Good Monday morning. Welcome to August.
We are smack in the middle of the dog days of summer, which technically last from July 3 to Aug. 11.
Historically, this period occurs around the time that the star system Sirius – the brightest star in the constellation Canis Major, which means “big dog” in Latin and is said to represent one of Orion’s hunting dogs – appears to rise alongside the sun in the Northern Hemisphere.
Hence “dog days,” which is not named for the fact that the heat seems to drive dogs crazy. FWIW, heat makes my dogs lazy, not energetic. Anyway…
The Greeks and Roman believed that the heat generated by the combination of these two stars (yes, remember eighth-grade science? The sun is indeed a star) made these days the hottest of the year.
They also believed this period could bring catastrophe in the form of drought, sudden thunderstorms, lethargy, fever, mad dogs, and just general bad luck
For the record, the hottest days of the year don’t necessarily correspond with this “dog days” period. Also, depending on where you live – AKA your latitude – the dog days will land at slightly different times of the summer. Heat has nothing to do with the stars or the heat of the sun per se, but rather is dependent on the Earth’s tilt.
During summer in this hemisphere, the tilt of the Earth causes the sun’s rays to hit at a more direct angle, and for a longer period of time throughout the day. Hence, longer and hotter days.
Of course, this year it has been incredibly hot in many parts of the nation, and the world, during the dog days – historically and dangerously so, in fact. Portland, Oregon, for example, experienced eight straight days of 90+ degree weather, which is one of the longest in history.
The UK last week hit a record temperature of 104.5 degrees Fahrenheit, and it was not alone, as many other European cities were in the same boat.
After a bit of a reprieve from the heat locally, we are headed back up into the high 90s later this week.
Before we move on, happy Lammas, (AKA Loaf Mass), which is traditionally a day of celebration of the first fruits of harvest. If you observe, you can celebrate by eating part of the Lammas bread – a decorative loaf made with the first yields of the new crop.
And now, the news…
A plan to streamline permitting for energy infrastructure projects is emerging as a linchpin of the Senate Democrats’ tax-and-climate package – one that could expedite wind and solar power development as well as pipelines for oil and gas.
The deal between Senate Democrats has revived legislation to significantly expand government regulation of prescription-drug prices and limit the out-of-pocket costs of Medicare seniors who use expensive medicines.
Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema has yet to sign off on a bill that may not save Democrats in November but may at least give them a big new win to run on.
Sen. Joe Manchin spent yesterday talking up his recent deal on major climate and tax legislation while appearing to cajole Sinema, whose support is crucial to passing the bill, a top priority for Democrats.
In a new USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll, 65% of registered voters, including half of Democrats, don’t want Biden to run for another term. And 68% of voters, including a third of Republicans, don’t want former President Trump to run again.
America is wrestling with the worst energy crisis in nearly five decades, a period of high prices and limited supply. What makes this crisis different than the troubles that roiled the country in the 1970s is how it started and the fixes required to make it end.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi is expected to be in Singapore today as part of an Asia tour that has stoked fears, including at the highest levels of the American government, of dangerously heightened tensions with China over the possibility that she’ll visit Taiwan.
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo knocked the Biden administration for not backing Pelosi’s Taiwan trip.
Pelosi has long been critical of China on human-rights issues and a visit to Taiwan would make her the most senior politician to visit the island in 25 years.
Biden tested positive for Covid-19 again Saturday morning, per a letter from presidential physician Dr. Kevin O’Connor, in what is likely a “rebound” Covid-19 positivity that the doctor noted is “observed in a small percentage of patients treated with Paxlovid.”
Biden has experienced “no reemergence of symptoms, and continues to feel quite well” and will, as a result, not resume treatment, the White House said. He is, however, isolating.
O’Connor said the President tested negative on Tuesday evening, Wednesday morning, Thursday morning and Friday morning before testing positive on Saturday morning.
Rebound cases, in which someone experiences symptoms or tests positive after completing the course of the medication and testing negative, have been described as rare, but some medical experts say they may be more common than previously thought.
Millions of people may be sidelined from their jobs due to long COVID. The Biden administration has taken steps to try to protect workers and keep them on the job, issuing guidance that makes clear long COVID can be a disability and relevant laws would apply.
Moderna and Pfizer booster shots updated to target Omicron coronavirus subvariants could be available in early fall, pending signoff by federal health agencies, the US Department of Health and Human Services said.
The consumer who fueled the U.S. economy through the pandemic is starting to crack. The past week revealed new evidence from companies and the government that household spending is increasingly strained.
Covid-19 has killed more than one million people in the U.S. A range of other chronic diseases and acute threats to health also worsened during the pandemic, data show, as people missed screenings, abandoned routines and experienced loss and isolation.
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of Big Apple homeschool students has more than doubled, to roughly 12,900 kids.
Biden spoke via FaceTime with veterans who are camping out at the Capitol building until the Senate passes a bill to expand care for veterans with burn pit injuries, and sent them pizza Saturday.
Intel’s planned microchip plant outside Columbus, Ohio, is the administration’s poster child for reviving high-tech manufacturing. But failure to allow a small number of foreign-born doctorates to stay in the U.S. could cause the effort to fizzle.
The Biden administration has authorized completion of the Trump-funded U.S.-Mexico border wall in an open area of southern Arizona near Yuma, where four wide gaps make it among the busiest corridors for illegal crossings.
A 41-year-old man in Brazil became the first fatality from the mokeypox virus outside Africa. Spain announced two deaths soon afterwards – the first in Europe.
When it comes to access to the monkeypox vaccine, critics fear a repeat of the catastrophic inequity problems seen during the coronavirus pandemic.
There is growing concern that the United States may have lost its chance to contain the monkeypox virus, as the nation has been slow to vaccinate those most at risk on a broader scale.
As cases of monkeypox surge around the globe, four pioneers of the AIDS activist movement watch in awe and with a sense of nostalgia.
San Francisco was the first major US city to declare a local health emergency in an effort to strengthen its preparedness and response amid “rapidly rising cases” and high demand for the vaccine, the city said. The declaration goes into effect today.
Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a state disaster emergency Friday night over the continued spread of monkeypox. The announcement was followed Saturday by a public health emergency declaration in New York City.
The executive order enables many types of health care workers, from EMTs to midwives, to administer vaccines as they come in. It also requires that health care providers send vaccine data back to the state, so that health officials can track the rollout.
Officials in New York City declared a public health emergency due to the spread of the monkeypox virus Saturday, calling the city “the epicenter” of the outbreak.
The state DOH is awarding a multi-billion-dollar transportation contract to a company owned by a Hochul campaign donor, who was also hosted for the governor for a fundraiser as the procurement process was nearing its conclusion.
A couple with ties to a firm that’s been awarded hundreds of millions in Medicaid transportation contracts over the years has driven more than $300,000 combined into the campaign coffers of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Hochul.
Hochul was at the Mount Van Hoevenberg sliding facility near Lake Placid Friday afternoon to make an announcement about the upcoming World University Games being held there in January.
Officials with the Farm Bureau say they expect Hochul and her administration to accept the Farm Wage Board’s recommendation to reduce the overtime threshold for farm workers after conversations they had with her this past spring.
Republican Assemblyman Chris Tague says Hochul is a “political hack” because she’s backing new rules allowing farm workers to get overtime pay after 40 hours per week — a move that could shoot produce prices even higher amid historic inflation.
The successor to Chief Judge Janet DiFiore will inherit a state Court of Appeals that’s narrowly divided between conservative and liberal voices as it prepares to adjudicate potential fallout from the Supreme Court’s recent rulings on abortion and gun control.
Monroe County District Attorney Sandra Doorley, who is facing scrutiny for her political activities, spoke at a local Republican Party committee’s fundraiser in May which featured U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin, the Republican nominee for governor.
Hochul’s inaction on the crime crisis enveloping the Big Apple is allowing Zeldin to turn the key issue to his advantage, political experts said.
A staffing crisis at residential facilities operated by the state OPWDD is continuing to drive closures of the facilities, with labor groups and families who rely on the group homes worried there is not enough being done to recruit new workers.
Staten Island Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, the city’s lone Republican House member, has tried to maintain some distance from the Supreme Court ruling on abortion, but her position on the issue – and several others – could prove problematic in November.
Democratic congressional candidate Max Rose, who hopes to oust Malliotakis in November, is urging Hochul and the state legislature to hold an emergency session to toughen New York’s controversial no-cash bail law.
With only a month before the primary, a Bronx progressive, state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi, packed her bags and headed upstate with the aim of taking on another Democrat, Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, who also switched districts.
Ethics experts are questioning whether the head of congressional Democrats’ campaign arm, Maloney, used his House and campaign cash for “personal services” with the hiring of an aide — who said his role was to serve as the lawmaker’s “body man.”
A procession of Republican town chairs whose committees have endorsed Western New York congressional candidate Nick Langworthy are feeling the wrath of his primary opponent Carl Paladino.
The epic Democratic primary fight between veteran New York Reps. Carolyn Maloney and Jerrold Nadler is a toss-up, according to a new internal poll from challenger Suraj Patel that shows him surging.
Maloney had a colleague vote on her behalf when the House of Representatives passed legislation to revive a ban on semi-automatic guns — while she campaigned for re-election back in her Manhattan district.
The House Ethics Committee cleared three members of Congress – including Long island Rep. Tom Suozzi and Western New York’s Chris Jacobs – of wrongdoing for failing to properly disclose hundreds of personal stock trades worth millions of dollars.
Elnatan Rudolph, an acolyte of the infamous Republican operative Roger Stone, formed an entity dedicated to electing moderate Democrats to the state Assembly — and it appears to have failed to file the required fund-raising paperwork with the state on time.
New York City will release a treasure trove of memos about what the city knew about the toxic air at the World Trade Center site, but only if federal lawmakers can help protect the city from lawsuits after the documents are made public.
Mayor Eric Adams sat on a park bench alongside homeless advocates at a “sleep out” in Manhattan’s Morningside Park Saturday night amid a city-wide homelessness crisis.
A coalition led by New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams has released a four-year roadmap to “ending homelessness as we know it,” proposing strategies to help the roughly 55,000 unhoused people in the city move into stable, affordable housing.
A lead plaintiff in a high-stakes, handicapped-rights lawsuit against the city has agreed to drop her claims — two days after being named the new commissioner of the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities.
Adams’ rapper son is at odds with his dad over drill rap, saying in a recent interview it was “outrageous” for Hizzoner to call for a ban on the violence-glorifying genre.
A day after allegations emerged that Bishop Lamor Whitehead bilked a Brooklyn woman out of her life’s savings, Adams defended his longtime friend, saying he’d continue to “try to mentor” the flashy preacher.
Adams and Comptroller Brad Lander announced the city has cleared up a bureaucratic logjam that was preventing $4.2 billion in city funds from going to non-profit contractors — many of which provide vital services and had been waiting months to be paid.
24-hour speed cameras are set to activate this morning at 2,000 locations throughout the five boroughs.
New York City’s subway tunnels, among just a handful of places in the sprawling metropolis where cellphone service remains out of reach, will be wired to connect riders traveling underground, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
The NYPD’s Special Victims Division is under federal investigation. Women who were attacked said officers often didn’t know how to investigate, or didn’t bother.
Two top leaders of the Trinitarios gang were found guilty of murder on Friday for ordering a deadly attack on a 15-year-old boy who was dragged out of a Bronx deli four years ago and hacked to death with knives and a machete.
A man was arrested after he was found with a loaded AK-47 assault rifle outside the Brooklyn home of an Iranian American journalist who was the target of an international kidnapping plot said to be orchestrated by an Iranian intelligence network in 2021.
Additional dead dogs have been discovered in Troy, prompting fears concerning spread of an often-fatal virus that infects canines.
A new shuttle route designed to help manage “safe, sustainable visitation to backcountry destinations” in the Adirondack High Peaks is being launched by the state Department of Environmental Conservation and Essex County.
Information about nearly $400 million for the Capital Region’s roads, bridges and buses was being served Saturday at the Troy Waterfront Farmers Market among the usual offering of farm fresh produce and takeout food from local restaurants.
Former Albany Bishop Howard J. Hubbard, 83, recently suffered a stroke that apparently led to a minor collision in a vehicle he was driving. The incident resulted in Hubbard being hospitalized at St. Peter’s Hospital in Albany.
Employees at five more Starbucks coffee shops in the Capital Region are attempting to unionize, following successful bids by workers at stores in Guilderland and Latham.
The City of Albany has declared a state of emergency and Amtrak temporarily suspended service west of Albany, and on the Lake Shore Limited train, after chunks of the facade of Central Warehouse fell late last week.
A fast-growing wildfire fueled by strong winds from thunderstorms and high temperatures in Northern California has grown to more than 51,000 acres in two days, becoming the state’s largest wildfire so far this year.
Bill Russell, the all-time great Boston Celtics center who won 11 championships during 13 dominant NBA seasons, died yesterday at age 88.
Biden remembered the NBA legend as a “great American” and an “all-time champion of champions,” joining a chorus of U.S. leaders in commemorating the life of one of the greatest basketball players in history.
Actress and singer Nichelle Nichols, best known for her groundbreaking portrayal of Lt. Nyota Uhura in “Star Trek: The Original Series,” has died at age 89, according to a statement from her son, Kyle Johnson.
She was among the first Black women to have a leading role in a TV series. She later worked with NASA to recruit minorities for the space program.
