Good Wednesday morning.
Today is a big day in New York politics, it’s the first day of school!
Actually, what that means is that it’s the first day of the new 2022 legislative session – the day the state’s first woman governor will solidify her place in history by delivering her inaugural State of the State address.
I always loved the return to the state Capitol after winter break. There were lots of new faces, and everyone was dressed to impressed, and there were parties and fundraisers and cocktail hours and lunches and lots and lots of gossip in the halls.
Those days are, of course, long gone. COVID is the main culprit, but I have to say that Planet Albany just isn’t as much fun as it used to be – even without the damper that is the pandemic.
It’s probably inappropriate to say that I dearly miss former Speaker Sheldon Silver’s pre-State of the State reception, which was held in the Assembly parlor, so packed to the gills that you could barely move around the long table in the middle spread with the finest deli New York City had to offer.
Bagels. Lox. Cream cheeses of all kinds. Danish – fruit AND cheese. Egg salad. Whitefish salad (YES, my favorite). Cole slaw. Tuna. Maybe chopped liver? I don’t remember, but there should have been if there wasn’t some on offer.
Whatever it was, it was delicious.
And everybody who was anybody attended. To me, it was the epitome of everything Albany. Lots of hand shaking and back slapping and whispering in ears and conjecture and dealmaking.
I am dating myself, I know. And probably there are some of you reading this right now who are quietly judging me. Go ahead. I am not ashamed. And yes, I know what happened to the former speaker, how he fell from grace etc. I covered the whole saga. It was ugly from start to finish, and a perfect example of everything that is wrong with government.
And yet. I miss old Albany sometimes – Bear Mountain Compact and all.
Anyway, so today at 1 p.m. Governor Kathy Hochul will deliver her first ever State of the State address. She will be doing so from the Assembly chamber – the traditional locale for this speech, and one that her predecessor did not like at all (mostly because he couldn’t control it, and so moved the whole thing to a much larger – and far COLDER – venue, the Empire State Plaza).
I wonder what temperature Gov. Hochul considers optimal for a public gathering…
Because of COVID, in-person attendance will be sparse today. I will be watching from afar and reminiscing about the good old – or bad old, depending on your point of view – days when I was a wide-eyed cub reporter.
Maybe I’ll even treat myself to a bagel while I watch, resplendent in my current work uniform of jeans, black sweater, and boots.
And in case politics isn’t your bag, but you need a reason to get out of bed this morning: It’s National Whipped Cream Day, which celebrates a delicious delicacy that appears to have originated in (where else?) France.
We’re back up into the 40s today in terms of temperature – Mother Nature has been giving me whiplash of late – with cloudy skies and a few scattered snow showers or flurries possible.
In the headlines…
The U.S. has reported a record single-day number of daily Covid cases, with more than 1 million new infections.
The U.S. reported a record 1.08 million Covid-19 infections as most states worked to clear backlogs after pausing during the New Year’s holiday.
President Joe Biden sought to reassure the public that the federal government is prepared to address the growing COVID-19 health crisis amid a staggering increase in infections driven by the highly transmissible omicron variant.
Addressing the country before a meeting with the White House COVID-19 response team, Biden once again exhorted Americans to get vaccinated and boosted and to wear masks in public to avoid spreading and catching the coronavirus.
Biden announced that the federal government is doubling the US’ order for Pfizer’s Covid-19 antiviral pill, Paxlovid, which has been shown to reduce hospitalizations and severe illness significantly.
Biden said schools should stay open despite the fast-rising number of COVID-19 caused by the omicron variant.
The CDC amended its controversial Covid-19 isolation guidance, declining to add a testing requirement as public health officials expected after the agency cut its recommended quarantine time in half.
Walmart and Kroger are raising their prices for BinaxNOW at-home rapid tests, after the expiration of a deal with the White House to sell the test kits at cost for $14.
The CDC recommended that Americans who received two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine seek a booster shot five months after the second shot, and not wait six months, as earlier guidance had said.
Covid hospitalizations are surging, but a smaller proportion of cases is severe compared with previous waves. With staff shortages, some hospitals are still in crisis.
Public school officials in Chicago canceled classes for today amid a clash with the teachers’ union, whose members had threatened to stay home in a bid to force instruction online during a coronavirus surge.
A top Alabama health official said that the highly transmissible COVID-19 omicron variant is “spreading like wildfire” as the state sees record numbers of new coronavirus cases.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sued the Biden administration, seeking to halt a requirement that National Guard members be vaccinated against Covid-19.
Fox News commentator Geraldo Rivera tested positive for COVID, he announced on Twitter.
At least 14,000 New York City students and school staffers have tested positive for COVID-19 since the start of winter break on Dec. 23, including more than 4,000 over the past two days, according to newly-released Education Department data.
Women who received Covid vaccinations while pregnant were at no greater risk of delivering their babies prematurely or of giving birth to unusually small babies than pregnant women who did not get vaccinated, a new study reports.
A week and a half into one of the biggest pandemic lockdowns in China, residents of Xi’an voiced desperation online about challenges in getting food and medical care.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain said that despite the record surge in coronavirus cases, the limited restrictions currently in place in England were the right approach and would be maintained.
Israel has logged its first official case of what’s being called “flurona,” a flu-COVID combo that yes, can happen. But the chances of contracting both diseases at once is actually pretty small.
Biden’s disapproval rating hit a new high in December as more voters signaled their unhappiness with his administration’s supervision of the economy and the Covid-19 pandemic.
More than 1,400 flights were canceled yesterday as airlines continue to face disruptions from recent inclement weather and Covid-19-driven staff shortages.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was isolating from her husband in their home after he tested positive for COVID-19. The governor was not experiencing symptoms, had a negative rapid test and was awaiting a PCR lab test results out of an abundance of caution.
Former President Donald Trump is scrapping a planned news conference on the one-year anniversary of the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Trump’s decision is good news for Senate Republicans, who had openly fretted that he would pull their party back into debating his false election claims.
A Mar-a-Lago news conference on the anniversary of the assault on the Capitol struck Republicans, including some advisers to the former president, as a bad idea.
In a statement released by his Save America PAC, Trump blamed the media and the bipartisan congressional committee that is investigating the attack. Trump’s lawyers are fighting the panel’s efforts to obtain his records.
More than 1,000 Americans in positions of public trust acted as accomplices in Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election result, participating in the violent insurrection on Jan. 6 or spreading the “big lie” that the vote count had been rigged.
West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin floated smaller changes to the Senate rules that would stop short of the filibuster reforms being pushed for by many of his Democratic colleagues.
Manchin cast doubt on a Democratic push to change Senate procedures to weaken the minority party’s power, dealing a blow to party leaders’ effort to change the filibuster and advance their elections bills.
Another key aide is leaving Vice President Kamala Harris’ office following the departure of two other advisors. Vincent Evans, Harris’ deputy director of public engagement and intergovernmental affairs, has taken a top job at the Congressional Black Caucus.
Workers quit their jobs at a record rate in November while job openings stayed close to highest-ever levels, signs the U.S. labor market remained tight late last year.
The Labor Department said there were 10.6 million job openings at the end of November, a decrease from 11 million the prior month. That was up from 4.2 million in October and was the most in the two decades that the government has been keeping track.
Gov. Kathy Hochul will deliver perhaps the most important speech of her tenure today, nearly five months after being unexpectedly thrust into the job following a scandal that shook New York politics.
Hochul will lay out her top priorities heading at the start of an election year in a speech that will be given at 1 p.m. in the state Assembly Chambers with a limited capacity due to COVID-19.
Hochul is reportedly considering letting a pandemic-spurred hold on evictions lapse after it expires on Jan. 15.
New York said it needed $1 billion more for pandemic rent relief. It is getting far less: about $27 million. State and federal officials said the need was high in places all around the country and there is only a limited pot of funds overall.
Hochul has signed an executive order temporarily preventing a new law from taking effect that would require the state’s nursing home operators to beef up staffing and provide residents with a minimum level of daily care.
Frequently invoking Mayor Eric Adams, gubernatorial primary challenger Rep. Tom Suozzi said he’s willing to wage war with fellow Democrats in a bid to tighten the controversial state law that eliminated cash bail for many criminal defendants.
“The preeminent job of the governor is public safety and it’s shocking to me she hasn’t made this a priority,” Suozzi said. Hochul’s campaign didn’t comment immediately.
Adams pushed back on companies starting to delay their planned reopenings to most of their employees in response to the omicron variant. “We have to open up,” he said. “What we must understand is the resiliency of returning back to a normal life.”
“I need my city to open,” Adams added. “And we have to be safe, we have to double down on vaccinations and booster shots. We have to double down on testing. But we have to reshape our thinking of how do we live with Covid.”
Some city workers say they’re hopeful Adams will be more receptive to their calls for flexible work-from-home rules than his predecessor, Bill de Blasio, was. So far, however, he hasn’t committed to any changes.
Adams called on the White House to make a public apology to Asian Americans for calling Covid the “China virus” and other remarks that Trump made during the onset of the Covid pandemic.
Adams did not rule out vetoing a bill that would extend voting rights to noncitizen New Yorkers, upsetting fellow Democrats in the City Council who say he’d flip-flop on a key campaign promise by torpedoing the legislation.
Retired city workers are pleading with Adams to rescind his predecessor’s attempt to move them onto a new Medicare plan amid revelations that the switch could financially burden not only them but also spouses of first responders who died in the line of duty.
Adams’ new jails boss is replacing the department’s head of investigations, who tackled thousands of backlogged use-of-force cases in collaboration with a court-appointed monitor — drawing the ire of unions representing correction officers.
Adams has signed a new executive order to help small businesses in the city save money by slashing through red tape.
“We will require all of their agencies to promptly review business regulations, with the goal of encouraging compliance, reducing fine schedules, and allowing for cure periods or warning for first-time violations,” said the new mayor.
The police officers responding to Adams’ 911 call reporting three men brawling in Brooklyn showed up to find just one of the combatants — who denied any fight ever took place, a high-ranking cop source said.
New Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is making changes to what crimes will be prosecuted. His new plan seeks programs before jail time.
Bragg, a former federal prosecutor who is Manhattan’s first Black DA, told his staff not to bother with many cases of fare beating, resisting arrest and other nonviolent crimes — a move toward fulfilling his campaign promise of criminal justice reform.
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo will not be prosecuted in the criminal case involving allegations that he groped a former aide in the Executive Mansion in 2020, the Albany County district attorney announced.
“While we found the complainant in this case cooperative and credible, after review of all the available evidence we have concluded that we cannot meet our burden at trial,” DA David Soares said in a statement.
Soares said his office had notified the courts “that we are declining to prosecute this matter and requesting the charges filed by the Albany County Sheriff be dismissed.” He noted, however, that his decision does not close the door on “any possible civil liability.”
Brittany Commisso, who accused Cuomo of groping her at the Executive Mansion, said the decision by Soares’ office to decline prosecution of the former governor offers an example of why many victims of sexual harassment remain silent.
“I think it’s deterring women from coming forward,” Commisso said. “I don’t think that it’s teaching anyone anything. It’s not showing or proving a good message.”
New York’s prison system unjustly penalized more than 1,600 incarcerated people based on faulty drug tests, putting them in solitary confinement, delaying their parole hearings and denying them family visits, the state IG said in a damning report.
The maps proposed by the Democratic members of the Independent Redistricting Commission could lead to six primaries between incumbent Democrats in the state Senate.
The state council tasked with making New York carbon-neutral by 2050 wants to rapidly transition the state’s homes away from propane, oil and gas heating to electric heat pumps.
National Grid’s plan to increase gas and electric rates for its upstate customers by nearly $3.50 a month this year, with additional increases in coming years, could be approved in the next month or so.
Accusing the Saratoga County District Attorney’s office of abusing its power and intimidating Black Lives Matter protesters, a social justice advocate rejected an offer to ultimately dismiss her charges and is instead opting to go to trial.
Capital Region may be next to see a major storm as meteorologists are predicting the first significant snowfall of 2022 as early as Thursday.
India Walton, the former Democratic nominee for mayor of Buffalo, New York, is due to join the New York Working Families Party, one of the state’s most influential progressive groups, as a senior adviser for special projects.
Hundreds of motorists were stranded overnight Monday and through most of yesterday on portions of I-95 in eastern Virginia after a major winter storm brought heavy snowfall and gusty winds to the region.
KFC restaurants nationwide will add Beyond Meat’s plant-based chicken to its menus, starting Monday for a limited time.
