Good Thursday morning. This week is just speeding right along.
Dolphins are probably one of the most loved creatures around, yet they are very misunderstood. Perhaps you thought you knew all you needed to about dolphins from watching “Flipper“? Au contraire.
For example, they are warm-blooded mammals, not fish, which means they need blubber (AKA fat) to keep them warm in the water. Fish, on the other hand, are cold blooded, so they can adjust to different water temperatures.
In fact – and this blew my mind – they evolved from land mammals that had legs were underneath their bodies, and THAT is why their tails move up and down as they swim, whereas a fish’s tail moves from side to side.
RIGHT? Mind. Blown.
Dolphins breathe air and give birth like we do – to live babies, although the gestation period can last from 9 to (gulp!) 16 months. And they nurse their young and then make them a member of their dolphin pods, often for life.
Fish by contrast, lay eggs, and sometimes eat them. But almost always abandon them.
Here’s another one that I didn’t know: Orca are NOT whales, even though they’re commonly referred to as “killer whales”, but rather dolphins – the biggest member of the dolphin family.
Dolphins can live from 20 to 80 years (the bigger ones tend to have longer life spans). Sadly, their lives are often cut short by humans – and no, swimming with them is not, in fact, an activity in which you should engage, no matter how much fun it looks – and many of them are even endangered.
There are currently 36 species of dolphins identified, including 4 species of river dolphins. Of these, approximately 14 are believed to be endangered and 1 is thought to be extinct.
It is, for the record, National Dolphin Day.
It’s going to be another gloriously warm day, with temperatures up near 80 degrees, if you can believe it. Unfortunately, there will also be a chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon and rain through the evening. So get outside early.
In the headlines…
Americans harbor some of the most downbeat views on the economy since the recovery from the Great Recession, and some of their attitudes are in line with those seen only during recessions, according to the latest CNBC All-America Economic Survey.
President Joe Biden’s approval rating stands at 33 per cent among American adults in a Quinnipiac University Poll released yesterday. This is the second time Biden has been rated this low in this particular survey, with the first time occurring in January.
Biden will be in Greensboro, N.C. today.
Biden’s declaration that atrocities underway in Ukraine constitute a “genocide” is not expected to trigger any immediate changes to US policy toward the conflict, US officials familiar with the matter say.
China has repeated calls for calm and refused to be drawn into a debate about possible war crimes in Ukraine after Joe Biden accused Putin and his troops of committing “genocide.”
Biden announced another $800 million in weaponry for Ukraine, following an hour-long phone call with the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The United States is weighing whether to send a high-level official to Ukraine, and is planning to deliver more military equipment, in a show of support to Zelensky ahead of an anticipated new stage of the war.
One of the Russian Navy’s most important warships is either floating abandoned or at the bottom of the Black Sea, a massive blow to a military struggling against Ukrainian resistance 50 days into Vladimir Putin’s invasion of his neighbor.
Two of former President Donald Trump’s top White House lawyers met yesterday with the House committee investigating the Capitol attack, after Trump authorized them to engage with the panel.
Dustin Thompson, an unemployed exterminator from Ohio, was the first defendant tried in the Capitol attack to offer a Trump-made-me-do-it defense before a jury.
Mick Mulvaney, who served as acting White House chief of staff in the Trump administration, said he thought “Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson could give Trump a “run for his money” in the 2024 GOP primary.
Trump’s political operation is plowing cash into Georgia’s Republican gubernatorial primary — his organization’s first major financial investment in a midterm race and an indication that he’s willing to dig into his massive war chest to defeat his foes.
Trump will rally supporters in Ohio later this month amid the state’s chaotic race for the Republican nomination to replace the retiring Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio).
The Biden administration extended the U.S. coronavirus public health emergency, now more than two years old, for another 90 days.
The World Health Organization said Covid-19 remains a global public health emergency despite the fact that deaths from the virus have fallen to their lowest level since the early days of the pandemic.
Hong Kong will ease some social distancing measures later this month, allowing people to dine in at restaurants in the evening and lifting restrictions on private gatherings, as the number of COVID-19 infections declined in recent weeks.
A combination of distancing of six feet, universal mask-wearing, and increased room ventilation are key to controlling COVID-19, a new study found.
When Philadelphia’s health commissioner announced this week that the city’s indoor mask mandate would be reinstated as Covid-19 cases there rise, something unusual happened: Not a single other major U.S. city followed suit.
Despite great pressure from airlines, the hospitality industry and Republican lawmakers to lift the rule requiring masks on planes and other public transportation, the CDC extended the federal transportation mask requirement for two weeks.
The CDC said it was extending the order, which was expire on April 18, until May 3 to allow more time to study the BA.2 omicron subvariant that is now responsible for the vast majority of cases in the U.S.
Singer Barry Manilow announced that he tested positive for COVID-19 — hours before the theater musical he co-wrote was scheduled to make its debut.
Two new sub-variants of BA.2. or the so-called COVID-19 “Stealth Omicron” strain, could be considerably more contagious, say health officials who are reporting a surge in cases in Central New York State, the first such outbreak in the nation.
Central New York’s high Covid-19 rate could be due to yet another coronavirus subvariant tearing through the community, BA2.12, Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon said.
The two subvariants appear to spread rapidly, with a growth advantage of about 25 percent over BA.2, which itself was more contagious than any variant that came before it.
Gov. Kathy Hochul said that she believed Brian Benjamin was “clean” based on the state’s vetting process before she appointed him lieutenant governor last summer, less than eight months before he resigned amid a bribery scandal.
Hochul said she is planning to replace Benjamin, but added that there is still a lot to figure out as she considers who that might be and whether there’s any path to finding a different running mate to put on the ballot this year.
State Sen. Jamaal Bailey (D-Bronx), the head of the Bronx Democratic Party, Assemblywoman Catalina Cruz (D-Queens), and state Sen. Leroy Comrie (D-Queens) are among the names being floated for Hochul to tap for the job after Benjamin resigned.
Hochul’s longtime chief of staff, Jeff Lewis, played a key role in her disastrous decision to name Brian Benjamin as her lieutenant governor and apparently missed major red flags.
Gerald Migdol, a Harlem developer, became the linchpin in a federal investigation that led to the indictment and resignation of the now former lieutenant governor.
Hochul attended an anti-hate crime rally at Queens College and announced nearly $16 million in grants to strengthen safety and security measures at buildings owned or operated by nonprofit organizations at risk of hate crimes or attacks.
Hochul said that she’s supporting doormen, superintendents and other residential building workers if they go on strike, adding: “32BJ, I have your back.”
Hochul rode the NYC subway during Tuesday’s evening rush hour to put commuters at ease after the morning attack on a Brooklyn subway car.
Mayor Eric Adams took a tough tone on crime after a bloody night of shootings across the city, celebrating the arrest of the suspect in the Sunset Park subway shooting, but calling for New Yorkers to meet ongoing violence with righteous indignation.
After 29 hours in which the police combed the streets, scoured surveillance cameras, patrolled subway platforms and sent an alert to phones seeking tips, the man accused of opening fire on a subway Brooklyn was arrested near an East Village McDonald’s.
The suspect, Frank R. James, 62, was taken into custody without a struggle about five miles from the subway station where he is accused of committing one of the worst attacks on New York’s subway system.
James reportedly called Crime Stoppers on himself, and then calmly went for an afternoon stroll through the East Village while he waited for police to come get him.
A Syrian immigrant, a shop owner and an artist are among those who say they played a role in leading the police to James.
Even as James was taken into custody in the early afternoon yesterday, new details about his troubled life began to emerge, including a criminal history in at least two states.
Federal officials charged James with carrying out a terrorist attack on a mass transit system, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court in Brooklyn. If convicted, he could face life in prison. He is expected to appear in court.
Buried in a sea of disturbing videos that James posted on YouTube in recent weeks was a plan. In between bigoted screeds tied to current events, he described an itinerary that would take him on a trip from Milwaukee in late March to the East Coast.
Adams said that social media firms could have flagged worrying behavior from James by alerting law enforcement to his vile online video rants before the terrifying attack.
Of those who were shot, seven were boys or men, ranging in age from 15 to 41. Three were women in their 40s. Several of the victims were initially listed as critically injured, but none of the injuries were considered life-threatening.
The mass subway shooting in Brooklyn put a harsh focus on New York’s continuing battle against crime, and underscored the challenges confronting the mayor. Major crimes have risen 42 percent since he took office in January compared to last year.
A subway security camera system that failed in a Brooklyn station where a gunman committed a mass shooting had been flagged by New York City Transit workers as malfunctioning two days earlier, transit officials said.
Adams slammed Black Lives Matter and anti-police activists after a night of bloodshed across the city that left more than a dozen people shot.
“Where are all those who stated ‘Black Lives Matter’?” a frustrated Adams asked in an interview on NY1. “Do an analysis of who was killed or shot last night. I was up all night speaking to my commanders in the Bronx, in Brooklyn. The victims were Black.”
The NYPD increased security for Adams after complaints about the mayor surfaced on social media in the wake of the subway shooting that wounded 23 commuters.
After Adams entertained the idea of installing metal detectors across the Big Apple’s 472 subway stations, his staff went into clean-up mode.
New York City libraries are taking a stand against an alarming rise in banned books across the nation — by making censored books available to people in the U.S.
New York City officials on today are expected to announce the revival and expansion of the Gifted and Talented program.
The actor Cuba Gooding Jr., who had been accused by more than 20 women of groping or forcibly kissing them in encounters that dated back more than two decades, pleaded guilty in Manhattan to one count of forcible touching.
A provision in the new budget seeks to transform the school transportation sector on an ambitious timeline, requiring all school buses purchased after 2027 to run on electricity and replacing all 50,000 diesel-fueled buses with electric vehicles by 2035.
The Adirondacks and Catskills are slated for $8 million for visitor safety and wilderness protection in the $220 billion state budget legislators passed over the weekend.
State Department of Transportation, Thruway Authority and State Police officials are asking the driving public to put down their cellphones and slow down in work zones.
The tax-delinquent owner of the Central Warehouse in Albany filed paperwork in federal bankruptcy court to allow him to sell the building at auction to the highest bidder.
The notoriously low-slung Glenridge Road Bridge in Glenville was struck again by a tractor-trailer.
Authorities in Menands have lifted a shelter-in-place order requiring residents within a one-mile radius of Midland Farms to shelter in place yesterday afternoon as they investigated an ammonia leak.
June Farms, the event venue and bar with rolling fields, bucolic woodlands and resident animals, is hiring staff members for the season who will also be part of a pilot episode being developed for a potential reality series.
California made public an aggressive plan to mandate a steady increase in the sale of electric and zero-emissions vehicles, the first step in enacting a first-in-the-nation goal of banning new gasoline-powered cars by 2035.
