Good morning, it’s Monday. It’s the fifth night of Chanukah. There are 14 days until Christmas (not counting today), and 15 days until Kwanza. The present purchasing clock is ticking, just saying.
You know what’s weird? Christmas lights in Florida. I know this is a Northeast bias, but it just feels completely incongruous to see sparkly displays, inflatable Santas and reindeer and other holiday ephemera when it’s 80-plus degrees out and there’s not a speck of snow to be seen.
As an aside, I am not at all sorry that I’m not around to experience the rain/snow storm hitting the Capital Region at the moment, nor am I missing 40-degree temperatures. I just don’t understand how people get into the Christmas spirit when they’re wearing flip flops, sunglasses, and t-shirts.
Another aside: People in Florida seem to think that anything under 70 degrees is freezing. I’m seeing sweaters and jackets on display at local stores. You can always tell the snowbirds from the year-rounders because the former are wearing a lot less clothing while the latter have hats on when the sun go down.
The buying frenzy doesn’t seem to have hit the Golden State with quite the same intensity as back home. Maybe the cold and snow brings an added urgency to the buying experience? People are out and about, sure, and the shopping carts are indeed filled to the brim. The lines are just a little less insane.
Maybe that’s because more people are shopping online. Though e-commerce numbers are certainly down from their pandemic-era heights, some consumers (including me) prefer the ease of pointing and clicking and getting something delivered – not always, mind you, but in many cases, it’s just a hell of a lot more convenient.
Either way, consumers ARE indeed spending this holiday season – albeit maybe a tad bit less than they did last year.
The interwebs inform me that today is Green Monday. The phrase refers in part to the fact that the second Monday in December is one of the retail industry’s busiest shopping days – a day many shoppers wake up and realize “Oh, crap, I need gifts!” and rush to purchase last-minute holiday gifts and take advantage of seasonal deals.
With 10 days remaining until Christmas, this is typically – thought not always – the date many retailers flag for consumers as the cutoff to guarantee shipping of items to arrive in time for the holiday. Purchases made after the fact often aren’t 100 percent certain to get under the tree or in the stocking by Christmas morning.
Apparently “Green Monday” was first coined by eBay in 2007 when the site saw that it experienced more traffic and sales than at any other time of the year.
“Green” is also supposed to mean that it’s more environmentally friendly to shop online than to get into your car and go to a big box store. Though, given all the excess packaging involved in online shopping – not to mention the fact that you could bring your own bag and walk to an independently owned business – this is a pretty dubious claim.
One thing you’re not seeing up north right now is a whole lot of green. Quite the contrary, in fact.
A winter storm advisory is in effect through 1 p.m. today for the Capital Region, the central and eastern Mohawk Valley, and the Lake George/Saratoga region with gusts of wind up to 35 mph and an accumulation of snow anywhere from three to five inches.
Roads will be slippery, so take some extra time to get to your destination this morning. Temperatures will rise into the low 40s.
A flood watch is also in effect through 7 p.m. tonight, and that reaches into the Hudson Valley and across into Western Massachusetts, and also includes parts of northwestern Connecticut and southern Vermont.
In the headlines…
The Biden administration is pushing through an emergency arms sale of about 14,000 tanks shells to Israel, the State Department announced Saturday, in a move that bypasses the standard congressional approval process.
The Israel Defense Forces has issued what it calls “an urgent appeal” for civilians to leave the center and other neighborhoods in the southern city of Khan Younis.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gambled that a steady flow of money from the Qatari government would maintain peace in Gaza, the eventual launching point of the Oct. 7 attacks, and keep Hamas focused on governing, not fighting.
As Israel’s war with Hamas enters its third month, Netanyahu’s government faces mounting international pressure to wind down its campaign, which has had a high death toll and an unclear exit strategy.
Hamas threatened to kill all of its remaining hostages if demands such as more aid for Gaza and prisoner exchanges were not met, after suffering repeated losses in its battle with Israel.
Donald Trump, in an about-face yesterday, announced he won’t be testifying in his own defense at the New York civil fraud trial that threatens his real estate empire.
A federal appeals court Friday mostly upheld a partial gag order barring Trump from targeting witnesses in his election interference case.
“I have already testified to everything & have nothing more to say other than this is a complete & total election interference (Biden campaign!) witch hunt that will do nothing but keep businesses out of New York,” Trump said in an all-caps post on Truth Social.
Trump and his allies are not doing much to reassure those worried about his autocratic instincts. If anything, they seem to be leaning into the predictions.
There will be no good news — only shades of bad — for Rudy Giuliani when he appears in court today for a trial to determine how much he will have to pay two Georgia election workers he lied about after the 2020 presidential race.
The president of the University of Pennsylvania, M. Elizabeth Magill, resigned on Saturday, four days after she appeared before Congress and appeared to evade the question of whether students who called for the genocide of Jews should be punished.
“One down. Two to go,” said North Country Rep. Elise Stefanik, the House GOP conference chair who grilled Magill and the presidents of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology during the tense hearing last week.
One day after the resignations of their university president and chairman, UPenn students and professors reflected on the continuing division at the school.
Claudine Gay, Harvard’s president, faced rising pressure to resign after her answers to questions about antisemitism. Some faculty members signed a petition supporting her.
For Republicans, the rise of antisemitic speech and the timid responses of some academic leaders presented a long-sought opportunity to flip the political script and cast liberals or their institutions as hateful and intolerant.
George Washington University’s medical school reportedly hosted a faculty panel last week that declared Hamas terrorists have a “right of resistance” against Israel.
Gov. Kathy Hochul warned state colleges and universities of “aggressive enforcement action” if discrimination laws are violated, as pressure mounts on schools across the country to deal with antisemitism on campus in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war.
Hochul vetoed a bill that would have required organizations to disclose what they’re spending — and which lobbyists they’re hiring — when they advocate for or against a gubernatorial nominee.
Tom Suozzi said voters in northeast Queens and Nassau County deserve a fellow suburbanite to fight for their way of life as he made the first official campaign stop in his quest to win back his old seat after ex-Rep. George Santos’ expulsion from Congress.
Suozzi said that his campaign will address the rising cost of living; immigration; the threats posed by climate change; and fears driven by the wars in Ukraine and between Israel and Hamas.
If New York Republicans had hoped to quickly and cleanly turn the page on the embarrassing saga of Santos, the week since his expulsion from Congress has not exactly gone as planned.
Jewish activists are urging the Republican Party to nominate Nassau County legislator Mazi Pilip — a former Israeli paratrooper — to run to replace Santos in the House of Representatives, sources familiar with the selection process said.
Santos is making so much dough on Cameo that he picked up a pizza tab for his political pals – including Rep. Lauren Boebert – on Saturday night.
State lawmakers will unveil legislation tomorrow that would eliminate enormous property tax breaks for Columbia University and New York University, which have expanded to become among New York City’s top 10 largest private property owners.
The Democratic Assembly Campaign Committee (DACC) and Speaker Carl Heastie are set to hold a fundraiser at the Renaissance Albany Hotel, just down the hill from the state Capitol building on Jan. 8 — the night before the State of the State address.
A leading advocate for yeshivas has accused New York education officials of discriminating against Jewish students by restricting their ability to be instructed in Hebrew — while allowing others to be taught in languages other than English.
One of Hochul’s closest friends, Joan Kesner, was the subject of three toxic workplace complaints while working under the governor. Before Kesner was cleared by Hochul’s administration, witnesses went uninterviewed and questions unasked.
A majority of New York City voters believe Mayor Eric Adams should resign if he is indicted in an FBI probe targeting his 2021 campaign, according to a new poll released Saturday.
And if Adams were to leave office early, ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo — who resigned two years ago amid a slew of sexual harassment allegations — would be the top choice to replace him, according to political consulting firm Slingshot Strategies’ survey.
Adams is facing stronger pushback from the City Council and progressives, and prominent Democrats in New York are considering running for mayor.
The City Council says the city can stave off some of Adams’ proposed cuts in municipal services — in which libraries, sanitation and public safety services are on the chopping block — with $1.2 billion in additional revenue it projects in this year’s city budget.
The Council’s report estimates the city will bring in $1.2 billion more in tax revenue this fiscal year than the mayor’s office projected last month, when Adams ordered a 20% reduction in spending.
New York City is grappling with a new surge of thousands of migrants a week as human smugglers flood a remote Arizona town with asylum-seekers and border patrol is stretched dangerously thin.
Since early October, an ecosystem of barbers, vendors and chefs has sprung up outside one of the city’s largest migrant shelters at Randall’s Island Athletic Field 83.
With winter coming, many migrants reached new lows and levels of desperation and have decided that a one-way ticket out of the Big Apple is their best shot at a brighter future.
The city Department of Education is adding a new position to its top-heavy bureaucracy despite Chancellor David Banks’ vow to cut the central budget to spare schools from the ax.
The head of a business group representing the Broadway Theater District and Times Square gave a scathing review to the state’s plan to impose a $15 “congestion” toll to enter the Midtown business district, claiming it will hinder the growth of the tourist mecca.
The New York affiliate of the ACLU is speaking out against the organization’s decision to represent the National Rifle Association in a Supreme Court case that tests whether the state violated the gun-rights group’s free-speech protections.
The ACLU announced its attorneys will officially take on the NRA’s case, which is pending before the nation’s top court and centers on whether a former high-ranking New York state official took steps to effectively blacklist the NRA within the finance industry.
Communities across the U.S. are fueling a secondary arms market by giving seized and surrendered guns to disposal services that destroy one part and resell the rest.
Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz announced that he will not seek the Democratic nomination for New York’s 26th Congressional District, currently represented by Democratic Rep. Brian Higgins, who is retiring.
North Country Republican Sen. Mark Walzyk, a captain in the U.S. Army Reserve, announced through a letter to his constituents that he is being deployed to Kuwait for nine months.
Capital Region authorities are examining whether a hate crime was committed by Mufid Fawaz Alkhader when he allegedly fired two rounds from a shotgun on the grounds of a synagogue and made remarks to police such as “free Palestine” during the incident.
The Public Employees Federation filed a lawsuit last week against the state’s Office of Employee Relations for deeming employees as management without going through the legal classification process, the union said.
A potential flaw in the legislation that created New York’s Child Victims Act has led to legal turmoil in hundreds of cases filed by alleged sexual abuse victims in the Court of Claims.
The New York State Museum was evacuated Saturday afternoon and State Police with K-9 units swept the facility to investigate a threat about an explosive device.
Police said a water main break closed the I-787 ramp to Empire State Plaza starting around 9:00 a.m. yesterday.
The Tri-City ValleyCats will name longtime independent-league manager Greg Tagert as their new manager today.
Albany first responders experienced a different kind of heat Saturday as they crowded around the two griddles in Pearl Street Diner’s kitchen.
Alex Jones’ Twitter account was restored yesterday, more than five years after he was banned.
Elon Musk ran a poll on X (formerly Twitter) on Saturday night that asked simply: “Reinstate Alex Jones on this platform?” More than 70% of respondents voted yes.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
