Good Friday morning.
Did you hear me? It’s Friday. We made it. One 2024 week down, 51 to go. Enough said.
This is a big day for peanut lovers like me, because we honor George Washington Carver, who died on this day in 1943 at his home in Tuskegee, AL.
You’ll note that I did not refer to my love of peanut butter here. That’s because, contrary to popular belief, Carver, an agricultural scientist and inventor, did NOT, in fact, invent my favorite. Ife-sustaining spread.
He did, however, discover more than 300 USES for peanuts, along with countless others for soybeans, pecans, and sweet potatoes.
In Carver’s day this was particularly important because of the challenge posed by soil depletion caused by over planting of a single crop – in this case, cotton. If farmers, particularly smaller, subsistence farmers, planted alternate crops they could not only improve yields but also potentially better feed themselves and their families, improving their quality of life.
On the commercial promotion side related to peanut products, Carver was largely unsuccessful. But that wasn’t for lack of trying.
Among the MANY peanut uses he discovered: peanut lemon punch, chili sauce, caramel, peanut sausage, mayonnaise and coffee. But that wasn’t all! He also created peanut face powder, shampoo, shaving cream and hand lotion, along with insecticides, glue, charcoal, rubber, nitroglycerine, plastics and axle grease.
Given the rise in peanut allergies in the U.S. over the last several decades, with many nuts and nut products banned entirely from schools, camps, daycare facilities, planes, and elsewhere to protect individuals from having an allergic reaction and possibly going into anaphylactic shock, it’s a good thing Carver didn’t make it to this century. Imagine how disappointed he would be.
Carver’s personal story is all the more impressive when you learn that he was born into slavery in Mississippi – the exact date of his birth is unknown – and left home while still very young to pursue an education.
After being rejected from at least one college because he was Black, he got a degree in agricultural science from Iowa State University in Ames (the first Black student to attend), and went on to teach and do research at Tuskegee University for decades.
Carver by appointed in 1935 to the Department of Agriculture by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to address the southern farming crisis. It was here that he formally started urging farmers to employ the practice of crop rotation to avoid soil depletion. He was awarded the Roosevelt Medal in 1939, and after his death, his hometown was made a national historic site.
The state of Iowa recognizes George Washington Carver Day in February. At the national level, Congress passed a law in 1945 designating today as the day that he would be recognized, and then-President Harry Truman called for all government buildings to display the American flag in honor of Carver’s achievements.
There will be scattered snow flurries today, with temperatures in the low-to-mid 30s.
There’s a winter storm watch up from tomorrow afternoon into Sunday evening, with the possibility of bringing the first big accumulation of snow that we’ve seen thus far this season. Between 6 inches to a foot is possible in some locations, and wind gusts could be as high as 35 mph.
FUN! Happy weekend. Stock up on that bread, along with eggs, milk, shovels out of the garage, snow tires on, boots by the door, salt at the ready. You know the drill.
In the headlines…
Multiple people were shot at an Iowa high school on the first day after winter break, officials said. A sixth grader was killed and five others were injured; the shooter, Dylan Butler, 17, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
An improvised explosive device was discovered in the school, located around 40 miles northwest of Des Moines. Law enforcement officials added the suspect was armed with a pump action shotgun and a handgun.
Hours after the shooting, Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis said gun violence should be addressed at the state and local level — without any new federal restrictions on firearms.
The shooting occurred as attention has turned to Iowa in advance of this month’s caucuses for the 2024 presidential election. The high school was slated to serve as a gathering site for the Jan. 15 Republican caucuses.
A group of aides hired to reelect President Joe Biden is breaking with him on the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
In a letter first shared with West Wing Playbook, 17 current Biden campaign staffers called directly on the president to push for a permanent ceasefire in the monthslong conflict.
Biden’s first campaign ad of the year focuses on threats to US democracy, timed for release on the anniversary of the 6 January insurrection at the US Capitol.
In the ad, Biden says that preserving American democracy has been the “central issue of his presidency”.
Biden has rescheduled his Valley Forge area campaign speech from Saturday to today due to the anticipated winter storm heading to the greater Philadelphia region.
Since 2020, election officials have confronted rising threats and difficult working conditions, aggravated by rampant conspiracy theories about fraud. The episodes suggested 2024 would be another heated election year.
The Biden administration is providing $162 million to Microchip Technology to support the domestic production of computer chips — the second funding announcement tied to a 2022 law designed to revive U.S. semiconductor manufacturing.
Biden is under growing pressure to curb record numbers of migrants crossing into the United States — not just from the usual Republican critics, but also from Democratic mayors and governors in cities thousands of miles from the border.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken departed yesterday evening for the Middle East with an intensive diplomatic agenda as tensions have spiked surrounding Israel’s war against Hamas.
The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the bombing attack that killed 84 people in Kerman, Iran, a day before, during a memorial procession for Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, according to a post on the extremist group’s official Telegram account.
A United States drone strike in Baghdad yesterday killed a senior figure in an Iran-linked militant group that is part of Iraq’s security apparatus, drawing sharp criticism from the Iraqi government as well as allied groups.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has outlined proposals for the future governance of Gaza once the war between Israel and Hamas is over. There would, he said, be limited Palestinian rule in the territory.
A group of Illinois voters wants former President Donald Trump removed from the Illinois Primary election in March.
Lawyers for Trump said they want the special counsel, Jack Smith, and two of his top deputies to be held in contempt of court and sanctioned for violating a judge’s order that largely froze the criminal case accusing Trump of plotting to overturn the 2020 election.
Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing the Washington, DC, election subversion case, issued a stay on the case after Trump appealed her ruling dismissing his claims that presidential immunity protects him from prosecution.
California Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis was the victim of a “swatting” call last weekend at her San Francisco home, following a series of elected officials being targeted with phony calls to police after they pushed to remove Trump from the 2024 ballot.
Trump’s businesses received at least $7.8 million from 20 foreign governments during his presidency, according to documents released by House Democrats that show how much he received from overseas transactions while he was in the White House.
The report says that records and documents reveal “a stunning web of millions of dollars in payments made by foreign governments and their agents directly to Trump-owned businesses, while President Trump was in the White House.”
Trump supporters – who generally accept his unsubstantiated claims that the 2020 election was fraudulent − are prepared to believe those allegations again in 2024, setting the stage for protests and more if the former president runs and loses in November.
After serving in the Trump administration for four years, former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is keeping his distance from the Republican former president and his campaign, according to people familiar with the matter.
Gov. Kathy Hochul announced a series of proposed initiatives to address maternal and infant death in New York, including a proposal that would make the state the first to provide paid leave for prenatal care.
The state’s first “mom governor” unveiled the plan to allow time for prenatal medical visits at Wycoff Heights Medical Center in Brooklyn, which she said would make the Empire State the first in the nation to have statewide prenatal care.
“We are facing a maternal and infant mortality crisis,” Hochul said. “…this is personal to me. We are committed to tackling this crisis head-on with policies that lift up parents and children throughout the State of New York.”
Hochul reportedly presented lawmakers and advocates of the Grieving Families Act with an 11th hour proposal that would have largely gutted the law, offering a series of chapter amendments as an all-or-nothing pitch.
Hochul, wearing a white sling at an event in upstate Watervliet on Wednesday, said she had torn her pectoral muscle lifting weights in the gym a day earlier.
Hochul has signed legislation which replaces the phrase “feminine hygiene products” with the gender nonspecific phrase “menstrual products.”
It’s the worst-kept secret in Albany: Micah Lasher is likely running for an Assembly seat on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.
A new Siena College poll found that a majority of New York voters are in favor of raising taxes on large, profitable corporations and the top 5 percent of earners.
High school students in New York may soon see changes to their graduation requirements, including making Regents exams optional.
Mayor Eric Adams’ administration filed a lawsuit charging that 17 charter bus companies owe New York City at least $708 million for dropping off tens of thousands of migrants in the five boroughs as part of a controversial program launched by Texas’ governor.
New York is seeking more than $700 million in damages from those companies, an amount the lawsuit describes as the cost of caring for and sheltering the migrants.
The lawsuit, filed in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, argues that purposely transporting the migrants with the “evil intention” of shifting the costs of their care to New York violates state law.
Adams took a moment to brag that New York City isn’t as bad as Los Angeles.
NYC teachers and the Staten Island borough president are suing to stop the MTA’s congestion pricing plan, saying it will punish teachers, firefighters and other city workers who commute to Manhattan.
The lawsuit, filed by the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), has asked the court to halt the implementation of the soon-to-be-launched plan, which would charge drivers $15 per day to use city streets and avenues south of 60th Street in Manhattan.
Adams announced that the city has expanded its ability to convert food and yard waste into compost by as much as 400% — a key step before his administration expands curbside compost pickup to all five boroughs later this year.
As the first wave of families seeking asylum in New York City push up against 60-day notice deadlines to leave emergency housing, migrants fear they and their children will end up on the street during the coldest months of the year.
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams described Adams as an “angry, bratty child” and “dishonest” after hizzoner attacked him and legislation over police stops he backed as out of touch.
According to his schedules, Adams has had unannounced meetings with top business leaders, dealings with prospective casino bidders and a prospective Penn Station developer, and frequent chats with Mike Bloomberg.
Assemblywoman Latoya Joyner, a Bronx Democrat who has held her seat since 2015 and the chair of the Labor Committee, will resign to take a job outside of government, her spokesman said.
A subway train carrying about 300 people collided with an out-of-service train near West 96th Street in Manhattan yesterday, causing the trains to derail, Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials said.
The disabled train was being worked on due to vandalism after someone went through the train pulling the emergency brake cords in several cars, MTA officials said.
Tourists have been flocking to the Manhattan townhouse formerly owned by Jeffrey Epstein, where neighbors said the new buyers are battling vandals with a predilection for smearing blood and excrement across the building’s gilded façade.
A Rikers Island detainee died yesterday after he collapsed playing basketball, the first death in New York City’s jail system this year, officials said.
The NYPD recently entered into an agreement to provide security at more than 100 polling sites that the Dominican Republic’s government will operate in the city to give expats in New York the chance to vote in the Caribbean country’s national elections.
A federal judge refused to send a defendant to Brooklyn’s troubled federal jail as he awaits sentencing because the conditions are so consistently awful — and his blistering ruling could result in fewer defendants being sent to the infamous lockup.
Craig Ross Jr., the man charged with kidnapping a 9-year-old girl from a state park this past September, has a new attorney.
With a three-week trial expected – and the number of residents in the rural county modest – Washington County District Attorney Tony Jordan said a larger than normal jury pool has been called for the trial of alleged driveway shooter Kevin Monahan.
A new 256-unit senior living community in Guilderland is accepting tenant applications ahead of its partial opening in the next few months.
As the yearslong process to put Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill continues, Americans can now buy coins bearing her portrait.
The U.S. Mint announced that three new commemorative Tubman coins were available for preorder starting today and would begin shipping in February.
