Good Tuesday morning.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there are 52 days left until summer ends – which officially occurs on Sept. 23, 2023. There’s a lot fewer still until Labor Day, (Sept. 4, 2023), the unofficial end of summer, is upon us.
The weather sort of felt a little fall-ish yesterday. I had to put on a sweatshirt while sitting by the open window throughout the workday.
I can’t lie, I’m not really ready for pumpkin spice everything when my tomatoes haven’t even ripened yet.
This isn’t to make you feel stressed, but rather to encourage you to thoroughly enjoy every moment when you are not encased in a thick layer of wool and down.
We’re in for another day on the unseasonably cool side, with temperatures in the high 70s, though skies will be mostly sunny. You’ll probably want to grab a long-sleeved shirt, and maybe even opt for jeans, if you venture out in the evening to partake of the many National Night Out events taking place across the region.
A lot of people know I am married to a police officer, but not a lot of people know I’m also the granddaughter of a cop – an NYPD officer, in fact. My father’s father was a member of the force.
I always thought that it was something of an anomaly for Jews to serve at that time, but, according to the NYPD Shomrim Society, the Depression years attracted a lot of Jews to the profession, as civil service jobs provided a steady income and guaranteed employment.
My grandfather wasn’t a lifelong police officer. But from what I recall, he loved the job and was proud of the time he spent on the streets of Gotham, which were a heck of a lot different back then – as was the job itself.
These days, not a lot of people want to be a cop. Retirements and resignations are far outpacing recruitment efforts around the country, due to a combination of factors – Covid fatigue, and erosion in trust of law enforcement due to a rash of race-related killings and other scandals that have rocked departments nationwide, generational changes, and more.
National Night Out, which takes place the first Tuesday in August every year, is an effort to repair and strengthen community-police relations by hosting a series of locally-based events – anything from cookouts and block parties to panel discussions, parades, festivals and more.
The practice started in the mid-80s, and has grown to include thousands of communities nationwide – including 144 here in New York. Here’s an unofficial list of some of what is scheduled to take place in the Capital Region this evening. Hopefully the rain will hold off and everyone will stay safe.
In the headlines…
President Biden has decided to keep U.S. Space Command headquarters in Colorado, overturning a last-ditch decision by the Trump administration to move it to Alabama, ending months of thorny deliberations, but an Alabama lawmaker vowed to fight on.
Officials said Biden was convinced by the head of Space Command, Gen. James Dickinson, who argued that moving his headquarters now would jeopardize military readiness. Dickinson’s view, however, was in contrast to Air Force leadership.
The decision will only intensify a bitter parochial battle on Capitol Hill, as members of the Colorado and Alabama delegations have spent months accusing each other of playing politics on the future of the four-star command.
Hunter Biden’s ex-business associate told members of Congress in a closed-door briefing that President Biden and his son spoke almost daily and the younger Biden would occasionally put his father on speakerphone at business dinners and in other situations.
Devon Archer told the House Oversight Committee that Hunter Biden, was selling the “illusion” of access to his father, according to a source familiar with the interview, the latest development in the GOP-led congressional investigations into the president’s son.
But Archer still argued that Joe Biden wasn’t involved in their financial dealings, despite the contacts.
Archer, 49, answered questions for about four hours during a transcribed interview before the House Oversight Committee, telling members that Biden put his father on speakerphone during business meetings about 20 times, but not to talk to business.
Former President Donald Trump is pressuring GOP lawmakers to put action behind their words and begin the impeachment process against Biden − or face electoral consequences.
Trump is dominating the Republican primary field, leading his nearest challenger, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, by 37 percentage points nationally among likely GOP voters, according to the first New York Times/Siena College poll of the 2024 campaign.
Trump held decisive advantages across almost every demographic group and region and in every ideological wing of the party, the survey found, as Republican voters waved away concerns about his escalating legal jeopardy.
A state judge in Georgia has rejected Trump’s bid to derail his potential prosecution for attempting to subvert the 2020 election results.
In a nine-page ruling, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney said it’s simply too soon for Trump or his allies to seek to prohibit Georgia prosecutors from continuing to investigate him — in large part because he hasn’t been indicted yet.
The political action committee that Trump is using to pay his legal bills reportedly faced such staggering costs this year that it requested a refund on a $60 million contribution it made to another group supporting the Republican front-runner.
Gov. Kathy Hochul announced $18 million in funding for projects that use advanced technologies in energy-efficient buildings through the state’s Next Generation Buildings Innovation Challenges program.
A new statewide media campaign has been launched to raise awareness of addiction, and services available in New York State for those impacted by addiction and their families, Hochul announced.
Activists outside Cortlandt Town Hall yesterday demanded that Hochul sign a bill that would prohibit the dumping of radioactive waste into the Hudson River – a bill that has been on her desk for about a month.
Last year’s Buffalo supermarket horror targeting black victims has prompted efforts to revive a state panel designed to correct and expand what’s taught about African-Americans in public schools.
An unlicensed marijuana dispensary chain with several locations operating across upstate New York became the first to have its stores shut and padlocked by the state under its new cannabis law, state leaders announced yesterday.
State officials padlocked seven unlicensed marijuana stores in the Syracuse and Rochester areas whose owner they said had been illegally selling cannabis for more than a year, including to underage customers, and had ignored repeated notices to stop.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer visited Revel’s public charging facility in Brooklyn to promote the provisions for electric vehicles in the Inflation Reduction Act, like credits for buyers of new EVs and for companies setting up more charging stations.
Mayor Eric Adams said New York has run out of shelter space for migrants, and he defended a troubled contractor, DocGo, that has been working with the city on its response.
Migrants continue to wait outside of the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan and sleep in the street after the city said it ran out of space to house people.
Adams warned New Yorkers that the migrant crisis is coming “to a neighborhood near you” — and said President Biden’s offer of just a liaison to help fix the debacle is hardly good enough.
Adams said that migrants would not be allowed to sleep wherever they want, insisting: “I can assure you that this city is not going to look like other cities where there are tents up and down every street.”
The Coalition for the Homeless and The Legal Aid Society condemned the “heartbreaking and maddening” obstacles migrants arriving here are now facing, and said that, “should this continue, we will have no choice but to file litigation to enforce the law.
The annual cost of New York’s public health insurance for the needy is set to shatter $100 billion for the first time — and the unrelenting migrant crisis could soon trigger even more of a spike, documents show.
Furious Democratic pols rallied outside City Hall yesterday against President Biden, blasting him for being “asleep at the wheel’’ on a migrant crisis that is now forcing asylum-seekers to sleep on sidewalks.
Adams unveiled a new safety plan that earmarks nearly half a billion dollars to address the root causes of crime. Carrying out the blueprint could function as a major cornerstone of Adams’ time as mayor.
City commissioners, community leaders, Hochul and AG Letitia James joined Adams to announce the multi-million dollar plan to tackle gun violence with jobs, housing and employment programs intended to prevent people from resorting to crime.
“You can’t say you’re serious about fighting crime if you’re not serious about getting illegal guns off our streets,” Hochul said at a press conference at New York City Hall. “And that is the difference between red states and blue states and the statistics bear it out.”
Adams rolled out the multi-tiered plan focused on taking preventative steps to combat gun violence in the city — but it was not immediately clear how his administration will gauge the success of the initiatives.
Adams denied that he warned ex-Buildings Department Commissioner Eric Ulrich about his potential exposure in a criminal investigation months before it became public, but declined to say if he talked to Ulrich about being careful using his cell phone.
Adams’ administration must by early next year figure out a way to process all applications for food stamps and cash assistance in a timely manner after failing to do so for months, in violation of federal and state laws, a Manhattan judge has ruled.
Adams vowed to deal with the illicit sex market that’s been thriving in Queens for months — even as the open-air red-light district continued unabated two days after being exposed by the NY Post.
New York’s first licensed marijuana retail store operated by Housing Works had strong sales in its opening six months in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village — peddling $12 million in product, or twice what it expected, its owner said .
Subway and bus commuters received an unwanted morning surprise yesterday in the form of a fare increase that arrived three weeks earlier than expected. An MTA spokesperson said the glitch was immediately rectified after it was discovered.
Horse carriage drivers in Central Park argued that their work is safe for their horses — more so now that their union is hiring what it calls an expert in horse care and driver training.
Food delivery company DoorDash said it will begin arranging free immigration legal clinics for its New York City delivery workers, in a pilot program administered by the New York Legal Assistance Group that begins this summer.
O’Shae Sibley, 28, was vogueing at a Brooklyn gas station when men attacked him with gay slurs and told him to stop. He was fatally stabbed during the incident, and a hate crimes task force is investigating.
The man charged in a fatal knifing aboard a Manhattan subway train last month allegedly stabbed a mental health clinician on Rikers Island.
Money collected from a plan to toll drivers to enter Midtown Manhattan could be used to make changes to New York City’s subway system, including adding elevators, fare gates and platform barriers.
In a dramatic morning rescue yesterday, a Long Island man was saved after spending more than five hours treading water in the Atlantic Ocean, Suffolk County police said.
Monsanto is still trying to obtain records from a now-closed disciplinary investigation of Dr. David O. Carpenter, the longtime director of UAlbany’s Institute for Health and the Environment who frequently testified as an expert witness against the company.
The City of Albany’s Civilian Police Review Board is asking the Common Council to make changes to a 2021 law that gave the board new powers to investigate allegations of police misconduct, including the ability to issue subpoenas.
City of Troy police are investigating after a man jumped to his death in the Hudson River.
Anti-NXIVM blogger Frank Parlato Jr. will not be headed to federal prison. Instead, the one-time publicist for Keith Raniere’s cult-like organization who became one of its most outspoken opponents, will spend five months on home confinement.
A woman was taken to a hospital for treatment of minor injuries after her car fell into a sinkhole on a Schenectady street.
Initial work on the City of Albany’s Lark Street revitalization project began yesterday with signs placed at the Madison Avenue and Washington Avenue intersections.
Workers dismantled a giant “X” sign that was only briefly displayed on the roof of Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco after residents complained and the city issued a violation notice for lacking proper permits, according to local officials.
Paul Reubens, the comic actor whose bow-tied, childlike alter-ego Pee-wee Herman became an unlikely if almost uncategorizable movie and television sensation in the 1980s, died on Sunday in Los Angeles. He was 70 and had privately fought cancer for years.
Angus Cloud, the actor best known for portraying Fezco, a lovable drug dealer on the HBO television show “Euphoria,” died yesterday at his family home in Oakland, Calif. He was 25, and a cause of death was not released.
