Good Thursday morning, which also happens to be the day before Christmas Eve.
It’s going to be the last time we enjoy these early morning chats for the remainder of 2021. The next time we meet here in cyberspace – barring any really significant news or sudden spark of inspiration that strikes me – it will be a brand new year.
Good riddance…I think.
I want to be optimistic about the year to come, but the way things are going right now it’s hard to look ahead and see anything but bleakness. People keep telling me: “You’ve got to just live your life and change your mindset; it can’t be all gloom and doom; Covid can’t last forever.”
Or can it? Certainly looks that way to me. Pandemic. Endemic. Either way, it’s here to stay.
Blah. Blah. I’m not sure who these relentlessly upbeat Pollyannas think they are, anyway. The problem is that I am a scorpion trying to be a turtle. I tend to be morose, cynical, and even depressed by nature, which is not terribly helpful when one is trying to think pretty pink and blue thoughts.
The holidays also always make me feel a little grim.
It’s dark – though less so than yesterday, thanks to the passing of the winter solstice – time sort of stands still and I lose track of what day it is.
Usually, there are parties and gatherings that help make things a little more bearable, (assuming I can motivate myself to get out of the house for anything other than exercise), but I just don’t really feel in the mood this year, nor would I feel 100 percent safe attending. (Also, maybe my invites got lost in the mail?)
If you are a big holiday person, I’m sorry to be a Debbie Downer. I’m not trying to rain on your reindeer parade, honest.
Maybe this is a good time to change the subject and wish everyone a happy Festivus.
In case you weren’t/aren’t a Seinfeld fan and have no earthly idea what I’m talking about, click here. In short, Festivus is a non-holiday holiday dreamed up by the father of a man who later went on to become a writer on that aforementioned hit sitcom.
Festivus was featured on a Seinfeld episode that was first broadcast the week before Christmas in 1987, and the rest, as they say, is history. Even though this is sort of a running inside joke for an entire generation of TV watchers, the reality is that the rejection of the commercialization of Christmas feels kinda good – but maybe as a Jew I don’t really get a say in the matter?
Anyway, before I go too far down this particular rabbit hole, I would like to take a moment to be serious and thank you all for sticking with me here at “Rise and Shine”. You make it what it is, which is…something. A phenomenon? A habit? A quirk?
Whatever it is, it sustains me. Even when I don’t really feel like getting up at 2 a.m. to write, I feel pulled and compelled to do so because I know at least two or three people are out there are reading and enjoying it. Or, if they’re not enjoying it for its own sake, then they’re enjoying the heckling and critiquing of it.
Hey, whatever it takes to get you through the day.
So, here’s to you, dear readers. May you have a wonderful, joyous, safe, and most of all HEALTHY, holiday season.
See you on the flip side.
Oh, right, the weather…we’ll have a mix of sun and clouds today with temperatures in the low 30s.
Now to the headlines…
President Joe Biden extended a pause on student loan payments that was set to expire on February 1, a decision praised by Democratic lawmakers who pressured him to make the move as the coronavirus pandemic continues to disrupt American lives.
“We know that millions of student loan borrowers are still coping with the impacts of the pandemic and need some more time before resuming payments,” the president said in a statement.
The reversal comes less than two weeks after White House press secretary Jen Psaki had indicated that the administration was still planning to restart federal student loan payments in February, resisting pressure from some fellow Democrats.
The leader of a group of 95 left-wing House Democrats called on Biden to take executive action implementing portions of the $2 trillion Build Back Better Act.
Biden touted his administration’s progress in keeping the American economy rolling, telling a group of business leaders and government officials that the supply chain crisis that was expected to hit the country during the holiday season has not materialized.
The administration will push in the coming months for more segments of the supply chain to operate around the clock and for companies to exchange data that exposes bottlenecks, hoping a series of modest improvements will help prevent future logjams.
Biden left the door open to ending his presidency after just one term, saying it’s up to “fate” but that he’d run again if he remains in good health and would be even more likely to do so if Donald Trump is his opponent.
“(L)ook, I’m a great respecter of fate,” Biden said. “Fate has intervened in my life many, many times. If I’m in the health I’m in now – if I’m in good health – then, in fact, I would run again.”
A major city in central China that’s seen a flare-up of Covid-19 cases locked down today, with local authorities using language similar to that used during the height of the pandemic in the country.
Some researchers say omicron could actually hasten the virus’ transition from pandemic to endemic, albeit with large numbers of illnesses and potential deaths along the way.
South Africa’s noticeable drop in new COVID-19 cases in recent days may signal that the country’s dramatic omicron-driven surge has passed its peak, medical experts say.
WHO officials criticized blanket Covid-19 vaccine booster programs as poor countries struggle to obtain initial doses, warning that the unequal access to immunizations could lead to more mutated variants that drag out the crisis.
More than 62 million Americans have received a booster as of Tuesday, according to the CDC, representing roughly 19% of all Americans and 30% of those who are fully vaccinated. About 55% of fully vaccinated seniors have received an additional dose.
Two new preprint papers add to the growing evidence that the Omicron coronavirus variant may be less likely to cause severe disease and hospitalization compared to the Delta variant.
As the omicron variant continues to spread throughout the world, new modeling data shows the latest strain may cause millions more new infections per day in the U.S. but fewer hospitalizations and deaths compared to the delta variant.
The Omicron variant’s spread across the U.S. threatens to drive up cases, as many people head indoors during the cold weather. The season, it turns out, appears to play an important role in where Covid-19 strikes most.
The Food and Drug Administration authorized use of a new antiviral pill that can be taken at home to help prevent people sick with COVID-19 from becoming severely ill.
Paxlovid, made by Pfizer, reduced the risk of severe disease by nearly 90% in clinical trials and appeared to be safe.
The medication, which is recommended for people at a high risk of developing severe Covid-19, could be available to patients as early as this weekend.
Biden announced that 1,000 military medical professionals would be dispatched to hospitals across the country this winter to help overwhelmed doctors and nurses.
The US Army is developing a vaccine to fight against COVID-19 and SARS-origin variants — and could announce the new treatment within weeks.
The Supreme Court said it would hold a special sitting to hear oral arguments early next month on whether the Biden administration can enforce Covid-19 vaccine-or-testing rules for large private employers, as well as vaccine requirements for many healthcare workers.
Some $100 billion has potentially been stolen from Covid-19 relief programs designed to help individuals and businesses harmed by the pandemic, the U.S. Secret Service said.
After almost two years of remote schooling, restricted gatherings and constant testing, many students are isolated and depressed. Omicron may make things worse.
Amazon said all workers at its hundreds of U.S. warehouses will have to wear masks again starting yesterday, a mandate prompted by the rapid spread of the coronavirus’s Omicron variant.
Washington, D.C. is joining a growing list of metropolises adopting vaccine mandates to speed up the already long return to normalcy.
The COVID-19 epidemic shaved nearly two years off the lives of American adults, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed.
Covid-19 claimed hundreds of thousands of lives in the United States in 2020, driving a record increase in the death rate and a drop in life expectancy of nearly two years, according to final 2020 death data from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics.
Companies, schools, governments and families are trying to apply lessons learned from two years of the pandemic to make life and business more normal.
Home Covid tests have raised a significant challenge for public health officials. How can agencies comprehensively track cases and trends when many consumers don’t report home test results?
With cases of Omicron rising throughout the United States, Americans are scrambling to distinguish the symptoms of this new variant from those of other coronavirus variants, including Delta.
“Sex and the City” author Candace Bushnell — also known as the real Carrie Bradshaw — will no longer perform her one-woman show in New York after testing positive for coronavirus.
U.S. Rep. Antonio Delgado, a Democrat from Rhinebeck, said he has tested positive for coronavirus. Six other members of Congress have also publicly announced their own positive COVID-19 results since the weekend.
New York ranked third among the states where coronavirus was spreading the fastest on a per-person basis, a USA TODAY Network analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows.
New York state reported a record-breaking 28,000 new COVID cases yesterday, but hospitalization rates are thankfully remaining somewhat stable, Gov. Kathy Hochul said at a press conference.
“This virus is going vertical, it’s going straight up,” Hochul said, though she insisted the state is more prepared now than it was to handle the surge, adding: “It’s not March 2020, it’s not even December 2020.”
New Yorkers will soon be able to get tested for COVID-19 at subway stations or in their own homes free of charge, Hochul announced, as state and city officials scrambled to ramp up testing amid an explosion of new infections ahead of the holiday.
“Many places are having long lines, we’re trying to eradicate that by making it available right where people are, right where they commute and go into their offices in New York City,” Hochul said.
Two new state-funded COVID-19 testing sites will open in New York City’s subway system next Monday, with another five on the way as New Yorkers grapple with long lines and a spike in positive cases.
More than 1,000 appointments for Covid-19 booster shots have just been added at the state health department’s mass vaccination site at the New York State Fairgrounds.
In another bid to beef up availability, Hochul said her administration has purchased 37 million at-home coronavirus tests, which New Yorkers will be able to order for free via a web portal that the state will launch in the coming days.
“Our goal is to not let anything shut down,” Hochul said, urging vaccination and other, more modest, precautions. “Isolation is terrible. It’s just so excruciating what people had to go through last year.”
Producing or using a fake coronavirus vaccination card has become a state crime in New York thanks to a bill signed into law by Hochul late yesterday.
The new law makes the falsification of COVID-19 vaccination cards a class A misdemeanor. It also creates a new E felony of third-degree computer tampering for “intentional entering, alteration or destruction of computer material regarding COVID-19 vaccine provisions.”
Mayor Bill de Blasio says he doesn’t want to impose new government restrictions. But some health experts say more must be done.
De Blasio and city health experts have repeatedly emphasized that booster shots are the key weapon in the Big Apple’s war to check the hyper-contagious Omicron variant — but just 40 percent of eligible New Yorkers have gotten that extra dose of vaccination, records show.
The surging Omicron variant is emerging as the Grinch who stole Christmas from Big Apple stores and restaurants that were counting on the holiday season to help them rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The NYC teachers union escalated calls for increased COVID-19 testing in schools as the citywide surge in virus cases continues.
Schools across the tri-state area are scrambling to figure out how to safely open after Christmas break amid an Omicron surge — and some are already planning to go virtual in early January.
A principal at a Manhattan public middle school told parents that unvaccinated students would be required to produce a negative COVID-19 test before attending class — but quickly backtracked when a parent complained.
New York City’s jails are experiencing a spike in coronavirus cases as the Omicron variant spreads, gravely threatening detainees at the end of a year that has already seen 16 people die after being held in custody.
New York City jails will pause in-person visits as the rate of coronavirus spread hits “crisis level.”
The labor union that represents correction officers in New York released a letter calling on state prison officials to either temporarily suspend visitations or put more stringent rules in place amid the surge of COVID-19 cases over the last several days in New York.
Hochul is pulling back on Andrew Cuomo’s plan to reshape a vacant 1.2-acre lot near the Javits Center, which a team of developers had eyed for a 1,600-foot skyscraper that would have been one of the city’s tallest.
Attorney General Letitia James is deliberately stalling on whether or not she’ll claw back the $5.1 million book profits from the disgraced ex-Gov. Cuomo, a top state ethics official charges.
Retiring Assemblyman Dick Gottfried said his mission before he departs Albany is to pass the New York Health Act to create single-payer healthcare in New York.
Momentum is building as a Dec. 31 deadline nears for municipal governments to outlaw pot dispensaries, consumption lounges or both, with an increasing number of cities, towns and villages recently enacting local ordinances barring the businesses.
A day after Mayor-elect Eric Adams castigated incoming City Council members for “romanticizing” their stance against solitary confinement in jails, de Blasio backed up his soon-to-be successor, saying that Adams “listens to people.”
De Blasio unveiled several environmental initiatives before signing into law a measure banning fossil fuels in newly constructed buildings — a move he hopes will hasten the city’s trajectory toward using only renewable energy.
Builders and customers are getting hammered by lumber prices with no particular end in sight.
The MTA’s system for filing construction project documents is so complex that many contractors simply ignore it — causing a mess for MTA officials who attempt to review the work, an inspector general report said.
The federal jury deciding whether to convict British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell of sex-trafficking charges ended its second full day of deliberations without a verdict, opting to resume after Christmas.
The jury’s departure followed a quiet day in the Manhattan courtroom where the trial is being held. Defense lawyers and prosecutors largely stayed away while reporters, sketch artists and court security officers wandered in and out.
In a trend that activists call the Green Labor movement, members of the New York Audubon Society earlier this month voted to join a union.
About 20 minutes before they were due to tip off at the Carrier Dome, the Siena women’s basketball game at Syracuse was postponed due to Covid.
The Rensselaer County Legislature approved a $20,000 annual raise for county Executive Steve McLaughlin, who three weeks ago was arrested and indicted on felony charges related to his alleged misuse of campaign funds and falsifying campaign filings.
A former Saratoga Springs engineer, who alleged the city fired him for not politically supporting his boss, has lost his appeal to get his job back.
Former Cohoes police officer Sean T. McKown, who fired his service revolver outside his summer home last year and falsely reported to State Police that a Black male had shot at him first, was sentenced to three months in jail in Essex County Court.
A committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol has turned its attention to Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan.
The committee’s letter to Jordan, an ally of former President Trump, says that investigators want to question him about his communications related to the run-up to the Capitol riot.
A Proud Boys member who was among the first to cross the police line at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with the government — potentially against other members of the far-right extremist group, the authorities said.
Live Nation Entertainment is facing questions from lawmakers about its role in the tragedy at Travis Scott’s Astroworld music festival in November.
Actor James Franco is speaking out in an interview for the first time following sexual misconduct allegations against him.
“Over the course of my teaching, I did sleep with students, and that was wrong,” Franco told podcast host Jess Cagle in preview clips released yesterday.
