Good morning, happy Thursday. And just like that, March is over.
Bring on the April showers, though to be honest, I could use a few dry days.
On this day in 1889, the celebrated Eiffel Tower of Paris was inaugurated. The ceremony was presided over by the tower’s designer, the French engineer Gustave Eiffel, and attended by French Prime Minister Pierre Tirard as well as other dignitaries.
La Tour Eiffel was built to be one the main attractions at the Paris International Exposition in 1889, which covered the entire Champ de Mars and focused on vast constructions in iron and steel that were the great industrial advancement of the time.
The exposition was held to celebrate the centenary of the French Revolution, and a design competition was announced for a monument to be built on the Champ-de-Mars in central Paris.
Out of more than 100 designs submitted, Eiffel’s plan of an open-lattice wrought-iron tower that would reach almost 1,000 feet above the city and be the world’s tallest man-made structure won.
Eiffel’s firm specialized in building these sorts of structures, and he was involved in the construction of a number of other European works including Portugal’s Porto Viaduct, the Viaduct du Garabit (also in France) and the Budapest train station.
The company also is famous for building the metal framework for the Statue of Liberty, which was designed by Auguste Bartholdi and offered to the U.S. as a gift from France to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
Apparently, not everyone liked the 300-meter tall, 10,100-pound Eiffel Tower, which was built in record time – 2 years, 2 months and 5 days. Artists, in particular, protested it because they thought it was ugly and structurally unsound. But the general public disagreed, and 2 million people toured it during the first year it was open.
Today, about 6 million people visit the Eiffel Tower annually. It has three floors that are open to the public.
The Eiffel Tower was nearly double the height of the world’s previous tallest structure – the 555-foot Washington Monument – when it opened, and remained the world’s tallest man-made structure until the completion of the Chrysler Building in Manhattan in 1930.
True story: It was almost demolished when the International Exposition’s 20-year lease on the land on which it sits expired in 1909, but its value as an antenna for radio transmission (!) saved it.
A world without the Eiffel Tower? I can’t even imagine it.
It’s going to be in the mid-60s today (THAT is more like it), but also wet (boo hiss). The rain (occasional showers, maybe some thunder) isn’t scheduled to start until the afternoon, though, so get out there without your coat on while you can.
In the headlines…
Moscow dismissed a diplomatic overture by Ukraine in peace talks, while Russian forces hit targets around Kyiv on Wednesday despite saying they would limit attacks there as they stepped up ground and air assaults in eastern portions of the country.
President Vladimir Putin of Russia has been misinformed by his advisers about the Russian military’s struggles in Ukraine, according to declassified U.S. intelligence.
The U.S. included 100 killer drones in a colossal weapons package for Ukraine that President Joe Biden approved earlier this month, U.S. officials confirmed.
The movement of some Russian forces away from Kyiv shouldn’t be seen as a de-escalation, the Pentagon said, despite Moscow’s promise to “drastically reduce” military activity near Kyiv and Chernihiv.
The United Nations top human rights body appointed a commission to investigate accusations of war crimes and other abuses committed in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and to identify the people responsible.
Biden is preparing to order the release of up to 1 million barrels of oil per day from the nation’s strategic petroleum reserve, in a bid to control energy prices that have spiked as the U.S. and allies imposed steep sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
Biden could announce the plan to tap the reserve as soon as today. The idea would be to combat rising prices at the pump.
Centrist Sen. Joe Manchin shot down Biden’s new plan to raise $360 billion in revenue by imposing a 20 percent minimum tax on billionaires, a proposal the president formally unveiled Monday in his budget request to Congress.
The Biden administration is expected to lift a pandemic-related public health order that has restricted immigration for the past two years, a change that could more than double what is already a historic number of migrants surging into the US from Mexico.
Biden stepped up pressure on Congress to approve billions of dollars in emergency coronavirus relief aid, using a speech at the White House to warn that U.S. progress against Covid-19 would be at severe risk if Congress failed to act right away.
A group of senators negotiating a potential deal for new coronavirus relief is preparing to scale back the overall size of the package amid a disagreement over how to pay for it.
Biden received a second Pfizer-BioNTech booster shot against the coronavirus, a day after federal health officials cleared an additional booster dose of Pfizer or Moderna vaccines for people over 50 and for many who have compromised immune systems.
The World Health Organization (WHO) unveiled a new strategic plan that lays out a path toward ending the global emergency of COVID-19.
The WHO also cautioned against reducing testing and disease surveillance and monitoring for COVID-19, warning that the pandemic is still in full swing.
In yet another twist to the debate over how best to protect children against the coronavirus, researchers reported that Covid vaccines conferred diminished protection against hospitalization among children 12 and older during the latest Omicron surge.
The anti-parasitic drug ivermectin, which has surged in popularity as an alternative treatment for Covid-19 despite a lack of strong research to back it up, showed no sign of alleviating the disease, according to results of a large clinical trial published yesterday.
The study, which compared more than 1,300 people infected with the coronavirus in Brazil who received either ivermectin or a placebo, effectively ruled out the drug as a treatment for Covid, the study’s authors said.
As Americans shed masks and return to offices and restaurants, local and state officials are scaling back the most visible public health efforts to address the coronavirus pandemic. Experts are questioning whether this is wise.
Recent rises in COVID cases that bubbled up in central New York and corners of New York City seemed to be taking a positive turn yesterday, as case rates fell in both regions, according to state data.
Gov. Kathy Hochul has until the end of today to decide whether to let a law take effect that would significantly increase the number of workers at the state’s nursing homes.
Hochul announced up to $50 million in available funding for school districts to improve student access to mental health resources and assist students who have experienced trauma that has impacted their education.
Proposals to give New Yorkers some sort of relief at the pump have gained momentum in recent days, even as other issues show little movement. The only question, it seems, is how to do it.
With New York’s annual budget due tomorrow morning, Hochul and state lawmakers’ 11th-hour negotiations are centered on potential changes to bail reform, opening Big Apple casinos and public funding to build a new stadium for the Buffalo Bills.
Changes to New York’s bail laws remained one of the most contentious sticking points yesterday as the plodding process to pass a budget was further complicated by some of Hochul’s top staffers contracting COVID.
The city health department scientist who was brutally battered with a hammer at a Queens subway station says she’s done riding the tube, and wants lenient state bail reforms “undone.”
New York’s eight House Republicans slammed Hochul’s plan to tighten up the controversial no-cash bail law as inadequate to curb crime, and instead called for a complete repeal of the policy.
There are over 20,000 open positions at upstate hospitals from Albany to Buffalo.
CUNY students and staffers rallied at Lehman College to call for a “New Deal for CUNY” and an additional $500 million in the state budget.
As the budget debate played out in the state Capitol, the candidates for governor had something of a unifying message: ‘I’d do it better.’
State lawmakers are weighing whether to fast-track a move to allow three new casinos in the New York City area, as part of this year’s budget negotiations.
“We would love to have two in New York City,” Mayor Eric Adams said. “I think it would be a great boost for the economy, and we are evaluating what’s the best location, so we can weigh in with some type of communication. We’re looking forward to doing so.”
The Seneca Nation is not happy with Hochul’s plan to use hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues from the nation’s casinos to pay for a new stadium for the Buffalo Bills, calling it “hostile”, “shameless” and “vindictive.”
Former state officials who worked under ex-Gov. Cuomo Andrew Cuomo sacked Hochul for agreeing to give the owners of the Buffalo Bills $600 million in taxpayer funds to build a new stadium that won’t even be located in New York’s second largest city.
The NY Post chided Hochul for wanting to create “a new state entity, the Erie County Stadium Corp., that will lease the arena to the Bills while being on the hook for millions in yearly upkeep, maintenance and repairs.”
New York lawmakers are pushing back against Hochul’s plan to rebrand the decades-old, soon-to-expire 421-a tax break for developers that build affordable housing units in New York City.
Lawyers assigned by judges to represent children and low-income litigants in New York state courts in matters such as child neglect and domestic violence are demanding their first pay raise in nearly two decades.
Results so far are mixed on New York City’s effort to move homeless people out of the subway system and street encampments and into shelters, Adams said.
Sanitation workers in partnership with the police had cleared 239 encampments in 12 days, but only five of those people agreed to go to a homeless shelter.
Adams said that while the number of those who had accepted shelter was low, he was hopeful they would rise over time as city workers establish trust with homeless individuals.
Adams unveiled a shocking photo of a homeless encampment littered with around 500 used syringes as he vowed to continue cracking down on makeshift shelters across the city.
Adams twice compared himself to broccoli, saying fed up New Yorkers will eventually be glad he made them eat their greens: “You’re gonna hate me now, but you’re gonna love me later,” he said.
Adams signed a law to allow rent stabilization to continue as deadline for the Housing and Vacancy Survey is moved from April 1 to July 1.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority board approved a $50 million contract to install high-tech cameras near turnstiles at 88 subway stations — the agency’s latest effort to beef up security on mass transit.
Albany Nanotech founder Alain Kaloyeros, who began serving a 3½-year sentence in a minimum security prison camp in Otisville earlier this month following his 2018 conviction in a federal bid-rigging case, has the support of a New York defense attorney group.
Though the Mechanicville school district would not discuss the nature of a complaint filed against its former superintendent, the Board of Education president said an investigation into the complaint against Bruce Potter “determined the allegation(s) founded.”
Sen. Susan Collins of Maine said she will vote to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, the first Republican to back Biden’s nominee.
The percentage of working Americans testing positive for drugs hit a two-decade high last year, driven by an increase in positive marijuana tests, as businesses might have loosened screening policies amid nationwide labor shortages.
A Connecticut judge, exasperated by the Infowars broadcaster Alex Jones’s “bad faith” failure to sit for a deposition in a lawsuit brought by the families of Sandy Hook shooting victims, ruled he would be subject to escalating daily fines for future delays.
Federal prosecutors have substantially widened their Jan. 6 investigation to examine the possible culpability of a broad range of figures involved in former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Truth Social, Donald Trump’s newly launched social media platform being pushed as an alternative to Twitter, has reportedly suffered a significant decline in new users since its bumpy launch last month.
Actor Bruce Willis’ family announced today he is “stepping away” from acting after being diagnosed with aphasia, a condition that affects a person’s ability to communicate.
The news of his diagnosis, initially announced by his ex-wife, Demi Moore, prompted an outpouring of support and appreciation for Willis from fans, stars and other notable figures.
Fans hoping Chris Rock would speak at length about Will Smith slapping him at the Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday may have been disappointed last night during his first show since the incident in Boston.
“I don’t have a bunch of s— about what happened,” Rock said. “So if you came to hear that, I have like a whole show I wrote before this weekend. And I’m still kind of processing what happened.”
Smith was asked to leave the 94th annual Academy Awards ceremony Sunday after slapping Rock, but refused, according to a new statement from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
“While we would like to clarify that Mr. Smith was asked to leave the ceremony and refused, we also recognize we could have handled the situation differently,” the Academy said.
The Academy said it has initiated disciplinary proceedings against Smith, who was notified of this development and can provide a written response.
Mayor Adam said Smith should not lose his Oscar for slapping Rock, suggesting the “King Richard” superstar should not be defined by a “bad day.”
The Hubble Space Telescope has snapped a record-setting image showing the most distant individual star ever seen, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said.
