Good morning, it’s Tuesday.
Somehow, October is almost over an there’s a bunch of stuff I haven’t gotten to yet. For example, I’m sure you’ve noticed the sudden prevalence of pink everywhere – on T-shirts, bus wraps, lapel ribbons etc. – which is the telltale hallmark of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
As designated months go, this is one of the biggies. It has been around since 1985, and started as a partnership between the American Cancer Society and the pharmaceutical division of Imperial Chemical Industries. Then-First Lady Betty Ford, one of the country’s most high-profile breast cancer survivors at the time, helped kick off the first week-long event.
Ford’s involvement was really significant. Her willingness to speak publicly and candidly about her own experience and surgery encouraged countless other women to get screened – a phenomenon cancer researchers deemed the “Betty Ford Blip.”
Oh, and apparently we can thank the combined powers of the Estee Lauder brand and SELF magazine that the hallmark ribbon for this month is pink and not peach.
Cancer is the No. 2 leading cause of death in the U.S. (after heart disease), and as such, as been tracked for a very long time by public health officials.
A total of 1.9 million new cancer cases and 609,360 deaths from cancer are expected to occur in the US in 2022, according to the American Cancer Society, which is about 1,670 deaths a day.
(NOTE: These stats don’t include skin cancers, because for some reason, cancer registries are not required to track those. It also doesn’t account for the Covid pandemic’s impact on diagnosis and treatment – remember that it was difficult to get to see a health care practitioner, and most of the world was temporarily shut down, so screenings went by the wayside).
New York has a fairly high breast cancer rate, and though white women are more frequently diagnosed, Black women die at higher rates. The main key to survival is early detection and treatment, which means getting screened. It can be a little tricky to keep up with the guidelines about when and how frequently to get a mammogram.
But erring on the side of caution – especially if you’re in a high risk category (Ashkenazi Jew, for example; history of breast and/or other cancers in the family; dense breast tissue; etc.) seems like a good idea.
Generally, the CDC says women with an “average” risk of breast cancer should get a mammogram every two years. It’s not pleasant, certainly, and it give me crazy anxiety each and every time. But I still do it, and I’m always happy I did when it’s over.
You can also take steps to minimize your risk – quite literally, by staying active. Also by maintaining a healthy weight, not drinking alcohol, not smoking – just generally trying to maintain an overall healthy lifestyle.
I know it’s too early to say that I’m looking forward to the weekend. But Saturday so far is shaping up to be FANTASTIC in the weather department – intervals of clouds and sun with temperatures in the low 70s (!) After all the rainy weekends, we deserve it.
Something to look forward to.
In the meantime, today’s forecast isn’t too shabby, either, with mostly sunny skies and temperatures in the low 60s. Sneak out there and get some steps in.
In the headlines…
The Biden administration designated 31 technology hubs spread across 32 states – including New York – and Puerto Rico to help spur innovation and create jobs in the industries that are concentrated in these areas.
In the coming months, the regions will compete for a share of $500 million, with roughly five to 10 of the projects receiving up to about $75 million each, the administration said.
Known as the New York Semiconductor Manufacturing and Research Technology Innovation-Corridor Consortium, or NY SMART I-Corridor, this will help the region become a globally-recognized manufacturing hub in the next decade, Sen. Chuck Schumer said.
Schumer said this will be the region’s first-ever federal tech hub, which he hopes will create a “semiconductor super-highway,” to support tech giant Micron, with construction of the first two fabs set to begin in 2024.
Hamas released two hostages who were abducted during a brutal massacre on Kibbutz Nir Oz earlier this month, the Israeli prime minister’s office said.
Hamas said it had freed the two elderly women – Yokheved Lifshitz and Nurit Yitzhak, who also goes by the name Nurit Cooper – for humanitarian reasons, in response to mediation by Qatar and Egypt.
The women were abducted from their homes in Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, accoridng to the Israel’s prime minister’s office. Their spouses – Cooper’s husband, Amiram, 85, and Lifshitz’s husband, Oded, 83, were also kidnapped are still held by Hamas.
Negotiations over a possible release of a group of 50 captives stumbled over the militant group’s demand that Israel allow fuel deliveries into Gaza, according to officials familiar with the talks.
Biden, when asked about whether the U.S. would support a potential Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal in exchange for the release of hostages, said: “We should have those hostages released and then we can talk.”
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) called for an “independent investigation” into the bombing of a Gaza Strip hospital, continuing her refusal to accept US and Israeli findings they say show Islamic Jihad terrorists were behind the atrocity.
The Israeli soldier killed in a clash with Hamas on Sunday is the first publicly announced Israeli military fatality inside Gaza since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said.
French President Emmanuel Macron has arrived in Tel Aviv, and plans to express solidarity following the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks and to discuss a two-state solution, an Élysée Palace source said.
Just weeks after the Writers Guild of America displayed solidarity by ending a monthslong strike and voting overwhelmingly in favor of a new contract, the union is being roiled by a fight over its lack of a public statement condemning the Hamas attack on Israel.
92NY, one of the city’s leading cultural organizations, announced that it was putting its prestigious literary reading series on pause, following an outcry over its decision to cancel an appearance last week by a prominent writer who had been critical of Israel.
As the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas continues to divide Democrats over public support for Israelis and Palestinians, lawmakers are introducing legislation that they hope will cut through divisions in order to help New Yorkers stuck in the war zone.
The Biden administration wants to ban all uses of trichloroethylene, an industrial solvent used in glues, other adhesives, and more, saying exposure to even small amounts can cause cancer, damage to the central nervous system and other health effects.
House Republicans last night held a closed-door candidate forum where eight candidates (one dropped out) made their pitches to be the next speaker. The conference is scheduled to vote this morning on whom to nominate next.
Following the forum, Rep. Pete Sessions — one of the eight candidates — called the meeting “productive” and said it “really helped getting us prepared for tomorrow,” when the conference will vote for its third candidate to succeed Kevin McCarthy.
Michael Cohen, a former personal lawyer and fixer for Donald Trump, is ready to confront him face-to-face today at the former president’s New York trial for civil fraud.
Trump is expected to be in attendance for the testimony, detouring from his usual campaign haunts to the Manhattan courtroom for a sixth day this month, which Cohen said will be the first time he has seen Trump in five years.
Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a package of legislation designed to build additional affordable housing in New York City, while making homes in the Big Apple more hospitable and resilient to inclement weather.
Hochul honored more than 200 first responders who assisted with the recent Orange County bus crash that killed a high school band director and a former teacher and resulted in dozens of students being injured.
Hochul hosted a roundtable on domestic violence and gun safety yesterday afternoon at the Capitol with survivors of abuse and their advocates ahead of national concerns with New York’s “Red Flag Law.”
Hochul has extended the executive order declaring a state of emergency for New York State’s asylum seekers, which allows the state and local towns to quickly respond to newcomers’ arrivals – including mobilization of the National Guard.
New York voters widely oppose any attempts by the Democrat-controlled state government to redraw congressional district lines in order to give their candidates an edge over Republicans in the 2024 elections.
Mayor Eric Adams announced that his administration will allow a variety of city employees in managerial positions to work from home twice a week.
More than 100 migrants were removed from a Manhattan emergency shelter due to safety hazards at the site, leaving some fearful they could end up on the streets as staff told them they needed to return to the city’s crowded intake center to reapply for a bed.
A city official urged the feds to reopen the their effective downtown migrant paperwork center, which was closed after just two weeks of operation earlier this month.
The city is again expected to toughen its stance on migrants in the Big Apple’s overwhelmed shelter system by slapping a one-month limit on single migrants in homeless shelters, officials conceded.
The number of migrants coming to New York City continues to climb, and so too the daily, per-person cost to house and care for them – now $394, up from $363 earlier this year, officials said.
The city is again expected to toughen its stance on migrants in the Big Apple’s overwhelmed shelter system by slapping a one-month limit on single migrants in homeless shelters, officials conceded.
The MTA is months behind schedule on the installation of platform barriers designed to protect subway riders, the authority quietly disclosed, just days after another straphanger fell victim to a random pushing attack.
As retail businesses in the New York City subway system struggle to rebound from the COVID-19 lockdown, the MTA is planning to temporarily turn some vacant storefronts into art spaces.
Felony assaults in the city’s subway system jumped by nearly 22% last month compared to September 2022 – a spike fueled in part by attacks on transit workers, police and the MTA said.
Two weeks after a federal monitor dropped a scathing report on worsening conditions at the Rikers Island jail facility, the New York City Council speaker has revived a commission to help make sure the troubled jailed facility is shut down by August 2027.
The NYPD added three anti-Muslim and 20 anti-Jewish hate crimes to its tallies for the one-week period ending Sunday, according to new data.
The City Council is investing $17.5 million into New York City Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst in Queens, more than three years after the facility was among the first – and hardest – hit during the COVID-19 pandemic, Councilmember Shekar Krishnan said.
An illegal pot shop that brazenly opened up across from the DA’s office was closed and emptied after it was written about in the NY Post yesterday.
Nine months after she announced her re-election bid, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand has defied expectations. No up-and-coming Democrats have stepped up to challenge her. And pundits doubt the GOP will mount serious general election push to oust her.
St. Peter’s Health Partners said it has delayed the closure date of Burdett Birth Center in Troy as it seeks to address outstanding transportation and access concerns outlined in a newly released study on the closure’s impact on underserved populations.
The early December closure of five ShopRite supermarket stores will eliminate 567 jobs in the Capital Region.
A group of at least 20 asylum-seekers staying at a Super 8 motel in Rotterdam protested outside the building yesterday evening over their mounting frustrations with their treatment, citing bed bugs, a lack of heat and water, and a need for medical attention.
Shenendahowa’s longtime superintendent, L. Oliver Robinson, accidentally caused a wave of social media strife by changing something on his LinkedIn page. He says he is not, in fact, leaving his post.
Mary Lou Retton, the decorated Olympic gymnast, has been released from a hospital, one of her daughters said, about two weeks after her family reported the gold medalist had a rare form of pneumonia and was in an intensive care unit “fighting for her life.”
