Good Thursday morning.

We’re already well into National PTSD Awareness Month, in case you were, well, unaware. The purpose is to bring attention to a complex disorder that is caused by experiencing or witnessing trauma, such as a natural disaster, war, assault, accident, etc.

To be clear, and this was a learning for me, PTS and PTSD are NOT, in fact, interchangeable.

The former is a is a common, normal, and often adaptive response to experiencing a traumatic or stressful event – from something as mundane as a car accident to a more unusual occurrence like a kidnapping.

Almost everyone who experiences a scary situation will show at least a few signs of PTS – racing heart, shaking and/or sweaty hands, feelings of fear and nervousness. These symptoms can be very intense in the moment, but typically subside within a few days and do not cause meaningful and prolonged disruptions in an individual’s life.

PTSD, on the other hand, is a clinically-diagnosed condition that some people develop and others do not – even if they are exposed to the same traumatic situations. Common symptoms include:

  • Reliving a traumatic event through flashbacks, nightmares, or constantly thinking about it.
  • Being easily startled or frightened.
  • Always being on guard for danger.
  • Self-destructive behavior, such as drinking too much or driving too fast.
  • Trouble sleeping.
  • Trouble concentrating.
  • Irritability, angry outbursts or aggressive behavior; feeling consistently jittery or on edge.
  • Overwhelming guilt or shame.

Some of these symptoms are the same as, or similar to, what one might experience with PTS. The difference is duration and intensity. If you experience symptoms for longer than a month OR if they interfere with daily life, then you should consider seeking help from a professional.

There are medications that can be used to treat PTSD, and there’s also therapy – exposure therapy and talk therapy and cognitive processing therapy have all be shown to be successful, depending on the individual.

Though humans have been experiencing stress and trauma since pretty much the beginning of our time on the planet, the term “post-traumatic stress disorder” became part of the lexicon in the 1970s in large part due to the diagnoses of Vietnam veterans.

It was not officially recognized by the American Psychiatric Association until 1980 in the third edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III).

Thanks to the global coronavirus pandemic, which subjected – and continues to subject – the entire human race to unusual degrees of stress and restriction, depending on where you live, there’s now something known as post-COVID stress disorder.

If your mood is dependent on the weather, I’m sorry to say that today isn’t looking so hot. We’ll have thunderstorms in the morning, giving way to scattered thunderstorms in the afternoon, and temperatures will be in he low 70s.

In the headlines…

The House endorsed some of the most aggressive gun-control measures taken up on Capitol Hill in years — including raising the minimum age for the purchase of most semiautomatic rifles to 21 and banning high-capacity ammunition magazines.

The 223-to-204 vote took place just hours after a House committee heard searing testimony from a young survivor of the Uvalde shooting as well as the parents of a victim and a pediatrician who responded to the tragedy that left 21 dead.

Miah Cerrillo, a fourth-grader at Robb Elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, who smeared herself with her best friend’s blood to survive the deadly shooting there last month, detailed the horror of that day to Washington, D.C., lawmakers.

Five Republicans voted “yes”: Reps. Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio, Fred Upton of Michigan, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Adam Kinzinger of Illinois and New York’s Chris Jacobs. Two Democrats – Reps. Jared Golden of Maine and Kurt Schrader of Oregon – voted “no”.

Notably, each Republican who crossed party lines will not be returning to Congress next term, and Schrader recently lost his Democratic primary. One Republican did not vote.

House Republicans voted en masse against a resolution condemning a white supremacist conspiracy theory, after Democrats tacked it onto a procedural measure to advance gun control legislation, effectively daring the G.O.P. to oppose it.

The House gun control vote was largely symbolic since the proposals appear to lack enough Republican support to overcome a filibuster in the Senate.

Senate negotiators have sketched the outlines of a bill to address gun violence and respond to recent mass shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde, but haven’t yet nailed down the crucial details that will determine whether the legislation can get 60 votes to pass.  

Republicans are calling on the House to pass a stalled bill aimed at expanding security protection to the families of Supreme Court justices after police arrested an armed man outside the home of Justice Brett Kavanaugh early yesterday morning.

The man, Nicholas John Roske, 26, said he was upset about the shooting in Uvalde, Texas, and impending decisions on abortion and guns, a federal affidavit says.

Roske said he found Kavanaugh’s address online.

President Joe Biden made his first in-person appearance on a late night talk show when he stopped by “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” last night. Kimmel kicked off his interview by saying that Biden is to “aviator sunglasses what Tom Cruise is to aviator sunglasses.”

Biden said many journalists are focused on getting “clicks” on news stories and that “everything gets sensationalized by the media,” while discussing how his administration has struggled to communicate its policy achievements.

Biden’s job approval rating has reached a new low, according to Morning Consult/Politico tracking, slipping below 40% for the first time since he entered office. 

The poll found that 58 percent of those surveyed disapprove of Biden’s performance as president, while 39 percent of respondents approve. That’s down from 42 percent of respondents who approved of Biden’s performance in a Morning Consult poll last month.

The decision by Mexico’s President to boycott this week’s summit for regional leaders in Los Angeles rendered futile months of work by Biden and other top officials to convince him to attend.

Biden had a phone call with Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó ahead of the Summit of the Americas, which Guaidó was not invited to attend in person.

The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack will hold its first primetime hearing tonight on efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Trump World is still figuring out what to do about it.

House Republicans will hold a press conference on the “illegitimate” January 6 House committee investigating last’s year siege on the U.S. Capitol just before the panel delivers its findings in a primetime hearing.

As then-President Donald Trump left a rally with his supporters on Jan. 6, 2021, he appears to have held out hope until the last minute — even as chaos unfolded — that he’d be able to join them at the Capitol.

The first hearing is scheduled tonight at 8 p.m. ET. The second one is expected to be held on June 13, at 10 a.m. ET.  Here’s how to watch the January 6 committee hearings via TV and streaming.

The Omicron subvariants known as BA.4 and BA.5 now represent 13 percent of new coronavirus cases in the United States, up from 7.5 percent a week ago and 1 percent in early May, according to new estimates from the CDC.

The spread of the subvariants adds more uncertainty to the trajectory of the pandemic in the United States, where current case counts are likely to be a significant underestimate. 

White House officials said they would have to repurpose federal Covid-19 funds meant for tests and protective equipment in order to supply more antiviral pills and vaccines, after so far failing to persuade Congress to pass a new pandemic relief package.

Moderna said its bivalent Covid-19 vaccine booster that contained a vaccine targeting the Omicron variant showed a stronger immune response against the variant.

The United States has a “very serious” problem with Covid-19 vaccination uptake, a top health official has warned.

Despite additional federal funding, U.S. schools reported that they were most likely to rely on low-cost strategies to improve ventilation to slow the spread of the coronavirus, according to a study published by the CDC.

Trump and two of his adult children have agreed to be questioned under oath in mid-July by lawyers from the New York State attorney general’s office, unless the state’s highest court intervenes.

The agreement, filed yesterday in New York State Supreme Court, says that Trump, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump have agreed to appear for testimony that will begin on Friday, July 15, and end the following week.

The timing would make for a busy July for the former president; Trump is weighing a July 4 announcement of a 2024 presidential bid.

The family has filed a notice of appeal with the state’s highest court, though it’s unclear if the judges will take the case.

Gov. Kathy Hochul hasn’t tipped her hand about whether she will sign the cryptocurrency bill that pits two competing interests against one another: building a more sustainable world and jump starting the long-beleaguered upstate economy.

Hochul put congestion pricing supporters in fear the program could be scuttled with remarks in a debate among Democratic candidates for governor, saying: “Now is not the right time” to enact the program.

The SUNY Board of Trustees directed all 64 campuses to update policies regarding the use of a chosen name and pronouns to ensure that transgender, gender non-conforming, and non-binary students’ identities are fully reflected and represented.

Hochul announced that Ocean Insight, a spectroscopic systems developer and manufacturer, is ready to expand its Monroe County operations and committing to creating up to 100 new jobs over the next five years. 

A 26.5-mile stretch of the New York State Thruway in Western New York is getting a $46 million investment.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams challenged whether the profits of gun manufacturers are more important than the lives of children as he testified before Congress on gun violence.

Adams called for bipartisan gun control legislation, a ban on assault weapons and federal aid to help cities and states address the root causes of violence during testimony before the House Oversight Committee.

Adams has sparred with a Republican lawmaker from Georgia over the influx of illegal guns flooding the Big Apple, saying that “many” of those seized originated in the southern state.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez says lax gun laws in the southern states of the “Iron Pipeline” that run along the I-95 corridor of the East Coat are the cause of gun violence in New York.

The majority of New Yorkers may not think Adams is doing a stellar job as mayor — but they still like his “swagger,” a new survey has found.

More than half of New Yorkers want to see the NYPD’s budget boosted amid mounting safety concerns over violent crime in the city, the poll found.

While many municipal workers balk at Adams’ demand they work full-time from the office, some city boards and commissions are continuing to hold public meetings and hearings virtually — citing safety concerns about the spread of COVID-19.

The city will redesign at least 100 streets across the five boroughs amid a spike in fatal crashes, city Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez said.

R. Kelly should be locked up for more than 25 years to protect the public from the “calculated, methodical” way he used his fame to lure underage girls to his thrall, federal prosecutors argued.

“Come From Away,” the inspirational musical about a remote Canadian community that rallied to support thousands of stranded air travelers after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, will end its run on Broadway in October.

After an unusually long tenure of nearly 30 years as president of the American Museum of Natural History, Ellen V. Futter, 72, informed the board that she would step down next March.

The state Republican Party, already facing internal division with four GOP candidates jockeying for its gubernatorial nomination, is facing new tensions over state Chairman Nick Langworthy lining up support for his fledgling congressional candidacy.

Earlier this month, prospective congressional candidate Carl Paladino both shared on Facebook and sent in an email blast a post that invokes “false flag” conspiracy theories in connection to recent mass shootings in his hometown of Buffalo and Uvalde, Texas.

Reached on his cellphone by the AP, Paladino said “That’s all water under the bridge,” and “I didn’t write it,” before hanging up. He initially told reporters he did not personally make the post and it was posted by someone else who had access to his account.

Most school districts didn’t provide required mental health training for all staff by the Sept. 15 deadline during the 2020-21 school year, according to a new audit from state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s office.

The town of Bethlehem could seek to prohibit the construction of new gas stations – or the expansion of existing ones – as part of its new land-use plan that is nearing completion.

An ex-state Senate employee fired after her arrest allegedly created an intentional distraction in City Court to enable pest-possessing activists to release hundreds of cockroaches in the Morton Avenue courthouse in Albany, court documents say.

Troy City Council Member Kimberly Ashe-McPherson is being forced out of her post after pleading guilty to three federal counts of voter fraud and amid unfounded assertions across the country — mostly by the GOP — of widespread elections tampering.

Ashe-McPherson, 61, a Republican who has been councilwoman more than seven years, waived indictment by a grand jury and admitted to fraudulently submitting absentee ballots in last year’s primary and general elections as she sought re-election.

A judge has denied a motion to dismiss charges against Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin.

Albany, Schenectady and Troy have been awarded over $665,000 as part of lawsuits they filed against top mortgage-holders, including Ocwen Financial Corp. and PHH Mortgage, as payback for derelict properties. 

The U.S. Postal Service has mailed out postcards to some city residents asking them to weigh in on the potential permanent home of the Academy Station post office in Albany.