Good morning, it’s Friday and it’s going to be VERY WARM today.
If I were to promote such a thing – which, of course, I would NEVER do – I would say that this is a very good day to leave work early, or to just say ‘screw it’ and ditch the whole work thing altogether in favor of getting outside in the sun.
In keeping with a bright and semi-sunshiny day, today is the Hindu festival of Holi, which celebrates the arrival of spring, the end of winter, and the blossoming of love.
It’s actually a two-day affair. Day One is Holika Dahan (Chhoti Holi) marks the victory of good over evil. Day Two is Dhulandi (Rangwali Holi), and it celebrates the love of Lord Krishna and Radha Rani.
Holi is also known as the festival of colors, and true to that name, it involves people literally smearing one another -friends, family and strangers alike – with bright-colored powders and buckets of water.
The whole thing starts with a bonfire called Holika to signify the burning of evil spirits. The immersing of oneself and others in clouds of colors kicks off the next day, often accompanied by live music and dancing in the streets.
Each of the colors holds a different meaning. Red symbolizes love and fertility; yellow, the color of turmeric, is native to India and used as a natural health remedy; blue represents the Hindu God Krishna; and green is for new beginnings.
Foods traditionally eaten at this time include gujiya (a deep-fried sweet with dried fruit), dahi bhalla (a yogurt dish topped with savory chutney), and lassi (a chilled yogurt drink).
We’ve already been through the weather – did I mention it’s going to be very warm? – so let’s get right to the good stuff, because the quicker we dispense with our workday tasks, the quicker they will be over and we can go OUTSIDE.
In the headlines…
Russia’s offensive in Ukraine, now in its fourth week, has essentially stalled as its military sustains heavy losses and suffers supply and morale problems, British and American defense officials said.
President Joe Biden called Vladimir Putin a “pure thug” and “murderous dictator,” his latest pointed attack against the Russian President as the war in Ukraine rages on.
Putin shared his demands for ending the war in Ukraine with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a phone call yesterday.
More than two dozen Senate Republicans are demanding that Biden do more to aid war-torn Ukraine and arm its forces against Russia’s brutal assault, after voting last week against $13.6 billion in military and humanitarian assistance for Ukraine.
The House easily passed legislation to end normal trade ties with Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, moving quickly to approve the measure after President Biden announced his support last week.
Biden approved another massive weapons package for Ukraine this week. That brings the total amount of U.S. assistance to Ukraine’s military to more than a billion dollars since Russia invaded three weeks ago.
Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping plan to confer today on the phone as the U.S. works to deter China from deeper involvement with Russia during its invasion of Ukraine.
The call comes as Beijing is trying to present itself as eager to help prevent the Ukraine crisis from worsening further—without abandoning its alignment with Moscow.
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said that the United States would punish China if President Jinping chose to give military aid to Russia for the war in Ukraine, where Russian forces have killed thousands of civilians.
New York state agencies and public authorities will cease business with companies that have continued to do business in Russia.
“We can do more as a state,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said. “I want to take that a step further today… We’re going to continue to put the pressure on.”
New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is joining nine other senators visiting Poland and Germany to meet with U.S. military officials, Ukrainian refugees, and nongovernmental organizations.
US officials have approved the transfer of 60 rifles donated from Long Island citizens to aid fighters in Ukraine.
A flurry of high-profile COVID cases in D.C., including in people who have been around Biden, has raised new questions about the trajectory of the pandemic, even as the White House has signaled confidence in the country’s ability to resume normal activities.
Biden confirmed that he met with Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin “for seven-and-a-half minutes” at the Ireland Funds Gala at the National Building Museum on Wednesday, just prior to the announcement that Martin had tested positive for COVID-19.
Jeffrey D. Zients, an entrepreneur and management consultant who steered Biden’s coronavirus response through successive pandemic waves and the largest vaccination campaign in US history, plans to leave the White House in April to return to private life.
Zients will be replaced by Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health.
Experts fear that COVID-19 cases in the United States will rise in the next few weeks as the new BA.2 variant continues to spread.
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows BA.2, which is a subvariant of omicron, has been tripling in prevalence every two weeks.
As America casts a wary eye on rising cases caused by the BA.2 subvariant in Europe, the immune status of adults over the age of 65 will be a key indicator of how future variants will affect the US because the risk of severe outcomes rises dramatically with age.
Dr. Anthony Fauci said U.K. officials are already warning him of an increase there driven by the BA.2 sub-variant, easing restrictions and waning protection from vaccines, and that the U.S. tends to be a few weeks behind case curves in the U.K.
Moderna said that it asked the Food and Drug Administration for emergency authorization of a second booster of its coronavirus vaccine for all adults, a significantly broader request than Pfizer and BioNTech filed for their shot this week.
If approved, this would be the second booster shot Moderna has issued for people ages 18 and up.
All remaining Covid travel restrictions have now been lifted for passengers entering the UK.
South Korea reported its peak daily coronavirus infection number of the entire pandemic yesterday, recording 621,328 cases in a country of 50 million people.
President Xi Jinping vowed to reduce the impact of Covid-control measures on the economy and people’s lives, a first acknowledgment from the Chinese leadership of the costs of the government’s stringent policies to rein in outbreaks.
The U.S. labor market tightened further last week, with jobless claims coming in at the lowest level since the beginning of the year, the Labor Department said.
Initial filings for unemployment insurance totaled 214,000 for the week ended March 12, better than the Dow Jones estimate for 220,000 and a decline of 15,000 from the prior week.
Continuing claims, a proxy for the number of people receiving payments from state unemployment programs, fell to 1.41 million on the week ended March 5, down from 1.49 million the week earlier. Continuing claims are reported with a one-week lag.
Gig workers who drive for ride-hailing and delivery companies like Uber, Lyft and DoorDash have been hit hard by rising gas prices, because their ability to earn money is tied directly to driving hundreds of miles each week.
Delta Air Lines is raising most employee wages 4% as demand for flights continues to rebound with the busy spring and summer travel season approaching.
The average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage topped 4% for the first time since May 2019, Freddie Mac said.
In this booming housing market, many homeowners earned more last year from home appreciation than from their jobs.
New Yorkers accustomed to traveling north are celebrating news that Canada plans to drop its COVID-19 border testing requirement on April 1 for vaccinated travelers.
Hochul has extended the state’s COVID-related state of emergency through April 15.
According to the governor’s office, the extension gives the state the flexibility to troubleshoot hospital capacity issues and it will be reassessed in 30 days.
More than 20 million COVID-19 test kits are being stockpiled ahead of the next school year and New York state officials are monitoring wastewater to determine if there are any spikes in COVID-19 cases throughout the state.
More than 20 million COVID-19 over-the-counter tests will be distributed across the state through the Spring to bolster New York State’s ongoing preparedness efforts.
“Let’s get those in people’s hands. If there’s any warning signs, anyone’s concerned, that they can get that test immediately,” Hochul said.
Hochul is now proposing a sweeping public safety package including changes that will make more crimes bail eligible in New York after weeks of being accused of ignoring the city and state’s crime wave.
The Democratic governor sent a 10-point public safety plan to the state Legislature this week that, among other measures, would allow judges to set bail for additional charges and for repeat offenders.
It would also grant judges more discretion to require bail in certain felony cases, based on a defendant’s criminal history or whether they possess a firearm.
The governor’s plan won accolades from the NY Post’s editorial board, which has been slamming the governor on this issue.
Mayor Eric Adams, who has been calling on the governor to make changes to the bail reforms and “Raise the Age since taking office in January, quickly applauded news.
Democratic lawmakers and progressive advocates are up in arms following reports that Hochul plans on pushing a package of public safety proposals, including changes to New York’s bail reforms, as part of budget negotiations.
Fourteen rabbis and Orthodox community leaders from Queens were among the 400 faith leaders who endorsed Hochul’s bid for her first full term as governor.
That announcement came as former Gov. Andrew Cuomo gave an address and answered questions from the crowd for an hour at the Bronx church run by former Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr., a conservative Democrat.
Cuomo laid out his own state budget priorities even though he’s out of office and denouncing what he continues to call a cancel culture that led him to resign in August amid sexual harassment allegations.
“It’s a social death penalty. Anyone can get canceled at any time. And it happens with frequency. No one’s immune,” he said. “Our cancel-culture mentality today is like modern-day stonings. Remember the stonings in the Bible?”
Cuomo continued to stoke speculation about a potential comeback, telling reporters that he hasn’t ruled out a return to office — or a potential run for governor. “I have a lot of options open, and I’m considering them,” he said.
“I am not going anywhere,” he added, implying a campaign announcement could be in the offing. “I am going to continue to fight the good fight.”
As New York’s ethics commission mulls a new strategy to force Cuomo to repay $5.1 million in book royalties, its chairman is making a final push to have state Attorney General Letitia James take action following months of resistance by her office.
Following the release last week of draft regulations that would allow those with marijuana convictions to get priority in New York’s retail cannabis industry, the unprecedented move has stoked controversy in the fledgling industry.
New York legislative leaders have filed budget proposals that include language to let marijuana businesses take state tax deductions that are available to other industries despite an ongoing federal ban.
Adams downed two beers yesterday before noon and the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, according to widely circulated tweets and reports.
Adams chastised a dad who took him to task over ongoing face mask rules for children under 5 saying: “Don’t yell, you’ll send the wrong message to your kids.”
A number of New York landmarks were lit up green for St. Patrick’s Day.
The FDNY’s plan to use two new robot dogs only in precarious search and rescue missions may help avoid the controversy that met the Police Department’s robots last year.
A man arrested on a bench warrant eight days ago for skipping court hearings in the Bronx yesterday became the second detainee in the city jails to die in 2022, the Correction Department said.
Dom De Marco, patriarch and founder of the borough’s legendary Di Fara Pizza, died after 57 years at the helm of the renowned eatery routinely acclaimed as the city’s No. 1 pizzeria, his daughter wrote in a post on Instagram. He was 85.
Federal officials say the aging Albany Stratton VA Medical Center needs to be replaced and are proposing a $1.5 billion project to reconstruct the main hospital and restructure outpatient care throughout the Capital Region.
The Albany Capital Center (ACC) has accumulated over $55 million in new visitor spending since opening about five years ago.
The Albany County Legislature is discussing the creation of a program to assist residents living in public housing who have fallen behind on their rent and may be facing eviction.
State transportation officials plan a U-turn area for truckers in a quest to reduce the chronic problem of big rig bridge strikes of the railroad trestle that spans Glenville Road.
The Rensselaer school board is urging the state Department of Environmental Conservation not to renew the operating permit for the massive S.A. Dunn construction and debris landfill next door to the K-12 complex.
Lake Placid voters this week decided to overturn the village’s cannabis laws and allow cannabis dispensaries and on-site consumption licensing. On-site consumption licensing, or proposition two, appears to have gotten the green light by one vote.
Instagram this week started rolling out parental controls for its app for the first time. Parent company Meta Platforms Inc. will soon also let guardians supervise teens’ activity in virtual reality.
Lia Thomas, the transgender woman whose record-threatening times on UPenn’s swim team made her a star of college athletics and a symbol of the debate over sports and gender identity, won an N.C.A.A. championship in the 500-yard freestyle.
A 13-year-old boy was driving the pickup truck that collided Tuesday night with a van carrying members of a New Mexico university’s golf teams, killing at least nine people.
