It’s Friday. We made it to the end of another week. For the record, there are 29 days left in 2021.
Today also happens to be the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, as per the UN, which, truth be told, really says it best on this one, and so I’m going to quote from its website:
“Disability inclusion is an essential condition to upholding human rights, sustainable development, and peace and security. It is also central to the promise of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to leave no one behind. The commitment to realizing the rights of persons with disabilities is not only a matter of justice; it is an investment in a common future.
The global crisis of COVID-19 is deepening pre-existing inequalities, exposing the extent of exclusion and highlighting that work on disability inclusion is imperative.
People with disabilities – one billion of them around the globe, give or take, and 61 million adults here in the U.S., according to the CDC – are one of the most excluded groups in our society and are among the hardest hit in this crisis in terms of fatalities.”
This day has been promoted by the UN since 1992, and it casts a very broad net, focusing on everything from Autism and MS to Downs Syndrome and everything in between. (Actually, the history here goes back even further to 1976, when the UN decided that 1981 would be the Year of Disabled Persons).
There are 21 categories of disabilities including but not limited to mental illness, intellectual disabilities, hearing impairments, and blindness. It is helpful to educate yourself about these many categories so you can 1) best assist and support those who might have them, and 2) contribute to a truly equitable and diverse world.
This year, UNESCO has been amplifying the observance with a week-long program that started on November 25 and ends today. The program’s theme and focus have been on creating a “sustainable post-COVID-19 world by and for persons with disabilities.”
A good place to start if you’re wondering what you can do to educate yourself is to click here.
On a personal note, I covered quite a number of issues during my days as a reporter at the state Capitol that impacted disability community, and I found the advocates who worked on those issues to be among the most passionate, dedicated, and quite frankly, fearless group of people I ever encountered.
When your life and ability to live it independently and in the manner you choose is at stake, you quite understandably put your heart and soul into fighting for your rights – even if that requires barricading yourself and everyone who happens to be around into a LOB hearing room for hours on end.
Props.
I’m looking ahead to next week and I see a day (Monday) that calls for rain and temperatures close to 60 degrees. I’ll be digging out my bikini. In the meantime, we’re in for some more seasonable weather, with temperatures in the mid-30s, clouds in the morning and sun in the afternoon.
On, and happy 73rd birthday to rocker Black Sabbath Ozzy Osbourne, AKA The Prince of Darkness.
In the headlines…
The House passed an extension of government funding through Feb. 18 to avoid a partial shutdown this weekend, but a hangup in the Senate over vaccine rules threatened to slow the bill’s progress to President Biden’s desk. The vote was 221 to 212.
The Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate passed a bill to fund the government through mid-February, averting the risk of a shutdown after overcoming a bid by some Republicans to delay the vote in a protest against vaccine mandates.
Lawmakers held an amendment vote on the vaccine issue, which failed. The Senate then voted 69-28 to approve the spending bill.
Asylum seekers looking to enter the US from its southern border will again be sent to Mexico while their claims are assessed, with the Biden administration announcing the reinstatement of the controversial “Remain in Mexico” policy.
The number of undocumented immigrants in detention centers has increased by more than 50% since Biden took office.
Biden and rapper LL Cool J presided over the lighting of the National Christmas Tree just south of the White House.
The Biden administration tightened travel rules to and within the U.S., requiring all in-bound international passengers to test for Covid within 24 hours of departure and extending its mask requirement on all domestic flights and public transit through March 18.
Biden said his plan to get through the winter months, which he promoted during a visit to the National Institutes of Health yesterday, is one that “all Americans hopefully can rally around.”
The plan will not include new lockdowns or an expansion of the administration’s current vaccination requirements.
The president announced that private health insurance plans will soon reimburse people who buy over-the-counter, at-home rapid tests for the coronavirus — one of a series of steps to encourage better detection and prevention of COVID-19 this winter.
Some nations make Covid tests available at little to no cost for consumers. The U.S. plan for home testing includes submitting receipts to private insurers.
Why didn’t the U.S. detect Omicron cases sooner? Genomic surveillance has improved enormously in recent months, but the system has built-in delays, and blind spots remain.
The new Covid variant omicron will likely “overwhelm the whole world” in the coming months, according to a Singapore-based infectious disease doctor.
Scientists in South Africa tracking the spread of the Omicron variant said they are seeing a rise in reinfections in people who had recovered from Covid-19 as the country reported another sharp daily rise in new cases.
Early lab studies suggest that a Covid-19 antibody treatment developed by GlaxoSmithKline and Vir Biotechnology is effective against the Omicron variant, setting it apart from similar therapies that appear to work less well against the highly mutated strain.
U.S. stocks jumped yesterday, continuing a tumultuous week for markets driven by uncertainty about the potential impact of the Omicron variant on public health and the economy.
Google said it is delaying its required return-to-office plans that were scheduled to start Jan. 10 at the earliest for U.S. offices.
The NFL suspended Tampa Bay Buccaneers star wide receiver Antonio Brown for three games after he “misrepresented” his vaccination status, two weeks after he was accused by his former chef of procuring a fake vaccination card.
The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits last week rose off the lowest levels since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Initial claims for unemployment insurance rose last week but held at levels consistent with how the job market looked before the Covid-19 pandemic devastated the U.S. employment picture, the Labor Department reported.
Since topping 900,000 in early January, the weekly applications — a proxy for layoffs — have been falling more or less steadilly. Overall, 2 million Americans received traditional jobless benefits the week that ended Nov. 20, down 107,000 from the week before.
New York state has confirmed five cases of the omicron Covid-19 variant across the state, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced late yesterday, hours after cases were detected in Minnesota and Colorado.
A potential threat to the labor market and overall economy is the Omicron variant of Covid-19. The global economy could suffer a modest blow from the newest iteration of the virus, though the scale of damage will hinge on the potency of the strain itself.
Mask mandates were effective as the Delta variant of the coronavirus was driving a surge in Covid-19 cases across Missouri, according to an analysis that the state’s Department of Health and Senior Services conducted in early November – and then sat on.
Four of the five cases were in New York City and the other on Long Island.
The Long Island case involved a vaccinated 67-year-old woman who had recently returned from South Africa, Hochul said. It wasn’t immediately clear if the other four were immunized.
Hochul said that everyone who attended a recent anime convention in Manhattan should get tested for the coronavirus, after it was announced that an individual who tested positive for the Omicron variant in Minnesota had attended to the conference.
The state reported 11,300 new positive cases of COVID-19, the highest single-day total since late January, along with new months-long highs in daily deaths and hospitalizations.
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a new mandate requiring staffers at New York City private schools to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
The directive, which affects 56,000 employees, faced immediate opposition from some Jewish and Catholic leaders, who sent a letter to de Blasio urging him to reconsider.
An anti-vaccination ad, which contained false information and was seen at a bus stop in Brooklyn, had not been authorized by NYC. It was later removed.
New data shows that 167,359 COVID vaccine doses had to be thrown away in New York this past year.
Westchester County Executive George Latimer and a dozen Westchester County legislators endorsed New York Attorney General Tish James for governor.
Hochul also picked up endorsements from Westchester County lawmakers, including Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano, New Rochelle Mayor Noam Bramson and White Plains Mayor Tom Roach.
The Justice Department opened a civil-rights investigation into former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s executive chamber after a state report found the Democrat sexually harassed multiple women.
The stunning development is contained in a legal services contract signed in October and released by the state Comptroller’s Office on Thursday in response to a Freedom of Information Law request filed by The NY Post.
The DOJ’s probe into Cuomo began as an investigation into how he handled the COVID-19 pandemic, including his cover-up of nursing home deaths and the millions he was set to rake in for a pandemic-related memoir.
“Our understanding is that the Civil Division opened an inquiry in August based upon the AG’s politically motivated sham report and we have heard nothing since,” said Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi.
The contract for a law firm retained by the Executive Chamber to represent Cuomo’s administration had a provision that the legal work includes responding to a DOJ inquiry related to the sexual harassment claims made against the ex- governor.
Cuomo developed such a wildcard reputation for dealing with younger women that his top aides stole a page from former Vice President Mike Pence’s playbook and secretly stopped him from meeting one-on-one with them.
According to former top Cuomo aide Linda Lacewell, the inspector general is legally prohibited from investigating not only the governor, but also the secretary to the governor — a top position in state government.
There’s family, and your job as a journalist. Chris Cuomo’s willingness to put the latter at risk in service to his brother has led to his suspension by CNN.
The anemic ratings for Chris Cuomo’s CNN show shot up — after he disappeared on suspension.
Karen Hinton, a onetime aide to ex-Gov. Cuomo who has accused him of groping her says CNN should fire Chris Cuomo for enabling his brother’s harassing behavior.
Over the course of Eric Adams’ mayoral campaign, he raised just over $19.1 million, more than half of which was in public matching funds, and spent about $18.1 million, according to the latest financial disclosures.
NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea filed for retirement yesterday, police pension board records show. His first deputy commissioner, Benjamin Tucker, put in his retirement papers the same day.
The departures of Shea, 52, and Tucker, 70, the first deputy commissioner, come as the de Blasio’s administration winds down and paves the way for his successor to select a woman to lead the department for the first time in its 176-year history.
The heart of New York City is once again bustling with holiday crowds a year after a spike in Covid-19 infections kept visitors away.
Frigid weather, a new coronavirus variant and indoor service will put outdoor dining in NYC to the test this winter.
A “staggering” wage gap between directors of city-funded, community-based preschools, almost exclusively women of color, and those in NYC Education Department facilities — who are mostly white — amounts to racial discrimination, a new lawsuit alleges.
Leaders of uniformed correction officers’ unions and advocates for detainees expressed surprise at the city correction commissioner’s claim that violence at Rikers Island jails has dropped in recent months.
Ever since the first Citi Bikes started rolling through New York City, the bike-sharing program has enjoyed steady growth. But as the popularity of traveling by bike has soared during the pandemic, Citi Bike has struggled to keep up with demand.
MTA officials have fallen seriously behind on shoring up New York’s aging transit infrastructure and don’t have a plan to address the increased danger posed by storms amid climate change, state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli said.
Inside her private bathroom at Jeffrey Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion, Ghislaine Maxwell kept a wicker basket full of sex toys the financier used to abuse teenage girls, a Manhattan jury was told.
After Maxwell took up residence in Epstein’s Palm Beach, Fla., mansion, the rules of the house became strict, a former employee of Epstein’s said: See nothing. Hear nothing. Do not look him in the eye.
Michael Cohen asked a Manhattan appeals court to reconsider a ruling that spares the Trump Organization from having to pay his hefty legal bills.
City officials placed a single metal detector in a Brooklyn school building the day after a student was busted with a loaded gun — and turned up 21 weapons in just one day, law-enforcement sources said.
The slaughter of thoroughbred and standardbred race horses in New York will be a misdemeanor crime in New York beginning next month after legislation to ban the practice was signed into law by Hochul this week.
Shops operated by Native American nations in small upstate communities are currently the only retail stores where you can legally purchase marijuana.
Every Albany County legislator will get a raise next year under recently approved changes the legislature’s audit and finance committee made to the proposed 2022 budget.
A federal bankruptcy court judge gave Central Warehouse owner Evan Blum one last chance to come up with a viable plan to pay off his company’s debts.
Saratoga Springs Public Safety Commissioner-elect James Montagnino is crying foul over outgoing Commissioner Robin Dalton’s idea to appoint a new assistant chief before her term ends.
Former Erie County Democratic chair and political operative Steve Pigeon, 61, is now behind bars after he was arraigned on a six-count indictment that included rape and charges of assault against a child under the age of 11.
“It’s absolutely untrue,” Pigeon told The Buffalo News the night before turning himself in to State Police. He suggested that someone might be setting him up – someone whom he helped the FBI investigate.
Alec Baldwin said he doesn’t feel guilt over the shooting on the “Rust” movie set that killed Halyna Hutchins in October. “If I felt I was responsible, I might have killed myself,” he said.
“There’s only one question that needs to be resolved, just one: where did the live round come from?” Baldwin told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos in an interview that aired yesterday.
Jussie Smollett’s lawyers suggested in court that two brothers at the center of the case attacked the actor to scare him into hiring them as his personal security, and later, to avoid prosecution, falsely told the police that Smollett had planned it all as a hoax.
The film adaptation of Alice Sebold’s “Lucky,” about her rape as an 18-year-old Syracuse University student, appears to be dead, but a new documentary will examine the man falsely accused of and imprisoned for the assault.
