Good middle-of-the-week morning, AKA Wednesday.
I don’t know about you, but breakfast is my absolute favorite meal of the day.
I tried intermittent fasting for a while, and failed utterly. I wake up hungry, and I hate the headache that comes along with depriving one’s engine – because the body IS an engine – of much-needed fuel, even with the cushion of caffeine to take the edge off.
Also, there’s a dearth of what I would consider decisive and definitive research on the benefits or lack thereof of fasting on women when it comes to hormone imbalance. So, in the short term, I err on the siding of eating breakfast, and I am generally happier for it.
I have previously opined on my love of toast – with peanut butter (or any nut butter, really) and jam (preferably apricot, but blueberry or strawberry will do in a pinch, even marmalade, which has become a favorite of late, though NEVER grape).
I also like fresh fruit and yogurt. But that’s more of a summer play. When it’s bone-chillingly cold – especially when I come in from a long run and am feeling like I’ll never get warm again – nothing can beat a hot, filling bowl of oatmeal.
For the record, I know that some people prefer their oats cold, with milk of yogurt and chopped fruit – fried and fresh – and nuts in the form of muesli. This is very popular in Switzerland, and I am also a fan.
In recent years, there has been a big craze for overnight oats – basically, raw oats that are soaked in the fridge in milk or yogurt for at least two hours or more.
Some people add chia seeds for additional nutrients and also to help make the overnight oats thick. Soaked oats are easier to digest, and also have the added bonus of being easily stored, tightly sealed, for about a week, which makes grab-and-go breakfasts and snacks easy and nutritious.
Rolled oats, which have been steamed and then rolled flat to help reduce cooking time and lengthen shelf life, are another popular form. Old-fashioned rolled oats are larger in size and take a little longer to cook. And, of course, there’s the longest-cooking version, Scottish or Irish (steel cut) oats, which are downright delicious and worth the extra weight. (Try the pressure cooker or slow cooker).
Instant oatmeal is more processed. The oats have been rolled out thinner and steamed longer, so they take less time to cook. Also, while super convenient from a time-saving standpoint, those instant oatmeal packages usually have added salt, sugar and artificial flavors.
Check the label before consuming. Adding your own raisins, sweeteners, nuts, etc. can really go a long way.
Oatmeal is good for you if you’re trying to boost your fiber intake. Specifically, it’s high in soluble fiber, which is healthy for your heart, and MIGHT help to lower cholesterol – especially the bad LDL cholesterol – and prevent or help control high blood pressure.
It also is naturally gluten-free and has a lot of complex carbs, which, if you’re not avoiding them for some reason, makes for great long-term energy if you’re interested in that sort of thing.
Oats were reportedly cultivated in ancient China at least as far back as 7000 BC, but credit for eating oats as a porridge-like cereal goes to the ancient Greeks. More than one-half of all the oats IN THE WORLD are grown right here in the U.S. (and also Canada). About 95 percent of what we grow here are eaten by…wait for it…livestock.
If you are a fan of oatmeal, you might already know that ALL of January is National Oatmeal Month, apparently because sales of oatmeal during this four-week period is higher than at any other time of the year. (If you click on that link, BTW, you will learn that there is a place called Oatmeal, TX that has – of course – an annual oatmeal festival. I smell a road trip!).
And oatmeal cookies are the bomb. With raisins. And also chocolate chips. And walnuts. Come at me. I can take it.
Today, by the way, would be a GREAT day to start out with something warm and comforting and substantial in your stomach. We’re looking at a chilly day with overcast skies and temperatures in the low-to-mid 30s.
In the headlines…
The Republican-led House Committee on Oversight and Accountability announced that it has launched an investigation into classified documents found in President Joe Biden’s former office.
Biden said he was “surprised” to learn in November that his lawyers found classified government documents in his former office at a think tank in Washington, and he said he does not know what information they contain.
Attorney General Merrick Garland has assigned the U.S. attorney in Chicago to review documents marked classified that were found at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in Washington.
The House voted to launch an investigation into federal law enforcement and national security agencies, as Republicans promised to use their new power to scrutinize an alleged concerted effort by the government to silence and punish conservatives.
New York Democratic Reps. Daniel Goldman and Ritchie Torres filed an official complaint asking the House Committee on Ethics to investigate Rep. George Santos, the Long Island Republican who admitted to lying about his background.
Torres and Goldman delivered a copy of the six-page document to the New York Republican’s congressional office. Goldman knocked on Santos’s door and entered the office, leaving the complaint on a desk inside.
Santos insisted that he’s “done nothing unethical” and brushed off any concern about the ethics complaint.
House Republicans know Santos is a problem. They’re just not sure what to do about him yet. Some members are openly pushing to sideline him until internal investigations can dig through his campaign finances, and even basic biographical information.
A fundraiser for Santos allegedly posed as House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s chief of staff in a bid to fundraise money from wealthy donors.
Wealthy donors received calls and emails from a man who said he was Dan Meyer, McCarthy’s chief of staff, during the 2020 and 2022 election cycles, according to people familiar with the matter.
Biden and the leaders of Canada and Mexico said they had strengthened a regional partnership after a three-way summit in Mexico City on issues that included economic cooperation, climate change and the movement of people and drugs across the border.
The Biden administration rolled out additional measures during the North American Leaders’ Summit in a desperate bid to keep migrants from journeying to the US southern border.
Biden and Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador had a bumpy start to talks when what were supposed to be some brief opening pleasantries devolved into a contentious debate over the history of U.S. support for Latin America.
Biden defended his handling of the border and thanked his Mexican counterpart for a willingness to accept asylum seekers rejected by the United States during a period of what he called “the greatest migration in human history” across the region.
Biden, López Obrador and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau were expected to announce commitments from the three countries to build the semiconductor industry in the region, hit their climate goals and tackle the surge in migration.
Former Trump Organization finance chief Allen Weisselberg was sentenced to five months in jail for tax crimes he committed at the company, after serving as the star witness in a tax-fraud trial that resulted in the conviction of his longtime employer.
Weisselberg served the family company for decades but agreed to testify about its tax fraud in exchange for a lighter punishment.
Evacuation orders for thousands of people across California were lifted yesterday following the latest in a series of storms that has killed 16 people in the rain-soaked state.
Relentless rains that started falling on Sunday have flooded parts of Los Angeles and led to evacuation orders for nearly 50,000 residents across California as rivers continue to rise and mudslide fears grow.
Senior Biden officials are targeting an end to the emergency designation for Covid as soon as the spring, after debating doing so last summer and taking a pass.
The Pentagon formally dropped its Covid-19 vaccination mandate, but a new memo signed by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also gives commanders some discretion in how or whether to deploy troops who are not vaccinated.
Even with the requirement gone, however, the Defense Department “will continue to promote and encourage COVID-19 vaccination for all service members,” Austin said in a memo. “Vaccination enhances operational readiness and protects the force.”
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is calling on Moderna not to quadruple the price of its COVID-19 vaccine, saying that the plan amounts to “unacceptable corporate greed.”
In a letter to Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel, Sanders called the price increase “outrageous.”
Satellite images taken over a number of Chinese cities have captured crowding at crematoriums and funeral homes, as the country continues its battle with an unprecedented wave of Covid-19 infections following its dismantling of severe pandemic restrictions.
South Korea hit back at claims that its Covid rules for Chinese travelers are “discriminatory,” saying more than half of its imported cases are coming from China.
A new, highly contagious COVID-19 strain is circulating in New York, resulting in a rise in hospitalizations from a virus that has continued to morph and wreak havoc worldwide for more than three years.
Coined “Kraken” by a Canadian biology professor, the new variant is laying down roots in the U.S. The CDC now estimates that the variant will make up over a fourth of total cases this week.
Making crime and affordability the cornerstones of her State of the State address, Gov. Kathy Hochul sought to offer a road map to address entrenched ills that are afflicting most major cities across the nation.
Hochul unveiled a far-reaching billion-dollar plan to close some of the many gaps in the care system for New Yorkers with mental illness, including an increase in-patient psychiatric beds by 1,000 and addition of 3,500 housing units.
The governor wants to allow the Office of Mental Health to enforce the bed expansion by finding so-called Article 28 community hospitals up to $2,000 per violation per day for not complying with the number of beds outlined in their operating certificate.
Hochul said another increase in the income tax, the primary driver of revenue for New York’s state government, shouldn’t be included in a budget ahead of a potential recession.
Hochul is floating a proposal to require every village, town and city in New York to meet mandatory housing production goals, as a key component of her plan to build 800,000 new homes statewide over the next decade.
Even though it’s a political lightning rod, Hochul also said she wants to revisit the state’s controversial bail reform law — a key issue in her re-election battle that she won only narrowly.
Hochul is proposing to make New York the first state in the US to ban natural gas heating and appliances in new buildings as a way to fight climate change, the latest salvo in a nationwide fight over the fuel.
Hochul’s proposal will create the Energy Affordability Guarantee to ensure participating New Yorkers never pay more than 6% of their incomes on electricity.
The WSJ editorial board said Hochul’s gas ban “will make New Yorkers even more dependent on an electrical-power grid that is increasingly unreliable.”
Hochul’s 2022 GOP opponent, former Long Island Rep. Lee Zeldin, wrote: “Due to political calculations, far-left ideology and special-interest influence, Gov. Hochul’s State of the State address ignored far too many of the ideas that would truly save our state.”
The governor proposed giving judges more discretion to hold people on bail, hiring hundreds more prosecutors and state troopers, and expanding mental-health treatment — a multi-pronged initiative aimed at countering criticism over public safety.
Hochul said she plans to propose legislation that would protect the privacy of people who seek abortion care, regardless of whether they live in the state.
The entire State of the State book can be found here.
The State Police Special Investigations Unit raided the headquarters of the New York State Troopers Police Benevolent Association and the nearby office of its related Signal 30 Benefit Fund, which has raised millions of dollars for charitable causes.
A union lawyer said the search was part of an inquiry focused on “uncovering past wrongdoing” by former top officials with the group.
The state Education Department is piloting a program that could create an individualized education plan for every student.
Nine retired judges urged New York’s Democratic-run state Senate to confirm Hector LaSalle as the state’s next chief judge, after complaining he’s been the victim of a smear campaign by “woke members of the legal academy” and knee-jerk lawmakers.
Hochul used her State of the State address to unveil a suite of policy proposals related to transit, including advancing the Brooklyn-to-Queens Interborough Express light rail project, but stopped short of committing new, dedicated funding to the MTA.
Hochul proposed legislation to allow New York City to lower speed limits below 25 mph.
More than 7,000 nurses at Mount Sinai Hospital and Montefiore Medical Center returned to the picket lines yesterday as New York City’s largest nurse strike in decades continued into a second day.
In response to the strike, which began with picket lines early Monday morning, both hospitals brought in nonunion nurses and announced that they’d divert patients to other facilities and postpone services including elective surgeries.
Mayor Eric Adams didn’t get a penny toward the city’s $1 billion migrant crisis from Hochul in her State of the State address.
In an op-ed that ran in amNY, Adams insists that New York City “is getting safer.”
The “get stuff done” mayor has yet to make one of his key campaign promises a reality — a one-stop shop for all city services.
A man who pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the fatal bludgeoning of a Chinese immigrant as she swept a Queens sidewalk was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Worries about public safety, especially attacks against Asian Americans, caused some in the once-reliably Democratic bloc to vote Republican last year.
Federal prosecutors filed charges against a 19-year-old Maine man whom the authorities have portrayed as carrying out a “jihad-inspired” terrorist attack on three New York City police officers near Times Square on New Year’s Eve.
Some CDPHP subscribers will lose access to coverage of prescription drugs and services at CVS pharmacies by the end of the month.
The state Comptroller’s office says the town of Berne essentially ignored its recommendations to overhaul its financial practices.
Building more affordable housing, investing in electric vehicle charging technology and a stay-the-course approach to repairing the city’s battered infrastructure and combating blight are the key focuses in the mayor’s vision for Schenectady this year.
Golden Globes host Jerrod Carmichael used his opening monologue to tear into the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), which hosts the awards ceremony, amid controversy surrounding the lack of diversity among its members.
“Welcome to the 80th annual Golden Globe awards. I am your host Jerrod Carmichael,” the 35-year-old comedian said at the beginning of his monologue. “And I’ll tell you why I’m here. I’m here because I’m Black.”
“I won’t say they were a racist organization, but they didn’t have a single Black member until George Floyd died, so do with that information what you will,” Carmichael added.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appeared virtually at Hollywood’s 80th annual Golden Globe Awards to tell the audience of entertainment industry A-listers that “there will be no third World War” as the tide turns in Ukraine’s conflict with Russia.
Here’s a full list of the 2023 Golden Globes winners.
