Good morning, it’s Wednesday. And just like that, a whole new month is upon us. Where does the time go?
There were a lot of good options for today’s post. So hard to choose. But, then again, life is all about choices.
Speaking of choices, did you ever see the movie “Sliding Doors“?
While I’m not a huge Gwyneth Paltrow fan, (the whole “pay me a lot of money for candles that smell like my nether regions” thing was the last straw for me), I do recall liking this movie back in the late 1990s.
The concept is nothing new – basically that your whole life can be changed by a single action – in this case, catching, or missing, a train. Truth be told, I usually find this incredibly anxiety producing, as I’m not great at making big choices to begin with. I tend to over analyze and over agonize.
But in my calmer moments, it is something I ponder – what would like have been like if I had done x instead of y?
Anyway, this is a huge digression and not the actual point of today’s post, which is, in fact, All Saints Day, which I chose over World Vegan Day, National Authors Day, Day of the Dead, (though that’s definitely related, in my mind), AND Black Entrepreneurs Day. Like I said, a lot going on. Tough competition for space.
All Saints Day actually goes by a lot of other names – All Hallows Day, the Solemnity of All Saints, and my favorite, Hallowmas – just to name a few. Regardless of what you call it, it’s a Christian holiday celebrated in honor of all of the church’s saints – both known and unknown – who have made it to heaven.
Ostensibly, only God knows for sure who has made it to sainthood. If you’re Catholic, though, the focus is on those known saints who have been canonized by the church.
There are a bunch of roots to this day, though it’s hard to pinpoint exactly because it has been celebrated on various different dates during various different eras.
Originally, All Saints Day was observed on May 13 – a practice formally started by Pope Boniface IV in 609 AD when he dedicated the Pantheon in Rome as a church in honor of the Virgin Mary and all martyrs. In 837, Pope Gregory IV moved the observance of this day to its current date – Nov. 1 – and made it a church-wide celebration.
Different countries have different All Saints Day traditions. In some – like France and Germany – people get to take the day off from work and businesses are closed. Elsewhere, like in the Philippines, this day is about honoring both saints AND the dead who haven’t made it quite that far, usually through offerings of prayers, flowers, and food.
Here in the U.S., All Saints Day is a Holy Day of Obligation for Catholics, which means you’re supposed to attend mass. Tomorrow, by the way, is All Souls’ Day, but I think I’m going to give religious topics a break for the time being, so if you want to engage in a little independent reading, click here or here.
We’re got a sort of crummy start to the day, with showers in the forecast, though there might be some sun in the afternoon. (At least it’s not snow in this neck of the woods; I can’t say the same for those in the Adirondacks and other mountains areas). Temperatures will be in the mid-40s.
In the headlines…
Some Muslim and Arab American groups are threatening to withhold donations and votes towards President Joe Biden’s 2024 reelection unless he takes immediate steps to secure a Gaza ceasefire.
Arab American support for Biden has fallen in the wake of his response to the latest bout of violence between Israel and Hamas, a new poll from the Arab American Institute (AAI) shows.
A a growing number of swing-state Muslim American and Arab American leaders are warning Biden that he is losing support from their communities in ways that could cost him in next year’s election.
Biden is facing increasingly vocal opposition from a small group inside his own party on what they suggest is his bias toward Israel and against Palestinians following the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel.
In his first major move, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is using the bipartisan goal of providing aid to Israel to pick a fight with Biden over his signature achievement.
By splitting money for Israel’s war effort from aid to Ukraine and coupling it with spending cuts, Johnson has put the House on a collision course with the Senate and Biden.
Israel said it targeted Hamas militants yesterday in northern Gaza, and Hamas and hospital officials said the airstrikes killed and wounded many and leveled part of the Jabaliya neighborhood.
Communication has again been cut in Gaza, two providers said early this morning, according to two telecoms companies, as Israel maintains its bombardment and expanded ground operation in the coastal enclave.
Some 80 ambulances from Egypt arrived at the Rafah border with Gaza this morning to receive injured Palestinian patients – be the first known Palestinians allowed out of Gaza since the war began more than three weeks ago.
The F.B.I. director warned that the Israel-Hamas war had raised the potential for an attack against Americans to a new level and escalated threats against Jews and Muslims in the United States.
Saudi Arabia assured the Biden administration that the kingdom is still interested in pursuing an agreement that would normalize relations with Israel after the war in Gaza ends, White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) indicated that the impeachment inquiry he’s spearheading against Biden is in the “downhill phase” as he looks to “wrap it up as soon as possible.”
Biden will meet with President Xi Jinping of China next month during an economic summit in San Francisco, the White House said, marking a significant diplomatic moment between two great world powers whose relationship has grown increasingly hostile.
China has not yet confirmed that Xi will come, but the Biden administration is hoping for “constructive talks” between the two leaders.
Biden is unlikely to attend a meeting of world leaders in Dubai later this month on climate change.
Biden is poised to nominate Kurt Campbell, a veteran Asia policy official, to be deputy secretary of state, in a move that will catapult the influential White House Indo-Pacific tsar to be the second-ranking diplomat in the US.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III and Secretary of State Antony Blinken made the case during testimony before the Senate Appropriations Committee for funding to aid two democracies fighting for survival: Israel and Ukraine.
“If we start to pull off pieces of this package,” Blinken said, “they’ll see that and know we are playing whack a mole while they cooperate increasingly and pose an ever greater threat to our security and that of our allies and partners.”
Protesters calling for a ceasefire in Gaza repeatedly interrupted Blinken’s testimony, derailing proceedings at least five times and staggering their interjections throughout his opening statement.
The demonstrators called for a “cease-fire now” and accused the U.S. of supporting a “massacre” in Gaza, which has been under bombardment from Israel since Hamas launched a surprise attack on the nation in early October.
Protesters from an organization called CODEPINK also disrupted comments from Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin. Multiple protestors were arrested for their actions.
When Donald Trump tried to buy the Buffalo Bills in 2014, investment bankers doubted the NFL would allow it but encouraged him to stay in the running, according to internal emails aired Tuesday at the former president’s civil fraud trial.
Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie predicted that Trump will be convicted in one of his legal cases, claiming “it’s over” for Trump.
Christie, in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” said Trump “didn’t finish the job” in his first term as president. If Trump is reelected, Christie has doubts as to whether he could do much more surrounded by a “clowns and rogues gallery.”
Donald Trump Jr. is scheduled to testify today about his role in creating the family business’s financial statements, which New York’s AG says were inflated. Eric Trump is expected to follow, and the former president and Ivanka Trump are likely to testify next week.
State resources will be deployed to protect New Yorkers following a recent increase in hate crimes, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced.
New York State has “zero tolerance” for hate, Hochul said, as she outlined new anti-hate police investments, appealing to New Yorkers’ sense of shared community and seeking to soothe Jewish and Muslim New Yorkers who have been rattled by threats.
The state will also begin a review of the antisemitism and anti-discrimination policies in New York City’s public university system, while the State Police will expand its monitoring of social media to identify online threats on college campuses.
“Let me restate in the strongest of words,” Hochul said in a 10-minute speech. “Every single New Yorker has a right to feel safe and to be safe as they go about their daily lives and we must accept nothing less.”
Jonathan Lippman, a former Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals will review the “policies and procedures related to antisemitism and discrimination” at CUNY.
A 21-year-old student was arrested for making “horrendous” anti-Jewish death threats at Cornell University that put the Ivy League campus on high alert over the weekend.
Patrick Dai, a junior majoring in engineering at the prestigious university, was named in a federal complaint charging him with posting threats to kill or injure another using interstate communications — which could land him in jail for up to five years.
Dai, 21, suffers from such “severe depression” that his mother worried he was on the brink of suicide just moments before his arrest.
New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman’s calls for Israel to stand down on Gaza may fuel a perilous primary challenge for one of the left’s brightest stars. George Latimer, the Westchester County executive, has begun taking steps toward entering the race.
In the weeks since Hamas attacked Israel, fliers depicting the hostages have become ubiquitous. But in cities and on college campuses across the globe, anti-Israel protesters have removed them.
More than 200 Columbia University faculty said they were “appalled by the spate of antisemitic incidents” on the Manhattan campus, a day after scores of their colleagues signed a letter defending students who supported Hamas’ brutal Oct. 7 terror attack.
Two Ivy League schools struggling to deal with antisemitism are getting at least $200 million from New York taxpayers — leading some to demand the gravy train end if the universities don’t address the burgeoning on-campus crisis.
Mayor Eric Adams is criticizing university presidents for not doing enough to improve understanding between students, as emotions run hot on campus in response to ongoing violence between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
A Manhattan grand jury indicted a man on charges that he vandalized three synagogues and a Jewish volunteer ambulance, or hatzolah, on the Upper East Side of Manhattan over the summer.
Hochul’s top budget aide is recommending curbing support for migrants to a handful of key areas as the influx of people entering New York has added to the state’s financial “headwinds”, though the budget gap is estimated to be lower than initially thought.
School districts in New York are being affected by a nationwide shortage of milk carton material.
Department of Correction Commissioner Louis Molina is stepping down from his post to become a public safety adviser to Adams, City Hall announced — weeks after the embattled jails boss denied rumors that he was about to resign.
Molina had been head of the Correction Department since 2022 but failed to improve conditions at the perennially troubled jails.
City Hall described the move as a promotion, but said it doesn’t come with a raise for Molina who currently makes $243,000 a year. He will report to Deputy Mayor of Public Safety Philip Banks in the new role, as he did at his old job.
As migrants continue to pour into New York City at a rapid rate, Adams says “everything is on the table” to mitigate the crisis.
Adams insisted that his administration is not trying to “mislead” or “harm” migrants in New York City by offering them free tickets out of the city.
Top City Hall adviser Tim Pearson continues to work in his regular role while facing a Department of Investigation probe into a violent altercation in which he was recently involved at a Manhattan migrant shelter, Adams said.
Brooklyn Democratic Party boss Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn threw her own party’s candidate under the bus over “chilling allegations” by an autistic former aide who claimed he was mistreated while working with him.
A man accused of beating a 66-year-old Sikh man to death after a minor car crash this month was motivated by “rage inflamed by hate,” the Queens district attorney said while announcing that the killing was now being prosecuted as a hate crime.
Sixty years after a federal law mandated equal pay for equal work, women who live in New York City, one of the world’s leading economic hubs, still earn less than men across all occupations, from lawyers and accountants to child care workers.
A pair of landlords on Manhattan’s Upper West Side are suing Airbnb and two tenants for flouting new city restrictions on home sharing — with the building owners claiming they are being exposed to stiff fines.
Eight straight weekends of rain have pushed New York’s pick-your-own orchards toward financial disaster.
Activist Robert Schulz called on New York’s judicial compensation commission to withhold any increases in salaries for judges until an investigation is conducted into his failed lawsuit challenging the state over funding of the Buffalo Bill’s new stadium.
A group of parents of La Salle Institute high school senior football players filed a lawsuit last week in a last-ditch attempt to force Section II to allow the team to play in the playoffs.
The $5.7 million new sidewalk and bike lanes project on Union Avenue near Saratoga Race Course is complete.
The leader of the city’s economic development arm, Sarah Reginelli, with over a decade at Capitalize Albany Corporation, plans to resign next month. Capitalize Albany’s chair, Michael Castellana, is retiring from his role, but will continue to serve on the board.
The completion of a temporary bridge over Route 85 in Bethlehem will take at least another week.
Photo credit: George Fazio
