become increasingly competitive, largely because the GOP candidate, Anne Donnelly, has effectively framed the contest as a suburban referendum on the state’s recent laws to loosen bail restrictions.
Long Island Rep. Tom Suozzi sees the Buffalo mayor’s race as a fight for the future of where the Democratic Party is heading in New York, and potentially across the country.
The last operating nuclear reactor in the New York area, Indian Point, stopped generating electricity in April. The new owners of the shuttered plant are starting the long process of taking it apart.
The future of how police misconduct cases in Albany will be handled is just days away.
An Albany County assistant district attorney is facing two federal lawsuits accusing her of malicious prosecution, including one in which a woman contends she ignored evidence for more than a year that would have exonerated her.
Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said the company would change its name to Meta to reflect growth opportunities beyond its namesake social-media platform in online digital realms known as the metaverse.
The social network, under fire for spreading misinformation and other issues, said the change was part of its bet on a next digital frontier.
Starbucks said its U.S. sales were strong during its most recent quarter, though the pandemic’s resurgence in China dragged on the coffee chain’s revenue.
Apple reported record year-end results, including a 12-month profit nearing $100 billion, but faced greater-than-expected supply-chain disruptions that hindered iPhone manufacturing, causing sales to fall behind Wall Street expectations.
New York state Sen. Kevin Thomas has introduced a bill banning live ammunition from movie sets after a fatal shooting during production of “Rust.”
The team behind “Rust” – the film on the set of which a fatal shooting recently took place involving actor Alec Baldwin – chose not to get an insurance package often carried by productions, which some in Hollywood said was a sign of cutting corners.
After the fatal shooting on the movie set of “Rust,” Baldwin is apparently staying in the Manchester, Vt., area.
Baldwin was seen wearing a green flannel shirt, penny loafers without socks and a surgical mask as he was dropped off at Manchester Center’s Polo by Ralph Lauren outlet store by his wife Hilaria, who drove him around town in a large black SUV.
