Good Thursday morning. Happy Chanukah for all those who celebrate the Festival of Lights!
To be honest, there’s a few things going on today, and so I’m not going to be spending a huge amount of time on Chanukah since, as we’ve discussed in the past, it’s sort of a minor holiday as Jewish holidays go.
It does not, for example, require abstaining for work as other Jewish holidays do (Shabbat, which is weekly, most notably; Yom Kippur, Rosh Hashanah etc.) I saw it referred to by one Jewish scholar as a “post-Biblical” holiday, which means it has no roots in scripture.
While Chanukah, the story of which is told in the Book of the Maccabees, is meaningful and does have a place of importance in Jewish life (especially for kids), it really shouldn’t be compared to Christmas, though this is so often the case due to the proximity of the two holidays, because the latter has a very significant religious meaning while the former does not.
Nevertheless, Chanukah (or Hanukah, or Hanukkah, depending on your spelling preference), which calls for lighting the menorah over a period of eight days, is one of the most widely observed Jewish rituals. And lighting the menorah is indeed considered a mitzvah and a recognition of the miracles that G-d regularly performs on our behalf.
It also gives us an opportunity to celebrate with friends and family, play hyper-competitive games of dreidel, and eat traditional foods like latkes and sufganiot. (Yes, we do a lot of food fried in oil during this holiday – oil being the through-line for the whole experience).
There’s really no good segue into the other important observance today, so I’m just going to put it here: It’s National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day.
On this day in 1941, Japanese military members launched a surprise attack on the U.S. Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
Recall that at that point in WWII, the U.S. hadn’t yet formally entered the fray, but was supporting and supplying Great Britain in its fight against the Nazis, while also pressuring Japan to halt its military expansion in Asia and the Pacific.
The deadly attack forced America’s hand, pushing the country into an engagement it had heretofore been desperately trying to stay out of.
In a message to Congress the next day, President Franklin Roosevelt declared that Dec. 7 was a date that would “live in infamy,” adding: “No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory.”
As an aside, while “day of infamy” has become a catchphrase to describe Pearl Harbor, those weren’t the words President Roosevelt originally intended to use.
I’m reading back over this and the juxtaposition of happy and somber is a little jarring – even for me. But it also helps to remember that life is a mix of the sublime and the terrible. If we didn’t have the latter, we perhaps couldn’t fully appreciate the former when we’re lucky enough to have it come our way.
Chag Sameach to all those who celebrate. For the rest of you: Have a great day, hopefully erring more on the side of happiness.
The flurries that we saw on and off, that I sort of didn’t mind because it covered all the drabness and made things look seasonally appropriate for a hot second, appear to be over. Today will be cold, with highs in the mid-30s. Skies will be cloudy.
In the headlines…
Three people were killed in a shooting on the campus of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas yesterday afternoon, according to multiple reports. The suspected attacker was later found dead, Vegas police confirmed at a press conference.
Sheriff Kevin McMahill of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said the police knew the gunman’s identity but would not release it until later. He did not provide any information about a motive.
President Joe Biden urged the GOP to help take action on gun control after shootings in Texas and Nevada over the last two days.
“For all the action we have taken since I’ve been President, the epidemic of gun violence we face demands that we do even more. But we cannot do more without Congress,” Biden said in remarks.
The Biden administration announced it would forgive an additional $4.8 billion in student loan debt for nearly 80,400 borrowers.
“Before (Biden) took office, it was virtually impossible for eligible borrowers to access the student debt relief they rightfully earned,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said. “This level of debt relief is unparalleled and we have no intention of slowing down.”
Ex-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is resigning from Congress and won’t seek reelection next year, punctuating a historic Capitol Hill career after 15 rounds of voting to become speaker in January and getting ousted 10 months later by a conservative rebellion.
McCarthy wrote in the WSJ: “I will continue to recruit our country’s best and brightest to run for elected office. The Republican Party is expanding every day, and I am committed to lending my experience to support the next generation of leaders.”
McCarthy’s early exit, while not unexpected, creates a headache for his successor, Speaker Mike Johnson, who is struggling to run the House with a slim and dwindling majority.
Attorney General Merrick B. Garland acknowledged for the first time that the Justice Department was investigating “the murder of more than 30 Americans” and the abduction of U.S. citizens by Hamas fighters during the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
The Israeli military has released a photo of 11 senior Hamas military leaders gathered in a tunnel beneath Gaza and said that five of them had been killed.
Hours after Biden called on Congress to urgently approve a stalled package of aid to Ukraine, Republicans blocked a key Senate procedural vote over demands for new restrictions to bolster U.S. border security.
The failed vote highlighted waning support in the United States for continuing to fund Ukraine’s war effort at a perilous time in the conflict, with Kyiv’s counteroffensive failing to meet its objectives and Russia’s forces on the offensive.
While the bill faltered over an unrelated immigration policy dispute, the resistance it has met in Congress reflects a dwindling appetite among Republicans for backing Ukraine, as polls show that Americans are losing interest in providing financial assistance.
The Biden administration delayed a decision about whether it would ban menthol cigarettes amid intense lobbying from tobacco companies, convenience stores and industry-backed groups that contend that billions of dollars in sales and jobs will be lost.
Nikki Haley clashed repeatedly with Ron DeSantis last night in the fourth Republican presidential debate, facing her most sustained scrutiny of the race as the two leading candidates for second place tussled in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
During the debate, DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy relentlessly attacked Haley, while she tried to fight back with the help of the fourth candidate on the stage, Chris Christie.
Amid the smallest debate field so far and facing mounting pressure with Iowa’s caucuses less than six weeks away, the candidates were able to showcase their policy beliefs and explore major differences. There were also a series of memorable personal shots.
The Colorado Supreme Court appeared wary of disqualifying former President Donald Trump from the 2024 ballot under the 14th Amendment, with several justices expressing concerns about their authority to intervene.
A defense witness at Trump’s New York civil fraud trial compared him to Thomas Jefferson and Martin Luther King Jr. and quoted John Lennon during testimony — before the former president confirmed he’ll be back on the stand next week.
Former Long Island Rep. George Santos said in a post online that his replacement in New York’s 3rd Congressional District will either be a Democrat or a “Democrat in republican skin.”
“America which ever way it goes you will get a Democrat or a Democrat in republican skin coming to Congress from NY-03,” Santos posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
Former Queens Republican Party district leader Philip Grillo, who’s running for Santos‘ job in Congress has been found guilty for his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Grillo, 49, was caught on video inside and outside the U.S. Capitol as the Trump-inspired horde flooded the halls of Congress to overturn the results of the 2020 election. He wore a distinctive Knights of Columbus jacket, public records show.
Westchester County Executive George Latimer will challenge Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman for his congressional seat in 2024, he announced.
Republican businessman Josh Eisen is mounting a challenge to U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in 2024.
Gov. Kathy Hochul has directed state agencies to fast-track the process for film and TV productions to receive permit approvals following SAG-AFTRA ratifying its new deal yesterday.
Hochul confirmed that she summoned Tom Suozzi — the likely Democratic nominee to replace George Santos in Congress — to come to Albany to meet with her before the party agrees to nominate him to run in the Feb. 13 special election.
“I was looking for someone that I thought could win, but also that was an important conversation to clear the air in one respect,” Hochul said, vaguely referencing comments Suozzi made about her and her family during the 2022 campaign.
Mazi Melesa Pilip, a pro-Israel, Black, Orthodox Jew who served in the IDF, is on the Nassau County GOP’s shortlist for the seat vacated after Santos’ expulsion. She has been enrolled as a Democrat since 2012, though she holds office as a Republican.
Hochul expressed excitement that the 2024 Belmont Stakes (G1) will be held at Saratoga Race Course to allow for the uninterrupted construction of a new and re-imagined Belmont Park, the Long Island home of the third leg of the Triple Crown.
Hochul is pledging additional funding to transform mental health care in New York by investing in addiction treatment services.
New York State has leaped into the era of offshore wind power, with electricity generated over the Atlantic Ocean now flowing to homes on Long Island.
Amtrak is reporting a continued rebound from COVID slowdowns in travel, announcing that the passenger rail service provided 28.6 million customer trips in fiscal year 2023, which was a little more than a 24 percent increase over the previous year.
New numbers, based off wastewater surveillance data and other metrics, show a significant spike in COVID-19 in New York State after Thanksgiving.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ approval rating reached a record-low 28 percent in a new poll released yesterday.
The Quinnipiac University poll comes as the mayor struggles to overcome a corruption scandal surrounding his campaign, a sexual assault allegation, deep city budget cuts an influx of immigration, which he said will “destroy” the city.
Roughly 58 percent of New Yorkers disapproved of Adams’s job as mayor. A majority of those polled said that the mayor did not have strong leadership qualities, did not understand their problems and was not honest or trustworthy.
Prior to Adams’ polling pitfall, the worst approval rating recorded by Quinnipiac for a New York City mayor was the negative 31% to 60% mark Mike Bloomberg netted in July 2003.
Several dozen members of the Association of Legislative Employees held up “fair contract now” signs in the balcony during a Council stated meeting yesterday as Speaker Adrienne Adams took the floor.
The Adams’ administration plans to hire 120 new school safety agents, two sources familiar with the matter told the Daily News — just weeks after City Hall caught heat for abruptly canceling a class of 250 agents over budget concerns.
Adams announced a new housing position in his administration and a task force aimed at helping projects race against the clock to qualify for the property tax break 421a.
Opioid-ravaged Staten Island will receive $12 million over the next four years for overdose prevention programs and drug treatment as the opioid epidemic steadily rages across the city, Adams and other elected officials announced.
In a fervent plea centered on child welfare, the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) is urging Adams to reassess his administration’s 60-day shelter policy for asylum-seeking families.
Community groups, faith leaders, and activists took to the streets of lower Manhattan to protest efforts by Adams and Hochul to suspend the state’s right-to-shelter policy.
The MTA’s board gave its initial OK to a plan to charge motorists $15 to drive in Manhattan between 60th St. and the Battery — and signaled the toll could be raised on gridlock alert days, the city’s designated high-traffic periods.
State Sen. James Skoufis, an Orange County Democrat, is threatening to throw his support behind a lawsuit filed last month by the state of New Jersey trying to scrap the MTA’s congestion pricing plan.
A 12-year-old girl was slashed in the leg at a Bronx middle school yesterday, a day after one 15-year-old boy stabbed another at a Brooklyn high school, the police said.
The State University of New York at Fredonia is proposing to cut 13 programs after years of declining enrollment – a message similar to the one given by SUNY Potsdam less than four months ago.
The Albany police chief said the department is aiming to fire three of its officers who were suspended in October, months after it launched an investigation into the pay of officers who worked a special security detail for the city’s housing authority.
The impending closure of The College of Saint Rose is imperiling many retail businesses in the neighborhood around the college.
Herbie’s Burgers, a fast-growing local franchise, is set to open in the Empire State Plaza concourse early next year, moving into a space that has been vacated by a McDonald’s.
Hydrogen-focused companies like Plug Power in Latham could suffer under rules that the Biden administration is developing for a new federal clean hydrogen tax credit.
Music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs has been accused of sexual assault in yet another lawsuit, which names Combs, Harve Pierre — the former president of Combs’ company Bad Boy Entertainment – and another individual (“Third Assailant”) as defendants.
In the complaint, an unnamed woman says 20 years ago, when she was 17 years old, she was flown from the Detroit area to New York on a private plane and gang-raped in a recording studio. Combs denied the allegations.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
