Good Wednesday morning. We have arrived at the middle of a simply spectacular week, weather wise, and it’s only going to get better. Today will again be in the low-to-mid 70s, with clouds in the morning giving way to sun in the afternoon.
Ah, spring. I love you almost as much as I love peanut butter. And THAT is saying something.
If I were to rank my favorite sandwiches, as you know, peanut butter would be at the top of the list.
After that, though, things get a little tricky, because a lot rests on what kind of mood I might be in.
Let’s say Nos. 2 through 6 would include the following in no particular order: Chicken salad, egg salad, tuna salad, (I am clearly a mayo fan), kosher salami (no mayo here, though, mustard only – and make it spicy), and cheese, preferably grilled.
Yes, there’s really not much better than a perfectly made grilled cheese sandwich. You might think of it as the quintessential winter food, and I guess it is, when paired with a nice hot bowl of soup – ideally tomato.
But I would argue that it’s really an anytime, anywhere sort of food that can be enjoyed all year round, regardless of the weather.
The most basic version – white bread, copious amounts of butter, several orange American slices – brings me back to my childhood and long, idle summer days spent at the Moriello Pool.
They also sold flat, griddled hamburgers on squishy white buns, pretzel rods and ice cream saucer sandwiches (chocolate or vanilla) from the dearly departed JD’s – all of which I am very hopeful they have on repeat in heaven.
These days, you can get all manner of fancy grilled cheeses, made on bakery bread, with fruit, or chutney, or vegetables, or meats of all kinds. There are reams of tips and tricks on the interwebs telling you how to master the perfectly crisp exterior (enter mayo, again). I have yet to meet a truly terrible version of this sandwich. I would even eat one cold, if pressed.
The combination of bread and cheese is an ancient pairing. No one is exactly sure how and where grilled cheese was invented – the French, for example, have been happily eating the croque monsieur, a gussied-up grilled ham and cheese, for decades now.
However, the creation and availability of both commercially available pre-sliced bread (compliments of Otto Frederick Rohwedder, creator of the bread slicer) and cheap, pasteurized cheese (thank you, James L. Kraft) in the 1920s probably helped popularize the trend here in the U.S.
And the military, as was often the case with processed food, had a hand in helping grilled cheese become a home front favorite.
Today, in case you hadn’t caught on yet, is National Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day. Another good thing about a grilled cheese sandwich – well, one without a lot of sloppy extras, that is – it can be portable. So do yourself a favor and take the extra few minutes to treat yourself to a nice grilled cheese under the trees. Nothing whets the appetite like a little fresh air.
In the headlines…
President Joe Biden will look to navigate political turmoil that hangs over fragile peace in Northern Ireland as he celebrates the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement in a speech from Belfast today.
Biden’s trip is overshadowed by the fact that Northern Ireland’s power-sharing government is not functioning. It collapsed last year when the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) pulled out as part of a protest against post-Brexit trade rules for Northern Ireland.
Part homecoming, part statecraft and part politics, this week’s trip amounts to a timely intersection of Biden’s deeply felt personal history with his ingrained view of American foreign policy as a force for enduring good.
Biden was met at Belfast international airport by Rishi Sunak last night for the start of a visit expected to mix delicate political choreography with economic announcements and events linked to Biden’s Irish and Catholic heritage.
Biden has chosen Chicago as the site of the 2024 Democratic National Convention, staking a claim in the Midwest as Republicans plan to host theirs in Milwaukee.
“Chicago is a great choice to host the 2024 Democratic National Convention,” Biden said in a statement. “Democrats will gather to showcase our historic progress including building an economy from the middle out and bottom up, not from the top down.”
Party leaders said the choice reflected their momentum in the Midwest. But the political map was only one factor behind the decision.
After months of fruitless negotiations between the states that depend on the shrinking Colorado River, the Biden administration proposed to put aside legal precedent and save what’s left of the river by evenly cutting water allotments.
The 25-year-old man who opened fire at a bank in downtown Louisville, killing five people, told at least one person he was suicidal before the rampage and legally purchased the AR-15-style rifle used in the shooting at a local dealership last week, officials said.
The Louisville Metro Police Department has released dramatic bodycam video of officers responding to the bank shooting where five people were killed and an officer fatally shot the gunman.
The mayor of Louisville has said Kentucky law would make him a criminal if he destroys the assault-style rifle used by the gunman in the shooting that occurred in his city. He is legally required to send it to state police officials to sell at auction.
A group of 69 Republican members of Congress filed a brief urging an appeals court to uphold the decision of a federal judge in Texas that would halt the prescription of a widely used abortion pill, after over 200 congressional Democrats lobbied for a reversal.
Throughout the opinion, Judge Kacsmarykm of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, a Trump appointee, uses the language of the anti-abortion movement instead of conventional medical terms.
Republican Sen. Tim Scott, of South Carolina, will launch a presidential exploratory committee, according to a source familiar, taking him one step closer to formally challenging former President Trump for the GOP nomination in 2024.
The announcement opens an all-but-declared presidential campaign for Scott, who will test his message this week in the early primary voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, his home state.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg sued House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, calling the Ohio Republican’s inquiry into the prosecution of Trump “an unprecedentedly brazen and unconstitutional attack” on a local criminal case.
The 50-page suit, filed in federal court in the Southern District of New York, accuses Jordan of a “brazen and unconstitutional attack” on the prosecution of Mr. Trump and a “transparent campaign to intimidate and attack” Bragg.
The suit also asks a judge to rule that any potential future subpoena by the Judiciary Committee or Jordan on Bragg himself, or other of his current and past employees, will “be invalid, unenforceable, unconstitutional.”
The suit injects more legal drama into Bragg’s investigation of Trump, which has been dogged by accusations from Republicans that the prosecutor’s pursuit of the former president was purely political, with the claims being central to Jordan’s own probe.
Jordan responded in a statement on Twitter. “First, they indict a president for no crime,” he wrote. “Then, they sue to block congressional oversight when we ask questions about the federal funds they say they used to do it.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced plans to offer a resolution next week that condemns a call from Trump to defund the Justice Department and the FBI.
Gov. Kathy Hochul and legislative leaders are close to “general agreement” on changes to New York’s bail laws after the issue bogged down budget talks for weeks, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said.
State Senate Democrats are looking to overhaul the process of nominating judges to the state’s highest court by doing away with a commission tasked with vetting and recommending candidates.
State redistricting experts and officials have a hunch that the tension between the Legislature and Hochul surrounding the chief judge selection process in recent months is rooted in deeper political motives to help New York Democrats.
Hochul’s decision to nominate two possible Court of Appeals judges from a single short-list of names from the state’s Commission on Judicial Nominations has been criticized by good government groups and Republican lawmakers.
Hochul ordered state health officials to stockpile 150,000 doses of an abortion medication known as misoprostol, aiming to shield New York from a controversial court ruling that could result in a nationwide ban on another widely used abortion pill.
New York state officials have finalized an updated policy for combating sexual harassment in the workplace for employers in the private, as well as non-profit sectors.
Hochul’s administration said that a recent auction of pollution credits on the West Coast prompted them to rethink New York’s plan for tightening methane emissions.
The State University of New York announced that students will no longer be required to receive a COVID-19 vaccine in order to attend any SUNY campus.
SUNY and CUNY issued joint declarations saying students will no longer be required to get the jab once the spring semester ends roughly around May 23, depending on the specific campus.
Mayor Eric Adams unveiled an array of high-tech security devices that he said the Police Department would use to ensure New Yorkers’ safety – including robotic dogs that the NYPD stopped using nearly two years ago.
Digidog, the $74,000 robot made by Boston Dynamics fell victim to calls by civil rights advocates to cut police department funding. “A few loud people were opposed to it and we took a step back. That is not how I operate,” Adams said.
In addition a so-called “snitchBOT” will patrol Times Square and city subways.
“We want the public to know that the use of these technologies will be transparent, consistent, and always done in collaboration with the people that we serve,” NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell said.
Patrick J. Lynch, 59, the head of the police officers’ union in New York City — the nation’s largest — announced that he will leave the position at the end of his term. He has served under four mayors and seven police commissioners.
Lynch said he was leaving while “our union is in the strongest position we have seen in years.” His surprise announcement came just days after the union negotiated an eight-year tentative contract with the city that includes a 28 percent pay raise.
Lynch said that the expiration of that agreement in 2025 would put the union in the midst of new contract talks when he reaches his mandatory NYPD retirement in 2026 – something he wants to avoid.
“This decision is part of a philosophy I have long held: a rider cannot switch horses in the middle of a battle, and the PBA must not change leadership in the middle of a contract fight,” Lynch said in an email to members.
The collective bargaining deal struck last week between Adams and the city’s largest police union could deepen the city’s budget shortfall by another $700 million, a new analysis shows.
Spending on the New York City school system skyrocketed nearly 33% since 2016 as enrollment plummeted and test scores struggled, according to new data.
The City Council unanimously passed legislation to prevent sneaky New York ticket sellers from hiding fees when listing stub prices in advertising materials.
New York City pet shops must stop hawking guinea pigs under a bill passed by the City Council that aims to rein in a local population surge among the cuddly domestic creatures.
A Harlem man who was out on bail after being accused of trying to kill police officers during a shootout was charged with killing two men over Easter weekend, according to the New York Police Department.
A urologist who worked at two prominent New York hospitals sexually abused “multiple” patients, federal prosecutors said, charging him with carrying out a yearslong series of assaults on two patients starting when they were minors.
Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik announced that she would seek re-election to her sprawling North Country congressional district after raising $3 million during the first fundraising quarter of the year.
Stefanik has launched a “Battleground Fund” to help elect congressional Republicans in New York, a move that follows the announcement of a Democrat-controlled Super PAC that pledged to raise and spend $45 million.
The highest-paid New York state worker in 2022 was Dr. Robert Corona, CEO of Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse. Corona made over $919,000 last year, an increase of over 11% from the year before.
Brian Owens, a retired city police chief, pledged he would be an “independent sheriff” as he launched his campaign for Rensselaer County sheriff in front of the county jail.
A 3-year-old girl was shot early yesterday on Colonie Street, Albany Police said. Her injury is not considered life-threatening and she received hospital care.
The City of Albany’s water department overcharged more than 800 customers due to a software error.
D.B. Woodside, an actor who has starred in “The Night Agent,” “Lucifer” and “24,” will be the commencement speaker at the University at Albany’s May 13 graduation. He graduated from UAlbany in 1991 with a degree in theatre.
New York’s disease-carrying tick population is multiplying rapidly after an unusually warm winter, experts warn.
U.S. News & World Report issued new rankings for the nation’s Top 14 law schools and Top 15 medical schools, just months after many of the schools dropped out of the rankings, saying they were unreliable and unfair.
