Good Tuesday-acting-like-Monday morning. I hope you all had a wonderful unofficial end-of-summer weekend.
Me? I spent most of my holiday break packing. OK, so racing (shout-out to you, fellow Lake George Triathlon Festival participants!) took up the duration of Sunday morning, but otherwise it was stuffing things into boxes and bags, sorting through eight years worth of accumulated crap I didn’t know I had, and throwing things away.
Why is it that the more you throw out the more you seem to have?
At this point, I just want to put it all on the front lawn, douse it with gasoline and light a match. I’m sure the neighbors would be thrilled to see me go – as if they’re not already thanking their lucky stars that the always running/earbuds in/crazy lady with the barking dog is moving out of the ‘hood.
Don’t worry, we’re not leaving the area – that has to wait a few years yet. We’re more or less moving across town. But it’s still a massive undertaking.
Any way you slice it, whether you chip away at it bit by bit like we’re doing, or do an epic all-in-one-fell-swoop packing-and-moving marathon, the whole thing just stinks. It’s enough to make you want to chuck it all and renounce society to live in a cloistered nunnery – or whatever the equivalent of a place where you aren’t allowed to own much personal stuff is for Jews…a kibbutz?
Anyway. Enough about my first-world problems. Welcome back to reality – to school, and full workweeks without summer Fridays, and prepping for the holidays (they’re already selling Christmas decorations, I’ve heard, though I haven’t seen the evidence yet).
Technically speaking there are still 16 days left until fall, but we’re more or less already there. I mean, pumpkin spice everything has been available for weeks now. And isn’t that the true seasonal test?
When egg nog lattes start popping up, you know winter has arrived.
It’s time to start preparing ourselves for indoor pursuits (though fall hiking is truly the best, IMHO), things like jigsaw puzzles (the pandemic rekindled my love of these), and board games, and knitting (I hear it’s really relaxing for some people, though it makes me tense as hell), and above all, reading.
There’s nothing quite like cozying up with a fire and a blanket and a snoozing dog at your feet and a good book. And call me a luddite, you won’t be the first, but I like a book I can hold in my hand that’s made of paper and has pages that turn.
I tried the Kindle thing – I have two uncharged versions kicking around somewhere, unless I already purged them in the pre-move prep) – I just couldn’t get used to the screen thing. And also, I like to read in the bathtub, and electronic devices and water don’t mix. Trust me on this one. I know from personal experience.
It’s National Read a Book Day, which is as good an excuse as any to treat yourself to some new (or used is good, too, or loaned, if libraries are your jam) reading material.
The number of books published each year varies wildly, depending on which website you happen to land on. By one estimate, the number is somewhere in the range of 2 million worldwide. Interestingly, nearly 1.7 million books (again, an estimate) are self-published in the U.S. alone, which seems to be a growing tend.
I personally know at least three people who have gone this route. I can’t say that they’ve become literally successes, but they’re sold a modest number of titles. And the satisfaction of seeing your name in print I think counts for quite a bit.
It’s a good day for curling up with a good book, in case you might be stretching out your vacation time. There’s more rain in the forecast – basically, it’s going to be wet for the entire day – with temperatures only in the mid-to-high 60s. Due to the persistent precipitation, flood watches are in effect in some parts of the state.
In the headlines…
A federal judge in Florida ruled that a special master will review the documents seized in last month’s FBI search of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, granting his request and temporarily limiting the government’s criminal probe into the materials.
The ruling would effectively bar federal prosecutors from using key pieces of evidence as they continue to investigate whether Trump illegally retained national defense documents at his estate.
In a particular blow to the Justice Department, the order ruled that Trump could assert claims not only of attorney-client privilege, which are available to any suspect, but also executive privilege.
“Remember, it takes courage and “guts” to fight a totally corrupt Department of ‘Justice’ and the FBI,” Trump wrote on his social media platform. “They are being pushed to do the wrong things by many sinister and evil outside sources.”
The cash-rich company that seeks to merge with Trump’s social media company is facing a looming deadline and is asking shareholders to give it more time to complete the deal.
Biden yesterday visited swing states Wisconsin and Pennsylvania for his first public stops since giving a divisive anti-Trump address in which he called “MAGA Republicans” a “threat to this country” and “the very foundations of our republic.”
Biden expressed his support for labor unions and boasted about Democratic legislative victories during a Wisconsin labor event just two months ahead of the November midterms.
Biden made a stop outside Pittsburgh to celebrate Labor Day and his work to strengthen organized labor across the country, in what his supporters called the most “pro-union” administration in history.
Biden responded to a heckler while delivering remarks in Milwaukee saying, “Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”
The president sought to clear up any confusion about his stance against “MAGA Republicans” devoted to Trump, saying he wasn’t referring to all Republicans in comments last week after some on the right accused him of stoking division.
“Not every Republican embraces that extreme ideology,” Biden said. “I know because I’ve been able to work with mainstream Republicans in my whole career.”
Biden’s use of Marines during his Philadelphia speech at Independence Hall last week adds to the debate over politicization of the military.
Republicans are focusing on pocketbook issues, and Democrats are emphasizing abortion rights, as Labor Day marks the start of the midterm elections’ final stretch.
Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, the DCCC chair, said Democratic candidates are ready to campaign with Biden ahead of the November midterm elections after notching several legislative victories this summer.
A new Wall Street Journal poll suggests that Democrats have a fresh opportunity to entice swing voters by pitching the components of the Inflation Reduction Act, which Biden signed into law in mid-August and plans to tout throughout the fall.
Trump has yet again shattered expectations and is turning what had been shaping up as a referendum on Biden and the economy into one on his own grievance-fueled politics.
Biden said Russia should not be designated a state sponsor of terrorism, a label Ukraine has pushed for amid Russia’s ongoing invasion while Moscow has warned it would rupture U.S.-Russian ties.
Smaller-scale nuclear-power proposals are getting a boost of federal support under the recently passed climate, healthcare and tax bill. Now their backers must prove the projects can be delivered on time and on budget.
Biden’s plan to cancel student debt and modify payments for millions of Americans could cost as much as $1 trillion, according to budget analysts, challenging the administration’s efforts to scale down the federal deficit.
Britain’s Conservative Party announced that its members had chosen Liz Truss to replace Boris Johnson as leader, turning to a hawkish diplomat, party stalwart and free-market champion to govern a country facing the gravest economic crisis in a generation.
Truss will face the most daunting economic outlook for an incoming British leader since her political hero, Margaret Thatcher, became the U.K.’s first female prime minister in 1979.
Johnson will formally tender his resignation to Queen Elizabeth II at Balmoral in Scotland today and Truss will then have an audience with the monarch where she will be asked to form a government.
Canadian police searched for two men suspected of killing 10 people in a series of stabbings in an Indigenous community and a nearby town, as a massive manhunt for the perpetrators of one of the deadliest attacks in the nation’s history stretched into Day 2.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police Saskatchewan identified Damien Sanderson and Myles Sanderson as the two suspects in the massacre. They are believed to be driving a black Nissan Rogue with SK license plate 119 MPI, according to police.
One of two suspects in stabbing attacks in Canada that killed 10 people has been found dead, police said. The body of Damien Sanderson, 31, was found on the James Smith Cree Nation in Saskatchewan.
Myles Sanderson may also have injuries, but is considered “armed and dangerous. The 30-year-old has an extensive criminal record involving persons and property crimes, authorities said.
The brutal knife assaults in Saskatchewan are likely to revive concerns in Indigenous communities about the seriousness with which the Canadian authorities treat crimes against them.
California yesterday faced its greatest risk of blackouts so far this summer, officials said, as soaring temperatures stressed the power grid and rapidly spreading wildfires killed two over the weekend.
China’s government approved the world’s first inhaled vaccine against COVID-19, the vaccine’s maker Cansino Biologics announced.
More than 70 Chinese cities have been under full or partial Covid lockdowns since late August, impacting more than 300 million people, as local authorities rush to stamp out infections at all cost in the final countdown to leader Xi Jinping’s expected third term.
Nearly every province has recorded infections in recent days, leaving some 60 million residents locked down. Weariness is growing by the day as the restrictions go on seemingly without end.
Before new versions of the Omicron strain took hold in the U.S., Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE had begun tinkering with their widely used Covid-19 vaccine.
The U.S. government estimates as many as 7 million to 23 million people are impacted by long COVID, and a Census Bureau survey suggests that among people who have been infected, one in five still experience lingering symptoms.
Thousands — if not millions — of Americans could be on the sidelines of the rapid economic recovery because they’re still too sick from prolonged COVID-19 symptoms to work.
Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin is closing in on incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul in New York’s tightening gubernatorial race, a poll released Saturday found.
The survey, conducted by the independent Trafalgar Group, found Hochul with just a 4 percent lead over the Long Island congressman — a significant narrowing in a race that has seen Hochul with a lead of up to 24 points.
A union backing Hochul is touting her record in office in a new 30-second spot landing upstate and on Long Island Tuesday where a recent Siena Poll showed Zeldin with a single-digit edge.
The incumbent Democrat’s campaign also threw down $2 million last week to launch a post-Labor Day air offensive that will begin reaching English and Spanish-speaking voters from Erie County to Montauk in the coming days.
Trump reportedly helped Zeldin, raise an additional $1.5 million for his campaign to oust incumbent Hochul.
At a reception hosted Sunday at the Chera real estate family’s home in New Jersey, Trump advocated for Zeldin, who has been inching closer to Hochul in the polls in recent days with the general election still nine weeks away in November.
“He’s with supporters and strong supporters – people who believe in him, people who believe that his policies are right for America and that his policies still to this day are right for America,” Zeldin said of Trump.
Congestion pricing is becoming the GOP’s sharpest political tool against Democrats in key New York midterm races.
Long Island for-hire companies driving to and from Manhattan to make a living said the MTA’s proposed congestion pricing plan could be “devastating” for business, costing them hundreds of dollars daily in new tolls.
The Napanoch Point wildfire at the Minnewaska State Park Preserve has been contained, Hochul said Sunday afternoon. The fire began Aug. 27 as the result of a suspected lightning strike, officials said.
A panel tasked with reviewing nominations to New York’s new ethics and lobbying oversight panel has rejected three out of ten nominations, while confirming seven others.
Hochul announced that New York State will establish a Caribbean trade office to support and encourage new economic opportunities for New York businesses.
The New York Farm Laborers Wage Board will meet today to issue its final report and recommendation regarding the overtime threshold for farm workers. The proposal brings the overtime threshold down from 60 hours to 40 hours.
Former Democratic Rep. Max Rose turned down the Working Families Party line in his re-match against Staten Island Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis.
New York City’s massive West Indian Day parade returned yesterday for the first time since the start of the COVID pandemic in a joyful blaze of music, food and color.
While the Covid-19 pandemic forced the celebrations to be scaled down for the past two years into a series of virtual events and smaller gatherings, J’Ouvert and the day parade returned in their original incarnations in 2022.
The tap water at a New York City Housing Authority complex in the East Village was initially found to contain arsenic at levels higher than the federal drinking water standard, but subsequent testing has called the earlier results into question, city officials said.
The federal monitor overseeing NYCHA directed the agency to preserve all documents related to a probe into the discovery of arsenic in the water supply of a Manhattan housing development.
It would cost the Big Apple nearly $14 billion to bring the estimated 50,000 illegal basement apartments across New York City up to code.
The New York City Correction Department last year found a program that worked to reduce violence in some units in its jail for younger detainees — but then the agency fired the initiative’s leader and now its future seems very much in flux.
A pair of unlicensed Manhattan marijuana outlets targeted by the state are bracing for a weed war as New York prepares to tightly regulate the potentially lucrative pot selling business.
The city has removed dozens of dining sheds and is considering more regulations for those that remain.
The chief financial officer at Bed Bath & Beyond jumped to his death from his luxury apartment in the famed “Jenga Building” in Tribeca — days after the troubled retail chain announced it will shutter 150 stores, police said.
Gustavo Arnal, who was the chief financial officer of BBB, is among the defendants named in a $1.2 billion class-action suit that accuses him, Chewy.com founder Ryan Cohen and others of artificially inflating the troubled housewares giant’s share price.
Brooklyn Bishop Lamor Miller-Whitehead, who was robbed of more than $1 million in jewelry in a caught-on-video heist at the pulpit, has filed twin $20 million lawsuits against two doubting Thomases.
The New York City principals union is being accused of lacking transparency over its quiet — and “abusive” — ouster of a “highly regarded” official, according to members.
One of the biggest hospitals in Brooklyn, Maimonides Medical Center, is in danger of collapse after posting a loss of $145 million last year and defaulting on some of its debt obligations, annual financial filings show.
The Archdiocese of New York is waging a legal battle to block the disclosure of more than 1,400 pages of internal records related to its investigations of Howard J. Hubbard, who served as bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany from 1977 to 2014.
Low rainfall paired with higher-than-average temperatures this summer may make for a more muted and accelerated leaf-peeping season in the Capital Region.
Strong words like “traitor” and “unhinged” are being exchanged in the race for NY-21. Democrat Matt Castelli says his Republican opponent, Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, is unfit for office. He’s also calling her a traitor.
The human remains found in a wooded area last Thursday have been confirmed to be those of Shaker High School teacher Meghan Marohn, the Berkshire County District Attorney office said.
