Welcome to a whole new month! Also, welcome to Thursday.
When I was in high school, I had the opportunity to get my scuba certification – both NAUI and PADI. (Fellow divers who are in the know will understand what this means; for the uninitiated, if you really want to get into the weeds on the difference between the two of these, click here).
New Paltz High School wasn’t particularly high end or wealthy. It was – still is – a public school, not private, pulling kids from all sort of socioeconomic backgrounds.
Scuba diving isn’t normally on the curriculum at most schools. It was available at ours solely due to the passion and drive of a teacher named George Campbell. (His other claim to fame was that he was – at one point, anyway – the only high school “death ed” teacher in the U.S. I took that class, too. It was great, though it did nothing to assuage my fear of dying).
I recall the certification process as rigorous, to say the least. There was classroom time and pool time, and then eventually, open water time, which was harrowing because in upstate New York that means full suit diving in less-than-ideal (read dark, cold, and silty) conditions.
Somehow, I made it through, and though I never did dive fresh water again, I did have a number of opportunities to do some ocean diving, and once you do that, a whole new world opens up to you. Night dives, in particular, during which you can experience bioluminescence up close and personal, is an unforgettable experience. (Turing off your dive light in pitch black water, though, is a whole other thing entirely).
So, I’ve been lucky enough to see coral reefs firsthand, which is extra amazing when you consider that even though oceans cover about 70 percent of the plant, reefs occur in less than one percent of that. They are, however, home to nearly one-quarter of all ocean species – everything from fish to crabs, starfish, squid, sponges, lobsters, turtles, seahorses, and much more.
Technically speaking, reefs are created by colonies of tiny invertebrate creatures called coral polyps, which are held together by calcium carbonate. Most are stony corals, in which polyps cluster in groups.
There’s a wide variety of reefs – everything from barriers to atolls – but they all have one thing in common: They’re threatened.
According to the Coral Reef Alliance’s 2023 State of the Reef Address, 75% of the world’s reefs are currently threatened and this figure is anticipated to climb to 90% by 2030. In addition, Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease in the Western Caribbean is spreading at 155 meters per day.
And, of course, climate change that contributes to the ongoing warming of the planet – oceans included – isn’t helping matters. Nor is pollution. Or an outbreak of coral-eating starfish, which, I have to confess, I didn’t know even existed until today.
This is one of those problems that seems too insurmountable to even think about addressing as an individual, but the EPA has an interesting page on its website about small actions you can do – minimizing fertilizer use, for example; recycling; making smart transportation choices, etc. NOAA has something along the same lines, too.
Coral reef restoration is also possible – the data shows that they CAN and DO come back from the brink, if supported property – and if you want to get all wonky about it, click here.
Today is World Reef Awareness Day, and I feel like I’ve done my civic duty merely by elevating the issue through the publication of this post. Not to be too terribly self-congratulatory about it but…You’re welcome?
Speaking of heat waves…it’s going to be sunny and unseasonably hot today, with temperatures climbing up into the low 90s. (It’s pretty rare for things to get this warm this early in the summer, based on my very unscientific Googling).
In the headlines…
The House voted to pass Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s debt ceiling deal with President Joe Biden last night on a 314-117 vote, and will now go to the Senate ahead of Monday’s deadline to act or risk a catastrophic default on the nation’s debt.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy suggested at a news conference that he’ll seek more spending cuts and new work requirements now that Democrats have voted for them in the broader debt ceiling deal.
McCarthy insisted his party was working to “give America hope” as he launched into a late evening speech extolling the bill’s budget cuts, which he said were needed to curb Washington’s “runaway spending.”
Biden administration officials placed over 100 one-on-one calls with House Democrats to win them over on the deal. They held wonky virtual meetings over the negotiation details and took pointed questions on the policy they’d agreed to.
Biden hailed the House vote as a “critical first step forward to prevent a first-ever default and protect our country’s hard-earned and historic economic recovery,” and urged the Senate to follow suit.
A Republican-led effort to overturn Biden’s student debt relief plan narrowly cleared a key procedural hurdle in the Senate on yesterday as several moderate Democrats broke with the White House and backed the measure.
The Senate vote on the motion to proceed was 51-46, with Democrats Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Jon Tester of Montana as well as independent Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona voting “yea.” The House passed the measure along party lines last week.
Biden arrived in Colorado last night as he’s scheduled to deliver the commencement address at the U.S. Air Force Academy graduation ceremony today.
On the last day of May, Biden issued a proclamation from the White House declaring June as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex Pride Month. It comes amid a wave of conservative attacks on the LGBTQ+ community.
Federal prosecutors investigating former President Donald Trump’s handling of classified material have a recording of him from 2021 discussing a sensitive military document he had kept after leaving the White House, two people briefed on the matter said.
The recording indicates Trump understood he retained classified material after leaving the White House, according to multiple sources familiar with the investigation.
The recording is of a July 2021 meeting at Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. The attendees included multiple people working on an autobiography of Trump’s previous chief of staff Mark Meadows.
Trump’s latest idea to enshrine American greatness is to throw the country “the most spectacular” birthday bash — one that will last all year.
In a video posted on Truth Social, Trump explained that July 4, 2026 will mark 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, adding: “As a nation we should be preparing for a most spectacular birthday party.”
Trump is asking the judge overseeing his criminal case in Manhattan to step aside, citing ties between the judge’s family and Democratic causes, Mr. Trump’s lawyers said in a statement.
Ten months before Trump is scheduled to stand trial in his historic New York City criminal case, Manhattan prosecutors are turning the former president’s words against him in a tug of war over precisely where he will be tried.
Gov. Kathy Hochul announced an investment to fund and expand options for child care in New York state. The $500 million comes from federal funds that have been underutilized.
Hochul suggested that upstate officials who have attempted to block New York City from sending migrant buses to their communities should remember “where their parents and grandparents came from.”
The governor said the state is exploring various assets to house migrants, including SUNY campuses, former psychiatric centers and even a hangar at John F. Kennedy Airport.
Legislative leaders met with Hochul this week and agreed to focus on getting the Clean Slate Act over the finish line before session ends next week.
While not much is expected to get done in the final days of the 2023 Albany legislative session, the Clean Slate Act does appear to have life in it.
Supporters say “Clean Slate” would boost the labor pool while giving people a second chance years after they have served their time, but critics deride the proposal as helping convicted criminals at the expense of their victims and public safety at large.
Assembly members came under fire yesterday from tenant activists throwing roughly two dozen paper airplanes from the chamber’s front balcony.
Courts in New York state would be required to tell defendants of their right to a non-religious substance abuse treatment option under a measure given final passage in the state Senate this week.
Former Long Island Rep. and GOP gubernatorial nominee Lee Zeldin ripped Hochul for not forcefully condemning a CUNY law graduate’s infamous “hate-filled” commencement speech — calling the Democrat a “disgrace for hiding in silence.”
Leaders of an historic bank founded by one-time Albany resident Alexander Hamilton visited the Capitol yesterday to share memorabilia and stories of their institution’s past with state lawmakers.
An attempt to close a loophole in the state’s lobbying laws, which allowed for undocumented outside influence over the chief judge nomination of Justice Hector D. LaSalle to occur, has stalled in the final week of the legislative session.
With only days left of legislative session, lawmakers are considering updating the state education curriculum to mandate the teaching of LGBTQ+ history and awareness in all New York public school districts and charter schools.
In his inaugural State of the University address, Chancellor John King said SUNY is prepared to handle a range of challenges it currently faces, from creating a more inclusive environment and boosting enrollment.
King’s vision for New York’s public colleges and universities includes a focus on all students gaining “real-world” experience before graduation.
King called for “missionary” efforts to persuade students to enroll, and focused part of his address on improving the four-year completion rate for college students.
New York’s public higher education system is prepared to assist with the ongoing migrant situation as campuses are being considered as temporary housing sites, King told reporters.
A group of retired city workers is suing Mayor Eric Adams in a bid to block his administration’s latest attempt to shift them into a privatized version of Medicare — the second time in as many years that municipal retirees have gone to court over the issue.
Only a small number of the more than 70,000 migrants who’ve come to New York City since last spring have formally applied for asylum, a top official in the Adams administration said.
Adams’ office has agreed to coordinate with Albany County as it continues to resettle migrants, as a fourth bus carrying asylum-seekers headed last night to the Capital Region.
New York City is on track to receive less than $40 million in additional emergency funding from FEMA, the Big Apple’s budget chief predicted, as the city is poised to reassess its multi-billion dollar estimate of the migrant crisis’ total cost.
The Big Apple is currently reviewing an additional 750 sites to potentially shelter migrants amid the surging crisis — as officials warn the system is “buckling” after 2,200 asylum seekers flooded into the city in the last week alone.
City Comptroller Brad Lander is demanding that Adams release more detailed data on the migrant population, nearly a month after City Hall abruptly stopped providing breakdowns of where the migrants were staying across different types of shelters.
Adams would not rule out blowing this year’s municipal budget deadline as his top negotiator signaled that the final stretch of spending talks with the City Council is off to a rocky start.
A final city budget deal likely won’t come until after the June 27 City Council primaries, giving the administration and city lawmakers a tight window to pass an on-time spending plan by their July 1 deadline, Adams’ Budget Director Jacques Jiha predicted.
The Adams administration said that there will be no budget cuts at individual New York City public schools for now, leaving open the possibility that funding could be reduced later based on enrollment.
Adams decried a CUNY law school graduate’s “hate-filled” commencement speech and declared he’d have denounced those comments on stage if he heard them.
Transport Workers Union Local 100 have approved a tentative contract with the MTA, giving roughly 40,000 New York City transit workers a pay bump of nearly 10% over the next three years.
A federal monitor overseeing the Rikers Island jails is demanding answers from the city Department of Correction, saying that new information about a detainee’s death on Monday conflicts with the account offered by department officials.
After experiencing “a remarkable spate of psych eval failures,” the Saratoga Springs public safety commissioner wants to be able to override the psychological exams that recruits to the police and fire department are now required to pass.
Nauman Hussain will serve at least five years in prison for his role in putting a derelict stretch limousine on the road the day its brakes failed on a steep hill, resulting in a crash that took the lives of 20 people.
A major Capital Region medical practice has suffered a cyber breach in which patient Social Security numbers and other personal information may have been compromised.
The fast-growing Motor Oil Coffee will open its fourth location by mid-June when it takes over the former Bard & Baker Board Game Cafe next to the Madison Theatre in the Pine Hill neighborhood.
Members of a NASA task force that studies unidentified anomalous phenomena, or U.A.P.s, said that they were pushing the government to collect better data to try to find answers for unexplained events that have captured the public’s imagination.
A jury convicted Danny Masterson, the actor best known for his role on the sitcom “That ’70s Show,” of having raped two women in a case that drew widespread attention because of accusations that the Church of Scientology had tried to discourage his accusers.
Kim Cattrall, who famously feuded with former co-star Sarah Jessica Parker since she played Samantha Jones in “Sex and the City” and two sequel movies — recently filmed a “cliffhanger” scene for the upcoming Season 2 of the Max spinoff “And Just Like That…”
