Good Monday morning, though I bet a bunch of you are reading this a little later than usual, given the fact that it’s President’s Day – a federal holiday.
Presidents’ Day is celebrated on the third Monday in February. It was originally conceived in 1885 in recognition of President George Washington, who was born on Feb. 22, 1732.
(Actually, here’s a weird fact I didn’t know until I started doing today’s research – Washington was ACTUALLY born on Feb. 11 of that year, according to the Julian calendar, which was still being used at that time. It wasn’t until 1752, when Britain and all its colonies adopted the Georgian calendar that the future first president’s birthday was moved 11 days later…cool, right?)
But I digress.
So, Presidents’ Day became known as such when it was moved in 1971 as part of the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which was an attempt to create more three-day weekends for American workers.
Some states still have holidays that honor Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and others, but Presidents’ Day is widely viewed as a sort of catch-all to commemorate the whole fell swoop of our great leaders.
Washington’s Birthday didn’t become an official federal holiday until the late 1870s, compliments of an Arkansas senator named Stephen Wallace Dorsey. President Rutherford B. Hayes signed it into law in 1879, though initially the measure only applied to the District of Columbia (AKA Washington, D.C.)
In 1885, it expanded nationwide, joining four other nationally recognized federal holidays at the time – Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Year’s Day, and July 4th. MLK Day, as we’ve discussed in past posts, didn’t actually get added to the list until quite late – 1983 – and was the second federal holiday to celebrate the life of a single individual.
Until the Uniform Monday Holiday Act came around, thanks to Illinois Sen. Robert McClory, and championed by a number of labor unions as well as much of the private sector, which saw the opportunity for big retail sales, Feb. 12 (Lincoln’s Birthday) was celebrated by some states – like his birthplace, Illinois – but not others.
The Uniform Monday Holiday Act passed in 1968 and took effect in 1971 after the issuance of an executive order by President Richard M. Nixon. Initially, Washington’s home state of Virginia wasn’t big on the idea of renaming Washington’s Birthday “Presidents’ Day,” but the Virginians eventually came around.
And here’s one more piece of interesting trivia I will leave you with before we get into the headlines – short-ish intro today, because, let’s face it, who wants to be reading on their computer or phone when they could be out enjoying the daylong holiday for all it’s worth?! – President’s Day never actually falls on a president’s birthday, though four former presidents were both in the month of February: Washington, Lincoln, William Henry Harrison, and Ronald Reagan.
Today is also the 57th anniversary of the assassination of American Muslim minister and human rights activist Malcolm X, who was killed in Manhattan at the age of 39.
We are headed for a spate of lovely spring-like weather again, with temperatures moving steadily upwards toward 60 degrees (!) by Wednesday. And then? Well, let’s not discuss. Let’s live for today, because who knows what the world has in store for us, right?
It will be close to 50 degrees, with partly cloudy skies. GET OUTSIDE AND BREATHE!
In the headlines…
President Joe Biden has accepted “in principle” a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in what could represent a last-ditch effort at diplomacy over tensions surrounding Ukraine and a possible avenue to avert a looming invasion directed by Moscow.
The meeting, proposed by French President Emmanuel Macron, would occur only if Russia doesn’t invade Ukraine, U.S. officials said.
Any summit is contingent on the outcome of talks between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Europe this week.
U.S. intelligence learned last week that the Kremlin had given the order for Russian military units to proceed with an invasion of Ukraine, information that prompted President Biden to announce that Putin had made the decision to attack.
Now the debate has shifted to how Putin will do it: in one massive nationwide attack; a series of bites that dismantle the country, piece by piece; or a python-like squeeze.
Biden abruptly canceled plans yesterday to go to his home in Delaware for the holiday following a two-hour meeting with his national security team to discuss the Russian threat to Ukraine.
Biden convened a meeting of the National Security Council on the escalating crisis in Ukraine yesterday and also had a call with French President Emmanuel Macron, amid a spike in violence that has heightened fears that Russia is planning to invade.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said that the state is beefing up its cybersecurity defenses in anticipation of possible cyber attacks ahead of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Biden is actively looking for Republican support for his Supreme Court nominee. But he’s doing it cautiously, wary of setting expectations that end in failure.
Fencing will be reinstalled around the Capitol’s grounds as part of ramped-up security ahead of Biden’s March 1 State of the Union address, given the potential threat of a truck-convoy protest similar to those in Canada, a new report says.
Biden said on Friday the U.S. national emergency declared in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic will be extended beyond March 1 due to the ongoing risk to public health posed by the coronavirus.
For more than a year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has collected data on hospitalizations for Covid-19 in the United States and broken it down by age, race and vaccination status. But it has not made most of the information public.
Bill Gates said that the risks of severe disease from Covid-19 have “dramatically reduced” but another pandemic is all but certain.
Queen Elizabeth II tested positive for COVID-19, making her the third member of the royal family to be diagnosed with the virus this month, officials announced.
The Queen is now one of the world’s most prominent figures to battle the virus and deeply rattling the country she has led for seven decades.
The palace issued few details about the condition of the queen, who turns 96 in April.
Justin Bieber’s Justice World Tour has been struck by COVID-19 after the singer tested positive for the virus, along with members of his team, forcing the cancellation of a scheduled show in Las Vegas.
The coronavirus infection rate at the Beijing Olympics was 0.01% in the four weeks since a restrictive, three-layer testing system was put in place, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said.
Israel will reopen to all foreign tourists, regardless of their vaccination status, as the country eases travel restrictions amid a rapid decline in coronavirus cases from the Omicron variant.
Indonesia is going through a new wave of Covid infections, with daily cases hitting record highs last week.
Police officers on Saturday cleared out the central area of a sprawling demonstration in Ottawa, moving from truck to truck and arresting protesters as they continued to subdue the occupation that has disrupted the Canadian capital for weeks.
Two years into the pandemic, nearly a third of Americans report symptoms of anxiety and depression — triple the pre-pandemic number — as they adjust to shifting ideas of what the new normal will look like.
Deployed to classrooms in New Mexico to help with crippling staff shortages, National Guard troops are employing their informal motto, “Semper Gumby” — Always Flexible.
The rollout of new Covid-19 pills has exposed a potentially costly hole in how the government and healthcare companies are managing the pandemic drug response.
As of Saturday, New York’s COVID-19 positivity rate was the lowest it’s been since Oct. 23.
An FDNY union leader wants the department to investigate whether three recent firefighter deaths resulted from city-mandated COVID-19 jabs.
Hochul on Friday scrapped a controversial state mandate that would have required all healthcare workers to get a coronavirus booster shot by Monday in order to avoid worsening staffing shortages.
Some workers had waited right until the last minute to get a booster but ultimately not enough of them have rolled up their sleeves.
School districts on Long Island were distributing thousands of COVID-19 home test kits last week, as Hochul said she plans to use the results to help determine whether to end a mask mandate.
A private meeting between Long Island’s Democratic senators and Hochul was a critical moment in her decision to pull her proposal to require local governments to accept more apartments and backyard cottages in neighborhoods.
Hochul announced millions of dollars in funding for community organizations that assist Asian-Americans. A total of $10 million is going to help communities hard hit in New York by COVID-19 and a rise in hate crimes.
“We are enraged because this has been happening often, this has been happening too much, and we deserve answers, we deserve to feel a sense of safety in our community,” said Jo-Ann Yoo, the executive director of the Asian American Federation.
New York City’s 24th annual Lunar New Year Parade took place in Chinatown yesterday, with celebrants welcoming the Year of the Tiger in festive costumes and masks.
Homeless people riding the subways will now be forced to leave the train at the end of the line and police will ramp up enforcement against spitting, laying down and littering on subways, Mayor Eric Adams announced with Hochul.
The plan will expand psychiatric services in the city and, starting next week, send teams of clinicians, social workers, and police officers to urge mentally ill and homeless New Yorkers in the subway to seek help, they said.
“No more smoking. No more doing drugs. No more sleeping. No more doing barbecues on the subway system. No more just doing whatever you want,” Adams said. “No. Those days are over. Swipe your MetroCard. Ride the system. Get off at your destination.”
At least 5 people were stabbed in the subway system in just over 24 hours after Hochul and Adams made their joint announcement.
More transit summonses were doled out during the first month of Adams’ administration than the month before he took office, and subway crime spiked, too, newly released statistics show.
The City’s homeless services agency would see a fifth of its operating budget and 131 unfilled positions slashed under Adams’ $98 billion spending plan, even as a new aggressive effort to drive unhoused New Yorkers out of the subway system gets underway.
Some parents and educators said they are alarmed by Adams’ plan to decrease education funding at a time when students’ academic and mental health needs are more acute than ever.
Eric Salgado, a 2013 mayoral candidate who was against marriage equality, has been appointed to Adams’ immigration office, sparking outrage from staffers and advocates who see a pattern within the new administration.
Adams is eyeing the appointment of former city Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott to help oversee the key sensitive task of redrawing the Big Apple’s 51 council districts.
An internal investigation found that a top CNN executive, Allison Gollust, had extensive communications with then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo about interview topics he wanted to address during the pandemic.
The youngest daughter of Cuomo and Kerry Kennedy, Michaela Kennedy-Cuomo, 24, has a booming online business hawking aura cleansing, vulva paintings and crystal trinkets.
State Sen. Julia Salazar and Councilmen Rafael Salamanca Jr. and Ari Kagan are among elected officials who have blocked constituents and others from their Twitter accounts, presumably because they took issue with what they said.
After years of inflexible debt-collection practices that have burdened SUNY students with punitive payment schedules, high interest and crippling collection fees, New York State officials are promising change.
New York is the most segregated state in the nation for Black students and second-most segregated for Latino students, following only California, a June 2021 analysis from the UCLA Civil Rights Project shows.
The state’s Cannabis Control Board loosened restrictions that had forbidden the use of strain names on packaging.
A reform-minded ex-CIA officer in charge of investigating detainee attacks and a former NYPD chief trying to make correction officers do their jobs are among those axed by Correction Commissioner Louis Molina, raising criticism he’s coddling jail unions.
Living conditions in New York City’s prison system remain abysmal — even after 40 years of federal oversight by a court-appointed monitor brought in at taxpayers’ expense, records show.
A proposal by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to consider renaming a Queens post office that honors LGBTQ rights pioneers is sparking outrage among local activists.
SUNY Potsdam music education student Elizabeth Howell, 21, was gunned down on a street just off campus by a man who had no affiliation with the school, cops and administrators said.
Howell was shot to death walking home from the upstate campus by a gunman who may have targeted her randomly, police said.
A dangerous strain of bird flu has been discovered in a private flock of birds at a Long Island home, prompting an urgent state and federal response to contain the contagious disease.
Amazon workers in New York will vote on unionization next month, as the company now faces two potentially groundbreaking union elections at once.
New York is proposing a $200 million fund to help entrepreneurs of color and some other groups get into the business. But officials haven’t yet nailed down some components that experts say are crucial to making the investment effective.
Jeffrey Gural, the owner of the Southern Tier casino cited by the state inspector general last week for minority and woman-owned business fraud, said he had no knowledge of the “pass-through” schemes uncovered by state investigators.
Champions of New York’s film tax credit program – offering generous incentives to the production companies – say the state has become a hot venue for TV programs and movies as a direct result of the subsidies provided to the industry.
The Troy City Council has held its first of three public hearings on a Republican proposal to amend the City Charter to expand the city redistricting commission from seven to 10 as the commission decides if council district boundaries must be redrawn.
Bernie Madoff’s sister and her husband were found dead in Florida last week in what’s being investigated as a murder-suicide.
Norway, which won the first gold medal of the Beijing Games and then just kept on winning them for two weeks, added its 16th and final gold in the final cross-country skiing race. The total is a record for one country at a single Winter Games.
