Good Thursday morning.
This time of year – the almost, but not quite spring time – can be very tough. It feels never-ending, and everything is gray and lifeless and colorless and just….blah.
Enter Holi. (Just to be clear, Holi was YESTERDAY, but I had to divide and conquer with International Women’s Day also falling on March 8, and so here we are, a day late but a very colorful dollar short).
This Hindu holiday is basically the exact opposite of everything I said above. It celebrates the arrival of Spring (March 20, in case you’ve forgotten), and is all about new beginnings and inhibitions and love and COLOR. A lot of color.
It is said that during the two-day Holi Festival, the gods turn a blind eye to what humans are getting up to, which gives you a bit more leeway than you normally would to let loose and enjoy yourself.
So, it’s basically a big party with dancing and bonfires. In different regions of India, people perform different rituals to celebrate Holi. In the north for example, the day before Holi it is traditional to burn a holy fire, called Holika Dahan.
The bonfires might contain effigy of Holika, a demoness whose story marks the triumph of good over evil.
But perhaps the best known Holi tradition is the throwing of powdered dyes into the air and onto fellow revelers. The colored powder is officially known as “gulal” and is a symbol of joy and love and the aforementioned good conquering evil.
The day on which the colors get tossed about is known by a number of names – Rangwali Holi, Dhulandi, Phagwah, or Badi Holi. Water balloons and/or water guns might also be involved along with the colored powders. It’s basically one gigantic rainbow mess.
Participants end the day (after going home to shower and change) by paying visits to friends and/or relatives, at which point some feasting would likely take place, because – of course – no festival would be complete without food.
For Holi there are a host of what look like mouthwatering savory and sweet dishes.
It would be a nice day for some infusion of color. We could really it around these parts. It will be overcast with temperatures in the 40s. Just get used to reading that, it might be a while before things change.
In the headlines…
President Joe Biden will dare Republicans to reveal which government programs they want cut as he lays out his budget proposal today that funds Medicare and Social Security long term by increasing taxes on the wealthy – and sets the stage for his 2024 run.
Biden is proposing a series of new tax increases on billionaires, rich investors and corporations in his latest proposal for how Congress should prioritize taxes and spending.
Biden’s budget blueprint will lay out plans to save hundreds of billions of dollars by seeking to lower drug prices, raising some business taxes, cracking down on fraud and cutting spending he sees as wasteful, according to White House officials.
The Senate voted overwhelmingly to block a new District of Columbia criminal code that reduces mandatory minimum sentences for some violent offenses, with Democrats bowing to GOP pressure to take a hard line on crime in advance of the 2024 elections.
The Senate voted 81 to 14, with one “present,” to block the recently revised criminal code, sending the measure to Biden for his signature, after many Democrats joined Republicans to reject a city law for the first time in more than three decades.
Biden will travel to San Diego on Monday to highlight the nuclear submarine deal with UK, Australia, alongside British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
The announcement is the culmination of 18 months of negotiations as the three countries figure out how to provide Australia with a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines.
A top Democratic senator criticized the Biden administration for refusing to show Congress classified documents found at the homes of Donald Trump, Joe Biden Jr. and Mike Pence, tying the renewal of a surveillance law to how forthcoming it chooses to be.
Senate Intelligence Chair Mark Warner, backed up by the panel’s Vice Chair Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), said he wanted to be “loud and clear” that Congress has the right to review the documents as part of its oversight responsibilities.
The National Archives and Records Administration still hasn’t looked through the trove of documents it recovered from Biden’s lawyer’s office.
Biden will welcome Ursula von der Leyen to the White House this week, with the European Union’s top official eager to gain concessions amid a tense subsidy spat between the two giant trading blocs.
A federal judge ruled in favor of the state of Florida and struck down the Biden administration’s use of parole to free illegal migrants in droves that are caught crossing the border.
In an unusual broadside against a major conservative television star, the Biden administration directly criticized the Fox News host Tucker Carlson over his on-air portrayal of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol as a largely peaceful event.
Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader, was hospitalized after tripping at a hotel in Washington, D.C., his spokesman said. No details were immediately available about the 81-year-old Republican’s condition.
The online health insurance marketplace for Congress and Washington residents was subjected to a hack that compromised the personal identifying information of potentially thousands of lawmakers, their spouses, dependents and employees.
The Louisville, KY police department engaged in a far-ranging pattern of discriminatory and abusive law enforcement practices, the Justice Department said after a two-year investigation prompted by the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor by the police in 2020.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland also announced Louisville has agreed “in principle” to forge a consent decree that will be enforced by a federal judge who will monitor the city’s progress in adopting reforms.
“It’s heartbreaking to know that everything you’ve been saying from day one has to be said again,” Tamika Palmer, Breonna Taylor’s mother, said. “That it took this to even have somebody look into this department.”
Rep. Morgan McGarvey, who represents the state’s 3rd Congressional District which includes almost all of the city of Louisville, said in a statement on Twitter that the report confirmed police “consistently violated people’s constitutional and civil rights.”
The House held the first in a series of public hearings aimed at exploring how the COVID-19 pandemic began. At the hearing, several of the witnesses pointed to how the science, facts, and evidence point to a lab leak in Wuhan.
The former head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said he was “sidelined” over his views on the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic, cut out of early discussions on where the virus came from because he suspected a lab leak.
Covid-19 may not have taken as great a toll on the mental health of most people as earlier research has indicated, a new study suggests.
The pandemic resulted in “minimal” changes in mental health symptoms among the general population, according to a review of 137 studies from around the world led by researchers at McGill University in Canada, and published in the British Medical Journal.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has tested positive for Covid again, after experiencing mild symptoms, according to his office.
With only a few weeks to go before this year’s budget deadline, Gov. Kathy Hochul has squared off in a series of conflicts with Democrats and nominal political allies that will test her ability to govern in a less combative style than her predecessor.
New York’s former acting budget director was forced out and a high-ranking official in the state Office of Information Technology Services is taking a voluntary leave amid an examination of whether contracts they worked on followed procurement guidelines.
New York City bodega owners voiced support for Hochul’s plan to give judges more discretion in setting bail — saying repeat offenders were “taking advantage” of the state’s controversial bail reform law.
With one-house budget proposals expected to come out next week, one state lawmaker is pushing for a late addition to create a scholarship fund for New York kids who had a parent, caregiver or sibling die or become disabled due to COVID-19.
More than 600 transportation advocates were in Albany yesterday to call on Hochul to increase funding for local roads and bridges.
Cutting taxes, lowering the cost of living and relieving businesses of regulations are among the broad priorities backed by Republicans in the state Senate as the conference outlined their goals for the state budget.
New York will use more than $3.7 million in opioid settlement funding to expand addiction outreach services statewide, Hochul’s office announced.
Hochul’s plan to invest in Belmont Park racetrack on Long Island could mean the end of horse racing in Queens. Some activists say the state should not be in the business of horse racing at all.
New York’s public colleges need financial assistance, but fears of enrollment declines and burdening middle-class students have made the governor’s tuition increase proposal unpopular with students, staff and some lawmakers.
Two state lawmakers, Assemblymember Jessica González-Rojas and state Sen. Lea Webb, are calling for expanded access to emergency contraceptives at public college and universities in New York.
In the nearly 10 years since New York created a tightly controlled medicinal cannabis program, there are concerns the 7% excise tax has made access harder for people. Now Sen. Jeremy Cooney is proposing its repeal.
Officials at the New York State Education Department are exploring updates to state regulations governing the use of restraint and seclusion on schoolchildren.
General Electric is poised to become a major offshore wind power player, with all six energy developers in the state’s latest solicitation saying they want to use the company as a supplier.
Mayor Eric Adams’ recently departed chief of staff, Frank Carone, who is expected to chair the mayor’s re-election campaign, is strengthening real estate’s ties to his former boss’ inner circle.
In a preview of potential Democratic battle lines in New York City, Adrienne Adams, the powerful speaker of the City Council, laid out her vision for the city, detailing an agenda that seemed to put her in conflict with Mayor Adams.
Speaker Adams outlined her own State of the City vision with an address in the Bronx focused on improving economic mobility — and rezoning figures to play a major role in her plan.
Speaker Adams proposed “infill” development, building on open spaces — rebooting a concept that failed twice in the past, with former Mayors Bloomberg and de Blasio seeing their versions stalled by opposition from Housing Authority tenants and electeds.
The plan would create needed housing for the city and provide upgraded options for New York City Housing Authority residents in the new buildings, Speaker Adams said.
She is also calling on the Council to keep its commitment to permanently closing Rikers Island by 2027.
A longtime player in Brooklyn’s Democratic Party, whom Mayor Adams recently appointed to serve as his “special assistant,” owes the city $55,269 for campaign finance violations associated with a failed City Council campaign, a recent lawsuit alleges.
Mayor Adams’ administration has since last week been able to apply for more migrant crisis funding from the federal government — despite claims to the contrary from the city budget chief.
Mayor Eric Adams appeared to lash out at Vice President Kamala Harris over the city’s $4.2 billion migrant crisis — marking the first time he’s explicitly faulted Biden’s controversial “border czar.”
All five borough presidents in New York City are calling on state lawmakers to make it easier to convert commercial buildings to residential use as a way to address the city’s housing crisis.
New York City regulators have given ride-hail drivers a boost in pay to keep up with rising expenses after an Uber lawsuit blocked them from handing out a bigger raise late last year.
City Council districts representing the South Bronx and East Harlem as well as the Rockaways and other areas of southeastern Queens led New York City in traffic deaths in 2022, a safety advocacy group says.
State Sen. Leroy Comrie is proposing the New York police commissioner become an elected position – despite mockery over how the idea could spell disaster if ever implemented.
The Brooklyn Democratic Party is getting sued by its landlord, which says the party tried to break its lease on office space without permission, and now owes $82,000 in back rent.
Brooklyn’s “Bling Bishop” Lamor Whitehead has been hit with a new fraud charge, federal prosecutors said.
New York City will launch a new Black studies curriculum next fall that could eventually be used across hundreds of schools, part of a local effort to embrace lessons on race and culture that have sharply divided school districts nationwide along political lines.
Six years after Yadira Arroyo, a New York City emergency medical worker, was crushed to death with her own ambulance, a Bronx jury convicted the man who commandeered the vehicle and ran her over.
Laurence F. Doud III, who headed the Rochester Drug Cooperative, will serve more than two years for conspiring to funnel “staggering” amounts of narcotics to pill mills.
A federal judge threw out Evan Blum’s claim against Albany County for seizing the Central Warehouse, signaling the potential end of his odyssey in the Capital Region.
A registered nurse from Albany pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to helping her boyfriend operate a multi-state sex trafficking ring that authorities said preyed upon underage victims.
The City of Albany and its new public safety commissioner face the first legal challenge after Council 82, an umbrella union for law enforcement agencies, filed a lawsuit earlier this week.
Novelist William Kennedy is selling 67 Dove St., in Albany, where notorious gangster Jack “Legs” Diamond was shot to death in an upstairs bedroom on Dec. 18, 1931.
The three-story brick townhouse, which Kennedy has been using as a pied-à-terre and writing studio for almost 40 years, is now on the market for $499,000.
Jim Boeheim, the Hall of Fame Syracuse coach who became one of the faces of college basketball as the sport rose in stature through his 47 seasons, was abruptly replaced as the team’s coach after losing in a conference tournament.
Boeheim hinted he might be stepping down in his press conference after the Orange were eliminated from the ACC tournament against Wake Forest. A few hours later, the school announced his 47th season would be his last.
Adrian Autry, a former player for Boeheim who has been the men’s basketball team’s associate head coach since 2017, was named as his successor hours after Boeheim told reporters it was “up to the university” to decide whether he would continue as coach.
Instagram users trying to check their feeds last night were met with an unfortunate message – their feeds weren’t updating.
Users began reporting Instagram being down at around 8 p.m. According to Downdetector.com, an outage tracking website, more than 46,000 people reported issues accessing the social media platform.
