Good Wednesday morning.
I’m fairly certain no one wants to start their day with a long and drawn-out personal tale of woe about my encounter with that mess that currently passes for this nation’s airline industry.
I do understand that the pandemic really did a number of tourism, and many airlines and the airports that serve them continue to struggle with understaffing as a result of the Great Resignation and the omicron variant running rampant among workers.
But the experience I had yesterday, the abbreviated version of which includes an overcrowded and understaffed resort destination airport, two planes, multiple delays, and a man who was supposed to be sitting one row away from me who was (thankfully) removed from the premises when he began swearing and spitting at people and loudly declared after he had fallen and was offered help: “I’m not going to sue you or anything, but my uncle is a lawyer; get away from me!”
And that’s only the beginning..
In the end, to avoid a four-plus layover in the lovely city of Newark, I made a last-minute decision and splurged on a car service. I was then treated to a semi-harrowing drive by a gentleman who was well-meaning, but obviously increasingly – and perhaps dangerously – tired by the long drive north in the dark.
He swerved quite a bit, and also got briefly lost while trying to drop me off at the Albany Airport to pick up my car.
In the end, I did make it home safely – and a few hours earlier than I would have had a stuck around in Jersey and waited for my quick air-hop back to Albany. But I still got to bed a heck of a lot later than usual.
So, since I am bone weary and I didn’t have the chance to prepare any of my usual upbeat/interesting/quirky morning copy for you. We’re just going to cut to the chase and get down to business.
I hope you’ll understand.
It’s going to be in the mid-40s and partly sunny today, which was, quite honestly, about what the weather was like for my brief stay in the Florida Keys, though I have to admit the scenery and the sunsets were a lot better than what we’ve got here at the moment.
In the headlines…
Disagreements on policy and a crowded Senate to-do list are further complicating Democrats’ path to passing their sweeping social safety net and climate package in some form or another.
Key swing vote Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia offered a grim pronouncement on the status of President Joe Biden’s remaining domestic agenda, saying that the Build Back Better act is “dead.”
When asked about the senator’s comments, White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters that she wouldn’t comment on private conversations with the senator “or any other senators about this piece of legislation, or our efforts moving forward.”
Democratic Rep .Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ended her brief hiatus from Twitter to target Manchin over his opposition to Build Back Better.
House Democrats have reupped calls for Biden to move ahead with the $555 billion in climate change investments already passed by the House as part of the Build Back Better Act, which has stalled for more than a month in the Senate.
New Mexico Democratic Sen. Ben Ray Luján suffered a stroke last week and is expected to make a full recovery. Any prolonged absence, however, threatens to impede the agenda of his party, which controls the Senate by the slimmest of margins.
America’s gross national debt topped $30 trillion for the first time, an ominous fiscal milestone that underscores the fragile nature of the country’s long-term economic health as it grapples with soaring prices and the prospect of higher interest rates.
With the havoc at ports showing no signs of abating and prices for a vast array of goods still rising, the world is absorbing a troubling realization: Time alone will not solve the Great Supply Chain Disruption.
The U.S. labor market remained tight at the end of last year with job openings and worker turnover hovering near the highest levels on record, though there are signs demand cooled as the Omicron variant disrupted the economy in January.
Consumer perception of current economic conditions in December was almost even with April 2020 levels, when sentiment bottomed out following the first major restrictions to control the coronavirus pandemic.
Starbucks said rising costs of supplies and wages will continue to weigh on the coffee giant’s profit in the months ahead after pandemic-related restrictions reappeared in the U.S. and overseas.
Biden judicial nominee Kenly Kiya Kato, tapped to serve as a U.S. District Judge in California, avoided directly answering a question from Republican Sen. Ted Cruz about whether or not racial discrimination is “wrong.”
Doug Jones, a former Democratic senator from Alabama, will serve as a guide for Biden’s Supreme Court nominee during the Senate confirmation process, two senior administration officials said.
Each party may be allowed to invite just 25 House members to attend Biden’s State of the Union Address in person on March 1, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told colleagues.
Two years into the pandemic, the coronavirus is killing Americans at far higher rates than people in other wealthy nations, a sobering distinction to bear as the country charts a course through the next stages of the pandemic.
The number of hospital patients with Covid-19 continues to fall in the U.S., adding to signs that the Omicron wave of the pandemic is ebbing, even though deaths from the virus are on the rise.
Pfizer and its partner, BioNTech, asked the FDA to authorize two doses of their coronavirus vaccine for children younger than 5 while the companies continue to research whether three doses would be more effective for the age group.
The FDA’s vaccine advisory committee will meet February 15 to discuss the submission.
Unvaccinated people, who contracted coronavirus during the Omicron wave, were 23 times more likely to be hospitalized, according to a study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Doctors and patients are trying to figure out how to obtain Covid-19 treatments under a patchwork system set up by states that are directing the distribution of limited supplies.
Tonga went into lockdown after recording its first community transmission of the coronavirus, weeks after being battered by a powerful volcanic eruption and subsequent tsunami.
Norway will scrap most of its remaining COVID-19 lockdown measures with immediate effect as a spike in coronavirus infections is unlikely to jeopardize health services, the prime minister said.
Denmark has lifted all Covid-19 restrictions within the country, with coronavirus no longer considered a “socially critical sickness,” according to the government, becoming the first EU country to do so.
Athletes and team officials are testing positive for COVID-19 at much higher rates than other people arriving in China for the Beijing Olympics, organizers said.
With more than 30 new COVID-19 cases being detected daily ahead of the Beijing Olympics, organizers said they aren’t worried and expect numbers to drop within days.
Lloyd J. Austin III, the defense secretary, has written a letter to seven Republican governors, rejecting their requests for exemptions from coronavirus vaccination mandates for their states’ National Guard troops.
Covid-19 will never become an endemic illness and will always behave like an epidemic virus, an expert in biosecurity has warned.
New research points to another — and more troubling — factor that helps explain the nation’s shrinking workforce, aside from the Great Resignation: long COVID.
New Covid-19 cases in New York have fallen sharply from their peak in early January.
“We believe we’re finally turning the corner on the winter wave. Just like the snow is melting, hopefully these numbers will continue to melt away,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said.
Hochul is calling on the federal government to issue guidance for all insurance companies to cover consultations about COVID-19 vaccinations for families and children, and she wants insurers to cover incentives.
The Adams administration has alerted nearly 4,000 unvaccinated municipal employees — including cops and firefighters — that they will lose their jobs if they do not get their coronavirus shots by the end of next week.
Hochul said she “cut” embattled Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg “some slack” after putting him on notice last week over growing concern that his office’s soft-on-crime prosecution policies are contributing to a rise in Big Apple gun violence.
“He’s only been on the job a quarter of the time I have, and I have been on the job a very short time,” she explained.
Hochul is refusing to use her political muscle to promote the expansion of popular charter schools after getting endorsed by the powerful teachers union, which opposes the privately-run schools.
A letter signed by the leaders of multiple home builder, real estate and property owner associations calls for the state to put $2 billion toward rental assistance programs.
In the year ending last June, 421-a accounted for $1.73 billion in foregone revenue, up from $1.6 billion the year before. Now, with the program expiring at the end of June, lines are being drawn over whether to renew the abatement.
The City Planning Commission is withholding its support for Hochul’s massive Penn Station development plan over questions about the project’s financing and insufficient benefits for both transportation and “the public realm.”
Cannabis retailer MedMen plans to ask a judge today for permission to subpoena Hochul’s office, according to state Supreme Court records.
Mayor Eric Adams asked Hochul for three years of mayoral control in her $216.3 billion budget proposal — but she gave him four to show she’s “more collaborative” than her intractable predecessor.
Adams won’t be attempting to break his predecessor’s Groundhog Day curse this year, because he’ll be attending to more serious matters — today’s funeral for slain NYPD cop Wilbert Mora.
Adams called out anti-Asian hate crimes in Chinatown during a celebration kicking off Lunar New Year festivities and a start of the Year of the Tiger.
Adams has been busy making appointments, but he’s still got a long way to go with many open positions in his administration.
Michael Goodwin: “Biden is coming to New York Thursday to get a boost, not to give one. Sinking below the horizon, the president needs Adams more than Adams needs him.”
New York City’s vegan mayor wants the city’s students to have healthier options, saying “children have been calling” him to ask for better food in schools. He specifically singled out chocolate milk, which he has supported a ban on in the past.
New York Republican leaders are sharpening their positions on public safety as they continue to turn to surging crime as a priority ahead of the November election, which is set to feature new federal and state political lines that were drawn by Democrats.
Assemblywoman Yuh-Line Niou’s attack on NYPD officers for not wearing masks on the subway after Officer Jason Rivera’s funeral has police and their supporters fuming — especially after she liked a response to a Twitter thread comparing the NYPD to Nazis.
NYPD Chief of Department Kenneth Corey said New York’s Finest have had enough of guns on the streets and the revolving door of justice.
New York City’s byzantine property tax system has left homeowners with increasingly burdensome obligations that have pushed them deeper into debt — and may eventually give some no choice but to leave.
Records show that medical care for individuals doing time at Rikers Island is often delayed for months. A court filing shed new light on the effect of the jail’s staffing crisis on health care, with missed appointments leading to severe health consequences.
Lawyers for former President Donald Trump and two of his adult children argued that the New York AG’s office had targeted them unfairly in its civil-fraud investigation and subpoenaed information that could be improperly used in a separate criminal probe.
More than one-third of New York voters are frustrated enough with the state’s politics they are considering moving out of the state, a poll released by the non-partisan organization Unite NY.
The Office of Cannabis Management is looking to looking to open up the licensing period for adult-use in New York by the end of 2022.
When party leaders in Albany introduced the proposed lines, many onlookers quickly seized on what seemed to be a singular example of mapmakers’ partisan excess: a freshly drawn district now held by Rep. Jerrold Nadler, a powerful Manhattan Democrat.
Two more state senators would represent New York City in the Legislature under the new state Senate and Assembly maps, passage of which legislative leaders plan to fast-track passage as the March 1 start of the political season approaches.
A Brooklyn developer is moving forward with a plan to create apartments directly across the street from the state Legislative Office Building and across the way from West Capitol Park.
In her 2022 State of the City address, Mayor Kathy Sheehan focused heavily on the $25 million in American Rescue Plan funding the city set aside for projects, saying the money will be split into five pots.
Rep. Paul Tonko has written FBI Director Christopher Wray demanding to know any involvement federal agents may have had protecting a longtime informant who owned the outlaw stretch limousine that crashed in Schoharie in 2018, killing 20 people.
Legoland New York Resort will officially reopen for the 2022 season on April 8, the Goshen-area theme park and hotel announced recently, bringing with it new attractions, shows, events, characters and, of course, giant Lego models.
Football great Tom Brady , 44, announced his retirement on Instagram.
Whoopi Goldberg has been suspended from ABC’s “The View” for two weeks following her comments on the Holocaust.
“While Whoopi has apologized, I’ve asked her to take time to reflect and learn about the impact of her comments,” the network president said. “The entire ABC News organization stands in solidarity with our Jewish colleagues, friends, family and communities.”
