Good morning, it’s Tuesday.
For some of us, spring, with all its blossoming and blooming things, is a wonderful sensory experience. The air is fresh. The grass is bright green. The flowers are opening and spreading their sweet perfume everywhere. The trees are budding.
For others, the picture I painted just there is an exceedingly painful one because it conjures up images of pollen – lots and lots of it.
In other words, it’s allergy season. And like so many other things, climate change is having a negative impact on allergy season, making it both longer and more intense. People who have pollen allergies may also suffer from asthma. In fact, allergies are one of the main causes of asthma attacks.
If you are lucky enough not to have asthma OR allergies, you might be wondering what the difference is.
Asthma is when a person’s airways get inflamed and sensitive, narrowing and clogging with mucus, in response to certain triggers – including allergies to a wide range of things, including pollen, dust, food, mold, pollution, etc.
According to the WHO, an estimated 262 million people were impacted by asthma in 2019, and 455 000 of them died. In the U.S. alone, nearly 26 million people have asthma – about 1 in 13 – and about 21 million of them are adults aged 18 and older, though it’s also a leading chronic disease in children.
Asthma is more common among women than men. Black adults have the highest rates of asthma in this country, and Black children are twice as likely as white children to suffer from it.
Here in New York, parts of the Bronx and upper Manhattan are notorious for having some of the country’s highest death and disease rates from asthma – in part due to the poorer air quality in lower-income communities. Overall, New York has the dubious distinction of being home to not one, not two, not three, BUT FOUR of the nation’s top 20 asthma capitals.
Asthma cannot be prevented, but it can be managed through a variety of methods – from avoiding triggers to medication.
Today, in case you hadn’t already figured it out, is World Asthma Day. Did you know, BTW, that you can get a pollen forecast based on your zip code? Today is a medium pollen count day for Troy, while tomorrow is pretty low, and Friday is looking to be on the high side. Technology is such a wonderful thing.
There’s more rain in the forecast. It will be cloudy today with occasional showers and temperatures in the low-to-mid-50s.
In the headlines…
A major challenge facing President Joe Biden as he launches his re-election bid is a lack of enthusiasm for his candidacy among Democratic voters.
Privately, the first lady encouraged her husband to run again while giving him the space he needed to process the decision in the way he traditionally does: with extensive deliberations.
Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., this weekend said he will make a “major announcement” in Charleston on May 22, weeks after he launched an exploratory committee for a presidential bid.
Biden called the top four congressional leaders, including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, to discuss raising the debt ceiling at the White House later this month, following months of an impasse between the president and House Republicans.
This came after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned in a letter that the U.S. could breach the debt ceiling by June 1 — earlier than expected — if Congress doesn’t act in time.
The letter sent shock waves across Capitol Hill, with the threat of economic calamity looming, as Congress and the White House remain deadlocked over the issue.
Biden plans to stress that Congress must take action to avoid default without conditions and will discuss the urgency of preventing default, as well as how to begin a separate process for passing a separate fiscal 2024 budget.
Administration officials insisted that Biden has no plans to drop his demand for a clean debt ceiling increase, even after Yellen’s warning that Congress may only have until June 1 to avert a disastrous default.
The jobs, benefits and financial security of millions of Americans could start disappearing in less than a month as the Republican House leverages a debt showdown to try to force big spending cuts on Biden.
Two years ago, a multibillion-dollar natural gas export project planned for Alaska appeared all but dead. But now it’s got fresh momentum — thanks in part to Democrats’ massive climate bill and a push by members of the Biden administration.
Biden welcomed President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. of the Philippines to the White House yesterday as part of continued efforts to strengthen security and economic relations in the region amid concerns over an increasingly assertive China.
Biden told Marcos Jr. that the U.S. commitment to the defense of its ally was “ironclad,” including in the South China Sea where Manila is under pressure from China.
The Biden administration will end most federal Covid-19 vaccine requirements next week, rolling back a vast assertion of government power that helped bring an end to the worst public health threat in 100 years but roiled US politics in the process.
The White House said in a statement that those vaccine requirements will end on May 11, the same day the Covid public health emergency expires.
The government is also beginning the process of lifting shot requirements for Head Start educators, healthcare workers, and noncitizens at U.S. land borders.
When the US Covid-19 public health emergency ends this month, coronavirus tests will still be available, but there will be changes to who pays for them.
According to health officials, COVID-19 is still a leading cause of death around the world, including in the United States where it’s tied to about 250 deaths daily.
The Empire State’s pool of adjusted gross income shrank by nearly $16 billion in 2021 compared to just two years ago — representing a major loss in potential tax revenue compared to pre-COVID levels, according to newly released IRS data.
Donald Trump’s attorney wrapped up his cross-examination of writer E. Jean Carroll in the trial over her rape allegation against the former president, asking her about old Facebook posts saying she was a “massive” fan of his reality show “The Apprentice.”
Trump, who has avoided coming to court, has denied all wrongdoing. Yesterday morning, the former president’s lawyers filed an unsuccessful motion for a mistrial, arguing that the court had made “pervasive unfair and prejudicial rulings.”
Trump’s lawyers pushed back against an effort by the Manhattan district attorney’s office to limit the former president’s ability to publicly discuss evidence in the criminal case against him.
Trump traveled to Scotland yesterday to open a new golf course at his resort near Aberdeen, in his first overseas trip since he was indicted in New York on criminal charges in a hush money scheme.
Trump will participate in a CNN presidential town hall next week in New Hampshire, the network announced. CNN is a network Trump called “fake” and whose reporters he routinely chastised while serving in office.
Fresh off a contentious battle with the Legislature, Gov. Kathy Hochul insists that bail law changes that delayed the budget for a month will help make the streets safer.
New York state lawmakers began passing a $229 billion state budget yesterday afternoon, four days after striking a tentative deal with Hochul and a full month after a final spending plan was due. Hardly anyone seemed entirely happy with the final result.
Lawmakers are expected to finish passing the state budget today for Fiscal Year 2024 — now one month late. The Legislature is expected to need another budget extender, which expires at noon as a pro-forma vote to keep the state government funded.
Personal income tax rates won’t increase in New York’s state budget, a move that never seemed to gain much traction in the talks and a development that disappoints progressive advocates who had called for the increase.
A 4% increase in spending to provide support services for New Yorkers with intellectual and developmental disabilities won’t go far enough in addressing their needs, advocates said. It’s far less than the 8.5 percent they sought.
New York is raising the tax on cigarettes by $1 a pack — a move that anti-tobacco advocates worry is half a loaf, but convenience store groups believe will only lead to an expansion of an underground market of illicit sales.
New York advocates and legislators rallied at the state Capitol for legislation aimed to protect bees and their role as pollinators by ending the use of a group of insecticides known as neonicotinoids, or neonics.
Anna Kaplan, a former Democratic state senator from Long Island, has filed paperwork to challenge embattled Republican Congressman George Santos in 2024.
Also running against Santos is Nassau County legislator Joshua Lafazan, who came in third in the Democratic primary last year for the House seat and has already raised $400,000 in his quest to win the 2024 nomination.
New York health officials launched a campaign to encourage eligible people to begin the two-dose vaccination series for mpox, the disease formerly known as monkeypox.
A class-action suit that was settled yesterday will bring about coverage of common but costly dental procedures for the five million adults in New York State who are on Medicaid, including implants, root canals and replacement dentures.
Mayor Eric Adams took aim at Gov. Greg Abbott, alleging the Texas Republican was “once again” playing politics with “people’s lives” and resuming the busing of asylum seekers to New York and other major cities.
Though he didn’t explain exactly how he’d caught wind of it, Adams said his team learned over the weekend that Abbott, a Republican, planned to restart the busing program this week after a months-long pause.
Adams will host upcoming town halls in neighborhoods around the city, and members of the general public will be able to attend.
A 1799 wood-frame mansion along the East River, home to nearly every mayor since Fiorello La Guardia, is now the hottest catering hall in New York City.
For the first time in over a decade, New York City is putting water shutoffs on deck as possible penalties against building owners who refuse to pay their utility bills, Adams announced.
The city’s water-bill amnesty program designed to recoup hundreds of millions of dollars is being extended another month – after reaping a fraction of what’s owed.
Almost three-quarters of New Yorkers reported having more trouble buying groceries this year than last year, according to a survey published yesterday, underscoring the toll of continued inflation and lapsed food aid.
The city Department of Transportation announced an initiative to add 50 new electric vehicle charging plugs at 13 city-owned parking garages, a major increase from the 186 ports that are currently in place across the five boroughs.
New York City is about to cut the ribbon on a new $923 million public hospital building in Coney Island, that is designed to be practically flood-proof and that promises to elevate the level of health care for hundreds of thousands of people in South Brooklyn.
A second retired State Police trooper from the Capital Region died last month from a 9/11-related illness.
The new state budget provides $19 million in funding to close the financing gap for the proposed $64 million redevelopment of 1 Monument Square, the former City Hall site in Troy, city officials said.
The Empire organization has not paid players or coaches since April 21, according to one of the team’s top players. Coach Damon Ware confirmed the lack of payment and said that he has left the team.
More than four years after a limousine crash that killed 20 people, the judge overseeing the criminal case against the limo company operator charged in their deaths, Nauman Hussain, began jury selection in the case yesterday.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is warning that a popular brand of flour could contain salmonella, a bacteria that can cause diarrhea and fever. One of the people who fell ill is from New York. Three people have been hospitalized.
Hollywood’s 15 years of labor peace shattered, as movie and TV writers said they would go on strike, bringing many productions to a halt and dealing a blow to an industry that has been rocked in recent years by the pandemic and sweeping technological shifts.
Vice, the brash digital-media disrupter that charmed giants like Disney and Fox into investing before a stunning crash-landing, is preparing to file for bankruptcy, according to two people with knowledge of its operations.
Gordon Lightfoot, the Canadian folk singer whose rich, plaintive baritone and gift for melodic songwriting made him one of the most popular recording artists of the 1970s, died last night in Toronto. He was 84.
The Met Gala was last night. The theme was devoted to the six-and-a-half-decade career of Karl Lagerfeld. Mayor Adams did not attend this year, but other elected officials did.
