Friday. Finally. Fabulous. Full stop.
Good morning.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before…maybe you have…but I am a BIG fan of octopi. (AKA octopuses and octopodes, all of which are correct when you are speaking of more than one eight-limbed mollusc, as it turns out).
They are just so COOL, and also so smart – one of the most intelligent and behaviorally diverse of all invertebrates. They are technically Cephalopods, along with squid, cuttlefish and nautiloids.
They can change the color of their mantles to blend with their surroundings, and have soft bodies that they can alter the shape of at will and squeeze through small gaps – escaping their tanks at aquariums with ease.
One named Inky (what a sad name for an octopus, so basic), who lived in New Zealand was apparently very good at getting away, leaving behind a tank-mate named Blotchy, who remained loyal and did not give up Inky’s whereabouts to the authorities.
Octopuses also have very good eyesight, and some of them reportedly accurately predict the outcome of soccer matches (and then get eaten for their trouble).
Also, octopuses have been seen unscrewing jar lids to get at hidden food, carrying coconut shells to use as armor, barricading their den with stones, and squirting jets of water to deter predators or short out aquarium lights.
They’re basically smarter than some humans I know. No joke.
One website says the following: If we could turn all the animals into humans to take the IQ test, octopuses would outscore most humans on the math portion at a genius level of above 140. (But in the original post, “genius” is spelled wrong, so take that with a grain of salt).
At the very least, there is a strong likelihood that this mute, weird-looking creature with eight legs is about as smart as the average dog. Some of them have been known to play with dog toys.
Oh, and in case you hadn’t figured it out by now, there is a method to my madness. I’m not just going off the deep end for octopuses for the hell of it, today is International Octopus Day.
BTW, one more cool factoid before we get to the headlines…Octopus fossils date back over 300 million years, which means that the octopus is older than the dinosaur.
OK, just one more – I swear: The female octopus lays up to 400,000 eggs. And I challenge you to watch this story about maternal octopus love and not cry. If you do not at least tear up a little, you have no soul.
It’s going to be partly cloudy today with temperatures in the low 70s. Lovely. I’ll take it. Perfect weather for making like an octopus and escaping your workspace early to get some fresh air and Vitamin D.
In the headlines…
President Joe Biden will restore two sprawling national monuments in Utah that have been at the center of a long-running public lands tug-of-war between presidential administrations, the state’s governor said.
The move marks a victory for environmental advocates and indigenous leaders who had fought for years to restore protections for the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante monuments.
Arizona Republicans have admitted that Biden beat Donald Trump in a “free, fair and accurate election” in the state in 2020.
During a House hearing on the recent “audit” of the 2020 election results in Arizona conducted by Trump supporters Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., sparred with Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., who refused to accept its results showing that Biden won the state.
Biden met with Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., about his economic agenda as the president tries to unify Democrats behind a compromise reconciliation package containing many of his priorities.
Biden said that he has instructed the Justice Department to address rising violence on airplanes as passengers resisting mask requirements threaten airline staff.
Biden said he personally reached out to a hospital the night before to ensure the wife of his “good friend” received immediate care because the “waiting room was so crowded.”
Eleven Senate Republicans broke ranks last night to vote with all Democrats to overcome a filibuster so that the debt ceiling deal announced earlier in the day could move forward.
The House will interrupt a scheduled recess next week to vote Tuesday on Senate-passed legislation to extend the debt limit into December.
Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer sparked anger among Senate Republicans after he railed against them just after they helped advance a short-term debt ceiling extension over a key hurdle.
Former President Trump is urging GOP senators to vote against a deal that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) struck with his Democratic colleagues in the upper chamber to raise the debt ceiling.
Nine months after the US Capitol riot, a Pennsylvania woman has been formally charged with stealing and then selling or disposing of a laptop from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office.
Less than nine months after taking office with the most votes ever received by a presidential candidate, Biden’s approval rating has hit a new low as a majority of those surveyed question his administration’s competence.
During a trip to Chicago, Biden vigorously defended his use of vaccination requirements to try to end the coronavirus pandemic.
“We know there is no other way to beat the pandemic than to get the vast majority of Americans vaccinated,” Biden said in a speech at a data center in the suburb of Elk Grove Village. “We’re still not there. We have to beat this thing.”
Biden said the U.S. Department of Labor continues to work on new rules that will be released “soon” but said the announcement itself has already spurred some large U.S. companies to launch their own in-house mandates ahead of the new federal rules.
IBM told U.S. employees this week that they must be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 by Dec. 8 or face an unpaid suspension.
The union representing American Airlines warned that staffing shortages could start as the holiday travel season begins if employees lose their jobs for refusing to get the COVID vaccine.
Biden said more U.S. businesses should obligate workers to receive COVID-19 vaccinations, calling the move vital to ending the pandemic and sustaining the economy.
Pfizer and BioNTech asked federal regulators to authorize emergency use of their coronavirus vaccine for children ages 5 to 11, a move that could help protect more than 28 million people in the United States.
If authorized, this would be the first Covid-19 vaccine for younger children. The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is approved for people age 16 and older and has an EUA for people ages 12 to 15.
A veteran TV reporter at a Missouri news station was fired last week for refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
Ahead of his rumored December bout with Lennox Lewis, the iconic boxer Mike Tyson revealed that he only received the COVID-19 vaccination so he could travel without any issues.
Despite some turmoil, a vast majority of students have been in classrooms full-time and mostly uninterrupted this fall. Now, educators debate what’s next.
The total of Americans submitting jobless claims fell sharply last week as enhanced federal unemployment benefits wound down, the Labor Department reported.
Initial filings for unemployment benefits totaled a seasonally adjusted 326,000 for the week ended Oct. 2, below the 345,000 Dow Jones estimate and a drop from the previous week’s 364,000.
After hitting a pandemic low of 312,000 in early September, claims had risen three straight weeks, suggesting that the highly contagious delta variant was at least temporarily disrupting a recovery in jobs.
U.S. employers likely hired at a stronger rate in September after a disappointing August, with more individuals returning to the workforce as new coronavirus infections slowed and other pressures on the labor market at least temporarily abated.
Hochul will be making changes in her administration on October 7. A spokesperson at the governor’s office confirmed that anyone currently in her administration named in the Andrew Cuomo sexual harassment report will be removed from her staff.
A smattering of state officials began clearing out their offices this week as Hochul accelerated her self-imposed 45-day deadline to infuse her administration with new leadership.
Larry Schwartz — a longtime aide to Cuomo who used his role as state COVID-19 vaccine czar to gauge political support for his scandalized boss — has resigned, Hochul’s office said.
Schwartz — who served as Cuomo’s top aide after he took office in 2011 — notified Hochul that he plans to leave the board “effective when the Senate confirms his replacement,” said Hochul spokeswoman Hazel Crampton-Hays.
Hochul demanded a plum job as a U.S. ambassador or undersecretary of commerce in exchange for being replaced as Andrew Cuomo’s 2022 running mate — before he was forced to resign as governor over sexual harassment allegations.
Biden officials conveyed that an ambassadorship was not possible but discussed Hochul as a potential candidate for other jobs, including as an official in a Cabinet agency, people familiar with the conversations said. Discussions went on for some time.
Hochul signed legislation aimed at reducing drug-related overdose deaths across New York State and encouraging those suffering from addiction to seek help in their recovery.
Measures will decriminalize the possession and sale of needles and syringes, establish a program for medication-based addiction treatment in state and local prisons and create an online directory for distributors of overdose-reversing medications.
Less than one-third of $159 million promised to quell a rise in gun violence in New York has been spent, with two weeks left to commit the funds before the executive order issued by Cuomo expires.
The newest addition to New York’s COVID-era rental assistance funds, which began accepting applications Oct. 7, includes landlords whose non-paying tenants have already moved on.
Immigration advocates are calling on the state Legislature and Hochul to expand the Excluded Workers Fund.
City lawmakers want Hochul and the state legislature to give judges the ability to jail youth gun law offenders based on their criminal history, and ban gun offenses involving kids from being handled in family court, where they’re often released too quickly.
When she was abruptly thrust into office, Hochul asked the public to give her 45 days to make the transition and start implementing key changes. Here’s a look at what she’s done in that time.
NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio misused police resources on his security detail, a new report by the city’s Department of Investigation (DOI) says, to assist in his adult daughter’s move out of Brooklyn, as well as to transport campaign staff during his presidential bid.
De Blasio treated his NYPD-provided security detail like a “concierge service” that drove around his son, staff members and guests even when he was not in the car.
Members of the security detail were also found to have driven Dante de Blasio, the mayor’s son, back and forth to his job in Brooklyn and to college in New Haven, this did not have anything to do with his protection, to which he is entitled.
The commanding officer of de Blasio’s NYPD Executive Protection Unit could face an obstruction charge for his brazen defiance of a city watchdog investigating the mayor’s misuse of the security detail.
Democratic mayoral candidate Eric Adams defended de Blasio, saying: “If his children, if his wife — if there were credible threats, then he must do everything that’s needed to ensure that they are safe. He signed up to run for mayor; they did not.”
Even as he prepares for an all-but-certain victory in the November election for mayor, Adams is facing a problem: His honeymoon is almost over before it has officially even started.
Adams took the unusual step of declining the latest round of public matching funds from the city Campaign Finance Board. His Republican opponent, Curtis Sliwa, meantime secured nearly $700,000 in public matching funds as the race enters its final stretch.
In an 11-week span after Adams became a shoo-in for the mayoralty, the real estate industry poured $500,000 into his campaign coffers.
Under a bill passed by the NYC Council, the mayor is required to create a plan to deal with the wide-ranging threats of climate change, from flooding to extreme heat.
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams was awarded nearly $1 million in city taxpayer dollars for his re-election campaign, but critics claim he can use the cash to help launch a run for governor instead.
Damian Williams, an unassuming figure with stellar credentials, is now the most powerful federal law enforcement official in Manhattan. It’s the first time in 232 years that a Black prosecutor will lead the office.
New York City’s pandemic era bike boom fizzled this summer — but Transportation Commissioner Hank Gutman pointed to years-long trends he said showed cycling is here to stay.
The MTA is down at least $56 million thanks to “unbillable” tolls for which officials cannot find an address to mail the bill, State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli said.
Schumer asked Danone to explain why it has cut ties with some of its upstate New York small and mid-sided organic dairy farms, a move that industry advocates and experts have noted could mark a turning point for the vitality of a once-growing business.
Ex-state DOT inspector Ron Barton, who helped initiate an Investigator General probe into the state’s oversight of Prestige Limousine, the company involved in the 2018 Schoharie limo crash, has been nominated for the state’s limo safety task force.
A decade-long battle between a Colonie sealcoating business and its residential neighbors is continuing — and has been made more complicated and painful after the death of the business’s owner, an Iraq War veteran and Albany firefighter.
The average residential National Grid customer will pay $651 over the five-month winter period that begins next month, an increase of $155 over last year.
The Saratoga Springs police chief apologized for his officers blocking public access to City Court during activist arraignments last month.
A plan to potentially fold the tiny Fort Edward Union Free School District into nearby South Glens Falls schools has been aborted, both school boards said.
New York’s capital city has something to be proud of: Albany was named the best place to live in the state by U.S. News & World Report.
A Glens Falls man who posted a Facebook video of himself smoking pot inside the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection and who boasted about “taking our country back” pleaded guilty to a federal charge related to the event in Washington, D.C.
India Walton, who is running for Buffalo mayor, confirmed on Twitter that her vehicle was impounded for unpaid parking tickets and an expired inspection.
The latest campaign disclosures show that Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown has raised almost twice as much money as his challenger Walton since she beat him in the Democratic primary.
At least six clinics in Texas returned to performing abortions the day after a federal judge halted enforcement of the nation’s most restrictive abortion measure, but a majority had not, a reflection of the power of the law the judge froze.
Federal prosecutors slam-dunked 18 former NBA players, including Coney Island’s Sebastian Telfair, for collecting crooked payouts during an alleged four-year scam to bilk the league’s health care plan out of nearly $4 million.
Federal prosecutors said Glen Davis, Telfair and Tony Allen were among the players involved in a plot to file millions of dollars’ worth of fraudulent medical claims.
Tesla will move its headquarters from California to Austin, Texas, where it is building a new factory, its chief executive, Elon Musk, said at the company’s annual shareholder meeting.
Tanzanian writer Abdulrazak Gurnah, the first Black Noel Prize for Literature winner since Toni Morrison, was honored for his “uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism.”
Bobby Flay is bidding goodbye to the Food Network. After 27 years, the celebrity chef is reportedly chopping ties with the culinary channel.
Actor Woody Harrelson decked an overzealous photog Wednesday after he allegedly took several photos of the actor and his daughter, according to DC police.
