Good Monday morning. I assume you’re reading this a lot later than usual, taking advantage of the fact that today is a federal holiday – one of 12 observed by the government every year.
Today is Presidents’ Day, observed on the third Monday in February. Originally, this holiday was known as Washington’s Birthday, even though our first president was actually born on Feb. 22, 1732.
As an aside, the number of official, permanent federal holidays fluctuates from year to year (because of Inauguration Day, which only takes place once every four years). And the most recent holiday to get added to the roster was Juneteenth, which was created by legislation signed into law by President Joe Biden in June 2021.
Originally, there were only four federal holidays, giving federal employees paid time off – New Year’s Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas – which all started in 1870, when Congress passed the first Federal Holidays Law.
Washington’s Birthday (now Presidents’ Day) was added to the list in January 1879. Originally, we WERE observing this on the actual day of Washington’s birth (Feb. 22, as referenced above), but the date was changed in 1968 to the third Monday in February, thanks to the Uniform Monday Holiday Act.
The Uniform Monday Holiday Act, as we’ve mentioned before, actually relocated a number of federal holidays to Mondays, so workers could have a series of three-day weekends annually. There were, of course, detractors who argued that holidays should be held on the days that they are intended to commemorate, regardless of where they land during the workweek.
Of course, that wouldn’t be good for the tourism, hospitality, and retail industries, which make more money when people have three-day weekends on which to travel and shop and recreate.
It was while this bill was being debated that the idea of changing the name of Washington’s Birthday to Presidents’ Day was first raised, with the added bonus of also honoring President Abraham Lincoln, who was born on Feb. 12, 1809.
Congress ultimately did not go for the change, but it happened organically despite lawmakers’ opposition, largely because retailers started using “Presidents’ Day” to promote big sales – a tradition that still continues to this day.
Can we also take a minute to discuss the proper placement of the apostrophe in “Presidents’ Day”? I have seen this holiday spelled so many ways – the way I wrote it just a moment ago, and also as President’s Day, which makes no sense because that would mean, as far as I recall my grade school grammar, the day belonging to a single president, not all of them – past and present.
Some – like the AP Stylebook – nix the apostrophe altogether.
Anyway, I’m going with Presidents’ Day, as in the day belonging to ALL presidents. Come at me if you’ve got a problem. But I’m going to assume you are smarter than that.
If you are taking the day off, it’s looking like a not bad day to be outside – with temperatures in the low 50s, cloudy skies and a slight chance of a shower. Better enjoy it while you can, because not wonderful weather is headed our way. We’re not out of the winter woods yet, my little Smurfs. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.
In the headlines…
Dozens of well-wishers made the pilgrimage yesterday to the Carter Center in Atlanta, as prayers and memories of former President Jimmy Carter’s legacy were offered up at his small Baptist church in Plains, Ga., a day after he entered hospice care.
“After a series of short hospital stays, former US President Jimmy Carter today decided to spend his remaining time at home with his family and receive hospice care instead of additional medical intervention,” according to a statement from The Carter Center.
President Joe Biden took to Twitter to offer his support to his longtime friend, Carter, saying he and his wis wife Jill are “with you in prayer” and that they both sent their love.
“Jimmy Carter is one of the kindest most thoughtful people I’ve ever had the honor of meeting,” comedian and writer Jon Stewart said. “He’s the best of us.”
Former comedian-turned-senator Al Franken simply said Carter was the “greatest ex-president. By far.”
Biden heads to Europe this week in a trip meant to be a show of defiance, but it’s also complicated, dangerous and uncertain.
Biden is set to mark the one-year anniversary of Russia invading Ukraine with a high-stakes trip to Poland as the war is widely expected to drag on.
The Biden administration is facing mounting pressure from U.S. lawmakers and Ukrainian officials to equip Kyiv with F-16 fighter jets as Russia’s war approaches its one-year anniversary later this week.
Five House members argued modern jets — which Kyiv has sought, but the administration has so far not agreed to — “could prove decisive for control of Ukrainian airspace this year” in a letter sent last week to Biden.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that he and Biden will discuss possibly increasing U.S. troop presence in Poland and making it more permanent during Biden’s upcoming visit to Warsaw.
Biden travels to Poland this week, but he won’t be visiting neighboring Ukraine as the one-year anniversary of Russia’s brutal invasion looms, according to a White House official.
Biden is once again pleading for Congress to pass meaningful gun control after a man shot six people to death – including his ex-wife and stepfather – at three different locations in a small, rural Mississippi community on Friday.
Michigan State University will return for the semester today, a week after a shooting that left three dead and five injured, officials announced during a press briefing.
As Biden prepares to run for a second term, his team is mapping out a strategy for 2024 that in many ways resembles that of 2020.
Biden is much more progressive as commander in chief than he was as a senator, according to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), with the left-wing lawmaker saying he would support Biden if he runs for reelection in 2024.
Nikki Haley’s presidential campaign is a major test of her party’s views on sexism and female leaders. Just don’t call it identity politics.
Deaths in state and federal prisons across America rose nearly 50 percent during the first year of the pandemic, and in six states they more than doubled, according to the first comprehensive data on prison fatalities in the era of Covid-19.
Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews announced that he is dealing with symptoms of long COVID-19 and chronic immune response syndrome, and will be stepping away from hockey.
The search for a new chief judge for the state’s highest court is officially on — again — even as a lawsuit over how the Senate handles nominations plays out.
Now that the state Senate has for the first time ever rejected a governor’s choice for chief judge Governor Kathy Hochul will have to choose a new nominee and convince the Senate to agree with her choice.
A top advocate for New York’s power producers is urging state lawmakers to block Hochul’s proposal to allow the New York Power Authority to enter the renewable generation and energy storage business, contending such a move would raise costs.
Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes wants to snuff out Hochul’s push to ban menthol cigarettes and other flavored smokes.
Lawmakers have started pushing to reform the tax system of the state’s cannabis industry in the early stages of coming online, as well as ways to crack down on illicit shops in the next state budget.
Lack of a clear timeline for regulations and an application process has kept many prospective business owners and other newcomers to the retail marijuana industry hemorrhaging cash at a rate some aren’t able to afford.
Ongoing cost-of-living concerns have made affordability a key issue in the ongoing state budget negotiations in Albany.
Staten Island District Attorney Michael McMahon said juvenile justice reforms — like the Raise the Age law — “make it difficult to hold teenagers accountable,” and predicted things will only get worse.
The illegal Big Apple pot shop that smugly operates across the street from City Hall in Lower Manhattan is back in business — even after landing on The NY Post’s front page yesterday and being raided for a third time.
This weekend, the New York State Association of Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic, & Asian legislators celebrated their 52nd annual conference.
The state Department of Environmental Conservation added hundreds of toxic chemicals to a list of chemical hazards that may be found in toys.
Mayor Eric Adams announced a tentative contract agreement with New York City’s largest municipal union on Friday that includes a plan to allow some city employees to work remotely starting in June and 3 percent annual raises.
The mayor’s first big labor deal since taking office puts remote work on the table for the other upcoming municipal worker contracts.
Adams has fulfilled a wish of transit advocates by appointing himself to an obscure MTA board with sweeping authority over the agency’s capital plan to expand and improve service, documents obtained by Gothamist reveal.
Adams backs a state plan to raise Con Ed electric and gas rates over the next three years — with the caveat that New York City’s biggest utility seek to “ensure that utility bills remain affordable for all customers.”
The proposed rate increase is “substantial,” but “a significant reduction” from what Con Edison originally sought, Deputy Mayor Meera Joshi noted in a statement attached to the joint proposal reached last week by Con Ed and the state PSC.
Adams is caught between the wishes of billionaire charter school backers who supported him during the 2021 mayor’s race and the cost of a pro-charter proposal from Hochul.
An aviation company with ties to a board member at NYC’s economic development agency is set to receive a lucrative contract to operate the agency’s downtown Manhattan helicopter pad, raising concerns about a potential conflict of interest.
Florida governor and potential Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis plans to travel to New York City for a law enforcement event today.
The murder of Maria Hernandez. 74, in her Upper West Side apartment reinforced some New Yorkers’ fears that they are not safe aging in the city.
Embattled FDNY boss Laura Kavanagh named a decorated, retired former assistant chief as her first deputy commissioner.
Three FDNY firefighters remained hospitalized after being hurt in a raging four-alarm blaze on Staten Island, officials said.
The New York Taxi Workers Alliance is planning to hold its third strike to protest of Uber blocking pay raises for drivers.
Nearly 1,000 New York Times contributors, in addition to tens of thousands of subscribers and readers, signed an open letter to the paper’s standards editor condemning the publication’s coverage of transgender, non-binary and gender non-conforming people.
A 4-foot-long alligator was rescued from Prospect Park yesterday, a specimen the Parks Department believes was illegally released into the Brooklyn greenspace.
Flaco, the Eurasian eagle owl that escaped the Central Park Zoo early this month after his habitat was vandalized, will be allowed to stay free for now, and the zoo says it’s putting on hold efforts to recover him.
The state Department of Transportation said it is still committed to tearing down the elevated Interstate 81 in Syracuse, despite uncertainty cast by a state court ruling last week.
The State Troopers PBA, the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation into its financial dealings, has paid out hundreds of thousands of dollars to individuals or companies with connections to the union or to a related charity organization.
The fate of a fired correction officer, who faces trial in an alleged beating at the Schenectady County jail, may be decided by which contrasting theories from medical experts jurors believe about the cause and severity of the injuries the detainee suffered.
Meta — the parent company of Facebook and Instagram — wants power users to start paying for some of its sites’ features, taking a page out of Twitter’s playbook in charging for verified blue check marks.
Since Elon Musk took over, Twitter has faced a growing list of claims that it hasn’t paid some $14 million in bills as the social-media company aims to break even this year.
Twitter said it would soon limit a method of two-factor authentication on its platform to paid subscribers, as the social-media platform looks for ways to boost revenue and lower costs.
More than 300,000 Starbucks vanilla Frappuccino drinks have been recalled due to glass being found in some bottles, according to a notice from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Brittney Griner, the basketball star who was detained in Russia for 10 months, has reportedly signed a one-year contract to continue her playing career with the W.N.B.A.’s Phoenix Mercury.
Richard Belzer, who became one of American television’s most enduring police detectives as John Munch on “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” and several other shows, died yesterday at his home in Beaulieu-sur-Mer, France. He was 78.
