Good Wednesday morning!
Sometimes the most seemingly innocuous and innocent things can actually be quite deadly. In fact, it is their supposedly mundane nature that lulls you into a false sense of security until one day…WHAM! They got you.
Take, for example, your outdoor deck.
Yeah, you read that right. A deck is supposed to be a safe place, a place to relax and unwind, to kick back with friends with a drink or a snack and enjoy the great outdoors while still having access to life’s luxuries – the bathroom, for example, and the refrigerator.
When people were stuck at home during the height of the pandemic, locked inside with nothing to do, a lot of them turned to home improvement projects in oder to make their forced downtime a little more enjoyable – and to maximize their living space so as not to be tripping over their family members.
Reportedly, that included a threefold increase in the number of decks built. And since I assume those decks are still in-tact (even if you had to wait a while to get someone in to build it, due to high demand, unless you’re a do-it-yourself type), this post is definitely germane – not to mention timely, since it’s nice enough out to entertain and relax and even work outdoors.
It turns out, however, that your deck can be quite deadly – with problems running the gamut from wood rot to stair and railing failure. There are also infestations to consider – termites, ants, paper wasps, spiders, and carpenter bees, just to name a few.
Some casual Googling led me to a site (advertising structural engineering services, so take it with a grain of salt) that quoted “most experts” as agreeing that it’s likely a fair number of the estimated 60 million decks across the nation (50 million residential and 10 million commercial, all told, in case you were curious) are right at this very moment unsafe and unsound.
The site also provided some helpful photos of what to look for when trying to determine whether stepping outside – much less setting up the outdoor dining set – is actually a good idea as you prepare for the upcoming Memorial Day weekend.
In case you hadn’t yet caught on, May is National Deck Safety Month, and with just a few days remaining until June, there’s still time for you to get out there and inspect the supporting beams and foundations before things take a tragic turn for the worse.
This month was the brainchild of the North American Deck and Railing Association, (there really is a trade association for everything, isn’t there), which reminds me to remind you that the average lifespan of a deck is 15 to 20 years – even if it was build from the highest possible quality materials.
It’s won’t be too bad of a day for spending time on the deck – assuming you have checked to make sure it is indeed sound and secure – with temperatures forecast in the mid-to-high 70s and cloudy to partly-cloudy skies.
In the headlines…
With the U.S. still reeling from the mass shooting at a Buffalo grocery store not even two weeks ago, President Joe Biden addressed Americans in the terrible wake of yesterday’s shooting at a Texas elementary school that left 19 children and two adults dead.
A clearly emotional Biden spoke from the White House Roosevelt Room about an hour after arriving back from a five-day trip to Asia and about two hours after ordering, from Air Force One, that the flag flying above the White House be lowered to half-staff.
“I am sick and tired of it,” Biden said in a televised address to the nation. “We have to act.”
“Where in God’s name is our backbone?” Biden asked, lashing out gun manufacturers whom he blamed for preventing the passage of gun laws that polling suggests most Americans support. “It’s time to turn this pain into action.”
The Texas massacre is the second-deadliest school shooting an elementary, middle or high school on record in the United States. (Twenty-six people – 20 of them small children – died in the Newtown, CT shooting).
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said that the gunman, Salvador Ramos, 18, a student at Uvalde High School, is dead. Authorities say he shot his grandmother before heading to the school. She was listed in critical condition late yesterday.
Texas has long had some of the least-restrictive gun laws in the United States, priding itself as a state with responsible gun owners — more than a million — even with its recent history of mass shootings.
Abbott signed a wide-ranging law in 2021 that ended the requirement for Texans to obtain a license to carry handguns, allowing virtually anyone over the age of 21 to carry one.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer moved to clear the way to force votes in coming days on legislation that would strengthen background checks for gun purchasers, pushing to revive measures with broad appeal that Republicans have blocked in the past.
Biden today is expected to issue an executive order aimed at overhauling policing on the second anniversary of the murder of George Floyd, who died after being handcuffed and pinned to the ground by a Minneapolis police officer.
The wide-ranging order builds on Justice Department policies that limit federal officers’ ability to use force.
The fighting in Ukraine is coalescing around the heart of the Donbas region in the east, with the most critical battles involving a 75-mile-wide swath that includes three cities.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukrainian troops were facing an increasingly dire situation in the Donbas region, calling the situation on the ground in a cluster of towns around Sievierodonetsk “extremely difficult.”
Workers digging through the rubble of an apartment building in Mariupol found 200 bodies in the basement, Ukrainian authorities said, as more horrors come to light in the ruined city that has seen some of the worst suffering of the three-month-old war.
Ukrainian prosecutors identified eight Russian service members and mercenaries they said were responsible for the killing of a village mayor, her husband and son, who were discovered partly buried in a shallow grave at the end of March.
A staggering 83% of Americans think the U.S. has gone off the rails amid record high inflation, shortages of baby formula, sky-high gas prices and mass shootings, a new survey reveals.
The birthrate in the United States increased slightly last year, ending what had been a consistent decline since 2014, the federal government reported.
Another form of the Omicron subvariant BA.2 has become the dominant version among new U.S. coronavirus cases, according to federal estimates, a development that experts had forecast over the last few weeks.
One in five adult Covid survivors under the age of 65 in the United States has experienced at least one health condition that could be considered long Covid, according to a large new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
For those ages 65 and up, the chances of having a post-COVID complication are greater at 25%.
The devastating neurological effects of long Covid can persist for more than a year, research published yesterday finds — even as other symptoms abate.
Pfizer will sell nearly two dozen of its patent-protected drugs and vaccines at not-for-profit prices to some of the world’s poorest countries.
A COVID-19 surge is underway that is starting to cause disruptions as the school year wraps up and Americans prepare for summer vacations. Many people, though, have returned to their pre-pandemic routines and plans, which often involve travel.
Sweden is recommending a fifth COVID-19 vaccine dose for people with an increased risk of becoming seriously ill, including pregnant women and anyone aged 65 and over to prepare the country for the coming autumn and winter seasons.
New York has fully reopened after the strict restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic — but migration from the Empire State to Florida has accelerated this year, according to new data.
Efforts by financial firms and others to bring workers back to Manhattan offices more than two years after the start of the coronavirus pandemic face persistent headwinds, consultants said, with commuters still worrying about COVID-19 as well as safety.
Two civic leaders – Robin Hood CEO Richard Buery and Bloomberg administration veteran Dan Doctoroff – will head a commission to help the Big Apple recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul announced.
Hochul says she wants an independent investigation into the state’s response to the COVID pandemic.
Hochul said that she is confident lawmakers will take action on abortion rights and gun laws before the legislative session comes to a close next week.
Hochul told reporters she’ll stay as long as necessary in Albany and “won’t mind pushing any deadline” to get things done.
Hochul appeared to throw state and federal Democratic lawmakers under the bus when asked if she had any regrets about the botched effort at gerrymandering election districts that were tossed out by the courts after she OK’d them.
The governor acknowledged that one of the state’s largest and most controversial affordable housing programs – 421-a – will likely lapse next month, potentially playing havoc on new construction in the Big Apple as rents soar across the city.
Adult abuse survivors will be able to sue their assailants for decades-old attacks under the Adult Survivors Act, bipartisan legislation signed into law by Hochul yesterday.
The governor delivered the rebuttal at the revived LCA show last night.
A 25-year-old man sought by the New York police in the shooting death of a subway rider over the weekend was taken into custody at a precinct in Chinatown yesterday afternoon.
Andrew Abdullah, the suspect, had been wanted in connection with the killing of Daniel Enriquez, a passenger who was fatally shot Sunday while riding a northbound Q train.
Abdullah, 25, was hit with second-degree murder and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon in the 11:42 a.m. shooting.
Abdullah has had several previous run-ins with police in Brooklyn and Manhattan. In 2017, he was arrested along with a dozen gang members for his alleged involvement in a string of shootings and robberies in Harlem, according the Manhattan DA.
The Brooklyn pastor who made a failed attempt at arranging the alleged Q-train shooter’s surrender is an ex-convict with ties to Adams, who the controversial clergyman claimed to have spoken to while the suspect was on the loose.
The subway shooting has led to a shockwave of fear among workers on the fence about returning to their jobs in person, but Adams suggested that the same level of trepidation has been in the air on city subways since last year.
A who’s who of New York’s business elite will be attending an emergency meeting tomorrow sponsored by Gotham’s largest business group and Adams to address the city’s crime problem and its impact on people who work there.
Adams is delayed in releasing his plan to address New York City’s affordable housing crisis and under pressure from advocates and the City Council to act as rents steadily rise.
Adams’ pick for sheriff, Anthony Miranda, faces questions over campaign finance irregularities dating back to his City Council race last year.
Adams and several top officials predicted above-normal hurricane activity in the coming months and warned New Yorkers to start making evacuation plans in case a storm hits their neighborhood hard.
A veteran Harlem lawmaker, Assemblywoman Inez Dickens, blasted Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for backing her rival in the Democratic primary and vowed that the socialist firebrand’s “defund the police” agenda will be roundly rejected.
Even as she acknowledged that “people are dying” in New York City’s troubled jails, a federal judge refrained from stripping control of Rikers Island from local officials, ordering the city to revise its plan for addressing violence and disorder at the compound.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Powell said the city’s plan to address staffing dysfunction and mismanagement lacks key specifics about how exactly those problems will be handled.
Over and over again in 2021 and 2022, hundreds of city correction officers home from work under their agency’s liberal sick leave policy have played cat-and-mouse with investigators trying to verify they follow rules requiring they remain in their residences.
The New York state Department of Education is canceling this year’s new Regents exam for U.S. history and government over the concern of worsening student trauma the recent mass shooting in Buffalo that left 10 people dead and three injured.
Two Sullivan County farms that produce virtually all of the foie gras in the nation sued New York City this week over its ban on the sale of the delicacy within city limits, due to take effect in November.
A group of so-called “legacy” cannabis sellers have formed a coalition in hopes of having state officials take the underground industry seriously — not just casting them as the victims of heavy-handed drug enforcement practices.
The state AG’s office filed a lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany over the alleged mismanagement of a depleted pension fund that wiped out retirement plans for more than 1,100 employees of the now-closed St. Clare’s Hospital in Schenectady.
Andrea Nicolay, the director of libraries in Arlington, Mass., was unanimously appointed the Albany Public Library’s new executive director last night.
A Louisiana fort should be renamed for Albany World War I hero Henry Johnson, according to an independent commission that recommended new names for Army posts that commemorate Confederate officers.
Albany Law School Dean and President Alicia Ouellette will leave her post at the end of her contract in June 2023, with plans to return as a full-time law professor after a sabbatical.
The Firefighters Association of the State of New York unveiled a new $2 million facade at its Washington Avenue headquarters in Albany.
Despite the shutdown of Gaffney’s, the nightclub that Saratoga Springs police identified as a prime source of Caroline Street violence, the fights in the early morning hours outside the bars on the block continue to erupt.
Former President Donald Trump will host another big-ticket fundraiser for House GOP Conference Chair, Rep. Elise Stefanik next month at his Westchester golf course.
A U.S. district judge in Manhattan halted the upcoming sale of a blue-and-white dress worn by Judy Garland’s Dorothy in the 1939 fantasy film, “Wizard of Oz,” responding to a recent lawsuit involving the movie prop.
