Good morning, it’s Friday.
I feel like I’m running in a dead sprint, hurtling toward the end of the year. And I’ve got to admit, even though I am a type-A person and really groove off of being busy, I am bone weary at this point.
Although this is against type, I am really looking forward to that gray area between Christmas and New Year’s when nothing much gets done and we all get to sleep in and recharge. Usually, I am prone to being very annoyed during this weird betwixt and between time because I like to be productive, but this year I need the break.
And I guess that’s a good segue into reminding everyone that there will be no Rise and Shine from Dec. 25 through Jan. 1, 2024. Don’t worry, I’ll remind you of that when we get a little closer to down time.
Since we’ve been doing all things holiday related of late, I’m going to stick with the program for today, which is Immaculate Conception Day (AKA Día de la Inmaculada Concepción) – a Roman Catholic holiday that commemorates (as I’m sure you’ve probably guessed) the Virgin Mary’s immaculate conception.
I never really knew until i started doing some Googling to write this post, WHAT exactly, the immaculate conception refers to.
I’m still a little confused, but after reading a number of treatises on the subject, I believe it means that Mary herself was born free from original sin. As such, both her birth and the birth of her son, Jesus Christ, were miraculous.
I have now read several articles that complicated things further as to whether or not Mary ever engaged in sexual intercourse. There’s some suggestion that she and Joseph consummated their marriage after Jesus was born.
Further complicating matters is the fact that the perpetual virginity of Mary, which holds that she was a virgin before, during, and after the birth of Christ, is rejected by most Protestants, who believe she bore children other than Jesus.
As a Jew, I’m not on terribly sound footing here, so I think I’m just going to leave these links where they are and wait for someone more in the know to weigh in and correct me.
The Day of Immaculate Conception is a day of holy obligation (days that celebrate an important mystery of the Catholic faith) – one of six in the U.S. (the number varies from country to country).
Along with Sundays, these are feast days on which a practicing Catholic who is above the age of reason (usually around seven) and of good health is obligated to participate in Mass.
Skies will be cloudy today and temperatures will be in the balmy low 40s. The weekend is going to be unusually warm, with temperatures rising into the high 40s tomorrow and the low 50s on Sunday, though it’s going to rain that day.
In the headlines…
House Republicans released the text of a resolution that would authorize their impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.
The panel will mark up a resolution on Tuesday, Dec. 12 to direct the House Oversight, Judiciary and Ways and Means committees to continue their work investigating Biden.
Formalizing the impeachment investigation, which has been underway for months, could throw more legal weight behind subpoenas as Republicans on the House Oversight, Ways and Means, and Judiciary Committees seek documents and testimony.
Biden is sending a clear message to Democratic negotiators on Capitol Hill that he is open to striking a compromise with Republicans on border security in order to get talks on funding for Ukraine back on track.
Biden faces difficult choices about how far to go in giving in to conservative demands that he choke off the number of migrants admitted to the United States.
United Nations officials say there are no safe places in Gaza nearly a week after Israel widened its offensive into the southern half of the territory.
Relief workers in southern Gaza were awaiting additional fuel deliveries and the opening of a second border inspection point for shipments of critical supplies, after a dire warning from a top U.N. humanitarian official.
The Israeli military said that it had apprehended hundreds of people suspected of terrorism, including wanted Hamas operatives, across the Gaza Strip in a single day, and that many had surrendered and been transferred to Israel for further questioning.
Hundreds of people gathered in Columbus Circle in Manhattan yesterday evening, the first night of Hanukkah, to light candles for the holiday and to call for a cease-fire in Gaza.
More than 500 staffers at over 140 Jewish organizations across the country signed on to an open letter to Biden, calling for a cease-fire, the return of all hostages and a lasting peace for both Israelis and Palestinians.
A group of more than 40 interns at the White House also signed a letter calling for a permanent ceasefire, though they disclosed the offices where they work and not their names.
Harvard, M.I.T. and the University of Pennsylvania yesterday faced threats from donors, demands that their presidents resign and a congressional investigation as repercussions mounted over the universities’ responses to antisemitism on campus.
Rep. Elise Stefanik, the No. 4 House Republican and a Harvard alum with a fraught relationship with her alma mater, had a confrontation over campus responses to antisemitism that resonated across the political spectrum.
Hunter Biden, the president’s son, has been charged with nine counts of tax-related crimes over his alleged failure to pay $1.4m he owes to the government.
The new charges — three felonies and six misdemeanors — are in addition to federal firearms charges in Delaware alleging Hunter Biden broke laws against drug users having guns in 2018.
According to the special counsel’s team, Hunter Biden “engaged in a four-year scheme to not pay at least $1.4 million” in taxes that he owed from 2016 through 2019.
The Justice Department charged President Biden’s son after a long-running and wide-ranging investigation with substantial political repercussions.
President Biden is pushing to allow the Indigenous nation that invented lacrosse to play under its own flag when the sport returns to the Olympics in 2028.
Biden’s position, announced this week at the White House Tribal Nations Summit, is a request for the International Olympic Committee to allow the Haudenosaunee Nationals to compete as its own team at the Los Angeles Games.
Biden and First Lady Jill Biden plan this weekend to attend a fundraiser hosted by Hollywood elites that is likely to make L.A.’s notoriously bad traffic even worse.
The president and his team have waved away Democrats’ worries about his bid for another term. But this week, he has drawn new attention to the question of what is best for the party.
Lawyers for former President Donald Trump asked a federal judge to put the proceedings on hold in the case charging him with seeking to overturn the 2020 election as they appeal her recent ruling that he is not immune from prosecution.
Trump attended the trial yesterday in the $250 million civil fraud lawsuit against him in New York and watched intently as an accounting expert for his defense said the case against him and his company did not have any merit.
Trump renewed his complaints that the case is baseless and heaped praise on an accounting professor’s testimony that backed him up.
Charles Barkley, the former basketball star turned sports commentator and CNN host, called supporters of Trump “a small little group of nutty people” this week.
Trump’s name should be excluded from New York’s ballot in next year’s presidential primary and general election for his alleged incitement of the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, a group of state senators urged election officials.
ABC News announced that it will host the sixth GOP debate on Jan. 18 in Manchester, N.H, set to take place just days before a CNN event at the same location.
A Texas judge granted a request to allow an abortion despite the state’s strict bans, ruling in the case of a pregnant woman whose fetus was diagnosed with a fatal condition.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said any doctor who performs an abortion in Texas will be prosecuted, even if a woman is granted a court exception to the state’s strict abortion ban.
Rep. Jamaal Bowman was censured by his fellow lawmakers for pulling a fire alarm on Capitol Hill during a dramatic vote last fall.
The progressive Democrat, who picked up a potentially serious primary challenge Tuesday, was rebuked by his colleagues by a mostly party-line 214-191 vote.
Censure amounts to a significant rebuke of a member of Congress, though it does not carry an explicit penalty beyond a public admonition of a lawmaker and is not as severe as expulsion.
Shots were fired on the premises of Temple Israel in Albany yesterday, the first night of Hanukkah, Gov. Kathy Hochul said.
No one was injured during the incident at the Temple Israel around 2:27 p.m. and the suspect, only described as a 28-year-old local man, was quickly arrested the governor said.
Albany Police Chief Eric Hawkins said a witness confronted the suspect after the shooting and the suspect yelled “free Palestine.” The suspect was arrested after the incident.
Hochul broke ground on the Syracuse Science, Technology, Arts and Math High School, which s set to open in 2025 with a $71 million commitment by the state.
The $74 Million project aims to prepare students and the region for the growing technology manufacturing industry in anticipation of Micron’s $100 billion investment.
New York Democrats have officially nominated former Long Island Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi for the special election for his old seat, recently vacated by the scandal-ridden Republican George Santos.
Suozzi’s bid received the backing of Queens Rep. Greg Meeks and Jay Jacobs, the chair of both the Nassau County Democrats and the statewide party, who endorsed him in a joint statement.
“Suozzi “has a proven record of fighting for his constituents, fighting to safeguard our suburban way of life here on Long Island and Queens and always advocating for sensible solutions to the real challenges affecting every day average Americans,” they said.
Anna Kaplan, a former state senator, then endorsed Suozzi for the special election, saying: “We need to start 2024 off right, and that means electing Tom Suozzi to flip this seat and get Democrats closer to the majority.”
Mayor Eric Adams met yesterday with congressional leaders and Biden administration officials to discuss his city’s growing population of migrants.
It was the mayor’s first trip to D.C. since he cut his trip short last month when federal agents raided the home of his top fundraiser in their investigation into his 2021 mayoral campaign.
Adams said that New Yorkers “need help” with the sanctuary city’s migrant crisis and are “angry” at the federal government as he traveled to Washington D.C. to meet with congressional leaders and appeal for more federal aid.
A donor to Adams’ 2021 mayoral campaign said their boss reimbursed them for a contribution recorded at an event at the center of the federal probe into whether the campaign conspired with the Turkish government to accept unlawful foreign donations.
A former New York City police officer confessed to helping a man who prosecutors said was her lover, the leader of a Bronx gang called the Shooting Boys, flee a homicide investigation and escape to the Dominican Republic.
New York’s Bellevue Hospital performs thousands of lucrative surgeries weight loss a year, even on Rikers Island prisoners and other inappropriate patients.
A newly unveiled plan for the Creedmoor campus in eastern Queens seeks to bring 2,800 housing units alongside community amenities to the underutilized plot of land.
Skaters at the Empire State Plaza Ice Rink starting tomorrow will be able to warm up with food and beverages courtesy of a PDT Catering truck that will be there every Saturday.
The state’s second-highest court unanimously affirmed a lower court decision requiring the Cambridge Central School District’s Board of Education in Washington County to remove the school’s longtime nickname and mascot of “Indians.”
The owners of Crossgates Mall were able to extend the mortgage loan on the mall for five more years.
A judge ruled late last month that the Coeymans Planning Board erred in denying Long Energy the ability to build a terminal to distribute propane in the town.
The proposed Golden Hill affordable housing development on the disused site of a former jail in Kingston received a major boost in the form of a $15 million Homeless Housing Assistance Program grant from the state, officials announced.
