Good Wednesday morning. We’re down to the single digits now – five days remaining until Christmas.
If you’re still out there scrambling for gifts, I feel for you. I haven’t purchased a single thing. I keep asking for a “no gifts” holiday (I married out of the faith, in case you’re wondering what I’m on about here), but so far I haven’t made much headway there.
We did do a nice wreath that I purchased at the co-op and some battery operated candles for the front windows. It looks festive but not insanely so. No tree, though. Live is too messy and sad for me. I like trees where they below – growing in the ground, sorry. And fake is just, well, plastic. We did have one of those once, but I think it didn’t survive the move.
We did have a live tree once. The first year we were married, I was very excited to have the chance to really celebrate Christmas the way I had seen all those TV and movies families do it – complete with a snowy excursion to cut down our own tree and haul it home, hot chocolate in hand, to decorate it with handmade ornaments a la Martha Stewart or some such.
I’m not really sure what I was thinking there. It turned out to be a lot more trouble than it was worth. Live pine trees and garland and wreaths are a big mess to clean up, post-holiday, and they require tending throughout to ensure they don’t drop their needles too soon. Still, I did enjoy the winter wonderland part.
Thankfully, you don’t need a tree cutting excursion as an excuse to get outside during the winter. Just bundle yourself up and go.
As the Norwegians like to say, “There’s no bad weather, only bad clothes.” If you’re appropriately attired – think layers, and lots of them, as well as waterproof outerwear, boots, gloves, and hats – then you should be able to comfortably face down rain, snow, and freezing temps. (Don’t be stupid, of course, if it’s a true storm, stay inside and stay safe).
Hopefully, we will get some true winter weather, complete with snow, at some point in the not too distant future, though I hope you don’t have your hopes up for a White Christmas, because that’s not looking too good right now. The forecast is calling for temperatures in the mid-to-high 40s early next week.
We may or may not be in the week-long celebration known as the Festival of Winter Walks, (the interwebs says it’s around the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, but the dates appear to vary widely).
Either way, it’s a nice tradition, which was started by a U.K. group known as the Ramblers, a charity organization dedicated to preserving open spaces across England, Scotland, and Wales so everyone has the opportunity to enjoy the physical and mental benefits of being in the great outdoors.
We’ve got plenty of similarly-minded organizations here in the U.S., of course, and also plenty of opportunities to shake off the winter blues by getting outside to get some fresh air – including the First Day Hike tradition, promoted recently by the Hochul administration.
I’m thinking that if it’s not too terrible out – like a deluge of the sort we saw earlier this week, or a veritable ice storm – I will be hitting the trails sometime soon. I hope you’ll consider doing the same.
Today will be perfect for being outside, if you can swing it, with bright, sunny skies and temperatures in the low 40s.
In the headlines…
President Joe Biden hailed Sandra Day O’Connor as an “American pioneer” who embodied principle over politics in his eulogy at the Washington funeral of the US supreme court’s first female justice.
Biden began his remarks by remembering his time as ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee when it held the confirmation hearing for O’Connor, calling it a “momentous” day for the court and the country.
“One need not agree with all her decisions in order to recognize that her principles were deeply held and of the highest order and that her desire for civility was genuine,” Biden said during the services at the Washington National Cathedral.
Only one-third of registered voters approve of Biden’s handling of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a new poll from The New York Times and Siena College finds, with young voters especially likely to express dissatisfaction.
Biden’s overall approval rating stands at 37%, with a slightly lower 33% approving specifically of his handling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Among voters younger than 30, his approval rating stands at 26% overall and 20% on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Biden’s reluctance to acknowledge his physical limitations at age 81 is causing some tension on his team, as senior aides and First Lady Jill Biden push him to rest more and be vigilant about his health going into 2024.
Biden will stop in Milwaukee today, his second visit to Wisconsin in the past four months as the 2024 race for president quickly intensifies.
U.N. Security Council members were in intense negotiations yesterday on an Arab-sponsored resolution to spur desperately needed humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza during some kind of a halt in the fighting, trying to avoid another veto by the U.S.
The vote, already delayed once, was pushed again to today. Diplomats had been working behind closed doors to finalize a resolution drafted by the United Arab Emirates.
Family members of two hostages who appeared in a brief video released by Hamas have told Israeli media that the health of their elderly loved ones appears to have declined during their captivity in Gaza.
Israel is reportedly offering to pause the fighting in Gaza for at least one week as part of a new deal to get Hamas to release more than three dozen hostages the terror group is holding.
Biden’s administration is hopeful that ongoing discussions toward another potential hostage deal will prove fruitful though matters appear to be at a standstill currently, according to White House spoksesperson John Kirby.
The Israeli army has raided and detained staff at two of the last functioning hospitals in Gaza’s north, where the defense minister said yesterday that troops were working to completely clear out Hamas militants.
Attacks by Iran-backed Houthi militants on ships in the Red Sea have already rocked global trade. And there could be more disruptions and price increases to come for shipments of goods and fuel.
A divided Colorado Supreme Court declared former President Donald Trump ineligible for the White House under the U.S. Constitution’s insurrection clause and removed him from the state’s presidential primary ballot.
The decision from a court whose justices were all appointed by Democratic governors marks the first time in history that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment has been used to disqualify a presidential candidate.
Trump’s campaign said immediately that it would appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, a likelihood that the Colorado justices anticipated by putting their ruling on hold until January.
Campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung sought to cast the 4-3 ruling by the state’s highest court as a matter of political interference meant to protect Biden from having to face Trump next November.
Vivek Ramaswamy called the decision an “attack on democracy”, said he would withdraw from Colorado’s primary if Trump were ultimately not allowed on the ballot, and demanded other candidates make the same vow.
The House Judiciary Committee subpoenaed Attorney General Merrick Garland, saying it needs information about the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) demand for the communications of congressional staff that took place under the Trump administration.
The Koch network-backed super PAC endorsing presidential candidate Nikki Haley is reportedly set to spend $70 million in a bid to get her a “strong showing” in Iowa behind the GOP frontrunner, Trump.
A former New York City police officer was sentenced to 22 months in prison for her role in the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, during which, federal prosecutors said, she pushed against and slapped police officers while yelling and wielding a tambourine.
The Senate confirmed nearly a dozen military officers to four-star positions yesterday, ending Senator Tommy Tuberville’s nearly yearlong blockade of promotions for senior generals and admirals.
Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) claimed the social media platform TikTok is creating “warped” perceptions of Israel’s war with the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
New York state will create a commission tasked with considering reparations to address the persistent, harmful effects of slavery in the state, under a bill signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul yesterday.
“This bill makes it possible to have a conversation, a reasoned debate about what we want the future to look like. And I can think of nothing more democratic than that,” Hochul said.
“In New York, we like to think we’re on the right side of this. Slavery was a product of the South, the Confederacy,” she added. “What is hard to embrace is the fact that our state also flourished from that slavery. It’s not a beautiful story, but indeed it is the truth.”
New York joins California and Illinois at the forefront of reparations efforts, a complicated endeavor that will immerse stakeholders in a contentious political and budgetary conversation about the past and its dictates for the future.
Google has agreed to pay $700 million to settle a lawsuit alleging “monopolistic conduct” that was filed by a coalition of state attorneys general and co-led by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Mayor Eric Adams called on New Yorkers to flood the streets of Washington DC to protest the overwhelming cost of the migrant crisis — just like the Million Man March.
I’m not pushing this off on New Yorkers. I’m saying to New Yorkers: ‘You’re angry and I’m angry — and the source of our discontent lies in Washington, D.C.,” Adams said.
Adams — who has for months lamented what he sees as unfair press coverage of his administration — announced he’s considering restricting media access at City Hall so that only one reporter per outlet can be admitted to the building at a time.
Despite a municipal government-wide hiring freeze enacted by Adams, the city’s welfare agency can keep filling vacant positions focused on processing food stamps and other public assistance benefits, City Hall officials said.
The son of late Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel says cops forced him to put away his Israeli flag as he confronted a pro-Palestinian demonstrator during a massive rally in Penn Station on Monday.
For the first time in its history, the Tenement Museum on Manhattan’s Lower East Side will soon feature the apartment of a Black family as a permanent exhibit.
Newburgh this week became the second municipality north of the New York City suburbs to opt into the state’s rent stabilization law, formally known as the Emergency Tenant Protection Act.
Dozens of speakers urged Albany’s Common Council to pass a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza during a meeting this week, but it’s unclear if the resolution will ever come up for a vote.
The Capital Roots healthy food nonprofit unveiled their long-awaited Good Food Market, Incubator Kitchen and Expanded Food Hub on River Street amid hopes that it will continue to spur the locavore movement in the Capital Region.
Curtis Lumber has celebrated its induction into New York’s historic business registry after operating in the area for 133 years.
In one of his final moves before leaving office, Mayor Ron Kim released a memo to City Council members and police administrators offering a preview of the state attorney general’s report on alleged civil rights violations against Black Lives Matter activists.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
