Good morning, welcome to the Monday of this four-day workweek – AKA, Tuesday.
In 1987, from Oct. 8-13, the second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights took place. (The first had occurred in 1979).
Fueled by anger over the federal government’s slow response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and a 1986 Georgia court decision that upheld the state’s sodomy law, half a million people turned out to demonstrate and demand attention to, and action on, issues of importance to the LGBTQ community.
It was the first time the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt – now an epic 54-ton tapestry that includes nearly 50,000 panels dedicated to more than 110,000 individuals – was publicly displayed on the National Mall.
The Quilt took up a space larger than a football field and included 1,920 panels. Six teams of eight volunteers ceremonially unfolded the Quilt sections at sunrise as the 1,920 names of the people represented in the Quilt were read aloud – a tradition followed at nearly every Quilt display ever since.
The nearly week-long event culminated in a mass civil disobedience outside the U.S. Supreme Court in which 800 people were arrested.
A year later, the March was commemorated with the holding on Oct 11 of the first-ever National Coming Out Day, with the idea that the personal and the political could – and should – meld, and that the act of coming out to friends, family, and basically, the world, was an authentic act of activism, and the best way to combat homophobia.
Two activists – Rob Eichberg and Jean O’Leary – proposed the idea of NCOD. Eichberg, a psychologist and founder of The Experience, later died from complications caused by AIDS. O’Leary was the head of National Gay Rights Advocates.
They believed that by coming out, individuals would fight stigma by demonstrating to the public at large that most probably already knew, liked, respected, and perhaps even loved a member of the LGBTQ community.
As we know, it’s unfortunately not that easy. Though there have been a lot of significant gains and milestones – like, for example, the legalization of same-sex marriage – there are still considerable political, policy, and legal challenges for LGBTQ individuals, and hatred and violence are far from eradicated.
The Human Rights Campaign has a number of resources available for those who might be thinking of coming out and looking for guidance and/or support. So do GLSEN, the Trevor Project, and the Strong Family Alliance – just to name a few.
Today’s Google doodle is a tribute to Tito Puente, the musician and internationally-renowned entertainer, celebrating the life and legacy of the American “Nuyorican” with an animated video illustrated by New York-based Puerto Rican artist, Carlos Aponte.
After a kind of dreary semi-drizzly and on-again/off-again Monday, we’re in for a treat of a day, weather-wise, with sunny skies and temperatures in the mid-60s.
Too bad we all have to go back to work.
In the headlines…
President Vladimir Putin unleashed the broadest aerial assault against Ukraine’s civilians and critical infrastructure since the early days of Moscow’s invasion, hitting cities across the country in far-reaching strikes that drew furious international condemnation.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia carried out dozens of strikes using missiles and Iranian-made drones to target the country’s electrical grid and other civilian infrastructure. “They want panic and chaos. They want to destroy our energy system.”
Biden condemned major attacks from Russia on Ukrainian civilian centers, calling again on Russia “to end this unprovoked aggression immediately and remove its troops from Ukraine.”
“These attacks killed and injured civilians and destroyed targets with no military purpose,” Biden said. “They once again demonstrate the utter brutality of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s illegal war on the Ukrainian people.”
The Federal Reserve will need to hold interest rates high enough to slow the economy after it lifts them through the end of this year and into early next year, a central bank official said.
The Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded to former Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke and two other U.S. academics whose work helped governments and central bankers navigate the global financial crisis and avoid an economic depression.
When it comes to reassuring Americans about an economy that’s an election-year challenge for his party, Biden is telling the country to hold on.
A small-business advocacy group has filed a new lawsuit seeking to block the Biden administration’s efforts to forgive student loan debt for tens of millions of Americans — the latest legal challenge to the program.
The suit, filed by the Job Creators Network Foundation, is one of several brought by conservative business organizations, attorneys, and GOP lawmakers. It argues the Biden administration violated federal procedures by failing to seek public input on the program.
The Bank of England today announced an expansion of its emergency bond-buying operation as it looks to restore order to the country’s chaotic bond market.
Britain’s government said the date for its next fiscal policy announcement would be moved up nearly a month and it would provide, at the same time, a much-anticipated independent assessment of the policies’ impact on the nation’s economy and public finances.
A top British intelligence official will warn today that China’s expanding use of technology to control dissent and its growing ability to attack satellite systems, control digital currencies and track individuals pose far deeper challenges for the West.
Federal Reserve Vice Chair Lael Brainard laid out the reasons that inflation might soon moderate while also reiterating the central bank’s plan to continue constraining the economy by raising interest rates until price increases are substantially slower.
JPMorgan Chase CEO JAmie Dimon warned that a “very, very serious” mix of headwinds was likely to tip both the U.S. and global economy into recession by the middle of next year.
A nasal version of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine has failed in an early-stage trial, dealing a blow to hopes for a more effective way to prevent transmission of the virus.
The University of Oxford, in an official statement, said that the antibody response in the respiratory mucous membranes was seen in only a minority of participants in the trial, which was in the first of usually three phases of clinical testing.
The underwhelming results have led scientists to abandon plans to develop the spray in its current form, with hopes now resting on different formulations of the vaccine and more complex delivery devices, such as nebulizers.
New Covid cases are spiking across mainland China, prompting many local authorities to tighten controls on movement.
Holiday spending during China’s Golden Week has plunged to its lowest level in seven years, as broad Covid curbs discouraged people from traveling or spending, while a darkening economic outlook continues to erode consumer confidence.
Japan fully reopens to tourists this week after two years of COVID-19 restrictions. However, shuttered shops and a shortage of hospitality workers threaten the country’s hopes for a tourism boom.
Hospitals nationwide are preparing for another winter with Covid — the first one that’s also expected to include high levels of influenza and other respiratory illnesses that have simmered quietly in the background for the past two years.
With cold and flu season beginning, a new COVID-19 strain popping up in California could be making its way across the nation.
New York’s tally of COVID-19 cases has declined recently but the number of likely COVID-19 patients admitted to hospitals has increased about 24% over the past month, suggesting underreporting of infections is masking the virus’ true spread.
A shooting that wounded two teenagers on the property of Rep. Lee Zeldin was a disturbing development in a campaign that has seen him hammer Gov. Kathy Hochul over public safety and a controversial bail reform law enacted more than three years ago.
Zeldin’s 16-year-old teen daughters recalled the heart-stopping fear they felt dialing 911 and racing to an upstairs bathroom as gunshots rang out near their Long Island home.
“After my daughters heard the gunshots and the screaming, they ran upstairs, locked themselves in the bathroom and immediately called 911,” Zeldin said. “They acted very swiftly and smartly every step of the way and Diana and I are extremely proud of them.”
Suffolk Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison met with Zeldin after the shooting, and the department has deployed a “strike force” of officers in the Shirley neighborhood.
The boys, both 17, were walking with a third teenager on the street where Zeldin lives when they were hit by gunfire from a moving car, Suffolk County Police said. The wounded teens then tried to hide in Zeldin’s yard, ducking under his porch and into the bushes.
Neighbors described the pandemonium that broke out — including how one of the victims cried and screamed, “Oh, my God!’ as bullets flew on the typically bucolic Shirley street around 2:20 p.m. Sunday, injuring two teens.
The recent murder of an Erie County woman who police allege was killed by her estranged husband quickly led top Republican officials to blame changes to the state’s bail laws for the murder that is making national news.
Hochul pointedly ignored a question about solving the Big Apple’s mounting migrant crisis — and refused to say whether she’s trying to relocate some asylum-seekers to other cities upstate.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams dismissed a handful of hecklers with air kisses while Gov. Hochul and her Republican opponent avoided confrontation during yesterday’s 78th annual Columbus Day Parade in Manhattan.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott criticized Adams over the ticketing of buses carrying migrants from his state to the so-called sanctuary city, following a state of emergency declaration in the Big Apple amid the influx.
Tent shelters were being erected yesterday on Randalls Island to house waves of migrants, including those sent by Abbott.
A desperate migrant mom said she was reduced to begging on Staten Island because her girls can’t stomach the food being served at the hotel where the city put them after they arrived in the Big Apple on a bus from Texas.
At least 1,800 Latin American asylum seekers arrived in the city over the weekend, signaling that the migrant wave is accelerating even as Adams’ administration scrambles to shelter thousands of desperate travelers already in New York.
The NY Post’s Cindy Adams issues a scathing review of Mayor Adams’ tenure thus far, saying: he “can not make deals; he doesn’t know how. He’s a blabberer. A talker. A BSer. An accomplisher? NO!”
City Hall officials blasted what they called a “sexist” and “vile” report over how Adams and Schools Chancellor David Banks hired each others’ romantic partners to work lucrative top jobs.
Not long after Adams and NYC Health+Hospitals CEO Mitchell Katz recently announced vegan lunches would be become the default option in at H+H/Lincoln, Metropolitan, and Woodhull Hospitals, the city says the healthier meals are well-received by patients.
New York City is mulling a policy that would effectively deputize people who call in complaints about cars illegally blocking bike lanes and intersections — and pay them up to $44 for each actionable tip they make.
A woman was arrested in the fatal stabbing of a passenger on a New York City bus in the Bronx — the first homicide on a city bus in about eight years, officials said.
A Brooklyn man punched his 23-month-old daughter in the head last week, causing a brain injury that killed her on the day before her second birthday, according to a criminal complaint from the Brooklyn district attorney’s office.
Former Chicago Bulls shooting guard Ben Gordon was arrested at LaGuardia Airport when he allegedly struck his 10-year-old child, sources said.
One of the suspected members of a group of ‘Green Goblin’ thieves that terrorized two women inside a Times Square subway train turned herself in.
The NYPD could lose out on millions of dollars in federal grants for failing to report last year’s city crime to the FBI.
New York City’s taxi industry has faced a drumbeat of challenges over the past decade. Now, an ambitious government effort to boost public transit and push commuters out of cars could be the latest existential threat confronting the iconic yellow cab.
A retired New York City police detective running for Congress on Long Island was disciplined by the NYPD for leaving his gun unattended in a car in 2015 and working as a DJ without police department permission.
Diana Richardson, a former Crown Heights assemblywoman, has effectively been terminated from her job as Brooklyn’s deputy borough president following a string of staff and constituent complaints about her behavior.
Richardson’s boss, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, has fired her following complaints of bad behavior — including physical violence — from staff and constituents.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and the founder of a fledgling Amazon employee union visited the company’s massive warehouse in Schodack yesterday, urging workers to vote “yes” on tomorrow’s unionization vote.
Airports in and around the Capital Region appeared to have escaped a cyberattack launched yesterday against other airports across the country.
Deshanna Wiggins has been named the CEO of the newly-created Albany Black Chamber of Commerce.
Stella Pasta Bar & Bistro, closed since losing its Burnt Hills location this past winter, reopens later this week in the historic Van Dyck building, at 237 Union St. in the Schenectady Stockade district.
The city is attempting to broker a solution with the creators of a makeshift skate park in the city’s Stockade neighborhood to relocate the facility.
A decision by Saratoga Springs Judge Jeffrey Wait to dismiss a city building permit violation because Mayor Ron Kim was representing the city in the matter was reversed in Saratoga County Court.
History buffs can own nearly 70 years of the New York Times in a cardboard treasure chest of microfilm roles that are up for auction at the state’s Office of General Services warehouse.
The second sex crimes trial of Harvey Weinstein is underway in Los Angeles and among the witnesses expected to testify is Jennifer Siebel Newsom, a filmmaker, former actress and the wife of California’s governor, Gavin Newsom.
