Good morning. It’s Thursday. The state budget is due in just a few days.
Will the governor and legislative leaders make the constitutionally mandated April 1 deadline for an on-time spending plan? Or will the clocks in the Assembly chamber miraculously and inexplicably stop, providing all sides with more time to horse-trade and still declare victory for a timely (if not deadline-meeting) deal.
No one knows. And that’s what makes Planet Albany so interesting and also maddeningly frustrating. If anyone can wrestle these cats to the ground, it’s Bob Megna – now on his third stint as budget director. Godspeed, Bob. We’re rooting for you.
Most people who pay a modest amount of attention to the state budget probably know that the lion’s share of state spending goes toward two things: education and healthcare, namely Medicaid.
Across the country, the healthcare industry was worth $808 billion as of 2021, 65 percent of which is from patient care. The industry accounted for just over 18 percent of the U.S. economy that year, which is quite a bit higher than in most other developed countries, where the number is about 10 percent of GDP.
Now, I myself am not a big fan of the healthcare industry. Though I recognize the importance of going to the doctor for routine checkups and diagnostic tests, it’s not something I particularly enjoy. (Does anyone?)
Given how much time I seem to spend seeing one medical professional or another, and based on how crowded the waiting rooms generally are, I was under the impressions that doctors were doing OK.
Maybe that’s the case for those who are currently practicing. But it turns out this country is experiencing an acute doctor shortage, which is only expected to get worse in the coming years. In fact, a recent report from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) found the faces a projected shortage of between 37,800 and 124,000 physicians within the next 12 years.
Apparently, this isn’t a new phenomenon; experts have been complaining about a shortage of doctors for some time – perhaps worse in some speciality areas than others – and that reportedly was worsened by the burnout the industry experienced as a result of the Covid-19 crisis.
Some say the real problem is not actually a lack of physicians, but rather a failure to effectively deploy those we have. Whether you believe that’s the case, or are convinced that there aren’t enough doctors to go around, one thing I think we can all agree on, generally speaking, is that doctors are important.
Happy National Doctors Day! A little history…
This day was first observed on March 30, 1933, by the Barrow County Alliance, in Winder, Georgia. It was the brainchild of a woman named Eudora Brown Almond, who was married to a doctor, Charles B. Almond. She selected the day to coincide with the anniversary of the first use of anesthesia in surgery by Dr. Crawford W. Long in Jefferson, Georgia, in 1842.
Here’s the resolution the Alliance adopted proclaiming the first-ever Doctors’ Day:
“WHEREAS the Alliance to the Barrow County Medical Society wishes to pay lasting tribute to the Doctors, therefore, be it RESOLVED by the Alliance to the Barrow County Medical that March 30, the day that famous Georgian Dr. Crawford W. Long first used ether anesthesia in surgery, be adopted as “Doctors’ Day,” the object to be the well-being and honor of the profession, its observance demanding some act of kindness, gift or tribute in remembrance of the Doctors.”
At first, observances were very hyper local, and included mailing cards of recognition to area doctors and placing flowers on the graves of deceased doctors. The idea caught on, and by 1958 had reached the U.S. House of Representatives, which passed a resolution commemorating Doctors’ Day.
It wasn’t until 1990, however, that both congressional chambers passed measures to elevate the day to the national level, and then-President George Bush signed S.J. RES. #366 (Public Law 101-473), codifying the date.
Upstate spring is in full effect, with some seriously weird weather swings over the past 24 hours – from sun and warm-ish temperatures to snow squalls and a flash freeze. Not sure what that’s all about. Today will be sunny with highs in the low 40s.
In the headlines…
Pope Francis was admitted to a hospital in Rome and canceled two days of events to undergo planned testing and a checkup, the Vatican said.
The Vatican said the 86-year-old pontiff was taken to a hospital in Rome, where he was being treated for a respiratory infection.
This is the first time the Vatican has publicly announced that Pope Francis has gone to the hospital since he underwent surgery to have part of his colon removed in July 2021.
The Pope spent a peaceful night in hospital and medical staff is optimistic about his recovery, Italian news agency ANSA reported early today.
President Joe Biden said planning is underway for a potential trip to Nashville in the aftermath of a deadly shooting Monday at a Christian private school that killed three students and three adults.
Biden said he had reached the limit of his powers to act alone on gun violence, and needed Congress to respond. Republicans said they had already done all they were willing to do.
Amid the ghastly cadence of multiple mass shootings that have prompted calls for more comprehensive controls on guns, Republicans in statehouses have been steadily expanding access to guns.
House Republicans who have said they will not vote to raise the national debt limit without deep spending cuts are backing away from their promise to balance the budget and struggling to unite their fractious majority behind a fiscal plan.
Biden’s nominees are hitting a rough patch in the Senate. And things may only get trickier from here.
The Congressional Black Caucus is pushing to avoid a repeat of congressional Republicans’ successful repeal of a D.C. crime law.
Ahead of Biden’s visit to Northern Ireland next month, Ballina, a scenic town on the Republic of Ireland’s rugged Atlantic coast is preparing to roll out the red carpet for its most famous descendant.
Mexican officials announced they’re investigating a fire at a migrant detention center in Ciudad Juárez as a homicide case, saying government workers and private security hadn’t allowed detainees to escape from the blaze that killed at least 39 people.
More than 1,000 tech leaders and researchers, including Elon Musk, have urged artificial intelligence labs to pause development of the most advanced systems, warning in an open letter that A.I. tools present “profound risks to society and humanity.”
A.I. developers are “locked in an out-of-control race to develop and deploy ever more powerful digital minds that no one — not even their creators — can understand, predict or reliably control,” according to the letter, released by the Future of Life Institute.
The number of immigrants nearly tripled in the nation’s 20 most populous counties from 2021 to 2022, as immigration returned to prepandemic levels nationally, the Census Bureau reported.
The Manhattan grand jury examining Donald Trump’s alleged role in a hush money payment to a porn star isn’t expected to hear evidence in the case for the next month largely due to a previously scheduled hiatus.
However, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg can summon the grand jury at any time, so it is possible there might be action in the case before then.
A Trump supporter accused of pulling a knife on a mother with two small children outside of Manhattan Criminal Court this week has been charged with menacing, weapon possession and three counts of harassment.
Three attorneys who worked on the Manhattan district attorney’s criminal investigation into Trump believed the anticipated indictment against the former president over hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels was too weak to bring as a standalone case.
Trump finally returned this week to his old stomping ground, Fox News, after several months away. The chilly reception from some of his onetime media allies underscored his uneasy place at the moment in Republican politics.
The U.S. Senate passed a bill that would end the national Covid-19 emergency declared by then-President Trump on March 13, 2020.
The final vote was overwhelmingly bipartisan, 68-23. The joint resolution, which cleared the House earlier this year, now heads to Biden’s desk.
Biden will not veto the GOP-led effort to end the COVID-19 national emergency, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer told Democratic senators.
Several influential members of New York’s congressional delegation are pressuring Gov. Kathy Hochul to embrace a climate bill that would compel the state to build wind and solar energy projects when private industry falls short of state environmental goals.
The effort — an unusual show of force by Washington into Albany’s affairs — was made public in a letter sent to the governor that “strongly” encouraged Hochul, to fall in line with the state’s left-leaning Legislature and the Build Public Renewables Act.
The state’s top leaders, Hochul, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, are negotiating a plan to spend taxpayer money behind closed doors. None of them have spoken publicly about it in more than a week.
Republicans in the New York state Senate this week called for more sunshine — literally — in the state budget process.
As Hochul doubles down on further rolling back the landmark 2019 bail reforms as part of the state budget, law professors and public defenders are ringing the alarm bells over what they say would fundamentally change the purpose of bail in New York.
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie has reportedly floated tweaks to bail reform despite publicly resisting them ahead of the April 1 state budget deadline.
The Assembly brought language to the budget negotiating table that would alter state bail laws by removing, for some offenses, a “least restrictive means” standard judges use to set bail, a change Hochul has signaled is one of her top priorities.
Nassau County leaders are making a final push against Hochul’s housing plan as the state’s budget deadline looms.
The expansion of charter schools in New York has become a central issue in Albany this year as Hochul and lawmakers battle over the state’s budget, which is due April 1.
Under a provision tucked in the state Senate’s budget proposal, retired government workers who choose to return to work for the state could earn up to an additional $15,000 a year without losing any of their pension income.
Hochul announced that $2.5 million is going to help support the people that are still impacted by the May 14 mass shooting that left 10 people dead in East Buffalo.
State mental health leaders are turning up the pressure to see a combination of the Legislature’s and Hochul’s proposals in the next state budget as the deadline looms and talks continue.
Backers of tenant protections and raising taxes on New York’s wealthiest residents pleaded their cases at the state Capitol on yesterday as Hochul and Legislative leaders negotiated a state spending plan behind closed doors.
The consequences for leaving the scene of a fatal crash could increase in New York under a measure proposed this week by two Republican lawmakers.
New York is getting $100 million in federal grant money to expand high-speed internet access for low income families across the state.
A federal appeals court has lifted part of an injunction that prevented cannabis regulators from issuing licenses for recreational dispensaries in some parts of New York, removing a major obstacle for the state’s rollout.
The decision issued on Tuesday by the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Manhattan partially reverses a hold put in place by a lower court judge hearing a challenge to the state’s licensing requirements.
Eric Adams, who ran for mayor on a pledge to make it easier for poor New Yorkers to access city services, introduced an online portal called “MyCity.”
Adams all but called for the state Liquor Authority to be blacklisted from operating in the city following revelations that his team privately went to bat for a Brooklyn club that’s under fire from the state agency over drug use on its premises.
Adams defended his office’s efforts to help Brooklyn music venue Avant Gardner, which included brokering a meeting with a top aide to Hochul as the venue battled with the State Liquor Authority.
Adams in a letter to Hochul this week urged her to support the expansion of a health insurance program to include more undocumented residents living in the state.
Adams praised Heastie, despite a new Post poll showing the power broker’s opposition to expanding city charter schools and rolling back the state’s bail law goes against voters in his own Bronx district.
A snarky new New York City campaign takes aim at the Big Apple’s long-standing rival: Boston. “We get more done by 8 a.m. than Boston does in a day,” reads the advertisement, seen in a now-viral photo posted on Twitter on Sunday.
A new “Lab of the Future” coming to Manhattan will utilize artificial intelligence and machine learning to conduct clinical research and make advanced drug discoveries more data-driven and cost-effective, the governor said.
A state tax break for Madison Square Garden is commonly described as worth $42 million per year — but the actual cost is much higher, according to the city’s Independent Budget Office.
Award-winning “PBS NewsHour” reporter Jane Ferguson was the victim of a random assault on a Manhattan train — and tweeted about the attack to thank a good Samaritan who rushed to help her.
Several defendants face charges in connection with murders and robberies at Manhattan bars that terrorized the city’s gay community, according to three people with knowledge of the matter.
The troubled rollout of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s new fare system, OMNY, has suffered another setback that will push the switchover to 2025 — and cost the agency another $34 million, documents show.
MTA officials need to prioritize fixes to broken-down subway elevators — and New York’s Legislature needs to commit more money to the problem, disability advocates said.
In the wake of 88 deaths on city subway and rail tracks in 2022, the MTA is testing new ways to prevent such fatalities — from surveillance cameras and artificial intelligence to calming blue lights.
A little-known buyer won an auction for the Flatiron Building on the courthouse steps and then went off the radar, failing to pay the $19 million deposit. Now the famous building’s fate is uncertain.
As a final deal to fund the new Buffalo Bills stadium nears completion, it’s still not clear how Hochul’s administration will fund the state’s $600 million commitment to the project, but is most likely to pay for about 30% of its commitment using cash.
A self-described “Chinese Zodiac Killer” who mailed hundreds of threatening letters to recipients including Biden, Hochul, Rep. Elise Stefanik was sentenced to 16 months in federal prison as a judge declined his attorney’s request for time served.
New York state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli’s office will conduct a follow-up assessment of the state Department of Health’s handling of nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Stefanik said she was briefed on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s relationship with a man linked to the 2018 stretch limousine crash that killed 20 people in Schoharie.
The 97-year-old mother of a man accused of holding her hostage in a room at Albany Medical Center Hospital Monday has died.
