Good Monday morning.
Another symmetrical date – 1-23-23 – perhaps this is good luck? We could certainly use a dose of that these days.
We have entered that bleary and dreary stretch of winter that seems to last forever, when one loses hope that the sun and warmth will ever return, and summer is a long distant memory.
I think I might have written this before…that line seems so familiar. I guess I’m really effected by the weather. Maybe I need to invest in one of those human grow lights used to treat seasonal affective disorder.
I’ve never been officially diagnosed with that, to be clear. But a little extra light on the subject could hardly hurt, right? Actually, au contraire, says the Mayo Clinic (in the link above):
Increasing exposure too fast or using the light box for too long each time may induce manic symptoms if you have bipolar disorder.
It seems you need to be careful about the timing and dosage of your light exposure, and ease into the amount of time you spend exposing yourself to the happy box. Maybe too much, too fast makes you irrationally cheerful? Is that really a problem?
To be clear, I’ve never been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, though someone (a clinical someone) once did suggest that I had a personality disorder after I told her I was irrationally angry a lot of the time.
Personally, I think I’m just suffering from this thing that they call life. And the events of this weekend just go to show that I am, in fact, well within my rights to be damn depressed.
In case you were otherwise engaged in something that took you away from the headlines, (and if you were, I am jealous beyond reason), another mass shooting occurred in Monterey Park about seven miles outside of Los Angeles over the weekend – one of the worst such incidents to take place in recent memory in California.
Ten people were killed and 10 others were injured. The shooter may or may not have killed himself. The shooting took place in, of all places, a ballroom dance studio, which is one of the most genteel places I can think of, aside from maybe a tea room – or a place of worship.
Of course, we’ve seen shootings at places of worship. Not at tea rooms yet, though maybe that’s coming. Of course there will be a next time; there’s always a next time.
For the record, this is not a commentary about the need for additional gun control, it is merely a statement of fact.
The shooting took place on Lunar New Year, which (ironically, given the way I started this post), is not only the most important social and economic holiday for billions of people around the world, but also signals the beginning of spring.
This is the Year of the Rabbit. For the uninitiated, the Chinese calendar operates on a 12-year cycle, and each year is linked to one of 12 different animals, including: the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog and pig.
The rabbit symbolizes grace, beauty, mercy and good luck, and also associated with the moon, which, mythology holds, is home to a Jade Rabbit. For the people involved in the Monterey shooting, the year didn’t start out so lucky at all.
If a mass shooting on a day that was supposed to be about celebration and happiness wasn’t a big enough bummer, this weekend also marked the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision, which, as we all know, was upended by the Dobbs decision last year.
As the president said in his official statement:
Today, instead of commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade, we are acknowledging that last year, the Supreme Court took away a constitutional right from the American people.
Again, what should have been a day of celebrating the sensible decision that codified a woman’s right to make decisions about her own body and destiny, we instead reflected on how far this country has fallen in such a short period of time.
Or, I was, anyway; I know a lot of people in this country supported the Dobbs decision, and a fair number of them gathered in D.C. last Friday for the 50th annual March for Life. For the first time, they were celebrating the demise of Roe instead of calling for it to be abolished, and plotting to see a pro-life/anti-abortion (choose your verbal poison there) president installed in the White House.
And if ALL of this wasn’t enough of a downer, there’s a massive winter storm headed our way. We’re in the middle of yet another winter storm warning, which will last through 1 p.m. today and potentially bring up to eight inches of heavy wet snow. The usual details about taking precautions and being careful on the roads apply, as always. Temperatures will be in the low 30s.
In the headlines…
The mass shooting that left at least 10 people dead in Monterey Park, Calif., on Saturday night is the deadliest in the United States since the massacre in Uvalde, Texas, last May, when 19 children and two teachers were killed.
Officials now believe the gunman who killed 10 people in Monterey Park then went to a second dance hall in the neighboring city of Alhambra. There, people inside wrestled the weapon away from him, and the suspect fled.
Authorities breached a white van in Torrance that they believed was connected to the gunman. At least two bullet holes were visible in the driver’s-side window, and the driver appeared to be slumped over the steering wheel.
Authorities identified the man believed to be responsible for the shooting as Huu Can Tran, 72. Tran was pronounced dead at the scene of the van following a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said during a news conference.
President Joe Biden issued a proclamation ordering American flags on federal government property to be flown at half-staff, to honor the victims of the Monterey shooting.
Six additional items, including documents with classified markings, were found in Biden’s Delaware home after Justice Department officials searched the residence Friday, the president’s personal attorney said Saturday.
The agents took handwritten notes from his years as vice president. The search lasted roughly 12 hours, beginning at 9:45 a.m. and ending around 10:30 p.m., according to Biden’s personal attorney Bob Bauer.
Democrats criticized Biden even as they pushed back on GOP attacks after officials from the Justice Department recovered additional classified items from Biden’s Delaware home.
Democrats expressed concern that multiple discoveries of classified documents at Biden’s private home and a former office will overshadow his agenda and open the door to more Republican-led investigations in the House as lawmakers return to Washington.
A deeply divided Congress will return to work this week, pushing ahead with partisan priorities in the Senate and House while also gearing up for a fight over how lawmakers will addressraising the debt ceiling before a potential default later this year.
White House chief of staff Ron Klain, who has spent more than two years as Biden’s top aide, is preparing to leave his job in the coming weeks, according to a person familiar with Klain’s plans.
The president is expected to tap Jeff Zients, former Obama administration official and close Biden confidant, as his next chief of staff, three people familiar with the decision confirmed.
Zients helmed the White House efforts to increase distribution of the Covid-19 vaccine during the first year of Biden’s presidency, helping to cobble together a network to make the shots available nationally.
Biden made a surprise video appearance on “Saturday Night Live” during first-time host Aubrey Plaza’s monologue.
It wasn’t a question of if or even when “Saturday Night Live” would get around to ridiculing Rep. George Santos, the Republican congressman who has lied about wide swaths of his résumé, just a simple matter of which “S.N.L.” cast member would play him.
Santos on Saturday didn’t challenge the accuracy of a recently surfaced photo that apparently shows him in drag, though he disputed claims that he was a “drag queen in Brazil.”
“No, I was not a drag queen in Brazil, guys,” Santos responded to reporters. “I was young, and I had fun at a festival. Sue me for having a life.”
Andrew Intrater, a wealthy businessman, has been in touch with the S.E.C. about Santos’s dealings on behalf of a company accused in a Ponzi scheme.
Santos was heckled at La Guardia by someone who yelled “con artist” as he walked through baggage claim before being hammered with questions over his increasingly checkered past and claims he’s been hiding out in Washington, D.C., to avoid his constituents.
Two years into his mysterious marriage to a woman – and five years before they divorced – Santos invited friends to celebrate his engagement to a man.
The daughter of House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) was arrested in a clash with police at a protest in Boston, Mass., for allegedly spray-painting a monument and assaulting an officer.
A push by the White House and Democratic lawmakers who support abortion rights to renew protections for the procedure is expected to stall in Congress along with Republicans’ efforts to further limit abortion access.
China rang in the Lunar New Year with its people praying for health after three years of stress and financial hardship under the pandemic, as officials reported almost 13,000 new deaths caused by the virus between January 13 and 19.
Three years after health authorities announced the first known Covid-19 case in the U.S., the virus behind the disease remains persistent but thus far hasn’t triggered the severity of the waves seen in prior winters.
A rough respiratory virus season in the US appears to be easing, as three major respiratory viruses that have battered the country for the past few months are finally all trending down at the same time.
Western New York has the highest COVID-19 7-day positive average in the entire state, almost double the statewide average.
More than a half-million New York households and businesses, regardless of their incomes, will get a pass on unpaid utility bills as part of a COVID-19 relief package dating to 2020 and approved earlier this week by the state Public Service Commission.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi blamed New York politicians — singling out Gov. Kathy Hochul in particular — for not realizing soon enough that crime was a critical issue in the midterms, a failure that cost Democrats their majority in the chamber.
“That is an issue that had to be dealt with early on, not 10 days before the election,” Pelosi told New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd. “The governor didn’t realize soon enough where the trouble was.”
Despite the apparent absurdity of Hochul suing the Senate over the Judiciary Committee’s blocking of her chief judge nominee, Hector LaSalle, some legal experts believe that she could actually have a case.
Former chief judge Jonathan Lippman argued that LaSalle, who would have been the first Latino chief judge in New York, didn’t get a fair shake and said he believes a full floor vote will take place “one way or another.”
Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins: “This ongoing attack makes it clear that there are those that don’t accept the Senate’s role in this process, and will not be happy unless we simply act as a rubber stamp.”
The TU: “Putting aside the legal hypotheticals and the strong possibility that the courts would be reluctant to play referee in a political spat like this, if Ms. Hochul thinks she could achieve a more favorable outcome from the full Senate, she’s kidding herself.”
Multiple sources relayed private conversations over concerns that the LaSalle nomination may have been overly influenced by big business donors and New York power players like Luis Miranda Jr., who championed LaSalle from the beginning.
Cigarette sellers are accusing Hochul of a double standard — proposing a ban on flavored tobacco while allowing the marketing of flavor-infused and fruity-scented marijuana merch.
Critics are slamming Hochul for wanting to ban gas stoves in new homes, but using them herself at the Executive Mansion and in her Buffalo home.
Central Hudson Gas and Electric responded this week to a state investigation into the launch of its new billing system in September 2021, arguing it had not been negligent or broken state statutes and should not be fined for the debacle.
Democratic lawmakers in a handful of states – including New York – are trying to send a message two years after the violent attack on the US Capitol: Those who engage in an attempted overthrow of the government shouldn’t be allowed to run it.
With New York City at “its breaking point,” Mayor Eric Adams announced that the city would open a new emergency shelter at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal to help accommodate the influx of migrants.
It will serve approximately 1,000 asylum-seekers, specifically single adult men who will be moved from another humanitarian relief center, in addition to newly arriving single men, the mayor said.
Adams is pushing back against criticism from two nonprofits about his plans for a new migrant shelter in Brooklyn, and he is amplifying his calls for more help from the federal government.
The Working Families Party is pushing City Council candidates to fight Adams’ agenda by offering up endorsements if they back its pet causes such as defunding the police and bail reform.
Adams joined several other big-city Democratic black leaders in decrying the “Defund the Police” movement and the White House’s response to the country’s border crisis.
Adams held a rally outside City Hall yesterday, calling on Congress and FEMA to do their part in dealing with the crisis at the Southern Border.
Grubhub executives dished out more than $13,000 in donations to Adams’ reelection campaign over the span of a few weeks this fall while the food delivery company was in the midst of a legal battle with his administration, according to freshly released records.
Adams has sparked speculation he will follow in the footsteps of his last three predecessors by running for president. Just a little over a year into his first term, the mayor has raised over $1.27million for his re-election fund.
City Council leaders announced they have no plan to pass a bill pushed by Adams that would allow his administration to charge retired municipal workers for health insurance, and the matter appears dead.
Democratic Councilwoman Julie Won’s husband — who is also her campaign manager — was banned from Twitter after spewing the N-word and other insensitive language on the platform years ago.
Abdullah el-Faisal is the first person to face trial under state laws passed after Sept. 11. But he was not in New York City when the offenses he is accused of took place.
A 28-year-old man was charged with manslaughter on Friday after an altercation with another man who fell onto the tracks at a Manhattan subway station and died, the police said.
A Fox News meteorologist was pummeled by a group of teens when he tried to stop them from harassing another straphanger on a Manhattan subway early Sunday, cops and the prognosticator said.
Members of the Beatbox House, a group of five vocal percussive artists from Brooklyn, will follow in the footsteps of music legends Dizzy Gillespie and Louis Armstrong when they travel abroad later this month to serve as cultural ambassadors for the US.
Researchers at N.Y.U. Langone Health have pulled out of a trial investigating the use of an old tuberculosis vaccine to treat children with Type 1 diabetes only months after they began enrolling participants on Long Island.
Firefighters were at the scene of a warehouse fire at BBL Construction’s storage complex on Kings Road in Colonie for about nine hours Friday as multiple crews battled the blaze.
For Albany streets, recent weather has been a “double-edged sword,” both city officials and meteorologists say.
What do Schenectady, Rensselaer and Ballston Spa have in common? In the Capital Region, those districts are seeing the most parents switching to homeschooling.
With jury selection beginning Monday in the criminal trial of Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin, his fellow Republicans are watching and waiting for the latest developments in what has been an anxiety-inducing period.
Mid-Hudson News, the Hudson Valley’s preeminent online news source, has been purchased by lifelong Orange County resident Mike Martucci, who recently served one term as a New York State Senator in the region.
