Good Wednesday morning.
Continuing on my historical kick, on this day in 1941, 2,403 U.S. service members and civilians were killed when the Japanese launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
In the attack, another 1,178 people were injured; two U.S. Navy battleships – the USS Arizona and the USS Utah – sank; and 188 aircraft were destroyed.
The U.S. declared war on Japan the following day, with just one dissenting vote cast in Congress. Three days later, after Germany and Italy declared war on it, we became fully engaged in the Second World War.
An aside: The dissenting vote was cast by Montana Rep. Jeanette Rankin, the first woman elected to Congress in 1916. She served one term, and then departed to do other things, including lobbying on behalf of various pacifist organizations, returning again when she was re-elected in 1940 at the age of 60, defeating an outspoken antisemite in the process.
Apparently, Rankin’s congressional colleagues were appalled by her refusal to vote in favor of the war, and lobbied her to change her mind, or at the very least, vote “present” instead of “no”. She stood her ground, replying: “As a woman I can’t go to war, and I refuse to send anyone else.”
A horde of reporters chased Rankin into the cloakroom, where she hid in a phone booth and had to be escorted back to her office by the Capitol Police.
Rankin later abstained from a similar vote declaring war on Germany and Italy, voting “present” this time around. Her pacifism rendered her incredibly unpopular and effectively ended her political career; she didn’t run for re-election in 1942, but later said she never regretted her actions.
As of this year, Rankin was still the only woman ever elected to represent Montana on Capitol Hill. Her other claim to fame was introducing legislation that eventually became the 19th Amendment, giving women the right to vote.
Another aside: Contrary to popular belief in some corners, the Japanese dive-bombers who attacked Pearl Harbor were not kamikazes.
The definition os a kamikaze is a pilot who makes a deliberate, suicidal crash on an enemy target, often in a plane that is loaded with explosives.
While the pilots of planes crippled during the fighting at Pearl Harbor may have targeted their falling aircraft in such a manner that was designed to take out as many U.S. soldiers as possible, or so as much damage as possible, in order to avoid capture, that is a shade different than setting out intending to crash in an act of self-sacrifice, which is something that did happen later on in WW II.
In August, 1994, Congress designated this day as National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, and a ceremony is held every year at the Pearl Harbor National Memorial, which is a National Park.
The USS Arizona Memorial was dedicated on Memorial Day of 1962, and was designated a national historic landmark just over two decades later. Since 1980, the National Park Service has operated the memorial and the visitor center, and receives more than 1.4 million visitors from around the world annually.
It’s going to be unseasonably warm, but also wet (again) today, with temperatures in the mid-50s and a 90 percent chance of rain. All this rain is kind of a bummer, but I’ll take it over snow any day.
In the headlines…
Sen. Raphael Warnock, the Democratic incumbent from Georgia, was projected to beat Republican challenger Herschel Walker in the state’s runoff election to win a full six-year term in the Senate.
After a hard-fought campaign – or should I say campaigns – it is my honor to utter the four most powerful words ever spoken in a democracy: The people have spoken,” Warnock said to a cheering crowd at his victory party.
Warnock’s victory over Walker will give Democrats a 51-49 majority in the Senate, a potentially crucial boost that caps much-better-than-expected midterm elections for the party in control of the White House.
The race closes out a difficult midterm cycle for Republicans – who won the House majority but saw their hopes for Capitol Hill dominance dashed by the troubled candidacies of some Donald Trump-backed Senate nominees.
The Georgia race was the most expensive contest of the 2022 cycle, according to OpenSecrets data, with spending by general election candidates and outside groups skyrocketing to $380.7 million as of Nov. 29.
The implications for Senate Democrats and the Biden administration extend well beyond a single vote. With an additional vote, Democrats can take much more operational control of the chamber, easing confirmations and investigations.
President Joe Biden has agreed a deal to ramp up gas exports from the US to the UK as part of a joint effort to cut bills and limit Russia’s impact on western energy supplies.
Jill Biden, the first lady, told President Emmanuel Macron of France at the White House state dinner last week that she and her husband are ready for his re-election campaign. Joe Biden then joined the French president and the first lady in a playful toast.
More than 7 in 10 voters want Biden to honor last year’s commitment and release the final trove of JFK assassination records on Dec. 15, according to a poll released in coordination with a research group that sued to force more document disclosure.
A U.S. federal court said in a filing that it was dismissing a lawsuit against the crown prince of Saudi Arabia over the killing of a Saudi columnist who lived in Virginia, after the State Department’s determination the prince has immunity.
Trump’s family real estate business was convicted of tax fraud and other financial crimes, a remarkable rebuke of the former president’s company and what prosecutors described as its “culture of fraud and deception.”
The conviction on all 17 counts, after more than a day of jury deliberations in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, resulted from a long-running scheme in which the Trump Organization doled out off-the-books luxury perks to some executives.
The Trump Organization could face a maximum of $1.61 million in fines when sentenced in mid-January. The company is not at risk of being dismantled because there is no mechanism under New York law that would dissolve it.
Just moments after a Manhattan jury delivered a guilty verdict against the former president’s family real estate business, social media was buzzing with reaction to the high-stakes decision.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said the verdict “underscores that in Manhattan we have one standard of justice for all.”
Juan M. Merchan, who oversaw the tax fraud case against Trump’s business, was an auditor at a real estate development company decades ago.
Special counsel Jack Smith sent grand-jury subpoenas to local officials in Arizona, Michigan and Wisconsin — three states central to Trump’s failed plan to stay in power in 2020 — seeking all communications with Trump, his campaign and a list of aides and allies.
The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol plans to recommend that the Justice Department make criminal charges tied to the assault, according to panel Chairman Bennie Thompson.
Lawmakers formally recognized law enforcement personnel who protected the Capitol during the Jan. 6 attack with the highest honor of Congress.
Relatives of a Capitol Police officer who died following the Jan. 6 insurrection refused to shake hands with Republican leaders when Congress formally thanked the cops who defended the capitol against the mob.
The person accused of killing five and injuring 19 others in a mass shooting at an LGBT nightclub last month was formally charged with 305 criminal counts, including first-degree murder, attempted murder, assault and crimes of bias, Colorado prosecutors said.
The COVID-19 vaccine mandate for members of the U.S. military would be rescinded under the annual defense bill heading for a vote this week in Congress. Republicans, emboldened by their new House majority next year, pushed the effort.
In a significant easing of Covid controls, the Chinese government said that people will no longer need to show negative virus tests or health codes in order to travel between different parts of the country.
Beijing’s costly policy of lockdowns has pummeled the world’s second-largest economy and set off mass public protests that were a rare challenge to China’s leader, Xi Jinping.
Even as Covid cases rise, New York City’s Pandemic Response Lab, which provided mass testing, is shutting down due in part to the prevalence of at-home tests and a reduction in business.
Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a bill that would require the counting and canvassing of affidavit ballots cast by eligible voters who showed up at the wrong polling sites for whatever reason, so long as they’re voting in the right county and Assembly district.
Hochul signed legislation to further cut down unwanted telemarketing calls.
Hochul’s administration is rejecting a proposal from the state’s Opioid Settlement Fund Advisory Board to support overdose prevention centers with some of the $2 billion that New York has procured in legal settlements with drug manufacturers.
Hochul late last month vetoed a bill that would have required the PSC to collect and publicly report on the number of New Yorkers struggling to pay for utilities, which supporters say is essential to planning government relief programs to address those arrears.
A new protection fund for farmland and agriculture is being created following the approval of a measure by Hochul, state lawmakers announced.
The Assembly’s Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing Dec. 19 at 9:30 a.m. in Albany to weigh whether to block Brooklyn Republican Lester Chang from taking his seat in January, claiming he didn’t meet residency requirements when he won Nov. 8.
State lawmakers in New York are calling for a new level of oversight of the Thruway Authority amid plans being advanced this week that could lead to the first toll increase for E-Z Pass customers in more than a decade.
The state attorney general’s office released a timeline of its handling of the sexual harassment allegations that led to the recent resignation of Ibrahim Khan, who had been the longtime chief of staff for Attorney General Letitia James.
Calls for a probe into James’ handling of harassment allegations against her chief of staff intensified, with her former Republican challenger demanding a special prosecutor and even a veteran Democratic operative saying she should be investigated.
New York’s top Democrats refused to weigh in as outrage mounted over James’ handling of a sexual harassment scandal involving her longtime chief of staff, which she failed to disclose as she ran for re-election.
Mayor Eric Adams appointed the first Black woman to serve as the city’s First Deputy Mayor, rounding off a year of high-profile appointments of women, including women of color.
Beginning in January, Sheena Wright will step in as the first deputy mayor of New York. Outgoing First Deputy Mayor Lorraine Grillo announced her departure in November.
Camille Joseph Varlack, a lawyer and currently a senior adviser to the mayor, will be Adams’ new chief of staff, replacing Frank Carone, a close friend and powerful lawyer.
“These are huge shoes to fill, but these two ladies and their red bottoms,” Adams added in a winking reference to the French shoe designer Christian Louboutin, a favorite of the power suit set, “they’re going to bring their own pair.”
In naming a new chief of staff and first deputy mayor, Adams drew his inner circle closer by choosing two longtime loyalists.
Adams, a noted rat antagonist who once endorsed a special rat-drowning device, yesterday contested a summons and fine over an infestation at a rental property he owns.
Adams redoubled his push to have federal prosecutors take on gun cases involving convicted felons after an ex-con was arrested for fatally shooting two people and wounding a 96-year-old man.
There is little available data that draws a neat line between mental illness and crime, let alone violent crime. Several studies, have concluded that people with mental illness are more likely to be victims of crime than perpetrators.
The number of New Yorkers making between $150,000 and $750,000 declined by almost 6% between 2019 and 2020 — and the number of those making more than $750,000 dropped by almost 10%. These reductions coincided with the worst of Covid.
An analysis by NYC Comptroller Brad Lander found seven large city agencies have job vacancy rates north of 20%, a situation that puts the city “at risk,” he said.
Anti-Semitic hate crimes in New York City more than doubled in November compared to the same month last year, according to the latest numbers released by the NYPD.
A man with a long criminal history left two young people dead and a 96-year-old man wounded in a 24-hour period of violence in public housing projects in Brooklyn and Manhattan before turning himself in early yesterday, the police said.
As the American Museum of Natural History prepares to open its new science center in February, the institution selected as its new president Sean M. Decatur, a biophysical chemist who currently serves as the president of Kenyon College.
Laughter will turn to tears on Jan. 1 at Caroline’s on Broadway, when the city’s premier comedy venue for four decades closes its doors for good.
As a strike by part-time faculty at the New School enters its third week, administrators, faculty and parents are battling over the finances and future of an institution known for its left-leaning politics.
The Albany County Legislature unanimously approved the $756.8 million 2023 budget.
The latest truck to strike the Glenridge Road bridge had its trailer roof peeled off and its load of toilet paper dumped into the street.
An attorney for state Supreme Court Justice Peter Lynch says the jurist “appropriately acted” when he refused to enforce the terms of a controversial no-jail plea deal that local limo company operator Nauman Hussain agreed to in the Schoharie crash prosecution.
