Good morning morning.
The great Christmas countdown continues – eight days remaining to get your shopping and decorating and planning and gifting and cooking and running around done. (Nine, if you celebrate the week-long holiday of Kwanza).
Chanukah is officially over, and I am ashamed to say I didn’t light a single candle.
I was out of town for the first half of the holiday, which is only part of the reason I skipped the Festival of Lights this year. To be quite honest, I really just can’t get into a party mood these days. My general Grinchlike tendencies aside, the state of the world is just too sad and fraught right now. I can’t see what there is to celebrate at the moment.
This post is going to be pretty serious, so if you’re lucky enough to be in a lighthearted holiday space, you might want to shut the computer (or tablet, or phone etc.), have an extra cookie and some eggnog or another cup of coffee and come back tomorrow once I’ve (hopefully) gotten all the vitriol out of my system.
This is a tough time of year for people who have lost loved ones. Tragedy hit very close to home last week with the abrupt death of Albany County Legislator Matt Peter. He was just 38 years old, but had already accomplished so much as Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan’s first chief of staff, executive director of the Albany Parking Authority, and all-around good guy.
Matt had suffered – and survived – a nearly fatal heart aneurysm recently, and went back in for a follow-up procedure from which he never recovered. His passing has left a deep hole in the Albany community.
I didn’t know Matt very well, but crossed paths with him many times over the years. (I even interviewed him once for the erstwhile and short-lived podcast that once accompanied this site; we really should revive that).
Reading all the tributes his friends and colleagues have been posting over the past few days, I am sad not only for the pain Matt’s death has caused but also that I will never have the chance to get to know him better and see what more of an impact he would have made on the world. He had that rare combination of talent, intelligence, and a desire to give back.
In a November interview with WAMC, Matt said that his aneurysm “made me realize to a certain extent all time is limited, not to take things for granted and, you know, try to experience as much as possible and follow through with things.”
This is something we all need to hear – especially in this crazy, fast-paced, instant gratification world of ours. Matt, you weren’t here nearly long enough, but you made that time count. You are missed.
I would like to leave things there to honor Matt’s memory, but I think the next item I feel compelled to at least mention briefly is one he would probably approve because it’s not only timely but also – I have fairly confident – has the potential to influence the outcome of the 2024 elections ion a big way. (Matt was nothing if not a voracious political animal).
Today is International Migrants Day, which, according to the UN secretary general, offers an opportunity to “highlight the urgent need for safe migration governance rooted in solidarity, partnership, and respect for human rights.”
Given the current state of affairs related to 1) the immigration reform debate in D.C., and 2) the migrant crisis here in New York and around the nation, it bears remember the significant contributions individuals from outside the U.S. make – and always have – to our economy and culture.
I know this is an unpopular opinion in certain corners. Perhaps it will even lose me readers. Then again, this daily newsletter is free, so what do I have to lose?
There’s a food watch in effect until late tonight for the Capital Region, Upper Hudson Valley, southwestern Connecticut, western Massachusetts and southern Vermont. The rain that started last night will continue and be quite heavy at times. Temperatures will be in the low-to-mid 50s. (New York City will also be impacted)
In the headlines…
An investigation into the killing of three hostages held by Hamas in Gaza has found that the captives were shirtless and waving a white flag as Israel soldiers fired on them.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated after the hostage deaths that he would not end the war until Hamas was destroyed, and protesters again took to the streets on Saturday in Tel Aviv.
The preliminary report Saturday by the Israel Defense Forces, or IDF, said the hostages had managed to evade their captors in the northern Gaza neighborhood of Shijaiyah before they were “mistakenly identified” as they exited a building on Friday.
Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III was traveling in the Middle East for a visit to Israel and three Persian Gulf nations as Biden administration officials push Israel to end its large-scale ground and air campaign in the Gaza Strip within weeks.
Inbar Haiman, an Israeli hostage abducted by Hamas on Oct. 7 from the Supernova music festival, has been confirmed dead.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it has uncovered “the biggest Hamas tunnel” in Gaza, spanning a length of four kilometres (2.5 miles).
An Israeli military sniper shot and killed two women inside the Holy Family Parish in Gaza on Saturday, according to the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem.
Pope Francis lamented that “unarmed civilians are targets for bombs and gunfire” in Gaza, adding: “this happened even inside the Holy Family parish complex, where there are no terrorists, but families, children, people who are sick or disabled, nuns.”
The discussions over the southern border between the US and Mexico show how drastically the politics of immigration have shifted to the right in the United States.
Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle said yesterday they were “encouraged” with the direction the border security talks were going but that the timing of the potential deal remained uncertain.
President Joe Biden was interrupted while speaking with reporters in downtown Wilmington, Del., yesterday when a sedan slammed into a Secret Service vehicle protecting the president’s motorcade, as he was leaving his re-election campaign offices.
Biden had just finished answering a reporter’s question when the crash occurred, appearing to startle the president. Secret Service agents then walked Biden to his waiting SUV, where the first lady was already inside.
In a statement, the Secret Service said “there was no protective interest associated with this event,” meaning the crash was accidental and the driver did not know Biden was at the event.
The Biden campaign late Saturday sharply criticized former President Donald Trump for invoking rhetoric it referred to as “parroting Adolf Hitler” in the wake of remarks in which Trump said immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country.”
Trump said immigrants coming to the U.S. are “poisoning the blood of our country,” adding: “They poison mental institutions and prisons all over the world, not just in South America, not just to three or four countries that we think about, but all over the world.”
GOP presidential candidate Chris Christie blasted Trump for quoting Russian President Vladimir Putin during a campaign rally Saturday night, emphasizing that the former president is only getting “worse.”
Trump compared himself to infamous mob boss Al Capone, noting Capone was indicted once but that the former president now faces four criminal indictments.
Barack Obama is reportedly concerned that Biden won’t be able to stop Trump from returning to the White House in 2024.
Biden’s brother James was secretly recorded by the FBI during a bribery investigation into a Mississippi trial attorney who shelled out $100,000 to his consulting firm in the late 1990s, a report said.
The White House’s answer is a hard no: President Biden will not pardon his son Hunter. But the question isn’t going away, and the issue seems far from settled.
Rudy Giuliani has been ordered to pay nearly $150 million in damages to former Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, whom he defamed following the 2020 presidential election.
Judge Beryl A. Howell of the Federal District Court in Washington had already ruled that Giuliani had defamed the two workers. The jury had been asked to decide only on the amount of the damages.
A US Senate staffer allegedly caught filming himself having sex in a Judiciary Committee hearing room no longer has his job, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Maryland) said on X.
Former Rep. George Santos is threatening to sue late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel and ABC for alleged misuse of his Cameo clips.
Comedian and satirical talk show host Ziwe released a preview of her upcoming interview with Santos, who became the sixth lawmaker to be expelled from Congress earlier this month.
“Tomorrow, one jokester and a national joke sit across from each other in a bombshell interview that’s sure to be explosive,” Ziwe is heard saying in a teaser for the interview posted to her Instagram yesterday.
A key administrator to Gov. Kathy Hochul is trying to torpedo New Jersey First Lady Tammy Murphy’s campaign for US Senate — claiming Tammy failed to help her after she said she was raped by an aide to her husband, Garden State Gov. Phil Murphy.
Hochul signed Angelica’s Law in a bid to protect New York residents from reckless, unlicensed motorists.
New York’s first federally funded high-speed EV charging hub opened Friday, part of a national bid to make highways friendlier for low-emission vehicles and encourage more motorists to transition away from gas-powered vehicles over the next decade.
New York’s governor and top regulators have announced that the state expects to open a dozen new marijuana shops in December now that a court-imposed blockade on processing licenses has been lifted.
Last-minute negotiations are heating up as Hochul considers significant changes, or vetoing, two environmental bills Democratic lawmakers widely supported this session.
Hochul signed a bill that requires correctional facilities to provide food options that meet special religious dietary requirements.
2024 is fifteen days away and Hochul is inviting and encouraging New Yorkers, statewide, to start the new year outside with the 13th annual “First Day Hike.”
New York’s highest court last week gave Democrats a chance to redraw the state’s congressional districts, a major victory as the party tries to win control of the U.S. House next year. It remains to be seen how far they’ll be able to push this advantage.
As 2023 draws to a close, 1,595 incarcerated New Yorkers have asked Hochul to grant them clemency.
Ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who muscled the state’s controversial congestion pricing law through the Legislature in 2019, is now urging officials to put the brakes on the program.
Former Republican candidate for governor Lee Zeldin announced the Dakota Project — a new $5 million joint charity initiative to clothe the homeless and other needy individuals this winter.
Mayor Eric Adams admitted that Democrats “underestimated’’ the impact of the migrant crisis and added that he doesn’t expect the White House to suddenly step up to help the Big Apple in 2024.
Adams said he’s considering tax hikes to address a multi-billion dollar budget gap.
New York City suspended an engineer’s inspection authority after determining that a fundamental error may have led to the partial collapse of a Bronx apartment building last week.
Officials said the inspector had “misdiagnosed” as a “decorative” element a column that was holding up the seven-story building.
Adams said he plans to veto a bill that, if passed, would require police to start reporting “low-level stops” where the person is free to leave.
Adams is pledging to shutter the long-troubled Rikers Island jail complex but recently outlined a number of challenges that could hamper the city from meeting the legally mandated closure deadline of 2027.
The former chief fundraiser for Adams’ campaign has been assigned a job focusing on paperwork since the feds raided her home as part of a probe into his campaign finances, the mayor revealed in a new interview.
The City Council is expected to approve a bill that would make New York the largest American city to ban solitary confinement in city jails in most cases, part of a national campaign to end a practice that critics say amounts to torture. Adams will likely veto.
An MTA enforcement blitz nabbed 44 vehicles owned by persistent toll evaders who owe nearly $1 million worth of unpaid fees and fines, officials said.
The City University of New York is slashing tens of millions of dollars from college budgets across eight of its 25 campuses, potentially gutting course offerings and student services from counseling to record-keeping.
Fifty-one top city Department of Education officials were invited to watch footage of the Oct. 7 atrocities committed by Hamas to better understand the Jewish plight, but none responded or attended.
Susan Zhuang, a Brooklyn Democrat who will be sworn into the City Council in January, has been quietly using artificial intelligence to communicate with the public – including the media.
The small neighborhood on the border of Brooklyn and Queens has a colorful history but an uncertain future because of climate change.
Broadway musicians say they are being preyed upon by violent criminals at the stage door of the beloved “The Lion King” musical and other shows.
Popular New York news anchor Kaity Tong, 76, has been diagnosed with Stage 1 lung cancer, she said on Instagram.
The Windham Mountain Club, with $200,000 memberships, is looking to seize on the potential of luring the wealthy from New York City. Locals are not happy.
Fairfield Inn by Marriott Albany University Area became Hotel Luna on Friday, as a real estate development company plans to convert the hotel into student apartments next year.
COVID-19 hospitalizations are rising rapidly in the North Country compared with the rest of the state where the respiratory disease is up, but the curve resembles what a flu season looked like before the pandemic.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
