It’s Tuesday – technically Monday of a short work week. We are 15 days into summer, and the weekend did not disappoint from a weather perspective. I hope you had a chance to get out there and enjoy the sunshine.
Perhaps you were lucky enough to spend some time at the seaside, which is a good entry point for reminding everyone that we are halfway through Clean Beaches Week – also known as the “Earth Day for Beaches,” (which makes no sense, because how can a day be a week?)
Anyway.
July 4 is the biggest beach visitation day of the year in the U.S., and, as such, is also the biggest trash-producing day for beaches. You probably won’t be surprised – but hopefully distressed – to learn that billions of pounds of pollution, from plastic to oil and everything in between, ends up in the oceans of the world every year.
For some reason, humans have a blind spot when it comes to picking up after themselves. I am unsure what is so hard about this – pack it in, pack it out is a general standard for hikers, and that really should be applied everywhere that is not, say, your own home.
Bring it with you? Take it home and dispose of it properly. Full stop. See? Not hard. Also, if you have to poop in the woods, please dig a hole. Thank you.
While we’re on the subject of proper beach etiquette, here’s a friendly reminder that you do not feed the wildlife – no matter how cute it looks or how aggressive it is. I know that those seagulls can be a nuisance, and maybe they swoop in and steal your sandwich when you’re looking the other way. OK. Fair enough.
Just don’t offer them anything, because they more they become accustomed to human food, the more they hang around places where humans are, befouling the sand with their excrement and generally making themselves a problem. It’s a vicious cycle that can only be broken by curbing their appetite for food that they’re not supposed to eat.
And since we’re on the topic of wildlife, I would be remiss if I didn’t address the shark situation that apparently has everyone freaked out off the coast of Long Island. A 4-to-5-foot shark reportedly attacked a life guard who, ironically, was participating in a drill in which he was playing the part of a victim. All of a sudden, he WAS a victim, for real.
This attack was very unusual – unprecedented, in fact – and it caused several beaches to temporarily close, as it was the second shark attack off Long Island waters in three days.
The lifeguard is OK, but did receive stitches as a result of his injuries. The area was already on high alert for sharks due to a possible encounter with a swimmer at Jones Beach late last week.
There is a TON of news coverage about these shark incidents – slow news weekend? I get it. People are obsessed with sharks, and also very scared of them. Understandable. They have a lot of sharp teeth.
But do know that the odds of getting bitten by a shark are actually extremely low – 1 in 3,748,067. We are hearing more about these attacks, but the number of them has actually gone DOWN since 2018, though the U.S. does lead the world in reported incidents, over half of which occur in Florida.
Truth be told, more sharks are dying as a result of human activity than the other way around. This is not to say you shouldn’t be careful when you’re swimming in open water. You should. Just don’t get hysterical about it. And if you are attacked, fight back with whatever is at hand – use your hands, if you have to, and concentrate on the eyes, nose and gills.
It’s not such a bad day to be indoors and back to work. There’s a 50 percent chance of rain in the forecast for the afternoon. We’ll have clouds in the morning and temperatures in the mid-80s.
In the headlines…
President Joe Biden celebrated Independence Day with an optimistic tweet as he prepared to host military families for a barbecue at the White House and fireworks on the National Mall.
Biden encouraged the public to keep working toward a better America, saying in an address from the White House lawn that “there’s nothing guaranteed” about the future of democracy on a Fourth of July marred by the latest mass shooting.
Witnesses have described watching in horror while children were shot in the head by a gunman at a July 4th parade in Highland Park, an affluent suburb of Chicago. Six people were killed and dozens more injured.
The suspect, Robert E. Crimo III, 22, in the shooting has been captured.
Authorities spent frantic hours searching for Crimo and took him into custody shortly before 7 p.m. local time following a short pursuit about five miles away from the shooting. Crimo is also known as “Awake the Rapper.”
Crimo was a mystery to his own family, according to his uncle who was both deeply apologetic and stunned after the 22-year-old was taken into custody as a person of interest in the Highland Park parade shooting in Illinois.
The rifle was recovered from the rooftop where the gunman opened fire from, cops said. They haven’t found evidence of any threats that the shooter potentially made on social media that would have warned of the bloodshed.
In response to the fatal shooting that took place at an Independence Day parade in Highland Park, Illinois, Biden offered the “full support of the Federal government” to local and state officials.
“Jill and I are shocked by the senseless gun violence that has yet again brought grief to an American community on this Independence Day. As always, we are grateful for the first responders and law enforcement on the scene,” Biden said.
The president pointed to the gun safety legislation he recently signed into law. “But there is much more work to do, and I’m not going to give up fighting the epidemic of gun violence,” he added.
The Chicago White Sox canceled their July 4 postgame fireworks and announced plans to hold a moment of silence after the Highland Park shooting.
The attack at the Highland Park Fourth of July parade was the largest and highest-profile shooting, but far from the only one, over the holiday weekend. It was one of two mass shootings in the Chicago region alone yesterday.
With the Highland Park shooting on the nation’s 246th birthday, the U.S. had marked its 309th mass shooting this year, according to a nonprofit that tracks gunfire incidents.
Two men sitting in a taxi were wounded by stray bullets when a man opened fire on a Midtown Manhattan street, police said.
One person was killed and at least 12 others were injured in a spate of shootings across New York City during a bloody nine-hour period on Independence Day, police said.
Two people were shot and killed in two separate incidents within 12 hours of each other on Sunday in Rochester.
Akron, Ohio, police shot unarmed 25-year-old Jayland Walker dozens of times after he fled from a traffic stop and led officers on a car, then foot chase, according to body cam footage released Sunday.
The mayor of Akron, Ohio, declared a state of emergency yesterday and issued a curfew starting at 9 p.m. after protesters damaged property amid protests over the fatal police shooting of a 25-year-old Black man.
A 22-year-old gunman accused of killing three shoppers in a Copenhagen mall acted alone and may have randomly selected his victims, Danish police said.
Phoenix Mercury star Brittney Griner sent a handwritten letter to Biden asking for her release from Russia. Her agency released excerpts from the letter to the public.
“As I sit here in a Russian prison, alone with my thoughts and without the protection of my wife, family, friends, Olympic jersey, or any accomplishments, I’m terrified I might be here forever,” Griner wrote.
Utah Republican Sen. Mitt Romney wrote in The Atlantic that Biden “is a genuinely good man,” but doesn’t see him as a great unifier for the country.
Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos renewed his spat with the White House over the weekend, as the world’s third-richest person criticized Biden for calling on companies running gasoline stations to lower their prices.
Biden may announce as soon as this week a rollback of some US tariffs on Chinese consumer goods – as well as a new probe into industrial subsidies that could lead to more duties in strategic areas like technology.
Asian markets rose today amid growing speculation that Biden is about to roll back some of the Trump-era tariffs on Chinese goods as he looks for ways to rein in inflation, though sentiment remains at a premium owing to fears of a recession.
The government has greenlit new vaccines to defend against the latest Omicron variants. But the shots won’t arrive until the fall, and cases are rising now.
Experts say the U.S. government has unintentionally encouraged a dependency on imported masks by failing to promote elastomeric respirators, a reusable mask that is domestically produced.
The Queens nurse who was the first to receive a COVID-19 vaccine in America will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Biden announced.
China is imposing fresh restrictions in some eastern cities as Covid-19 cases have spiked to near their highest levels in more than a month.
A Missouri state lawmaker resigned on Friday after a jury found her guilty on 22 counts for fraudulently accepting hundreds of thousands of pandemic-era federal stimulus dollars and other offenses.
Gov. Kathy Hochul signed landmark legislation to strengthen New York’s gun laws and bolster restrictions on concealed carry weapons.
The state Senate passed the gun control bill 43-20 during an extraordinary session called by the governor Friday afternoon, and the Assembly passed it 91-51 Friday evening. It takes effect Sept. 1.
The changes will require background checks for every ammunition purchase and also mandate that handgun-permit applicants provide the details of their social media accounts dating back three years.
The measure is almost sure to draw more legal challenges from gun rights advocates who say the state is still putting too many restrictions on who can get guns and where they can carry them.
The Legislature also voted to add abortion protections to the state constitution.
Hochul chatted about her primary night win with Cindy Adams.
Hochul scrapped an executive order issued by predecessor Andrew Cuomo that sought to prevent state-funded service providers from paying “excessive” salaries to executives.
GOP gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin says New York’s gun restrictions show a lack of respect for the Constitution.
Zeldin’s path to the governor’s mansion may require a different political route than Gov. George Pataki took in 1994, when he became the last Republican to unseat a Democratic incumbent governor in New York.
Climate activists and preservationists cheered the Hochul administration’s decision to deny an air emission permit to a major cryptomine in the Finger Lakes that was using a once-shuttered power plant to power its activities.
NYC Mayor Eric Adams visited the Ohel, the Queens resting place of the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, on Sunday to mark the 28th anniversary of the Rebbe’s passing.
A New York City Department of Correction officer is being hailed a hero after shooting a man who pointed a gun at a crowd in Queens, Adams said.
Former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio pushed back after Adams labeled universal pre-Kindergarten a “pet project” — declaring that the program is one of several “profound” accomplishments from his time in City Hall.
Immigrant rights advocates say they plan to appeal New York Supreme Court Justice Ralph Porzio’s order striking down the law passed by the New York City Council late last year that allowed undocumented individuals to vote in local elections.
Former New York Gov. David Paterson dismissed Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s influence as a “phantom of the media” after left-wing candidates endorsed by the socialist firebrand suffered brutal losses in last week’s primaries.
Rep. Mondaire Jones’ new Brooklyn neighbors fumed about the “carpetbagger” broadcasting that he will barnstorm the country if he wins his Democratic primary, a multi-state “mission” he revealed even before moving to the area he is seeking to represent.
A federal judge has granted bail to a prominent Buffalo developer and other businessmen serving prison time for a bid-rigging scheme related to former Gov. Cuomo’s Buffalo Billion economic redevelopment program.
Two founders of COR Development who were sentenced to Federal Prison terms have both been released after serving four months.
Two pieces of legislation are renewing a long-running fight over the practice of using electric shocks on people with disabilities as a behavior modification tool — and the role of New York taxpayer dollars in funding the only school in the country doing it.
Two former supervisors in the NYPD’s troubled sex-crimes division were disciplined in recent months amid an internal affairs investigation into misconduct by the unit’s leadership, according to department records posted online.
Mariah Lopez has been suing New York City for transgender rights since she was a child. Her latest settlement has forced the city to overhaul how it treats transgender people who are homeless.
A new Albany Common Council proposal calls for revenues from recreational marijuana sales in the city to be used as reparations for communities of color harmed by the war on drugs.
Joey Chestnut won a record 15th Nathan’s Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest, scarfing down 63 hot dogs and 63 buns in 10 minutes.
Miki Sudo won her eighth Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest victory in nine years, returning to the top of the dogpile after sitting out last year’s competition.
