Good FRIDAY morning.
I almost played hooky today, I have to admit. It’s going to be a glorious spring-flirting-with-summer day – mostly sunny with temperatures approaching 80 degrees. Really, a perfect day for slacking offing.
Not that I encourage that sort of behavior, mind you.
Also, if you’re suddenly curious, as I was, about the origin of the phrase “hooky”, which is kind of funny-looking, it turns out to have it’s origins in 19th century New York City slang, and maybe came from the Dutch word hoekje, meaning “hide-and-seek.” Who knew?
Anyway. I did think seriously about just going back to bed and calling it a day. But then I realized we hadn’t yet discussed the fact that this is Earth Week, and also that Earth Day falls on a weekend (tomorrow), and I didn’t want you to think I’m the sort of person who doesn’t care about the environment. I do.
And so here we are.
Earth Day, as we’ve discussed before, was the brain child of the former two-term governor of Wisconsin Gaylord Nelson, nicknamed “the Conservation Governor” for his concern about preserving the environment – something not a lot of people were thinking about back in the 1960s.
In 1962, Nelson was elected to the U.S. Senate, where he ended up serving for 18 years, during which he made it a priority to elevate his environmental activism at the national level, trying to get everyone to recognize the importance of preserving the land, and ensuring future generations had clean air to breathe, clean water to drink…you get the idea.
This was around the time of the anti-Vietnam War movement, and Nelson wanted to harness that same energy to mobilize young people and rally them to his cause. He came up with the idea of environmental “teach ins” across the nation, and in 1969, called for a whole day to be dedicated to educating people about environmentalism.
This turned out to be wildly popular. An estimated 20 million people participated in the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970. The rest, as they say, is history.
We’ve made a lot of progress when it comes to enacting policies to protect the environment, though a good number of them have been rolled back, manipulated, and neutered under various government leaders.
These days, the battle over whether human activity is, in fact, resulting in a significant change in the Earth’s climate seems to be more or less settled. What to do about that, however, is not. There is still time – though not a lot – for the human race to act to reverse some of the more detrimental impacts of our modern lives on the planet.
Earth Day celebrations and activities – some community clean-ups to rallies and consciousness-raising concerts and more – will be taking place across the state, nation, and globe this weekend. But even if you’re not the big gathering type these days (I definitely fall into this category) maybe think about getting outside and disconnecting from all your electronic tethers for a while.
I bet you’ll be glad you did.
In the headlines…
President Joe Biden reportedly may announce his 2024 reelection bid as soon as next week, timed to the four-year anniversary of his successful run for the White House.
Biden is said to be eyeing Tuesday, April 25 for his announcement – four years to the day since the he entered the 2020 race – and would make his 2024 run official with a video released to supporters.
Advisers inside and outside the White House caution the timing could change, pending unforeseen events, but a decision has been reached that it is “no longer helpful or necessary to not just say the obvious: He’s running,” a senior Democratic official told CNN.
“What I will say is that any announcement or anything that is related to 2024 certainly will not come from here.” Biden’s White House press secretary said. The Democratic National Committee did not respond to a request for comment.
Only about half of Democrats think Biden should run again in 2024, a new poll shows, but a large majority say they’d be likely to support him if he became the nominee, according to a new AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll.
Former New Jersey Governor and unsuccessful 2016 presidential candidate Chris Christie visited the GOP’s first primary state – New Hampshire – as part of a trial period that he said would culminate by mid-May in a decision about a 2024 run.
Larry Elder, a conservative talk radio host who was a breakout star on the right after running unsuccessfully in California’s recall election in 2021, said yesterday evening that he was running for president.
Biden immediately rejected Kevin McCarthy‘s opening debt-limit proposal, but it prompted movement elsewhere: A growing number of House Democrats want party leaders to restart negotiations.
Biden announced plans to boost U.S. funding to slash deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest and to help developing countries combat climate change during a meeting with world leaders.
“Today, I’m pleased to announce that I will request the funds so that we can contribute $500 million to the Amazon Fund and other climate-related activities over the next five years to support Brazil’s renewed effort to end deforestation by 2030,” Biden said.
French President Emmanuel Macron and Biden spoke yesterday, but statements the two leaders released differed over Taiwan just 10 days after Macron had drawn criticism with allies over the issue.
As Justice Department officials weigh whether to indict Hunter Biden, the investigator overseeing the IRS’s part of the case has made allegations of political favoritism in the inquiry that could add to the already fraught circumstances facing the department.
Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su faced scrutiny from the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee yesterday, bringing her one step closer to running the Labor Department officially in what is shaping up to be a tight confirmation battle.
SpaceX’s Starship — the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built — blasted off from the southern tip of Texas yesterday. But minutes later and awaiting stage separation, it experienced a failure deemed a “rapid unscheduled disassembly.” (It exploded).
The flight reached its highest point 24.2 miles (39 kilometers) above the ground, and the explosion occurred about four minutes after liftoff, according to SpaceX.
A pressure valve in the Super Heavy booster apparently froze. Elon Musk said the company has “learned a lot” and teased another test launch in “a few months.”
Vietnam’s commercial hub of Ho Chi Minh City is ordering the return of mask-wearing at school campuses amid a rise in Covid infections, the city’s education department said in a post on its website.
The new Covid variant concerning experts worldwide has claimed its first victim, health officials have announced.
Gut bacteria that break down a sugar known as “fucose” could be compromising our immune response to the COVID mRNA vaccine, a study has revealed.
If you didn’t have sleep issues before COVID, you just might after—particularly if the virus hospitalized you.
A 32-year-old psychologist in Britain developed blood clots and died 10 days after he took his first dose of AstraZeneca’s Covid vaccine, a report released by a London coroner found, in a highly rare case of a fatal reaction to the vaccine.
Nearly 150,000 New York drivers are at imminent risk of having their licenses suspended because of an old COVID-19 policy lapse, the state DMV warned.
“The risk from COVID itself may have decreased, but the risks from preexisting epidemics that COVID worsened – from mental illness to diabetes – have not,” New York City Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan warmed.
New York’s state budget will be at least three weeks late as lawmakers yesterday approved yet another stopgap spending bill to fund the government through Monday.
A wide-ranging suite of housing proposals — including key tenets of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s signature plan to boost production — is expected to be dropped from state budget negotiations in a bid to break a stalemate over the late state budget.
The concession on an update Hochul sought to include in the state budget comes after state lawmakers consistently resisted measures that would give the state the power to override local zoning decisions in towns that fail to reach specific housing goals.
New legislation would bar New York’s charter schools from expanding their grade offerings as a budget fight between Hochul and the state Legislature heats up over the issue.
New York State’s Independent Redistricting Commission made its own history yesterday, agreeing on a single Assembly map to send to the state Legislature.
The bipartisan commission had been unable to reach a similar agreement last year. That impasse and others eventually led to a court battle that contributed to a more favorable political field for congressional Republicans.
The new map made only minor changes to the current map, which was only used in the 2022 Assembly elections. That was somewhat of a backtrack for the commission, since its December draft map had some radically different districts.
Unemployment in New York decreased slightly in March, according to jobs numbers released by the state Department of Labor.
Government transparency advocates say a state Coalition For Open Government report released yesterday shows a proposed change to the open meetings law in the state budget is a step in the right direction.
A survey of local governments across New York found more than $1 billion has been spent or will be allocated on infrastructure projects with more than half of the money going toward climate-related problems like flooding and storm damage.
State Senate Democrats celebrated the “traditional” 4/20 marijuana holiday by establishing a panel headed by Sen. Jeremy Cooney that is devoted to hashing out issues involving legal weed.
The National Rifle Association was in Manhattan civil court yesterday for the latest fight in a yearslong legal battle with New York Attorney General Letitia James.
If the Secret Service can protect Donald Trump at a New Hampshire campaign rally, they can keep him safe during his civil rape case, a Manhattan Federal Court judge ruled.
Top lawyers for New York City Mayor Eric Adams recently held a private briefing coaching City Hall staffers on how to avoid unwanted public scrutiny of government information. The key? Be careful what you write down. Or pick up the phone instead.
The mayor announced the rollout of PlaNYC: Getting Sustainability Done from the Frank J. Macchiarola Educational Complex in Brooklyn.
The environmental blueprint is required by law and started under the Bloomberg administration to help the city better plan for the future.
Adams teamed up with Comptroller Brad Lander to announce a pilot program that’d bankroll rooftop solar panel installations for working class homeowners in the city — but funding for the initiative isn’t locked in yet.
The City Council is considering a bill that would require the city Parks Department to find sites where new pools could be built, with a focus on low-income or minority communities.
The Manhattan parking garage that collapsed this week, killing one and injuring five, has a lengthy history of structural issues that required substantial repairs — including 11-foot-long cracks in the walls and roof, engineering documents show.
People already struggling to afford living in New York City were hit with a new, ominous figure: A panel that regulates rent-stabilized apartments discussed increases of 15.75 percent on two-year leases, the highest such figure in almost two decades.
The eye-popping potential 15.75% increase for a two-year lease, and 8.25% rent rise for a one-year lease, was outlined as a potential worst-case 2024 scenario in a report issued by the mayor-controlled Rent Guidelines Board.
City lawmakers fed up with the slow rollout of legalized recreational cannabis and the proliferation of illegal weed stores piled on an Albany bureaucrat who asked for help this week promoting a new pot purchase initiative.
The New York City government’s economic development arm has scrapped a downtown Manhattan heliport contract and is launching an entirely new bidding process for operating the pad.
Two people were arrested for weapons possession and a fortune worth of suspicious products were confiscated during a city Sheriff’s Office raid on an unlicensed cannabis shop in Midtown on the unofficial holiday for pot smokers known as 4/20.
An employee of the New York City’s Department of Environmental Protection has been charged with threatening and harassing two customers whose inquiries he fielded.
A battered teenage sister and brother were held captive in a Bronx apartment since January by a man who pointed a gun at their heads, beat them with bats and whipped them with electrical cords, the police said.
The ex-boyfriend of Megan McDonald — the 20-year-old daughter of an NYPD detective found bludgeoned to death upstate two decades ago — has been arrested and charged with her murder, state police announced.
Criminal justice activists are renewing their demand to abolish the NYPD’s database of people with suspected gang ties, fueled by a five-year investigation’s findings of vague rules governing its use and a lack of transparency.
Albany’s Matthew Robinson is spearheading New York’s first regulated cannabis delivery service through the delivery arm of his company Essential Flowers, Legacy Dispensers, which started operations yesterday – 4/20.
A state appellate court rejected Nauman Hussain’s effort to have his 2021 guilty plea reinstated following state Supreme Court Justice Peter Lynch’s decision last summer to void it.
Parking availability has come up as a concern in the Redburn Development Partners’ proposal to turn the former Catholic Central High School on Seventh Avenue in Troy into 69 apartments.
The Albany Common Council gave its final approval earlier this week to a new ordinance that would mandate an increase in the number of affordable housing units in new developments, overriding Mayor Kathy Sheehan’s veto.
New Mexico prosecutors are dropping the involuntary manslaughter charges that were filed against Alec Baldwin for the 2021 shooting death of a cinematographer on the set of the film “Rust”.
Drug dealers are mixing xylazine, an animal tranquilizer relied on by veterinarians, into fentanyl, with deadly results. But controlling it is tricky.
