Good Thursday morning.
Did you ever have a day that just lays you out flat? A day when you seem to be consistently behind the eight ball, rushing full-tilt from one place to another, one task to another, and just barely holding it together?
Yesterday was that kind of day for me. It started around 3 a.m. and didn’t end until 10 p.m., with a drive to Kingston and back in between. (Don’t ask).
To top it all off, daycare was cancelled for the dogs due to the weather for a second day in a row, and they were cooped up and bored and didn’t get walked or played with nearly enough. There was throw-up AND poop on the rug.
Yep, a banner sort of of day all around.
So, I was going to write today about giant pandas, which I love and are NOT related to raccoons, but are, in fact, real bears. But to be honest, I just don’t have it in me to do these amazing furry creatures justice.
I know you’re here for the quirky content, but I’m just all quirked out for the moment. I’m just going to cut to the chase and give you the headlines. Just the facts folks. I’ll be back in all my quirky glory tomorrow.
One bit of good news before we get down to it: The temperature today is expected to flirt with 50 degrees, and it will be partly cloudy with no precipitation in the forecast.
Hopefully, a good chunk of the snow that is blanketed my backyard and is confusing the hell out of the dogs – damn near drowning the small one, to be honest – will melt. And we can get back to what passes for normal around here.
In the headlines…
Five of Pfizer’s drugs will cost less for Medicare recipients starting next month as part of President Joe Biden’s plan to lower prescription drug costs, the Department of Health and Human Services said.
Biden said his administration was focused “intensely” on lowering health care costs and took aim at “MAGA” Republicans who he said are intent on dialing back Medicare coverage for millions of Americans.
Biden said he intends to visit Northern Ireland to mark the upcoming anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, which the US helped broker a quarter-century ago to bring an end to decades of sectarian violence.
Bill and Hillary Clinton will also visit Northern Ireland for the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.
The National Center for Health Statistics reported that 1,205 pregnant women died in 2021 – a 40 percent increase in maternal deaths compared with 2020, when there were 861 deaths, and a 60 percent increase compared with 2019, when there were 754.
Deaths of pregnant women in the U.S. fell in 2022, dropping significantly from a six-decade high during the pandemic, new data suggests. Officials say the 2022 maternal death rate is on track to get close to pre-pandemic levels. But that’s not great.
A pregnant woman is more likely to develop serious Covid-19 and to die of it. Several factors amplify the risks.
US prosecutors were investigating Signature Bank’s work with crypto clients before regulators suddenly seized the lender this past weekend, according to people familiar with the matter.
Signature Bank is on the market after being shuttered by state regulators on Sunday, but any potential buyer reportedly has to agree to a major caveat: no crypto.
The news of the bank’s failure blindsided just about everyone, including Barney Frank, the former congressman and architect of the landmark Dodd-Frank banking regulations, who also happens to sit on Signature’s board.
Following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank last week, a lot of companies and entrepreneurs have been making the flight to — at least perceived — safety. That means the biggest banks have been getting more deposits.
For tech startups, which for decades have relied heavily on Silicon Valley Bank based in Santa Clara, Calif., its failure has set off a crisis that could lead to mass layoffs, or hundreds of startups collapsing, according to industry insiders.
The nation’s largest banks got walloped yesterday, showing they weren’t immune to the crisis that has hammered regional lenders, after Credit Suisse reignited fears of a contagion in global banking.
Manhattan prosecutors on yesterday met with Stormy Daniels, the porn star who was paid $130,000 to keep quiet about her affair with Donald Trump, according to a lawyer for Daniels.
The lawyer, Clark Brewster, tweeted that at the request of the Manhattan district attorney’s office, he and Daniels had met with prosecutors.
Trump’s lawyer gave a preview of the former president’s defense against possible criminal charges relating to a hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels, saying that his client’s actions were “not a crime.”
Just before his House election, Rep. George Santos helped two of his largest donors reach a private deal on a $19 million boat, mixing his political and personal interests.
Federal and state investigators are probing Santos’ role in the sale of a $19 million yacht involving two of his wealthy donors, according to a law enforcement official.
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey announced that the state’s COVID-19 public health emergency will end on May 11. The state’s vaccine requirement for Executive Branch employees will also end at that time.
Six public health emergency orders will end. One requires Bay Staters to wear masks in some health care and congregate care settings. The other five deal with health care workplaces and staffing, some of which Healey plans to tackle via separate legislation.
Researchers from Dartmouth College reported the first instance of prosopagnosia (otherwise known as “face blindness”) as a symptom after COVID-19 infection.
When fewer children were taken into foster care during lockdown in 2020, child abuse did not appear to rise. Yet a new report finds the Administration for Children’s Services is unnecessarily removing children from their families.
New York State lawmakers’ proposed budget called for higher taxes on the ultrawealthy, parking permits for city residents and retention of the state’s bail laws.
Gov. Kathy Hochul better bring a fighting spirit against fellow Albany Democrats in budget talks – or else progressives are going to beat back her efforts to overhaul bail reform, Republican legislative leaders warned.
Top Democratic leaders indicated they had little intention of making further changes to a 2019 bail law that ended cash bail requirements for many criminal charges.
Legislative leaders drew lines in the sand on bail, taxes and housing mandates as they laid out their fiscal priorities this week and set up a budget showdown with Hochul.
Democratic state leaders say they have a new plan for affordable housing after Hochul’s plan has been scrapped in the Assembly and Senate one-house budgets.
Hochul stood her ground and touted her ambitious plan to address the state’s housing crisis after the Democrat-led Legislature released budget resolutions rejecting the bulk of her blueprint a day earlier.
Democrats in the state Legislature agree they want to raise New York’s minimum wage. But where the wage will ultimately land remains up in the air, as lawmakers left the question an open one in their budget resolutions introduced this week.
Public defenders across New York are not happy with Hochul’s executive budget proposal which would provide state district attorneys with over $100 million in funding.
State courts will have to report data showing who gets taxpayer-funded security and chauffeurs or risk losing $10 million in vital funding, according to a budget resolution unveiled by State Senate Democrats.
A bill framed by progressive Democrats in the state Senate would amend a slew of New York laws by requiring all references to “American Indians” be replaced by the term “indigenous peoples.”
Queens Assemblyman Juan Ardila will likely not face any disciplinary action from within the Legislature after two women accused him of sexual misconduct eight years ago, Speaker Carl Heastie said.
Elected officials representing western Queens have called on Ardila to resign, a day after two women accused him of sexual misconduct at a party in 2015.
Andrew Cuomo accuser Charlotte Bennett sued the state for sexual harassment over the same claims she brought in a federal case against the former governor.
Mayor Eric Adams suggested that his administration may have to house inmates at a half-finished Brooklyn jail in order to comply with the city’s plan to shutter Rikers Island by 2027.
A delay in construction of a new Brooklyn jail is causing justice reform advocates and formerly incarcerated leaders to doubt Adams’ commitment to closing Rikers Island by the agreed-upon August 2027 deadline.
New York City is doing its own “decompression strategy” to combat President Biden’s surging migrant crisis, Adams said, as the Big Apple braces for a hefty 10-year backlog to process asylum seekers.
Adams faces fines for three alleged violations of campaign finance law stemming from his 2021 Transition and Inauguration Entity — a fund that recently elected candidates use to cover expenses after they win an election and before they officially take office.
The City has fewer municipal employees but a number of new offices that Adams keeps creating.
The city started its long-awaited $1.6 billion project to build sewage containers beneath Brooklyn’s toxic Gowanus Canal aimed at preventing further pollution of New York’s waterways, Adams and the Environmental Protection Agency announced.
New York City public schools with declining enrollments may see another round of budget cuts this year, Schools Chancellor David Banks said during a City Council hearing.
New York fourth-graders lost twice as much ground in math and reading as their peers nationwide during the pandemic and squandered the equivalent of nearly a year of schooling during virtual learning.
More than 1,770 people living in New York City Housing Authority apartments are waiting for emergency transfers related to domestic violence, NYCHA officials said at a City Council hearing this week.
A bipartisan group of local congress members announced a last-ditch effort to thwart the MTA’s congestion pricing program.
Three men were charged with selling firearms and drugs to undercover investigators as they attempted to create a pipeline for unregistered weapons from Massachusetts to New York.
Cops invested in the neighborhoods they patrol matter more than where they live, Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell said.
The Federal Reserve of New York’s latest Empire State Manufacturing Survey shows a continued drop in manufacturing activity in the state, a worrisome trend amid the market turmoil hitting the tech and banking sectors.
A breakaway group of Glenmont residents seeking to block the Port of Albany’s wind turbine tower factory from being built near their homes has also filed a lawsuit against government agencies involved in the project’s approval.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy as it grapples with the financial impact of hundreds of civil claims resulting from decades of child sexual abuse and cover-ups, both admitted and alleged.
New York state announced hefty penalties for the developers of a controversial, large-scale housing project in Orange County that defied six stop-work orders issued by the state Department of Environmental Conservation since May.
The slow but steady march to bring the Buffalo Bills a new stadium continues to move down the field.
Aaron Rodgers has made it clear for the world to know: He wants to play for the New York Jets.
Rodgers clarified that while he does want to play quarterback for the Jets, he is not interested in being their general manager.
