IT’S FRIDAY.
Mic drop.
In the headlines…
Just kidding.
I couldn’t give this day a pass because it’s an important one. It’s the first Friday in February (how the hell did that happen?!), and you know what that means: It’s National Wear Red Day, and annual campaign to raise awareness about heart disease in women.
The focus on the heart is particularly germane, since February is all about love. And if there is a woman – or more than one, perhaps – in your life about whom you care, or if you ARE a woman yourself, you should be paying attention here.
It could be, quite literally, a matter of life and death.
Heart disease – a catch-all term that refers to several types of heart conditions, including coronary artery disease and heart attack – is often thought of as something that impacts men.
Au contraire. Actually, since the 1980s, coronary heart disease, defined as a blockage of the arteries that supply blood and oxygen to the heart – has killed more women annually than men.
Not surprisingly – WARNING!!! If you are against feminist rants, you should go do something else for a minute or two – since the entire health care system is traditionally male-dominated and playing catch-up when it comes to the realization that female bodies are NOT simply smaller male bodies with different sex parts, it took doctors a long time to figure out that women are, in fact, at higher risk for heat disease because…drumroll please…their arteries are smaller.
Yes, that’s right, folks, doctors didn’t recognize until fairly recently – like about a decade ago – that heart disease was effectively a silent killer of women because it manifests differently in us than in men.
Our symptoms are very vague and don’t necessarily show up on an angiogram. We don’t experience – as men usually do – crushing chest pain, but other, more easily explainable things like heartburn, and swearing, and a general sense of being tired all the time.
And who the HELL isn’t?!
Anyway, because of all that, and also because women tend to put themselves last and don’t seek care when they need it, heart disease has become the leading cause of death for U.S. women, responsible for about 1 in 4 deaths (that’s more than ALL cancers combined).
And though risk increases after menopause, mortality rates are rising in women aged 35 – 54. What’s worse, close to two-thirds of women who die from heart disease had no previous symptoms.
If all that information isn’t enough to convince you that this country does, in fact, need a day to raise awareness about heart disease in women, I’m not sure what is.
Just so you know I’m not entirely self-serving and sexist, ALL of February is American Heart Health Month, declared as such by President Lynden B. Johnson in 1964. That occurred nine years after he had a heart attack in his mid-40s – the first of several until the one that finally killed him in his mid-60s.
Johnson was a notorious chain smoker and also ate terribly, was under enormous stress and worked 20-hour days. His first heart attack scared him off the cigarettes, though he reportedly started up again after he left the White House. He also did manage to lose some weight.
That brings us to the final – and perhaps most important point of this post – heart disease is largely preventable. You can dramatically lower your risk by adopting health habits like not smoking, eating a balanced diet that includes a lot of fruits and vegetables and is low in sugar and saturated fat, and getting enough sleep and exercise.
Remember that deep cold snap? Well, it’s here. The wind chill advisory is in effect from 8 a.m. today through noon on Saturday. It’s going to feel like 30 to 35 below zero. Yeah, you read that right. This is not the time to be a hero. Bundle up and stay inside.
Forecasters say “a once-in-a-generation cold” could grip parts of the Northeast today and tomorrow.
Dreadmill, here I come.
Oh, and stay strong. Next week, it will be back in the 40s.
In the headlines….(For real this time)…
President Joe Biden hasn’t announced a reelection campaign, but some of the themes likely to be the centerpiece of that expected run should be on display tonight when he addresses a national Democratic Party meeting.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said he and Biden plan to meet again soon to continue talks about how and when to raise the nation’s debt ceiling, one day after their first in-person meeting at the White House since the GOP took control of the House.
Republicans are backing away from proposals to reduce spending on Social Security and Medicare as they enter talks with Democrats over raising the nation’s borrowing limit, sidelining for now a politically perilous fight.
Three decades after Bill Clinton signed the nation’s family and medical leave law, he was back at the White House yesterday to hold forth on what it’s meant to the country, unspooling his trademark blend of storytelling and wonkiness.
The Biden administration’s announcement that the U.S. military is expanding its presence in the Philippines leaves little doubt that the United States is positioning itself to constrain China’s armed forces and bolstering its ability to defend Taiwan.
The United States has detected what it says is a Chinese surveillance balloon that has been hovering over the northwestern United States, the Pentagon said, a discovery that comes days before Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken’s visit to Beijing.
Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said the government has tracked the balloon for days, adding it was “traveling at an altitude well above commercial air traffic and does not present a military or physical threat to people on the ground.”
The high-altitude balloon was spotted over Billings, Montana, on Wednesday. It flew over the Aleutian Islands, through Canada, and into Montana. A senior defense official said the balloon is still over the U.S. but declined to say where it is now.
The Republican-led House of Representatives voted to pass a resolution to remove Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar from the powerful House Foreign Affairs Committee.
In a highly politicized vote, the Republican-led chamber criticized Omar’s statements about Israel, delivering retribution for the removal of GOP members when Democrats held the majority.
The resolution was approved in a 218-211 vote after a heated debate in which Democrats accused Republicans of racism and hypocrisy and claimed that the GOP is only policing Democrats for questionable behavior.
A popular brand of eyedrops sold in stores like Walmart and on Amazon is being recalled over vision loss and bacterial infection concerns, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
More than 80% of COVID-19 global deaths during the first two years of the pandemic were among people aged 60 and older, according to a new study from the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The F.D.A.’s desire to streamline vaccine recommendations is a reflection of just how complicated and confusing they have become.
Hong Kong is ready to welcome the world back, its leader said, pledging more than half a million free flights and positive publicity to resurrect the once-vibrant global hub after three years of Covid-enforced isolation.
Early COVID-19 variants that no longer circulate among humans are surging among New York’s white-tailed deer, raising questions about whether the mammals could become a reservoir for wiped-out versions of the virus, according to new research.
A day after presenting her $227 billion executive budget proposal, Gov. Hochul detailed her plans to invest in mental health care and expand outreach for homeless New Yorkers.
Some 17 months into her time in the governor’s office, lawmakers and strategists say Hochul still hasn’t accessed the fundamental levers of power in both Albany and New York City Hall.
Hochul wants to allow more charter schools to open in New York City. But as the public school system loses students, the effort faces strong political headwinds.
Hochul’s charter school plan contained in her $227 billion state budget plan touches on a deeply controversial issue for the state’s teachers unions, which remain politically influential with many lawmakers.
Hochul, a Democrat, is asking lawmakers to change the state’s bail laws in a way that would, in effect, give judges more discretion to assign bail in violent felony and high-level misdemeanor cases.
The NY Post: “Good for Gov. Kathy Hochul for pushing at least one significant step toward fixing the state’s disastrous bail reforms — yet there’s a ton more to fix to roll back New York’s out-of-control crime.”
Hochul joined Errol Louis on “Inside City Hall” yesterday to discuss her proposed budget, the migrant crisis in New York, congestion pricing, a possible legal fight with the state Senate over her chief judge nomination and more.
Hochul’s budget plans have drawn both praise and criticism from watchdog groups and advocates.
Progressive lobbying groups want to see more taxes on wealthy New Yorkers, saying the budget is too favorable to them at the expense of working families.
Lawmakers and legislative leaders agree with Hochul’s plan to tie the state’s minimum wage to increasing inflation, but are pushing back on the governor’s plans on how to achieve it, and preparing to battle over the details as budget negotiations begin.
Hochul included new tax credits and investments in her executive budget proposal aimed at helping the state’s deteriorating child care system, but business leaders and providers in the industry say they’re not the best ways the state can address the crisis.
If Hochul’s budget passes as is, New York’s counties will be among the spending plan’s biggest losers.
Hochul is drawing heat over her pitch for a statewide ban on the sale of flavored tobacco and vape products that critics say is “unfair” to people of color, impractical to enforce, and costly to state taxpayers while potentially snuffing out hookah lounges.
Hochul wants several “technical” revisions to New York’s contested concealed carry laws, including allowing armed security guards at places of worship and providing clearer guidelines for retired law enforcement to possess a firearm in a “sensitive location.”
Hochul wants to hike the Medicaid reimbursement rate for those facilities by 5%. But the need, lawmakers and health care sector officials argue, may be even greater.
Former U.S. attorney general Eric Holder is in the New York state Senate’s corner when it comes to the contentious battle over Hochul’s chief judge pick.
High school graduation rates in New York rose nearly one percentage point in 2022, to 87 percent, the state said in data released yesterday.
A day after the NYPD cleared migrants from makeshift encampments in Midtown Manhattan, City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams criticized Mayor Eric Adams’ handling of the situation as “disappointing.”
The activists who city officials blamed for helping fuel the migrant standoff outside the Watson Hotel included a “community organizer” from California and a New York writer who sparked controversy with an open letter that got her fired by Yelp.
City Hall has agreed to consider municipal workers’ demands for a hybrid schedule as part of ongoing contract talks, marking a significant shift in its stance toward remote work, according to a municipal union.
Now, one of New York City’s real estate tycoons, Scott Rechler, says he recognizes the rise in remote work, and is considering alternate uses for some of the office properties on his portfolio.
New York City’s teachers’ union is intensifying pressure on Adams to deliver raises, signaling what could be a thorny challenge for the mayor as he contends with expired contracts from nearly all of the city’s municipal unions.
New York City education officials have stopped doing business with 20 companies that provide education services in private schools -primarily for students in yeshivas – amid concerns about fraud in the industry.
Queens Councilwoman Julie Won’s campaign boss husband was caught on tape last year telling staffers for a congressional candidate to eat “a lot of Adderall” and take other extreme steps to get people to come out and vote.
North Country GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik is proposing a federal law that would require all schools to offer chocolate or other flavored milk in addition to regular milk – a not-so-subtle jab at Adams, who thinks the sugar-laden dairy product is bad for kids.
Big Apple schools saw nearly 350 felony incidents last year — with 95 recorded in the last four months alone, according to new City Hall data.
NYC police misconduct settlements last year rose to their highest level since 2018 by six payouts over $10 million, including one for Muhammad A. Aziz, whose conviction in the assassination of Malcolm X was thrown out after he spent two decades in prison.
Two new beaches are coming to New York City, with one of them opening up for Summer 2023.
Management of the iconic Empire State Building is shrugging off the uproar over its lighting of the building’s spire in the green-and-white colors of the Philadelphia Eagles — saying they are a “global brand” not beholden to city loyalty.
A judge in Ulster County tossed a murder charge against a New York state trooper accused of killing a Brooklyn girl by ramming his police cruiser at 130 mph into her family’s SUV.
County Court Judge Bryan Rounds found the evidence failed to prove Baldner acted with “depraved indifference to human life” during the pursuit, when he collided multiple times with a minivan driven by Tristin Goods, Monica’s father.
The Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited several Amazon facilities — including a fulfillment center in Schodack and a delivery station in New Windsor — for failing to keep workers safe, OSHA said.
After years of pleading with the town to shutter a wedding venue next to their home and farm, a town of Saratoga couple won a reprieve in Saratoga County Court when a judge ruled to annul a town resolution that allowed the events.
The hotel at 205 Wolf Rd. in Colonie was once a bustling place. But after sitting vacant since the pandemic, vandalism and — most recently — a fire, town officials say they’re taking action.
A businesswoman who ran unsuccessfully to be a village trustee in her hometown of Scotia was sworn in this week as the newest Glenville Town Board member before Supervisor Chris Koetzle delivered his state of the town speech.
The state Department of Environmental Conservation said it is investigating a reported oil leak at the Norlite plant in Cohoes yesterday morning.
After 10 years of planning, digging and laying twin 36-inch water mains, the City of Troy is ready to complete the first phase of its Tomhannock water transmission line replacement project and directly connect the new mains to the treatment plant.
Two of the best rail trails in the U.S. run through Upstate New York, according to a new ranking by Travel + Leisure: The William R. Steinhaus Dutchess Rail Trail, housed in the Hudson Valley, and the Empire State Trail, which crosses the entire state.
