Happy Friday.
The phrase of the day is “bomb cyclone” – a rapidly strengthening winter storm with the intensity of a hurricane that has a significant meteorological criteria: Pressure that drops 24 millibars within a 24-hour period.
Forecasters are predicting a “nor’easter with blockbuster potential” this weekend, with heavy snow possible from D.C. all the way up the cost to New England. Another take: “This blizzard bomb will be just that: an area of low pressure that is due to meteorologically “bomb” while blizzard criteria is expected to be reached over a rather broad area.”
The question everyone is asking is exactly how much impact we are going to see here in the Capital Region, and the answer is: We don’t yet know, though thus far it looks like the storm is going to merely graze us while causing big problems in the Boston area.
New York City and Long Island? Well, that’s another story entirely. Some are predicting as much as three feet of snow – or more – for certain areas downstate.
Meteorologists said that slight changes in the storm’s track could shift snow totals drastically. Published forecasts on weather maps tend to focus on numbers near the center of the range of possibilities. That can be deceptive for winter storms – this one in particular, because the range of plausible outcomes was so broad.
Travelers planning to depart from Albany International Airport this weekend are being offered waivers by major airlines, which are bracing for delays and backups created by a winter storm working its way up the East Coast.
So, we watch and wait and do the usual stocking up on eggs, bread, milk, shovels, salt etc.
In the meantime, it’s Data Privacy Day, “an international effort to create awareness about the importance of respecting privacy, safeguarding data and enabling trust.” The day actually originated in Europe, where it was called Data Protection Day. The U.S. and Canada picked it up and renamed it in 2008.
The National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) assumed leadership of Data Privacy Day in 2011. Similar days are recognized elsewhere in the world on a different schedule.
Just to be clear, data privacy – also sometimes referred to as information privacy – concerns the proper handling and protection of sensitive, confidential, intellectual property, and/or proprietary data.
I’m going to keep it short today because, well, quite honestly, I’m beat. It was a week. And, there’s a new member of our household – a new, furry member who does not know how to use the toilet OR hold it long enough to go outside. Yeah. It’s a puppy. I’ll be introducing him formally soon.
As for the weather, looks like the calm before the storm, as we have clouds and temperatures in the low 30s in the forecast.
And now, the headlines…
President Biden said that he would name a successor for Justice Stephen G. Breyer by the end of February, pledging to take what he called the overdue step of putting a Black woman on the court for the first time in its 232-year history.
Breyer announced his retirement at the White House yesterday, where Biden paid tribute to the veteran jurist’s “remarkable career in public service and his clear-eyed commitment to making our country’s laws work for its people.
Asked when the president was made aware of Breyer’s decision to retire, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said only that the administration had no influence over his choice.
Whatever issues Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema have caused for Biden’s legislative agenda, their records on Biden’s judicial confirmation efforts are a positive signal for the President as he seeks to replace the retiring Justice Stephen Breyer.
Lawmakers from both parties and both houses of Congress rushed to influence Biden’s choice for the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court, with Republicans warning against a “radical” pick and a senior Democrat pushing a consensus choice.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) warned Biden not to “outsource” his Supreme Court nominee to the “radical left”.
The replacement of Breyer with another liberal is unlikely to alter the basic dynamic at the court or to slow its accelerating conservative ambitions.
The U.S. economy ended last year with a flourish as consumer spending and business investment helped loosen the pandemic’s stubborn grip. But growth recently has run into obstacles that could lead to more modest growth this year, economists say.
Biden is contending with an uncomfortable disconnect: The economy grew at the fastest pace since 1984 last year, but voters are downright pessimistic about economic conditions and their own financial prospects.
Biden has been in office for just over a year, but former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has seen enough: She wants him to resign.
Russia said it was clear the United States was not willing to address its main security concerns in their standoff over Ukraine, but both sides kept the door open to further dialogue.
Biden spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky yesterday afternoon, amid deepening worries about the prospect of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.
A senior Ukrainian official said the call “did not go well,” but the White House disputed that, warning that anonymous sources were “leaking falsehoods.” They did state that Biden warned Zelensky an imminent invasion is a “distinct possibility.”
The Pentagon’s chief spokesman acknowledged that a Russian invasion of Ukraine “could be imminent,” but bristled at the suggestion that US military aid was taking too long to arrive in the Eastern European nation.
The Kremlin warned there was “not much cause for optimism” that the West would satisfy Russia’s demands in the showdown over Ukraine, but said that President Vladimir Putin would take his time to study the written responses from the U.S. and NATO.
After Europeans complained that they were blindsided by the swift U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan last summer, and that France was frozen out of a new defense alliance with Australia, Biden has gone out of his way to involve allies in every step of this crisis.
First-time unemployment filings ticked lower for the first time in four weeks after notching a three-month high in the previous reading, suggesting some of the Omicron-related disruptions that have weighed on the labor market’s recovery may be easing.
Jobless claims fell by 30,000 to 260,000 last week, the Labor Department reported, fewer than the 265,000 analysts were expecting.
Unemployment claims, which are seen as a proxy for layoffs, declined on a weekly basis for the first time in 2022. Economists had projected jobless claims would decline by 21,000 to 265,000 for the week.
By infecting so many people, Omicron undoubtedly brings us closer to the end of the pandemic, experts said. But it is not likely that the coronavirus will ever completely disappear, and herd immunity is now just a dream.
Third shots of coronavirus vaccines significantly reduced the risk that people with weakened immune systems would be hospitalized with Covid, the CDC reported, reinforcing the case for additional doses in that group.
Unvaccinated health care workers in roughly half the United States are required to get a first dose of a Covid vaccine by today under a federal mandate that has understaffed hospitals and nursing homes bracing to lose more workers.
Reopening schools is a start, but every student in America should have access to mental health professionals after two years of grappling with the unprecedented coronavirus pandemic, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said.
Several European countries have lifted or relaxed Covid-19 restrictions, citing the milder Omicron symptoms in vaccinated people, even as daily infections continued to surge in some countries and a new version of Omicron was identified as spreading in places.
Researchers around the world are monitoring a new variant of the Omicron variant dubbed BA.2. The variant is under observation by countries including Denmark, India and the U.K., though little is still known about its properties and the threat it may pose.
A supervisor in Germany’s Olympic delegation has tested positive for the coronavirus within the closed loop in Beijing, confirming one of the first cases connected to an athletic team within the bubble meant to shield participants from the rest of the world.
Hundreds of millions of students across India have received little to no in-person instruction with schools intermittently shut down since the start of the pandemic.
People who had slight changes in their menstrual cycle after getting the COVID-19 vaccine only experienced those changes for a brief time, as a new study “reassures” there is little risk in fertile individuals getting inoculated.
Current and former staffers described a “toxic atmosphere” at the World Health Organization in the Western Pacific and accused its director, Dr. Takeshi Kasai, of racist, unethical and abusive behavior.
Sweden has decided against recommending COVID vaccines for kids aged 5-11, the Health Agency said, arguing that the benefits did not outweigh the risks.
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is not letting COVID-19 stop her from enjoying New York City’s culinary offerings.
New York’s job recovery rate is falling behind the rest of the nation, ranking second to last in the nation, according to a new report released by the Empire Center.
New York could boost weekly benefits for laid-off workers and delay unemployment tax hikes for employers under a bill that passed the Senate this week.
A Rochester-based federal judge refused the request of a Geneseo man to temporarily bring a halt to the state’s coronavirus-related mandates.
State Attorney General Letitia James’ office issued a warning letter this week to a COVID-19 testing lab, PacGenomics, that she said was among other labs that have misled customers about “promised turnaround times for COVID-19 test results.”
Gov. Kathy Hochul said she’s asking for $1.6 billion in federal funding to settle unpaid rent owed by tenants amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
“New York State continues to demonstrate a large need for this federal funding,” the governor said in a statement. “We need to ensure that all eligible tenants and landlords are able to tap into this critical assistance.”
The Republican Party urged voters to remember Hochul’s support for the state’s controversial bail reform law come November, as the legislation is under added scrutiny following the deaths of two officers shot in the line of duty in New York City.
After three consecutive state budgets that gave the governor authority to expedite the closure of New York correctional facilities, there are no prison closures proposed in Hochul’s executive budget.
Twenty-three school districts statewide were in some level of fiscal stress last year according to state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli’s Fiscal Stress Monitoring System — down from 31 stressed districts at the end of the 2019-20 academic year.
Mayor Eric Adams’ brother, Bernard Adams, has been granted a waiver by the New York City Conflicts of Interest Board (COIB) to serve as senior advisor for mayoral security for the nominal salary of $1 a year, allowing him to become an official city employee.
The “effectively uncompensated” role is the second apparent demotion for Bernard Adams over his short time in the city administration.
No city personnel will be allowed to report to Bernard Adams. Nor can he have any “command authority” at the Police Department, according to the Jan. 26 determination, released yesterday via a Freedom of Information request.
Eric Adams once lobbied in favor of the state’s Raise the Age Law, but now is seeking to roll it back – and effort that is facing headwinds in Albany.
An old bribery case in which he was not charged because there wasn’t enough evidence against him casts a shadow over Adams’ public safety chief, Philip Banks III, who will play a central role in the mayor’s plan to reduce gun violence.
Banks, who abruptly resigned in 2014, currently collects an annual six-figure pension from his time as a cop, so he would need a waiver to be eligible for the $252,000 salary that comes with the City Hall title. He doesn’t have one yet.
Adams insisted that changing the state’s controversial bail reform laws, effectively been blocked by Hochul and Albany’s legislative leaders, is just “one river” that feeds into his extensive proposal aimed at solving the rampant violence in the Big Apple.
A new terminal at La Guardia Airport, once called like a “third-world country, by then-Vice President Biden, has been transformed in a turnaround so remarkable that it was declared the world’s best new airport building by an international panel of judges.
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo sought to take credit for LaGuardia’s new Terminal B moments after Hochul cut the ribbon.
A group of Amazon.com Inc. workers pushing to unionize a large company warehouse in New York won enough support to hold an election, the National Labor Relations Board said, opening a new battlefront between employees and the e-commerce giant.
Stormy Daniels, the porn film star whose lawsuit against ex-President Trump was at the center of a 2018 scandal, took the stand as a witness in the trial of Michael Avenatti, the lawyer who once represented her but now stands accused of stealing from her.
“He stole from me and lied to me,” Daniels said in Manhattan Federal Court, testifying against her former lawyer and friend.
Body-camera footage from the Albany Police shooting that left 32-year-old Jordan Young critically wounded Monday showed him running at an officer moments before the officer fired several shots.
A confident Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin, after delivering an upbeat State of the County address, said the criminal charges he faces are “nonsense” and that he’s a political target of the state attorney general.
The New York State Conference of Mayors (NYCOM) appointed Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan as its first vice president. The decision was made by an executive committee.
Maria College said this week it has officially launched the search for its next president following the announcement that President Thomas J. Gamble, Ph.D., will retire after a six-year tenure.
U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) is pushing for legislation that would provide more funds for two programs that would help deal with maternal health among Black women.
