Good morning. It’s Monday.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad-ish news. (Good news is we woke up this morning, the sun came up, and the world is still more or less in tact. The bad news is, well, it’s Monday).
You don’t have to have been around here for very long to know that I have never met a nut butter I didn’t like. I feel like I must mention my love of peanut butter at least once a month, if not more. It is my desert island food, 100 percent.
That said, I do have a personal top-10 list of spreadable nut varieties, and I have to confess that Nutella – the chocolate hazelnut spread with a cult-like following – is not among them.
As an aside, though Nutella is most often associated with France – Nutella crepes eaten hot on a Paris street corner are indeed the bomb – and the French certainly do consume the lion’s share of the spreadable sweet stuff (1.35 million pounds a year, about 25 percent of the annual production), it is NOT, in fact, French.
Au contraire, mon ami. The roots of this particular delicacy are in WWII-era Italy, in a town called Alba, which was known for its production of hazelnuts. There a baker by the name of Pietro Ferrero created a sweetened paste made from hazelnuts mixed with cocoa – an ingenious way to make the cocoa, which was in short supply at the time, go further.
His creation was a smashing success, and, along with his younger brother, Giovanni, Pietro continued to refine his product and expand the brand’s reach.
The paste became even more popular when, in 1951, a creamier and easier-to-spread version was introduced. This concoction was dubbed “SuperCrema”, which was followed, 13 years later, by the jarred version of hazelnut cocoa cream (AKA Nutella) that we know and love today.
The success of Nutella made the only child of Pietro Ferraro, Michele Ferrero, a very rich man. He was the one who came up with the idea of adding palm oil to Nutella (more on that later). Michele Ferrero eventually became one of the world’s richest individuals until his death at the age of 89 in 2015.
This confectionary company Ferrero SpA is an umbrella that also includes well-known chocolate treat makers like Kinder and Ferrero Rocher, as well as Tic-Tacs. It continues to be family-run.
Nutella, while beloved, has not been without controversy.
In 2012, it settled a deceptive ad lawsuit for $3 million (a fairly paltry sum, when you consider how much the company is worth) after a California mother was SHOCKED, SHOCKED! to discover the the gooey, rich, chocolate spread she had been feeding her toddler for breakfast was not, as its advertising suggested, actually a healthy and nutritious was to start your day.
Then there is the question of palm oil, which avoids the the hydrogenation process that creates unhealthy trans fats, but is not terribly good for the environment or, for that matter, your health when consumed in large quantities. In 2015, France’s minister of the environment even went so far as to tell consumers to stop eating Nutella if they wanted to stop the deforestation that contributes to global warming.
FWIW, Ferrero insists its palm oil is produced sustainably. I have no way to independently verify this claim.
Today is World Nutella Day, which I guess is as good a reason as any to indulge in chocolate for breakfast. If you’re feeling queasy and/or concerned by any of the aforementioned revelations, do not despair! There are any number of palm oil-free Nutella alternatives to choose from these days. Just Google “no palm oil chocolate hazelnut spread” and eat up with a clear conscience!
We’re entering into that yo-yo phase of the second half of winter when the temperature can’t really find a preferred set point. Today will be in the mid-to-high 30s with sunny skies, while the rest of the week is looking progressively warmed…and also wetter, but we’ll leave that for another day.
In the headlines…
Emergency workers rescued drivers stranded in floodwaters in LA, mudslides overtook a stretch of a winding highway in Ventura County, and flights were grounded and cancelled, due to the most significant storm to hit California so far this year.
Strong winds and heavy rainfall across much of California are expected to continue for the next couple of days. More than 900,000 people have been without power in the state and flash flood warnings remain in place in several areas.
Mudslides and severe flooding were reported in Los Angeles this morning, as a storm that made its way to Southern California after pummeling northern areas of the state was forecast to bring more heavy rain and winds for another day.
President Joe Biden won the South Carolina primary on Saturday, giving him the kind of emphatic result he no doubt envisioned when he made the state the first contest on the Democrats’ presidential nominating calendar.
Biden touted his projected win in South Carolina, saying the state, which he has credited for turning the tide in 2020, put him on a path toward victory this year.
Fresh off an overwhelming victory in South Carolina’s Democratic primary, Biden rallied supporters yesterday in Nevada, saying that he had kept his promises to the Black and Hispanic voters who helped elect him.
During a speech in Nevada, Biden lashed out against Donald Trump in his angriest speech against the former president and Republican primary frontrunner since the beginning of his 2024 campaign.
At a community center in a predominantly Black section of Las Vegas, Biden told his crowd of several hundred that “you’re the reason we’ll make Donald Trump a loser again.”
Biden’s approval rating dropped to 37%, according to an NBC News poll released yesterday, as his favorables continue to fall and he tries to engage a largely apathetic electorate ahead of his and Trump’s likely November rematch.
Trump, in an interview that aired on Fox News yesterday, suggested falsely that Latin American governments were picking the citizens they didn’t want and shipping them to the U.S. border, resurrecting a claim that was central to his 2016 campaign.
“Saturday Night Live” resumed its election-season tradition of bringing on political candidates to play themselves, inviting Nikki Haley for a cameo in its opening sketches this weekend.
Haley appeared in a comedy sketch set at a fake CNN Town Hall, where Trump, played by cast member James Austin Johnson, was being asked questions by an audience.
The United States launched airstrikes in Iraq and Syria against more than 85 targets linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) and the militias it backs, reportedly killing more than 30 people, in retaliation for a deadly attack on U.S. troops.
A U.S. statement said the latest strikes were carried out by ships and warplanes, part of a retaliation effort after last month’s drone strike in Jordan that killed three American service members, which D.C. blamed on Tehran and its allies operating in Syria and Iraq.
Mohammed Al Bukhaiti, a top Houthi Political Council member, said the group will continue its military operations until the siege on Gaza is lifted and vowed to respond to the latest US and UK strikes in Yemen and warned: “We will meet escalation with escalation.”
The strikes came as Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken set out for the region to push forward negotiations to secure the release of Israelis still held hostage in Gaza and get more humanitarian aid into the battered enclave.
A former Trump administration official has died after being shot in an attempted carjacking spree in downtown Washington, D.C., last Monday, the victim’s family confirmed to The Hill.
The federal judge overseeing Trump’s prosecution on charges of plotting to overturn the 2020 election issued an order on Friday scrapping the March 4 trial date for the case.
Senate Republicans and Democrats unveiled a $118.3 billion compromise bill to crack down on unlawful migration across the U.S. border with Mexico and speed critical security aid to Ukraine, but a backlash from House leaders threatened its chances of passing.
In a sign of the grim odds facing the legislation, Speaker Mike Johnson declared the deal “dead on arrival” in the House after the text was released yesterday evening.
Johnson revealed to Republicans on Saturday that the House will vote in the coming week on a clean, standalone bill to provide billions in funding aid to Israel — even as the Senate appears set to reveal its own border and foreign aid deal.
The legislation is a departure from Johnson’s previous position that any funding for Israel contains a provision to pay for the funding. The bill will be considered on the House floor next week and omits continued U.S. assistance to Ukraine.
Johnson shot down a suggestion that Trump was exerting undue influence on decisions in the House about a potential border deal.
Federal Reserve officials are debating when to lower rates. A “60 Minutes” interview with Jerome H. Powell confirms a move is coming, but not immediately.
Powell expressed confidence in the economy, promised he wouldn’t be swayed by this year’s presidential election, and said the pain he feared from rate hikes never really materialized.
“Our confidence is rising. We just want some more confidence before we take that very important step of beginning to cut interest rates,” Powell said.
Early voting started Saturday in the heated congressional special election to pick a successor to disgraced ex-Rep. George Santos for a Long Island swing seat that could further reduce the already razor-thin GOP majority in the House of Representatives.
Gov. Kathy Hochul on Friday offered her one-time bitter rival, former Long Island Rep. Tom Suozzi, a full-throated endorsement in his high-stakes special election race for the seat Santos vacated.
Newsday endorsed Suozzi, as did the Daily News, which said that voters in the district “district deserve a return to seriousness, sanity and experience.”
Adoption advocates are turning up the heat on Hochul to change a restrictive policy they say makes it difficult for New Yorkers to adopt from out-of-state birth mothers.
Hochul announced the launch of the first-ever Tuition Assistance Program eligibility to cover hundreds of SUNY and CUNY non-degree programs that lead to jobs in high-demand and growing fields.
Hochul’s office criticized Republican members of the state’s congressional delegation for failing to help address the migrant crisis.
A former head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said that as a New Yorker and former law enforcement officer, he is outraged at what he called Hochul’s attempt at “political cover” when she condemned migrants’ assault on police in Times Square.
A day after she said that the migrants accused of assaulting NYPD officers in Times Square should be deported, Hochul doubled down on her message, but didn’t criticize Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg for his decision not to set bail for many of the case’s suspects.
Police officers and other critics are slamming Bragg for refusing to seek bail for the rowdy migrants arrested after allegedly being caught on camera attacking NYPD cops in Times Square.
A Manhattan grand jury will hear evidence about migrants’ attacks on a group of NYPD officers outside a Times Square migrant shelter, Bragg said.
Bragg faced criticism when his office did not seek bail for most of the seven men initially arrested, prompting a judge to release them last week, and has since expressed concerns over whether all the perpetrators had been correctly identified.
Ex-Gov. David Paterson said that the migrants busted for beating two cops in Times Square and then allowed to bolt should be the final straw when it comes to dangerous US border and crime policies.
Many young New Yorkers are finding ways to wager money on sports through online applications that may have exposed a loophole in the state law that legalized mobile gaming and are allowing 18- to 20-year-olds to gamble.
A contingent of New York Republicans are rushing a tax bill through Congress that would bring a temporary shot of relief to millions of married couples in relatively high-taxed states.
A federal judge on Friday rejected an effort to halt New York’s cannabis licensing process, allowing the troubled rollout of the state’s recreational weed market to continue even as the state faces more legal challenges.
A newly state-approved accrediting agency for yeshivas is facing blowback from skeptics who worry it’ll be used to bypass quality checks such as school visits or standardized tests.
New carpets installed by the state Senate at the Capitol run afoul of the spirit of a sacrosanct section of state law: The phrase “e pluribus unum” is not included in any of the scores of representations of New York’s coat of arms that appear on the rugs.
As Mayor Eric Adams’ administration struggles with employee retention amid a hiring freeze, City Hall is granting paid family leave and extended parental leave for non-union employers — and paying out retroactive raises, plus a $3,000 lump sum bonus.
Rapper 50 Cent is no fan of Adams’ plan to distribute $53 million to city migrants on pre-paid credit cards, blasting the idea in an Instagram post.
New York City provided 720,765 residents cash assistance last year — the most it’s ever awarded in welfare checks in at least a decade.
The Adams administration took a step Friday toward limiting the presence of roadbed dining structures in the city, finalizing rules for a new outdoor eating program that only permits the controversial corrals for eight months of the year.
Five people who donated to Adams’ reelection campaign were secretly reimbursed, three of them by individuals linked to the owners of two hotels in Queens, a joint investigation from The City, Guardian US and Documented revealed.
The NYPD’s subway surveillance robot — which Adams called a “good investment” when it was first deployed last year — has been in storage for the past two months despite the city holding an active contract on the high-tech gadget, according to city officials.
New York City has retired the robot, known as the Knightscope K5, from service inside the Times Square station. The NYPD had been forced to assign officers to chaperone the robot, which couldn’t use the stairs. Some straphangers wanted to abuse it.
City Councilman Yusef Salaam has racked up five tickets over the past year totaling $285 in fines and late fees — including one for speeding in a school zone and another for blocking a bus lane, according to city records.
Brooklyn residents are frantic over the potential loss of medical-treatment options — and hundreds of local jobs — as the state moves forward with its apparent plan to close major safety-net hospital SUNY Downstate.
Just 11 Department of Buildings staff members will be in charge of enforcing the city’s landmark new climate law that restricts carbon emissions.
The city’s highest-ranking Jewish elected official, Comptroller Brad Lander, is under fire for breaking challah with anti-Israel fanatics at a Palestinian restaurant in Brooklyn that was previously blasted for its antisemitic “From the River to the Sea” menu.
State labor officials are failing to complete most child labor investigations in New York City within a reasonable timeframe — and in some cases are letting them drag on for more than a year, according to a new audit by the state comptroller.
A construction worker was pinned under debris and killed on Friday when the first floor collapsed at a Brooklyn home whose owner had been cited for construction without a permit.
Many New Yorkers have become interested in birding since the pandemic. Still, the city remains a tough place for birds (although Flaco the Owl remains free and well to date).
The 2026 men’s World Cup final will be staged at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey after FIFA, world football’s governing body, chose the venue over those in Dallas and Los Angeles.
While in competition with the AT&T Stadium inn Arlington, Tex., the home of the Giants and Jets promised to remove 1,740 seats to accommodate a wider field for the beautiful game, the Daily News previously reported.
Capt. Zeita Merchant, the commander of the Port of New York, will soon become the highest-ranking Black woman in the Coast Guard’s 233-year history as she attains the rank of rear admiral in April.
Voters in the East Greenbush school district may pass judgment on a $116 million bond issue in May to update all seven of the district’s schools.
This month, Southern Saratoga YMCA will undergo an extensive renovation that will repurpose unused spaces to create more program areas as well as upgrade mechanical, heating, ventilation and air conditioning, and technology systems.
A North Country group is broadcasting its concerns about lead poisoning that it says is the leading cause of death in a sampling of loons last year.
The Philadelphia Orchestra, under the artistic direction of Yannick Nezet-Seguin, is returning to SPAC for its annual summer residency with three weeks of pop music powerhouses, masterworks from the classical cannon, debuts and returning favorites.
Women thoroughly dominated the 66th annual Grammy Awards yesterday, with a history-making album of the year win by Taylor Swift and victories by Miley Cyrus, Billie Eilish, SZA, Lainey Wilson, the Colombian pop star Karol G and the band boygenius.
After winning the Grammy for best pop vocal album during Sunday night’s 2024 Grammys, Swift decided to celebrate by making a big announcement. The singer shared that she will release a new album in April.
Swift is releasing a new album, titled “The Tortured Poets Department,” on April 19.
“Sweet Dreams” singer Annie Lennox took to the Grammy Awards stage to call for a ceasefire in Gaza amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.
Michelle Obama is a two-time Grammy Award winner, besting other high-profile nominees including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Meryl Streep.
Shortly after winning three Grammys, the rapper Killer Mike was arrested at the awards show in connection with a physical altercation at the Los Angeles arena where the ceremony took place, the police said.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
