Good Tuesday morning.
I don’t want to beat a dead horse…(and if you’re curious about the origin of that apparently not PC saying, click here), but since yesterday was Valentine’s Day – and I hope it was filled with expressions of love to suit your personal taste and needs – I feel compelled to report that today is Singles Awareness Day.
Credit for creation of a day devoted to, as Bridget Jones would say, “singletons” is often given to a journalist named Dustin Barnes, who says he came up with the idea while he was still in high school along with a group of friends.
The whole thing was kind of a joke, they capitalized on the whole “SAD” thing…and he then doubled down while in college, attending Mississippi State, and wrote something for the student paper about the experience. He doesn’t actually claim to have invented the whole thing, but admits that “the internet and Google say I am, and I tend to believe what the internet says.”
Barnes said his most memorable Singles Awareness Day occurred when he was a senior in college and threw a party to commemorate the event. Couples, he said, were allowed to attend, because singles don’t discriminate.
Even if he didn’t actually invent SAD, Barnes has really managed to milk the concept that he was the mastermind behind the day quite a bit. If you do a quick internet search, you’ll find he was the subject of any number of interviews over the years.
There’s a reporter working for USA Today named Dustin Barnes who kind of looks like the same guy I saw interviewed online while he was at the Clarion-Ledger, but it’s hard to tell because a number of years have passed now. (Whoever this Dustin Barnes is wrote a really fascinating story about the FDA warning people not to eat cicadas if they’re allergic to seafood – good stuff).
According to some online accounts, Dustin Barnes actually did get married to a woman he met at a church singles group. I hope that worked out for him.
Wherever you are, Dustin, I hope you’re still happily coupled, or even maybe single again, if that’s your preference.
And in case you’re wondering, marriage overall has been steadily falling out of favor in the U.S. In 2014, the number of single people outnumbered married people for the first since since 1976, with more than half of Americans declining to tie the knot.
I think we’ve been through this before, but marriage is actually good for your health, because people who are married, on average, tend to take fewer risks and take better care of themselves overall. As for whether it’s better for your financial health, well, that’s more of a mixed bag.
Overall, relationships – married or unmarried, committed or uncommitted – are challenging and difficult to navigate. But we are better for having people in our lives because we are, by our very nature, social beings.
As for me? I like dogs better than MOST people, not everyone, mind you, but most. Dogs are awesome.
And today walking said dogs is going to be a heck of a lot easier as we are leaving sub-20 degree weather behind in favor of temperatures in the 30s. Not a heat wave by any stretch of the imagination. But I’ll take it. And Thursday we’re going to flit with the 50s, though it’s supposed to rain. Boo.
In the headlines…
Russia moved ahead with its massive military buildup near Ukraine, as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz shuttled between the two nations seeking to stave off a conflict, even as Moscow left the door open for talks.
In a 40-minute call, Joe Biden and Boris Johnson agreed a deal was still possible despite a chorus of warnings of imminent Russian military action against Ukraine.
The State Department warned Americans against traveling to Belarus due to the ongoing buildup of Russian military along the country’s border with Ukraine as U.S. officials continue to say a Russian invasion of Ukraine could occur as soon as this week.
The tone of the crisis over Ukraine shifted as Russia’s top diplomat endorsed more talks to resolve its standoff with the West, and Ukrainian officials hinted at offering concessions to avert war.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that the U.S. is offering Ukraine a loan guarantee of $1 billion to help strengthen its economy in the midst of “Russia’s destabilizing behavior.”
In a new interview with The New Yorker, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez criticized the Biden administration’s inaction on broad student-debt relief.
Ocasio-Cortez said that student-loan cancellation was “one of the single most impactful things” Biden could do, with wide-reaching effects.
“Honestly, it is a shit show,” Ocasio-Cortez said of Congress. “It’s scandalizing, every single day. What is surprising to me is how it never stops being scandalizing.”
Biden came into office with a plan to fix inflation — just not the particular inflationary problem that the country now faces.
Democrats hoping to resurrect the party’s economic agenda are facing a problem: Sen. Joe Manchin’s goal for raising tax rates clashes with Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s opposition to doing so.
Four years after 17 students and others were gunned down at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, families and gun control advocates pressed Biden to do more to address gun violence.
The father of one of the pupils slaughtered in the Parkland school shooting climbed a 150-foot crane near the White House ro protest Biden and demand action on gun violence.
Manuel Oliver, whose son Joaquin Oliver was killed in the 2018 school shooting, recorded a video from the top of the crane and posted it to Twitter.
Youth-led gun violence prevention group March For Our Lives, along with advocacy organizations Guns Down America and Change the Ref, launched a tool called the “Shock Market” that will track gun violence in the US since Biden took office.
A U.S. judge said he will throw out Sarah Palin’s defamation lawsuit against the New York Times, after concluding that an editorial did not maliciously link the former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican U.S. vice presidential candidate to a mass murder.
Judge Jed Rakoff’s ruling came while the jury is deliberating over a verdict, and he said he will allow the jury to continue deliberating and to reach a verdict, but will dismiss the case once it has done so.
Since the decision is likely to be appealed — a path that could upend long-standing legal protections for journalists who write about public figures — Rakoff said he wanted future courts to have both his decision and the jury’s to consider.
In lengthy comments from the bench, Judge Rakoff said that while he did not believe Palin’s lawyers had produced enough evidence to prove their defamation claims, he faulted The Times for a series of poor decisions that led to this point.
Former President Donald Trump’s accounting firm, Mazars USA, cut ties with Trump last week, saying his financial disclosures from 2011-2020 can no longer be relied upon, according to a letter the firm sent to the Trump Organization.
Mazars, which for years prepared Trump’s income tax returns, informed the Trump Organization’s top lawyer Alan Garten of that move and conclusion in a letter last Wednesday.
The letter was cited by AG Letitia James’ office as it asked a state judge to order the Trump Organization, Donald Trump Jr. and his sister Ivanka Trump, and others to comply with subpoenas seeking documents and testimony.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) says the GOP nomination is Trump’s for the taking if he decides to run for president in 2024, but that he might be “hurting his chances” if he keeps focusing on the “big lie”.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) rebuffed concerns that have risen in recent weeks over former Trump’s handling of his administration’s records, saying, “I don’t know what’s true and what’s not.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is working furiously to bring allies to Washington who will buck Trump. It’s not going according to plan.
Many symptoms of Post-COVID-19 syndrome could be caused by lasting damage sustained to one of the most important nerves in the human body during initial infection with coronavirus, new research has suggested.
Microsoft said it would start bringing its employees back to the office at the end of this month, becoming the latest company to bet business can begin returning to normal, as the Omicron variant of Covid-19 virus seems to be receding.
Only a third of U.S. employees have returned to the office, as workers prefer remote work and companies fear ordering them back.
A top Levi Strauss & Co. executive has left the apparel giant, citing clashes with colleagues, including Chief Executive Chip Bergh, over her public views regarding Covid-19 restrictions in schools.
Celebrities spotted not wearing a mask at Sunday’s Super Bowl game were met with cries of “hypocrisy” by some on social media.
McConnell pointed to large maskless crowds at Sunday’s Super Bowl while taking aim at policies that impose school mask mandates on children.
The easing Covid-19 pandemic is expected to reduce demand for medical masks this year, 3M Co. said, joining a group of companies that have forecast a decline in business from Covid-19 prevention.
New York City fired 1,430 city workers for failing to comply with its vaccine mandate, a figure that represent less than 1 percent of the city’s work force, but likely the nation’s largest mass termination of municipal employees in response to a vaccine mandate.
The number had dropped considerably by last Friday’s vaccine mandate deadline as more employees submitted proof of getting at least one shot, City Hall officials said.
Rapidly decreasing counts of new coronavirus cases have spurred the officials leading Washington, D.C., and Maryland to announce the loosening of pandemic restrictions.
Camilla, the wife of Prince Charles, has tested positive for the coronavirus, four days after her husband was reported to be reinfected, Clarence House, their royal household, said.
“Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cornwall has tested positive for Covid-19 and is self-isolating,” Clarence House said in a statement. “We continue to follow government guidelines.”
Camilla, 74, who is triple vaccinated, was on a royal outing in London on Feb. 10, when it was announced that her husband Charles, 73, had tested positive.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he will invoke emergency measures for the first time to give his Liberal government extraordinary powers in trying to end demonstrations against Covid-19 vaccine mandates that have paralyzed the capital, Ottawa.
“These blockades are illegal, and if you are still participating the time to go home is now,” Trudeau told reporters after a virtual meeting with province leaders.
Hong Kong will begin vaccinating children as young as 3 years old to combat a record surge of infections, authorities said.
Shares of the major Covid vaccine makers fell as the unprecedented wave of omicron infections eased, with new cases rapidly dropping across the country.
California state’s health authorities said that although the state is easing some pandemic restrictions, mask requirements for schoolchildren will remain for at least another two weeks.
New York’s weekly tally of coronavirus cases dropped about 38% last week as Gov. Kathy Hochul lifted the indoor mask mandate for businesses on Thursday.
Hochul has come under fire after she shared a photo of herself, maskless, at what appears to be a NYC bar for the Super Bowl.
But even with recent numbers signaling a sunnier season on the pandemic front, Hochul continued her calls for unvaccinated New Yorkers to get booster shots, which provide rugged protection against omicron.
The number of people in homeless shelters has gone down in the U.S. and New York, according to a new report from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
Hochul has signed a bill to establish the Office of the Chief Disability Officer to advocate for people with disabilities. She has appointed Kimberly T. Hill as the state’s first Chief Disability Officer.
The governor also pledged to have state agencies designate up to 1,200 jobs to be filled by qualified individuals with disabilities.
At a sit-down with the Times Union’s editorial board last month, Hochul declared her intentions to prepare New York for crises in the coming years by stashing away money in state savings.
Hochul announced that she was urging the investor-owned utility ConEd to review its billing practices, with household budgets now potentially blown up with the unexpected increase.
Hochul, who is seeking to become the first woman elected governor of New York after she replaced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, was endorsed by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, the second woman to represent the state in the U.S. Senate.
New district lines could help fortify Democratic dominance in the statehouse for years and significantly increase the odds that Democrats will protect, and potentially expand, the veto-proof majorities they already command in both the Assembly and Senate.
Despite the sea changes that have characterized the state Capitol the past several years, neither Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie’s grip nor his member’s loyalty seem any weaker than when he first took on the role.
Progressive state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi’s run for Congress in a gerrymandered five-county district is drawing fire from the Long Island police and even resistance from Jay Jacobs, the Nassau County Democratic Party leader and state party chairman.
New York State courts are decreasing social distancing measures — while still requiring face coverings — as part of a push to move toward resuming normal operations and “clear out our backlogs,” officials announced.
Adams has tied his interest in nutrition, meditation and fitness to his views on how to lead New York at a challenging time.
More than a month into his tenure as mayor, Adams has become very chummy with UFT President Mike Mulgrew, even dubbing Mulgrew a “hero” and “modern day Paul Revere” for airing concerns about Covid-19 in schools.
During his return visit to Albany this week – his first as mayor of New York City – Adams insisted he didn’t forget how things worked there, even though he claims not to have set foot in the state Capitol since 2103.
Adams pitched lawmakers in Albany on his sprawling public safety plan, but the effort did not appear successful as Democratic legislative leaders signaled afterward that they’re not looking to act on a couple of his key demands.
In remarks to reporters, Adams said he “shared” his plan to fight crime in the Big Apple before adding, “If I am not getting the things I laid out … I still have an obligation to keep the city safe.”
Adams awarded the coveted Key to the City to former Mayor Michael Bloomberg — a gesture that signaled a contrast from his immediate predecessor, former Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Adams is expected to tap the head of the State University of New York’s charter school committee to serve on the city’s Panel for Education policy.
Adams showed some Fashion Week swag when he announced that the first major tenant in a Brooklyn redevelopment project will be an environmentally minded institute focused on creating sustainable fashion industry practices and products.
A new Staten Island Ferry boat opened to passenger service yesterday – the first to debut for the city’s cross-harbor service since 2005.
The Correction Department scrubbed from its website monthly reports showing that city inmates continue to miss medical appointments by the thousands — and then reposted the documents.
The homeless suspect, Assamad Nash, accused of following Christina Yuna Lee into her Lower East Side building then stabbing her to death inside her apartment was charged with murder, police said.
Though the authorities have not determined that Lee was targeted because of her ethnicity, her killing stoked fears in the city’s Asian community, which was already on edge after a rise in attacks during the pandemic.
Prosecutors also charged Nash with sexually motivated burglary – shedding light on a potential motive in the grisly crime.
New York State Gaming Commission reported more than $1.6 billion in sports wagers since the sportsbook apps debuted — the highest total in a single month of any legal-betting state nationwide.
A joint venture by Redburn Development Partners and Columbia Development was the only bidder for the derelict Central Warehouse property on Albany’s Montgomery Street.
Schenectady Mayor Gary McCarthy is drawing criticism following a post made on his official mayoral Instagram account during the Super Bowl halftime show that uses a slang term that some have criticized as inappropriate.
Instagram removed — and then restored —a post from the Suffolk County Police Benevolent Association’s Instagram page urging followers to boycott The Super Bowl in protest of half-time performer Snoop Dog’s song lyrics that promote anti-police violence.
HBO gave “The Gilded Age” viewers a Valentine’s Day gift by renewing the Julian Fellowes series for a second season on the same day the first season’s fourth episode airs. Location scouts have been visiting Troy and Saratoga County.
Jack’s Oyster House, which had enjoyed a resurgence in popularity after being revitalized by a new chef and its managing partner, has reduced its hours to 5 to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday only.
Whoopi Goldberg returned to “The View” yesterday, two weeks after she was suspended for claiming the Holocaust was not a race issue. However, she did not directly address the reasons behind her suspension.
In an interview ahead of the Netflix show’s release, Anna Sorokin spoke about how her life has changed since the end of her Anna Delvey days.
Sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson questioned why Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva was allowed to continue competing at the Beijing Games amid a doping charge, months after a positive test for cannabis derailed her own Olympic dreams.
“It’s all in the skin,” Richardson, who was disqualified from competing last summer at the Tokyo Olympics after testing positive for marijuana, wrote on Twitter. Richardson, 21, said the “only difference I see is that I’m a black young lady.”
