Good middle-of-the-week morning. Happy Wednesday.
It’s the 10th day of spring, and there are 84 days left until summer starts. Too soon to begin that countdown? Not in my book. Not when I have a pool in my backyard for the first time in my life.
This was something I always pined for as a child. Friends who are already pool owners tell me I will regret fulfilling this childhood dream, as holes in the ground filled with water require a lot of maintenance to keep them clean and frog/leaf/muck and small animal free. Perhaps. We will see.
The former president (who my dyed-in-the-wool liberal mother refers to simply as “the idiot”, which always makes me laugh) has been in the news a lot these days – and not in a good way. He did a lot of damage to this country, IMHO, but there were a few things he got right. (A broken clock etc. and so forth).
One of those was signing into law the Vietnam War Veterans Recognition Act of 2017. This date was previously observed in 2012, thanks to a proclamation signed by then-President Barack Obama, making the kickoff of a 13-year-long celebration honoring Vietnam vets that is scheduled to run through Veterans Day 2025.
Now, I know that the Vietnam War was incredibly unpopular and remains controversial to this day. But I have lived most of my adult life with a veteran of this conflict – my stepdad, Larry Winters, who is an incredible person – and I have seen the indelible damage that experience wrought on his soul and how it changed the trajectory of his life.
As a result, I have a deep and abiding respect for anyone who went through what he did, and for all military members who serve this country.
To be clear, I detest and am deeply afraid of war and violence in general. What, or rather who, I’m expressing support for here is the people who put on the uniform and face unfathomable horrors, only to return to a deeply divided country where they were often shunned and ridiculed instead of supported.
In case you need a little historical refresher:
On this day in 1973 – two months after the signing of the Vietnam peace agreement – the last U.S. combat troops left South Vietnam, thus ending direct U.S. military involvement in the Vietnam War. Some military advisers to the South Vietnamese Army remained, along with Marines who were charged with protecting U.S. installations, and thousands of Defense Department civilians.
Today, there are fewer than 850,000 living Vietnam War veterans, and they won’t be around much longer, as reports indicate that over the last 14 years, they’re dying at the rate of 390 a day.
And those who are still with us suffer from a variety of war-related ailments and mental health challenges, including PTSD – Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, defined as having flashbacks, upsetting memories, and anxiety following a traumatic event.
PTSD was first officially recognized as a mental health condition in 1980 – just five years after the end of the Vietnam War. Other issues among vets: Substance use, homelessness, physical ailments as a result of Agent Orange exposure – the list goes on and on.
There’s also the question of the MIAs (missing in action), of which there were 2,583 in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia at the war’s end. To this day, the remains of nearly 600 MIAs from the Vietnam War have been identified, and none have been found alive.
I will be calling my stepdad today and thanking him for his service. He was just a teenager when he enlisted. His life was forever altered as a result of that fateful decision, which I think he made because he felt his draft number was such that it was only a matter of time before he was called up and so he should just get it over with.
It looks like a lovely spring day is on tap, with sunny skies and temperatures in the mid-to-high 50s. C’mon 60 degrees!
In the headlines…
Nashville school shooter Audrey Hale sent alarming messages to a former middle-school basketball teammate shortly before Monday’s deadly massacre, the ex-classmate said.
“We have a manifesto, we have some writings that we’re going over that pertain to this date,” the Nashville police chief, John Drake, said at an afternoon news conference. “We have a map drawn out of how this was all gonna take place.”
Hale, 28, was under a doctor’s care for an unspecified emotional disorder at the time of the rampage, Drake said, and legally bought numerous firearms in the weeks leading up to the mass shooting.
Authorities released graphic body camera footage showing the fatal confrontation between police and Hale.
“Our community is heartbroken,” the school said in a statement. “We are grieving tremendous loss and are in shock coming out of the terror that shattered our school and church.”
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie blasted Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis and Mike Pence during a town hall Monday evening, and earlier in the day he slammed Biden for his response to the Nashville school shooting.
Biden urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “walk away” from his current judicial overhaul legislation, saying he was “very concerned” about the health of Israeli democracy, and warning that Israel “cannot continue down this road.”
The president added that Netanyahu will not be invited to the White House “in the near term,” putting a fine point on the matter of timing concerning a potential visit from the Israeli prime minister to Washington.
A day after widespread civil unrest forced Netanyahu to delay a plan to weaken the judiciary, his government and the opposition in Parliament began the first direct negotiations between them to reach a compromise.
Biden said that his administration had done what was possible to address the banking crisis with available authorities, but added the White House response on the matter was “not over yet.”
A top regulator at the Federal Reserve blamed Silicon Valley Bank’s executives for its collapse and provided little explanation for why supervisors had failed to stop its demise, saying that the central bank was examining what went wrong.
UBS Group said its former leader Sergio Ermotti will return as chief executive, as the Swiss banking giant moves into a new era with its takeover of Credit Suisse.
Biden’s latest job approval rating is 40%, his sixth consecutive reading in the 40% to 42% range. He’s underwater in ratings of his handling of four issues — the environment (43% approve), energy policy (38%), foreign affairs (38%) and the economy (32%).
The president and the White House have attacked Republicans in recent months for positions the president himself once held on Social Security and entitlement programs including sunset bills and raising the retirement age.
A federal judge has decided that former Vice President Mike Pence must testify to a grand jury about conversations he had with Trump leading up to January 6, 2021, according to multiple sources familiar with a recent federal court ruling.
Pence said he has “nothing to hide” after a federal judge reportedly ruled that he must testify in front of the federal grand jury investigating Trump’s actions on the day of the Jan. 6 insurrection.
The New York grand jury considering possible criminal charges against Trump related to hush money payments to Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election is not expected to be asked to vote on an indictment this week.
The grand jury will not meet today and will be hearing an unrelated case on Thursday, the sources said. The grand jury typically does not meet on Fridays.
A Trump supporter protesting the Manhattan district attorney’s probe of the former president pulled a knife on a family with two small children yesterday outside Manhattan Criminal Court, according to a court official.
A majority of Americans say the multiple criminal investigations into Trump’s conduct are fair, despite his continued efforts claiming they are conspiracies against him, the latest NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll finds.
A member of United States Senator Rand Paul’s staff was stabbed Saturday, after leaving a Washington restaurant, by a man who had been released from federal prison 24 hours earlier, records show.
The suspect, Glynn Neal, 42, of Southeast D.C., was arrested and charged with assault with intent to kill, a felony. He is being held without bond, according to court records.
The World Health Organization’s vaccine experts have revised their global Covid-19 vaccination recommendations, and healthy kids and teenagers considered low priority may not need to get a shot.
Older people and higher-risk groups — including those with underlying conditions — should get Covid boosters between six and 12 months after their last injections, the WHO said in a statement announcing a revised vaccine protocol.
In the three years since the first U.S. service member died from COVID-19, the pandemic has taken nearly 100 U.S. troops.
Apartment rents have increased slightly for the past few months and are now slightly below the pre-pandemic average of 2.8%., as the seasonally stronger spring activity kicks in. But in March they were only up 2.6% from March of 2022.
At a moment when many are looking to Gov. Kathy Hochul to unite Democrats in New York, fearing disaster in 2024, the governor is having the opposite effect during a contentious state budget battle.
As the debate around whether to make even more changes to New York’s reformed bail laws heats up, a group of over 100 law professors penned a letter to Hochul and state legislative leaders urging them to leave the statutes as they are.
Tuition hikes at several of the most competitive State University of New York campuses could grow by 9% each year, thanks to a loophole in Hochul’s plan to fund public higher education.
A year and a half after Hochul championed a plan to help fund the renovation of Penn Station by allowing the construction of up to 10 towers around the transit hub, an alternate project has emerged as a possible front-runner to replace it.
Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine demanded that Albany lawmakers include a provision in the next state budget to change a long-standing law limiting the city’s power when it comes to zoning changes.
Republicans in the state Senate criticized the escalating spending in New York’s budget as lawmakers and Hochul work toward a deal by Saturday’s deadline.
A group of 104 building owners and landlords from across the state penned a letter to Hochul and legislative leaders backing a good cause eviction measure.
After rebuking Hochul’s pick for the state’s top court, Senate Democrats are backing legislation that would make it easier for the governor to fill vacancies on the Court of Appeals.
Latino activists hoping for the first Latino chief judge had their hopes dashed last week – and now it looks like the chance to even get a new Latino associate judge to join the state’s highest court isn’t in the cards either.
As the end of the state budget season draws near, 14 Black New York City elected officials are calling on state leaders to fund a set of policy measures they say would benefit Black New Yorkers.
A federal court lifted an injunction that prevented state regulators from issuing licenses for cannabis sales in multiple regions of New York state. An injunction on cannabis licenses in the Finger Lakes region remains.
New York’s Office of Cannabis Management recently announced a policy change to double the number of conditional dispensaries allowed in the state, but existing zoning rules could cap the number of weed retailers in many Empire State communities.
Cannabis growers and sellers involved in every level of New York’s fledgling retail marijuana industry gathered at the Capitol to rally for stricter enforcement on “thousands” of unregulated pot sellers, as well as other legislation they said could help them.
School kids dumped empty lunch trays outside Hochul’s office at the Capitol in protest of her effort to block free school meals for all public-school students in the state.
The Hochul administration’s new regulations that slash the income of check-cashing centers are “business-killing,’’ according to a lawsuit by an industry group.
Three Harlem Democratic members of the Assembly, and 10 other former elected officials, have filed a legal brief in support of former Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin as he faces bribery charges in a criminal case that’s pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals.
Charter schools in New York got back-up from the daughter of late civil-rights leader Malcolm X, shortly after progressives launched a fresh attack against a proposed expansion of charter schools in the Big Apple.
Evergreen Health, fuming over a controversial state proposal that it says will threaten one of its key funding sources, is telling Hochul she’s not welcome at the Buffalo Pride Parade and Festival in June.
Other LGBT groups across the state put out a statement of solidarity with the Buffalo contingent, too, raising the specter of Hochul being disinvited to other parades — including the largest in the nation, the NYC Gay Pride Parade.
New York City’s unemployment rate continued to lead the state in February, according to county-by-county numbers released by the state Department of Labor.
Mayor Eric Adams’ budget office is fueling the municipal government staffing crisis by maintaining policies that have hampered agencies’ ability to fill vacant positions, according to a City Council committee.
Adams’ administration pushed back on several pending City Council bills that would require the NYPD to provide more detailed information on police encounters with civilians and make body-camera footage more available to independent oversight bodies.
Former city Social Services chief Gary Jenkins — who remains under investigation by a municipal watchdog agency — is taking a job at Oaktree Solutions, a high-powered consulting firm launched by fellow Adams administration alum Frank Carone.
“What attracted me to Oaktree was it’s not just local,” Jenkins said. “This gives me the opportunity to help people across the country.”
The alarming increase in the number of driving while intoxicated cases thrown out of court in Manhattan due to controversial evidence reforms could lead to tragedy, law enforcement sources maintain.
Two more top officials in the NYPD are headed for the exit. The departures mark the eighth and ninth NYPD chiefs to step down over the last several months as the administration overhauls public safety leadership under a mayor who himself was an officer.
City Council members hailed getting the NYPD out of the picture as a “historic” solution to the decades-old problem of balancing the needs of brick-and-mortar small businesses with those of the un-permitted street vendors who hustle their wares outside.
A string of deadly encounters that started with complaints over loud music or offensive noise highlights a growing problem across New York City: Complaints about noise have exploded since the pandemic.
The M.T.A. is considering spending at least $130 million it raises from tolling to help address the potential impact to New York City’s poorest neighborhoods, which could end up with dirtier air from all the diverted traffic.
New York City will no longer describe its park bathrooms as “comfort stations,” citing the euphemism’s association with the “comfort women” conscripted into sexual slavery during World War II.
Newer city lifeguards are getting a permanent raise — and all public pool and beach watchers could net an attendance bonus — as the Parks Department and a new multi-agency task force hope to avoid another critical shortage this summer.
Jonelle Procope, the departing CEO/President of the Apollo Theater, will have a new performance space named in her honor.
Jewish leaders are slamming the state Health Department for sending a truck through Long Island neighborhoods with the message, “Polio is Spreading in Israel. Get Immunized Now.”
New York state’s Education Department is one step closer to removing all indigenous nicknames from its school districts.
Details are emerging about the project that will replace Longfellows Hotel, Restaurant & Conference Center in Saratoga Springs, which closed in January after being sold.
A political ally of the Board of Supervisors chair has been quietly named Saratoga County’s new director of emergency management.
State forest rangers last Monday rappelled into a 100 foot deep chasm to recover the corpse of a murder victim and to collect any evidence leading to the arrest of two suspects.
A Maryland appeals court reinstated the murder conviction of Adnan Syed, the subject of the “Serial” podcast who was freed last year after he had spent 23 years fighting charges that he had killed his former high school girlfriend.
In a 2-to-1 decision, the appeals court ordered the trial court to hold a new hearing on the motion to vacate Syed’s conviction that would give Young Lee, brother of the victim Hae Min Lee, enough notice to attend in person, unlike the previous remote hearing.
