Good Wednesday morning.
It turns out that no matter how hard you try, getting old is inevitable.
Some might say it’s a gift, because with age comes wisdom. Blah, blah. I’m not buying it, personally, but I will say that aging sure beats the alternative.
And since old and gray is where we’re all going to end up sooner or later, there is something that we all should be paying more attention to: Elder abuse.
Up to five million older Americans are abused every year – about one in 10 adults aged 60+ have experienced some form of abuse. One study estimated that only one in 24 cases of abuse are ever reported to law enforcement or other authorities.
The annual loss by elder financial abuse victims alone is estimated to be at least $36.5 billion, according to the National Council on Aging.
There are many kinds of elder abuse – the aforementioned financial, but also sexual, physical (confinement and/or abandonment fall into this category), emotional, passive neglect and willful deprivation. In more than half of these cases, the perpetrator is a family member.
And sadly, elder abuse is on the rise, which I guess makes sense as the boomers steadily age – the U.S. Census Bureau expects the population aged 65 and older to nearly double from 43.1 million in 2012 to 85.7 million in 2050.
But also maybe (hopefully) people are more aware of the problem and reporting it more?
In terms of establishing protections against elder abuse, New York isn’t the worst, but it’s not the best, either. We’re somewhere in the middle of the pack, though we’re in the top 10 of prevalence, which is really not good.
Today, if you hadn’t already guessed as much, is World Elder Abuse Day, and no less an elder than the president of the United States (79 years young and counting) issued a proclamation declaring:
“On World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, we join the international community to raise awareness and help end elder abuse here at home and across the world.”
Biden also noted that his administration included $178 million in COVID relief funds to improve and strengthen the work of Adult Protective Services (APS), and called in his 2023 budget for ongoing support for state Long-Term Care Ombudsman programs.
The best way to prevent elder abuse is to look out for one another – particularly if you have an elderly neighbor who lives alone. Take a moment to check in on them…it could go a very long way.
Another hot day on tap, with temperatures in the mid-80s, and partly cloudy skies. Meanwhile, high temperatures enveloped a third of the population yesterday, as wildfires in Arizona and California sparked during the heat wave there grew.
In the headlines…
A fired-up President Joe Biden spoke to a friendly crowd of union supporters in Philadelphia yesterday, hoping to put a positive spin on his economic record amid inflation not seen in decades and blame Republicans for blocking his domestic agenda.
“I truly believe we made extraordinary progress by laying a new foundation for our economy, which becomes clear once global inflation begins to recede,” Biden said. “I’ve never been more optimistic about America than I am today. I really mean that.”
Biden acknowledged the economic pains Americans are feeling while pointing to progress he said his administration has made to build an economy around working people.
Biden is weighing whether to roll back some of the tariffs that former President Donald Trump imposed on Chinese goods, in hopes of mitigating the most rapid price gains in 40 years, according to senior administration officials.
Biden’s public approval rating fell to 39% in its third straight weekly decline, approaching the lowest level of his presidency, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll completed yesterday.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a progressive firebrand and ex-presidential candidate, said he wouldn’t challenge Biden in 2024 and would back him if he runs – a comment that comes as Democrats are uncertain whether the president should run again.
Biden plans to appoint Keisha Lance Bottoms, the former mayor of Atlanta, to his White House staff as a senior adviser charged with managing relations with pivotal constituent groups heading into the midterm campaigns, a White House official said.
Biden will visit Saudi Arabia over four days next month, the White House announced, a foreign policy trade-off that completes the reversal of his campaign pledge to make the kingdom a “pariah.”
The House passed legislation that would expand security protection to the immediate family members of Supreme Court justices, sending the bill to Biden’s desk for his signature.
The House took up the Senate-passed version after Republican Senate leaders warned Democrats that an attempt to broaden the bill to include families of court staff wouldn’t make it through the Senate.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said bipartisan compromise gun legislation spurred by the Texas school massacre should be ready for a vote in the “coming days.”
Levels of a new, highly transmissible, immune-evading Omicron subvariant are set to surpass those of “stealth Omicron” in the U.S., according to federal health data released yesterday.
More than 1 in 5 Covid-19 infections last week were caused by BA.4 and BA.5, according to updated estimates posted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
An expert committee advising the Food and Drug Administration unanimously recommended Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine for use in children and adolescents ages 6 to 17, an important step before emergency authorization.
The travel industry applauded the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s decision to lift the Covid-19 testing requirement for people entering the United States, but some travelers were wary.
A Virginia firm that got a no-bid $750 million contract to manage the quick distribution of Covid relief loans — the biggest contract awarded — netted $340 million in “windfall profits”, says a report by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis.
The U.S. failed to take basic steps at the start of the coronavirus pandemic to prevent fraud in a federal aid program intended to help small businesses, depleting the funds and making people more vulnerable to identity theft, the chair of the House panel said.
As the select committee investigating the attack on the Capitol continues public hearings, a disagreement has emerged between committee members about whether it would consider referring criminal charges against Trump to the Justice Department.
The committee has postponed its next hearing, which was scheduled for today.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., a member of the panel, told reporters that the postponement was due to “technical issues” stemming from “overwhelming” demand on staff to produce videos.
Questions about misleading donors with claims of election fraud are one facet of the committee’s examination of the former president’s ongoing, aggressive solicitations.
Trump issued a 12-page rebuttal to testimony and evidence presented by a House committee investigating the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, accusing Democrats of seeking to distract from a series of domestic issues facing the country.
Rep. Tom Rice, targeted by Trump for voting to impeach him after the Capitol riot, was defeated by a Trump-backed challenger in South Carolina last night while Rep. Nancy Mace.
Trump celebrated his 76th birthday.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams will endorse Gov. Kathy Hochul for a full term in office today, his aides confirmed.
In a statement, Adams said that he and the governor had quickly found “we shared the same priorities” of improving public safety and access to child care and housing, while making New York more affordable for working people.
The backing will give Hochul a boost as she competes against progressive activist Jumaane Williams, New York City’s public advocate, and Rep. Tom Suozzi, a moderate Democratic Congress member from Long Island.
Hochul and LG Antonio Delgado released their first joint campaign ad.
The Democratic LG candidates will participate in their first and only pre-primary debate tonight.
Adams is putting his political muscle behind veteran state Assembly incumbents being challenged by socialist insurgents egged on by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the upcoming June 28 Democratic primary.
Adams laid out a blueprint to increase homeownership, reduce street homelessness and improve public housing. But housing groups say his budget, $1 billion short of what he had promised, will not be enough.
The plan promised to help homeless New Yorkers find housing and combat soaring rents across the city, but lacked key details including how much housing Adams hopes to build across the five boroughs.
A federal judge accepted Adams’ plan to fix the staffing and security crisis at Rikers Island — with a promise to review the city’s progress in November.
House candidate Carl Paladino, who voiced admiration for Hitler, has given thousands of dollars to Republican members of New York State’s congressional delegation — but they appear to have no intention of giving back the campaign cash.
In a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than two to one, Rep. Lee Zeldin has his work cut out for him in his run to become New York State’s next governor.
Gubernatorial hopeful Harry Wilson has bashed Republican rival Zeldin for weeks over his past praise of ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo — despite whipping up public support for the disgraced pol’s ideas years ago.
A commissioner for the state’s embattled ethics panel, which is scheduled to be shut down and replaced in a few weeks, is suing Cuomo’s attorney, accusing her of defamation for publicly alleging he leaked confidential information to the press.
State Sen. Daphne Jordan said she is dropping out of a Republican primary with fellow state Sen. Jim Tedisco, upending a pugnacious Capital Region political contest that had quickly divided high-ranking state and local conservatives.
Thanks to the new Aug. 23 primary for Congress and state Senate, a handful of Assembly members are running for higher office with the comfort of knowing that they can still run for reelection in the November general election if they fail in those primaries.
The Board of Regents is loosening teaching certificate restrictions that currently make it more costly and time-consuming for those who want to teach at many grade levels.
An Asian elephant named Happy that has been at the Bronx Zoo for more than 40 years will remain there after New York’s highest court ruled that she is not a person, in a legal sense, and therefore not entitled to a fundamental human right.
By a 5-to-2 vote, the Court of Appeals rejected an animal-advocacy organization’s argument that Happy was being illegally detained at the zoo and should be transferred to a more natural environment.
The zoo and its supporters warned that a win for advocates at the Nonhuman Rights Project could open the door to more legal actions on behalf of animals, including pets, farm animals and other species in zoos. The court’s majority echoed that point.
The motorcyclist who drove into a group of pedestrians, killing two on Sunday afternoon, was driving with a suspended license, State Police said.
The latest potential sighting of a mountain lion was detailed on NextDoor, a social media app, where a Guilderland resident claimed to have spotted one of the big cats on Meadowdale Road last week.
As the turbulent waters begin to recede – after forcing Yellowstone National Park to close temporarily and prompting the evacuations of dozens of local residents – park officials and southern Montana communities are assessing the damage.
Parts of the national park may stay off-limits for the rest of the season. Visitors were evacuated after record rainfall washed away roads and bridges, the authorities said.
At least one road partially reopened near the park, giving some tourists and residents a potential way out of areas cut off by what the National Weather Service said was “unprecedented” flooding caused by a combination of rain and melting snowpack.
A Russian court extended the pretrial detention of the W.N.B.A. basketball star Brittney Griner on drug smuggling charges until July 2, pushing her jail stint past the four month mark, according to the official state news agency TASS.
