TGIF, though at this point, there’s still a long way to go before I clock out for the weekend. Still, I can see a light at the end of the tunnel. Hope it’s the same for you. Good morning.
It has been a while since I ate cold pizza for breakfast. These days, I usually gravitate toward something depressingly healthy, like oatmeal, or an egg white omelet. Such is the fate of those of us who are over 50 and trying to maximize the time we have left on the planet.
But I am still able to recall the deliciousness that is coagulated cheese on chewy crust. I’m not saying that cold pizza is BETTER than the fresh-from-the-oven variety, or even the warmed-up-in-the-air-fryer variety (or in the oven, or in a cast iron pan, but never the microwave – come at me).
I’m just saying that some foods – including pizza and leftover Chinese takeout chief among them – hit different when consumed cold, while other things – like sushi, for example – are best consumed in the moment only.
I know I’ve written multiple posts in the past about the origins of pizza, which, as an aside, is about to have a very big weekend.
In 2022, an estimated 12.5 million pizzas were sold in the U.S. on Super Bowl Sunday – about 1.4 million of which were made and disseminated by Pizza Hut alone. Domino’s reportedly expects to sell 2 million pies on that day – 30 percent more than on an average Sunday. (The most popular topping, in case you were curious, is pepperoni).
According to no less an expert than the U.S. Department of Agriculture, roughly 1 in 8 Americans eat pizza on any given day, which added up to an estimated 29,000 tons of pizza in 2023.
We’ve definitely been down the “who invented pizza” rabbit hole before, noting that flatbreads with toppings were enjoyed by ancient peoples around the globe far before the Italians came into the picture. But the birthplace of modern-day pizza is widely accepted to be the Campania region in the southwestern region of Italy, which is home to the city of Naples.
It’s a safe bet that the Neapolitans who invented the cheap, filling, and delicious concept of dough stretched thin, baked and topped with cheese, oil, garlic, and/or tomatoes would be taken aback by the concept of cauliflower crusts, gluten free crusts, and certainly crusts made out of alternative high-protein substances like chicken.
I am actually hard-pressed to say whether I personally consider these deviations pizza. But what does it matter, really? It’s National Pizza Day, you do you. And if you’re so inclined, a number of chains have promotions – some of which are running through the Super Bowl. More here.
We’re looking at another warm-ish day, with temperatures in the low 50s and partly cloudy skies. The weekend is looking GREAT on the temperature front, flirting with 60 degrees tomorrow (potentially hitting a record high), but, sadly, with showers developing in the late afternoon. Sunday will be cooler, with temperatures in the low 40s, and a mix of sun and clouds.
In the headlines…
Special counsel Robert Hur’s report included characterizations of the president’s mental fitness, saying his memory was “significantly limited, both during his recorded interviews with the ghostwriter in 2017, and in his interview with our office in 2023.”
The investigation into Biden’s handling of the documents after being vice president concluded that he was a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory” and had “diminished faculties in advancing age”, which prompted a fiery response from the president.
Biden “willfully” retained and disclosed highly classified materials when he was a private citizen, including documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan and other sensitive national security matters, according to a Justice Department report.
The report nonetheless says no criminal charges are warranted for Biden or anyone else.
Within hours of Hur’s report being made public, Biden’s reported memory problems were attracting notice in the political arena and the media — including from Biden’s critics.
“My memory is fine,” Biden said in a primetime address to the nation. “Take a look at what I’ve done since I’ve become president.” His rebuttal came during previously unannounced remarks from the White House.
“For any extraneous commentary, they don’t know what they’re talking about,” the 81-year-old Biden said. “It has no place in this report. The bottom line is, the matter is now closed.”
Biden’s legal team blasted parts of Hur’s report, accusing him of “investigative excess” that resulted in “‘trashing’ the subject of an investigation.”
“If you’re too senile to stand trial, then you’re too senile to be president. Joe Biden is unfit to lead this nation,” Alex Pfeiffer, communications director for the pro-Trump super PAC Make America Great Again Inc., said in a statement.
In a two-hour interview with Tucker Carlson, President Vladimir Putin of Russia was more direct than usual about how he sees his Ukraine invasion ending: not with a military victory, but a deal with the West.
Putin called on the United States to “make an agreement” to cede Ukrainian territory to Russia in order to end the war. He sought to appeal directly to American conservatives just as Republican lawmakers are holding up aid to Ukraine on Capitol Hill.
Carlson delivered a softball interview, failing to extract any stirring insights into the Russian president’s actual war aims, or hold him to account for his brutal invasion of Ukraine.
Carlson did urge Putin to release an American reporter for The Wall Street Journal who has been held in a notorious Moscow prison for nearly a year. The Russian president was noncommittal.
Biden sharply escalated his criticism of Israel’s approach to the war against Hamas yesterday, calling military operations in Gaza “over the top” and saying that the suffering of innocent people has “got to stop.”
He also voiced optimism that a deal currently being brokered pairing the release of hostages with a prolonged pause in the fighting could eventually lead to a more sustained change in the war.
Biden sent senior aides to Michigan to meet with Arab American and Muslim leaders, as his administration’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war frustrates members of a key constituency in a 2024 battleground state.
The Biden administration said it wouldn’t support Israeli plans for a military operation in Rafah, where more than half the total population is sheltering. A White House spokesman and the U.N. secretary general warned of catastrophe should Israel attack.
The U.S. Supreme Court sounded broadly skeptical of efforts to kick former President Donald Trump off the 2024 presidential election ballot, and a decision is expected relatively soon.
In arguments ticking past 90 minutes yesterday, both conservative and liberal justices raised questions of whether Trump can be disqualified because of his efforts to undo his loss in the 2020 election, ending with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Trump’s team argued that Congress — not the states — was tasked with enforcing the Insurrection Clause, that the provision did not apply to the office of president, and that Trump did not engage in an insurrection when his allies stormed the Capitol.
Trump glided to victory in Nevada’s Republican caucuses yesterday, an outcome all but guaranteed because he was the only major candidate on the ballot.
The candidates vying to replace George Santos in a special House election squared off yesterday in an exceedingly bitter debate, tangling over the roots of New York City’s migrant crisis, abortion rights and, at one point, the definition of “assault weapon.”
Former Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi holds a slim lead over his GOP opponent, Mazi Melesa Pilip, in the final week of the race, according to a Newsday/Siena College poll released yesterday.
Suozzi, who formerly held the seat, had 48 percent support among likely voters compared to 44 percent for Pilip, a Nassau County legislator. About 7 percent of voters were undecided in the bellwether race set for Tuesday.
Voters say Suozzi will do a better job on protecting democracy and addressing abortion, while Pilip gets the nod for how she’ll handle the migrant influx and make progress on lessening the tax burden.
In the debate, Suozzi blasted Pilip for highlighting challenges like border security without detailing how she would resolve them, while Pilip sought to portray Suozzi, a former member of congress, as polished but not practical.
The meetup between the candidates is the only debate scheduled in the race. At times, the rivals talked over each other, and the moderator.
Suozzi’s campaign for a bellwether special election next week is getting a boost from his former foe: Gov. Kathy Hochul.
Hochul’s budget proposal has united the state’s judicial system, legal community, and some legislators against it: an attempt to take $100 million from a low-income legal services fund — and move it into the state’s general cash pool.
It appears to be the first time money has been “swept” from the obscure entity known as the Interest on Lawyers Accounts, or IOLA, a trust fund that lawmakers set up in 1983 with a clear directive: to help close a well-documented “justice gap”.
Financially troubled SUNY Potsdam is in no danger of closing, according to SUNY Chancellor John King Jr. However, he says the entire SUNY system needs more money.
SUNY Downstate Medical Center is facing possible closures under a state proposal. The state said the move is driven by too few patients, operating losses of about $100 million and an outdated building in need of repairs, King explained on NY1.
King and City University of New York Chancellor Félix Matos Rodriguez put up a united front yesterday amid skeptical state lawmakers’ questions about the financial futures of their respective university networks.
Matos Rodríguez defended multiple rounds of painful spending cuts and a hiring freeze across the City University of New York as measures that have slashed the cash-strapped university system’s structural deficit by “almost half.”
A group of New York lawmakers demanded the state cough up $90 million to boost Metropolitan Transportation Authority bus services before the controversial $15 congestion pricing toll is finally rolled out — but critics raged they are already years too late.
Mayor Eric Adams wants more money from the state to help with the migrant crisis, but he never asked the governor for it directly when he met with her privately Tuesday in Albany.
Adams has picked a veteran transportation official and the leader of the city’s main planning agency for two open positions on the MTA board: Deputy Mayor Meera Joshi, a former TLC chief, and city planning head Dan Garodnick, a former Council member.
Despite the language Adams used in his State of the City address last month, New York law doesn’t define a “public health crisis hazard.”
City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams rejected calls for her chamber to tweak the city’s sanctuary status, saying she has “no plans” to do so while accusing the right of recently mischaracterizing the practical implications of the decades-old immigration rule.
The City Council empowered Speaker Adams to take legal action against Mayor Adams over his refusal to implement a set of new housing voucher laws — but the speaker played coy on what exactly comes next.
The number of vacant housing units available to rent in the five boroughs dropped to a historic low in 2023, according to the latest New York City Housing and Vacancy Survey, released Thursday by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development.
The report found the number of available, habitable homes dropped to just 1.4% of the total rentable housing stock, the lowest since 1968, the year before New York passed its landmark rent stabilization law aimed at protecting tenants from big rent hikes.
The data suggests that New York City’s housing crisis is only getting worse, especially during the economic rebound from the coronavirus pandemic.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said seven suspects who were accused of assaulting two New York police officers have been indicted.
Police have already arrested five people named in the indictment, while two others have not yet been apprehended or arraigned, according to the DA’s office.
Guardians Angels boss Curtis Sliwa issued what amounted to a defiant apology for saying he thought a man roughed up by his crew on national TV in Times Square was a migrant because he spoke Spanish — a flub some city leaders called a “hate crime.”
Fox News’ Sean Hannity gave an odd update on Sliwa’s allegations against a man his Guardian Angels took down earlier this week live on Hannity’s show, setting off a firestorm amid the city’s migrant crisis.
“The wheels of justice must move at an appropriate pace. We don’t have the luxury to do what we saw Curtis Sliwa did,” Mayor Adams, Sliwa’s opponent in the 2021 mayoral election, said at an unrelated press briefing.
Two days after members of Sliwa’s group assaulted the man their leader misidentified as a migrant, law enforcement officials said they were looking into the incident.
The New York City Fire Department shut down a Queens e-bike shop where officials said dangerous lithium-ion battery packs were being built and refurbished.
More than 60 people were busted at rowdy anti-Israel protests during Biden’s three-stop fundraising tour of the Big Apple Wednesday.
The leader of the nonprofit that advocates for Latinos in need on the East End of Long Island recently met with Hochul to lobby for more funding and reforming the process of awarding contracts.
A federal lawsuit filed on behalf of several migrants and whistle-blower workers accused the National Guard of abusing asylum seekers in a Buffalo-area motel.
New leadership took over in Newburgh city schools this week after nearly half of the board resigned — continuing a trend in recent years of tumultuous times in this urban Hudson Valley school district.
Albany County District Attorney David Soares gave himself a $22,308 bonus late last year with funds from a grant meant to boost staff retention and reward prosecutors facing increased workloads due to the state’s recent criminal justice reforms.
For the second time in a week, a text threat forced the Albany Academies to close school.
Frank Adams Jewelers is celebrating the opening of its new store in Colonie, introducing features like an area to view the store’s watchmaker at work and private spaces for a more personal customer shopping experience.
Starting on March 4, Amtrak is restoring its 5:10 a.m. train service from the Albany-Rensselaer station to New York City’s Penn Station — marking what a leading transportation advocate says is the long-awaited restoration of pre-COVID service to the city.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
