Good Thursday morning. Welcome to a very special day, though if you’re lactose intolerant, you might want to skip this one.
You’ve been warned.
It is National Cheese Lovers Day, which is NOT to be confused with National Cheese Day. The latter falls on June 4. And yes, cheese is so wonderful that it deserves more than one day of recognition.
OR the cheese industry has some really good marketers?! Maybe it’s a little of both.
Total U.S. cheese production in 2020 was 13.25 billion pounds, up 2 percent from 2016. Wisconsin led the nation in cheese production in 2019 with 3.36 billion pounds, according to the Agricultural Marketing Resource Center.
These numbers seem big, but the EU-27 actually out-produce the U.S. when it comes to cheese.
Across the nation in 2020, per person cheese consumption was 40.2 pounds. That was actually a slight increase from previous years. Cheddar and mozzarella are the most popular cheese varieties in the 50 states, which is kinda basic, but not terribly surprising, given this country’s love of pizza.
Cheese aficionados probably know this already, but the demand for artisanal (made by hand and in small batches) and farmstead cheeses (produced on a farm using ONLY the milk from on-site flocks of goats, sheep, buffalo, or, most often, cows) is what is pushing the overall consumption numbers up.
Another product you might be reading more about these days is raw milk cheese, made with unpasteurized or non-thermized milk. This was actually the norm until pasteurization – the process by which bacteria is destroyed by heating beverages and then allowing them to cool – was invented in the late 1880s.
The FDA mandated pasteurization of all milk products in 1987, but a dozen states have since passed rules allowing retail sales of raw milk. Another dozen allow consumers to purchase raw milk cheese directly from the originating farm.
Most experts consider it perfectly safe to eat, but unpasteurized dairy products can be contaminated with a number of bacteria that can make people sick, and have been blamed for a number of food-borne illness outbreaks.
It is estimated that there are more than 1,800 different types of cheeses in the world. Generally speaking, they come in eight varieties including blue, hard, pasta filata, processed, semi-hard, semi-soft, soft and fresh, and soft-ripened.
(I’m not sure if this also applies to vegan cheese, which can be made out of nuts, or soy, or tofu. This category is also growing in popularity, and some of it is really actually quite good, though it doesn’t keep terribly long and some products don’t melt all that well, I’ve found).
When I lived in France for a year, one of my greatest pleasures – and most affordable go-to meals – was to buy a fresh baguette and a wheel of Camembert, the smellier and riper, the better, and go to the Place de La Comedie or some other beautiful public locale and make sandwiches to split with my friends.
Combined with a cheap bottle of red wine, and maybe, if we were feeling flush, some pate or dried sausage, this was basically paradise.
Sadly, my stomach is not really up for such indulgences anymore. But in small quantities, high quality stinky cheese is really the best. I also wouldn’t say no to a nice sharp farm-made cheddar, and am partial to anything made with goat’s milk. Come to think about it, I wouldn’t turn down a really well made fondue, either, though those are few and far between.
I know cheese boards are a big thing these days. And if fancy layouts are your jam, by all means go for it. But a really good cheese doesn’t need much adornment, I find. Some dried fruit or honey or fig paste is nice as an accompaniment, though.
Wow. Who knew cheese would take up so much time and space? I feel like I’ve hardly scratched the surface of this subject, but it’s really time to move on to the headlines…the weather is almost not worth mentioning. Cold, though not as cold as tomorrow will be, and also a mix of clouds and sun.
And now, the news…
Today marks one year since Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th President of the United States, and he finds himself in a weaker position than when he was given the presidential baton last year.
The president got trillions in spending through Congress, but he was unable to accomplish some of his top social and climate priorities.
Biden defended his record during his first year in office, saying he “didn’t overpromise,” but instead “outperformed,” maintaining the “enormous progress” his administration has made and vowed to “stay on track” going forward.
“I know there’s a lot of frustration and fatigue in this country, and we know why — COVID-19,” said Biden. “Some people may call what’s happening now the ‘new normal.’ I call it a ‘job not yet finished.’ It will get better.”
Biden said he likely would have to break up his stalled healthcare, education and climate agenda in hopes of getting his policies through Congress.
Biden believes Republicans were not “nearly as obstructionist” during the Obama administration “as they are now,” saying during a press conference that when he was vice president, lawmakers from both parties could work together to “get some things done.”
The president vowed to pursue a scaled-back version of his marquee domestic policy plan as he mounted a two-hour defense of his first-year accomplishments and repeatedly blamed Republicans for abandoning any serious attempt to govern the country.
Biden said that he expects Russian President Vladimir Putin to order an invasion of Ukraine, and warned that “a disaster” awaits Russia if that happened.
While Biden vowed withering economic consequences on Russia should Putin send his troops over the frontier, including restricting its financial transitions in US dollars, he suggested Western nations were not in sync on what to do should a lesser violation occur.
Biden nominated a Muslim woman for a federal judgeship for the first time in U.S. history as part of his administration’s push to reshape the federal judiciary with diversity.
Biden said he supports Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s expected move to start tightening monetary policy and wind down the easy-money measures the central bank used to insulate the economy from the Covid-19 pandemic.
As the pandemic exacerbates supply chain backlogs and global computer chip shortages, Democratic congressional leaders and Biden want to fast track a $250 billion bill to develop U.S. independence from China and other competitors in chip manufacturing.
The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for the release of presidential records from the Trump White House to a congressional committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The court’s order means that more than 700 documents will be transferred to Congress that could shed light on the events leading up to the insurrection when hundreds of rioters attempted to stop certification of the 2020 presidential election results.
Only Justice Clarence Thomas said publicly that he would have granted former President Donald Trump’s request to block the document handover from the National Archives to the House select committee. The other justices did not make their votes public.
Trump, who cannot appeal this ruling, had argued unsuccessfully in lower courts that he had the authority as a former president to invoke executive privilege to prevent disclosure of the records and cited that argument in his application to the Supreme Court.
The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol issued two subpoenas for the leaders of a white nationalist movement that helped bring a crowd to Washington ahead of the riot.
The New York attorney general has cited more than a dozen instances in which she said Trump inflated the value of his assets, including his Trump Tower penthouse.
The Supreme Court seemed ready to side with Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz in his challenge to a federal campaign finance law, in what would be the latest in a series of decisions dismantling aspects of campaign finance regulations on First Amendment grounds.
In an unusual joint statement, Justices Sonia Sotomayor and NeilGorsuch sought to rebut reports that Justice Gorsuch’s refusal to wear a mask at Supreme Court arguments has created tensions between them.
Senate Democrats made an impassioned case for legislation to counter an onslaught of new voting restrictions around the country, but they failed to overcome a Republican blockade or unite their own members behind a change in filibuster rules to pass it.
Biden and Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, took to Twitter late yesterday to express their disappointment after the Senate failed to pass two major election bills, which was all but certain.
As expected, two Democratic senators – West Virginia’s Joe Manchin and Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema – joined all Senate Republicans in opposing the attempt to alter the Senate filibuster on party lines, resulting in a 48-52 final tally.
Schumer doesn’t typically lead his caucus into losing votes that divide Democrats. He made an exception for election reform.
Schumer vowed that Democrats would keep trying to find a path forward for voting rights legislation after they failed to pass a rules change to exempt election legislation from the legislative filibuster.
The Biden administration announced plans to make 400 million N95 masks available for free at pharmacies and community health centers across the country.
Health care workers in two dozen states must be fully vaccinated against the coronavirus by March 15 after a Supreme Court decision last week, a ruling that has left some already understaffed hospital systems bracing to possibly lose workers.
Starbucks is no longer requiring employees to get vaccinated or submit to weekly testing, following the US Supreme Court’s rejection last week of Biden’s vaccine and testing requirement for large businesses.
People who had previously been infected with COVID-19 were better protected against the Delta variant than those who were vaccinated alone, California and New York health officials reported.
When the Delta variant was dominant in the United States, both vaccination and prior infection helped protect against Covid-19, but vaccination was the safest way to be protected, according to a study published by the CDC.
As Omicron cases skyrocket, more vaccinated people may get “hybrid” immunity after a breakthrough infection. But experts still encourage precautions.
Sex differences in Covid death rates vary widely from state to state, suggesting they are rooted in behavior as well as biology.
Tracking the virus in wastewater is helping some cities and hospitals respond to the most recent wave of the coronavirus, but a more coordinated national effort is needed, experts say.
United Airlines said the emergence of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 dented near-term bookings and will slow its recovery, but said the setback is likely to be temporary.
Employees of New Jersey hospitals, nursing homes, prisons and jails will be required to be fully vaccinated against the coronavirus — with a booster — or risk losing their jobs, Gov. Philip D. Murphy announced.
Students in California have threatened to stay home and continue remote learning unless the school district commits to more COVID-19 protocols, joining hundreds of other students making similar demands in cities across the U.S.
New York’s COVID numbers are on a slow decline, but “we are not out of the woods yet,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said.
The accounting of Hochul’s record-breaking $21.6 million campaign haul reads like an alphabet soup of New York’s most prominent real-estate developers, union political action committees, trade associations and hedge fund managers.
Among the biggest donors were developers from Buffalo to Manhattan, entertainment execs, and celebrities. One of the heftiest donations came from New York City commercial landlords, the Rudin family, which gave more than $226,000.
Hochul appears to be solidifying her position as front runner for this year’s Democratic gubernatorial nomination after her campaign finance report dwarfed any rival’s and former New York Mayor Bill de Blasio passed on entering the race.
Republicans seeking to unseat Hochul are not fans of her $216 billion budget proposal.
Hochul in the last several days has locked up endorsements from prominent Democrats in the Capital Region, including U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko and Albany County Executive Dan McCoy, and the Saratoga Springs Democratic Committee.
Hochul is seeking to boost investment in clean energy and other environmental initiatives as part of her proposed $216 billion budget released this week.
Drivers who shield their license plates to skirt New York City’s incoming congestion pricing tolls would face steep fines and the possible loss of their car registrations under new legislation pushed by Hochul.
Cinemas in New York will be allowed to sell beer and wine at their concession stands for consumption while watching a movie, the board of the State Liquor Authority ruled in an unanimous vote.
As Broadway continues to reel from the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic, Hochul is proposing to expand and extend a pandemic tax credit intended to help the commercial theater industry rebound.
Hochul’s election year budget has a $2.2 billion one-shot gift for an estimated 2 million New Yorkers homeowners, teed up for fall delivery, just as voters focus on the 2022 gubernatorial election.
The state Department of Motor Vehicles will have the authority to provide incarcerated convicts free non-driver Identification cards under a proposal championed by Hochul.
Elizabeth Velez, a New York City construction honcho who in recent years donated thousands to former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s election campaigns, received signoff from state lawmakers to become the newest member of the MTA board.
The state university system has finalized its exit agreement with former SUNY Chancellor Jim Malatras.
Malatras, the pressured-to-resign State University chancellor, is being paid $450,000 for his recently started year-long “study leave” — and next year he’ll get a six-figure tenured SUNY faculty position, his approved exit contract reveals.
Mayor Eric Adams pledged to redesign 1,000 intersections across the city, making them safer for pedestrians, and to use the NYPD to crack down on drivers that fail to stop at red lights and stop signs, and drivers who fail to yield to pedestrians in crosswalks.
“The prerequisite to prosperity is public safety and justice. That public safety also includes traffic safety,” Adams said.
Adams’ announcement comes days after a teenage girl was fatally struck by a school bus in Brooklyn.
Adams slammed his own police department for engaging in “all this showy stuff” instead of directing more cops to the neighborhoods that need them the most.
Adams said he may exempt the New York Police Department from the 3 percent across-the-board budget cut he ordered this month — while lambasting the agency’s habit of deploying a phalanx of cops on overtime to monitor parades.
Adams has big ambitions to revamp the way that the city uses technology, and in a move that may help him get it done, he is consolidating the city’s technology and IT-related agencies.
Yesterday, Adams signed Executive Order 3, transforming the existing Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications into a new “Office of Technology and Innovation.”
Adams, who has brought a number of close allies into City Hall, says he is subject to greater scrutiny over hiring than his predecessors faced.
An 11-month-old girl was in critical condition late yesterday after being hit in the cheek by a stray bullet while sitting in a parked car with her mother in the Bronx, the police said.
A grieving son is searching for answers in the suspected gas explosion that decimated a Bronx home, killing his mother and injuring his aunt, along with seven others Tuesday.
Grammy-winning Bronx native Cardi B pledged to cover the funeral costs of all 17 victims of a devastating high-rise building fire in her home borough.
A statue of Theodore Roosevelt that has stood in front of the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan for more than 80 years was hauled away, photos show.
Miriam Rocah, the Westchester district attorney, released a report on the investigation that led to Robert Durst’s indictment for killing his wife. The 12-page report shed little new light on the exact circumstances of her death.
A little more than two years after the brutal murder of Tessa Majors, an 18-year-old Barnard College student, the last teenager to be sentenced in her killing received 14 years to life in prison.
Bill Perkins, the Harlem political stalwart who spent more than 20 years representing the neighborhood on the New York City Council and in the state senate, was found yesterday morning after going missing from his apartment Tuesday afternoon.
The legal team for Ghislaine Maxwell formally requested a retrial on her sex crimes conviction after it was revealed that a juror failed to disclose their childhood sexual abuse during jury selection.
Democrats are eyeing New York’s 24th Congressional District as a prime pickup opportunity after incumbent GOP Rep. John Katko announced last week he would not seek reelection in November.
Schumer is going to bat for the airports in Ogdensburg and Plattsburgh. Last week, SkyWest Airlines served 90 days notice it is pulling out of both cities. A pandemic-induced slump in business is believed to be the reason.
Members of Saratoga and Warren counties’ Boards of Supervisors are chiding their chairs over committee assignments they say are “misogynistic” and preferential to their friends.
S.A. Dunn has filed its application with the state to renew its permit for five years to operate the construction and demolition debris landfill, and has drawn more condemnation from the Rensselaer Environmental Coalition, which wants the facility shut down.
For the first time in its history, the City of Cohoes police force went from an all-white department as it diversified racially and added three woman among six new officers sworn in at the Cohoes Music Hall.
Barbara Rice, a Saranac Lake native and the first woman chair of the Franklin County Legislature, is the new Adirondack Park Agency executive director.
An upstate New York school has prompted outrage after a father shared a photo of his son’s meager cafeteria offerings.
After a standoff over potential risks that the connection poses to cockpit equipment, Verizon and AT&T yesterday activated much of the wireless service. The companies did so without powering it on close to certain airport runways.
Eighty-eight airports now have buffers to protect against it but some major airports like Boston and Memphis do not. In the most recent FAA announcement, the government said “62 percent” of flights could operate safely – leaving nearly half to reschedule.
The launch had a limited impact on U.S. flights after aviation regulators gave airlines additional guidance to reflect the decision not to launch the new cellular service near major airports.
Still, a handful of carriers canceled a few flights on the first day. Air-safety regulators have been working to clear aircraft to operate in low-visibility conditions and said some flights could still face delays as that work continues.
Emirates president Richard Clark called the rollout “one of the most delinquent, utterly irresponsible” he’s been a part of.
Clark said the new towers would undoubtedly interfere with Emirates’ aircraft and any other international 777 flight. Emirates blamed the 5G rollout for canceling nine U.S.-bound flights.
The family of a U.S. Marine killed in a suicide bombing in Afghanistan is suing actor Alec Baldwin for allegedly mislabeling his sister as a participant in the Capitol riot Jan. 6, 2021.
The University of Michigan is paying $490 million to settle allegations that a former university physician, Robert Anderson, sexually abused more than 1,000 former students, athletes and others.
