It’s Friday. WHOOT!
Here’s one that’s going to cause a lot of confusion: It’s National Stewart’s Root Beer Day. But not THAT Stewart’s, our Stewart’s, though they do have a branded root beer.
No, this day celebrates the root beer created by Stewart’s Fountain Classics, which was founded in Mansfield, OH in 1924 by Frank Stewart, who, legend has it, set up his first drive-in root beer stand to supplement his income as a local school teacher.
Stewart’s Fountain Classics, which is known for selling a variety of sodas in glass bottles with twist-off tops, has since been sold several times. It is now owned by Cadbury Schweppes, which bought the brand in 2000, along with Snapple and Mistic Brands, for a whopping $1.45 billion.
Root beer is kind of an acquired taste. I’m not a big fan, myself, being more of a ginger beer sort of girl. But once upon a time, root beer was made from the roots of the sassafras tree, which has since been found to cause serious health issues.
Most notably, it contained safrole, a compound that has carcinogenic effects (at least it does in rats). As a result, the vine was banned by the FDA for commercial food production in 1960.
Apparently, sassafras is also a hallucinogen that’s also known as methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA), more colloquially known as “sass” or “sally”.
Safrole can be used to make MDA, which causes the brain to release more neutrotransmitters that help make you feel, well, high. Some people consider this a gentler form of molly, which is not altogether the case.
Anyway, modern-day root beer is made using sugar, yeast, water and spices (at least the craft version is). It’s not allowed to ferment, and therefore is alcohol-free, unless you’d like it to be otherwise, which is indeed possible.
I’ve seen reports on the interwebs that there are more than 400 kinds of root beer produced today. That seems like a lot, especially since none of it is being consumed by yours truly. Then again, what do I know?
Looks like we’re in for some more showers this morning, and then skies will be partly cloudy in the afternoon. Temperatures will be in the mid-80s. The weekend is looking not too bad, though tomorrow is going to be downright chilly – low 60s? What? Don’t worry, we’ll be back up into the 80s in no time because #upstatesummer.
In the headlines…
In a rare interview, President Joe Biden said Americans are “really, really down” as they grapple with soaring inflation after two years of a pandemic. He told the Associated Press the “need for mental health in America has skyrocketed”.
The White House has faced a slew of departures recently, with several top officials announcing at once that they are moving on after 18 months in the administration as Biden’s job approval rating continues to sink amid consistently poor marks politically.
Biden signed legislation meant to make shipping goods across oceans cheaper — a move the White House says will help lower retailer costs that have remained high since the start of the coronavirus pandemic and helped fuel record inflation.
The bill, known as the Ocean Shipping Reform Act, requires the Federal Maritime Commission to investigate complaints about late fees charged by ocean carriers and terminals. It also bars them from unreasonably refusing cargo space for U.S. shipments.
Top Biden aides are weighing whether he can or should take a series of executive actions to help women in GOP-controlled states obtain abortions if the Supreme Court eliminates a woman’s right to end her pregnancy.
States with so-called abortion trigger laws are dusting off the regulations in preparation for the possible overturning of Roe v. Wade.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden, who is visiting Saudi Arabia next month, believes that the country’s crown prince, Mohammad bin Salman, ordered the 2018 operation that killed Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
Biden’s visit to Saudi Arabia and meeting with its de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is “the equivalent of a presidential pardon for murder”, said Khalid Aljabri, the son of the exiled former senior Saudi intelligence officer Saad Aljabri.
The Jan. 6 committee kicked off its third public hearing with testimony on former President Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election including pressuring Vice President Mike Pence to illegally reject the electoral count ahead of the attack on the Capitol.
The Jan. 6 committee plans to ask Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, to testify after emails surfaced connecting her to pro-Trump legal guru John Eastman.
European leaders pledged support for putting Ukraine on a path to membership in the European Union but did not promise the country additional heavy weapons on the scale it says it needs to repel a bloody Russian advance in the east.
French President Emmanuel Macron promised Ukraine six more truck-mounted artillery guns, the latest in a new round of Western arms pledges as the war grinds on in the Donbas region in the east.
Two Americans fighting alongside Ukrainian forces north of Kharkiv have been missing for nearly a week and there are fears that they may have been captured by Russian forces, according to their families and a fellow fighter.
The EU Commission is expected to recommend today that the embattled nation of Ukraine be granted candidate status, the first formal step in a process that normally lasts longer than a decade.
Biden reportedly told Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken in April to tone down their rhetoric in supporting Ukraine in its war against Russia.
Stocks tumbled, with the S&P 500 falling further into bear market territory, as investors focused on the threat that inflation and higher interest rates pose to the economy.
Initial jobless claims ticked down last week, but were higher than forecast, as investors monitor the labor market for potential signs of a slowdown.
First-time filings for unemployment insurance in the U.S. totaled 229,000 for the week that ended June 11, falling from the prior week’s upwardly revised 232,000, the Department of Labor said.
The U.S. economy is starting to slow under the combined weight of soaring inflation and climbing interest rates—including the highest mortgage rates since 2008.
Senators drafting gun-control legislation are working to overcome sticking points between Republicans and Democrats to stay on track to pass a bill next week.
The California man arrested outside of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s home last week has been formally indicted by a grand jury and faces a new charge that carries a longer potential prison sentence.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor urged an audience of progressive lawyers not to give up on the Supreme Court.
The federal hate-crimes charges filed against the man accused of killing 10 people in a racist massacre in Buffalo point to a broader effort to use existing laws to prosecute cases the Justice Department views as domestic terrorism, law-enforcement officials said.
The Republican senator who had been leading negotiations with the White House over new pandemic relief funding accused the Biden administration of giving him “patently false” information when it said it was out of money for more vaccines and treatments.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis defended his state’s decision not to preorder Covid-19 vaccines for children under 5 years old ahead of federal vaccine regulators’ long-awaited, expected authorization.
Dr. Simone Gold, a Beverly Hills woman known for spreading debunked claims about Covid-19 was sentenced to 60 days in prison for illegally entering and remaining in the US Capitol during the January 6 insurrection.
As hundreds of thousands of people gather in New York City and elsewhere to celebrate Pride this month, city and federal officials, health advocates and party organizers are rushing to disseminate an increasingly urgent health warning about monkeypox.
In the second and final debate in the Democratic primary race, Gov. Kathy Hochul and her two opponents tangled over highly volatile issues, including rising crime, dwindling affordable housing, looming environmental catastrophe, and bagels.
Hochul sustained repeated blows from rivals Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and Rep. Tom Suozzi in the final debate. The governor swung back at her male challengers to her left and right.
Suozzi pressed Hochul on her vote in Congress to defeat a Democrat’s federal amendment to make it harder to bring concealed weapons across state lines. “Please stop interrupting me, the people want to hear my answer,” she said.
Hochul defended her record on guns and touted her accomplishments during her nearly 10 months in office so far. She shot down repeated questions from the Long Island congressman about her past policy positions on guns and favorable rating with the NRA.
Beyond the sharp words, the forum gave viewers the opportunity to see some differences among the candidates on taxes, crime, education curricula, rent control and government spending.
Suozzi was the only candidate to say he would accept the endorsement of disgraced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Suozzi was endorsed by the NY Post.
The Hochul campaign released a new digital ad, “NY Leads,” on the governor’s nation-leading action to keep guns off New York’s streets and save lives.
Hochul signed into law the creation of the New York City Public Housing Preservation Trust.
“This is going to unlock billions — with a B — billions of dollars in federal funding which will allow us to fast track long-overdue repairs and make investments in NYCHA properties throughout the city. That’s what this is about,” Hochul said.
Hochul announced a total of $567 million is available to help low-income electric and gas utility customers pay off past utility bills.
An overwhelming 92% of registered voters said in a new Siena College poll that crime is either a “very serious” or “somewhat serious” problem in New York, while large majorities favor new state laws restricting semi-automatic rifles and bullet-proof vests.
The recent budget vote revealed a fissure within City Council’s Progressive Caucus — a sprawling group containing the budget’s fiercest opponents and the leaders whipping votes for it.
The pandemic led to a quiet revolution in traditional K-12 public education: More than 20,000 children in New York have left public school since the 2019-2020 year and are now taught at home, according to data from the state Education Department.
Since the March 2020 COVID-19 shutdown, New York City’s recovery reached a milestone for the first time, as office occupancy topped 40% in the past week, according to Kastle Back to Work Barometer data.
A New York City subway rider died early yesterday after he got stuck between a Q train he was exiting and the platform and fell into the tracks, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said.
A state judge ruled that Yeshiva, a Modern Orthodox Jewish school, is not a religious institution and so must follow the law and recognize an LGBTQ student club.
Incarcerated lawyer Michael Avenatti pleaded guilty to four counts of wire fraud and a tax-related charge in a federal court case in Southern California accusing him of cheating his clients out of millions of dollars.
Seven preschools are closing in New York by the end of this school year, and the funding policies at the state level may make it very hard for them to be replaced.
A town police officer shot a baby deer in East Greenbush after the fawn appeared to be gravely ill, drawing concerns from some residents that the shooting was unnecessary, the police chief said.
In an hourlong question-and-answer session with Twitter’s 8,000 or so employees — the first time he has spoken with them since he struck a $44 billion deal to buy the social media company in April — Elon Musk opened up about his plans for the service.
The Golden State Warriors won their fourth NBA championship in eight seasons with last night’s 103-90 Game 6 road win over the Boston Celtics.
The league’s commissioner, Adam Silver, wasn’t on hand to see the game because of the NBA’s strict coronavirus health and safety protocols.
A group of six House Democrats from the Washington, D.C., metro area sent a letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, asking him to release the results of an investigation into the Washington Commanders’ workplace culture.
Pilots for Delta Air Lines wrote an open letter to customers, published yesterday, saying the large number of recent flight delays, cancellations and cuts were “unacceptable” and they were “flying a record amount of overtime to help you get to your destination.”
The con artist Anna Sorokin is making her way into the world of non-fungible token (NFT) arts, despite recently facing deportation from a Hudson Valley immigration detention center before being told she would be able to temporarily remain in the country.
