Good Wednesday morning.
So, you know the Super Bowl is this coming Sunday, right? (It’s the day before Valentine’s Day, so someone was thinking clearly when this whole calendar thing got worked out).
You would think that it would be a smart thing to co-locate National Pizza Day with the Super Bowl, because an estimated 12.5 million pizzas will be ordered on game day.
Also, 1.42 billion – yes, BILLION with a B – wings, but I’m really less of a wings person and much more of a pizza person, though I wouldn’t necessarily say no to either of them in a pinch. (The spicer and hotter the better, and yes to a lot of blue cheese, thanks).
Those in the wing and pizza businesses are predicting an increase in consumption of their products over last year’s Super Bowl. It’s really not a good day to be a chicken…or a pig, assuming a lot of those folks get pepperoni and/or sausage on their pizza.
Oh, and in case you’re wondering, 1.42 billion wings is enough wings to circle the circumference of the earth three times.
But where was I? Oh, pizza.
Despite that really long and disjointed windup, today – not Sunday – is National Pizza Day. A bunch of chains are celebrating by offering pizza deals, if chain pizza happens to be your jam.
According to the American Pizza Community, which describes itself as a coalition of “the nation’s largest pizza companies, regional chains, small business franchise owners, suppliers and other entities that make up the American pizza industry,” 94 percent of Americans eat pizza at least once a month, and the average American eats 46 slices annually.
(An aside: I am seriously falling behind in my per capita pizza consumption).
The history of pizza is a little murky, because flatbreads date back centuries and were eaten by many different cultures. A precursor to today’s pizza is likely the Italian focaccia, a Roman flatbread to which toppings like olive oil, tomatoes, anchovies, cheese, and garlic were added.
Today’s modern pizza evolved from something similar that was made in Naples in the 18th or early 19th century, and it was a food that was often eaten by poor people, sold by street vendors or informal restaurants as a cheap, filling and easy meal.
Italian immigrants replicated pizza in various cities that are now known for their various versions of the delicacy – New York, Chicago, New Haven, and Trenton, to name a few. One of the first documented U.S. pizzerias was G. (for Gennaro) Lombardi’s on Manhattan’s Spring Street, which was licensed to sell pizza in 1905.
Lombardi’s is still in business, and it’s still on Spring Street (in Little Italy) – a block away from its original location. Its original oven is still in use.
OH, and speaking of sports, which we were before this whole pizza thing got away from me, today’s Google Doodle is a good one. It honors the “trailblazing female pro-baseball player” Toni Stone, who was one of the first women to play in a men’s professional baseball league when she played in Negro Leagues, even replacing Hall of Famer Hank Aaron on one team.
I am ashamed to say I didn’t know who she was until just this moment, but I’m glad I do now. Check it out.
We’re in for a scorcher of a day today, with temperatures in the low 40s…HELLO SPRING I KNOW YOU’RE OUT THERE. Skies will be mostly sunny. Get out there and enjoy it.
In the headlines…
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell pushed back hard against the Republican Party’s censure of Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger and its characterization of the Jan. 6 riot as “legitimate political discourse,” saying the riot was a “violent insurrection.”
The RNC’s censure vote at its winter meeting in Salt Lake City culminated more than a year of vacillation, which started with party leaders condemning the Capitol attack and former President Donald Trump’s conduct, then shifted to downplaying and denying it.
“That’s not the job of the RNC,” McConnell said. “Traditionally the view of the national party committee is that we support all members of our party regardless of their positions on some issues.”
Prosecutors have provided a revealing glimpse of their strategy for the first trial stemming from the attack on the Capitol, unveiling an inventory of the extensive evidence they intend to introduce.
The evidence includes surveillance videos, police communications, text messages, geolocation data and testimony from a Secret Service agent and the children of the defendant, Guy Reffitt, a Texas man.
The House passed legislation to keep the government funded through mid-March, advancing a temporary fix that will give negotiators time to reach a global agreement on fiscal 2022 spending after weeks of negotiations failed to yield a deal.
With funding set to lapse on Feb. 18, the decision to pass a three-week extension was an admission that private negotiations between Republicans and Democrats have so far failed to bridge disagreements over how to allocate billions of federal dollars.
Congressman Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey was the only Democrat to oppose the bill, known as a continuing resolution.
President Joe Biden has for months grappled with differences within the Western alliance while navigating one of the trickiest foreign policy challenges to emerge since he took office: Russia’s threat to invade Ukraine.
With Biden’s top security adviser warning that Russia could invade Ukraine “any day now,” a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll shows that Trump voters are more than twice as likely as Joe Biden voters to say “the conflict is none of America’s business”.
Ukraine’s armed forces geared up for military exercises in response to Russia’s troop buildup along its borders as French President Emmanuel Macron shuttled from Moscow to Kyiv in an attempt to ease tensions and avert a conflict.
Biden criticized a controversial bill making its way through the Florida legislature that addresses conversations teachers have with their students about gender and sexual orientation.
Canadian lawmakers expressed increasing worry about the economic effects of demonstrations after the busiest border crossing between the U.S. and Canada became partially blocked by truckers protesting vaccine mandates and other COVID-19 restrictions.
The world surpassed 400 million known coronavirus cases on Tuesday, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, just one month after reaching 300 million.
Though considered milder than other coronavirus variants, omicron has infected so many people that it has driven the number of daily deaths beyond where it was last spring, before vaccines were widely available.
A wave of polls taken as the Omicron variant crested across much of the United States shows new signs that the public’s resolve to combat the coronavirus pandemic is waning.
New data on U.S. births suggest that the Covid-19 pandemic has led to a smaller-than-expected baby bust.
Hospitals and lawmakers are pressing the Biden administration to review federal pandemic-relief programs that they say have distorted pay rates for travel nurses.
As Pfizder forecasts strong sales this year for its Covid-19 vaccine and treatment, the drugmaker is on the hunt for deals to bolster its pipeline of experimental products.
Hawaii’s strict travel program for domestic visitors may be a piece of pandemic history by the spring, the state’s lieutenant governor said.
Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 shot is the vaccine of choice for much of the developing world. Yet the U.S. company, which has fallen far behind on deliveries to poorer countries, late last year shut down the only plant making usable batches of the vaccine.
The head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is standing by the agency’s mask guidelines, emphasizing that now is not the time to change the recommendations or loosen restrictions aimed at preventing Covid-19.
Though most health experts agree universal masking, along with vaccinations, remains the best public health strategy against the spread of the virus, people can still benefit from wearing a mask even if no one else around them is.
Gov. Kathy Hochul told education leaders that she’s not ready to lift the indoor mask mandate for schools, but hoped that a change could come after February break, according to observers of the meeting.
Amid a growing clamor to lift school mask mandates, the head of the nation’s largest teachers union, Randi Weingarten, said that a rollback should hinge on student vaccination rates.
Hochul will drop New York’s stringent indoor mask mandate today, ending a requirement that businesses ask customers for proof of full vaccination or require mask-wearing at all times, and marking a turning point in the state’s coronavirus response.
The mandate, which applies to businesses that do not have vaccination requirements, has been in effect for almost two months and kicked up controversy in conservative-leaning regions where authorities refused to enforce it.
The Working Families Party endorsed New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams in his long-shot primary bid to unseat Hochul.
“We’re thrilled to announce our endorsement of @JumaaneWilliams for Governor,” the New York Working Families Party said in a statement on Twitter.
“Jumaane has been a champion for working New Yorkers since day one. We can count on him to fight for affordable housing, health care for all, and excellent schools,” the party added.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Rep. Lee Zeldin is scheduled to attend two high-dollar fundraisers thrown in his name – one with former Vice President Mike Pence and another at Trump’s swanky Palm Beach, Fla. golf club.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams equated heroin addiction to being “hooked on cheese”.
In Albany, Adams has dived into one of the most searing debates in the State Capitol: He asked lawmakers to revise the state’s recently reformed bail law, which has divided Democrats and has been used by Republicans to stoke fears of rising crime.
Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said she does not see a compelling reason to change the law when asked about Adams’ push for a “dangerousness” standard to give judges discretion to detain a defendant with a record of prior violent offenses.
Brooklyn District Attorney and self-proclaimed progressive prosecutor Eric Gonzalez also called for “tweaks” to the bail reform laws.
A month into their terms, the Adams has received bipartisan praise for his handling of the city’s crime crisis while Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg drew blame for his progressive policies — from conservatives, Democrats and the widow of a slain NYPD officer.
Bragg conceded that even his own Harlem neighborhood is in “crisis” amid a surge in street violence.
Nearly every single city police precinct has seen spikes in crime so far this year — including five in which the rate has doubled, according to the latest troubling NYPD statistics.
Adams is fully embracing the use of controversial facial recognition technology by the police and is now exploring a dramatic expansion in how it is used.
Adams announced additional appointments to his executive team.
Adams has been filling out his administration and has included women of color to serve as his deputy mayors. However, some observers have pointed out the exclusion of Latinos among those deputies.
Adams signed a sweeping executive order designed to make the city more accountable and boost government transparency, including a requirement that all city agencies appoint a monitor to ensure that such practices are followed.
Stewart-Cousins supports converting the MGM Empire City slots parlor at Yonkers raceway into a full-fledged commercial casino, which could bode well for Genting’s Resorts World Casino gaming facility adjacent to Aqueduct racetrack in Queens.
Chris Cuomo isn’t backing down in his battle with CNN following the ouster of his boss Jeff Zucker — the anchor intends to demand as much as a $60 million settlement.
The name of the 90-year-old mother of disgraced ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Matilda, has been reinstated to the website of the state Mentoring Program she founded and once headed.
Tens of thousands of residents of New York City public housing, many of whom lost their jobs after the city locked down two years ago, have fallen behind on their rent, raising fears of a coming rise in evictions.
Tenant complaints of hot water outages in the city’s public housing jumped nearly 15% last year.
The father of a Bronx cop killed by friendly fire has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city and five police officers, accusing them of recklessly opening fire as his son grappled with an armed ex-con.
A Bronx apartment complex where 17 people were killed in a horrific fire last month was rife with safety violations that contributed to their deaths, according to new lawsuits seeking damages from the building owners.
After a turbulent two years that has forced the Brooklyn Academy of Music to navigate the coronavirus pandemic, budget woes and leadership upheaval, the organization said that it was turning to a veteran of its film wing to become its next president.
City and state lawmakers are amped up over a sudden rate spike that many New Yorkers are now seeing on their Con Ed energy bills — charges that could make it impossible for some to afford rent and their utilities.
Long Island Rep. Tom Suozzi, a Democratic gubernatorial hopeful, is blasting Con Edison for its “unreasonable” plans to hike utility bills for its 3.5 million customers in the New York metropolitan area by as much as 19% next year.
New Yorkers are dealing with a looming crisis that could shut off their utilities. Residents owe $1.7 million for unpaid electricity bills, according to a state advocacy group, and that’s not including back charges for water and internet.
New York’s eviction moratorium ended last month, but some landlords continue to deal with issues evicting tenants who are unable to pay rent.
The temporary leader of the 64-campus State University system told lawmakers that Hochul’s proposal to extend tuition assistance to convicted felons being held in prisons is “the right thing to do.”
Hochul’s executive budget includes an unusual amount of unrestricted funding which one good government group has called “a corruption risk” and state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli has called disappointing.
Republican lawmakers and a Democratic gubernatorial candidate argue that Hochul’s proposal to increase the stock of senior and affordable housing in New York could become what Assemblyman Michael J. Fitzpatrick referred to as the “death of the suburbs.”
Amtrak needs to get its act together make sure the $30 billion Gateway Program stays on track, the railroad’s inspector general warned in a new report.
Former Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. is now working as senior vice president at Montefiore Medical Center, bringing yet another political power player to the Bronx-based health care system that’s a major recipient of state and city funding.
Before they were charged with conspiring to launder $3.6 billion in Bitcoin stolen from one of the world’s largest virtual currency exchanges, Ilya Lichtenstein and his wife, Heather Morgan, dispensed advice and opinions on the cryptocurrency’s prospects.
James Bennet, the editor who oversaw publication of the 2017 editorial at the heart of Sarah Palin’s libel suit against The New York Times, said that he ultimately bore responsibility for its errors, capping his first day of testimony in the trial.
“This is my fault,” Bennet told a Manhattan Federal Court jury. “I mean, I wrote those sentences, and I’m not looking to shift the blame to anybody else. So, I just, like, for the record, I want to say that.”
The state Office of Cannabis Management said it sent cease-and-desist letters to more than two dozen businesses, demanding they halt illegal pot sales immediately. Violators will be subject to “substantial fines and possible criminal penalties.”
State parks have seen a record number of visits for the second year in a row.
The New York Power Authority’s effort to blanket the state with electric vehicle chargers is stuck in low gear, with missed deadlines and nearly half of the state’s 62 counties still without the devices, according to an audit by the state comptroller’s office.
The Albany Common Council approved two financial measures that require it to set aside $14 million in federal rescue funding in order to settle contracts with two unions.
Some members of the state’s limousine safety task force said the illegal stretch limousine involved in the 2018 Schoharie crash could have been prevented from operating under laws on the books at the time, possibly saving the lives of the 20 people killed.
Five Capital Region counties will get a combined $3.4 million tax break under a state budget proposal that would relieve them of annual payments to the Hudson River-Black River Regulating District for flood control benefits.
A woman serving court papers to Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz says he threatened to shoot her if she didn’t leave his property. The claim drew quick denials from the County Executive’s spokesperson.
The University of California reached a $243 million settlement with more than 200 women who said they were sexually abused by a UCLA gynecologist.
Peloton is in trouble, and is replacing its chief executive and cutting 2,800 jobs after a slowdown in demand caused the once-hot bike maker’s value to plummet.
Steven Spielberg made Academy Awards history with the 2022 Oscar nominations announcement, grabbing his eighth Best Director nomination, making him the first person in history to receive nods in the category across six different decades.
The full list of nominees is here.
