Good morning, welcome to Friday.
It has been really warm lately. Like summer warm, which makes me hanker for all manner of cool drinks and treats – ice cream, lemonade, fresh fruit.
You know what I’m NOT hankering for? Apple pie.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I love me some apple pie. I like the crumb crust version, and the crust is really all I’m there for, because carbs. But I won’t say no to pretty much any type of apple-related dessert – lattice crust, single crust, crumble, cake, sauce, etc.
But these are all distinctly FALL foodstuffs in my book. Because fall is apple season.
So why National Apple Pie Day falls on May 13, I have no idea. But here we are, and apple pie is reportedly one of America’s top five favorite pies, accounting for 27 percent of the 3.6 million pie sales on Instacart between February 2021 and January 2022.
Oddly, though, New Yorkers favored Boston Cream Pie?!! What’s THAT about? Blech.
Anyway, apple pie has rather inexplicably become synonymous with all thins patriotic, so we’re going with it.
Though apple pie seems like a thoroughly American dish, featuring prominently in holidays like Thanksgiving, it actually has its roots in Europe. The British and the Dutch both made versions long before the colonies were a twinkle in their founders’ eyes.
The first written recipe for apple pie, which also included figs, raisins and pears, appeared in England in the late 1300s. Apparently, there was no sugar in the recipe, but there might also have been cheese involved.
I know quite a few people who still to this day think cheddar cheese and apples – especially apple pie – is a divine combination.
For the record, the sort of apple trees that were the precursor to today’s fruit weren’t native to the U.S. until the European settlers arrived, though there were wild crabapples in North America. A guy named John Chapman, AKA Johnny Appleseed, helped fix that.
Maybe it’s a little too warm for apple pie. We’re going to have a few more 80-plus degree days until we head back down to the 70s and 60s next week. But you know what goes well with apple pie – besides cheddar cheese, that is – ICE CREAM. And if you indulge in your pie a la mode, as it’s known, you’re eating a little piece of upstate New York history. Bonus.
In the headlines…
President Joe Biden marked the “tragic milestone” of 1 million American lives lost to COVID-19, calling each death an “irreplaceable loss,” directing flags on government buildings be flown at half-staff for five days.
“One million empty chairs around the dinner table,” Biden said in a statement. “Each leaving behind a family, a community, and a nation forever changed because of this pandemic. Jill and I pray for each of them.”
Covid-19 cases are surging yet again in the United States, but unlike previous waves, a substantial rise in hospitalizations and deaths isn’t following yet.
Biden and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul renewed calls for Americans to stay diligent in protecting themselves and others against spreading the virus with new infections on the upswing.
Six people have died and 350,000 have been treated for a fever that has spread “explosively” across North Korea, state media said today, a day after acknowledging a COVID-19 outbreak for the first time in the pandemic.
Along with Eritrea, North Korea is one of two countries without COVID vaccines.
Biden is seeking to bolster the U.S. role in the world-wide fight against Covid-19, pledging to share vaccine patents and urging world leaders to redouble their efforts to thwart the virus.
The United States has no current plans to share vaccines with North Korea, a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council said, after Pyongyang reported its first COVID-19 outbreak.
The first factory in Africa licensed to produce Covid-19 vaccines for the African market has not received a single order and may shut down that production line within weeks if the situation doesn’t change, according to executives of Aspen Pharmacare.
A public outcry at perceived efforts from China to stop people from leaving the country has erupted, reflecting growing unhappiness over the government’s punishing lockdowns and strict measures to fight Covid.
Biden warned Democratic donors at a Chicago fundraiser that decades-high inflation will “scare the living hell out of everybody” as the party faces the prospect of big defeats in November’s midterm elections.
Biden kicked off the first-ever Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit to be held in Washington as his administration makes an extended effort to demonstrate that the US has not lost focus on the Pacific even while dealing with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Biden is looking to nudge southeast Asian leaders to be more outspoken about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but the issue continues to be a delicate one for many members of the region’s 10-country alliance with deep ties to Moscow.
The president will meet today with mayors, police chiefs and local public officials to discuss how cities are using funds from the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package on policing and public safety programs.
The Biden administration is working to address a worsening nationwide shortage of infant formula, announcing efforts to speed manufacturing and increase imports as pressure mounted to respond to the crisis.
Baby-formula manufacturers and retailers say they are working to address a long-running shortage in products on store shelves, but the hardships facing U.S. families may take months to abate.
Bitcoin fell below $26,000 for the first time in 16 months, amid a broader sell-off in cryptocurrencies that erased more than $200 billion from the entire market in a single day.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk took shots at the current president and his predecessor, saying Biden won the 2020 election because people “wanted less drama” and that the billionaire prefers someone “less divisive” than former President Donald Trump.
Twitter is pausing hiring and looking to cut costs as the social-media company in the midst of a $44 billion takeover by Musk grapples with disruptions in the digital advertising market from global economic turmoil and the war in Ukraine.
Federal prosecutors have begun a grand jury investigation into whether classified White House documents that ended up at Trump’s Florida home were mishandled, according to two people briefed on the matter.
Former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper agreed with an interviewer that Trump posed “a threat to democracy.” Other former administration officials have expressed similar concerns.
The House committee investigating the attack on the U.S. Capitol issued five subpoenas for members of Congress, including House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy, marking the first time it has tried to compel testimony from fellow lawmakers.
The country’s largest meatpackers successfully lobbied the Trump administration in the early months of the coronavirus pandemic to keep processing plants open despite knowing the health risks to their workers, according to a new congressional report.
Moscow is withdrawing forces from around Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, where it was losing ground, Ukrainian and Western officials said, in one of Russia’s biggest setbacks since its retreat from Kyiv last month.
GOP Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky single-handedly delayed a bipartisan effort to quickly send $40 billion in aid to Ukraine, which Congress had tried to fast-track amid the escalating brutality of Russia’s war.
Finland’s president and prime minister said they supported the country’s applying for NATO membership, making it all but certain that the Nordic nation will join the alliance in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Ukraine warns that the Russians are stealing Ukrainian grain, and any country who buys the stolen grain from Russia is considered to be “complicit in the crime.” It warned of legal consequences for those involved in the transportation and sales of the stolen grain.
The progressive wing of the Democratic Party appeared to be flagging until a draft Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade leaked — and shook the political world.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell defended the U.S. Supreme Court’s potential move to issue rulings that are in conflict with a majority of Americans’ views on abortion rights, saying that is a feature of the system.
Protests outside the homes of several justices have sparked another searing debate about appropriate forms of protest at a moment of enormous upheaval in a deeply polarized country.
Republicans in Congress and governors’ mansions are calling on Attorney General Merrick Garland to enforce a 1950 federal law that makes it illegal to hold protests outside the homes of judges in order to influence their decisions.
Most abortions overseas involve pills, and the method is used in about half of legal U.S. abortions. It also seems to be the future of illicit abortion.
The possibility that a constitutional right to abortion may cease to exist has given rise to a new set of questions about whether states can legally and logistically stop residents from getting and taking the pills, which are federally approved.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., along with seven of her colleagues, wrote a letter to the U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, seeking policy implemented that grants service members the ability to cross state lines if they are seeking an abortion.
The sponsor of a bill that would have subjected Louisiana women to murder charges for having abortions abruptly pulled the proposal from debate after House members voted 65-26 to totally revamp the legislation, eliminating the criminal penalties.
Hochul announced resources for New York families amid a nationwide infant formula shortage caused by a massive recall of certain powdered infant formula products from Abbott Nutrition’s Sturgis.
“I urge every parent and guardian to take advantage of these resources and keep up to date with important information to take care of their families,” Hochul said.
Hochul this week picked up a pair of union endorsements in her campaign for a full term, giving her the clear lion’s share of the nods from labor in the crowded gubernatorial field this year.
A January trial date was set for former New York Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin to face charges that he traded his clout as a state senator for campaign contributions.
Rep. Tom Reed’s abrupt resignation from Congress ensures there will be a special election to fill the Corning Republican’s 23rd Congressional District seat later this year, probably in late July or early August.
Rep. Antonio Delgado is expected to be sworn in as lieutenant governor shortly — but the exact date of when he resigns from Congress and assumes the new position remains unknown, and is holding up a series of election-related events.
With national Republicans voicing optimism about their chances of gaining the majority in Congress, the battle for Delgado’s House swing district is expected to garner national attention and draw millions of dollars in campaign donations.
State lawmakers are set to break for the year in less than a month, with the last scheduled session day on the calendar for June 2. And like most years, they still have a fair amount of work to get done with just a handful of days to do it.
State Attorney General Letitia James sued three school bus companies for allowing their vehicles to idle longer than city and state laws permit — and suggested similar legal battles may soon be on the horizon.
Summer electricity prices (and therefore air conditioning costs) are expected to rise 12 percent this summer, according to the state Public Service Commission.
Mayor Eric Adams announced the details of a plan to turn around a literacy crisis in New York City and, in particular, to serve thousands of children in public schools who may have dyslexia.
The issue is deeply personal to the mayor, who has said his own undiagnosed dyslexia hurt his academic career.
Adams is “very concerned” about the possible reversal of a state ban prohibiting New Yorkers from openly carrying loaded firearms on city streets, especially as the Big Apple has been struggling to combat a surge in gun violence.
“After what we saw the Supreme Court did on abortion, we should be very afraid,” Adams said. “In densely populated communities like New York, this ruling could have a major impact on us. We are now looking with our legal experts to see what we can do.”
Amid New York’s spike in major crime, so many guns flood the streets that police seize more and more of them — and bust more people on gun possession charges, new NYPD data shows.
Eric Adams created a task force to address the current staffing issues and dangerous conditions at Rikers Island.
The Bronx shooter whose death in a gunfight with police sparked mayoral outrage was a troubled young father struggling to find help for his mental illness, court papers and friends indicated.
Adams said he is looking into reforming the police disciplinary process, saying the current one is too cumbersome.
A new group, backed by a billionaire hedge fund manager, is seeking to counter the BDS movement by creating a political action network to support candidates in state legislative and local races who embrace Israel, and oppose candidates who do not.
An off-the-rails trip to Albany last week by city Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez put at risk the city’s push to run red light and speed cameras around the clock, according to DOT sources and lawmakers with knowledge of his meetings.
A lower Manhattan community group that sued New York City over a rezone of SoHo and NoHo, arguing it would displace locals, fumed after the city slammed the complaint as a baseless bid to halt a much-needed expansion of housing.
“Star Trek” actor George Takei expects New York City’s first-ever Japan Parade to be out of this world. He’s the inaugural grand marshal of the event taking place tomorrow.
As Cambridge residents continue to wait for a judicial decision on the school’s “Indian” mascot, a local diner has canceled an event that was criticized as being disrespectful to Indigenous people.
As we get further from the depths of the COVID-19 epidemic, shoppers are emerging from their homes and heading back to stores, and Crossgates Mall will be expanding its Friday-to-Sunday hours.
As COVID-19 cases rise and government mandates have ended, Capital Region colleges are taking myriad approaches to address student and family safety during upcoming graduation ceremonies.
Crews are working in South Troy north of the Menands Bridge on a $35 million, multiyear project to clean up polluted soil on the property of the long-closed Troy Water Street Manufactured Gas Plant, state and city officials said.
Ashley Judd said her mother, Grammy-winning country singer Naomi Judd, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at her home in Tennessee, and encouraged people who are distressed to seek help.
