Good morning, welcome to the first official Fall Friday.
On this day in 1952, Republican vice presidential candidate Richard Nixon delivered what came to be known as the “Checkers Speech.” For those of you who weren’t around at the time (raises hand), and/or either do not recall or did not receive an in-depth education about American history and politics, here’s the back story:
At the time, Nixon was a senator from California, and six weeks before the election, he had been accused to improprieties related to a fund that had been established by his backers to reimburse him for his political expenses. His candidacy was called into question. His political future hung in the balance.
So, what did he do? He turned to a new(ish) mass medium to take his claims of innocence directly to the people – television.
Nixon flew to LA and gave a half-hour TV address during which he defended himself, denounced his attackers, and called on the public to contact the RNC and urge officials to keep him on the ticket.
During this impassioned plea, he said he intended to keep one gift that he had received that had significant sentimental – if not financial – value: A cocker spaniel his children had named “Checkers.”
Hence, the name of the speech.
Nixon’s speech was seen and heard by about 60 million Americans – including the largest TV audience to date. (By contrast, consider that some 20 million watched the first Jan. 6 congressional hearing, 63 to 73 million typically tune in for presidential debates, and the most recent State of the Union address drew some 38 million viewers).
The candidate’s his gambit worked, sparking an outpouring of support from individuals who sent telegrams and made phone calls to the RNC and other political offices, expressing their support for keeping him on the ticket.
Nixon and Dwight D. Eisenhower, the GOP presidential candidate, swept to victory just a few weeks later in November 1952, defeating Democrats Adlai Stevenson and John Sparkman in a landslide.
Of course, things didn’t go so well for Nixon in the long run, as he rose to the Oval Office only to be forced to resign in August 1974 due to the Watergate scandal.
But his public appeal in the case of that particular speech worked like a charm, and it set a new standard. Ever since, the term “Checkers speech” has come more generally refer to any emotional public missive delivered by a politician.
After a pretty dreary, wet, and gray Thursday, things are looking up with clear skies and sun in the forecast, though it will be on the chilly side, with temperatures only in the high 50s.
The weekend is looking pretty good, though, with temperatures back in the 60s. Saturday is going to be nicer than Sunday, if you have outdoor plans on the agenda, as there will be some rain showers as the weekend progresses.
In the headlines….
The U.S. and its allies used the UN Security Council special session to condemn Russia for its invasion of Ukraine and call for an investigation into Moscow’s alleged war crimes, but offered few concrete measures for moving such a process forward.
A day after President Vladimir Putin announced a call-up that could sweep 300,000 civilians into military service, thousands of Russians received draft papers and some were marched to buses and planes for training — and perhaps a trip to the Ukraine front.
The British government is set to announce sweeping tax cuts for businesses and the wealthy in a controversial mini-budget showcasing the lengths to which new Prime Minister Liz Truss will go to overhaul U.K. economic policy even as it draws political ire.
Central banks around the world moved to combat the effects of a soaring dollar and rising inflation, joining the Federal Reserve in risking a recession to rein in climbing prices.
Federal Reserve officials and their counterparts around the world are trying to defeat inflation by rapidly raising interest rates. They know it will come at a cost.
Democrats and Republicans hold sharply different views of whether America is fulfilling its ideal of offering economic advancement to those who work hard and its hope that each generation will do better than the last, the latest WSJ poll shows.
Republican leader Kevin McCarthy is heading to Pennsylvania to directly confront Biden and the party in power, unveiling a midterm election agenda with sweeping Trump-like promises despite the House GOP’s sometimes spotty record of delivering.
The number of people who applied for unemployment benefits last week rose by 5,000 to 213,000, but new jobless claims are still quite low and reflect strong demand for labor even in a weakening U.S. economy.
The increase in new claims was the first in five weeks, but it was basically a statistical fluke. That’s because unemployment filings from two weeks ago were revised down to 208,000 from a preliminary 213,000.
The American Civil Liberties Union is calling on the Biden administration to close one of its privately run immigration detention centers after a Brazilian asylum seeker killed himself while he was being held in the New Mexico facility.
Former President Donald Trump’s assertion that he declassified documents seized at Mar-a-Lago has come under judicial scrutiny this week, as judges highlighted the limits of that defense and noted a lack of courtroom evidence substantiating it.
Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, blasted as “very troubling” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s policy of flying asylum-seekers from Texas to liberal enclaves like Martha’s Vineyard.
The numerous investigations and lawsuits swirling around Trump are creating new and significant financial pressures on him.
Trump-appointed World Bank President David Malpass’s refusal to acknowledge that burning fossil fuels is warming the planet exposed a debate about whether the institution is doing enough to help nations struggling with the impact of climate change.
A federal watchdog investigating the distribution of pandemic relief funds has tripled its estimate of the amount of money paid out in unemployment insurance that can be attributed to certain forms of fraud.
Health authorities encouraging retooled Covid-19 boosters are facing resistance from an unlikely corner: people who had embraced vaccines earlier in the pandemic.
Coronavirus cases and hospitalizations are rising once again in England after declining since early July, data suggests, with experts warning people should stay at home if ill and get a Covid booster if eligible.
The coronavirus is still killing three times as many people as the flu.
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky became the latest American to receive the new bivalent COVID-19 booster shot, saying that, thus far, “millions” of Americans have now gotten an updated vaccine.
The World Health Organization warned that it is struggling to identify and track new Covid variants as governments roll back testing and surveillance, threatening the progress made in the fight against the virus.
Omicron, the 13th named variant of the coronavirus, seems to have a remarkable capacity to evolve new tricks, and so might stick around for a while.
Disease experts said debating whether the pandemic is over overshadows a more important concern: the reality that Covid will remain a leading cause of death in the U.S. indefinitely.
Some public health officials strongly recommend getting the flu shot and the new bivalent booster at once. Dr. Asish Jha, who leads the White House’s pandemic response, said: “God gave us two arms: one for the flu shot and the other one for the Covid shot.”
Nearly two and a half years after it instituted some of the world’s tightest pandemic-related border controls, Japan said that it would finally welcome back most tourists next month as it seeks to revitalize its once lucrative travel industry.
Two New Jersey-based companies have agreed to pay a total of $325,000 in fines for selling a pesticide that federal officials say was falsely marketed as a disinfectant spray that could help eliminate the coronavirus, according to the EPA.
With monkeypox cases on the decline nationally, federal health officials expressed optimism that the virus could be eliminated in the United States, though they cautioned that unless it was wiped out globally, Americans would remain at risk.
Rep. Lee Zeldin rejected Gov. Kathy Hochul after the governor finally agreed to go toe-to-toe with her Republican challenger, unless she agrees to more verbal sparring matches ahead of the Nov. 8 general election.
“This is absolutely unacceptable just how much contempt Kathy Hochul has towards New Yorkers that she is trying to pathetically get away with just one General Election debate over a month after absentee ballots start going out,” Zeldin said in a statement.
During remarks to the state Democratic Party yesterday, Hochul urged the members of her fellow party to be “aggressive in our approach with absentee ballots.”
State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins repeatedly refused to weigh in on the $637 million “pay-to-play” scandal engulfing Hochul — saying she was satisfied with her fellow Democrat’s vague denial of wrongdoing.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie got lots of laughs at Trump’s while lamenting the current state of national politics at the state Business Council’s annual conference in Bolton Landing.
Democrat Robert Zimmerman and Republican George Santos — are running to fill the seat vacated by Long Island Rep. Tom Suozzi. This will be the first time in U.S. history that two out LGBTQ congressional candidates are going head to head in a general election.
Former New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton has endorsed Zimmerman in his bid for the 3rd Congressional District.
With less than two months to go until the general election, three outside groups are ramping up their presence in the 22nd Congressional District race.
A Max Rose campaign sign was discovered defaced with a swastika on Staten Island, and the congressional candidate says it’s a symptom of the “disgusting vitriol” dividing the nation and the district.
The city will open two “humanitarian relief centers” in the weeks ahead as it scrambles to house the influx of asylum seekers arriving in the five boroughs, Mayor Eric Adams said.
The Big Apple will begin setting up large tents to house intake centers and cots for the flood of migrants arriving daily as the months-long influx from the southern border has overwhelmed city shelters.
Photos released by the mayor’s office showed the interior of a sprawling tent as big as a football field, lined with dozens of orange cots arranged in tight rows.
The Adams administration is distancing itself from Bill de Blasio’s target of expanding free preschool to 60,000 families with 3-year-old children by next year, and the mayor is reassessing how the city’s so-called 3-K for All program fits into his broader strategy.
The NYC Districting Commission voted down a new set of proposed Council maps, with allies of GOP Minority Leader Joe Borelli and several Adams appointees shooting down a plan that would have stretched one of Staten Island’s three districts into Brooklyn.
Pay disparities along demographic lines like race, gender and ethnicity remain stark in New York City’s municipal workforce, a new City Council report revealed.
New York City’s Education Department will roll out new rules for the contentious middle and high school admissions process in “the next few days,” schools Chancellor David Banks said.
Disorganization and delays ruled the night at the Brooklyn Democratic Party’s gathering that happens every two years to formally set up the county committee.
The Staten Island man who was charged with assault for patting Rudy Giuliani on the back filed a $2 million notice of claim against the city for wrongful arrest after prosecutors agreed to dismiss his criminal case provided he stays out of trouble.
Daniel Gill, who initially faced a felony charge and spent more than 24 hours in jail, will have his charges dismissed and sealed in six months without admitting any guilt, as long as he commits no other legal infractions in that time.
At least three rappers with ties to the booming New York drill scene have been removed from the lineup of the traveling rap festival Rolling Loud, scheduled for this weekend at Citi Field in Queens, at the request of the NYPD, the artists’ representatives said.
Scores of women employed at Goldman Sachs more than a decade ago unsealed fresh accusations of how they were subjected for years to discrimination, sexual harassment and sexual assault by male managers at the Wall Street giant.
Robert J. Putorti, 52, a judge in Whitehall since 2014, pulled a loaded handgun on a defendant — and later bragged about it by describing how he had once pointed a firearm at a “large black man” inside the courthouse, a state judicial watchdog alleged.
The pandemic spurred many professional sports stadiums and the state Thruway to stop accepting cash, but Capital Region performance venues are slower to completely abandon U.S. currency at their concession stands.
The Twin Bridges in Colonie is structurally safe after an oversized commercial tanker vehicle struck the span during rush hour traffic Wednesday evening.
Alex Jones’s initial day of testimony in a trial for damages after years of lying about the Sandy Hook shootings ended in chaos.
Jones tangled in an explosive courtroom exchange with an attorney for families of Sandy Hook victims, prompting an admonishment from the judge and warning they could be held in contempt if they violate court rules moving forward.
In an angry outburst, the conspiracy theorist and Infowars host said “he’s done being sorry” as he took the stand during his second defamation trial for saying the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax.
