Good morning, it’s Monday. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news – unless, of course, you’re on the quiet quitting bandwagon, in which case maybe it doesn’t matter what day of the week it is? Color me confused.
We are now in the first week of Hispanic Heritage Month, which runs from Sept. 15 through Oct. 15. It is, officially speaking, a monthlong national celebration to honor the history, culture and influence of the Latino community.
This year’s theme is theme is Unidos: Inclusivity for a Stronger Nation, with the intention of encouraging participation by and recognition of all voices.
There is actually a fairly logical reason that this celebration spans parts of two months and doesn’t encompass all of one.
To start with, Sept. 15 is the anniversary of independence from Spain in 1821 for Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.
Also, Sept. 16 (not as is widely misunderstood, Cinco de Mayo) is Mexico’s Independence Day – the day in1810 when a Catholic priest, Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla delivered a speech that inspired a movement.
Celebrations in Mexico City actually kicked off last Thursday, with bells ringing to recreate the 1810 call to arms known as El Grito — the cry to overthrow Spanish rule and fight for independence.
Meanwhile, Chile celebrates its independence on Sept. 18, and Columbus Day – Día de la Raza, Oct. 12, falls toward the end of the 30-day period. (Though marking that day has become increasingly controversial, with communities across the US opting instead to recognize Indigenous Peoples Day).
As of 2019, at least 10 states were celebrating some version of Indigenous Peoples’ Day on the second Monday in October, Hawaii, for example, has Discoverers’ Day, while South Dakota has Native Americans’ Day.
Also, many college campuses have dumped Columbus Day for Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Ditto at least100 cities, towns and counties nationwide.
On Sept. 17, 1968, Congress passed Public Law 90-48, authorizing and requesting the president to issue annual proclamations declaring September 15 and 16 would mark the beginning of National Hispanic Heritage Week. President Lyndon Johnson did so the same day.
The idea was first introduced in June of 1968 by California Rep. George E. Brown, who represented East Los Angeles and a large portion of the San Gabriel Valley – both heavily populated by Hispanic individuals.
The push to recognize the contributions of the Latinx community had gained momentum throughout the 1960s during the peak of the civil rights movement.
In 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed a law that turned the week into a month. In 1989, President George H.W. Bush, who had been a sponsor of the original Hispanic Heritage Week resolution while serving in the House, became the first president to declare the 31-day period from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15 as National Hispanic Heritage Month.
Since then, proclamations have been made by every sitting president of the United States.
For the record, the term “Hispanic” or “Latino” (or, more recently, “Latinx”) refers to a person’s culture or origin, not their race. The 2020 Census counted individuals as Hispanic or Latino or Spanish if they identified as having Mexican, Mexican American, Chicano, Puerto Rican, Cuban, or “another Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin.”
After a pretty fabulous weekend, weather-wise, we’ll have morning thunderstorms today followed by clouds and some potential for more storms in the afternoon. Storms might include strong, gusty winds, so be on the lookout for that.
Temperatures will be in the high 70s.
In the headlines…
All of Puerto Rico was without power yesterday as Category 1 Hurricane Fiona barrels toward the island, threatening to drop massive amounts of rain on its southern coast.
The blackout – which followed hours of progressively worsening power outages – comes five years after Puerto Rico’s power grid was devastated by Hurricane Maria in September 2017, leaving many residents without electricity for months.
Nearly 1.5 million customers were without electricity yesterday afternoon, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks power interruptions.
Typhoon Nanmadol brought torrential rain and the risk of destructive landslides to Japan’s southernmost main island, and more than eight million people were ordered to evacuate and seek shelter from the powerful storm.
President Joe Biden joined world leaders arriving in London to pay their respects to the Queen yesterday, crossing himself as he witnessed her coffin lying in state in Westminster Hall for the last night before her funeral.
Biden said the Queen was “the same in person as her image – decent, honorable and all about service.”
Tens of thousands of people have cycled through to say their final goodbyes while the queen’s coffin is on display in Westminster Hall, although Biden did not have to wait in the up-to 24 hour lines that many Brits have been enduring.
The Queen will finally be laid to rest today – a funeral that’s been meticulously planned for decades and is expected to be the most-watched live event in TV history.
Biden urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to not use tactical nuclear or chemical weapons in the wake of setbacks in Ukraine.
“Don’t. Don’t. Don’t,” Biden said in a televised interview with U.S. broadcaster CBS that aired last night. “It would change the face of war unlike anything since World War II.”
Biden met with Brittney Griner’s wife Cherelle Griner and Paul Whelan’s sister Elizabeth Whelan separately on Friday in the Oval Office, according to the White House.
Biden “appreciated the opportunity to learn more about Brittney and Paul from those who love them most, and acknowledged that every minute they are being held is a minute too long,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said after the meetings.
Biden reiterated that United States military personnel would defend Taiwan if the Chinese military were to launch an invasion of the democratically ruled island.
However, following the interview, a White House official told “60 Minutes” that U.S. policy regarding Taiwan hasn’t changed.
Biden said that while he intends to run for re-election in 2024, the decision is still up in the air.
The president said former President Donald Trump’s alleged personal retention of classified documents after leaving office was “totally irresponsible.”
Whether he is invited or not, the former president keeps holding rallies in battleground states. It reflects an awkward dance as Republican candidates try to win over general-election voters.
Trump appeared to more fully embrace QAnon on Saturday, playing a song at a political rally in Ohio that prompted attendees to respond with a salute in reference to the cult-like conspiracy theory’s theme song.
Mazars USA, the longtime accounting firm for Trump that cut ties with him and his family business this year, has begun turning over documents related to his financial dealings to Congress.
Six Republican nominees for governor and the Senate in key midterm states, all backed by Trump, would not commit to accepting the November outcome. Five others did not answer the question.
A Trump confidant goes on trial beginning this week on charges he illegally pushed U.S. officials to support policies favoring the United Arab Emirates, a case that could detail the small Gulf state’s back-channel connections and outsize sway in Washington.
Attorney General Merrick Garland addressed new citizens at Ellis Island, the site of his family’s American origin story, and warned the country had become dangerously divided by political factionalism, which has imperiled the democracy and the rule of law.
Social media companies have weak policies on misinformation and have failed to enforce them consistently ahead of the 2022 midterms, according to a new report from New York University’s Stern Center for Business and Human Rights.
Aware that he was the target of a federal sex trafficking investigation, Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz told a White House aide he’d asked former Trump Administration chief of staff Mark Meadows about a preemptive pardon.
Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich warned that “civilization will break down” if crime rates in big cities across the country continue to spiral and hands-off district attorneys fail to enforce the law.
Ukraine’s top prosecutor said his office has documented 34,000 potential war crimes throughout the ongoing conflict with Russia and is mounting a case on genocide.
Biden said he believes the Covid-19 pandemic is “over” in an appearance on CBS’ “60 Minutes,” but acknowledged the US still has a “problem” with the virus that has killed more than 1 million Americans.
“We still have a problem with Covid,” the president said. “We’re still doing a lotta work on it. But the pandemic is over. If you notice, no one’s wearing masks. Everybody seems to be in pretty good shape. And so I think it’s changing.”
You may have up to a 50% higher risk of developing long Covid-19 if you suffer from common psychiatric issues such as anxiety or depression, a recent study found.
Has COVID-19 become no more dangerous than the flu for most people? That’s a question that scientists are debating as the country heads into a third pandemic winter.
The new Covid booster vaccine campaign is one of the country’s last remaining strategies, as masks have fallen away and quarantines have diminished. So far, the rollout is methodical but muted.
About 50,000 people who left New York City for Connecticut during the pandemic are staying put despite calls by big banks and other Manhattan employers to bring workers back to the office, says Governor Ned Lamont.
Rep. Lee Zeldin, the Republican nominee for governor, called for an investigation into $637 million in spending by Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration to buy rapid coronavirus tests last winter.
California paid 45 percent less for the Covid tests that were supplied by Hochul donor than New York did.
“Kathy Hochul’s approach to this job is one of selling access in a way that even Andrew Cuomo would never even think of. This crosses all sorts of lines, and it must be investigated,” Zeldin said.
Top aides to Hochul offered boutique access and customer service to elite deep-pocketed donors keen on furthering their business interests in the state, a review of emails shows.
As Hochul smashed campaign fundraising records last year, she held dozens of intimate, high-dollar events that gave affluent donors one-on-one time to speak with her.
The Albany County DA’s office and the state Board of Elections are moving forward with an investigation focusing on thousands of duplicate signatures that were submitted in nominating petitions to secure the Independence Party ballot line for Zeldin.
Zeldin vowed to fire liberal Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on his first day in office and reiterated criticism of his opponent, Hochul, for standing by the state’s controversial bail reform law.
New York regulators have begun the first steps toward enacting a measure meant to expand the construction of buildings that have a much lower carbon footprint.
Questions continue to swirl around Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ migrant relocation efforts, from his use of federal COVID aid to fly migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, to the mysterious aviation company tasked with handling the trips.
Migrants shipped to this elite vacation island said they had been misled about where they were being taken, prompting immigration lawyers to promise legal action as the group of Venezuelans were relocated temporarily to a federal military base.
Six buses from Texas filled with migrants arrived at the Port Authority Saturday, as the city’s shelter system neared its breaking point.
Democratic politicians upset over Republican governors sending buses and planes of asylum seekers to their jurisdictions evoke white liberals who opposed integration in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, former New York Gov. David Paterson said.
New York City may fight Texas in court over the Lone Star State’s policy of sending migrants to the Big Apple, Adams said.
Adams called for more “coordination” with the federal government and Govs. Greg Abbott, R-Texas, and Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., who are busing and flying newly arrived migrants to blue states across the country.
As at least six more buses from Texas arrived in the city yesterday morning, Adams also floated the idea of using cruise ships to house migrants who have been entering city homeless shelters by the thousands.
Moved by images of migrants being bused into the city, the chefs and owners of the stalls at the soon-to-open Urban Hawker food hall in Manhattan are offering them jobs.
The Democratic mayor of El Paso, Texas, defended his move to send his own buses of migrants to New York City — with Adams’ permission — saying his goal is to “help them get to their destination.”
State officials are working with immigration advocates to help streamline the process for an estimated 800,000 New Yorkers who are eligible to naturalize.
The pace of affordable housing development in New York City slowed down significantly last fiscal year while major crime rates continued to spike, according to Mayor Eric Adams’ first annual management report.
Phil Banks, a former high-ranking NYPD official who resigned from the force amid a federal public corruption probe, is making key decisions under Adams.
Adams took a friendly meeting with controversial Rwandan President Paul Kagame at City Hall on Friday and warmly embraced the African leader on social media.
New details about the Queens version of Manhattan’s High Line Park emerged Friday when Adams announced that phase 1 of the project would cost $35 million and transform five acres of city-owned land in Forest Hills into a greenway.
Yeshiva University abruptly announced that it had placed all undergraduate club activities on hold, the latest maneuver in the legal battle by the Modern Orthodox Jewish institution to keep from recognizing an L.G.B.T.Q. student group.
New York City first responders are taking longer to get to fires, medical emergencies and crimes in progress. Critics blamed the potential deadly surge in response times on serious staffing shortages in the NYPD and FDNY.
Siren-blaring SUVs — hybrids and all-electrics — are becoming a staple at New York City crime scenes as the NYPD gradually retires its traditional sedan-based vehicle fleet.
The city Department of Education has axed another 850 teachers and classroom aides — bringing the total to nearly 2,000 school employees fired for failure to comply with a vaccine mandate increasingly struck down in court.
A Manhattan judge de-liver-ed for some Big Apple restaurants last week, halting the city’s upcoming ban on foie gras sales.
A new bill in the state Legislature would require NYCHA to provide residents with free food if their drinking water gets cut off — in response to this month’s arsenic scare at a Manhattan public housing complex.
The ongoing New York legal clash over fattened duck liver is part of larger national wrangling about who can dictate the treatment of animals raised for food.
Erin Merdy, who is charged with killing her three children, had struggled with money, men and mental health. Now, she is accused of one of New York’s worst crimes against children in recent memory.
As New York recovers from the global pandemic, one may wonder whether its reputation as a 24-hour town is in jeopardy.
“The Phantom of the Opera,” the longest-running show in Broadway history, will drop its famous chandelier for the last time in February, becoming the latest show to fall victim to the drop-off in audiences since the pandemic hit.
New York – which has the second highest number of monkeypox cases in the U.S. – has reached a turning point in its fight against the illness. New cases are declining sharply, though significant racial disparities in infection rates and access to vaccines remain.
The City of Albany will take Central Warehouse owner Evan Blum to codes court for a third time after he failed to meet the first of several deadlines to make repairs to the derelict building.
Alice Cooper, AKA the “Godfather of Shock”, was spotted strolling around downtown Albany ahead of a scheduled performance and was reportedly very ice.
Between mile markers 4 and 5 of the Albany County rail trail, a surprise awaits on the supports of the Cherry Avenue bridge – a virbrant mural painted by artist Fernando Orellana, an associate professor of visual arts at Union College.
