Good Wednesday-before-Thanksgiving morning.
First, some programming notes: There will be no Rise and Shine tomorrow or Friday. We will be back with you bright and early Monday morning. Enjoy your holiday. Get outside. Be safe. You know the drill.
If you are traveling, well, you are MOST CERTAINLY not alone. The Tuesday and Wednesday before Thanksgiving and the Sunday after it are some of the busiest travel days of the year. Be prepared for traffic, long lines, weather delays, cancelled flights, lost luggage, and other travel-related headaches.
Even though Covid is very much still with us – as is the flu, and RSV – Americans are traveling with abandon, and the TSA is expecting to see pre-pandemic levels of folks in airports, at bus and train stations, and on the roads this holiday season.
TSA predicts it could screen as many as 2.5 million passengers tomorrow, which would be the highest number yet this year, and that number could be even higher as folks head back home – or to their next destination – on Sunday, November 27.
The agency has come close to hitting that number several times so far this year, but hasn’t yet surpassed it.
The highest passenger screening volume in TSA history was recorded in 2019 on the Sunday after Thanksgiving when close to 2.9 million people passed through TSA checkpoints. (I have to confess, the mere thought of that crush of humanity and all its attendant germs makes me feel a little queasy; I might need to go take a shower).
All told, AAA expects that 54.6 million people will travel 50 miles or more from home this Thanksgiving weekend – a 1.5% increase over 2021 and just shy of pre-pandemic volumes. This year is projected to be the third-busiest for Thanksgiving travel since AAA started tracking 23 years ago.
If you’re hitting the road, which I generally prefer – higher likelihood of accidents, yes, but more control for anxious Type-A sorts like myself, except when you run into traffic, which is maddening – you will be doing so with some 49 million other Americans.
Another 1.4 million will be on a bus, train, or cruise ship. (That last one would be ideal, since someone else does the cooking and the cleaning, with the exception, again, of the germ possibilities; on second thought, hard pass from me here).
The three most popular U.S. holiday destinations, according to the travel booking site Hopper, which I must confess I have never used or even heard of, but has a very cute rabbit logo, are: New York City, LA, and Seattle, which beats out Orlando, FL, oddly. On the overseas front, the most popular destinations are: Mexico, Manilla, and Guadalajara.
If you are traveling, pack light if you can and get an early start. And be sure to bring a hefty dose of patience, if possible. Be nice to the airport personnel and the pilots and the flight attendants; they’ll all just trying to get home safe and sound to enjoy their families and some well deserved R-and-R.
And take some time to reflect on all your blessings. I know I don’t do this nearly enough. I have a lot to be thankful for, not the least of which is all of you, who indulge my musings and give me this space to engage in some Grade A navel gazing and pontificating.
Thank you for that.
It’s shaping up to be a decent holiday, with temperatures in the mid-to-high 40s and partly cloudy skies through Friday.
In the headlines…
Dr. Anthony Fauci reflected on the U.S. response to the Covid-19 pandemic in what was likely his last public briefing as the nation’s top infectious disease expert.
“Please, for your own safety, for that of your family, get your updated Covid-19 shot as soon as you’re eligible to protect yourself, your family and your community,” Fauci said.
The Biden Administration said it would redouble efforts to promote updated Covid-19 shots, adding funding and publicity campaigns to lift lackluster booster rates.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre shouted down several reporters during Fauci’s last press briefing as the chief medical adviser, calling them “disrespectful” before eventually saying “I’m done with you right now.”
Fauci said the administration was optimistic that “we’re not going to see a repeat of what we saw last year,” when the Omicron variant swept through the country.
The Biden administration has pushed social media giants like Facebook to curb Covid misinformation. But it is thriving on fringe platforms like Gab, a hub for extremist content.
Masks and social distancing should be mandated or encouraged in public to protect people from possible “long COVID”, according to a new report commissioned by the Department of Health and Human Services.
The report by the independent research agency Coforma, published Monday, was based in part on interviews with more than 60 people — including patients dealing with lingering COVID-19 symptoms, as well as their caregivers and health care providers.
The Biden administration announced that it will extend the payment pause on federal student loans until after June or when it’s able to move forward with its debt forgiveness plan. Federal student loan bills had been scheduled to resume in January.
The payment pause will be extended until June 30 or until the litigation is resolved — whichever comes first. If the litigation has not been resolved by June 30, payments will resume 60 days after that.
“I’m completely confident that my plan is legal,” Biden said in a video announcement. “But it isn’t fair to ask tens of millions of borrowers eligible for relief to resume their student debt payments while the courts consider the lawsuit.”
With Republicans narrowly taking control of the House, and Donald Trump announcing another presidential bid, Biden and aides are moving with speed to counter an anticipated barrage of right-wing attacks.
The Supreme Court cleared the way for a House committee to obtain Trump’s tax returns, refusing his request to block their release after a yearslong fight.
Chief Justice John Roberts, who supervises the lower court that issued the order in the Trump case, had placed a temporary hold on the subpoena on November 1, presumably to give the justices more time to consider the issue.
Former Attorney General William Bar called for a new leader of the Republican Party, warning in a blistering rebuke that Trump “will burn the whole house down.”
“Unless the rest of the party goes along with him, he will burn the whole house down by leading ‘his people’ out of the GOP,” Barr said in a scathing op-ed published in the New York Post.
A federal appeals court panel sounded highly skeptical about Trump’s effort to rein in the Justice Department’s investigation into a trove of government documents, including sensitive national security records, at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
A week after Trump declared his third candidacy for president, one of his closest allies on Capitol Hill, South Carrolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, was forced to testify before a Georgia special grand jury investigating election interference by Trump and his advisers.
A trial date of Oct. 2, 2023 has been set in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ sweeping $250 million lawsuit accusing Trump and his family real estate company of “staggering” fraud.
Biden called Richard Fierro to thank him for incapacitating the gunman who killed five people late Saturday at an LGBT club in Colorado Springs — with White House press secretary Jean-Pierre saying Fierro may have saved “dozens” of lives.
More than 48 hours after a shooting that left five people dead and 19 wounded at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs, authorities are continuing to search for evidence on what may have motivated suspect Anderson Lee Aldrich.
Police in Chesapeake, Va., responded to a shooting at a Walmart that resulted in multiple fatalities. The city of Chesapeake, citing the local police department, said on Twitter that the shooter was dead.
Talks between the leaders of China and the US were good for peace in Asia-Pacific, Taiwan Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said, underscoring how tensions in the region have eased in recent weeks.
Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a bill into law temporarily restricting cryptocurrency mining in the state over environmental concerns, making it the first state nationwide to implement such a move.
The controversial bill was delivered to the governor yesterday after the Legislature passed it in June. It comes amid growing scrutiny of the industry due to the collapse of the FTX exchange.
Hochul had punted on the bill, which would create the first-in-the-nation temporary pause on new permits for fossil fuel power plants that house proof-of-work cryptocurrency mining, for months while she sought election to the governor’s office.
National cryptocurrency industry groups, and NYC Mayor Eric Adams, had lobbied Hochul to veto the environmental ban, fearful that other states could follow New York’s lead.
“I will ensure that New York continues to be the center of financial innovation, while also taking important steps to prioritize the protection of our environment,” Hochul said in a message explaining her approval.
One of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges recently imploded. Crypto investors have suffered trillion-dollar losses. But Adams is showing no signs of retreating from what he has described as the future of commerce.
A amount of FTX’s assets are either missing or stolen, a lawyer for the failed crypto exchange said in court, vowing to cast a wide net to secure potentially billions of dollars in funds that passed through the firm he called the “personal fiefdom” of its co-founder.
Hochul also signed two bills into law aimed at addressing the “rising tide of hate” across the country.
The first piece of legislation requires New Yorkers convicted of a hate crime to go through counseling on hate crime prevention and education as part of their sentence.
The second law will create a statewide campaign run by New York’s Division of Human Rights to promote acceptance, inclusion, tolerance and understanding of diversity among New Yorkers, according to a statement from the governor’s office.
“It’s heartbreaking to know that there are acts of violence and hatred that exist throughout our country and within our own city, in our own state,” Hochul said at a press conference.
Construction has started on a new housing development in East Buffalo, Hochul announced.
Hochul signed legislation to make it easier for people to install electric charging stations on their private properties. It would force homeowners’ associations to allow this, as well.
Crime will remain the “number one priority” for Hochul heading into the new year, as the newly elected governor is showing no indication she will change her approach to the thorny political issue that was a sore point in the bruising campaign season.
The MTA will be encouraged — but not required — to install security cameras on all of its subway platforms under a weakened version of “Sedrick’s Law” signed by Hochul.
Supporters of “Clean Slate,” measure that would seal criminal conviction records in New York, are making a renewed effort to have the stalled legislation gain passage in the Democratic-controlled state Legislature this year.
The state Democratic Party hurriedly bought and helped distribute roughly 4,000 turkeys over the past few days after new ethics rules derailed what had been a November rite of passage for governors to oversee the distribution of the donated birds.
New York State’s common retirement fund has lost billions of dollars in value since April, a reflection of the ongoing troubles facing the financial markets.
Fewer than half the counties in the state have formally applied for millions of dollars in aid to assist their district attorneys with implementing changes made in 2019 to New York’s pre-trial discovery laws.
Ex-GOP Assemblyman Brian Kolb was among those who voted against creating a system of publicly financed campaigns. Now, he’s one of the officials, along with Democratic former Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton, overseeing the new system coming online.
On the steps of New York City’s City Hall, a coalition of political, community and nonprofit women leaders called on Hochul to prioritize legislation they said is befitting of a history-making elected executive.
A longtime Adams pal, Lisa White, rose from retired 911 dispatcher living off a $30,000 pension to be tapped for one of the highest-paid roles in city government, a $241,000-a-year gig.
Adams said he rented a room in a Brooklyn apartment from White, who was appointed this year to one of the top-paying jobs in city government, out of safety concerns he had at the time about living in a nearby townhouse he owned.
New York City agencies will be forced to sharply curtail hiring by eliminating roughly half of all vacant civilian positions, a dramatic belt-tightening move that threatens to further strain the delivery of city services.
To hear Adams tell it, there is a gathering fiscal storm — and the city must prepare. “Everyone has stated we’re about to be hit with a tsunami,” he said.
Adams defended largely excluding the NYPD from his latest round of budget cuts while arguing it’s justified to trim fat at most other agencies because of the “economic tsunami that is coming toward our city.”
Adams wouldn’t immediately commit to the amount of funding that Queens City Council Member Tiffany Cabán is seeking for a new program providing survivors of domestic violence access to low-barrier housing grants that he signed into law.
Just in time for the holiday season, New York City is rolling out its largest-ever Open Streets plan. For the first time in half a century, part of Fifth Avenue will be car-free.
As part of the plan unveiled by Adams, some side streets along Fifth Ave. will also be traffic-free, and areas for pedestrians will be expanded into the streets.
After a monthslong court battle over the New York City public school budget, a state appellate court allowed more than $200 million in cuts to remain in place this year, even as the justices found that the city had violated the law.
Black families long complained that the city’s child welfare agency is biased against them. It turns out that many of the agency’s own employees agree, according to a racial equity audit the agency commissioned but never publicly released.
A suspect was busted in the string of attacks on a Hell’s Kitchen gay bar, and allegedly told cops he was just “exacting revenge” on behalf of a gal pal feuding with the club, police said.
The attacks, four within a month, had created a deep sense of anxiety in Hell’s Kitchen — a feeling compounded on Saturday by a deadly assault on a gay bar in Colorado.
A Brooklyn woman admitted that she turned New York City’s hotel room program for COVID-19 frontline health care workers into an off-the-books lodging service.
The New York City Council voted to approve another major housing development – this time in Queens – in a sign that elected officials are increasingly willing to work with the real estate industry to address the city’s urgent housing crisis.
A developer is seeking one of three new casino licenses for Coney Island, hoping to sell the project as a way to revitalize the Brooklyn neighborhood.
A Staten island grand jury has identified numerous instances of ballot harvesting fraud in a race for City Council last year — including a ballot submitted on behalf of a dead person and signature fraud involving dozens of other absentee ballots.
The Domino Sugar sign greeted generations of motorists crossing the Williamsburg Bridge, and now it’s coming back.
The New York Philharmonic, which was an all-male bastion for most of its 180 years of existence, currently has 45 women and 44 men.
The parents of two state troopers died from gunshot wounds in rural Schenectady County and a sibling of the troopers was taken into custody in the city of Schenectady yesterday afternoon, according to law enforcement officials familiar with the case.
After more than two years, jury selection is set to begin Monday in the case of Harold Handy, the mechanic who was badly beaten at a party at a Columbia County sheriff’s deputy’s home.
Stewart’s Shops devotees can rejoice, there will now be an option to buy Stewart’s Shops swag, from baby onesies to rhinestone tumblers, online.
Stewart’s created an online shop that will debut on Cyber Monday for customers to purchase branded items, coffee and money/gas cards to be delivered right to their doorstep.
The Albany PAL is trying to fill a hole in its $1.2 million budget created by the absence of its biggest fundraiser, the Capital Holiday Lights in the Park, the annual display held in Albany’s Washington Park.
Two arrests of 13-year-olds with no connection to the district have been made in a graffiti incident that shocked the North Colonie schools community late last month.
The Albany Common Council approved the proposed 2023 budget of $217 million with several minor amendments this week.
A U.S. Senate subcommittee announced that it would hold a hearing on the lack of competition in the ticketing industry after Taylor Swift fans faced days of chaos last week as they tried buying concert tickets through Ticketmaster.
U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken condemned FIFA’s ban on armbands showing support for the LGBTQ community during World Cup matches.
Guards at Kennedy Airport were shocked to discover a cat stuck in a checked bag going through security, the Transportation Security Administration said, adding that the feline was no worse for the unexpected journey.
