Good morning, and welcome to a date with a lot of 2s in it – 12/2/22 – good day if 2 happens to be your lucky number.
Also a good day, just generally speaking, because it’s Friday. I, for one, needed it to be Friday very badly. Hooray for Friday.
I know we’ve talked about my fear of flying here before, and how it tends to hold me back from traveling a lot. That and the fact that I really just enjoy my dogs, and my bed, and my routine.
Man, am I boring, or what?
Anyway. When I DO fly, I try like heck to avoid the New York City airports. First of all, just getting to them is a serious pain. Why put yourself through that when you can just as easily fly from Newburgh (very easy, and often overlooked), Albany, Newark, or Boston?
And then there’s the question of the infrastructure of the airports themselves – particularly LaGuardia, which then-Vice President Joe Biden once infamously referred to as a being more akin to “some third-world country” than a modern-day supposed superpower like the U.S.
Reportedly, LaGuardia has come a long way since then. The vice president’s comments helped galvanized support for a long-simmering overhaul of the airport, and $8 billion later, it has been completely transformed – apparently making it the first new major airport built in the U.S. in a quarter century.
Delta’s new Terminal C opened to passengers this past June, nearly doubling the size of the two previous terminals it replaced. It features lots of windows, open space, art, and new amenities galore.
Terminal B, meanwhile, has a new skybridge, and in 2021 was awarded UNESCO’s prestigious Prix Versailles, signaling its status as the best new airport in the world at the time.
LaGuardia, named for the late NYC Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia (AKA The Little Flower) opened its doors for the first time on this day in 1939. At the time, American Airlines was the first carrier to regularly provide passenger service.
The airport was built on the site of the old Gala Amusement Park. Once called the Overseas Terminal, and then the Marine Air Terminal, Terminal A was the first site of departure for travelers and served international flights throughout the 1940s.
The site was originally owned by the Steinway family (yes, famous for its pianos) and was a private flying field. It later became a commercial facility and went through a few name changes – from Glenn H. Curtiss Airport to North Beach Airport to New York Municipal Airport-LaGuardia Field (after the city took over its management) and finally, in 1953, its current moniker.
As of 2019, LaGuardia – the smallest of the three New York metro-area airports, sitting on 680 acres – was also the third-busiest, behind Kennedy and Newark, and the 21st busiest in the nation by passenger volume. It mainly does domestic flights, with international offerings to Canada.
The limited offerings are due in part to a curfew imposed at the airport, in part for noise abatement purposes, but also to allow for maintenance to take place without disturbing flights. The airport is also governed by a slot system, which I find a little confusing, but if you want to delve more deeply into this particular rabbit hole, click here.
Thanks for indulging me my curiosity about LaGuardia Airport, which was all spurred by the fact that it is celebrating a birthday of sorts today.
As is, FWIW, Britney Spears, who was born on this day in 1981, and has been celebrating her freedom from her conservatorship by posting lots of nude selfies on Instagram. (Sorry, no NSFW links from me today, go find it for yourself, it’s not difficult).
We’ll see a mix of sun and clouds today with temperatures in the mid-40s. The weekend is looking kinda crummy, to be honest, with rain tomorrow, though temperatures will soar into the low-50s, and then back to the mixed sun/clouds situation and temps in the 40s.
In the headlines…
President Biden said he would talk with President Vladimir Putin if the Russian leader expresses a desire to end his invasion of Ukraine, but only do so in consultation with NATO allies.
Biden used the first state visit of his presidency to demonstrate unity with France’s Emmanuel Macron on Ukraine, show willingness to speak to Putin and assuage European anger over U.S. subsidies.
With pomp and pageantry, Biden welcomed Macron and his wife, Brigitte, to the White House.
The Senate passed legislation that would force a tentative rail labor agreement and thwart a national strike. A separate vote on adding seven days of paid sick leave to the agreement failed.
“I want to thank Congressional leadership who supported the bill and the overwhelming majority of Senators and Representatives in both parties who voted to avert a rail shutdown,” Biden said in a statement.
Biden is recommending a massive overhaul of the presidential nominating calendar, calling for South Carolina to replace Iowa in the leadoff position and elevate Michigan and Georgia into the mix.
Biden reportedly would like to see New Hampshire and Nevada go after South Carolina, on the same day, followed by Georgia and then Michigan on different, later days
The president’s direction comes as the DNC rules committee gathers in Washington today to vote on shaking up the presidential primary calendar starting in 2024.
The Supreme Court said that it will hear arguments in a case challenging the Biden administration’s student loan debt relief plan — but kept in place a lower appeals court’s nationwide injunction that prevents that program from taking effect for now.
Oral arguments in the case were set for February.
The decision by Fort Worth, Texas-based U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman was one of two nationally that has prevented the U.S. Department of Education under Biden from moving forward with granting debt relief to millions of borrowers.
An appeals court has ordered an end to the “special master” process for reviewing documents seized from former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence, delivering a major boost to the Justice Department’s continuing criminal investigation.
The three-judge panel reversed an order in an unanimous but unsigned 21-page ruling, appointing the special master to sort through the thousands of documents, saying the judge should not have intervened in the first place.
As the end of a criminal tax fraud trial Trump’s real estate company neared, a defense lawyer argued that the former president knew nothing about a former senior executive’s years-long scheme.
Trump once again made clear last night exactly where he stands in the conflict between the American justice system and the mob that ransacked the Capitol to stop the peaceful transfer of power nearly two years ago. He stands with the mob.
Trump sent a video statement of support to a fund-raiser hosted by a group calling itself the Patriot Freedom Project on behalf of families of those charged with attacking the Capitol on Jan. 6, saying people have been treated “very, very unfairly.”
Recent rounds of layoffs at large U.S. companies mark a departure from the usual pattern as executives navigate fears of an economic slowdown: This time, white-collar workers have been among the first and hardest hit.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that she was not sure what an acceptable unemployment rate is for the current economic outlook, but said that the Treasury has considered jobless rates in the 4% range as indicative of a healthy labor market.
Applications for U.S. unemployment benefits fell last week, consistent with a labor market that remains resilient despite signs of a broader economic slowdown.
Initial jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs, decreased by 16,000 to a seasonally adjusted 225,000 last week, the Labor Department said Thursday. That was near the 2019 weekly average of around 218,000, when the labor market was also robust.
U.S. consumer spending increased solidly in October, while inflation moderated, giving the economy a powerful boost at the start of the fourth quarter as it faces rising headwinds from the Federal Reserve’s aggressive monetary policy tightening.
Financial technology companies oversaw a disproportionately high rate of fraudulent loans through the Paycheck Protection Program authorized by Congress to provide small business loans during the Covid-19 pandemic, a new congressional report says.
Los Angeles County Director of Public Health, Dr. Barbara Ferrer, believes that if COVID-19 cases continue to rise, the county could move back into the high transmission level as soon as next week, which would mean the return of mandatory indoor masking.
Ferrer said the county is now averaging more than 2,700 new COVID infections per day, a 180% increase since Nov. 1. Daily virus-related hospital admissions are at 192 per day, a 200% jump since Nov. 1.
Gov. Kathy Hochul promised to unveil a “bold and audacious” housing agenda next month. She did not provide details, saying she will unveil them at her State of the State speech.
The governor lamented the dearth of reasonably priced housing options and promised “bold and impactful initiatives” to address high rents and roadblocks to development during a fiery address at the New York Housing Conference Annual Awards Program.
With a deadly crisis of fentanyl-related overdose deaths fast becoming a scourge in the US, Hochul has vetoed a bipartisan bill aimed at fighting the problem.
New York state is receiving $28 million in federal aid for a seven-year program meant to prepare low-income students for college, Hochul announced.
New York state financial regulators are weighing new regulations for virtual currency businesses as the sector has fallen under scrutiny following the implosion of cryptocurrency exchange FTX.
New York’s equity-focused rollout of its legal marijuana market relies heavily on a $200 million fund to support the state’s first retailers. Yet the team picked to raise and manage that money have repeatedly failed to deliver on their biggest and boldest claims.
The number of New Yorkers and prospective students from out of state who have applied to a State University of New York school has doubled in the last year, driven by a two-week fee waiver for applications.
As the New York State Thruway Authority plans to potentially raise the cost of tolls, its executive director, Matt Driscoll, is planning to resign.
Advocates gathered at the Capitol yesterday, World AIDS Day, to call on policymakers to prioritize funding for permanent, supportive housing for people living with HIV across the state.
Black and Hispanic inmates are significantly more likely to experience disparities in disciplinary treatment, the state’s inspector general said Thursday morning, charging the sprawling Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.
Prominent elected Republicans, influential donors and conservative grassroots activists are pushing for Lee Zeldin to become the next Republican National Committee chairman.
Commissioners on New York’s redistricting panel voted to advance a new proposed map for state Assembly legislative boundaries, setting off yet another round of public hearings.
In drawing the new draft lines – under court order – the 10-person commission sought to create districts with only small deviations in population among the districts, as well as districts that do not unnecessarily split cities, towns and counties.
The new plan would force three state Assembly members from Central New York to run in newly configured legislative districts where they don’t live.
For months after her resignation, former New York Chief Judge Janet DiFiore has benefited from state-funded court officers working as her personal chauffeurs and protection detail — services that previous chiefs did not receive after they left office.
Since her resignation took effect on Aug. 31, DiFiore, 67, has been chauffeured to a New York Giants football game, on shopping trips and to restaurants for dinner, according to a source familiar with the matter.
The three most liberal judges on the Court of Appeals all reportedly applied for the currently vacant position of chief judge, but were excluded from the shortlist by the state panel that reviews applications.
A Syracuse federal judge has taken a prominent role in the nation’s legal battle over gun control after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a century-old New York gun law.
As Mayor Eric Adams ratchets up his administration’s approach to tackling street homelessness, city data shows that only about 5% of the homeless people caught up in the mayor’s encampment sweeps entered the shelter system as a result.
Homeless New Yorkers struggling with mental health issues are not getting the help they need at city shelters, according to an audit released by state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli.
The blistering 41-page audit linked botched placements by DHS to two recent murder cases, an attempted murder, a robbery, a shelter suicide and at least two drug overdoses.
Adams said he’s doing what his predecessors were too scared to do by ordering cops to take mentally ill homeless people into custody for psychiatric evaluations.
New York City’s transit chief and three other top police officials announced their retirements, creating turnover in the department’s top ranks as Adams tries to focus it on subway crime and removing people with mental health issues from the streets.
Adams called for a broader crackdown on hate speech spread across social media channels, both from the federal government and the companies who run the platforms, and for the elimination of plea bargains for those charged with hate crimes.
New York City prosecutors should never offer plea deals to people accused of hate crimes, Adams said.
Speaking on a virtual press briefing, Adams told reporters that since New York City is set to host the 2026 World Cup, he thinks he can learn a thing or two from observing how the Qatari government is figuring out logistics for this year’s event.
The mayors of Athens and New York signed a twinning agreement at the Greek capital’s Town Hall.
A “humanitarian crisis” could ensue if Rikers Island is replaced by the undersize borough-based jails championed by former Mayor Bill de Blasio, a new Manhattan Institute study finds.
A Democratic nominee for city Board of Elections commissioner, a role that involves safeguarding New Yorkers’ right to vote, left a trail of sneering tweets and bad blood in his wake, according to firsthand accounts and a Daily News review of social media posts.
With just over a year before New York City’s climate law targeting buildings goes into effect, property managers and co-op board members are starting to look to the future, motivated by the looming deadline, and the threat of thousands of dollars in penalties.
One of the world’s largest gambling businesses, Las Vegas Sands Corp., is looking to build a casino on Long Island at the suggestion of its senior vice president David Paterson, a former New York governor.
Days into their search for a 14-year-old last seen near the Mohawk River, Schenectady police are asking the public for help finding another missing girl.
The latest round of layoffs at CNN has hit some of the network’s biggest names. Political analyst Chris Cillizza, 46, who has been covering national politics, the White House and Congress for the cable giant since 2017, is among those who was let go.
The sale of Parler to Kanye West has been terminated, according to the social network’s parent company. Parlement Technologies Inc. said the decision had been made in mid-November and was in the interest of both parties.
West repeatedly praised Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler for doing “good things” in a shocking new antisemitic rant with far right-wing media host Alex Jones.
Twitter Inc. is offering advertisers incentives to increase their spending on the platform, according to people familiar with the matter, an effort to jump-start its business after Elon Musk‘s takeover prompted many companies to pull back.
