Good two days away from Friday (AKA Thursday) morning.
This week is leaning heavily geographical, starting with Canada – our neighbor to the North – and now, turning our attention to our neighbor to the East: Massachusetts.
Massachusetts, one of the original 13 colonies, got its name from the Massachusett tribe of indigenous people who lived in the Boston area long before the first white settler ever set foot in the area.
Legally speaking it is commonwealth not a state – the same goes for Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Kentucky, which is bound to win you a trivia game some day – though it’s really a distinction without a difference. It was the 6th member of the fledging union that eventually became the United States of America.
Massachusetts’ nickname – the Bay State – is in reference to one of its most famous bays, Cape Cod, which is where the Pilgrims first settled down. It also name checks the royal charter given to the Massachusetts Bay Company in 1629 to promote and encourage settlement of the area.
Being home to Plymouth – the Pilgrims’ landing place – is one of the many things for which Massachusetts is well known. But it is a state that is simply brimming over with history.
Other notable things about the Bay State about which you’re likely familiar include, but are not limited to: The Salem Witch Trials, The Boston Tea Party, Harvard and MIT, its incredibly successful professional sports franchises, cranberries, Cape Cod, Dunkin’, and, of course that accent.
Pahk the cah at Havahd Yahd, and all that. Wicked cool, no? And, of course, there’s the food, and that goes way beyond baked beans and brown bread.
For those of us who live in the Capital Region, Western Massachusetts is just a very short car ride away, which brings us to all sorts of amazing Berkshires hot spots like Tanglewood, MASS MoCA, Mount Greylock (part of the AT), the Williamstown Theater Festival, the Clark Art Institute, and so much more.
Happy Massachusetts Day, all.
I should really get to Massachusetts more. Not that I don’t love New York, which will always have my heart, but a change of scenery is always nice – especially when it doesn’t require very much gas to get there.
Today will be another gray and rainy one, especially in the morning. Temperatures will be in the low 80s.
In the headlines…
The US, Japan and South Korea are expected to announce plans for expanded military cooperation on ballistic missile defenses and technology development in the face of concern about North Korea’s nuclear program at Camp David for a summit tomorrow.
The US has promised to usher in a “new era” in relations with its most important allies in Asia, as the region struggles to address the threat posed by an increasingly assertive China and a nuclear-armed North Korea.
Only 36% of U.S. adults approve of Biden’s handling of the economy, slightly lower than the 42% who approve of his overall performance, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
Biden’s message to Americans on the first birthday of his landmark climate law was a simple one: It’s working.
At a celebration in the White House East Room, Biden branded the $740 billion climate, health and tax bill as one of the “most significant laws” ever enacted.
The law is Biden’s biggest climate achievement to date, with nearly $370 billion available for clean energy and climate programs. But just how much that investment will benefit the average American and the environment remains an open question.
Democratic West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin marked the first anniversary of a major climate crisis law he helped pass by saying he would mount an “unrelenting fight against the Biden administration’s efforts to implement the IRA as a radical climate agenda”.
Biden will travel to the Hawaiian island of Maui on Monday to view the damage from raging wildfires that devastated much of a coastal town and killed more than 100 people, the White House announced.
“The president continues to marshal a whole-of-government response to the deadly Maui fires, and he has committed to delivering everything that the people of Hawaii need from the federal government as they recover from this disaster,” his spokeswoman said.
A federal appeals court panel said that the abortion pill mifepristone should remain legal in the U.S. but with significant restrictions on patient access, setting up a Supreme Court showdown on the fate of the most common method of terminating pregnancies.
A previous stay by the Supreme Court means this won’t go into effect right away. The pills will remain on the market in states where abortion is legal and available by telemedicine and mail for the time being.
A Texas woman has been charged with threatening to kill Tanya S. Chutkan, the federal judge in Washington who is overseeing former President Donald Trump’s prosecution on charges of seeking to overturn the 2020 election.
Abigail Jo Shry of Alvin, Texas, called the federal courthouse in Washington and left the threatening message — using a racist term for Judge Chutkan — on Aug. 5, court records show.
The purported names and addresses of members of the grand jury that indicted Trump and 18 of his co-defendants on state racketeering charges this week have been posted on a fringe website that often features violent rhetoric.
With his attorney in tow, Rudy Giuliani traveled to Mar-a-Lago in recent months on a mission to make a personal and desperate appeal to Trump to pay his legal bills. But the former president didn’t seem very interested.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene says she’s considering running for U.S. Senate from her home state of Georgia in 2026 – unless Trump asks her to be his 2024 running mate.
A campaign aide to Rep. George Santos who impersonated Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s former chief of staff was charged with wire fraud and identity theft in a federal indictment unsealed yesterday.
A federal grand jury in Brooklyn indicted Samuel Miele, who worked for Santos’ campaign during the 2020 and 2022 election cycles, on four counts of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft in the alleged scheme to defraud prospective donors.
Santos’ office declined to comment.
A lawyer representing Gov. Kathy Hochul sent a scathing letter faulting Mayor Eric Adams’ management of New York’s migrant crisis, puncturing the appearance of city-state harmony that the two leaders cultivated.
Hochul’s outside counsel, Faith E. Gay with Selendy Gay Elsberg, said New York City has neglected to use millions of dollars in available funding to assist migrants applying for asylum.
Hochul’s office outlined an array of steps it has taken or sought to offer the city to deal with the surge in asylum-seekers, but also rebuked the city’s push that the state needs to do more.
In statements after the letters became public, both the governor and the mayor sought to minimize the perception of conflict between their administrations. But the letters’ contents point toward a potentially combative new phase in New York’s response.
“You cannot involuntarily take people from the city and send them all over the state of New York,” Hochul said. “Putting someone in a hotel on a dark, lonely road in upstate New York and telling them they’re supposed to survive is not compassion.”
Top officials in Mayor Adams’ administration did not dispute that they had hundreds of shelter beds available during a five-night stretch earlier this summer when a large group of migrants resorted to sleeping on a Manhattan sidewalk.
Authorities arrested multiple people — including former GOP mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa — during a raucous rally over a newly opened mass “tent city” shelter for migrants in Queens.
New York City officials want large venues outside the Big Apple — such as the vacant Nassau Coliseum in nearby Long Island — to be considered for emergency shelters as the city grapples with the tens of thousands of migrants flooding into the city.
New York City public school kids will return to the classroom in three weeks, but with slim details available about the plan for some 18,000 migrant students and an impending bus strike, parents are starting to panic.
Adams didn’t say anything when asked about a federal Manhattan prosecutor’s recent threat to “exercise all options — including enforcement” when it comes to the city’s support of safe injection sites, which have been set up to prevent fatal overdoses.
All Uber and Lyft vehicles must be either electric or wheelchair accessible by 2030, Adams announced.
Adams pledged to create 150 miles of bus lanes in New York City in four years. Then politics interfered.
A bill that would largely shift the burden of paying broker fees from renters to landlords has locked in support from a majority of the City Council — a development that comes after an influential real estate group tried to tank the measure via a backroom deal.
New York City has prohibited the download and use of TikTok on all city-owned devices after a review by the NYC Cyber Command found the app poses “a security threat to the city’s technical networks.”
City agencies must remove the app within 30 days and employees will lose access to TikTok and its website from city-owned devices and networks.
Three people in the New York City area have died in recent weeks and a fourth person was hospitalized after contracting infections from a flesh-eating bacteria that can be caused by eating raw oysters or swimming in saltwater, health officials said.
The state Department of Public Health said that there are three people known to have been infected with the Vibrio vulnificus bacteria.
After nearly a decade of somewhat tumultuous yet exciting expansion from Albany to the Mohawk Valley, SUNY Polytechnic Institute’s College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering is once again part of the University at Albany, where it originally began.
A rebuilt electric transmission corridor through the Hudson Valley and Capital Region was unveiled yesterday after two years of construction updating the electric grid.
A judge quashed subpoenas the Troy City Council issued to the owner and staff of Harbour Point Gardens apartments to testify about the conditions and the impact on tenants, due to a technicality.
Acclaimed cellist Yo-Yo Ma canceled his appearance with the Philadelphia Orchestra at Saratoga Performing Arts Center yesterday due to illness after testing positive for COVID-19, SPAC announced.
A record crowd of more than 350 turned out to honor Todd and Tracy Pletcher as they received the Mary Lou Whitney Award for their continuing support of the backstretch community from the New York Race Track Chaplaincy in Saratoga Springs.
Vlatko Andonovski, the head coach of the United States women’s national soccer team, has resigned, three people with direct knowledge of the situation said, ending a relatively tumultuous tenure managing what was once the world’s pre-eminent team.
Bruce Springsteen has postponed two Philadelphia concerts just hours before showtime due to an unspecified illness.
