It’s Tuesday. Good morning.
More importantly, it’s Election Day.
If you want to find out whether you’re registered and where your poll site is, click here.
The polls open at 6 a.m. and close at 9 p.m. across the state. If you are voting absentee, your ballot must be either postmarked or dropped off at a board of elections or a poll site by 9 p.m. today.
There are important contests taking place at the local level statewide, most notably a mayoral election in New York City, though basically, that’s been a done deal since the June primary due to the overwhelming Democratic enrollment edge in the five boroughs. Unless something really weird happens, the Democratic nominee, Eric Adams, is expected to win.
Adams largely won the primary on a law-and-order platform and is definitely more of a centrist than a progressive, though he has repeatedly rejected that assertion. He has, since his June win, embraced the business community and declared himself to be the “new face” of the Democratic Party.
Less predictable – a LOT less predictable – is the Buffalo mayor’s race in which self-described Socialist Democrat India Walton faces off against incumbent Mayor Byron Brown, who is now a write-in candidate after Walton won an upset primary victory five months ago.
The race is drawing national attention, and is being seen as something of a bellwether in terms of just how much power the left is gaining over the more pragmatic middle of the Democratic Party.
The Walton vs. Brown battle has proved difficult to navigate for a number of incumbent Democrats – most notably the state party chairman, Jay Jacobs, who got himself in hot water while making comments about KKK leader David Duke while explaining why he was refusing to endorse Walton.
Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Buffalo native who is being challenged in a 2022 primary by several progressive fellow Democrats, including NYC Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and state AG Tish James, has declined to get involved in her hometown mayor’s race, though she has endorsed in the Erie County Sheriff’s contest.
A number of high-profile Democrats have endorsed Walton – and even campaigned on her behalf – including Williams and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand have also announced their support for the insurgent challenger, while Long Island Rep. Tom Suozzi, who’s also eyeing a 2022 run for governor, is backing Brown.
Also being closely watched by the NYS political class is the Nassau County district attorney’s race, which was supposed to be a sure thing for Democratic Sen. Todd Kaminsky, but the issue of bail reform has roiled the race to the benefit of Republican Anne Donnelly.
The Republicans have nicknamed the senator “Turn ‘Em Loose Todd” for voting in support of the new laws that reduced bail restrictions.
When you go out to vote today – and I KNOW you’re going to get that done, right? – make sure to look for the statewide ballot proposals, of which there are five. Three have to do with redistricting and voting reform, one would establish clean air and clean water as a constitutional right, and the last increases the jurisdiction of the NYC Civil Court.
At the national level, the Virginia governor’s race is being monitored very closely by Democrats and Republicans alike.
This is a very long prelude to the headlines, and I very much appreciate it if you’re still with me here. I do, however, feel compelled to mention, since I did not yesterday, that today is Day of the Dead, or Dia de los Muertos. (It actually started yesterday and lasts through today).
Day of the Dead is an an annual holiday rooted in Mexican culture that honors the lives of loved ones who have passed and the cyclical nature of life. (So says Google, which has dedicated its doodle to the day).
Another decent fall day is on tap – nice and dry and great for facilitating trips to the polls. It will be mostly cloudy with temperatures in the low 50s.
In the headlines (finally)…
World leaders opened a pivotal climate summit in Scotland with apocalyptic warnings about the scarce time left to avert catastrophic global warming, yet offered few new commitments to more aggressively cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Sen. Joe Manchin said he won’t support the social safety net expansion bill until there is “greater clarity” about its impact on the national debt and the economy, casting major doubt on whether President Joe Biden can get his agenda through Congress.
“This is not how the United States Congress should operate or in my view has operated in the past,” Manchin said. “The political games have to stop.” He added that “holding this bill hostage is not going to work in getting my support for the reconciliation bill.”
“I’m open to supporting a final bill that helps move our country forward,” the senator added. “But I’m equally open to voting against a bill that hurts our country.”
Manchin’s tone frustrated some Democrats, with progressive Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., issuing a scathing statement calling Manchin’s stance on the legislation “anti-Black, anti-child, anti-woman, and anti-immigrant.”
Biden is joining other world leaders in highlighting the importance of preserving forests as a force against global warming, whipping up ambitions at a U.N. climate summit even as a coal-state senator is again threatening his landmark climate legislation.
Biden sought to assure world leaders the United States would fulfill its promise to slash greenhouse gas emissions in half by the end of the decade, but a setback at home heightened uncertainty about his ability to follow through.
The elongated Democratic standoff over Biden’s economic agenda shows how far the party consensus has moved toward a more aggressive role for government than during the presidencies of Bill Clinton or even Barack Obama.
The Environmental Protection Agency today will propose rules to plug methane gas leaks at hundreds of thousands of oil and gas wells in the U.S., marking its most aggressive action yet to curb climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions.
The federal government previously had rules that aimed to prevent methane leaks from oil and gas wells built since 2015, but they were rescinded by the Trump administration. Biden intends to restore and strengthen them, administration aides said.
A plurality of Democrats think the party has a better chance of keeping the White House in 2024 if Biden is replaced as the candidate, according to a new NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll.
Just 41% of Democrats picked Biden when asked if the party would have “a better chance of winning the presidency in 2024” with him as the nominee. Another 41% picked “someone else,” leaving the party split.
Biden’s average approval rating stands at about 43 percent – a number Donald Trump didn’t reach for most of his presidency. George W. Bush spent most of his second term below 40 percent, and Barack Obama was in the 40s for most of his tenure.
After almost three hours of lively arguments at the Supreme Court, a majority of justices seemed inclined to allow abortion providers — but maybe not the Biden administration — to pursue a federal court challenge to a Texas law that curtails the practice.
Justice Elena Kagan said the purpose of Texas’s law was to get around Supreme Court precedents on abortion and evade the “even broader principle that states are not to nullify federal constitutional rights.”
The coronavirus is responsible for more than five million confirmed deaths around the world as of yesterday, according to data from the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
That number is certainly an undercount. Some experts suspect the actual death toll may be as high as 10 million.
The Federal Register will publish within days the Labor Department’s rule requiring private businesses with 100 or more employees to vaccinate them or test them weekly, fulfilling an announcement Biden made in September.
Steve Marshall, Alabama’s district attorney, announced on Twitter that he filed a lawsuit to block a key part of Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate he called “flagrantly unconstitutional.”
The CDC weighed in on the natural Covid immunity vs. vaccine immunity question.
The Food and Drug Administration is delaying a decision on Moderna application to authorize use of its Covid-19 vaccine in adolescents to assess whether the shot leads to a heightened risk of myocarditis, the company said.
Myocarditis in kids as a result of the Covid vaccine remains very uncommon, and it is almost always mild and temporary. The heart risk from Covid-19 itself is far greater.
Amazon is relaxing its mask-wearing rules for U.S. employees, letting those who are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 work in its warehouses without a face covering.
Shanghai health authorities say they have tested nearly 34,000 people for the coronavirus in a single night at Shanghai’s Disneyland.
Though several million pediatric doses of Pfizer-BioNTech’s coronavirus vaccine should be available in the next few days, the vaccination program for children aged 5 to 11 in the U.S. will only start “running at full strength” in the second week of November.
The U.S. has come up with new rules and regulations for travelers flying in from other countries, to take effect on Monday, November 8.
The Corps will kick out every Marine who refuses the COVID-19 vaccine and fails to receive an approved exemption by the Nov. 28 deadline, a new administrative message said.
Novavax, a Maryland-based company that received $1.75 billion from the United States government to develop a protein-based Covid-19 vaccine, announced it had won emergency authorization for its vaccine in Indonesia.
A judge in Chicago blocked the city from enforcing a Dec. 31 vaccine mandate for police officers until the issue can be addressed in arbitration.
Kristy Swanson, known for starring in the “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” movie and for being a Trump supporter who protests public health protocols, has been hospitalized with COVID.
The number of new COVID cases in New York fell 1.7% over the past week, marking the latest drop statewide as infection rates drop and vaccination levels increase.
About 9,000 New York City municipal workers were put on unpaid leave for refusing to comply with a Covid-19 vaccine mandate that took effect yesterday, Mayor Bill de Blasio said, adding that thousands of firefighters had called out sick in apparent protest.
But for the most part, New York City’s vast municipal work force returned to work as usual, with more than a few sore arms and new vaccination cards, as the city’s coronavirus vaccine mandate for its employees went into effect, officials said.
Just 34 NYPD officers were placed on unpaid leave for refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine, though the number of officers who quit, even if they weren’t eligible for a full pension, spiked in the days ahead of the city’s vaccine mandate.
Some NYPD cops are fighting the COVID vaccine mandate by claiming religious exemption because fetal cell lines were used during research.
A confrontation took place on Staten Island between police and anti-vaccine protesters after mandate enforcement began for city workers.
New York City municipal workers have rushed to get COVID-19 vaccinations in recent days, raising the group’s overall coverage to 91% through Saturday evening.
A notorious pub owner who made headlines for refusing to follow COVID-19 rules was busted along with three other anti-vaccine-mandate protesters after blocking a Staten Island Sanitation Department garage.
A substitute teacher has come under fire for telling a class of mostly Chinese-American fifth-graders in Brooklyn that COVID-19 was developed by China in a lab. She’s temporarily suspended while the Department of Education investigates.
New Yorkers will now be allowed to get paid family leave to care for siblings thanks to a bill signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul.
“Taking care of your family is a human right,” Hochul said during a bill signing ceremony in New York City. “It is something that’s affecting people’s lives every single day. She urged Congress to take similar action at the national level.
Hochul has embarked on an aggressive and notable fundraising strategy: Her campaign is outsourcing a significant chunk of its money hunt to Albany’s top lobbying firms, including a few featuring partners that were key witnesses in past corruption cases.
Hochul is refusing to get drawn into a fight between her predecessor, former Governor Andrew Cuomo, and those investigating sexual assault charges against him.
State AG Tish James invoked Trump’s baseless election fraud claims as she brushed off Cuomo’s attempts to discredit the sexual harassment report that prompted his resignation.
“I think it’s important that individuals understand that the investigation of the Attorney General was as a result of a referral from the former governor of the state of New York. It’s not like I requested this investigation,” reminded James.
Sources who claim to have knowledge of his plans say de Blasio will be running for governor in 2022.
The WSJ questioned the timing of James’ gubernatorial announcement, which came just as a misdemeanor sexual harassment charge was filed against Cuomo.
Cuomo claims there is “zero evidence” to support the criminal charges against him — ripping the legal move as “the worst combination of politics, incompetence and abuse of the law.”
Ahead of an election he is likely to win in a landslide, Democratic mayoral nominee Eric Adams rallied with a trio of unions that supported his bid in the contentious primary.
Adams and Republican Curtis Sliwa barnstormed the five boroughs yesterday, holding get-out-the-vote rallies and trying to drum up enthusiasm after early voting produced an anemic response.
“You elect Curtis Sliwa, and on Jan. 2 we roll back the mandates, we give all of these brave men and women back pay,” said Sliwa, who was still wearing a sling around his left arm after breaking it in a bizarre accident involving a yellow cab last week.
Sliwa said he’d retire his signature Guardian Angels beret if he wins his long shot bid to lead the Big Apple.
Adams took a thinly veiled swipe at de Blasio’s languid work schedule, saying New Yorkers aren’t “used to someone committed and dedicated to this city.”
Adams ties to a lobbying firm whose legal arm represents correction officers on Rikers Island has raised concerns for jail reform advocates.
Bhairavi Desai, the head of the group, the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, said she and a dozen others stopped eating on Oct. 20 to push the city into offering more aid for taxi drivers who are crushed under mountains of debt related to their medallions.
The plastic straw that stirs the drink became something New Yorkers can no longer take for granted when a law geared toward severely limiting their use went into effect.
A years-long overtime fraud scheme among New York transit workers was made possible thanks to chronically mismanaged MTA mega projects, federal prosecutors wrote in a new court filing.
A Westchester grand jury has indicted millionaire real estate scion and convicted murderer Robert Durst in the death of his first wife Kathleen Durst, who vanished in 1982.
The jury that will decide jailed British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell’s fate won’t hear about the sweetheart plea deal that helped Jeffrey Epstein avoid justice for more than a decade, a Manhattan judge ruled.
Jes Staley stepped down as chief executive of Barclays under pressure from regulators about how he characterized his relationship with the convicted sex offender and financier Epstein.
Following a meeting in September, New York’s ethics commission sent two letters seeking criminal investigations to AG James’ office, according to emails obtained by the Times Union.
The Supreme Court issued a decision vacating a state appellate court decision in a lawsuit brought by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany that challenged New York’s mandate requiring employers offer abortion services as part of health insurance benefits.
The mother of a Saratoga Springs man who drowned under an upper Hudson River bridge last year is suing four municipalities for wrongful death, alleging they ignored complaints and failed to address risks that led to her son’s death and previous fatalities.
There have been so many storms in the Atlantic Ocean this year that the National Hurricane Center has used up all 21 available names, the third time in recorded history that has happened.
American Airlines canceled hundreds of additional flights yesterday, facing more of the trouble that began during the weekend as it struggles to meet growing travel demand with a staff reduced in size because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Daylight Savings Time ends this coming Sunday.
