Good morning. The middle of the week – AKA Wednesday – has arrived already, compliments of the four-day workweek.
It’s getting hot, like really hot. Somehow, we skipped over spring and went directly to summer. I’m not necessarily complaining, mind you, I just wasn’t entirely ready for this significant ramp up in temperature.
I’m not terribly good in the heat. This is something that runs in the family. I get lethargic and uncomfortable, and have been known to even break out in a rash. I have to adjust my workout schedule, getting up extra early to get my miles in. And I tend to lose my appetite for anything above room temperature.
I never really understood why people wanted to suck burning smoke and tar and chemicals into their lungs, but I understand the appeal even less when it’s 90+ degrees outside.
I get the addiction piece. Quitting smoking once one starts is really hard. Only a very small percentage – about 4 to 7 percent – of the 45 million smokers who attempt to quit cold turkey are successful without medicine or other forms of help (hypnosis, behavioral therapy etc.)
The best way to not have to go through that is to not start in the first place. The good news is that fewer people (in the US, anyway) are picking up in the habit in the first place.
The percentage of adults across the nation who smoked fell to a historic low in 2022, with about 11 percent identifying as current smokers, according to the CDC. In 2020 and 2021, by contrast, the percentage was about 12.5.
That’s still on the high side, but compared to the 1940s, when about about half of Americans said they smoked, the trend is certainly going in the right direction.
However, smoking among certain populations – notable Native Americans, Alaska Natives and members of the LGBTQ community – remain “alarmingly high” according to the 2023 State of Tobacco Control report from the American Lung Association.
Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in this country, accounting for more than 480,000 deaths each and every year – nearly one in five deaths. It causes more deaths than the following other causes COMBINED: HIV, alcohol and drug use, motor vehicle and firearm deaths, according to the CDC.
While every day presents a new opportunity for smokers to resolve to kick the habit, there are a number of key dates throughout the year designed to provide them with additional support and incentive to do so.
There’s the Great American Smokeout on the 3rd Thursday in November, which encourages smokers to try to kick the habit for just one day and then see where that day leads. That falls at the start of Lung Cancer Awareness Month, (all of November),
Today – the last day in May – is World No Tobacco Day, crated by the member organizations of the WHO in 1987 to draw global attention to the tobacco epidemic and the preventable death and disease it causes.
This year’s theme is “Grow Food, Not Tobacco“, which focuses on encouraging governments to stop subsidizing tobacco growing operations and use the savings to encourage farmers to grow sustainable crops to end food insecurity and improve nutrition.
If you want to learn more about tobacco subsidies – a pretty controversial topic – click here and here. The dirty not-so-secret about tobacco sales is that governments make a lot of money off them but, on the flip side, if Americans stopped smoking altogether, just think of all the healthcare savings that would be realized!
If you’re thinking of giving up smoking today, just know that we’re rooting for you.
If you need a distraction, it’s shaping up to be a good day to take a walk. Skies will be sunny, and the temperature will be somewhere in the mid-80s. Bring a hat and a bottle of water. And wear sunscreen – always.
In the headlines…
As the debt deal heads to Congress this week to face votes in the House and Senate, the spotlight has shifted to which lawmakers plan to support it and whether there is enough of that support to get it across the finish line.
Both Republicans and Democrats are expected to lose some votes, and leaders on both sides have been telling the rank and file that neither side won everything it wanted, as they strive to ensure that the deal has the support to pass both chambers.
Growing Republican opposition threatened the compromise and Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s political standing as a key committee was poised to move it forward ahead of action on the House floor.
The House Rules Committee voted to bring the legislation to the House floor for a vote by the full chamber − a move that marks a significant hurdle for McCarthy, R-Calif., after GOP hardliners on the committee threatened to oppose advancing the legislation.
Anger over McCarthy’s deal with Biden is bubbling over, with some conservative members threatening to oust McCarthy as speaker.
The deal would have only a small effect on the cooling U.S. economy or still-high inflation, according to economists, because it does little to reduce government spending that grew rapidly during the Covid-19 pandemic and its aftermath.
Legislation to raise the debt ceiling and cut spending includes a provision that would require borrowers to begin repaying their loans again by the end of the summer after a yearslong pause imposed during the coronavirus pandemic.
The debt ceiling deal in Washington did not set off a celebration in the stock market. But the bipartisan compromise is causing fireworks for some companies that have emerged as winners.
Environmental activists are enraged by the deal because it would also expedite construction of a bitterly contested gas pipeline and includes unusual measures to insulate that project from judicial review.
Funding for veterans programs would go from being one of the most contentious spending debates on Capitol Hill to a bipartisan budget highlight under the debt limit deal.
The debt ceiling agreement includes an expanded work requirement provision that would create unnecessary barriers for more low-income households, with negligible savings for the federal government, anti-hunger advocates say.
In a Washington Post/Ipsos poll of more than 1,200 Black, non-Hispanic adults, almost half say Biden’s policies have “made no difference” to Black people’s lives.
Allies of former Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey have reportedly formed a super PAC to support him in the nascent Republican primary, as he makes preparations for a likely campaign kickoff in the next two weeks.
Former President Trump slammed his onetime press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, accusing her of providing the “wrong” poll numbers during an appearance on Fox News.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis made his debut as a presidential candidate in Iowa yesterday, rallying supporters outside of Des Moines as he looks to make up critical ground in the race for the GOP’s 2024 nomination.
DeSantis warned supporters of a “malignant ideology” taking hold across the country, described children facing “indoctrination” and vowed to fight for conservative causes.
Biden will travel to Colorado this week to serve as the commencement speaker at this year’s Air Force Academy graduation.
Tara Reade, a former Senate aide who accused Biden of sexual assault, announced that she defected to Russia.
“I’m still kind of in a daze a bit but I feel very good,” Reade told Sputnik, a Russian press outlet supportive of President Vladimir Putin, while sitting with Maria Butina, a convicted Russian agent jailed in the US but now a member of parliament in Russia.
Reade said that while her “dream is to live” in both the United States and Russia, she might reside only in Russia because that is where she feels “surrounded by protection and safety.”
Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz has said he expects migrants from New York City to be placed in State University of New York housing in the county, most likely Buffalo State University, as soon as this week.
But Hochul said it isn’t yet known when – or even if – asylum-seekers will be coming to Erie County from New York City.
The governor defended New York City’s efforts to bus asylum seekers upstate, after a weekend migrant transfer to a town near Albany drew a lawsuit and scathing criticism from the town’s supervisor.
New York City officials plan to house migrants at a former prison in Harlem after receiving the green light from Hochul.
Hochul faces increasing pressure from the Seneca Nation to ink a “fair” deal to protect its gambling interests in Western New York following a series of controversies.
The governor launched a statewide listening tour at UB for the $4.2 billion Clean Water, Clean Air, and Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act that passed overwhelmingly in the November election.
Health insurance firms that operate in New York and have out-of-state entities could be in line for a tax increase under a proposal backed by Democratic lawmakers and a powerful health care workers union.
Despite a state commission’s recommendations, New York lawmakers seem unlikely to make substantive changes to a 1934 law that traces to Prohibition and forbids the sale of wine in grocery stores.
Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s staff reportedly shared emails about drafting his $5.1 million COVID-19 response memoir as early as March 2020, just weeks before the first deadly wave of the pandemic tore through the Empire State.
A speechwriter who denies he worked on Cuomo’s COVID-19 memoir now says a “preface” he wrote in March 2020 was intended for a potential book, but that project was not related to the one eventually produced as part of a $5 million contract.
Members of the state Cannabis Control Board voted to allow the state Office of Cannabis Management to reach a settlement in a federal suit that’s prevented the opening of retail dispensaries in half the state — contributing to a sluggish industry rollout.
The CCB also adopted new regulations designed to strengthen enforcement efforts against thousands of unlicensed cannabis shops — a set up that has further damaged the roll out and taken away customers from the state’s 12 licensed marijuana retailers.
Top aides to Mayor Eric Adams were in Albany yesterday to advocate for housing before the legislative session ends next week.
Street homelessness would become a lot more common in the five boroughs if Adams is given permission to roll back the city’s longstanding right-to-shelter mandate, the Legal Aid Society argued in a court filing.
The Legal Aid Society is calling Adams’ request to rewrite the city’s 40-year-old right-to-shelter law an attempt to “eviscerate its bedrock legal protections” that would force people to sleep in public and unsafe spaces.
Mayor Kathy Sheehan said the city does not expect to receive additional buses of migrants over the next few days, while Albany County Executive Dan McCoy said the county might sue New York City to stop additional buses from arriving.
Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer will take over the portfolio of outgoing chief housing officer Jessica Katz, effectively eliminating a role that had led to confusion in city government even as it was supposed to make tackling New York’s housing crisis easier.
A growing list of the Democratic mayor’s top appointees have left the administration, including senior officials who announced their resignations before the mayor’s first year in office had even concluded.
City Correction Commissioner Louis Molina pleaded with the federal monitor overseeing jails not to release a report exposing apparent attempts to cover up five serious incidents in the jails in May, including a suicide and a beating that left a man paralyzed.
A former inmate who won an almost one-man battle for his innocence after 16 years behind bars on a wrongful murder conviction was named to a New York City police corruption oversight board.
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn charged a Queens man with murder in the 2002 killing of the pioneering hip-hop D.J. Jam Master Jay, bringing to three the number of people accused of taking part in the slaying.
More than 1,000 Brooklyn nurses have voted in favor of going on strike if they are unable to reach an agreement on a new contract, the New York State Nurses Association said.
A poultry distributor that sells to food carts in New York has admitted to preparing and selling uninspected and misbranded products — and agreed to stop, according to federal prosecutors.
Landlords of roughly 2,800 buildings still use No. 4 heating oil, a major source of air pollution in New York City. But some building owners say they don’t feel prepared to pivot to cleaner alternatives as mandated, despite government-funded incentives.
Penny the Fire Pig or Fire Pig Penny, as she is known, a teacup pig. She is the unofficial mascot of Brooklyn’s Engine Company 239. And she is not only a presence there; she is also a presence on social media, with more than 17,000 followers on Instagram.
Neighbors have organized to oppose a construction plan at Siena College that calls for trucks to drive down their narrow road. They were successful last night, winning their fight at the Colonie Planning Board.
Plug Power just inked a historic deal to build three large green hydrogen production plants in Finland, which has some of the world’s most aggressive climate change policies.
The City of Cohoes has applied to the state Department of Environmental Conservation to modify its dam permit to allow it to build its innovative floating solar panel array at the city reservoir.
Mayor Kathy Sheehan has been elected as the 97th president of the New York State Conference of Mayors.
When it comes to adding new residents in New York’s 12 most populous cities, only Albany and New Rochelle counted more people while the remaining 10 lost population, according to the U.S Census Bureau’s recent report.
The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority gathered Kentucky state regulatory vets, and vets from Churchill Downs, to examine why 12 horses have been fatally injured at the track in a few weeks and decide whether to recommend pausing racing there.
Elizabeth Holmes, the disgraced entrepreneur who was convicted of defrauding investors at her failed blood testing start-up, Theranos, reported to a federal prison in Texas yesterday to begin her 11-year, three-month sentence.
Rosalynn Carter, 95, the wife of former President Jimmy Carter and a longtime advocate for greater access to mental health care, has dementia, the Carter Center said.
The announcement came just over three months after the center said that Mr. Carter, who at 98 is the longest living president in American history, had decided to forgo further medical treatment and would enter hospice care at the couple’s home in Plains, Ga.
