Friday, we made it. Not sure how that happened, but I am not sad about it.
Two things to note today – both of them serious, but in different ways.
First: Tomorrow, Saturday, June 24 2023, will be the one-year anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, basically sending the power over determining abortion rights and restrictions back to the states and effectively preventing millions of women from making determinations about their own health and futures, putting lives at risk.
The way that the decision came out, as you’ll recall, was perhaps equally controversial – if not more so, in its own way – to the decision itself. It was leaked to Politico about a month before the final opinion was issued, though that final opinion didn’t differ too terribly much.
Despite a lengthy investigation ordered by Chief Justice John Roberts, the court was unable to determine who was responsible for the leak. At the time of the leak, the Guttmacher Institute’s state policy experts predicted that 26 states are certain or likely to move quickly to ban abortion.
Also as expected, we’ve seen a series of increasingly restrictive legislative measures pass in a variety of states seeking to further restrict abortion access – some of which have been turned back by the courts, others rejected by the voters.
Before the Dobbs decision, Oklahoma and Texas were the only states with bans restricting abortion after 20 weeks. Since the decision, at least 15 states have ceased nearly all abortion services, according to an ABC News tally. Fourteen states have near-total or total abortion bans.
Other states – including New York – have taken steps to not only strengthen abortion protections, but broaden access for women who live in states where they are unable to easily access services.
I imagine that there will be events this weekend commemorating the Dobbs decision, which means that folks might be spending some time outside. You’re going to want to bring an umbrella, if that’s the case, because there will be a chance of thunderstorms both Saturday AND Sunday, it appears. But temperatures will be in the low 80s on both days.
And here’s where the second focus of today’s post comes in: Hydration. Being outside when the sun isn’t out can be deceptive when it comes to hydration. You think you’re good because you’re not sweating a lot – and even perhaps getting rained on – but the reality is that the human body, which is about 60 percent water, needs fluids, regardless of whether it’s hot or cold out.
The whole “eight glasses of water a day” is a myth, as you’ve probably heard by now. A lot of how much you need depends on how much you sweat – some people are super-salty sweaters (you’ll know if you regularly have dried salt crusted on your skin or clothes after you work out), and they really need to dial in their hydration.
A general rule of thumb for hydration is to drink half your body weight in ounces of water or other noncaloric beverages every day, but if you’re exerting yourself you might need more. If you want to go deep on this and are into math, (definitely not my jam, as you know, so you’re on your own on this one), click here.
Today is National Hydration Day, which apparently was created to honor a high school football coach named Victor Hawkins who created a method of incorporating electrolytes into a player’s mouthguard while they were on the field. (Of course, over hydration can be a problem – even deadly – so be aware of how much you take in).
We already went through the whole weather thing above, so let’s get down to business.
In the headlines…
The House voted along party lines to pass a rule sending Rep. Lauren Boebert’s resolution to committee, effectively pausing a move to bring a privileged motion to the floor that would have forced members to vote on whether to impeach President Joe Biden.
The 219-208 vote came after Boebert, a Colorado Republican, sought to force a vote on impeachment this week by filing a privileged resolution that allows a member to bypass House leadership to bring a measure to the floor.
The ability of single lawmaker in the 435-member House to drive an impeachment resolution this week caught Republicans off guard and many of them viewed it as a distraction from other priorities.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy used GOP members during a closed-door meeting to reject Boebert’s push to force a vote to impeach Biden.
Biden emphasized common ground with Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India during a lavish state visit, publicly skirting points of friction over the government’s crackdown on human rights in India and Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Biden dismissed concerns about his comment referencing Chinese leader Xi Jinping a “dictator,” saying his remarks did not undermine diplomatic efforts to mend fragile ties between the two countries.
The Chinese government has reportedly reprimanded the US ambassador to China over Biden’s comments.
A half-dozen liberal House Democrats boycotted Modi’s speech to Congress yesterday, in protest of what they criticize as his abysmal human rights record, particularly toward Muslim minority groups in India.
As the 2024 election comes into focus, Biden is poised to run the most overtly abortion rights platform of any general election candidate in political history as he and his team navigate the first presidential cycle in the post-Roe era.
Three top reproductive rights groups Planned Parenthood Action Fund, NARAL Pro-Choice America and Emily’s List – are endorsing Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for reelection in 2024.
The groups are throwing their early support behind the reelection effort in part to highlight the importance of the issue for Democrats heading into the election year, the groups’ leaders said.
Biden’s disapproval rating has ticked up to include a slim majority of voters, according to an Emerson College poll.
A federal judge unsealed the identities of the co-signers on embattled Rep. George Santos’ $500,000 bond that allowed the New York Republican to stay out of federal custody after he was charged in a 13-count indictment.
The guarantors were listed as Elma Santos Preven and Gercino Dos Santos, according to signatures on the court documents that were unsealed. A law enforcement official confirmed to CNN that the guarantors were Santos’ aunt and father, respectively.
The disclosure put an end to weeks of speculation that was heightened by Rep. Santos’s vehement opposition to making his guarantors’ names public, as they are in most cases.
Santos told reporters on Capitol Hill that he kept the identities secret because he was concerned about their safety.
If Judge Aileen Cannon sticks to her initial decision to hold the former president’s trial in Fort Pierce, Fla., the jury would be drawn largely from counties that Donald Trump won handily in his previous campaigns.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis avoided saying directly that he would endorse Trump in 2024 should the former president win the GOP nomination, showing his reluctance to make a benign show of support for the man beating him by a wide margin in the polls.
Experts have assessed that the debris field found on the ocean floor near the Titanic shipwreck came from the body of a missing tourist submersible that disappeared Sunday, Coast Guard officials confirmed. All five people aboard are now believed dead.
“The debris is consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber,” Rear Adm. John Mauger, the head of the search-and-rescue operation, said at a news conference in Boston.
Asked about the prospect of recovering the bodies of the victims, Admiral Mauger said he did not have an answer. “This is an incredibly unforgiving environment down there on the sea floor,” he said.
James Cameron, the Oscar-winning director of “Titanic,” a diving expert, said he’d had concerns from the start about the vehicle’s hull composition and claims about its network of hull sensors.
“I’m struck by the similarity of the Titanic disaster itself, where the captain was repeatedly warned about ice ahead of his ship, and yet he steamed at full speed into an ice field on a moonless night and many people died as a result,” Cameron said.
The doomed Titanic sub would have imploded and killed its crew so fast the five people aboard “never knew it happened,” an expert in submersibles said.
The U.S. Navy, using data from a secret network of underwater sensors, detected “an anomaly consistent with an implosion or explosion” in the vicinity of the Titan submersible at the time communications with the vessel were lost on Sunday.
Governor Kathy Hochul announced that inspectors from the Cannabis Management and Department of Taxation and Finance issued violations to 31 stores statewide, and seized nearly $11 million worth of weed since the crackdown began in early June.
“I want to send a message loud and clear across this state that if you’re operating illegally, you will be caught and you will be stopped. So, it is just not worth it,” said Hochul.
“This is a different moment and this is a different day,” said Chris Alexander, the Office of Cannabis Maangement’s executive director. “This is a different approach.”
A store on West 14th Street in Manhattan is one of 31 businesses ordered to cease activity, pending a court hearing, and the governor warned this is only the beginning of a statewide crackdown.
This may be the last year in a while that Hochul and state lawmakers don’t have to worry about holding back on state spending. A new financial forecast released by the governor’s budget office shows future deficits doubling next year.
Control of New York City’s speed limits will remain in Albany after a bill to grant the city the authority to lower limits failed in the state Legislature.
State lawmakers have passed a bill that would ban health care providers from reporting medical debt to credit agencies.
The High Line-Moynihan Connector, an elevated pathway linking the High Line to Moynihan Train Hall, has officially opened to the public.
Council Speaker Adrienne Adams threw down the gauntlet as Mayor Eric Adams eyes a veto of a sweeping package of legislation that expanded the Big Apple’s rental voucher program for the poor.
The fate of the city’s $107 billion budget remains uncertain with little more than a week left before the July 1 deadline.
Some of New York City’s most influential members of Congress are calling on Mayor Adams to back off a string of “short-sighted” spending cuts he’s seeking as part of the next municipal budget, which is due in less than two weeks.
New York City’s top labor union boss is considering pulling endorsements from City Council members who throw their weight behind a bill that would derail Adams’ effort to eliminate traditional Medicare coverage for retired municipal workers.
Adams this week announced plans to extend New York City’s state of emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Adams is slated to sign a bill into law that would create a new office within City Hall aimed at cracking down on disparate hospital prices.
Adams got off to a rocky start with the LGBTQ community after he took office last year, and relations have remained strained. For a second consecutive year, multiple political clubs boycotted his annual Pride event earlier this month.
A bill approved by the City Council would permit the city to fund pilot programs that provide unconditional monetary assistance to people in need who are found eligible.
Eligibility requirements include residing in the city, and either having an annual gross income of no more than 80% of the area median income, or being a runaway or homeless youth.
A longtime Brooklyn Democratic Party official has filed an ethics complaint against Councilman Justin Brannan — accusing the lawmaker of threatening the official’s position during an expletive-filled tirade.
The scrum of millionaires and billionaires hustling for the right to build a casino in New York City now includes Larry Silverstein, the real estate magnate who redeveloped much of the World Trade Center site after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The CUNY Law School graduate behind May’s fiery commencement address made clear she wouldn’t change a word of her widely condemned remarks that took aim at Israel — and said she was shocked by the immense backlash that followed.
There could be a new thrill coming to Times Square: a vertical drop ride atop a new skyscraper, dozens of stories in the air, though there is pushback against the plan.
A Manhattan judge imposed a $5,000 fine on two lawyers who gave him a legal brief full of made-up cases and citations, all generated by the artificial intelligence program ChatGPT.
A custodial worker switched off a super-cold freezer in a RPR lab — destroying decades of scientific research and causing a least $1 million in damage, according to a lawsuit filed by the university against the outside firm that employed the cleaner.
The state Cannabis Control Board approved 36 licenses for retail marijuana shops at its June 15 meeting, including 10 to applicants in the Mid-Hudson region, bringing the total number of licenses issued to Hudson Valley businesses to 26.
Former University at Albany men’s basketball coach Will Brown, who led the Great Danes to five America East Conference titles, will be introduced today as the new head coach for the College of Saint Rose women’s basketball program.
A new planning and environmental study to reimagine Interstate 787 is under way, the state Department of Transportation said.
The chemical and manufacturing giant 3M reached a $10.3 billion settlement with cities and towns over claims that the company contaminated drinking water with so-called forever chemicals used in everything from firefighting foam to nonstick coatings.
The original armorer on the film “Rust,” charged with involuntary manslaughter after a gun that was loaded with live ammunition fired on the set and killed the cinematographer, will face an additional charge of evidence tampering related to narcotics.
