Good Tuesday morning.
This past weekend, I drove to Six Flags Great Escape, which, if you are not familiar, is “New York’s most thrilling theme park” located in Queensbury, just off the Northway as you head toward Canada.
I chose my words very carefully there, saying I “drove” to the park and not that I “went” to the park, because I did not, in fact, enter the park. I sat in the parking lot, waiting for my teenage step-son and his girlfriend, who had been dropped off a few hours earlier, to emerge so we could drive them home.
Yes, I am a glorified limo service, or rather, my husband is. And I am a sometimes unwilling copilot.
I have actually been to the Great Escape once. I didn’t love it. Perhaps it will not surprise you one iota to learn that I am not a big amusement park person.
First and foremost, I don’t like rides, and like them less as I get older and can no longer tolerate (nor crave) being scared out of my mind and uncomfortable.
Second, I don’t like crowds. I never have, not even prior to the Covid pandemic.
I’m a hypochondriac, and so I don’t like sitting in the same seats recently occupied by other people – lots of other people – and breathing the same air as they are.
I also don’t like standing in line for overpriced, unappetizing, and generally unhealthy food. I don’t like carnival games and useless oversized stuffed animals that look like they would burst into flames if they came anywhere near a match.
I do, however, have a soft spot for roller coasters – not riding them, mind you, because my upside down and sideways days are over. But I really appreciate their history and their engineering and the inexplicable pull they seem to have on people.
Did you know, for example, that the world record for marathon roller coaster riding is held by a guy named Richard Rodriguez, an American who rode the Pepsi Max Big One and Big Dipper roller coasters at Pleasure Beach, Blackpool, UK for 405 hours and 40 min from July 27 to August 13 in 2007.
Also the world’s highest roller coaster (456 feet) is right here on the east cost – Kingda Ka, it’s called, and it’s at Six Flags Great Adventure, located in New Jersey. It’s also the fastest coaster in North America, but not the fastest in the world.
That honor goes to Formula Rossa, a launched roller coaster located at Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, which has a maximum speed of 240 km/hr. It’s also quite pricey. It costs $64 US just to ENTER Ferrari World without access to the coaster, which requires a premium pass that will set you back $104 US and get you one priority ride on everything the park has to offer.
While we were sitting in the parking lot waiting for the kids to emerge, we were treated to a really fine view of the Steamin’ Demon, the first of what would eventually be the park’s seven roller coasters.
The main attraction, though, is a wooden roller coaster called the Comet, which re-opened at The Great Escape in 1994, having been relocated from Crystal Beach, Ontario after 41 years., and is now viewed as one of the best of its class in North America.
The first U.S. roller coaster opened right here in New York – in Coney Island, Brooklyn – in June 1884. It was a switchback railway, created by a guy named LaMarcus Thompson, that traveled about six miles per hour and cost a nickel to ride. Today, Irondequoit’s wooden coaster the Jack Rabbit, at the Seabreeze Amusement Park, is the oldest continuously operating coaster in North America.
In case you’re up for playing hooky – or just happened to be on vacation and in the market for something to do – it’s National Roller Coaster Day. Enjoy yourself, and tell me all about it later. I’m more than willing to sit this one out.
It will be in the mid-to-high 80s today with partly cloudy skies in the morning that give way to all clouds in the afternoon, when there could be a stray rain shower about. So get your coaster riding in early….assuming you’re here in upstate NY, that is.
And one more thing…The Material Girl (AKA Madonna) turns 64 today, in case you need a reminder of how old you truly are.
In the headlines…
The Justice Department filed a motion opposing the unsealing of an FBI affidavit that would reveal the government’s “probable cause” of a crime and other details surrounding the Aug. 8 search of former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in South Florida.
Prosecutors say its release would compromise the investigation into Trump’s handling of secret documents after he left office. Now a judge must decide.
Attorney General Merrick Garland deliberated for weeks over whether to approve the application for a warrant to search Mar-a-Lago, people familiar with the matter said, a sign of his cautious approach that will be tested over the coming months.
Trump claimed that three of his passports were swiped last week in the FBI’s search.
The legal pressures on Trump and his closest allies intensified further, as prosecutors informed his former personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, that he was a target in a wide-ranging criminal investigation into election interference in Georgia.
The development for Giuliani marks the first time a close adviser to Trump has been notified he is a target in a criminal investigation into the then-President’s inner circle around the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election.
A senior executive at Trump’s family business who was charged with participating in a yearslong tax scheme is nearing a deal with Manhattan prosecutors but will not cooperate with a broader investigation into the former president.
The Trump Organization’s longtime financial sentry Allen Weisselberg is expected to plead guilty to criminal tax fraud charges later this week.
Federal prosecutors charged a Pennsylvania man with posting multiple violent threats against the F.B.I. online in the days that followed the bureau’s search of Trump’s private club and residence in Florida.
President Joe Biden will sign into law the sweeping climate, health care and tax legislation today that has been Democrats’ priority for more than a year during a ceremony at the White House.
Under the bill, companies will face a new 1% excise tax on purchases of their own shares, effectively paying a penalty for a maneuver that they have long used to return cash to investors and bolster their stock price. The tax takes effect in 2023.
Leadership of a prominent student-loan company doesn’t see borrowers resuming payments anytime soon.
Sixty-two percent of 2,000 adults surveyed by Freddie Mac said they are somewhat or very concerned about being able to cover their housing in the coming year, and 69 percent said that they are somewhat or very worried about higher home prices in general.
Record numbers of migrants are being arrested while crossing the southern U.S.-Mexico border, a sustained surge of single men and families from across Latin America either seeking asylum or work, new figures from U.S. Customs and Border Protection show.
An effort to recall Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón was rejected after organizers failed to submit enough valid petition signatures to get the matter on the ballot.
The CDC has updated its monkeypox guidance to include dogs as animals that can catch the virus. The CDC tweaked its guidance after the first case of a pet dog suspected of contracting the virus from its owners was documented in France.
A dog living with two men in France who were infected with the virus began exhibiting symptoms 12 days after they did, according to The Lancet.
The federal government’s distribution of monkeypox vaccine has been blemished by missteps and confusion, burdening local officials and slowing the pace of immunizations even as the virus spreads, according to interviews with state health officials.
Thousands of emergency room doctors around the country are in an abortion tug of war, faced with a decision to follow a federal law that allows for abortions in life-threatening situations or respect state laws that ban the procedure.
A data-marketing and analytics company has sued the Federal Trade Commission, saying the agency is wrongly threatening to sue it for marketing geolocation data that might be used to track consumer visits to sensitive locations such as abortion clinics.
Scenes of mayhem unfolded in an Ikea in Shanghai as health authorities tried to lock down the store on Saturday and quarantine those on site after learning someone who had been in contact with a Covid-19 patient had visited.
Multiple videos on social media showed customers yelling and pushing each other in an attempt to escape the building before the doors closed.
A “next generation” coronavirus booster jab which may only need administering once a year has been approved for use in adults.
Britain is the first country to approve the Moderna-made vaccine, which generated a strong immune response against both the original virus and the Omicron variant.
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, 60, said he had tested positive for Covid-19, was experiencing very mild symptoms, and had started a course of the company’s oral antiviral treatment, Paxlovid. He was isolating and following all public health precautions.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin tested positive for coronavirus yesterday morning, he said in a statement. It’s the second time the Pentagon chief is known to have contracted the virus.
Apple has set Sept. 5 as the new deadline for corporate employees to return to the office in-person for at least three days a week.
Poliovirus has been detected in New York City wastewater, but children who are up-to-date on their vaccinations should be OK, pediatricians said.
A spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry blamed the author Salman Rushdie himself for the violent assault that left him critically wounded, and denied any Iranian role in the attack.
After the attack, writers and world leaders hailed Rushdie as a symbol of free expression. But the battle lines around his novel “The Satanic Verses” were never cleanly drawn.
Republicans say Gov. Kathy Hochul has gone too far by extending the COVID-19 state of emergency for another month amid ongoing questions over how campaign donors might benefit from suspended contracting rules.
Erie County District Attorney John Flynn was appointed to serve as the special prosecutor to oversee the case against the 43-year-old Fairport man accused of attempting to assault Republican gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin during a rally last month.
State Republican Party headquarters in Albany served as a final hub of a dubious petitioning effort that’s since sparked controversy and a Democrat-led call for a criminal investigation.
A coalition of left-wing groups has begun mobilizing to pressure Hochul to nominate a progressive pick as chief judge who will reverse the Court of Appeal’s drift to the right under the departing Janet DiFiore.
Back home in western New York yesterday morning, Hochul announced a series of major projects planned for Buffalo’s waterfront.
New York state Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie has remained one of the most steadfast and prominent supporters of the state measures that largely ended cash bail for many criminal charges.
Republicans in the state Senate are urging top leaders in New York to make their appointments to a task force meant to study cyber bullying. The appointments for the panel were due earlier this year in January.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer endorsed longtime Rep. Jerrold Nadler in the congressman’s primary battle against veteran Rep. Carolyn Maloney, picking a side in an uptown House race that has riven local Democratic circles.
The free-for-all Democratic campaign for the congressional seat covering lower Manhattan and brownstone Brooklyn took a new shape, as Dan Goldman emerged as the front-runner and faced intense criticism from his more progressive rivals.
The progressive movement in New York City and its suburbs sees the August primaries as an opportunity to win after taking lessons from the June campaigns.
The Bronx’s Rep. Ritchie Torres joined a growing chorus of politicians sharply criticizing the MTA’s congestion pricing plan to toll motorists who drive south of 60th St. in Manhattan.
Brooklyn’s troubled federal jail should open its doors to unannounced inspections by elected officials and judges, five Democratic primary candidates running in New York’s hotly contested 10th congressional district wrote federal officials.
Robert Zimmerman, a contender to replace Long Island Rep. Tom Suozzi in next week’s Democratic primary for the 3rd Congressional District on Long Island, is facing heat for his links to prominent Republicans.
Brooklyn state Sen. Kevin Parker and his staff have enjoyed luxury food, travel and jewelry with the help of thousands of dollars in donations to the 10-term incumbent — who is battling for his political life in the Aug. 23 Democratic primary.
Mayor Eric Adams opened a new front in his war against the far left by backing Rev. Conrad Tillard‘s primary challenge against Democratic socialist Brooklyn state Sen. Jabari Brisport ahead of next week’s vote.
A coalition of 60 advocacy groups is sounding the alarm that Adams’ administration is weighing a plan to “dismantle” a long-running effort to train New York City schools in a less-punitive approach to student discipline.
Adams waved off concerns over his decision to put a casino executive on the municipal government’s payroll — but refused to divulge whether the city’s ethics watchdog ever cleared the unusual arrangement.
“He’s a 9/11 hero,” Adams told reporters in The Bronx after he was pressed on allowing Timothy Pearson to maintain dual employment while he was in city service. “We need to lift up our 9/11 heroes,” the mayor added.
Just months away from voters’ decision on whether to retain or fire him, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has found a new foil to help him rally his conservative base and turn back Democrat Beto O’Rourke in November: NYC Mayor Eric Adams.
Former NY Gov. David Paterson said Abbott’s “brilliant stunt” of busing migrants from the border to New York City could win him the White House.
Debate over security and immigration policy last week shifted from the U.S. southern border to the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan.
While the stark rise in asylum seekers coming into the city of immigrants has been months in the making, it has led to a sudden local and national political reckoning.
City Hall is putting together a “formal plan” to help migrant children transition to Big Apple public schools when they reopen in a few weeks, Adams said.
A luxury Manhattan hotel once touted as the “Lullabuy of Broadway”, The Row NYC, will soon be providing shelter to hundreds of asylum-seeking migrants.
City government investigators interviewed the Department of Social Services’ recently fired spokeswoman yesterday as part of a probe into allegations that her former boss tried to cover up the agency’s failure to provide housing for Latin American migrants.
New York City’s social services commissioner, Gary Jenkins, is being investigated over his handling of cases where homeless families had to stay overnight at a Bronx intake office while applying for shelter last month, two people with knowledge of the inquiry said.
A Brooklyn park-goer badly hurt when a tree branch fell on him from above over the weekend has died.
Animal rights activists and City Councilman Robert Holden are demanding that the Manhattan DA launch a criminal investigation into the carriage horse industry after a horse collapsed last week in Hell’s Kitchen.
The carriage horse that collapsed on a Manhattan street last Wednesday was “in distress” and “having trouble walking” in Central Park four hours before the troubling incident, a witness said.
A doctor found guilty last month of sexually assaulting patients was found dead at the Rikers Island jail complex yesterday even though his lawyer had called for him to be put on suicide watch just minutes after he was convicted.
Twelve people have died after being held in New York City’s troubled jail system this year, even as officials have rushed to implement reforms to stave off a looming threat of a federal court takeover.
Trader Joe’s only wine store in New York State, located in Union Square, closed without warning last week, sending some shoppers of the grocery store chain with a cult following into a minor tailspin.
Weed World Candies has taken a bite out of its headline-making half-million dollars worth of outstanding parking tickets in New York City.
Employees at MASS MoCA who formed a union in 2021 and have been negotiating with the museum since last summer for their first contract plan a work stoppage and to picket on Friday to protest what they characterize as a lack of progress on the talks.
The Town Board in this Albany County community voted unanimously last month to build a new $7 million Town Hall. But a former Coeymans town clerk got enough signatures needed to force the expenditure to go to a permissive referendum in the fall.
A nationwide legal advocacy group for Latinos is slamming U.S. District Judge David N. Hurd’s reversal of his earlier plan to become a senior judge, saying the switch improperly blocked the path of Clifton Park attorney Jorge Alberto Rodriguez to the federal bench.
The 2022 Altamont Fair kicks off today.
Ronald Riggi, the local philanthropist, businessman and half of a prominent Spa City power couple, died at age 80. His wife Michele Riggi confirmed that his death followed an eight-month battle with lung and bone cancer.
KraftHeinz Co. has pulled more than 5,000 cases of Capri Sun Wild Cherry juice drinks from store shelves after learning some batches were tainted by cleaning solution.
