Good Tuesday morning.
This season is all about giving. It’s also about getting, of course, because that’s the converse of giving. But let’s be honest, giving really does feel better.
Yesterday, we talked about shopping, which is sort of about giving. But in this case, I’m talking about the sort of philanthropic efforts many of us engage in around this time of year – hopefully because it makes us feel good and it’s the right thing to do, and not merely for the purpose of the tax filings we will be making shortly.
I don’t mean to sound critical, or Grinch-like (though it is, as you know, my way), but Americans are losing their giving spirit.
Last year, the percentage of our disposal incomes that we gave to charity was the lowest since 1995, according to a Giving USA report. The total amount of charitable giving fell by 3.4% in 2022 to $499.3 billion — that’s a 10.5% decrease when adjusted for inflation.
Don’t get me wrong, we are still pretty generous, comparatively speaking, leading the world in overall global giving.
Also, 72% of Americans help strangers and 42% of volunteer. We also grew more giving during the Covid crisis, even though many of us were falling on tough financial times and struggling with rising costs, poor health, lost jobs etc.
And while the wealthy – people with last names like Bezos and Bloomberg – are giving in record amounts, even pledging to purge themselves of their entire respective billions before they die, the percentage of Americans who are contributing to charitable causes has dropped precipitously over the past 100 years or so.
There’s some speculation as to why this is. Maybe it’s because we’re less religious than we once were. Maybe it’s because the economy has worsened, inflation is up and our hard-earned cash isn’t going as far as it used to. Maybe we’re giving our money to something – or someone – else, like crowdfunded campaigns or political candidates?
Maybe we’re just more miserly and mean-spirited than we used to be? Less optimistic and more egocentric?
I hope not.
Today, if you weren’t aware – or hadn’t perhaps started to get an inkling – is Giving Tuesday, which, according to its official website, “is a global generosity movement that unleashes the power of radical generosity around the world.”
The day has its roots right here in New York, the result of a partnership between the 92nd Street Y and the United Nations Foundation in 2012 as an effort to combat the overwhelming consumerism that seemed to have engulfed the holiday season.
Again, according to the nonprofit organization that “runs” this day – if anyone really could be said to run a movement – there are now over 240 locally-led community efforts with some 33.1 million participants across the US.
Even if you don’t have much money to spare, consider giving of your time this season. I would argue that time is more valuable, anyway, since I personally never seem to have enough of it. Also, this is a perfect time to declutter your life. Someone else could really use that gently used coat or pair of boots or couch, I’m sure.
The weather is making news today, but (thankfully, I’m sorry) not here in the Capital Region. We had some snow showers last night, and there might be a few lingering flurries about today, but largely it will be cold (mid-30s) and gray and dry.
Meanwhile, more than 3.3 million Americans – including residents of Syracuse, Jamestown, and Rochester, among others – were placed under Lake-Effect Snow Warnings yesterday as portions of the eastern Great Lakes and interior Northeast experience the season’s first significant snowstorm, with more than 2 feet of snow possible in some areas.
Also: About 100 million Americans are expected to face freezing temperatures this evening into tomorrow, as a cold front settles in on the East Coast this week.
Winter is no longer coming, it is most definitely here – with a vengeance. Consider is a dress rehearsal for a white Christmas.
In the headlines…
Israel and Hamas agreed yesterday to extend their fragile truce for two more days, an act of continued cooperation that could allow for additional aid to flow into Gaza and the release of more hostages, prisoners and detainees than initially expected.
The extension, coming as the initial four-day truce was set to expire today, was announced by Qatari mediators a few hours before 11 more Israeli hostages — including 3-year-old twins — were released into the custody of Israel’s military.
The White House does not believe Hamas purposefully held back two American women who were expected to be freed as part of the release of hostages, a senior Biden administration official said.
A total of 33 Palestinians were released from several Israeli prisons, the Israeli prison service said.
Elon Musk traveled to Israel and met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, touring the scene of a Hamas attack in a visit that appeared aimed at calming the outcry over his endorsement of an antisemitic conspiracy theory on X, which he owns.
Musk told Netanyahu that he wants to help rebuild Gaza after the end of the Israel-Hamas war.
Netanyahu took Musk on a tour through Kfar Aza, a kibbutz attacked on Oct. 7, and later showed Musk a video of the attacks on Israeli civilians, and the two men then livestreamed a conversation on X.
President Joe Biden announced new actions aimed at ensuring the stability of supply chains for products including those needed to boost renewable energy.
Biden said he wants to lower costs for U.S. families, while warning companies against taking advantage of inflation by price gouging, adding: “We know that prices are still too high for too many things…but we’ve made progress.”
The president’s absence from the COP28 summit highlights how he is facing some pressure to focus on oil drilling and gas prices at home, while boosting climate ambition on the world stage.
Projects across the nation are getting federal funding designed to help small- and medium-sized manufacturers bring clean-energy jobs to former coal communities, part of a $1 trillion infrastructure package signed by Biden in 2021.
Biden is scheduled to visit Colorado this week for two different stops. The plans come after a visit to Pueblo in southern Colorado were canceled last month.
Biden, First Lady Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff are scheduled to attend memorial services in Atlanta for former First Lady Rosalynn Carter today.
The services will be held at Glenn Memorial Church at Emory University; Carter’s body will leave the Carter Center where she is currently lying in repose around 11:30 a.m., with the service to follow.
The family of Rosalynn Carter began the final farewells to the former first lady and global humanitarian ahead of a memorial service today that her husband, former President Jimmy Carter, who is currently in hospice, is expected to attend.
The legal team advising President Biden’s son Hunter Biden is weighing how to respond to a subpoena issued by the Republican-led House Oversight Committee.
The Supreme Court ruled that two Arizona lawmakers must testify about their reasons for supporting state laws requiring proof of citizenship for voting in federal elections.
After a pugnacious first turn on the witness stand, former president Donald Trump plans to testify again next month in his civil fraud trial, his lawyers said.
Trump’s lawyers urged a New York appeals court to keep blocking the gag order in his high-stakes civil fraud trial by arguing the restrictions were too broad and the judge had imposed $15,000 in fines “in a fit of pique.”
Trump’s attorneys wrote in a filing that the former president has never threatened the judge or his principal law clerk and they can’t be held responsible for actions taken by others.
Attorneys for Trump have asked a federal judge in Washington to allow them to investigate several U.S. government agencies about their handling of investigations into him and allegations of voter fraud three years ago.
Aides to Biden quickly jumped on a statement by Trump that he was “seriously looking at alternatives” to Obamacare.
Facing a likely expulsion vote as soon as tomorrow, embattled Long Island Rep. George Santos held talks with Speaker Mike Johnson over the weekend, suggesting he could be mulling a more amicable exit.
“I’ve spoken to Rep. Santos at some length over the holiday and talked to him about his options,” Johnson told reporters in Sarasota, Fla. “But … it’s not yet determined.”
Democrats and Republicans alike are lining up to run for the Long Island swing seat if the scandal-plagued lawmaker steps down or is expelled from the House of Representatives in the coming days.
A push to move local municipal elections to even years is in its final stages as Gov. Kathy Hochul has just over a month to take action on legislation passed by the Democrat-controlled Legislature and supported by groups that seek to increase voter turnout.
A bill on Hochul’s desk would make insurance companies cover what doctors call life-saving cancer genetic testing.
A majority of New Yorkers consider housing affordability to be a “major problem” in their communities, according to a new Marist Poll.
Senior state officials tasked with combatting the opioid epidemic say an expansion of New York’s diversion programs for those arrested with a substance use disorder is desperately needed.
Shops in New York State that peddle e-bikes would be required to implement enhanced fire safety precautions under a newly introduced bill in Albany aimed at curbing New York City’s e-bike fire crisis.
Hochul announced an initiative to “combat online hate” ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday last week after alarming surges in hate against Jews, Muslims and Arabs coincided with the Israel-Hamas war, and a “media literacy toolkit” for students was among them.
The New York State cannabis board voted to approve a settlement that would resolve two lawsuits and end a three-month-long freeze on recreational dispensary openings across the state.
According to the CCB, if the New York Supreme Court approves these agreements, the injunction will be lifted. CAURD provisional licensees will receive an explanation of what to expect.
“Today’s approval of the settlement agreement by the New York State Cannabis Control Board marks a momentous step forward in our mission to cultivate a diverse and inclusive cannabis market,” said Tremaine Wright, CCB chair.
Mayor Eric Adams took another swing at taking down the city’s thousands of illegal marijuana shops by threatening landlords and building owners who rent to them.
The city is warning a group of landlords who are allegedly allowing illegal pot stores to continue operating in their buildings after being shut down by the city that they face major fines if they don’t keep the locations closed.
Adams threw cold water on the prospect of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo running for mayor of New York City.
Adams in a radio interview dismissed talk of Cuomo seeking his job, though acknowledged the three-term former governor is considering some sort of comeback to politics following his 2021 resignation.
New York City officials are investigating after hundreds of Queens high school students protested against a pro-Israel teacher, who was moved to another part of the building during the demonstration, the schools chancellor said.
The episode was blasted by Schools Chancellor David Banks at a later afternoon press conference as “completely unacceptable.”
Banks would not say exactly what sort of punishment the ringleaders of the mayhem face but he did say some students were suspended — and the teacher who was targeted for attending a pro-Israel demonstration will return to the school later this week.
Manhattan judges overturned the convictions yesterday of two men who spent decades in prison for separate killings investigated by detectives in the same NYPD precinct in Harlem.
A 5-year-old boy and his mother were found fatally stabbed in their Bronx apartment on Sunday, and the boy’s father was found stabbed to death in the hallway.
Albany Police Chief Eric Hawkins is a finalist for the head job in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
A federal appeals tribunal in Manhattan is allowing Ellazar Williams’ civil rights lawsuit against three Albany police detectives — one of whom shot Williams and left him paralyzed from the chest down following a foot pursuit — to proceed.
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman is calling for the resignation of the president of local Hofstra University, claiming she failed in a statement to be “clear and strong in her condemnation of Hamas without equivocation.”
Awnings were installed yesterday at 121 Madison Ave., Albany, complementing a large vertical sign that went up earlier this month. Both say Hattie’s, reflecting the new restaurant identity for the building that for 90 years was the Italian eatery Lombardo’s.
Student and staff movement inside east building at Shenendehowa High School was briefly hampered yesterday after a student was found to be in possession of a BB gun, according to district officials.
A veteran Schenectady police commander, who survived being shot in the line of duty in 2010 thanks to his protective vest, has been picked to lead Ithaca’s police department, according to an announcement on that city’s website.
Comedian Stephen Colbert, host of CBS’s “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” announced that his show is canceled this week as he recovers from surgery for a ruptured appendix.
“Sorry to say that I have to cancel our shows this week. I’m sure you’re thinking, “Turkey overdose, Steve? Gravy boat capsize?” Actually, I’m recovering from surgery for a ruptured appendix,” Colbert said in a statement.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
