Good Thursday morning.
I really had a dilemma as I was writing this post.
Do I opt for the fun and frivolous, which Lord knows we could all use a little more of these days, OR do my civic duty and focus on something important that has the potential to improve the quality – and maybe even the length – of my readers’ lives?
If you’re thinking: Who are you kidding, Liz? Of course, you split the baby and went for both, you know me too well.
Let’s get the serious stuff out of the way.
Today is World Kidney Day, actually, it’s National Kidney Month – a whole four weeks to celebrate the existence of the two bean-shaped organs about the size of a fist that are located just below your rib cage on either side of the spine.
These little babies do BIG work, filtering out about half a cup of blood a MINUTE – yeah, you read that right – and removing wastes to make urine. The kidneys are, in fact, an integral part of your urinary tract, along with your ureters and your bladder.
The kidneys basically help keep your levels balanced – of salts, minerals, and water. They also make hormones that help control your blood pressure, make red blood cells, and keep your bones strong.
Without them, you really can’t function. You CAN however, live just fine with just one, although your chance of high blood pressure later in life might be slightly elevated.
More than one in 7 adults in the U.S (15 percent, 37 million people), are estimated to have chronic kidney disease (CKD), and many of them don’t have a clue that they’re ailing, since the symptoms don’t really manifest until things have really progressed in a bad way. It’s more common in older people, and also in Black and Latino individuals.
The best thing you can do to protect your kidneys is to live a healthy lifestyle – eat well, exercise moderately, maintain a healthy weight etc. – and get tested for CKD, which is really simple (blood and urine, basically).
And now for the fun stuff…it’s also International Bagpipe Day. Love ’em or hate ’em (I fall into the former category), it can’t be denied that bagpipes are really a very singular – and also quite complex – instrument.
And did you know that though they’re usually associated with Celtic countries (Scotland and Ireland) they might have originated in ancient Egypt?
For your listening pleasure, my fellow bagpipe loving friends, click here. If you’re not a fan, definitely don’t click on that link. You’re welcome either way.
Oh, the less we say about the weather the better. WHAT THE BLOODY HELL WAS THAT YESTERDAY? NO MORE. ENOUGH! Ask and you shall receive…today it will be in the high 40s and partly cloudy. I have weather whiplash. Is that a thing? Is there a treatment?
Maybe it’s a vacation?
Anyway, in the headlines…
A U.S. digital currency could be on the horizon. The Biden administration is putting its support behind the research and development of a “U.S. Central Bank Digital Currency,” or CBDC.
Biden signed an executive order establishing the first-ever federal strategy on cryptocurrencies, the White House said, and he encouraged regulators to identify and mitigate risks digital assets pose to the financial system and broader economy.
There had been reports of a divide between White House officials and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen leading to delays in the policy rollout.
Biden’s approval rating is on the rise — for now — in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Biden’s State of the Union address last week.
Vice President Kamala Harris’ trip to Warsaw to thank Poland for taking in hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s invasion took an unexpected turn before she even left Washington.
The Pentagon pulled the plug on the idea of NATO members providing Soviet-built MiG-29 combat jets to Ukraine.
The top diplomats from Ukraine and Russia will meet in Turkey today, the highest-level and most direct talks between the two nations since Russia’s invasion two weeks ago set off the worst spasm of violence in Europe in a generation.
A Russian airstrike devastated a maternity and children’s hospital complex in the besieged southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol, burying women and children under debris and injuring more than a dozen, Ukrainian officials said.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the attack as “barbaric” and urged the West to intervene to prevent “genocide”.
Hitachi, Philip Morris and Mars — the maker of M&M’s and Snickers — became the latest companies to say they will unwind investments or shut operations in Russia.
The New York Times (NYT) has pulled all its correspondents out of Russia, marking the first time in over a century that the paper will have no reporters on the ground there.
Oil prices dropped in a sudden move yesterday, giving back some of the rally this month amid supply disruptions stemming from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The House overwhelmingly approved legislation last night that would ban Russian oil imports to the United States, an effort to put into law the restrictions announced by President Joe Biden in response to the escalating war in Ukraine.
Lawmakers passed the bill on a bipartisan basis, 414-17. Only 15 Republicans and two Democrats voted against the bill.
The House also approved a $1.5 trillion spending bill, which includes about $13.6 billion in aid to Ukraine. The money is almost evenly split between military and humanitarian aid and is more than twice what was originally proposed.
Facing disputes over how to cover the cost of the pandemic response effort, Democrats dropped it rather than jeopardize legislation that includes aid for Ukraine and other top priorities.
The $15.6 billion emergency aid package was stripped amid disputes over how to pay for it, injecting uncertainty into the president’s pandemic response plan.
Ukrainian Tesla employees who are asked to return to defend their country will receive pay for at least three months, according to an email the company sent on Monday to employees in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region.
A graft prosecutor turned opposition leader has won an extremely close presidential election in South Korea, reinstating conservatives to power with calls for a more confrontational stance against North Korea and a stronger alliance with the US.
A plane carrying former President Donald Trump made an emergency landing last weekend when one of its engines failed over the Gulf of Mexico after he spoke to GOP donors in New Orleans.
Trump said Biden is “letting the radical climate extremists run our country while the world burns,” as gas prices in the U.S. surge to record-highs amid Russia’s war against Ukraine.
The Biden administration restored California’s authority to set its own tailpipe emission standards for cars and light trucks, reversing a policy put in place by Trump.
Former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham apologized for serving in Trump’s White House and also said she’s sorry it took her so long to realize he’s a “con man.”
The bipartisan congressional committee looking into the Jan. 6 attack on the nation’s Capitol says that former Trump adviser Stephen Miller, 36, is on his parents’ cellphone plan.
The Republican National Committee filed suit to stop one of its vendors from turning over records to the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Officials in Ontario said that the province was dropping its universal mask mandate, weeks after truckers paralyzed Ottawa during their protests against coronavirus restrictions.
Novak Djokovic, one of the world’s most prominent sports stars to hold out against getting a COVID vaccination, was included in the field for this week’s Indian Wells tennis tournament in Southern California, but said he can’t enter the US and won’t participate.
Covid cases appear to be rising in older people in the UK as increased socializing, waning immunity and a more transmissible version of the Omicron variant threaten to fuel a resurgence of the virus.
Hong Kong — a wealthy financial center — now has the highest covid death rate in the developed world.
Demand for workers remained close to a record high at the start of the year despite the disruptions of the Omicron Covid-19 variant, another sign of a muted impact of the variant on the U.S. economy.
Pfizer has begun a Phase 2 and 3 clinical trial of its Covid-19 antiviral treatment, Paxlovid, in children ages 6 to 17, the company said.
The drugmaker said it aims to enroll approximately 140 participants in the trial, which will look at whether the drug, called Paxlovid, can safely treat Covid in children who are at risk of becoming severely ill.
Gov. Kathy Hochul welcomed new staff for the SNUG Outreach program to a new training facility where they will learn how to prevent gun violence through real-life scenarios.
New York is distributing nearly $24 million in federal funding to domestic violence programs and shelters, sexual assault programs and rape crisis centers, Hochul said.
Hochul is proposing a fundamental change in recycling paper products and packaging that would require manufacturers rather than taxpayers to expand and pay for increased recycling.
Republican and Democratic state lawmakers agree legislation is needed to address the skyrocketing cost of gasoline in New York and have taken aim at the state’s per-gallon tax. But they disagree on how to do it.
For years, New York was one of just a handful of states whose residents and businesses paid more in federal taxes than they got back in federal funding. That’s no longer the case – at least for now.
New York State announced plans to usher in its first outlets for retail sales of marijuana by the end of the year, giving applicants access to stockpiles of the drug grown by local farmers and offering sweeteners like new storefronts leased by the state.
Draft regulations likely to be adopted by the Cannabis Control Board at its meeting today would limit eligibility to operators where at least one applicant was convicted — or immediately related to someone swept up before marijuana’s legalization.
“What New York is doing is actually giving people with criminal justice histories first-mover advantage,” said Kassandra Frederique, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance.
Criminal justice advocates demanded Mayor Eric Adams apologize for making a 16-year-old accused of shooting a police officer part of his case for stricter bail laws, following revelations that NYPD officers mishandled the arrest, then lied about it under oath.
Adams and the NYPD dodged questions about a judge’s stunning comments questioning the credibility of a cop involved in the bloody arrest of teen drill rapper C Blu.
City Council members aired pressing concerns over whether Adams’ new spending plan will adequately fund the city’s social safety net at a time when many New Yorkers are facing increasing needs.
After five years of construction, his firm, JDS Development Group, has nearly completed the city’s first and only supertall tower outside Manhattan — defined as exceeding 300 meters, or 984 feet.
NYPD cops believe a woman whose dismembered torso was found stuffed in a shopping cart in Brooklyn was killed by an 83-year-old man she knows, a police source said.
The Biden administration plans to close two of the Veterans Administration hospitals in New York City — in Brooklyn and Manhattan.
The $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News by the election technology company Smartmatic can move forward, a New York judge ruled, but tossed out Smartmatic’s defamation claims against host Jeanine Pirro and a network guest, Sidney Powell.
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman is urging Biden to cut through federal red tape to deliver more than 50 rifles to Ukraine donated by his Long Island constituents.
The Capital Region received a cascade of snow yesterday and meteorologists say seasonal snowfall is far from over.
Rensselaer County plans to spend $10.2 million to buy and renovate the Rose & Kiernan building on Route 4 in East Greenbush to house its administrative offices, which will relocate with 300 employees from their current location on Seventh Avenue.
The owner of Shmaltz Brewing is suing comedy and restaurant impresario Tom Nicchi Jr. over what the brewer says was the failure to open a tasting room they had agreed upon back in 2018.
The City of Cohoes’ pioneering project to float a solar array on its 10-acre reservoir has $3 million budgeted in the federal omnibus spending bill that also will fund nine other Capital Region projects supported by U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko.
The City of Albany is gearing up to host its first in-person St. Patrick’s Day parade in three years. The message from officials: Don’t misbehave.
Evan Blum isn’t done with the Central Warehouse just yet. His attorney filed a motion last week asking a judge to issue a temporary restraining order that would prevent Albany County from foreclosing on his property.
The attorney for a Black Lives Matter leader is seeking to get disorderly conduct and obstruction charges dropped because, he said, his client is being unfairly targeted by Saratoga Springs police who want to crush his activism.
The families of the victims of the 2018 limousine crash in Schoharie are no longer pursuing wealthy Pakistani real estate magnate Malik Riaz Hussain in their lawsuits.
Amazon’s board approved a 20-for-1 stock split and authorized the e-commerce giant to repurchase up to $10 billion of the company’s common stock.
US lawmakers have asked the Justice Department to investigate Amazon and some of its executives for ‘potentially criminal conduct’ for allegedly withholding information from Congress.
Despite a marathon negotiating session that dragged from Tuesday morning until last night, Major League Baseball and the players’ union could not resolve a roadblock and reach a new labor deal ahead of a 6 p.m. deadline set by the league.
After the players made a counter offer to a league ultimatum, MLB removed two more series of the schedule, meaning the first two weeks of the 2022 schedule are gone.
Syracuse star Buddy Boeheim will miss today’s ACC Tournament quarterfinal game against Duke after he was suspended for hitting Florida State’s Wyatt Wilkes during yesterday’s win.
A 12-year-old boy was arrested for robbing the wife of Syracuse University basketball coach Jim Boeheim at gunpoint in a mall parking lot.
