Good morning, it’s Tuesday. (FWIW, summer will start officially on June 21, which seems like it’s a long way away yet – especially since the weather has yet to warm up in any significant or sustained way).
On this day in 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated by James Earl Ray while in Memphis, Tenn. to support a city sanitation worker strike and lead a march.
King was standing on the second floor balcony at the Lorraine Motel, (now a civil rights museum), at the time of his death, which sparked a rash of riots and looting in inner cities across the nation.
Ray, a small-time criminal and prison escapee, disappeared after the shooting and was the subject of a two-month long manhunt before he was finally captured at London’s Heathrow Airport.
He pleaded guilty to killing King and received a 99-year sentence, (his plea had enabled him to avoid the death penalty). But before long, Ray had recanted his confession and then spent the rest of his life claiming he had been framed as part of a conspiracy.
In 1978, the House Select Committee on Assassinations, (established in 1976 to investigate the murders of both MLK and JFK), in found that Ray had, in fact, pulled the trigger on the gun that killed King, but also that he was part of a broader conspiracy to commit the crime.
On a different, but completely unrelated note – unless there’s a tenuous connection to be made between things that have lasted a very long time (like racism, bigotry and hatred), and continue to be a scourge on society still – today is the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action.
Yes, it’s a two-for-one sort of day here at CivMix, because both of these items seemed equally important and I wasn’t able to choose between them.
Says the UN website:
Explosive ordnance contamination threatens lives, curtails freedom of movement, limits access to arable land, disenfranchises communities and above all instills fear and insecurity. It spreads terror, and longstanding contamination internalizes this terror. The most affected are the most vulnerable populations.
And if you think this isn’t really a bid deal, think again. The UN estimates that there are as many as 100 million unexploded landmines around the world, with an equal number stockpiled and waiting to be planted. The highest number is believed to be in Cambodia.
Mines are, by design, difficult to locate. Clearing them is expensive – a single mine costs between $3 and $75 to manufacture and place, but between $300 and $1,000 to remove – and they are a particular threat to children, who often pick up remnants of mines thinking they’re toys.
The US reportedly doesn’t use anti-personnel landmines anymore and hasn’t in any significant way (whatever the hell that means) since 1991. But other countries do, and these gizmos of death can stay active for 50 years or more. If you want to learn more about how to help end this madness, click here.
Remember what I said about April and its showers? Well, we’re deep in shower territory, folks. It’s going to rain all or part of the day today (with temperatures topping out in the high 50s), tomorrow, and Thursday, so get those slickers and umbrellas and boots handy. It’s a good time to be a duck. Not so much a goldendoodle with hair that acts that an oversized mop. Yeesh.
In the headlines…
Donald Trump and his allies began a two-day effort yesterday to make a political spectacle out of an unprecedented legal event: the arraignment of a former president.
Trump jetted from South Florida to Trump Tower in New York City during the afternoon, starting a journey that will include his arraignment this afternoon and a speech tonight back in Florida.
Barricades and Trump’s motorcade took center stage throughout the day as supporters lined a Palm Beach parkway to see him off on his trip to New York City, where defenders and detractors waited behind metal barriers for Trump to make his return.
A day before he was to surrender to face charges stemming from a hush-money payment, Trump added a new lawyer to his defense team, a former federal prosecutor with wide experience in white-collar cases: Todd Blanche.
Blanche said he resigned from his firm because “I have been asked to represent Trump in the recently charged DA case, and after much thought/consideration, I have decided it is the best thing for me to do and an opportunity I should not pass up.”
Trump claims his campaign scored $7 million in donations since his indictment was announced in the Stormy Daniels hush money case last Thursday.
Trump trashed Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg as a “racist” and denounced his indictment in the Stormy Daniels hush money investigation as “election interference.”
New York University told its employees to be prepared for potentially “significant demonstrations” leading up to Trump’s arraignment tomorrow.
Mayor Eric Adams delivered a stern warning to those who plan to protest Trump’s indictment, including Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, saying that they should “control themselves” and “respect the rule of law” in New York City.
Greene fired back at Adams, saying he was “trying to intimidate, threaten, and stop me from using my 1st amendment rights to peacefully protest the Democrat’s unconstitutional weaponization of our justice system against” Trump.
“While there may be some rabble rousers thinking about coming to our city tomorrow our message is clear and simple: Control yourselves,” the mayor said at a press conference. “New York City’s our home — not a playground for your misplaced anger.
A Manhattan judge will allow a handful of still photographers – but no TV cameras – inside the courtroom during Trump’s arraignment, denying his lawyers’ request to ban cameras altogether.
President Joe Biden ventured to suburban Minneapolis to talk about factory jobs and contrast his agenda with “the last guy who had this job.” (That would be Trump, who is sucking up all the media attention at the moment).
Biden touted efforts to boost U.S. manufacturing after touring a Cummins facility in Minnesota, as the company announced it will invest $1 billion in making cleaner engines.
Biden issued a major disaster declaration in multiple California counties, his office announced.
The declaration makes federal funding immediately available to affected individuals in Kern, Mariposa, Monterey, San Benito, Santa Cruz, Tulare and Tuolumne counties, as requested by the California governor.
First lady Jill Biden said she wants the defeated Iowa women’s basketball team to be invited to the White House in addition to the national title winner Louisiana State University. She watched LSU’s 102-85 victory over Iowa from the stands on Sunday night.
Thousands of people in the federal prison system who have been serving time at home due to the risks posed by COVID-19 may be able to remain under home confinement even after the Biden administration declares the COVID emergency is over.
Scientists in Germany say they’ve been able to make a nasal vaccine that can shut down a Covid-19 infection in the nose and throat, where the virus gets its first foothold in the body.
A lawsuit against the University of Delaware over its campus shutdown and halting of in-person classes due to Covid can proceed as a class action on behalf of thousands of students who were enrolled and paid tuition in spring 2020, a federal judge ruled.
Almost 1.5 million people of working age in Japan are living as social recluses, according to a government survey, with about a fifth of cases attributed to the pressures unleashed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
A requirement that states keep people on Medicaid during the coronavirus pandemic has come to an end, and 15 million people across the U.S. could lose their coverage as a result.
Gov. Kathy Hochul yesterday introduced, and the Legislature approved, a one-week budget “extender,” which will allow the state to make payroll, pay its bills and continue its operations through April 10.
Approval of the budget extension means more than 55,000 state workers will be paid. State lawmakers themselves will not be paid until a budget deal is finalized, giving Hochul some leverage as the talks continue.
Hundreds of progressive-leaning organizations yesterday urged state lawmakers to avoid broad changes to New York’s bail law that would result in jailing more defendants.
A new ad on bail, airing two days after the state budget was due, is a part of the latest buy by the group associated with the Democratic Governors Association; it’s funded, at least in part, by $5 million from former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
All other issues are being subsumed in the budget talks by negotiations over once again changing the 2019 bail law.
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie admitted that differences over the governor’s plan to remove the “least restrictive” standard judges are meant to follow when setting bail for serious crimes have held up budget talks.
Hochul’s plan for addressing the state’s housing shortage is meeting resistance in places like Westchester County and Long Island.
Almost everyone accepts New York has a housing problem, but Hochul is risking her political future by taking it on.
New York state will launch a public service announcement campaign to raise awareness over fair housing laws in the state, Hochul’s office announced.
State weed-shop regulators are trying to take residents higher — recently approving more than double the number of current retail licenses during the program’s rocky rollout.
Some members of a group tasked with reducing child poverty in New York are questioning whether Hochul’s proposed budget skirts the most effective solutions to improve conditions for the state’s estimated 20 percent of children who are living in hardship.
Far-left Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has not ruled out a Democratic primary campaign against Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand next year — telling an interviewer she was looking at a number of career options, including “higher office.”
New York City Council leaders announced that they’ve identified $1.3 billion in taxpayer cash that they believe should be used to reverse a long list of municipal budget cuts proposed by Mayor Adams.
New York City’s primary election is June 27 – and it might come as a surprise that there will be contests for City Council seats two years earlier than normal.
The Correction Department’s top internal investigator was forced to step down after the federal monitor overseeing New York City’s jails learned that line investigators were being pressured to be more lenient in probing excessive force cases, a new report reveals.
Two workers were killed in a construction collapse at Kennedy Airport yesterday, authorities said. The workers died after being trapped under debris while moving utility lines at the airport, officials said. An investigation was underway.
Three men were charged yesterday, two of them with murder, in a series of fatal druggings at Manhattan gay bars that killed two people and have spread fear through the city’s L.G.B.T.Q. community.
City health officials are sending special crews into four newly identified rodent hot spots — including where Adams has his critter-plagued rental property — to try to curb the perennial scourge.
An ex-EMT who’s the son of an embattled FDNY chief caught a break in his federal robbery case, with a judge ruling the roughly 12 months he spent in Brooklyn’s notorious federal lockup was punishment enough.
The onetime owner of the now-defunct Bumpy’s Polar Freeze will serve nine months in jail for pointing a pellet gun at two people who protested outside his business over allegations he used a racial slur and refused to hire Black people.
A body found Saturday in the Mohawk River is the remains of a Canajoharie man who was reported missing in January, State Police said.
The annual Albany Tulip Festival is celebrating 75 years with a weekend full of live performances, family-friendly activities, a new wellness stage and, of course, more than 248,000 tulips.
Country band Old Dominion has postponed their April 14 appearance at MVP Arena in Albany as frontman Matthew Ramsey continues to recover from an ATV accident. The concert has been rescheduled to July 27.
The Town of East Greenbush plans to put the brakes on drivers by dropping the speed limit on town roads to 25 mph from the current 30 mph.
Two days after ex-CEO Howard Schultz was dragged before a U.S. Senate committee and aggressively questioned, the Seattle-based coffee chain fired three employees – including one in WNY – who were active leaders in the unionization movement.
For the first time in more than half a century, NASA has named a crew of astronauts headed to the moon.
UConn won its fifth NCAA men’s title, and its defeat of San Diego State, 76-59, ended a dominant run in the tournament in which its closest of six victories was by 13 points.
