It’s Wednesday, good morning.
Just a friendly reminder: Technically speaking, there are still 22 days until fall. Live your best summer life while you can.
But also be careful.
You probably have seen the reports about overdoses on the rise since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, and this distressing phenomenon shows no sign of abating despite considerable resources and attention deployed to address it.
Just this past week, for example, the state Health Department issued a warning regarding a rapid increase in opioid-related overdoses in the Central New York region likely linked to fentanyl.
According to the DOH, fentanyl is 50 to 100 times stronger than heroin and has contributed to an increase in opioid overdose deaths in recent years. Nearly half of all overdose deaths across the state now involve fentanyl.
At the national level, provisional data from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics found there were an estimated 100,306 drug overdose deaths in the U.S. from April 2020 – 2021. That’s an almost 29 percent from the same period the year before.
Drilling down into those numbers, opioid-related overdose deaths increased to 75,673, up from 56,064. Overdose deaths from synthetic opioids (primarily fentanyl) were up. Ditto cocaine deaths and deaths from prescription pain medication.
Clearly, Americans are hurting and in desperate need of support, treatment, and increased access to life-saving interventions like Naloxone (a medication that rapidly reverses an opioid overdose).
Today is International Overdose Awareness Day, an effort that was initiative in 2001 in Melbourne, Australia, and has since grown to become the world’s largest annual campaign to end overdose, remember without stigma those who have died, and acknowledge the grief of the family and friends left they behind.
The main message behind this day is that overdose death is entirely preventable, whether they occur in a purposeful manner by individuals who are intent on taking their own lives, or are accidental. Events are taking place around the nation and the world.
New York has its own Opioid Overdose Awareness Day, which was first observed last year on Sept. 9. Gov. Kathy Hochul marked the day by announcing a grant of $4.25 million over a five-year period from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration “to help prevent prescription drug and opioid overdose-related deaths and adverse events.”
Among other things, the money was earmarked to provide Naloxone kits to frontline organizations. Hochul has also signed a variety of bills into law to expand Naloxone access, and just a few weeks ago, state Health Commissioner Mary Bassett announced a pharmacy standing order statewide for Naloxone, making accessibility as close to over-the-counter as federal regulations allow.
Yesterday, Hochul announced $2.3 million to support addiction prevention efforts and enhance access to transportation services for treatment.
Historical aside, a propos of nothing: On this day in 1997, Princess Diana was killed in a car crash after being chased by paparazzi, so it’s the 25th anniversary of her death.
Things got a little dicey on the weather front yesterday, shifting from a heat advisory to a flood advisory as a result of some extremely strong storms that passed through the region. Today should be considerably quieter – not to mention cooler – with some clouds in the morning that give way to sunny skies in the afternoon and temperatures in the high 70s.
In the headlines…
Mikhail Gorbachev – the last leader of the former Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991 – died at the age of 91 after a long illness, Russian state news agencies reported.
Adopting principles of glasnost and perestroika, Gorbachev weighed the legacy of seven decades of Communist rule and set a new course, presiding over the end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the U.S.S.R.
The architect of ‘perestroika’ and ‘glasnost’ – restructuring and openness – unleashed a wave of unstoppable forces that led to the bloc’s demise.
“Mikhail Gorbachev was a man of remarkable vision,” President Joe Biden said in a statement, noting Gorbachev’s role in bringing an end to the Soviet Union.
Biden stressed Democratic efforts to improve public safety by spending more on policing and tightening gun laws, while accusing some Republicans of trying to undercut law enforcement in probes related to former President Donald Trump.
Biden gave a forceful defense of the F.B.I. during a speech in Pennsylvania yesterday and called out Trump’s allies for failing to condemn those who attacked law enforcement officers during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
Biden took a swipe at South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham for the GOP lawmakers warning that there would be “riots in the streets” if Trump is indicted by the Justice Department.
Biden found his voice in one of his most robust political speeches yet as president, days after condemning GOP “semi-fascism,” as part of a three-stop blitz in the coming week in Pennsylvania – a battleground that could decide the Senate’s destiny in November.
As Biden’s political fortunes improve, some swing-state Democrats are acting more comfortable about appearing with the president.
Biden’s public approval rating fell modestly this week, a poor sign for his Democratic Party’s hopes in the Nov. 8 midterm elections, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll completed yesterday.
Republicans hoping to seize control of the House in November are already setting their sights on what is, for many of them, a top priority next year: impeaching Biden.
Republicans are stepping up their efforts to prevent investors from considering environmental and other factors in their decisions. They are running up against the trillions of dollars in investments committed to funds addressing such concerns.
The Justice Department said “efforts were likely taken to obstruct the government’s investigation” of documents at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home months before FBI agents searched the Florida estate in early August.
Among the new disclosures were that the search yielded three classified documents in desks inside Trump’s office, with more than 100 documents in 13 boxes or containers with classification markings in the residence, including some at the most restrictive levels.
Trump has hired a high-profile lawyer to help him with the aftermath of the F.B.I. search of his club and home in Florida and the criminal investigation into his handling of sensitive government documents.
Trump hired Chris Kise, a former Florida solicitor general, and ally of Gov. Ron DeSantis, to represent him in the explosive Justice Department probe that led to the FBI search of his Mar-a-Lago estate.
As international nuclear safety monitors arrived in Kyiv to inspect the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, a senior Ukrainian official said a number of issues remained unresolved, including safe passage to a facility that has been repeatedly shelled by artillery.
The South Carolina House approved a bill that outlaws abortion except in the cases of pregnancies caused by rape or incest.
Restaurant operators and business advocates mobilized to try to persuade California Gov. Gavin Newsom to veto a bill that would set wages for fast-food workers, a move they said could increase costs and set a precedent other states and cities might follow.
California’s Legislature passed a bill that would for the first time in the U.S. require the makers of social-media apps such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok to consider the physical and mental health of minors when designing their products.
Life expectancy in the U.S. fell in 2021, for the second year in a row, driven down by the Covid-19 crisis.
Americans’ life expectancy last year fell 0.9 year on average to 76.1 years, according to data from the CDC and Prevention released Wednesday. It was a smaller drop than in 2020, when life expectancy decreased 1.8 years, the data showed.
This is the biggest continuous decline in life expectancy at birth since the beginning of the Roaring Twenties. Americans can now expect to live as long as they did in 1996, according to provisional data released by the National Center for Health Statistics.
The decline during the pandemic is the sharpest in nearly 100 years, hitting American Indian and Native Alaskan communities particularly hard.
China has placed millions of its citizens under renewed lockdown following fresh outbreaks of COVID-19, authorities reported, as the government persists in its hard-line policy on containing the virus.
The Food and Drug Administration is set to approve new boosters that specifically target the omicron mutation of COVID-19. Both the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines have been updated to protect against the highly contagious variants as well as the first strain.
Paxlovid, the Covid-19 treatment made by Pfizer, reduced hospitalizations and deaths in older patients during the Omicron surge in Israel earlier this year, but made no difference for patients under 65 at high risk for severe disease, new research has found.
Unvaccinated NBA players and team personnel must submit to weekly COVID-19 testing this season, the league told its clubs in a memo.
Goldman Sachs will no longer require its non-New York City based employees to get vaccinated for Covid-19. Unvaccinated employees the city will still need an approved religious or medical exemption to enter the bank’s office spaces.
The US government anticipates that it will stop purchasing and providing Covid-19 shots as soon as January due to a lack of funds, leaving Americans to obtain vaccines through insurers or pay for them out-of-pocket.
The Biden administration announced a new plan to send extra doses of monkeypox vaccine to states for use at events or sites that can reach more people of color and others who have lacked access to shots.
An immunocompromised adult in Texas may be the first reported monkeypox death in the United States, according to local health officials.
Gov. Kathy Hochul is raising campaign cash from state officials while dismissing accusations that she has been stretching ethics rules to their breaking point since replacing scandal-plagued ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo last year.
In her first year in office, Hochul has accepted more than $400,000 from appointees on boards from Buffalo to Battery Park City as well as the appointees’ spouses, a New York Times analysis of campaign finance data has found.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ripped Hochul for suggesting at a rally earlier this month that Empire State conservatives should take a hike.
DeSantis canceled a political fundraiser for Rep. Lee Zeldin Sunday night to attend services for a Florida Department of Law Enforcement agent killed in the line of duty.
Zeldin predicted his campaign against Hochul could benefit from GOP blowback to the federal raid on Trump’s Florida home.
Former Gov. David Paterson: “At the heart of the matter is the attempt to manipulate the most basic foundations of our democracy and, here in New York, we need look no further than the campaign of New York Republican gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin.”
A group of roughly 1,000 New York City parents, guardians and other stakeholders have signed a petition asking Hochul to veto a NYC class size mandate bill which would require smaller class sizes in public schools.
The governor, joined by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, announced the launch of a statewide multi-media campaign to educate eligible families about expansions made to child care assistance.
Hochul announced the deployment of the New York Army and Air National Guards, along with a number of other resources, to further support fire suppression efforts at the 130- to 150-acre wildfire currently burning in Minnewaska State Park.
Citing a rise in disruptive and violent episodes in classrooms across the state, school safety advocates are pushing for legislation tackling a myriad of issues they say contribute to unsafe school environments.
A coalition of unions, business groups and power plant operators are calling for caution in enacting the state’s ambitious plan to reduce carbon in energy production and other phases of the economy.
A bombshell complaint urges court officials to strip the law license of outgoing New York Chief Judge Janet DiFiore, alleging a number of ethical transgressions.
Existing concealed carry permit holders outside of the New York City area will not be subject to the state’s new gun training requirements that go into effect Thursday, according to guidance issued by the state this week.
Misdemeanor arrests in New York City jumped 25% in the first six months of Mayor Eric Adams’s administration — the first increase in nearly a decade — offering an early glimpse into the impact of the mayor’s focus on so-called quality of life crimes.
In about five years, smaller jails in four boroughs are supposed to replace Rikers Island after it shuts down, but Adams this week questioned whether the city would need more space thanks to an increasing jail population.
Adams and Comptroller Brad Lander are seeking to use the New York City government’s retirement investments as leverage to pressure the credit card industry into launching a system for tracing gun purchases, saying it would prevent mass shootings.
Adams suggested that Dan Goldman’s apparent win in the 10th Congressional District was a win for the mayor’s own political vision.
Adams has asked parents and activists who confronted him about the city’s school budget cuts: to pray for students and his administration. Their response: prayer alone is not enough.
Adams’ beleaguered social services chief, Gary Jenkins, is not tending to the city’s migrant-related homeless shelter crisis in person at the moment — because he’s on vacation in Mexico.
The House GOP’s political action committee is spending $1 million in TV ads to help Republican state Assemblyman Mike Lawler defeat Democratic Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney in New York’s 17th Congressional District.
Some in Rep. Mondaire Jones’ inner circle are accusing the Working Families Party, a key progressive institution in New York, of leading him on about the support it was willing, or able, to deliver for him in the race.
Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou who narrowly lost a crowded primary for the rare open seat in NY-10, is considering a general election re-match as the candidate of the Working Families Party against Democratic nominee Goldman.
The cops are copying signs declaring Times Square’s gun-free status after local lawmakers banned firearms in the Crossroads of the World.
A Massachusetts teenager arrested with a loaded gun while riding in a stolen car was cut loose by a Manhattan judge — despite prosecutors requesting bail over the suspect’s “extensive out of state ties.”
The New York City Council is considering a bill that defines the parameters of Times Square, in order to put boundaries around the area where firearms will continue to be prohibited, even as the rules for carrying concealed handguns loosen across the country.
Black motorists in New York City were more likely in the first half of 2022 to have their vehicles searched or to end up under arrest than any other racial group, according to new city data.
Two correction officers and a captain failed to act for at least ten minutes when a mentally ill man slit his throat with a razor at the Rikers Island jail complex last week, with guards looking on as the man bled, according to five people with knowledge of the matter.
The City University of New York has launched a big effort to get back in touch with 10,000 former students who dropped out before getting their degrees — and lure them back to school.
Yeshiva University has asked the Supreme Court to intervene in its legal battle over the recognition of an LGBTQ student club on religious freedom grounds.
The real estate listings site StreetEasy found that out of all New York City’s neighborhoods, Maspeth, Queens saw the largest growth in apartment searches over the past year. The area’s relatively affordable apartments may be a main reason.
Some Capital Region vineyard owners view the existence of the spotted lanternfly like a war in a foreign country: a distant threat, but one that could invade domestic soil within the year.
Jon W. Romano, 34, who has sought redemption for firing a shotgun at students and teachers inside Columbia High School as a teenager in 2004, was the victim in Monday’s vicious attack at a homeless center on Sheridan Avenue.
West Point cadets have long walked beneath a panel of three bronze plaques at the entrance of Bartlett Hall Science Center that includes an image of a hooded figure and the words “Ku Klux Klan” written below it, according to a congressional report.
But the commission said that recommending the removal of the plaque fell outside of its scope because the KKK, founded by former Confederate soldiers, emerged after the Civil War.
A New Jersey man cheated an unidentified Patriots player out of his championship ring and then posed as him to order three more engraved with Tom Brady’s last name, federal prosecutors said.
NASA’s Artemis team will take a second shot at a launch on Saturday after the first attempt on Monday was scrubbed.
NASA officials said Saturday’s two-hour launch window would begin at 2:17 p.m. EDT. The launch attempt could be further postponed until Monday if weather causes problems, they said.
