Good morning, it’s Tuesday.
I have a confession to make, though some of you who have known me a while might already be aware of this…
I am a very bad traveler. I am afraid to fly – really downright terrified, to be honest. Like, I need major drugs for any flight over three hours or so, and those I barely white-knuckle my way through. I dislike being disrupted from my routine – especially being away from the gym for long periods of time – and I don’t like being away from my dogs, either.
Now, that doesn’t mean that I don’t like to travel. In fact, I love it. No! I do! I love seeing the way other people live and experiencing other cultures and getting away from the toxic soup that U.S. politics has become – at least for a short while.
I’ve done it quite a bit, too. I have lived in several countries other than this one during my five decades on the planet. In two cases – Japan and France – spending upwards of a year away from home, which is really the best possible way to get to know a place.
It turns out that I have actually traveled abroad more than most Americans. According to a 2021 Pew survey, only 11 percent of us have been to 10 or more foreign countries. I think I top out at around 13, though if you count airports (in other words, I’ve stepped foot on foreign soil but haven’t spent the night) it’s probably closer to 15 or maybe even a few more. (Vatican City, for the record, has its own passport stamp).
The travel industry is definitely bouncing back from the significant lull it experienced during the pandemic, when lockdowns and travel bans basically brought things to a near standstill – especially where flying was concerned.
Mastercard’s Travel 2022: Trends & Transition Report shows that both leisure and flight bookings now surpass pre-pandemic levels – a key milestone for the travel industry.
The only problem is that all that bottled-up demand has lead to a surge in travel that the industry was not nearly ready to accommodate, given the fact that it is facing the same issues pretty much everyone else is – cutbacks a few years ago, a significant labor shortage, and rising costs for pretty much everything, but fuel, in particular, is a very big issue for the airlines.
I haven’t done much traveling of late, but from what I understand, it’s a serious headache. I did recently try to fly to Charleston, SC for the weekend, only to get stuck in the D.C. airport for eight hours, losing hope and then flying back to Albany – pretty much the most expensive daylong work trip I’ve ever taken.
Flights are getting cancelled left and right by overwhelmed U.S. carriers, and the airports New Yorkers are most likely to fly out of for international flights – Newark and LaGuardia – are among the least reliable when it comes to getting in and out on time – or at all. And European travel isn’t much better. Not to mention the waylaid and lost baggage situation.
And if you DO manage to get onto an airplane and into the air, the likelihood that you’re going to run into a really badly behaved fellow traveler is rising. In fact, the FAA recently fined a pair of unruly passengers more than $159,000 — the largest-ever penalties for bad behavior on a flight. The cause of most of the bad behavior: Mask mandates, or rather, opposition to them.
Last year, the FAA received at least 5,114 reports of unruly passengers and 3,710 reports of passengers refusing to wear a mask. Out of about 973 investigations, 239 resulted in penalties.
If you think you’re miserable having to deal with these ill-behaved fellow travelers, imagine how the airline staff feels. About 85% of nearly 5,000 U.S. flight attendants said they’ve dealt with an unruly passenger in 2021, and 17% said they’ve been physically assaulted, according to a AFA-CWA, AFL-CIO survey.
Today is Flight Attendant Safety Professionals’ Day, proclaimed as such on July 13, 1990, by President George Bush, who wrote at the time:
“I urge the people of the United States to observe that day with appropriate ceremonies and activities designed to recognize the important role flight attendants play in enhancing the safety and convenience of our nation’s air transportation system.”
I’ve already gotten a little deeper into the weeds on this than I had originally planned, so I won’t go into the history of the flight attendant, but it’s really well worth a click if you’ve got a few moments. Just a taste:
The history of the flight attendant began with the advent of passenger air travel in the early 1920´s. Typically, the people in charge of taking care of passengers’ needs were the sons of the businessmen who had financed the airlines.
These stewards were, at the time, called couriers, and they worked up until the stock market crashed, at which point, there was no money for such frills and it was up to the co-pilot to take care of the passengers.
The first female flight attendant (at the time, called a stewardess) was Ellen Church, who actually wanted to be a pilot – and was even licensed to fly, along with being a registered nurse – but at the time that job was reserved for men. The first black flight attendant wasn’t hired until the late 1950s. Her name was Ruth Taylor, and she was a New York City native.
Here’s another interesting little tidbit: Did you know that planes perform better when the weather is cold, as opposed to hot? In which case, today isn’t the best for flying, because it’s going to be a scorcher, with highs in the low 90s and a mix of sun and clouds.
Gov. Kathy Hochul urged New Yorkers across the State to prepare for dangerous heat conditions beginning today and expected to last through Thursday. A mix of hot temperatures and moderate-to-high humidity levels are expected to cause heat index values in the 90s and potentially the low 100s in certain areas, including the New York City region.
Remember: Stay inside in the AC or with a fan if you can, don’t exert yourself at the peak of the day, wear loose-fitting, light-colored clothing, drink water, keep pets in, and check on those more fragile than yourself.
In the headlines…
A new poll finds the public’s outlook on the state of the country the worst it’s been since 2009, while its view on the economy is the worst since 2011. And nearly 7 in 10 say President Joe Biden hasn’t paid enough attention to the nation’s most pressing problems.
Biden is considering declaring a national climate emergency as soon as this week as he seeks to salvage his environmental agenda in the wake of stalled talks on Capitol Hill.
The decision by Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va, to pull support from a climate, energy and tax plan, couched in language used by GOP opponents of the deal, is a blow to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who spent months getting more than 130 countries on board.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., blamed Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for the collapse of a deal with Biden to nominate a conservative, anti-abortion attorney as a federal judge in Kentucky.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, 81, said he plans to leave his post as the nation’s top health official by the end of Biden’s first term in office, saying the nation is going to have to live with COVID.
“I am not going to be on this job forever, but I can tell you that I will almost certainly step down before the next term, in other words by the end of Joe Biden’s first term, which is January 2025,” he said.
In a wide-ranging interview with POLITICO, Fauci spoke of his legacy, the hard truths about the country’s pandemic response and his desire to calm the politicization wracking the country.
Covid-19 is surging around the United States again in what experts consider the most transmissible variant of the pandemic yet. But something is different this time: The public health authorities are holding back.
Advisers to the CDC will meet this week to discuss the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Novavax, whose latecomer shot would offer unvaccinated Americans another choice as the vaccination rate has leveled off.
U.S. companies that prescribe abortion pills after telehealth consultations are expanding, but only in states that allow the practice, after the Supreme Court last month removed constitutional protections for abortion.
Faced with a streak of conservatism about abortion among some Black Americans, a vital constituency for Biden, Democrats are framing the issue as part of a broader civil rights struggle.
Congressional Democrats launched a push to protect same-sex marriage after the Supreme Court overturned the right to abortion and cast doubt on its own landmark decision allowing marriage equality for the LGBTQ community.
Aides to eight of the most progressive members of the House filed petitions to form unions in their offices, the first substantial action by congressional staff to organize collectively to bargain for better work conditions.
Former Trump strategist Steve Bannon went on trial yesterday on contempt charges for defying a subpoena by the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The board of the Pulitzer Prizes rejected an appeal by Trump to rescind a prize given to The New York Times and The Washington Post for coverage of Russian interference in the 2016 election and Russian ties to his campaign and members of his administration.
Months before Trump’s social media company unveiled an agreement to raise hundreds of millions of dollars last fall, word of the deal leaked to an obscure Miami investment firm, whose executives began plotting to make money off the imminent transaction.
Matthew Pottinger, who was deputy national security adviser under Trump and the highest-ranking White House official to resign on Jan. 6, 2021, is expected to testify about that day at the House select committee’s prime-time hearing on Thursday.
Saying Trump “lost his mind” after the 2020 election, retiring Western New York Rep. Chris Jacobs called on the Republican Party to choose someone else as its presidential nominee in 2024.
Two major Trump donors from Long Island ran a multimillion-dollar immigration fraud scheme, tricking foreigners into believing they’d get green cards and political access for investing in an upstate real estate project, federal prosecutors charge.
More than four years after Nikolas Cruz killed 17 people at a Parkland, Fla., high school, jurors heard opening statements in the penalty phase of a trial that will determine whether he receives a death sentence.
The first day of the trial over whether the gunman who killed 17 people in Parkland, Fla., in 2018 should be sentenced to death or life in prison included disturbing videos taken inside classrooms where several students were shot.
The 20-year-old man accused of opening fire in a food court at an Indiana mall likely smuggled weapons in a backpack and reassembled them in a bathroom before the attack, police said.
Authorities praised the actions of the armed shopper who took down a gunman who was shooting up the Greenwood mall south of Indianapolis.
Authorities identified the three victims killed in the shooting, their disturbed killer and the hero bystander who shot him dead — and likely saved countless others from being gunned down.
Fast fashion giant Hennes & Mauritz (AKA H&M) said it would exit Russia, citing the operational challenges and unpredictable future in the country, becoming the latest Western company to withdraw completely as the war in Ukraine continues.
Elon Musk has sent thousands of Stalink kits into Ukraine, turning the country into a high-profile testing ground for the service, which he is trying to sell in other countries around the world.
Even as it engages in fierce fighting with Russia on the battlefield, Ukraine is also waging war on a different, more shadowy front: rooting out spies and collaborators in government and society who are providing crucial help to the invading forces.
As of yesterday evening, data from the CDC shows 1,972 probable or confirmed monkeypox cases in the US.
The number of monkeypox cases is increasing in the Bay Area and nationwide prompting a call for action from members of the gay community.
D.C. is experiencing the largest outbreak of monkeypox per capita in the nation, and the District is distributing monkeypox vaccine by appointment as quickly as vaccine deliveries come in from federal sources.
The spread of monkeypox has ignited a debate within the New York City Health Department over whether the agency should encourage gay men to reduce their number of sexual partners during this summer’s outbreak.
Rep. Ritchie Torres called for a Washington inspector general to probe the federal government’s lethargic response to the American monkeypox outbreak as New Yorkers clamor for vanishingly rare vaccine doses.
Hochul and New York City Mayor Eric Adams struck a cost-splitting deal for the controversial Penn Station project, outlining how payments from private developers would help fund proposed renovations to the rail hub.
Adams gave his blessing to Hochul’s controversial plan to overhaul Penn Station, saying he supports using property tax revenues from 10 proposed skyscrapers to help pay for the work.
The governor hit the friendly skies, either on a state helicopter or airplane, a whopping 140 times in the first seven months since she took office last August — with costs to taxpayers estimated at upwards of $170,000.
As Hochul considers a bill that would expand New York’s wrongful death statute to cover emotional anguish, an effort to have her veto the legislation is underway.
Hochul is facing political pressure to appoint a progressive jurist to the state’s highest court following the sudden resignation of Chief Judge Janet DiFiore.
A labor union representing 15,000 New York carpenters is planning to spend approximately $1 million to try and influence the outcome of November’s general election – with the bulk of that money going to help Hochul.
Hochul has raised more than $38.8 million for her campaign – the vast majority of it in the 11 months since she became governor — and spent a whopping $26 million to win the June 28 Democratic primary.
Disgraced ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo paid a veteran pollster $93,000 as he weighed a political comeback — potentially a challenge to Hochul — this year, a new filing reveals.
Ex-CNN host Chris Cuomo applied to be a volunteer firefighter with the East Hampton Fire Department after the network fired him last December for advising his brother throughout the governor’s sexual harassment scandal, but withdrew the application.
New York officials are stepping up shark monitoring efforts in coastal areas and beaches along Long Island, Hochul said.
Officials will use patrol boats, drones and helicopters to keep an eye on ocean waters and step up public outreach to inform beachgoers about the dangers of the underwater predators.
New York will send $5 million in grant funding to public college campuses to help create credential programs or course offerings meant to boost employment in the cannabis industry across the state.
The more momentum illegal cannabis sales get now across New York, the harder it will be for the state to clamp down on them once legal sales begin.
Overtime costs at state agencies hit record highs in 2021, according to a new report released by Comptroller Tom DiNapoli.
Staten Island Assemblyman Charles Fall’s girlfriend lobbied him on a range of legislative issues before she launched a campaign for state Senate, raising eyebrows from a government watchdog who said the overlap may constitute a conflict of interest.
Adams said that New York City has “betrayed” significantly disabled students following a Daily News exposé over the weekend on dire conditions in a district of specialized schools.
Adams marked the completion of another link in the chain of storm surge barriers along the East Side — a 45-ton, 79-foot-long sliding barrier intended to keep homes and businesses safe in the likely event of more extreme flooding in New York City.
Adams drew a parallel between the global fight against COVID-19 and Nelson Mandela’s decades-long struggle for freedom in a speech commemorating what would have been the late South African leader’s 104th birthday.
Major crimes in New York City have skyrocketed 37% so far this year — driven by grand larcenies, auto thefts, burglaries and robberies, according to NYPD data.
In recent weeks, the government quietly paid $3 million to settle a lawsuit filed by three women who said they were sexually abused by a former correctional officer while being held in the Metropolitan Correctional Center.
Progressive members of the New York City Council apologized for signing off on $215 million in cuts to schools, weeks after the vast majority of the council voted to approve the fiscal year 2023 budget.
A group of NYC public school parents and educators filed a lawsuit to block the Department of Education from cutting school funding, arguing the city flouted state law by passing its annual budget without the approval of an education oversight panel.
Hale and Hearty, a New York quick service restaurant specializing in soups and popular with the lunch crowd, has mysteriously shuttered.
Rep. Carolyn Maloney holds a commanding financial advantage over her crosstown Democratic primary opponent, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, thanks to a familiar benefactor: herself. She lent her campaign $900,000.
Conservative Carl Paladino would crush state GOP chairman Nick Langworthy by 30 points in the Republican primary for the upstate 23rd congressional district, a new poll released by Paladino’s campaign claims.
Undecided voters in the newly created, left-leaning 10th congressional district — which includes his Park Slope home — may not know who they want to send to Washington, but nearly half know they definitely won’t cast a vote for es-Mayor Bill de Blasio.
During the second meeting of the Opioid Settlement Fund Advisory Board last month, advocates were stunned to learn that the state Division of the Budget had set aside millions of dollars from the fund without their knowledge.
General Electric Co. has decided that the new name for its GE Power division based in Schenectady will be GE Vernova.
Homes in Saratoga Springs are the most valuable in the Albany metro area, worth over $483,000, according to a recent list from Stacker.
Kory O’Hara, the former town supervisor of Prattsville in Greene County, pleaded guilty to reaping nearly $25,000 in a conspiracy to scam storm aid allocated after the destruction of Tropical Storm Irene.
Former WNYT anchor and reporter Jacquie Slater joined CBS6 as a part time anchor, filling the vacancy left by Heather Kovar. Kovar’s contract was set to expire July 31, but she parted ways with the station earlier this month.
