Good morning, it’s Monday.
In case you checked out over the weekend – and who could blame you, really – let me be the first to tell you that we have a 2022-23 state budget after marathon voting sessions that lasted into the wee hours of the morning, testing the mettle of our state Legislature.
More on that, if you care, will be in the headlines below. Now on to more important things…like dogs.
Today is National Pet Day, which happens to fall during Active Dog Month. (From hippos to canines; I realize I’ve been doing a lot of animal-related posts of late, not sure what’s up with that. Hopefully, you’re indulging me).
Some of you might know that I used to be an avowed cat person. I actually sneered at dog owners who were tailing (ahem) their furry friends on a leash and devotedly scooping their poop into little plastic bags.
And then came Henry, and now I happily scoop poop with the best of them, and clean up the occasional puke – the most recent of which occurred ON MY LAP and also IN MY NEW CAR, compliments of the new puppy, Mannix (AKA Manny).
I’m not sure how the switch got flipped in my brain, but I am now most certainly a dog person, and I expect I will remain that way for the rest of my days.
Maybe it has something to do with discovering a need for unconditional love, which the cats in my life were most decidedly not providing. I’m not saying felines are incapable, mind you, just that they generally choose not to adore and are rather selective in their displays of affection.
Now I happen to share my home with two pure breeds, but that doesn’t mean I can’t evangelize about the importance of adopting from a shelter, if you can swing it.
In 1973, the Humane Society estimated that 13 million cats and dogs entered shelters annually. Today, according to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, approximately 6.5 million companion animals enter shelters nationwide. And 1.6 million each of cats and 1.6 million dogs get adopted. The rest, well, let’s not think about that too hard.
I also am absolutely unable to read stories or see footage of animals suffering in the Ukraine without bursting into tears no matter where I am or what I’m doing. This is NOT to downplay the significance of the humanitarian crisis that has been created by the war, but still…If you have the means to help, please do so.
As for keeping your dog active…this is very important in order to prolong their lives and keep them as healthy and happy as possible. We have a bit of an obesity problem in this country – both for pets AND their people. Getting out for some fresh air and exercise is good for you and your fur babies.
The average dog needs somewhere between 30 minutes and two hours of exercise a day, depending on their size and breed.
All the rain we’ve seen of late has made getting the doggos outside for exercise a little challenging. They are definitely less interested in being outside in the mud and the muck…though I know some of them really go for that. Not mine. There’s more rain in the forecast this week, though temperatures are going to be considerably higher – even reaching into the 70s.
Today we’ll have partly cloud skies and temperatures at or near 60 degrees.
In the headlines…
Russian forces attacked civilian areas in eastern Ukraine yesterday as terrified residents joined an exodus of thousands of Ukrainians fleeing westward, heeding warnings by authorities that Russian troops were massing for a major assault.
Ukraine’s economy is expected to shrink by roughly 45 percent this year, the World Bank said yesterday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet with Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer today in what will be his first meeting with a European Union leader since launching his attack on Ukraine on Feb. 24.
Putin’s former chief economic adviser has suggested that Russia would halt military operations in Ukraine “within a month or two” if Western countries stopped buying Russian oil and gas.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a new interview with “60 Minutes” said he is expecting “many times more” Russian weaponry to be used in the next wave of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Zelensky, who has urged NATO to take stronger actions throughout Russia’s invasion, said he is “no longer interested in their diplomacy.”
The war reached deep into the fertile plains of a region known as Europe’s breadbasket, paralyzing harvests, destroying granaries and crops, and bringing potentially devastating consequences to a country that produces a large share of the world’s grain.
President Joe Biden will again press India to take a harder stand on Russia’s war in Ukraine during a virtual meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi ahead of a dialogue today between the foreign and defense ministers from both sides.
John Lennon’s son Julian Lennon this weekend performed his late father’s iconic song “Imagine” for the first time to benefit Ukraine.
Biden is expected to announce new firearm regulation as soon as today meant to contain the use of privately made weapons, people familiar with the matter said, as he comes under pressure to take more steps to address gun violence.
The regulation on so-called “ghost guns” — unregulated, untraceable weapons made from kits — would address a critical gap in the government’s ability to track them.
Biden is also expected to name Steve Dettelbach, a former US attorney from Ohio, as his nominee to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. His previous nominee was forced to withdraw amid opposition in the Senate.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called for a federal crackdown on “ghost guns” amid a staggering surge in seizures of the DIY weapons in New York City.
The Justice Department has expanded its investigation into the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and is gearing up for summer trials in some of the most serious related cases brought so far, just as some cracks in prosecutors’ strategies have started to emerge.
The leaders of the House committee investigating the Capitol attack have grown divided over whether to make a criminal referral to the Justice Department of former President Trump, even though they have concluded that they have enough evidence to do so.
Rep. Liz Cheney said that the House Jan. 6 select committee has enough evidence to refer Trump for criminal charges, but hasn’t made a decision on how to proceed.
The Trump Organization can continue to operate a city-owned Bronx golf course, a judge ruled.
The city had ended the Trump Organization’s contract to operate the Trump Ferry Point 18-hole golf course in February 2021, weeks after a mob of Trump supporters invaded the Capitol on Jan. 6 and disrupted the confirmation of Biden’s election win.
Wading into a tight Republican Senate primary in Pennsylvania, Trump endorsed Mehmet Oz, throwing his weight behind the former star of “The Dr. Oz Show,” who has been attacked by rivals as a closet liberal.
Shanghai is at the center of China’s largest COVID-19 outbreak since the coronavirus was first discovered in Wuhan, with a record 26,087 new daily infections reported yesterday.
In a Covid-19 outbreak that has locked 25 million people at home, the city of Shanghai has reported more than 130,000 cases since March 1, but says there have been no deaths and currently only one patient with severe illness.
The national uptick in new U.S. coronavirus cases in recent days is concerning, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said, but suggested the rise was not yet cause for alarm and that officials were monitoring it “very, very carefully.”
Sixty-eight attendees have tested positive for Covid-19 after attending the Gridiron Dinner in Washington last weekend, including members of the Biden administration and reporters.
Fauci said there’s no particular reason to fear that Biden will be infected with Covid-19, despite how hard official Washington has been hit lately.
“I do think we are in the middle of a surge, the magnitude of which I can’t tell you,” Zeke Emanuel, vice provost of global initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania, said.
In the United States, more than 23 million people (430,000 in Washington) are estimated to have post-acute COVID symptoms, according to the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.
Ocean County, NJ illustrates a stubborn public health challenge: A large share of its residents have not been vaccinated against the coronavirus, and its Covid-19 death rate is the highest in the state.
One of the most powerful tools against the coronavirus is one that experts believe is just starting to get the attention it deserves: ventilation.
Laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases in New York are on the way back up, with the percent of tests coming back positive more than doubling from 1.4 percent March 8, to 3.7 percent April 8.
Covid-19 cases are spiking across Central New York, and Syracuse’s suburbs are seeing some of the biggest increases in the region.
Unvaccinated health care workers at the Batavia and Buffalo VA’s have started to receive letters, saying they need to get vaccinated or they’ll be reassigned or terminated.
It will be the busiest April for Broadway openings in more than a decade. But some of its biggest stars have been sidelined by positive COVID tests.
Manhattan’s Alleva Dairy, billed as the oldest cheese store in the U.S., is in jeopardy of closing because of $509,106 worth of rent it failed to pay during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Two years after COVID ravaged through nursing homes, families of residents who died are bringing a wave of negligence and wrongful death lawsuits against the facilities. New York is a legal hot spot, with lawyers moving to file cases before deadlines expire.
Mayor Eric Adams has tested positive for Covid-19, a City Hall spokesperson announced.
Adams’ press secretary, Fabien Levy, said the mayor woke up with a “raspy voice” yesterday morning — his 100th day in office — and took a PCR test “out of an abundance of caution.” The test came back positive.
Along with going into isolation and canceling public events, Adams planned to take antiviral medication. He had no symptoms other than the raspiness.
Adams has worn a mask at some recent events but even as cases rose in the city, he has not frequently worn a mask at others, including after he attended the Gridiron dinner and many other attendees said they had tested positive.
Adams, who said last week that he takes an at-home rapid test daily, had visited Albany, the state capital, on Saturday for a meeting with lawmakers. He has also been holding a series of interviews to promote his first 100 days in office.
Adams, in an interview to discuss his first 100 days as mayor, insisted that addressing homelessness and attending to the city’s nightlife were part of his job, and not in conflict with his image during the campaign as a champion of working-class New Yorkers.
While public safety appears to be a primary focus, Adams has also spent his first 100 days rolling back some of the city’s COVID-19 rules and championing New York City as a hub for technology, tourism and tolerance.
Adams said he is “concerned” about an increase in crime during the upcoming hot summer months, as he pledged to soon add more NYPD anti-gun units to patrol the five boroughs.
Adams urged state lawmakers to pass legislation allowing him to continue managing New York City public schools.
Adams floated building five new specialized high schools, one in each borough, with admissions criteria beyond standardized tests.
For the second time, legislators revised laws governing bail for criminal defendants that they had passed just three years ago. Here’s a guide to how they’re changing – again.
More can be done to crack down on crime in the city, even after Albany scaled back controversial bail reforms, Adams said.
As the Assembly finished voting on the annual state budget, the public was left to digest thousands of pages of budget bills debated and passed between Friday evening and mid-morning on Saturday.
The governor won policy measures in the new state budget that are aimed at easing New Yorkers’ concerns over crime and rising prices, but alienated some fellow Democratic lawmakers in the process.
Hochul enacted the budget bill legalizing the sale and delivery of to-go cocktails from bars and restaurants statewide for three years, after which legislators will decide whether to permanently allow them.
Tucked in the state’s $220 billion budget deal reached by Hochul and Albany’s legislative leaders is a provision that will allow liquor stores to open on Christmas.
The newly passed New York state budget includes a major investment in funding for child care: increasing eligibility to child care subsidies for families, and boosting financial support to cash-strapped providers.
The 2022-23 state budget has what environmental activists are calling a mix of victories for items they had pushed for and disappointments for policies or changes they didn’t get.
In response to a Freedom of Information Law request, Hochul’s office provided the Times Union with 161 pages of emails that offer a glimpse of how affluent campaign donors try to leverage that status to land high-level government access.
Brooklyn Councilman Justin Brannan, who suffers from a rare eye condition that’s left him partially blind, is pushing for Adams to earmark $1.4 million in this year’s budget for a program to provide free optometry services to low-income New Yorkers.
A thunderous manhole blast sent panicked crowds in Times Square sprinting for safety last night, but no one was injured in the fracas.
Former NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton said that the wave of violence across the country is giving him flashbacks to high-crime decades of the past — as he lamented the Big Apple’s own surge.
Scores of NYPD officers lied during disciplinary proceedings over the past 10 years, with most getting off scot-free or with a slap on the wrist — and some were even later promoted, according to a new report.
Correction Commissioner Louis Molina’s head of security was drunk behind the wheel in 2020 when she crashed into another car, sending it into a tree on a Long Island highway and then fleeing the scene.
Three months into NYC Council Speaker Adrienne Adams’ tenure, new bills are moving at a glacial pace because of “tech issues” and a shortage of staffers.
Amazon tipped its hand this week on how it plans to try to defeat a successful union vote at its Staten Island warehouse.
The company listed a series of complaints against an upstart union’s organizing efforts. Both Amazon and another union noted objections to another vote in Alabama.
Two Buffalo police officers have been cleared of any wrongdoing after a video surfaced of them pushing over a 75-year-old man during a Black Lives Matter protest in June 2020.
WIVB, an affiliate of Nexstar, reported that Buffalo Police Department (BPD) officers Aaron Torgalski and Robert McCabe won’t face any charges over the incident.
Rockland County Executive Ed Day, whose wedding is set for April 30, will not accept wedding gifts from county contractors.
Police are investigating a shooting at Crossgates Mall yesterday afternoon that resulted in a 17-year-old girl being shot in the hand near the entrance to Best Buy.
U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand was among those attending the play “The True”, which focuses on her grandmother, Polly Noonan, the most trusted aide of longtime Albany Mayor Erastus Corning 2nd, on the stage of Capital Repertory Theatre this past weekend.
Twitter Inc. CEO Parag Agrawal last night said billionaire Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk has decided he won’t join the company’s board of directors
The actor Johnny Depp could not convince a judge in London that he was innocent of allegations that he had abused his former wife, the actress Amber Heard, but in a trial starting today, the actor will take his defamation complaint to a jury in Virginia.
Veteran actor Harry J. Lennix said that Will Smith must return his Oscar in the wake of Smith’s onstage altercation with comedian Chris Rock late last month.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Board of Governors announced on Friday they have placed Smith on a 10-year ban from attending any academy event as a result of his altercation with Rock.
