It’s finally Friday, and it’s a very big day for all you sky watching enthusiasts.
The second lunar eclipse of the year is occurring this morning, though you’ve got to get up pretty early to catch the action. It’s going to last six hours, starting at 1 a.m., and will be the longest of its kind since the 15th century, which is around the time that Machu Picchu was being built.
The partial eclipse will occur when the sun and the moon and the Earth all come into near perfect alignment, and at its peak, between 97 and 99 percent of the moon’s face will be obscured by dark inner part of the Earth’s shadow, or umbra.
With a just thin sliver of the moon exposed to direct sun at maximum eclipse, the rest of the moon should take on the characteristically ruddy colors of a total lunar eclipse.
The next time Earth will see a partial lunar eclipse as lengthy as this month’s will be on February 8, 2669.
If you want to go deep on WHY this eclipse is going to be so long, click here. But be forewarned, even though this is written in a very approachable and readable manner, there’s still quite a bit of science stuff in there that I must confess to not understanding.
And now, from the sublime to the ridiculous.
It’s World Toilet Day. Actually, this is a deadly serious issue. Even though it’s going to inspire all sorts of potty jokes. As the UN rightly puts it: “Who cares about toilets? 3.6 billion people do. Because they don’t have one that works properly.”
Proper sanitation is critical to good hygiene and public health. Poor sanitation can contaminate drinking water sources, rivers, beaches, and also crops, which leads to disease. In many parts of the world, sanitation systems either don’t exist at all, or are poorly maintained and/or managed.
And if you think this is a third world problem, well, think again.
Of course, we are all familiar with the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, which had to do with lead contamination in the drinking water. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, America’s wastewater treatment plants are functioning at an average of “81 percent of their design capacities,” and 15 percent have “reached or exceeded” that capacity.
Drinking water service disruptions and flooding from sewer backups and other failures cost U.S. households $2 billion in 2019, a figure that is estimated to balloon to $14 billion over the next 20 years.
The good news is that there’s funding in the new infrastructure law to address some of these ills. The bad news is that even though that law has a massive price tag (albeit considerably less than what the president originally proposed), it’s just scratches the surface of what’s needed.
Here in New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul not long ago announced an additional $1 billion would be added to the renamed Clean Water, Clean Air and Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act, with $10 million specifically earmarked to help communities monitor, protect, and responsibly plan upgrades for wastewater infrastructure systems, at no cost.
Yesterday was kind of an amazing gift – but also a little bit disturbing from a climate change standpoint – of unusually warm weather. Today, and going forward we’re back to what passes for normal in this neck of the woods for mid-November, with temperatures in the mid-40s and a mix of clouds and sun.
Also: A large storm system that will hit much of the East Coast early next week has the National Weather Service in Albany watching its path closely.
In the headlines…
The House is expected to vote this morning on President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better bill after a marathon speech by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., last night delayed the process.
“This is the single most reckless and irresponsible spending in the history of this country,” McCarthy said in his speech, which stretched past midnight. A senior Democratic aide said McCarthy “is welcome to continue his raving as late into the night as he wants.”
House approval was still expected on a near party-line vote. That would send the measure to a Senate where cost-cutting demands by moderate Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and that chamber’s strict rules seemed certain to force significant changes.
The White House and the Congressional Budget Office are at odds over how much revenue the Internal Revenue Service could recoup from tax cheats.
A plan by House Democrats to reduce taxes for high earners in states like New Jersey, New York and California in their $1.85 trillion social policy spending package is becoming an early political albatross for the party.
Biden said that the United States was considering a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics in Beijing amid growing pressure to hold China accountable for human rights abuses.
The move would keep American dignitaries, but not athletes, from the Games.
This is part of an ongoing effort by activists and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to boycott the games over alleged human rights violations by China’s government.
The most complete look yet at the ongoing work of Biden’s Supreme Court commission showed its continuing interest in imposing terms limits on justices, while noting “profound disagreement among commissioners” over whether court expansion is wise.
Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said she recognizes Biden as the 46th president of the United States, even as she claimed there were “lots of problems” with the 2020 election that Republican candidates should address.
McCarthy vowed to reinstate the “creepy” Republican lawmaker who was censured for tweeting a video depicting him killing New York City Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
If Lael Brainard is named Federal Reserve chair, the first move by financial markets may be to price in an even more dovish central bank.
First-time claims for unemployment insurance were little changed over the past week, indicating the heightened pace of layoffs during the pandemic may have hit a plateau, the Labor Department reported.
Initial filings for the week ended Nov. 13, totaled 268,000, a decline of 1,000 from a week ago and slightly higher than the Dow Jones estimate for 260,000.
Companies are only laying off workers as a last resort owing to the labor shortage. Some 10 million-plus jobs are available and businesses can’t fill a lot of them.
A scientist who has pored over public accounts of early Covid-19 cases in China reported that an influential World Health Organization inquiry had likely gotten the early chronology of the pandemic wrong.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis of Greece announced additional restrictions for the country’s unvaccinated population, a bid to keep a recent spike of coronavirus infections from increasing further.
Pfizer said it agreed to a $5.29 billion deal with the U.S. to provide enough supplies of its promising Covid-19 pill to treat 10 million people, should health regulators give it the green light.
An agreement to waive the intellectual-property rights underpinning Covid-19 vaccines—a prospect poor countries have hoped would ease supplies to the developing world—is becoming increasingly unlikely.
The secretary of the Army has issued a memo warning the hundreds of thousands of soldiers in its National Guard that if they decline to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, they may not be renewed in the guard.
Disney Cruise Lines has announced all children ages 5 and older will need to be vaccinated against COVID-19, making it the first to expand its inoculation requirements to kids now eligible for their shots.
COVID-19 spread in NYC schools has stayed relatively low even as students returned full-time to in-person class this year and the more infectious Delta variant surged, new city data suggests — though questions about the numbers remain.
Significantly fewer students were referred for special education evaluations last year, dropping 57% since the year before the pandemic started, raising concerns that thousands of students have not been identified for services they may need.
A woman who spent more than a month battling COVID on a ventilator at a Maine hospital stunned her family by waking up on the exact day she was to be taken off life support.
The fear, exhaustion and trauma has taken its toll on many of the thousands of nurses across New York. Their stories, in many ways, embody America’s seemingly endless COVID-19 saga.
The state says all healthcare workers should be vaccinated, and starting Monday Nov. 22, religious exemptions will no longer be allowed.
Gov. Kathy Hochul called for workers in New York City to get back in their offices for the New Year, with hybrid options.
At a breakfast hosted by ABNY, Hochul announced a SUNY and CUNY Scholarship Program called the Nurses For Our Future Scholarship that will cover tuition for 1,000 new healthcare workers to get RNs at SUNY and CUNY.
“We now have a severe shortage in health care workers,” Hochul said. “This cannot be, because there will be people waiting for medical, lifesaving medical attention who many not get it.”
“How about this New Year’s resolution? That in the days after New Year’s that we say, ‘Everybody back in the office,’” Hochul said to cheers. “You can have a flex time, but we need you back at least the majority of the week.
Hochul declared she will win the upcoming 2022 Democratic primary, as she cozied up to popular incoming New York City Mayor Eric Adams in front of business leaders.
Hochul is planning the state’s multi-billion dollar revamp of Penn Station in secrecy, according to a group of government watchdogs.
Mayor Bill de Blasio once again teased a run for governor when he released a state education plan that would put kids in school year-round and extend the school day.
As he enters his final weeks in office, de Blasio is resurrecting an old campaign promise to ban horse-drawn carriages in New York City.
Lawmakers on the Assembly committee conducting an impeachment investigation into Andrew Cuomo began reviewing a report prepared by private attorneys who have spent months probing multiple allegations against the former governor.
The report is expected to be released to the public in the coming days, according to two members of the New York State Assembly Judiciary Committee.
The report claims that the disgraced ex-gov is a serial sexual harasser who misused state resources to write a self-congratulatory book during the coronavirus pandemic.
Major findings include multiple violations of the Public Officers Law, that the book, “American Crisis” used substantial state resources, and an established timeline on the complaint from Brittany Commisso, who says Cuomo groped her at the Executive Mansion.
Cuomo’s attorney wants the chance to review the state Assembly’s soon-to-be-released impeachment report before it’s made public.
Cuomo’s attorney called on New York state Attorney General Letitia James to recuse herself from any decisions regarding the sexual harassment case against the former governor, saying her gubernatorial campaign created a conflict of interest.
Lawyer Rita Glavin said James’ recently announced campaign for governor made it a conflict of interest for her to investigate her predecessor and noted “widespread speculation” that Cuomo “may attempt a political comeback.”
“If Andrew Cuomo didn’t want to be accused of sexual harassment, he shouldn’t have sexually harassed multiple women in the first place,” an AG spokesperson said.
James’ gubernatorial bid has been endorsed by a political action committee that has pushed for increasing Black political engagement and representation in government.
Adams and a leading Council speaker candidate want de Blasio to scrap a ban on propane heaters for outdoor restaurant service this winter, charging the city’s hospitality industry needs “all tools available” to recover from the pandemic.
Tony Avella, a longtime Democrat who has served in both the New York City Council and state Senate, conceded defeat in his run for his old 19th Council District seat in northern Queens following a count of absentee ballots.
The board charged with investigating allegations of NYPD officer misconduct would be able to launch its own probes under new City Council legislation — bolstering the watchdog’s power to police the police.
Muhammad A. Aziz, one of two men wrongfully convicted of the murder of Malcolm X, said the decision to throw out the verdict against him 56 years after the assassination could not eliminate the decades he had lost.
“I do not need this court, these prosecutors or a piece of paper to tell me I am innocent,” he said in a stern voice that did not shake or falter. “I am an 83-year-old man who was victimized by the criminal justice system.”
” I am very glad that my family, my friends and the attorneys who have worked and supported me all of these years are finally seeing the truth we have all known, officially recognized,” he added.
The motion to vacate the convictions in Malcolm X’s murder can be found here.
Train rides from the city to Kennedy and Newark airports will cost more next year. The Port Authority board announced plans to increase fares for the AirTrains at Kennedy and Newark from $7.75 to $8 at the start of 2022.
Chobani, the upstate New York yogurt maker founded by Turkish immigrant Hamdi Ulukaya, is getting close to selling shares of the company in an initial public offering.
As New York prepares to issue licenses to commercial marijuana shops, about one out of every 10 towns and villages have signaled they are banning both the stores and venues for on-site consumption of cannabis.
There’s a new group in town, the Albany Riverfront Collaborative, that’s attempting to build momentum for replacing the waterside highway with a boulevard that would open 92 acres for new parks and development.
Alison Carey, Mariah Carey’s estranged older sister, may not want a lot for Christmas, but she just received an early Thanksgiving gift — her restored Social Security Administration benefits.
Charges against a Black Lives Matter protester who was seen in a video being pulled away by city police from her two crying, young children, were dropped in Saratoga Springs City Court.
The state’s top court will not consider Christopher Porco’s effort to sue Lifetime over the television network’s made-for-television movie about his 2004 ax attack that maimed his mother and left his father dead.
Albany County received nearly $1.4 million in grant funding from the state that will go toward rehabbing homes in the Albany’s South End and supporting mental health services in the county.
Community Care Physicians and Capital District Physicians’ Health Plan announced they will join forces to create a new organization that can provide non-medical, administrative services for their physician practices.
Plug Power has a “really aggressive” construction timeline for its new fuel cell manufacturing complex planned for the Vista Technology Campus in Slingerlands that would employ nearly 700 people.
Syracuse Democratic state Sen. Rachel May unveiled a measure meant to bolster local news in New York through grants and partnerships with the state’s public colleges and universities.
Congress is moving closer to requiring women to register for the draft for the first time in American history.
The jury in Kyle Rittenhouse’s homicide trial was unable to reach a verdict yesterday after its third straight day of deliberation.
A bipartisan coalition of state attorneys general said it is investigating how Instagram attracts and affects young people, amping up the pressure on parent company Meta Platforms over potential harms to its users.
“Doesn’t make a difference if you call it Instagram, Facebook, or Meta, the fact still remains the same: These social media platforms are extremely dangerous and have been proven to cause both physical and mental harm in young people,” said AG James.
The disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa, a mystery that has gripped the American imagination for half a century on its ascent to national folklore, is the subject of a new F.B.I. investigation centered on the site of a former landfill in Jersey City.
CVS said it will close 900 stores over the next three years, nearly 10% of its U.S. locations, while adding more health services at remaining locations.
Actor Alec Baldwin and his wife, Hilaria Baldwin, were seen fleeing their New York apartment with their cat after he was hit with a second lawsuit involving the deadly “Rust” shooting, this one from script supervisor Mamie Mitchell.
A crowdfunded cryptocurrency group failed to outbid a private investor for a rare first-edition copy of the US Constitution.
