Good Thursday morning.
I was so preoccupied with my own travel-related misery that I totally forgot yesterday was Groundhog Day.
This is really ironic because to be stuck in a weird airport time warp where they keep telling you the same bullshit thing over and over is the epitome of Groundhog Day.
So now I’m playing catch-up here. And I regret to the bearer of bad news, but the OG furball season predictor, Punxsutawney Phil, saw his shadow and determined that six more weeks of winter are on the way.
Thousands of people returned to Gobbler’s Knob to watch Phil do his thing in person, which was a nice change of pace since the event was held virtually last year due to COVID-related restrictions. Oh, and for the record, there has only officially ever been ONE Phil, as per the official Punxsutawney Groundhog Club website:
“He has been making predictions since 1886! Punxsutawney Phil gets his longevity from drinking the ‘elixir of life,’ a secret recipe. Phil takes one sip every summer at the Groundhog Picnic and it magically gives him seven more years of life.”
Even though Phil’s followers (phollwers?) would consider is sacrilege for me to even mention his competitors in the same breath, there was another prediction made today by a different groundhog, and it did not align with Phil’s gloomy outlook.
Here in New York, Charles G. Hogg — better known as Staten Island Chuck — emerged from his burrow, saw no shadow and therefore predicted an early spring.
Phil’s Inner Circle claims he’s the only “true” weather-casting groundhog and is always right. But the Stormfax Almanac puts his accuracy rate at closer to 39%. The Staten Island Zoo, which is where Chuck makes his home, says he has an 85% accuracy rate.
OH and one more thing? Chuck’s call was backed up by Cluxatawney Henrietta, Westchester County’s weather-predicting chicken.
The National Weather Service, meanwhile, which uses computer modeling and other high-tech instruments to make its predictions, says another big storm is brewing on the heels of the one we saw just last week.
Maybe you’re a Chuck fan and you’re choosing to look on the early spring side of things, which also might make you interested in the fact that today is National Optimist Day. This day is always celebrated on the first Thursday in February and is held to honor volunteers who give of themselves to make their respective communities a better place.
If you are more in the Phil camp (raises hand) and tend to look at life through a darker lens, it might make you feel better to know that today is National Carrot Cake Day. Yes, please. Yum.
And a little Googling turned up the history of putting this particular root vegetable in a cake to make it moist and on the sweet side…turns out that dates back to WW II when sugar was hard to come by.
That’s according to the World Carrot Museum of Skipton, England. I don’t know about you, but it just makes me happy to know that such a place exists.
Forecasters warned of dangerous icing in the Mid-Atlantic and South as the Midwest dug out from a blast of snow. Stretching more than 2,000 miles, the storm puts more than 85 million people under winter weather alerts in 21 states.
Here in the Capital Region, we are under a winter storm watch from 4 p.m. today until 5 p.m. tomorrow. Heavy snow and mixed precipitation possible, with potential total accumulation of 7 inches. Blech. Be careful out there.
In the headlines…
President Biden will meet with New York City Mayor Eric Adams today, in a belated acknowledgment of the violent crime surge that began with the George Floyd riots of 2020.
Biden and U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland will make the trip one day after the funeral for Officer Wilbert Mora, the second of two city police officers who were fatally shot last month while responding to a 911 call.
The White House says Biden will discuss his administration’s “comprehensive strategy” to combat gun crime, including increased funding for cities and states to hire more police officers and pay for community violence prevention and intervention programs.
The shattered mother of a 19-year-old woman killed during a gunpoint robbery at a New York City Burger King last month urged Biden to help crack down on crime on the eve of his visit to the embattled city.
The president also headed to the Big Apple with progressive advocates publicly pushing him, in sometimes exasperated tones, to take executive action on a range of law-enforcement reforms, a prospect the White House played down but did not rule out.
Presidential trips to New York City are standard fare, but political experts say today’s visit by Biden carries added significance for two Democrats who need one another at a pivotal moment.
Biden set a 25-year timeline to cut in half the cancer death rate, a lofty but perhaps unrealistic goal that is meant to “supercharge” an initiative started when he was vice president to eradicate the disease that killed his older son, Beau.
“My message today is this: We can do this. I promise you, we can do this,” Biden said in remarks at the White House. “All those we lost, all those we miss. We can end cancer as we know it.”
Biden said during his presidential campaign that he would reduce student debt for millions of Americans, but his allies remain divided on the issue, and some of his supporters are losing hope he will deliver.
The confrontation between Russia and the U.S. over Ukraine deepened, as leaked documents confirmed the U.S. and NATO rejection of key Russian security demands, while the Biden administration ordered 3,000 additional troops into Eastern Europe.
Biden is directing the Pentagon to deploy more than 3,000 American troops to bolster the defense of European allies in the first major movement of U.S. forces in Russia’s military standoff with Ukraine, U.S. officials said.
The additional soldiers are part of a Stryker infantry unit “designed to deploy in short order and to move quickly,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said.
Russia fired back with a sharply worded objection, calling the deployments unfounded and “destructive.”
Former President Trump is renewing the momentum behind the probe into the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, adding fuel to the panel’s various lines of inquiry and plans for reform as he simmers over the 2020 election results.
Retired Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman has sued Donald Trump Jr., Rudy Giuliani and other associates, alleging that they conspired to intimidate him from testifying against President Donald Trump during his first impeachment hearing.
Two judges on FOX’s “The Masked Singer” walked off the set in protest after it was revealed that former Trump attorney Giuliani was a contestant.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis would lose to Trump in the state’s 2024 GOP primary but would perform better than Trump in a general election matchup with Biden, according a Suffolk University/USA TODAY network poll.
All seven House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump and are seeking re-election have out-raised their primary opponents, many of whom have received Trump’s backing, according to campaign disclosures filed with the FEC this week.
Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer declined to say whether he would back West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin or Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema if the moderate Democrats faced primary challenges.
The FBI has identified at least six people of interest in a rash of bomb threats directed at places of worship and historically Black colleges and universities. The incidents are being investigated as racially motivated extremism and hate crimes, authorities said.
Fully vaccinated Americans are 14 times less likely to die of COVID-19 than those who haven’t gotten the shots. Boosted Americans are 97 times less likely.
The surgeon general sought to reassure parents nervous about their toddlers and preschoolers being vaccinated against Covid, after federal regulators took a step toward authorizing vaccines for young children despite questions about their effectiveness.
U.S. soldiers who refuse to get a COVID-19 vaccine will be immediately discharged, the U.S. Army said, saying the move was critical to maintain combat readiness.
“Army readiness depends on Soldiers who are prepared to train, deploy, fight and win our nation’s wars,” said Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth. “Unvaccinated Soldiers present risk to the force and jeopardize readiness.”
In a release announcing the move, the service noted that the order also applies to cadets, Guard and Reserve troops who are on Title 10 active duty tours of more than 30 days.
Nasal vaccines may be the best way to prevent infections long term, because they provide protection exactly where it is needed to fend off the virus: the mucosal linings of the airways, where the coronavirus first lands.
New Zealand will ease the strict border controls and quarantine rules it has maintained during the pandemic under a five-stage plan announced by the prime minister today, gradually reopening to travelers from abroad over the next nine months.
Protests against Canada’s COVID-19 measures have drawn a “significant element” from the U.S., Ottawa police said.
Belgian skeleton racer Kim Meylemans was permitted to enter one of the Olympic villages early today, a move that came hours after she tearfully turned to social media and detailed how upset she was about being in isolation over virus concerns.
Bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor was chosen to be a flag-bearer for the U.S. Olympic team but will not be able to attend the Winter Games opening ceremony because she’s in isolation after a positive COVID-19 test.
An extensive buildup of barriers along China’s 3,000-mile southern border is under way, according to public documents, official statements and interviews with residents, ostensibly to battle Covid-19 but with likely long-lasting ramifications on trade and travel.
Spotify added more users and saw a surge in advertising revenue in its recently completed quarter as its podcast strategy takes hold despite backlash to its star host, Joe Rogan.
Serbia’s state prosecutors rejected suggestions that Novak Djokovic used a fake positive test for COVID-19 to try to enter Australia and compete in the Australian Open.
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman rallied to pressure the state’s highest court to expedite its decision on Governor Kathy Hochul’s mask mandate. He was alongside Michael Demetriou, who is one of 14 parents who sued the state over its mask mandate.
Adams had dinner with former Gov. Andrew Cuomo Tuesday night for about two hours at Midtown hotspot Osteria La Baia.
Fabien Levy, Adams’ press secretary, defended the lengthy dinner, saying that the mayor regularly hobnobs with various former government officials “to talk about governance, which is particularly important in these unprecedented times.”
“There was nothing political about the conversation, and the mayor stands by his earlier comments that the former governor should have stepped down, as he did,” Levy said.
CNN President Jeff Zucker resigned for failing to disclose a romantic relationship with a high-ranking colleague who once served as communications director to Cuomo, CNN executive Allison Gollust.
During a web call, Jason Kilar, chief executive of CNN parent WarnerMedia, told a group of CNN brass still reeling from news of Zucker’s departure that a trio of CNN executives would lead the network on an interim basis.
Gollust, an executive vice president and chief marketing officer at CNN, will continue in her job. She said in a statement that she and Zucker have been friends for over 20 years and said that the relationship changed during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Female employees at CNN are reportedly furious that chief spokesperson Gollust is keeping her job after “lying” about her affair with newly resigned CEO Jeff Zucker “for years.”
Rumors have circulated for years that CNN’s two most senior executives, who made the decision to fire anchor Chris Cuomo, have been having an affair, which played a part in ending both their marriages.
Five months after Cuomo’s resignation, a small army of ardent loyalists is donating money and swarming social media to support the former governor.
The Democrat-led New York Legislature voted to approve new congressional district maps Wednesday, setting in stone drastically different congressional districts for a wide swath of New Yorkers.
The congressional maps passed in the Assembly yesterday with 103 votes yes, 45 votes no. They passed later in the day in the Senate, 43-20. The maps will now go to Hochul’s desk for review.
Republicans have threatened to challenge the map in court under new anti-gerrymandering provisions in New York’s Constitution, though it was unclear if they could prove partisan intent.
Former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is reportedly considering a run for the U.S. House, just one month after his term expired in the Big Apple.
Sources said de Blasio has been making calls about a Democratic primary challenge against ex-congressman Max Rose, who’s seeking a rematch of the 2020 race he lost to US Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-Staten Island, Brooklyn).
Rose knocked the former mayor Tuesday evening in an email blast to supporters. The subject of the message was “De Blasio running against me (swear this isn’t a joke).”
Hochul won the support of both the Bronx and Queens Democratic organizations – a double victory that further solidified her support base moving into this year’s gubernatorial primary.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin rapped Hochul for waffling on her support for charter schools, saying he would make expansion of the popular alternative schools a top priority.
The head of a Brooklyn charter school network whose mission includes promoting classroom diversity is urging Hochul and the state Legislature to raise the cap and allow more of the privately run public schools to open.
The city sent a letter to the Empire State Development Corporation, which is in charge of the governor’s Penn Station redevelopment project, asking how exactly the state will pay for it.
Marissa Shorenstein, who directed Hochul’s executive transition team for five months, is joining SKDK as principal of the firm’s New York office.
New York City public school cafeterias are going vegan-only on Fridays under a new policy from famously health-conscious Mayor Adams, who has touted the benefits of a vegan diet.
Aaron Mostofsky, 35, the “caveman” son of a New York City judge pleaded guilty to storming the US Capitol during the riot last year.
New Yorkers could be in for a shock when they get a glance at their utility bills next year. Con Edison is asking state regulators for permission to hike residents’ electric bills by 11.2%, while gas would cost a whopping 18.2% more starting in 2023.
A cube made from 186 kilograms of pure 24-karat gold was constructed and dropped in the middle of Central Park. German artist Niclas Castello designed the cube, and although the artwork is not for sale, it’s valued at about $11.7 million.
New York state officials finalized environmental rule changes meant to reduce the amount of methane and other emissions from oil and natural gas in the state.
Four men have been charged in the overdose death of “The Wire” actor Michael K. Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York said. The men are accused of being part of a drug-trafficking organization operating in Williamsburg.
Former Miss USA Cheslie Kryst was grappling with depression and kept her struggle a secret from her closest friends and family, her shattered mother revealed in a statement.
Ghislaine Maxwell deserves a new trial because one of the jurors who convicted her of sex trafficking withheld that he was a childhood sex abuse victim, a lawyer for the British socialite argued in court papers.
The “Black Panther” and “Walking Dead” actress Danai Gurira is taking on a royal role as one of theatre’s most legendary villains at this year’s “Shakespeare in the Park.”
The number of forest rangers could increase this year, New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation commissioner told state lawmakers, although union representatives and lawmakers warn of retirements in the ranks.
The state Commission on Judicial Conduct has determined that a town court justice in the Southern Tier should be removed for posting several sexist memes on social media and fundraising for the National Rifle Association.
A State University of New York at Fredonia professor is under investigation by the school after videos emerged of him defending pedophilia and insisting it wasn’t “obvious” to him why it was wrong.
A beloved natural landmark on Saratoga Lake, and one of the only spots on the shore untouched by development, is the proposed site of a small subdivision.
Troy Mayor Patrick Madden called for continued oversight of the city’s finances as it pays off the last of its state bailout debt and he focused on improvements ahead to upgrade parks and other city facilities.
COVID-19 cases in Capital Region schools continue to fall, though they still remain higher than the first half of the school year.
A nonprofit developer is planning a 30-room high-end hotel in Hudson’s city center.
Beck, Duran Duran, Dolly Parton, Lionel Richie and Eminem are among seven first-time nominees on the list of 17 performers and acts proposed for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Also on the ballot for the first time are Carly Simon and A Tribe Called Quest.
It’s uncertain if a new U.S.A. Swimming policy for trans athletes, which increases the burden of proof for transgender women to show they don’t have a competitive advantage, would be adopted ahead of next month’s N.C.A.A. swimming championships.
