Good morning. It’s Monday.
I heard a surprising – to me, anyway – fact over the weekend.
Though the numbers are perhaps not as high as previously thought, a fair number of adults in this country are lactose intolerant – about 12 percent, though the number is considerably higher, close to 20 percent, for African Americans.
Before the study linked above, the most frequently cited numbers I could find indicated that anywhere from 30 to 50 million adults in the U.S. have a problem digesting the carbohydrate in milk (AKA milk sugar) because they lack a sufficient amount of the enzyme lactase to do so.
And the the incidence is far higher among Asian Americans, African Americans (as mentioned earlier), and Native Americans.
Undigested lactose can cause gas, diarrhea, and nausea as the body attempts to break it down and fails to do so. If you are lactose intolerant, you may notice those symptoms after consuming dairy, as well as cramps and bloating.
Apparently, the numbers are also higher (60 to 80 percent) for Ashkenazi Jews, of which I am one. And those poses a particular challenge when the holiday of Shavout comes around, as it did this past June 4, which celebrates the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai as well as the summer grain harvest.
It’s traditional to celebrate this holiday by consuming dairy treats, which poses a problem for all those folks who, as noted above, might be made pretty darn uncomfortable by doing so.
You might be wondering why I’m going down this particular rabbit hole. Well, June is National Dairy Month, which was originally established in 1937 to encourage Americans to consume more dairy products when production was at a high.
Of course, we know that’s definitely NOT the case now, as the price of everything seems to be rising at an alarming rate – the fastest in 13 years when it comes to groceries – and that includes milk.
The USDA recently reduced the outlook for milk production estimates, due to slower growth in per cow output than expected, and that means prices will continue to go up.
Overall, milk consumption is down considerably in the U.S. – 42 percent less than what it was half a century ago. But New York’s dairy industry remains significant, with close to 4,000 farms producing more than 15 billion pounds of milk annually. We are, in fact, the fourth largest dairy state in the country.
This overall drop in dairy consumption might be in part attributable to the popularity of non-dairy milk products like almond, hemp, hazelnut, oat, and coconut milk. I myself haven’t actually had any real milk in my coffee in I can’t tell you how long, though I do continue to consume moderate amounts of cheese, yogurt, and the extremely occasional ice cream.
When I do indulge, I usually do it during the summer months at one of the innumerable soft serve locales scattered across the region. After all, this IS upstate.
We’re heading into a spate of warmer weather, which is all the more reason to get your soft serve on. Today will be in the low 80s, with mostly sunny skies. While it’s definitely warm here, it’s nowhere near as hot as it is elsewhere in the U.S., where heat advisories and excessive heat warnings were in effect for more than 75 million people yesterday.
In the headlines…
Senate negotiators announced they had struck a bipartisan deal on a narrow set of gun safety measures with sufficient support to move through the evenly divided chamber, a significant step toward ending a years long congressional impasse on the issue.
Notably, the announcement includes the support of 10 Republican senators, which would give the proposal enough support to overcome the Senate filibuster. The actual legislative text is not yet written.
The emerging package is anchored around extra scrutiny for gun buyers under the age of 21, grants to states to implement so-called red flag laws and new spending on mental health treatment and school security.
Notably, the agreement doesn’t include a provision that would expand background checks for all firearm sales or transfers in the country. Also left out is a federal ban on military-style assault weapons.
President Joe Biden said he would sign the gun deal into law and hopes it reaches his desk soon.
In Uvalde, Buffalo and Orlando, some residents see progress in the emerging gun control deal but lament that there hasn’t been more.
In interviews, dozens of frustrated Democratic officials, members of Congress and voters expressed doubts about the president’s ability to rescue his reeling party and take the fight to Republicans in 2024.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez refused to say whether she would endorse Biden in 2024, furthering speculation over whether the president could face internal opposition for a second term.
“I think we should endorse when we get to it,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “But I believe that the president has been doing a very good job so far. And should he run again, I think that we will take a look at it.”
Sixteen states and Puerto Rico have been invited to move forward with their applications to hold early Democratic Party presidential nominating contests in 2024, a Democratic National Committee official said. New York didn’t make the cut.
Vice President Harris criticized Republican-led states that have passed dozens of laws targeting LGBTQ youth during a speech at a Capital Pride Festival in D.C.
Thousands of people rallied in the nation’s capital and around the country Saturday to advocate for stricter gun control laws after a recent spate of mass shootings, including in Uvalde, Texas and Buffalo.
Hundreds of outraged New Yorkers joined the national “March for Our Lives” protest, calling once more for Congress to take action. “No more silence, end gun violence!” the crowd chanted as they crossed the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan.
Former WNY Rep. Chris Jacobs, who abandoned his reelection bid in a clash with fellow Republicans over gun control, criticized the nation’s polarized political climate as harmful to democracy, in what has become a familiar refrain from centrist GOP lawmakers.
The second of several upcoming hearings by the House committee investigating the attack on the Capitol will be held this morning.
There are around 1.6 million transgender people in the U.S., ages 13 and up, and about 43% of them are between the ages of 13 and 24, according to a new report.
The leaders of France, Germany and Italy plan to meet with Ukrainian President Zelensky in Kyiv this week, as reports showed Russia making gains in the country’s east and Ukrainian officials sought arms from Western nations to hold Russian forces at bay.
Russia is steadily gaining ground in the war in Ukraine thanks to its overwhelming advantage in firepower. As the U.S. and allies gather Wednesday, Ukraine’s fate will largely depend on how fast and in what quantities more heavy weapons arrive.
The U.S. will lift a requirement that international travelers flying into the U.S. receive negative coronavirus test results within a day before lift off – a pandemic landmark reached after global COVID case counts fell sharply this spring.
Three doses of the Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE were effective at preventing symptomatic disease in children ages 6 months through 4 years in studies, according to U.S. health regulators.
The agency’s evaluation was posted online ahead of Wednesday’s meeting of outside vaccine experts, summoned to recommend how the F.D.A. should rule on applications from both Pfizer and Moderna on vaccinating the nation’s youngest children.
Officials at the CDC pushed back against the idea that the monkeypox virus can spread through the air, saying the virus is usually transmitted through direct physical contact with sores or contaminated materials from a patient.
Long Island now leads the state in its COVID-19 positivity rate.
A Manhattan appellate court ruled Friday that Democart-drawn state Assembly maps are unconstitutional and should be redrawn — just not this year.
While the five-judge panel unanimously found that the Assembly boundaries are unconstitutional and must be replaced, it also determined it’s too late to push back the June 28 primary.
Spokespeople for Gov. Kathy Hochul and the state Board of Elections, who are among the defendants in the case, said separately that they are reviewing the decision. The ruling means that a lower court has broad leeway to redraw the Assembly map.
New legislation passed in the state Senate and Assembly would help two municipalities and a school district impacted by the closing of the Indian Point nuclear power plant cope with the loss of tax revenue once they are signed by Hochul.
A group of New York City parents made an eleventh-hour plea for Hochul to veto a mayoral control bill and a law shrinking public school class sizes that have both passed the state legislature.
Hochul promised answers after a report found the New York State Department of Labor missed millions of unemployment calls from people trying to claim benefits, many of whom lost jobs due to COVID-19 impacts.
Hochul delivered remarks at the Puerto Rican Day Parade breakfast.
The New York Times endorsed Hochul in the June 28 Democratic primary, and published a transcript of the editorial board’s interview with her.
The New York Post, meanwhile, called on New Yorkers to “fire” Hochul if she refuses to remove Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg from office, which is something former NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly does not believe she’ll do.
The incendiary congressional candidacy of Carl Paladino has divided New York Republicans and now threatens to shake up party leadership.
Paladino says he plans to spend whatever it takes to capture a Western New York Congressional seat this year, even as scandals continue to swirl around his nascent campaign.
Manhattan businessman Marc Cenedella has dropped out of the race for the NY-23 seat, meaning Republicans in southern and eastern Erie County and the Southern Tier will likely choose between Paladino and State GOP Chair Nick Langworthy on Aug. 23.
Langworthy claimed that Rep. Elise Stefanik is backing Paladino as part of a “vendetta” after the state GOP declined to back her potential bid to challenge Hochul in 2022 and, instead supported Long Island Rep. Lee Zeldin.
Republican New York gubernatorial candidate Andrew Giuliani will have to participate in tonight’s primary debate virtually due to refusing to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
“I chose very clearly that I was not going to get the shot,” said Mr. Giuliani, 36, in an impromptu news conference yesterday outside CBS headquarters in Manhattan, saying he had “looked at the data” on the vaccination and decided against it.
Giuliani preceded his news conference by releasing a letter he sent to WCBS, arguing their policy was “arbitrary” and “serves to discriminate against a political candidate and their access to equal opportunity and religious liberty.”
Giuliani’s bid to win the Republican primary for governor of New York has not drawn many donors, but it has drawn fans of Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor.
Mayor Eric Adams and the New York City Council agreed on a $101 billion budget that they said would cushion the blow of the pandemic on the most vulnerable New Yorkers.
Among other things, the budget deal, which is three weeks early, excludes Adams’s proposals to significantly increase staffing levels at the city’s jails and slightly increase the Police Department’s budget.
The budget funds everything from schools to street redesigns, and includes a record high amount of reserves, as the city’s economy continues to grow out of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Even as Adams has struggled to address a series of pressing challenges in New York, he has launched an unusually early fund-raising blitz to secure a second term, a feat that no Black mayor of New York City has achieved.
Two fatal shootings and the stabbing murder of a Harlem woman kicked off a bloody weekend across the city as cops begin to gain some ground on the war to reduce gun violence, NYPD officials said Saturday.
Adams insisted that there’s no “one-bullet” solution to reducing the city’s rising gun violence, laying blame at radicals on both sides of the political aisle for the shootings surge.
Hoax shooting threats have been aimed at more than a dozen New York City schools over the last four months, and at least nine other schools nationwide, possibly made by someone overseas.
More than 1,500 NYPD officers have either resigned or retired so far this year – on pace to be the biggest exodus of officers since the statistics have been available.
City Councilman Shaun Abreu plans to introduce a new bill this week that would require the NYPD and the mayor’s office to publicly identify the locations and details of firearms seizures, including information on the dealers who sell guns and where they operate.
Adams was booed and jeered at a Brooklyn Pride parade Saturday night, as many in the city’s gay community continue to take issue with his appointments of ministers with histories of homophobic remarks.
For the second time this spring, a New York City institution is facing a backlash over a conservative Jewish conference, long in the planning, because of one of its featured speakers: Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida.
A new study conducted by a nonprofit called Out Leadership detailed what states are most inclusive for the LGBTQ+ Community. New York ranks No. 1.
State Police are investigating after they said a speeding motorcyclist careened off Route 9 and crashed into a group of pedestrians near Lake George Expedition Park, killing a 38-year-old and an 8-year-old.
The City of Troy continues to be down a council member following the abrupt decision to withdraw a resolution that would have replaced a former lawmaker who pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges last week.
The Pride Center of the Capital Region hosted the Capital Pride Parade and Festival yesterday, which was held in Washington Park, for the first time since the start of the pandemic.
Also back: Art on Lark.
The Albany Coliseum on South Pearl Street has a new owner: the Community Loan Fund of the Capital Region. The nonprofit said it has plans to convert the building into a “low-dollar, loss-protected investment opportunity” for South End residents.
Bethlehem Public Library is one of the latest libraries in the Capital Region to eliminate fines for overdue books and media.
“A Strange Loop,” a scalding story about a gay, Black theater artist confronting self-doubt and societal disapproval, won the Tony Award for best new musical, giving another huge accolade to a challenging contemporary production that has a Pulitzer Prize.
With a win for “A Strange Loop” in the best new musical category, Jennifer Hudson, one of the show’s co-producers, joins a select group of people who have won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony.
Mo Donegal won and filly Nest was second, giving trainer Todd Pletcher a 1-2 finish at the Belmont Stakes on Saturday for his sixth victory in a Triple Crown race.
An Australian newspaper denied outing actress Rebel Wilson after giving her two days to comment on her new relationship with designer Ramona Agruma.
Country music star Toby Keith announced that he has been undergoing treatment for stomach cancer since last fall.
