Good morning, it’s Thursday.
On this day in 1820, social reformer Susan Brownell Anthony was born in Adams, MA. Anthony, as you likely recall because you were a good student back in the day, championed many causes during her 86 years on the planet – temperance, abolition, the rights of labor, and equal pay for equal work.
But she is best remembered for her work as a leader of the women’s suffrage movement, traveling the country with her friend and fellow activist, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, giving speeches during which they demanded that women be given the right to vote.
You probably also know of Anthony’s deep ties to upstate – the City of Rochester, to be exact, where she lived for about half her life (40 years) and also was the site of her famous arrest for voting in 1872. She was convicted in 1873 for voting illegally and forced to pay a $100 fine after a two-day trial that she subsequently described as “the greatest judicial outrage history has ever recorded.”
I had always assumed that Anthony attended the landmark 1848 Seneca Falls Convention – the first women’s rights convention ever held in the United States, which was the unofficial kickoff of the women’s suffrage movement. Turns out, she wasn’t there, though her mother and sister did go.
In fact, it wasn’t until three years later – 1851 – that Anthony met Cady Stanton. The location of their meeting was indeed Seneca Falls, but the occasion was an antislavery meeting, not the convention.
I am also ashamed to admit that I was thoroughly uneducated – though am not at all surprised – about the fact that the suffragist movement, which was driven by white women, not only left women of color out of their crusade, but perhaps actively worked against extending the right to vote to Black men before women were able to cast a ballot.
Even Anthony, who had worked on abolitionist causes and was involved in forming, along with Frederick Douglas and others, the American Equal Rights Association, was guilty on this front.
The 19th Amendment, which makes it illegal to deny the right to vote to any citizen based on their sex and effectively granted women the right to vote, was first introduced to Congress in 1878, but wasn’t certified until 42 years later in 1920.
Technically, ALL women were supposed to be afforded this right, but in practice, women of color, (really, all voters of color, regardless of their gender), continued to be discriminated against until the 1965 Voting Rights Act was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson.
And, since we’re on the topic, it took even longer for those with disabilities to gain protections with the 1990 Americans With Disabilities Act.
Anthony’s red brick house at 17 Madison St. was the de facto headquarters of the National American Woman Suffrage Association when she was its president. She also died in the Flower City in 1906 at age 86, after delivering her “Failure is Impossible” speech in Baltimore.
The Susan B. Anthony House and Museum is now a significant historical tourist attraction and also is a National Historic Landmark. A few years ago, it was targeted by an arsonist, who thankfully did not succeed in their attempts to burn the iconic structure and its historically significant contents to the ground, though they did manage to do damage to the back porch.
As far as I have been able to tell, based on some limited Googling, no one was ever arrested or charged in connection with the fire, though the individual did return a second time after setting fire to the porch.
It looks like the extreme cold of yesterday – or what FELT like extreme cold to me in the wake of the false spring we experienced what seems like decades ago now – has eased. Temperatures will be in the high 30s today. Skies will be sunny in the morning, but clouds will advance in the afternoon and there could be some flurries about.
In the headlines…
At least one person was killed and as many as 22 others injured with gunshot wounds in a shooting in Kansas City, Missouri, after a rally yesterday celebrating the Chiefs Super Bowl victory, authorities said.
Of the injured, eight had “immediately life-threatening injures, seven had life-threatening injuries and six had minor injuries, Kansas City Fire Department Chief Ross Grundyson said.
Three suspects have been detained for investigation, Kansas City Police Chief Stacey Graves said at a media briefing, calling the shooting a “tragedy.”
“We are deeply saddened by the senseless shooting that occurred today near the end of the rally in Kansas City for the Chiefs. Our thoughts are with the victims and everyone affected,” the NFL posted on X.
Florida Rep. Jared Moskowitz, an outspoken voice against gun violence, said the Kansas City shooting, which took place on the sixth anniversary of the school shooting that killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in his state, was “horrific.”
President Joe Biden made a plea – yet again – for more gun control after the Kansas City shooting, saying in a statement: “Today’s events should move us, shock us, shame us into acting. What are we waiting for? What else do we need to see?”
Nearly one in five Americans say they believe a false conspiracy theory that Taylor Swift is part of a plot to boost Biden as he seeks another term in office, according to a new poll.
In remarks sure to raise eyebrows, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he would rather a Biden presidency over Donald Trump ahead of the US election this November because the incumbent president is the more experienced, predictable person.
Trump, often accused of cozying up to Russian President Vladimir Putin, said he took it as a “compliment” after the foreign leader claimed his country would prefer Biden win America’s 2024 presidential election.
Biden shielded thousands of Palestinians in the United States from deportation for the next 18 months, using an obscure immigration authority as he faces mounting criticism over U.S. support for Israel in the Gaza war.
The move comes as the White House faces immense pressure from the Arab-American community over the situation in Gaza.
Israel’s plans to launch a ground offensive in the southern Gazan city of Rafah would be “catastrophic,” the prime ministers of Australia, Canada and New Zealand warned in a joint statement.
The Republican head of the House Intelligence Committee urged the Biden administration to declassify information about what he called a serious national security threat.
Rep. Mike Turner gave no details about the nature of the threat, and the Biden administration also declined to address it. But several leading lawmakers, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, cautioned against being overly alarmed.
The Intelligence Committee sent out a note to House members yesterday warned of a “destabilizing foreign military capability that should be known by all Congressional Policy Makers.”
Several senior Republican officials are concerned that Trump’s expected takeover of the RNC will ultimately pave the way for the committee to once again cover his legal bills.
Special counsel Jack Smith pressed the Supreme Court to let stand a lower court ruling that denied former President Donald Trump immunity from prosecution, urging the justices to allow the trial in his election subversion case to begin quickly.
“The charged crimes strike at the heart of our democracy,” Smith told the court.
Trump is facing a big rest of the week in New York courts with a hearing in the Manhattan DA’s “hush money” criminal case that he must attend Thursday — and a potentially financially crushing ruling expected Friday in the $370 million fraud suit against him.
Congressman-elect Tom Suozzi’s victory in a special House election in New York buoyed Democrats’ spirits and offered a model on one of the party’s thorniest challenges: immigration.
In a text message to some of his former Republican colleagues, who joined state and local GOP leaders in disavowing him and spent months aggressively pushing for his ouster, ex-Rep. George Santos blamed them for costing the party a seat.
A bipartisan redistricting commission is expected to vote today on a new set of lines for New York House seats that would make minor adjustments to help Democrats in some battleground races, but not big changes that could create new legal challenges.
Senate leaders plan to move quickly to reject the articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, setting up a speedy trial in hopes of preventing House Republicans from turning the chamber into a political spectacle.
Faced with a potential third impeachment trial in five years, the Senate is likely to avoid the matter entirely. Expect Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to move to either dismiss the two articles against Mayorkas or to refer them to the committee level.
Schumer denounced the House vote to impeach Mayorkas as a “sham” and an “embarrassment” for House Republicans, declaring they have reached “a new low.”
Rep. Mark Green, the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, announced that he would not run for re-election, just a day after the Tennessee Republican oversaw Mayorkas’s impeachment.
Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III, speaking by video, told defense ministers meeting in Brussels that the US would maintain its support for Ukraine, but he made no mention of a multibillion-dollar aid package that has yet to gain Congressional approval.
Austin was released from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center Tuesday, ending a brief admission that began on Sunday.
Austin is expected to return to the Pentagon “later this week,” the Defense Department said. He resumed his full duties from home at 5 p.m., approximately 48 hours after he had first transferred his responsibilities to his deputy, Kathleen Hicks.
The New York State Democratic Committee officially designated U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand as their candidate for another term representing the state in Capitol Hill’s upper chamber.
Building on a major theme of her State of the State speech last month, Gov. Kathy Hochul laid out a $45 million action plan to tackle the scourge of retail theft.
“We are not criminalizing poverty here,” Hochul said. “We really are focused on what has become a sophisticated organized retail operation, the smash and grab efforts. They go in and swipe everything off the shelves.”
These new measures include a newly established smash-and-grab task force, criminal penalties against those who resell stolen goods online, and tax credits for small business to increase security measures.
Hochul announced the state Homes and Community Renewal’s Tenant Protection Unit secured a $514,000 settlement against Manhattan landlord Steven Croman of Centennial Properties for unlawfully defrauding renters amid a statewide housing crisis.
Hochul’s administration renewed its push to overhaul a decades-old state law that she and Mayor Eric Adams argue is snarling efforts to transform empty office towers into badly needed housing for New York City.
Hochul has introduced legislation that would grant the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation oversight over the Lockport Cave boat tour in Western New York.
New York state lawmakers and advocates rallied for parole reforms at the Capitol, calling for passage of both the elder parole bill and fair and timely parole bills.
More than a year after New York authorized the practice of “human composting,” no prospective burial businesses have sought approval to open facilities equipped to carry out the time-intensive process of turning human remains into soil.
New York and The Nature Conservancy have reached a “novel” compromise for protecting and providing public access to Follensby Pond, the 14,600-acre property near Tupper Lake where Ralph Waldo Emerson held his historic philosophers camp.
Attorneys for Harvey Weinstein asked New York’s highest state court to overturn one of the disgraced film producer’s rape convictions, and give him a new trial in another.
New York City is suing the companies that own TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and YouTube, alleging that the social media platforms are driving a spike in mental health issues among young people, Mayor Eric Adams said.
The lawsuit, filed in California by the City of New York, seeks accountability from the companies behind five major platforms.
“Over the past decade, we have seen just how addictive and overwhelming the online world can be, exposing our children to a non-stop stream of harmful content and fueling our national youth mental health crisis,” Adams wrote in a press release.
The Legal Aid Society is suing Adams for failing to implement laws that expand rental aid to low-income New Yorkers, intensifying the battle among the City Council, advocates and the mayor over the best way to address the city’s affordable housing crisis.
The City Council is expected to join the society, after voting last week to authorize a lawsuit. This comes as homelessness crisis overwhelms shelters and the city budget and as tensions increase between Adams and the Council over how to manage it.
IBM said it is working with New York City after officials blamed the company for technical issues that prevented nearly a million students from accessing their remote learning portal Tuesday morning after in-school classes were canceled due to a snowstorm.
A NYPD spokesperson confirmed that about 3,000 of the roughly 4,100 school safety agents across the city are now wearing “bullet resistant” vests since the department began distributing them this school year, with the rest on the way.
Landon Dais, a Democratic lawyer from Highbridge, won a special election this week to fill a vacant Bronx Assembly seat.
Police made a new arrest this week in an alleged group assault on two NYPD officers in Times Square last month, and rearrested another man in connection with the incident on separate shoplifting charges on Wednesday, according to the department.
Several well-publicized acts of violence by migrants in New York have unsettled some city leaders, but police statistics do not point toward a surge in crime.
The sole migrant who had been held behind bars for the gang attack on two NYPD cops in Times Square is now also free after an activist Brooklyn priest posted his $15,000 bail.
A teen set free without bail after being charged with taking part in a caught-on-video Times Square melee between a group of migrants and NYPD cops has been arrested again — this time for shoplifting at a Queens Macy’s, police said.
A Brooklyn man who, along with others, physically resisted law enforcement officers’ efforts to hold back the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was charged with several crimes for what prosecutors said was his role in the riot.
A building development that was marketed as a plush condominium complex on Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd. is instead going to be turned — with taxpayer money — into a homeless shelter that could potentially house migrants.
After pauses for Covid and Hollywood strikes, movie and TV production has resumed on the streets of New York City.
Albany County Democratic Party leadership opted against backing a district attorney candidate and will instead interview potential challengers as the incumbent, David Soares, tries to fight off the political repercussions of granting himself $23,000 in bonuses.
At least 50 nurses in New York are defending their licenses after seven schools in Florida were closed amid allegations that they were selling degrees rather than educating people.
The standardized testing provider College Board, a nonprofit organization, has agreed to pay $750,000 to New York to settle claims that it violated privacy statutes and unlawfully sold the personal data of thousands of students for years.
An infant who was burned this week at a Harriman State Office Campus day care center was flown to the burn unit at the Westchester Medical Center, authorities said.
Republican Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin took to social media to take a shot at former Democratic County Legislator Cindy Doran who resigned from her office due to moving from the county.
Niskayuna voters approved a $47.17 million capital project that will result in renovations across the district with an emphasis on making Van Antwerp Middle School a modern campus to get it ready for the future reconfiguration of the two middle schools.
Democrats who only remember the ‘Daily Show’ host, John Stewart, as a fierce critic of conservatives had a rude awakening on his return to the program when he made some jabs about Biden.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
