Aaaaaaand exhale. It’s Friday. We made it to the end of another week – and also almost to the end of another month. (That second part I’m not going to dwell on, because summer is just speeding by altogether too quickly for my taste).
Speaking of taste, if you are the sort of person who has a taste for spicy, greasy, crispy deliciousness in the form of a sauce-covered part that used to belong to a chicken, today is your lucky day.
It’s National Chicken Wing Day!
First let us dispense with the “what is a chicken wing” question. The answer: There are actually three types: The whole wing, the flat, and the drumette (the part that looks like a mini drumstick). The whole wing – minus the tip, usually – is sections into the two other pieces, which are then cooked, sauced, and served.
The traditional Buffalo wing is fried, though they can also be roasted or baked for a healthier version. It is not battered or breaded, and dressed after cooking and draining with a combination of hot sauce and butter, which cuts the heat and adds a silkiness to the mouthfeel. The resulting wings are served with blue cheese dressing as a dip and accompanied by celery and carrot sticks.
Of course, there are many other versions of wings – pretty much anything goes these days: Garlic-parm, lemon-pepper, sesame, regular BBQ, honey BBQ, jerked, and even…dare I say it?….dill pickle.
Chicken wings have a deep and abiding connection to New York, specifically to the City of Buffalo, where they were supposedly invented at the Anchor Bar. I’m sure some of you are gearing up to come at me because of the “supposedly” qualification. But truly, the origin story of chicken wings has been up for debate for a long, LONG time.
Apparently, there are at least five different versions. So, take your pick.
Close on the heels of the “who made them first” debate is the “who makes them best” fight. This is another battle that is simply not winnable and best avoided altogether, as any smart elected official and/or candidate for public office who visits Buffalo or seeks to represent Western New Yorkers knows.
One thing that is not up for debate – wings are closely associated with football, for which the City of Buffalo is also known. (GO BILLS!) Wings are one of the most popular dishes consumed on Super Bowl Sunday, with an estimated 1.42 million eaten on the day of last year’s big game alone.
By the way, the great chicken wing shortage of 2021 appears to have taken a toll. Though the National Chicken Council says demand for this delicacy has finally leveled out, prices for this bar food favorite are still on the high side, which is why this next part is so important.
There are a lot of other chains doing promotions for Wing Day. Some of them have a New York presence, others do not. Buffalo Wild Wings, for example, is offering six free boneless or traditional wings with any $10 dine-in purchase all day. Click here for more.
Buffalo Wild Wings is also taking advantage of this day to attempt to settle once and for all the bone-in versus boneless debate. You can cast your vote and settle the score by ordering your free wings one way or the other, and then sharing the decision with the hashtag #wingdebate.
Personally, I’m bone-in all the way. The whole POINT of wings is to gnaw on the bones and strip every last delicious edible morsel from the carcass, leaving a satisfyingly clean pile of denuded carnage on the side of your plate.
Yes, I am part cave person.
The next few days are looking pretty good from a weather standpoint. We’ll have a mix of clouds and sun with temperatures ranging from the low to high 80s. Get out there and soak it up!
Oh, and speaking of the weather: An EF-2 tornado with wind speeds up to 115 mph touched down yesterday morning in Wyoming County, the National Weather Service said in its preliminary report. No injures were reported.
In the headlines…
President Joe Biden and China’s Xi Jinping are exploring meeting in person, after the leaders spent more than two hours yesterday talking through the future of their complicated relationship, with tension over Taiwan once again emerging as a flashpoint.
The two leaders did agree to begin arrangements for a face-to-face summit, their first as Xi resists travel amid the Covid-19 pandemic. And certain areas of cooperation, including climate change, were hashed out.
The House passed bipartisan legislation to boost U.S. competitiveness with China by allocating billions of dollars toward domestic semiconductor manufacturing and science research.
The bill passed 243-187, with no Democrats voting against the bill. Twenty-four Republicans voted for the legislation, even after a last-minute push by GOP leaders to oppose it.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Joe Manchin secreted themselves in a basement room at the Capitol. What happened next was a weeklong negotiation to produce the $739 billion surprise package now headed for quick votes in Congress.
The West Virginia Democrat said he had relented and agreed to sign on to a climate, energy and tax package after returning to negotiations to draft a version that would combat inflation.
“It will require us to stick together and work long days and nights for the next 10 days,” Schumer said, as he rallied fellow Democrats to vote”yes” on the deal. “We will need to be disciplined in our messaging and focus. It will be hard.”
Manchin hasn’t decided if he’ll pledge his support for Biden for a second term in 2024, saying it would ultimately depend on who is running in the next presidential election.
A key measure of economic output fell for the second straight quarter, raising fears that the United States could be entering a recession — or perhaps that one had already begun.
Gross domestic product, a broad measure of goods and services produced across the economy, fell at an inflation and seasonally adjusted annual rate of 0.9% in the second quarter, following a 1.6% pace of contraction in the first three months of 2022.
Biden dismissed fears that the US is in a recession after a government report showed the US economy shrunk again in the second quarter, arguing there are “signs of economic progress,” including in the labor market and consumer spending.
Top Education Department officials have developed detailed plans to carry out student loan forgiveness for millions of Americans as they wait on Biden to make a final decision.
Biden’s eldest granddaughter, Naomi Biden, plans to get married on the South Lawn of the White House this fall in the first wedding ceremony to be held at the White House in nearly a decade.
Biden, 28, and Neal, 24, will wed on Nov. 29. The White House has hosted 18 weddings throughout history, starting with the March 29, 1812, marriage of Lucy Payne Washington, First Lady Dolley Madison’s sister, to Supreme Court Associate Justice Thomas Todd.
Secret Service Director James Murray is delaying a planned retirement and extending his tenure as the agency deals with continuing controversies related to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.
Former President Donald Trump falsely claimed the 9/11 terror attacks remain a mystery as he deflected criticism from families of the victims about his partnership with a controversial Saudi-backed golf tour.
New applications for unemployment benefits held near the highest level of the year last week, a sign that the tight labor market is loosening.
Initial jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs, fell 5,000 to a seasonally adjusted 256,000 in the week ended July 23 from the prior week’s upwardly revised level, the Labor Department said.
The Biden administration now expects to begin a Covid-19 booster campaign with retooled vaccines in September because Pfizer and Moderna have promised that they can deliver doses by then.
COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. are increasing again as the very contagious BA.5 variant spreads across the country, with nearly 500 deaths reported each day.
At the peak of the Omicron wave, Covid killed Black Americans in rural areas at a rate roughly 34 percent higher than it did white people.
Biden resumed in-person public events a day after ending his Covid isolation, deviating from federal health guidance that people recovering from the disease wear a mask for 10 days.
Mask mandates are making a comeback at public schools in Louisville. They could return to Los Angeles, after a possible decision this week. And outside Atlanta, where classes start in a matter of days, they are required for school employees.
Pfizer is taking steps to maintain its blockbuster Covid-19 product sales, but there were warning signs in the company’s guidance and the rest of the business might not offer much cushion.
Pfizer booked $27.7 billion in revenue, a 47% increase over the same period last year and its largest quarterly sales on record. The pharmaceutical company reported $9.9 billion in net income, a 78% increase over the second quarter of 2021.
AstraZeneca Plc raised its outlook for 2022 revenue after second-quarter sales and earnings per share exceeded analysts’ expectations, fueled by growth in all disease areas including Covid-19 medicines.
One in every 20 people who contract COVID-19 have long-term smell or taste problems due to the virus, new research suggests.
San Francisco’s mayor and public health officials declared a local emergency to make it easier for the city to combat the monkeypox as virus cases increase and vaccines remain in short supply.
Amid concerns the government has not responded quickly enough to the nation’s rapidly spreading monkeypox outbreak, the Biden administration announced more than 780,000 doses of vaccine will be available today.
The CDC says 99% of monkeypox transmission is happening between men who have sex with men. But some infectious disease experts feel that the focus on this population may be leading clinicians to discount the signs of monkeypox in others.
The Biden administration’s top health official pushed back against criticism about the pace of the response and worries that the U.S. has missed the window to contain the virus, which has been declared a global emergency.
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra told reporters on a call that the federal government has done everything it can to stay ahead of the outbreak, but it doesn’t control the public health response at the state level.
New York Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett declared monkeypox an imminent threat to public health in the state amid a rise in cases.
Monkeypox has sparked frustration and anxiety among gay and bisexual men in New York, who remember mistakes and discrimination during the early years of the AIDS crisis.
New York State will receive 110,000 additional doses of the monkeypox vaccine from the federal government, officials announced.
New York City will receive about 10% of a new batch of monkeypox vaccine doses secured by the federal government, Schumer’s office said, frustrating some local officials who pushed for the city to receive a larger piece of vaccine pie.
Dr. Don Weiss, the director of surveillance for the New York City Health Department’s Bureau of Communicable Disease, is being removed from his post after criticizing the city’s response to a worsening monkeypox outbreak.
Republican candidate for governor Lee Zeldin urged the man accused of attacking him at a rally in Monroe County last week to seek services meant to aid veterans while also defending Monroe County District Attorney Sandra Doorley’s handling of the incident.
“I do have a pre-existing relationship with the Monroe County District Attorney and she’s an exceptional district attorney. And from the get-go, she made the very smart decision to make sure that she was not involved in this case,” Zeldin said.
A detention hearing was held for the Army veteran accused of attacking Zeldin. David Jakubonis will be staying in custody until August 24 saying she needs to hear more details about his alleged weapon, mental health and inpatient care for alcoholism.
“I am very much disinclined to release Mr. Jakubonis to live with himself,” the judge said. “Such an unstructured setting is not an environment I would be amenable to.”
Zeldin is on board with New York City Mayor Eric Adams when it comes to the topic of bail reform – and he wants voters to know about it.
Roughly one in every five crooks busted for burglary or theft in New York last year got re-arrested on a felony charge within 60 days after being put back on the streets, NYPD figures obtained by The Post show.
The State Board of Elections invalidated Zeldin’s Independence Party application on July 12, after a challenge from the Libertarians and others. An investigation revealed such a high volume of flawed petitions that critics say it’s hard to imagine it was an accident.
Prominent labor unions in New York in a letter sent this week to Hochul urged her to approve a measure meant to increase transparency around hospital billing and pricing.
Higher education officials in New York gave approval to $113 million in spending to strengthen enrollment at the state’s public colleges and universities as well as hire more faculty.
Chief Judge Janet DiFiore sent a letter formally announcing her resignation, effective Aug. 31, to Chief Administrative Judge Lawrence Marks and Chief Clerk Lisa LeCours of the New York Court of Appeals.
The letter formalizes the resignation announcement made by DiFiore on July 11, in which she said she wanted to pursue the “next chapter” of her career after more than six years leading the state’s court system.
New York Attorney General Letitia James has sued CVS Health Corporation (CVS) for violating antitrust laws and financially harming hospitals and clinics that provide care for underserved communities, her office announced.
State officials in New York are making $557 million in aid available to low-income utility customers to help pay down debt.
Mayor Adams declared the US has entered into a recession and “Wall Street is collapsing” – contradicting Biden’s claims that the nation is doing fine earlier in the day.
Adams and other local officials announced a takedown of three illegal garbage hauling companies in the city, and one of the seedy firms has documented mob ties.
State Senate candidate Liz Crowley got a boost from Adams who said he’s endorsing her run for a hotly-contested Queens Senate seat.
Adams’ son Jordan is a rapper who goes by the name Jayoo. He’s released two albums (with another on the way) and he currently works at Roc Nation in the film department.
New York City is appealing a judge’s order to temporarily halt individual school budget cuts amid plunging student enrollment.
The New York City Districting Commission released its own online mapping tool. The tool is an NYC-version of DistrictR, a free browser-based tool for drawing districts and mapping out your surroundings.
By the time the U.S. Justice Department announced last month that it would investigate the New York Police Department’s handling of sex crimes, rape survivors and victim advocates had spent years pushing city and state officials to act.
A Brooklyn pastor who was robbed of $1 million worth of jewelry while delivering a sermon is being sued by a former congregant who claims he fleeced her out of her life savings, court papers detail.
Bishop Lamor Whitehead is facing blowback for comments he made against two pastors in an interview following the attack.
The notorious squeegee men are back to their bad old ways terrorizing Midtown motorists — and aggressively demanding money for their shoddy, unsolicited services.
A Black woman, Sheila Rayam, is taking the helm of Buffalo’s daily newspaper as the city still grieves the racist supermarket massacre that shocked it just as its economy and population showed signs of recovering from decades of economic decline.
The New York Racing Association’s Belmont Park meeting scheduled for Sept. 15 to Oct. 30 will be run at Aqueduct Racetrack in Ozone Park instead. The announcement was made by the New York Racing Association via press release.
A hearing next week may bring an answer to whether an $8 million federal civil rights lawsuit stemming from a Rensselaer County ballot fraud case can move forward.
Expect to see a flowery Easter service at an 1883 Black church in Philadelphia recreated at the First United Presbyterian Church on Fifth Avenue next week as HBO’s “The Gilded Age” starts filming parts of its second season around the Capital Region.
Sprite’s signature bottles won’t be green anymore. Starting Aug. 1, Coca-Cola will ditch the bottle color, which it has used to market its Sprite bottles for more than six decades, and would instead use clear bottles that are supposed to be more sustainable.
Hershey revealed in a second-quarter earnings call that its chocolate delights might be in short supply come Halloween.
