Good morning. It’s Thursday. (Are you still in the post-holiday space where you need reminding on that? How long does that last, anyway?)
We’re almost through the first workweek of the new year. That wasn’t so bad now, was it?
Well, I guess I might be speaking too soon, since we have to get through tomorrow, after all. I’m working on my positive outlook as part of my 2024 resolutions.
By the way, I am increasingly convinced that I am shouting into the void when I write here because for two days running, I headed these posts with “2023” not “2024” and no one called me out on that. Not. A. Single. Person.
Maybe you’re all in the same boat as I am and struggling to make sense of how the new year is here all of a sudden. I’m going to go with that for the moment.
Speaking of resolutions, which we were earlier in the week, remember that a fairly significant percentage of people who bother to make them focus on things like working on their fitness, improving their diet, and losing weight.
With this in mind, you have to ask yourself whose bright idea it was to make today National Spaghetti Day.
I guess some people will come at me for this and say that pasta can indeed be part of a a balanced diet, when eaten in moderation. Have you seen the portion sizes in Italy? There are no jumbo endless bowls of carbs dripping in sauce, at least not in my experience. Also, Italians tend to walk a lot more than we do.
Pasta enthusiasts will likely point out that the high-quality version is made from semolina or durum wheat, which as a higher protein content than regular flour, (it’s also higher in gluten, which can be problematic for some people), and the extrusion process used to make some dried pastas reportedly allows it to metabolize more slowly than other simple starches.
And there are a wide variety of spaghetti-shaped items one can purchase these days – from whole wheat to chickpea to black bean and everything in between.
There’s even hearts of palm “pasta”, which are about as close to calorie-free as one can get, though from a taste standpoint, it’s not anywhere close to the real thing. Maybe if you put enough sauce on it, but, then again, isn’t that defeating the whole purpose?
All this aside, pasta – spaghetti, which, translates into “pasta made in long strings” from the Italian word “spago” AKA “string” and is the most popular of all pastas – is not generally considered diet food.
You’ve probably heard something about pasta’s origin story – that it likely was first produced in Asia and somehow worked its way to Europe (maybe Marco Polo had something to do with it, maybe not) and then to America.
If you’re trying to eat a little healthier, maybe you’ve cut carbs in the process and the fact that I’ve spent all these words on something you’re trying to avoid is a little triggering. If that’s the case, I’m sorry. But, then again, balance. Maybe you made some resolutions about adding more of that to your life, too? I did.
Also, you only go around once – or at least as far as we know. Spaghetti for breakfast, anyone?
We might see some light snow this morning, which will clear in the afternoon and maybe even give way to some sunshine later on in the day. Temperatures will be in the mid-to-high 30s.
In the headlines…
A senior official in the U.S. Education Department stepped down yesterday, citing President Joe Biden’s handling of the conflict in Gaza, the latest sign of dissent in the administration as deaths continue to grow in the war.
The resignation by Tariq Habash, policy adviser in the DOE’s Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development, comes as the conflict nears its third month and follows a previous public departure from the administration over its handling of the war.
Former staffers of ex-President Barack Obama have come out against Biden’s Israel policy, as the country’s war with Hamas continues.
Biden is starting the campaign year by evoking the Revolutionary War to mark the third anniversary of the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and visiting the South Carolina church where a white gunman massacred Black parishioners.
Biden’s first major campaign speech of 2024 will be near Valley Forge on Saturday, where he will mark the three-year anniversary of the Jan. 6 insurrection by warning voters that his leading GOP opponent presents an existential threat to American democracy.
The speech is expected to be a key component of the campaign’s efforts to highlight the stakes of the presidential election, one that’s shaping up to be a rematch of the 2020 contest.
“When Joe Biden ran for president four years ago, he said we are in a ‘battle for the soul of America,’ and as we look towards November 2024, we still are,” Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said during a campaign strategy briefing.
Previewing its 2024 election message, the Democratic National Committee released a memo that says, “Election denialism has become the central litmus test to lead Donald Trump’s Republican Party.”
In this time of war overseas, more Americans think foreign policy should be a top focus for the U.S. government in 2024, with a new poll showing international concerns and immigration rising in importance with the public.
The chief of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service vowed the agency would hunt down every Hamas member involved in the Oct. 7 attack, no matter where they are, a day after the deputy head of the terrorist group was killed in a suspected Israeli strike in Beirut.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned that if Israel wages war with Lebanon, the response would be “limitless,” adding that the killing of a Hamas senior official in Beirut on Tuesday “won’t go unpunished.”
A pair of explosions at a commemoration for Iran’s former top general, Qassim Suleimani, killed at least 103 people and wounded another 171, according to Iranian officials.
Although the Lebanese government is not in control of Hezbollah, officials believe that the militant group will work to avoid dragging the country into a regional war with Israel, Lebanese Foreign Minister Abadallah Bou Habib said.
US national security adviser Jake Sullivan spoke with Israel’s Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer this week to discuss Israeli military operations and efforts to secure the release of the remaining hostages, a National Security Council spokesperson said.
Donald Trump asked the U.S. Supreme Court to keep him on the Colorado primary ballot, appealing a state Supreme Court ruling declaring him ineligible based on his efforts to overturn the 2020 election that culminated in the Jan. 6. attack on the Capitol.
Lawyers for Trump again argued that the former president has presidential immunity that protects him from prosecution in a filing to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit yesterday.
The 41-page filing marks the final written request by Trump lawyers to the federal appeals court ahead of a hearing for the election interference case next Tuesday.
In the political world, Trump is on the cusp of something that eluded him in 2016: a clear victory in the Iowa caucuses this month. In the legal world, he faces two trials this month that hit on a deeply personal level.
Trump received endorsements from the entire Minnesota Republican congressional delegation this morning, including House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, and now has the backing of all the top House GOP leadership.
A former top lawyer for the D.C. National Guard has accused Army officials of retaliating against him for asserting to Congress that two top Army officers lied about why deployment of the Guard was delayed during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
House Republicans threatened to starve the entire federal government of funding if Biden and Democrats fail to institute a crackdown at the U.S.-Mexico border to choke off the flow of migrants streaming into the country.
The warnings came as Speaker Mike Johnson led a visit by more than 60 House Republicans to Eagle Pass, Texas, to raise pressure on President Biden and Democrats to agree to strict new immigration policies.
Johnson said the trip was to “see firsthand” what they’re calling “Biden’s border crisis,” writing on social media: “This situation requires significant policy changes and House Republicans will continue advocating for real solutions that actually secure our border.”
Federal Reserve officials wanted to use their final policy statement of 2023 to signal that interest rates might be at their peak even as they left the door open to future rate increases, minutes from their December meeting showed.
At the meeting, the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee agreed to hold its benchmark rate steady in a range between 5.25% and 5.5%. Members indicated they expect three quarter-percentage point cuts by the end of 2024.
But the year-end projections leave the timing about any initial rate cut in doubt, and Fed Chair Jerome Powell at his press conference following the meeting insisted that was not yet a live topic of discussion.
Hundreds of pages of previously sealed court documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier and registered sex offender, were made public.
The documents feature roughly 150 people mentioned in previously redacted parts of the suit against Ghislaine Maxwell, who was sentenced last year to 20 years in prison on sex trafficking and other charges for helping Epstein sexually abuse teenage girls.
The documents include arguments by attorneys for Virginia Giuffre – an alleged victim of Epstein – who sought to depose former President Bill Clinton as part of her defamation lawsuit against Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell.
Clinton, who sometimes flew aboard Epstein’s private plane, is listed repeatedly in the documents. Trump’s name also appears.
The holidays have come and gone, and once again Americans are riding a tide of respiratory ailments, including Covid. But so far, this uptick seems less deadly than last year’s, and much less so than in 2022, when the Omicron surge ground the nation to a halt.
Florida’s surgeon general called for a halt to the use of Covid vaccines, citing widely debunked concerns that contaminants in the vaccine can permanently integrate into human DNA.
A mask mandate has resumed for all 11 of New York City’s public hospitals after an increase in coronavirus, flu and respiratory syncytial virus cases.
Healthcare facilities in New York, California, Illinois and Massachusetts have made masks mandatory among patients and providers.
As the new year gets underway, health officials are issuing a nationwide alert about a triple threat: The simultaneous spread of the flu, COVID-19, and respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV.
Gov. Kathy Hochul proposed a major shift in education policy that could transform the way many schools teach reading across New York, following the lead of other states that have jettisoned methods experts say have left millions of children behind.
Hochul said she wants to transition New York to “reading instruction that teaches students the foundational skills they need to become proficient readers,” and plans to introduce legislation to ensure “evidence-based best practices” are used statewide.
Hochul’s office said the state’s new plan would gear school curriculum toward the so-called science of reading approach. The science of reading is a phonics-based approach, meaning that it emphasizes the sounds of letters in helping children learn to read.
Lawmakers returned to the state Capitol projecting optimism and productivity on key issues including housing and the migrant crisis. But they’re kicking off a legislative session that could be overshadowed by what’s expected to be a tumultuous election year.
State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins says she has a positive outlook on the session, even on the contentious issue of affordable housing.
The SUNY system may not be sustainable if support from state taxes doesn’t continue to increase, according to a report from system officials on long-term enrollment and financial sustainability.
In a blow to New York’s efforts to create green energy sources, developers of the Empire 2 offshore wind power array said they have canceled their contract for the project.
Democrats are now confronting a deepening migrant crisis at the dawn of a crucial election year, and the ongoing feud over border control could determine who serves in the White House and who controls Congress.
Adams is exploring the possibility of sending the NYPD to thwart Abbott’s latest ploy of dumping asylum seekers at New Jersey train stations to avoid the mayor’s executive order limiting the hours buses of can arrive here.
Adams said that there has been a “robbery pattern” of crimes committed by a “number of migrants” as asylum-seekers continue to come in waves to the Big Apple from the southern border.
Adams renewed his call to dismantle a decades-old requirement to provide housing to anyone who requests it — as thousands of migrants continue to pour into the Big Apple each week.
Adams has reiterated how the city of New York cannot turn over arriving migrants to US Immigration and Customs officials due to local laws.
Almost two dozen members of the New York City Council are banding together with mental health consumers to urge Adams’ administration to reverse course on a plan that could force some of the city’s mental health clubhouses to close.
More than two dozen New York City councilmembers in a letter yesterday called on the state Board of Elections to withhold Trump’s name from the state’s 2024 presidential primary and general election ballots.
Bucolic Pleasantville, in Westchester County, is seeing a showdown between leaders of a century-old children’s residence unequipped to treat acute mental health challenges and locals tired of troubled young people disturbing the peace. What happens to the kids?
Tourists said they were enjoying walking the Brooklyn Bridge without having to navigate around souvenir stands yesterday, the first day of the city’s total ban of vendors on the famous span.
After 14 years running the Frick Collection, its director, Ian Wardropper, said he would retire next year.
The state Department of Health has issued a cease-and-desist order to Samaritan Hospital, warning officials not to close any beds or reduce services at its Burdett Birth Center without authorization.
The Stuyvesant Plaza location of the popular family-friendly chain restaurant TGI Fridays closed this week after four decades in business.
A suspect in a shooting on Hudson Avenue in Albany was killed in an exchange of gunfire with two state troopers after they pulled his vehicle over and tried to apprehend him as he drove south on the Thruway near Exit 15, according to police.
Boar’s Head cold cuts will be returning to a Price Chopper/Market 32 for the first time in a decade — albeit the chain will only confirm one grocery store deli case in the Capital Region will be getting it.
State transportation and law enforcement officials charged an Averill Park man for allegedly operating an illegal stretch limousine at Albany International Airport last Friday, charging him with two felonies and a misdemeanor.
State forest rangers say a South Glens Falls woman is lucky to be alive after tumbling hundreds of feet down the side of a snowy Adirondack High Peak, forcing her to spend a harrowing night in freezing rain perched on a ledge until she was rescued.
The Oneida Indian Nation, whose members operate Turning Stone Casino, are opening their own seed-to-sale cannabis store across from the central New York casino.
