Good Tuesday morning. First, a programming note.

You’ll notice that Rise and Shine is later than usual today. That’s because I’m in California for a work trip – literally 24 hours in Sacramento and then home.

The time change has been tough. (Let’s not even start to discuss the misery that was the flight, it would take hours). Also, I’ll be flying home on the red eye tonight/tomorrow morning, so there will be NO RISE AND SHINE on Wednesday, April 26, 2023. Sorry for the inconvenience.

I haven’t really had much time to take in the sights here in the California Capital City. I’ve basically seen the hotel and the legislative office building.

The legislative annex at the Capitol itself is under construction – or was, anyway. True to form, the project, which is incredibly expensive, has generated quite a bit of controversy…it wouldn’t be a political/government undertaking if it wasn’t pissing someone off royally.

The temporary digs for the Golden State lawmakers is call the “swing space,” and I’ve got to say, it really puts our aging rabbit warren of a LOB to shame. Not only is it modern and light-filled with elevators that move slightly faster than slug speed, but it also has a lot of open work spaces where staff, lobbyists, and hangers on can plug in their devices and work.

Imagine, Albany Capitol denizens, having somewhere to recharge your phone/laptop/iPad etc. without scrambling around looking for an outlet, or being able to sit in a comfortable, spacious booth while waiting for your meetings, not standing around in the hall or, worse yet, sitting on the stairs or a window ledge?

It’s the little things.

I have been able to walk around a little bit. Downtown is, well, let’s say in flux. There are a lot of empty storefronts, and renovations/revitalization/rehab is underway in some parts. Covid clearly took a toll. Sacramento is also known as the “City of Trees” and that shows – you can look out over a pretty substantial urban canopy if you get up high enough.

Also nice: The weather has been in the 80s and sunny. California has a lot of issues, but the weather sure is nice (unless it’s a heat wave or a massive, seemingly never-ending rain storm, but that’s for another day).

One thing I haven’t encountered thus far: Mosquitoes. Maybe that’s because this is an urban setting, though those little blood suckers don’t discriminate. Last year in NYC, for example, the Health Department recorded record levels of mosquito activity. (Tick populations have also been on the rise).

After a snowier-than-usual winter, followed by a wet spring and a rise in temperatures – thanks a lot, climate change – mosquitoes are on tap to have a banner year. And that also means a likely rise in mosquito-born illnesses, which, in our neck of the woods, means mostly West Nile.

Malaria, on the other hand, is not something we tend to worry about catching here in the U.S. It was largely eliminated in the 1950s thanks to a combination of insecticide use, drainage ditches and window screens, which keep bugs from getting into people’s homes and workplaces.

U.S. hospitals do still see cases of malaria, which apparently are on the rise, but are generally attributed to people traveling and getting sick while they’re outside the country. It can’t be transmitted from one person to another, as it’s not contagious.

This life-threatening disease is mostly found in tropical counties, and while it is both preventable and treatable, nearly half the world’s population is at risk of catching it. If untreated, malaria can be deadly. Half a million people around the globe die from malaria every year, which doesn’t have to happen.

Today is World Malaria Day, launched by the WHO in 2007 to raise awareness about the need for “continued investment and sustained political commitment” for malaria prevention and control.

You’ll see a mix of sun and clouds today in Albany, with temperatures in the mid-50s and a slight chance of a rain shower. (Note, mosquitoes can’t function in temperatures under 50 degrees, and are pretty lethargic in the cold, but they are still out there, so be on the lookout).

In the headlines…

President Joe Biden has formally announced his bid for reelection, setting off a battle to convince the country his record merits another four years in the White House and his age won’t impede his ability to govern.

In a video released early this morning, Biden framed next year’s contest as a fight against Republican extremism, implicitly arguing he needed more time to fully realize his vow to restore the nation’s character.

In the video, Biden says he has spent his first years in office fighting for democracy and freedom. And he warns that “MAGA extremists” around the country — using Mr. Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan — threaten those freedoms.

If Biden won a second term, he would extend his streak as the oldest person to sit in the Oval Office: He would be 82 on Inauguration Day 2025. Despite concerns about his age among Democrats, no serious opposition to Biden emerged.

Democrats see former President Donald Trump’s post-indictment political resurgence as alarming for the country … and great for Biden’s reelection hopes.

Republican voters seem to be grading Trump on a curve in his third presidential campaign, while Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida faces a more traditional form of scrutiny.

The College Board said it would revise its AP African American studies course, less than three months after releasing it to a barrage of criticism from scholars, who accused the board of omitting key concepts and bending to political pressure from DeSantis.

Biden’s domestic policy adviser, Susan Rice, is reportedly stepping down from her post next month.

Rice, who served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, helped the Biden administration with expanding the Affordable Care Act, getting his Inflation Reduction Act into law, and passing gun control legislation.

The Biden administration outlined plans to propel research on the type of cutting-edge microchips needed to power computers, cars and other devices, saying it would establish a new national organization with locations in various parts of the United States.

Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris met with three Democratic Tennessee lawmakers at the White House yesterday, after the trio faced expulsion votes over their act of protest advocating for gun control.

The trio described themselves as “representatives of a movement” that is demanding greater restrictions on firearms to save lives.

It marked the culmination of the lawmakers’ rising profiles as they’ve come to symbolize the push for stronger gun laws – and, to some, democracy itself – amid Republican resistance. 

The civil battery and defamation trial for columnist E. Jean Carroll against Trump is set to begin today.

The prosecutor leading the investigation of Trump and his allies in Georgia said that she is aiming to announce any indictments by mid-July at the earliest, according to a letter she sent to a top local law enforcement official.

In her letter, Fani T. Willis, the district attorney in Fulton County, Ga., said that any charges would come during the court term that runs from July 11 to Sept. 1.

The announcement yesterday that Fox News was parting ways with its top-rated prime-time host, Tucker Carlson, stunned people in Trump’s orbit. 

“We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor,” Fox News said in a short statement that did not offer an explanation for Carlson’s ouster, adding only that his last show was on Friday, April 21.

A number of theories are circulating as to why Fox severed ties with Carlson. Former Fox News producer Abby Grossberg has accused him of overseeing a hostile work environment, where antisemitic banter and chauvinism were commonplace.

Don Lemon was fired from his post at CNN’s”CNN This Morning,” which he co-anchored with Kaitlan Collins and Poppy Harlow for about six months.

The former anchor, who was on air yesterday morning, shared the news in a statement on Twitter, saying he was “stunned.”

“Don will forever be a part of the CNN family, and we thank him for his contributions over the past 17 years,” said CNN CEO Chris Licht in a memo to staff. “We wish him well and will be cheering him on in his future endeavors.”

The synchronous exits of Carlson and Lemon from the cable news landscape represented the end of an era for their industry — the most combative and partisan since Ted Turner introduced the concept of 24-hour news to television more than 40 years ago.

Jeff Shell was fired as NBCUniversal’s chief executive after an anchor at one of the company’s news networks lodged a sexual harassment complaint against him, a lawyer for the anchor said.

A group of crisis experts and federal advisers conclude in a new report that a lack of disaster preparedness and coordination led to an unraveling of the nation’s pandemic response, and that the crisis exposed a “collective national incompetence in governance.”

The book “Lessons from the COVID War,” published today, is deliberate in its use of military metaphors. While COVID should have been attacked like a foreign invasion, too often, the nation’s leaders were absent from the battlefield, they argue.

In his most extensive interview yet, Anthony Fauci wrestles with the hard lessons of the pandemic — and the decisions that will define his legacy.

Experts agree that the risk from Covid-19 right now is low, and spring 2023 feels different from previous years, but they caution that it’s always possible for a new variant to emerge and start another wave.

The owner of an Albany midwife practice and two of her employees have been charged with forging thousands of COVID-19 vaccination cards and then dumping vials of vaccine, according to an indictment filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo personally altered a state-driven study about Covid-19 vaccines last year to suggest that some doses pose a significantly higher health risk for young men than had been established by the broader medical community.

New York may soon have a spending plan in place as Gov. Kathy Hochul and legislative leaders work to wrap up budget negotiations that have now stretched more than three weeks past the state’s fiscal deadline.

As a fifth stopgap measure was passed yesterday, progress was being made on a number of fronts after the Democratic governor appeared to pull back on some of her top policy priorities.

Budget talks are now hung up on how to curb an onslaught of illicit weed joints, although lawmakers say they still hope to have a final deal on the governor’s proposed $227 billion spending plan by Friday.

New York lawmakers and Hochul are close to a final agreement to fund universal school meal costs across the state as part of the still-under negotiation budget. 

State lawmakers are blaming the governor for the lengthy delay in landing a budget deal.

Republican state Sen. Patrick Gallivan proposed a constitutional amendment that would block the governor from inserting non-fiscal measures in budget proposals. 

The next state budget will not include funding targeted to 60 public school districts that must phase out and eliminate Indigenous names, logos and mascots by the end of the 2024-25 school year.

New York’s state budget could lead to a minimum wage of $17 an hour in the coming years.

A proposal to increase tuition for New York students and public colleges and universities will reportedly not be included in a final budget agreement, though out-of-state students will see an increase of between 5 and 15 percent, depending on the campus.

The state Legislature approved new Assembly district lines that will take effect for the 2024 elections, replacing a nearly identical set of districts that were just put into place for last year’s races before a court threw them out.

Hochul, the state Senate, and Assembly are closing in on a deal to allow nearly two dozen more charter schools in New York City.

New York City will only have to fork over $150 million out of the $500 million that Hochul demanded the city provide to the MTA – a top issue for Mayor Eric Adams.

Adams announced Governors Island will be the site of a $700 million campus dedicated to finding solutions to address the climate crisis. A consortium led by Stony Brook University will create a 400,000-square-foot “New York Climate Exchange.”

The announcement capped off a decades-long effort by city officials to make innovative use of the bucolic land mass off of the southern tip of Manhattan.

Two New York police officers who were cleared of criminal wrongdoing for the killing of Kawaski Trawick, who confronted them in his apartment with a knife during a two-minute encounter, face disciplinary action and could still be fired.

Rapidly rising interest rates have intensified concerns that the New York City office market, the largest in the country and a pillar of the city’s economy, could be at grave risk and the consequences could be felt both locally and nationally. 

Local lawmakers decried the “dire situation” at New York City family courts after the Daily News reported a host of woes — from unmanageable caseloads for lawyers to deteriorating buildings.

New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams unveiled the lawmaking body’s first ever Mental Health Roadmap – a plan aimed to serve as both a compliment and counterbalance to Mayor Adams’ mental health policies.

The Adams administration has reached a labor deal with the city’s largest police union.

Ariel Palitz, the founding director of New York’s Office of Nightlife, a.k.a., “The Nightlife Mayor” had her final party in the position on Sunday night at Lower East Side hot spot Mr. Purple, and the mayor was there to bid her farewell. 

A City Council candidate in southern Brooklyn who’s under fire for allegedly misrepresenting her employment and residence history appeared to confirm she doesn’t live permanently at an address she listed as her home in official ballot petition paperwork.

Two weeks after University at Albany students shouted down a conservative speaker, an adjunct professor was arrested on charges of disrupting an anti-abortion event.

The head of the Saratoga Springs Black Lives Matter group vowed to keep up the fight after pleading not guilty in court to two minor offenses, one of them a violation, in connection with his alleged disruptive behavior at a City Council meeting.  

RIP H. Dale Hemmerdinger, whom as chairman of the MTA steered it through the 2008 recession, helped win more financial support from the state Legislature and held mass transit fare increases to a minimum, who died at the age of 78.

RIP Alton Maddox, the headline-grabbing civil rights lawyer who represented Tawana Brawley and some of the most high-profile victims in racially charged attacks in New York during the 1980s, who died at the age of 77.