It’s Thursday, and a brand new month – the shortest month of the year – is upon us.
It’s a leap year, so February 2024 has 29 days instead of 28. In case you, like me, forgot why this occurs, it’s to prevent us from losing time – 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds, to be exact. (I KNOW! It’s a little nuts).
Every leap year, the calendar lengthens to account for the fact that it does NOT take an even 365 days for the Earth to orbit the sun, which is why Feb. 29 is also known as National Time Refund Day.
Oh, you didn’t know that? Well, neither did I. But now we do. It would be really cool if this extra day was like a freebie – a floating holiday that you got to opt in for and do whatever you felt like. Sadly, I don’t know about you, but since Feb. 29 falls on a Thursday, I know what I’ll be doing: Working.
And if you want to be even MORE confused. Leap year occurs once every four years. However, it does NOT occur if the year is divisible by 100, unless it also just so happens to be divisible by 400. The next time we will skip a leap year is 2100, which is 75 years from now. So, unless you’re under the age of, say, 10 or so, it’s not really something you have to worry about remembering.
And speaking of birthdays, if you happen to be one of those people who was born on leap day, (AKA a “leapling” or, better yet, a “leaper”) don’t think you can get out of the annual ritual or marking another turn around the sun – or somehow avoid aging as fast as the rest of us.
While it’s true that you can’t celebrate your actually birthday if the day, well, doesn’t occur. You still are aging at the same rate as the rest of the human race. You can choose to have your birthday on Feb. 28 or March 1 – or, I guess BOTH, if it suits you. Why not?
Leap year has generated a whole slew of traditions and myths.
Here’s a fun one – Women are “free” to ask men to marry them (instead of the other way around) in Ireland ONLY once every four years, on Feb. 29. Although, if you’re in Greece, it’s supposedly bad luck to actually tie the knot during the leap year. People who do tend to see their marriages end in divorce.
If you’re looking to celebrate leap day, which technically won’t occur until the end of the month, but why not get the JUMP on things (see what I did there?), there’s a signature cocktail for that. It was created in the 1930s, and consists of gin, sweet vermouth, Grand Marnier, and lemon juice. There are some modern day versions out there, too. Cheers!
It will be cloudy today, with highs around 40 degrees.
In the headlines…
Top tech CEOs were grilled yesterday in Washington by lawmakers, who say the companies have failed to protect children from being subjected to sexual abuse and exploitation on their websites.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologized to parents in the audience of a Senate online child safety hearing who say that Instagram contributed to their children’s suicide or exploitation.
“I’m sorry for everything you’ve all gone through,” Zuckerberg said, after Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., pressed him on whether he’d apologize to the parents directly. “It’s terrible. No one should have to go through the things that your families have suffered.”
Snap CEO Evan Spiegel also apologized to families whose children have died after they purchased drugs on Snapchat. “I’m so sorry that we have not been able to prevent these tragedies,” he said, detailing some efforts the company takes to protect young users.
Wizz, a social media app growing popular among teens in the U.S., was removed from the Apple app store and Google Play this week.
The United States struck up to 10 unmanned drones in Yemen that were preparing to launch, a U.S. official said late yesterday, amid escalating tensions from the war in Gaza spreading through the region.
Tehran has vowed to respond to any threat from the United States as anticipation grows over Washington’s next move after the killing of three American servicemen by Iranian-linked militants.
Secretary of State Tony Blinken asked the State Department to conduct a review and present policy options on possible U.S. and international recognition of a Palestinian state after the war in Gaza, two U.S. officials briefed on the issue told Axios.
U.S. negotiators are pushing for a cease-fire deal that could stop the war in Gaza long enough to stall Israel’s military momentum and potentially set the stage for a more lasting truce, according to U.S. and Arab officials familiar with the negotiations.
Swedish broadcaster STV reported that a dangerous object was discovered outside the Israeli Embassy and destroyed by the bomb squad. No one was injured.
After days of sharply criticizing the U.N. agency charged with assisting Palestinian civilians, donor countries signaled that they would continue to support the organization under the right conditions.
The Chicago City Council voted to approve a resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire in the war between Israel and Hamas, making it the largest city in the United States to do so. Mayor Brandon Johnson broke a 23-to-23 tie to ensure passage.
Biden has tapped John Podesta, his adviser on clean energy and a seasoned political strategist, to succeed John Kerry as his global representative on climate, the White House confirmed.
Biden will travel next month to East Palestine, Ohio, to mark the one-year anniversary of the disastrous train derailment and toxic chemical spill in the area.
Biden is expected to highlight the federal government’s response to the disaster while calling on Congress to take further steps to address rail safety, officials told reporters. It’s not clear exactly which day he will visit.
As signs point to the 2024 presidential election being a repeat of 2020, Biden holds a lead over Trump 50 – 44 percent among registered voters in a hypothetical general election matchup, according to a new Q poll.
Biden held a notable but not overwhelming financial advantage at the end of last year over his chief Republican rival, Trump, an encouraging sign for an incumbent struggling to generate robust enthusiasm among the Democratic grass roots.
The House Oversight and Judiciary committees announced that they have scheduled a closed-door transcribed interview with President Biden’s brother James Biden for Feb. 21.
Republican Rep. Claudia Tenney, of New York, nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize, citing the brokerage of the Abraham Accords.
Nikki Haley lost Iowa. Then she lost New Hampshire. Now, some of the biggest donors in the Republican Party — a Trump-resistant donor class that has fueled her candidacy for months — are at least opening the door to the former president.
In a significant victory for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, a federal judge threw out a lawsuit filed by the Walt Disney Co. claiming he and his allies violated the First Amendment by taking over a special tax district that encompasses Walt Disney World.
Disney strongly suggested it would appeal.
Federal Reserve officials, seeking more progress on the fight against inflation, hinted that their next move will be a cut in interest rates — just not yet.
In a substantially changed statement, the Federal Open Market Committee removed language that had indicated a willingness to keep raising interest rates until inflation had been brought under control and was on its way toward the Fed’s 2% inflation goal.
“The Committee does not expect it will be appropriate to reduce the target range until it has gained greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably toward 2 percent,” the statement said.
The House approved a $78 billion tax package with a large bipartisan margin. The effort is a test of whether a dysfunctional Congress can pass major legislation in an election year.
The package would temporarily expand the child tax credit and restore a number of business tax benefits. It next heads to the Senate.
The Senate has not scheduled a vote on the bill but Senate Democrats have generally supported the legislation and it could come up for a vote quickly.
Members of New York’s congressional delegation are aiming to double the state and local tax deduction as the House finalizes a broader tax bill that would restore the child tax credit.
Gov. Kathy Hochul has nominated a 32-year veteran of the New York State Police to be its new leader.
If the state Senate agrees, Steven G. James would be the second Black person confirmed to hold the rank of superintendent and the third to lead the 5,000-member force, which has struggled for years to diversify its ranks.
James will replace Acting Superintendent Steven Nigrelli, who resigned in October after being an interim replacement for Kevin Bruen, who stepped down amid a reported investigation in his handling of complaints leveled against a human resources staffer.
Republican pols are lining up to demand that the rowdy migrants nabbed in a caught-on-camera attack on two NYPD cops in Times Square get deported — as Hochul said it’s something that should certainly be “looked at.”
Hochul has made no secret of her unhappiness with New York State’s rollout of the legalization of cannabis. And that unhappiness is growing. “It’s a disaster,” the governor told The Buffalo News editorial board last week. “I will not defend that for one second.”
More than 50 school districts and BOCES facilities in New York will receive $100 million to address learning loss brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and provide students with mental health support, Hochul’s office announced.
The Biden administration approved a major disaster declaration unlocking federal funding for repairs in Brooklyn stemming from the drenching, record-setting rainstorm that doused the city in late September, officials said.
The declaration will release funding to assist with recovery-related efforts in Kings (Brooklyn), Nassau and Westchester Counties, among those most heavily-hammered by the downpours on Sept. 29, 2023.
New York Republicans will meet in Binghamton in mid-February to hold the party’s statewide nominating convention, the Broome County GOP announced.
Mayor Eric Adams announced that his administration is creating a Citywide Clergy Collective to combat gun violence with $1.5 million in state funding.
Adams’s control of the school system is up for renewal in June, and lawmakers are debating whether to return power to school boards as some other large cities have done.
As the state’s Education Department studies the effectiveness of New York City’s 20-year-old system of mayoral control, locals aired their views at five hearings held across the boroughs over the past two months.
Adams and state GOP Chair Ed Cox are unlikely allies, playing on the same team in seeking a way to undo some of the effects of the How Many Stops Act.
The controversial anti-cop “How Many Stops Act” approved by the City Council — overriding Adams’ veto — has become a lightning rod issue in the hotly-contested special election to replace expelled ex-Rep George Santos.
Amid an ongoing hiring freeze, a report card on city agency performance released this week shows that some agencies still don’t have the staff they need.
New York City’s public libraries saw large spikes in visitors and social program participation in the months before Adams’ budget cuts prompted them to eliminate Sunday hours at all their branches and scale back other services as well, new data shows.
The NYPD will be sending officers to Tucson, Arizona and Bogota, Colombia to help address the migrant crisis and the flow of drugs and guns pouring through the southern US border bound for the Big Apple.
New York City is slowly expanding the reach of its B-HEARD pilot program, which launched in 2021 to provide a non-police response to mental health crisis calls and which advocates have said is necessary to reduce incidents of police violence.
A fake, 10-second recording that featured former Assemblyman Keith Wright’s AI generated voice, briefly upended New York politics.
A Manhattan judge overturned the convictions of two men who each spent decades behind bars after being found guilty in 1987 of killing a French tourist in Times Square.
The New York metro area’s three major airports had their busiest year ever in 2023, Port Authority officials announced.
The Rubin Museum of Art in Manhattan will shutter after two decades of championing its prized collection of art from Himalayan Asia. It is the first major art museum in New York to close within recent memory.
The Democratic majority leader of the Yonkers City Council allegedly railed that she wanted to “slice this b—h’s throat” after a fellow lawmaker voted unsuccessfully to remove her from the post earlier this month, according to a complaint.
Crossgates Mall recently won a large property tax valuation case against the town of Guilderland, giving the mall and its Syracuse owners a major legal victory and some financial relief.
The National Labor Relations Board has consolidated and amended complaints in which a local labor union has accused the Capital Roots nutrition nonprofit of wrongfully withdrawing recognition of the labor organization.
The city and Albany County each intend to chip in $100,000 to help methadone clinic Camino Nuevo buy the former United Way building off Washington Avenue Extension at the back of the Pine West Plaza.
A fire started in the attic of the popular Hot Dog Charlie’s at the southern border of Cohoes yesterday morning, causing heavy damage.
The Messenger, a digital media company that launched less than a year ago, will soon shut down, according to multiple reports.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
