Good morning, it’s Monday.
Sort of tough to get back to it after such a glorious weekend during which summer showed a little leg early. Hopefully, you didn’t get too used to that, because the coming week looks like we’re decidedly back in spring territory, with temperatures in the more seasonable 50s and 60s range, and rain. Lots of chances for rain.
The brief burst of warm weather did seem to accelerate the post-winter wake-up process in a big way.
Things are blooming all over the place, which also means that a wide variety of bugs and critters are out and about. I don’t have a problem with this, as long as they respect their outside territory and I get the inside. But, of course, nature doesn’t actually recognize these sorts of artificial, human-created barriers.
Lying in bed the other night, there was a sound in the crawl space over the closet that I can only describe as skittering. This was followed promptly by a banging, like something was scampering – or flying? – and hitting the walls.
The first assumption was that it might be some sort of rodent – squirrel maybe, or mouse (we’ve caught more than a few of these over the winter, but they were under the sink in the kitchen).
The second was that we might have a resident bat. (No, we did not open the crawl space door to investigate; this was one of those “I’m going to close my eyes and put in my ear plugs and pretend this isn’t happening” situations).
I have mixed feelings about said bat – if that is, in fact, what this is. First thought: Great, it’s eating all the centipedes, which are vile and disgusting and I hate them, and also maybe keeping the mosquitos and flies at bay.
Second thought: Rabies, ugh.
To be clear, most bats DON’T have rabies. However, they are the most commonly reported rabid animal in the U.S., and the leading cause of rabies deaths in this country, according to the CDC.
Their bites are often small and hard to detect, so if you wake up and find one in your room and you’re unsure if you were bitten or scratched, either try to capture it for testing or get tested yourself. (The latter is far easier, and also minimizes the possibility that you WILL come in contact with a sick bat, and yes, testing means the bat has to die).
Bats, for the uninitiated, are flying mammals, not birds. They are, in fact, the ONLY mammals that can actually truly fly. (Sorry, flying squirrel, you’re really more of a glider than anything else).
Bats get a bad rap, thanks in no small part to the aforementioned rabies thing, and also the whole vampire thing (more on that in a minute). But they are, in fact, hugely beneficial to the environment, thanks to the fact that they are “insectivorous”.
In other words, they eat bugs – a LOT of bugs. In fact, their love of feasting on insects adds up to more than $3.7 billion worth of free pest control services annually across the nation. They’re also great pollinators and seed spreaders in the areas of the world – tropical and subtropical areas, mostly – where they eat fruit.
Of the more than 1,400 bat species on the planet, only three of them are of the blood-drinking vampire variety. These bats are in Central and South America, as well as Mexico, and usually target animals for food, though they have – on very rare occasions – been know to bite a human or two.
Some 77 bat species are currently endangered or critically endangered, losing habitat to development projects, tourism, and mining. Around these parts – North America, that is – you’ve probably heard that millions of bats have been stricken by white-nose syndrome, which is a fungal infection, and died as a result.
Today is International Bat Appreciation Day, which is a good time to think about welcoming bats into your personal space – though perhaps not above the closet. If you’re interested in trying to encourage them to hang around and eat insects in your yard, perhaps consider installing a bat house or two.
Today, by the way, will be cloudy with periods of rain. Temperatures will be in the low 60s.
In the headlines…
President Joe Biden issued a statement reacting to a series of violent events across the country, including the birthday party shooting in Dadeville, Alabama.
Biden commended Tennessee Governor Bill Lee for signing an executive order to expand background checks after Saturday night’s shootings in Kentucky and Alabama.
House Republicans will try to agree on a plan to lift the federal $31.4 trillion debt ceiling and cut government spending when Congress returns this week, after being stymied for months by Biden’s demands they do so without conditions.
A vast majority of abortion rights advocates say President Biden should ignore a final court decision that would ban an abortion pill, a new poll showed.
According to FiveThirtyEight, Biden’s average approval rating stands at 43 percent, about 9 points lower than his 52 percent disapproval rating.
As the federal government escalates its efforts against TikTok, it’s coming up against a stark reality: Even a politically united Washington may not have the regulatory and legal powers to wipe TikTok off American phones.
Ten states in the past three months have passed laws prohibiting what is known as gender-affirming care for young people, in a rapid effort by Republican lawmakers across the country.
Federal health officials say that covid remains one of the leading causes of death in the United States, tied to about 250 deaths daily, on average, mostly among the old and immunocompromised.
A new COVID-19 variant first detected in New York in January – the so-called Arcturus strain, officially known as XBB.1.16 – has now been identified in 27 states.
Those itchy, red eyes you have that you assumed were just the start of allergy season? It could very well be something called “Arcturus” instead.
A growing body of evidence points to the idea that the coronavirus can stick around long after an initial infection. Some researchers think that may be a major driver of long COVID.
A fundraising group supporting Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s potential run for president yesterday launched its first attacks on leading rival Donald Trump, questioning the former president’s allegiance to his fellow Republicans.
The ad is the starting shot for a vicious fight between the top two contenders for the 2024 Republican nomination, even though DeSantis hasn’t formally entered the race.
The Trump 2024 campaign took aim this weekend at DeSantis for his votes on Medicare and Social Security when he was in Congress.
Trump’s 2024 fundraising has been turbocharged by his indictment, according to new figures provided by his campaign.
Trump hit the same fundraising pace in the first three months of 2023 as in the relatively sleepy post-midterm weeks after his 2022 campaign launch.
While the former president reported a modest haul, he saw a big uptick in donations in the day after he was indicted.
The House Judiciary Committee is setting its sights on New York because the state is a hotbed of failed left-wing criminal justice policies, Rep. Elise Stefanik said in a new interview.
A day before House Republicans were set to hold a hearing criticizing Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer tied them to Trump’s verbal onslaught against the Justice Department and FBI.
Schumer criticized GOP leaders for failing to denounce calls from Trump to slash funding for the FBI and Department of Justice.
At an unusual “field hearing” in Manhattan, Republicans are expected to contend that Bragg is focusing on Trump instead of crime.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams torched the House GOP’s “field hearing” as an “in-kind donation to the Trump campaign”.
The House GOP hearing comes despite what crime data shows: New York City is one of the safest big cities in the U.S., with per-capita violent crime rates below many of the nation’s other large metropolises, such as St. Louis, Missouri.
Ohio Republican Sen. Jim Jordan defines himself by his penchant for punching back, whether against allegations that he was derelict in a sex abuse scandal or attempts to prosecute the former president.
Without citing a reason, the Delaware judge overseeing a voting machine company’s $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News announced late yesterday that he was delaying the start of the trial until Tuesday.
A jury in Delaware will be asked to weigh the limits of the First Amendment. Another question in the case is whether the network will pay a financial penalty for disseminating election lies.
Long Island Republican Rep. George Santos has returned nearly $8,400 in donations so far this year – more than the $5,333.26 that he has raised in the first quarter of 2023 0 and has reported no spending on lawyers or trips.
Between January 1 and March 31, Santos’s campaign received $5,333 in individual contributions, but spent $8,353 in refunds to individual donors, according to his campaign finance report filed with the Federal Election Commission.
Santos will reportedly announce his reelection campaign today in Washington D.C.
The abrupt departure of acting state Budget Director Sandra Beattie has triggered a state investigation into tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer money used for no-bid contract expansions for private consultants under pandemic emergency decrees.
Although some of the contracts predate the coronavirus pandemic, the state’s use of private consultants ballooned during public health emergency when public bidding was cast aside as many of the fiscal guardrails were lowered.
Hochul has spent nearly $2 million on additional help, mostly on the giant consulting firms Deloitte Consulting and the Boston Consulting Group, in shaping her vision for the state delivered each January.
Housing activists privately raged that Hochul is a “racist” who “does not like immigrants” during a mass “virtual call” to discuss deadlocked state budget negotiations.
Hochul and legislative leaders are “making good progress” on New York’s weeks-late budget despite another stopgap measure likely being needed early this week to ensure state workers are paid.
New York lawmakers are facing a noon deadline tomorrow to approve a short-term spending measure if no budget deal is in place by then, state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli on Friday told top legislative leaders.
The ranking Republican on the state Senate Judiciary Committee ripped Hochul’s pick for New York chief judge, Rowan Wilson, after The NY Post revealed the veteran jurist tossed a rape conviction last month.
The women’s organization NOW NYC is objecting to Wilson’s nomination for chief judge of New York state’s highest court, based on the decision he penned in the case People v. Regan last month.
Hochul, Attorney General Letitia James, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and other top women leaders in the Empire State gathered Friday to rail against the rolling back of reproductive rights in the U.S.
State health officials want to force hospitals and other medical providers to submit “equity’’ reports to justify their projects, but critics are bashing the move as another misguided “woke” experiment.
Newly proposed bills in California and New York are putting food additives — the chemicals manufacturers add to food to act as preservatives or to enhance color, texture or taste — under the microscope.
New York had close to the most cases in the nation of a “diabolical” drug-resistant and deadly fungus that has already infected people in at least 28 states.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took a swipe at both Mayor Eric Adams and the city’s union leaders — sharply criticizing a controversial plan to move 250,000 city retirees off traditional Medicare and into a privately managed version of the program.
NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” poked fun at Adams’ appointment of Kathleen Corradi as “rat czar” — and the city’s conservative borough of Staten Island — during its Weekend Update segment.
In a spoof of “Batman Forever” rodent-hating Adams will be lampooned as “Ratman,” opposite his press secretary Fabian Levy’s “Fobin” and other characters at the outlandish annual charity event next Saturday at the Ziegfeld Ballroom.
A Republican pol on Saturday abruptly dropped out of a hotly contested City Council race in southern Brooklyn — one day after his camp was accused of forging a signature on a petition needed to get on the primary ballot.
Adams Friday signed a proclamation declaring April 14, 2023 The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Day, recognizing the Prime Video series for its positive impact on NYC and the iconic path blazed worldwide.
50% of migrants streaming into the Big Apple are not vaccinated against the contagious and potentially deadly poliovirus, city Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan recently revealed — as he urged doctors to help prevent a public health emergency.
Nearly a third of all shoplifting arrests in New York City last year involved just 327 people, the police said. Businesses say they have little defense.
The crusading animal activists of PETA are blaming the city’s rampant rat explosion on “disgusting human behavior” — insisting thinning the herd shouldn’t include rodents’ “gruesome, painful” deaths.
A group of Broadway theater owners and producers is leading an effort to lower the curtain on plans for a Times Square casino.
Phantom of the Opera’s record-breaking 35-year Broadway run came to an end last night. Its famous chandelier got a bow, and its composer, Andrew Lloyd Webber, spoke after its emotional final performance.
The show’s composer, Andrew Lloyd Weber, hinted that the beloved production may eventually come back.
Adams bestowed one of the city’s highest civilian honors upon Lloyd Webber on Friday, praising him as the greatest Broadway musical force in history.
It’s wildfire season – and residents across the state should be on high alert. Nearly 20 wildfires have already scorched more than 700 acres of land in New York.
Wastewater from the shuttered Indian Point nuclear power plant in New York will not be dumped into the Hudson River next month as planned, the company that owns the plant said.
The Albany Patroons could play in a new professional basketball league next season – one with an earlier start and more home games.
The federal government is proposing stringent restrictions and emissions controls on ethylene oxide at medical device sterilization plants across the country, including at the Sterigenics plant in Kingsbury.
A former aide is accusing Buffalo-area Assemblyman Patrick Burke of sexual harassment, alleging in a complaint that he frequently commented on women’s appearances and made other lewd and inappropriate remarks in the workplace.
Burke’s ex-legislative director alleges he spoke of genitalia, women’s appearances and the sex lives of other legislators.
The 127th Boston Marathon is the mother of all marathons — the oldest. About 30,000 runners will chase the elite professionals toward the finish line on Boylston Street today.
