Good Tuesday morning.
Every U.S. president since 1976 has officially designated the month of February as Black History Month.
This year in no exception.
President Joe Biden, who is very much hoping Black voters come back to the fold and vote Democrat in the fall general election, issued the 2024 Black History Month proclamation a day before the month itself started (Jan. 31). He also took some time to tout his administration’s ongoing efforts to address long-standing racial inequities and combat systemic racism.
Black History Month actually started out as a weeklong celebration launched by an organization created to research and promote the the achievement of Black Americans called the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH) – today, it’s known as the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH).
ASNLH established what it called Negro History week in 1926, landing on the second week of February because it also happened to contain the birthdays of two important figures in Black history – President Abraham Lincoln and abolitionist Frederick Douglass.
ASNLH encouraged observance by communities, schools, and organizations of the week to include a wide range of activities (like lectures and performances, for example).
By the 1960s, the civil rights movement was well underway, and “Negro History Month”, which had been embraced by local elected officials across the country, started to evolve into Black History Month – especially on college campuses.
In 1975, Gerald Ford became the first president to acknowledge Black History Week, calling it an “appropriate” undertaking as the country was developing “a healthy awareness on the part of all of us of achievements that have too long been obscured and unsung.”
The next year, Ford issued the first-ever Black History Month presidential message, urging the country to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”
“Freedom and the recognition of individual rights are what our Revolution was all about. They were ideals that inspired our fight for Independence: ideals that we have been striving to live up to ever since. Yet it took many years before these ideals became a reality for black (sic) citizens,” Ford wrote.
The theme for this year’s Black History Month is “African Americans and the Arts.”
Another sunny day is on tap, with temperatures in the mid-30s.
In the headlines…
President Joe Biden would veto a proposed standalone aid package for Israel, the White House said, as House Republicans look to tank a long-awaited bipartisan Senate border deal that would include aid to US allies.
“The Administration strongly encourages both chambers of the Congress to reject this political ploy and instead quickly send the bipartisan Emergency National Security Supplemental Appropriations Act to the President’s desk,” the White House said.
Top House and Senate Republicans savaged a $118.3 billion bipartisan compromise bill to crack down on unlawful migration at the U.S.-Mexico boarder and speed critical security aid to Ukraine, threatening to kill its chances of clearing a deeply divided Congress.
Republicans demanded a border crackdown but have rejected a bipartisan plan to impose one, underscoring the intractable politics of an immigration deal in an election year in which the issue is a main focus.
Biden congratulated hospitality workers for reaching a tentative agreement with several Las Vegas hotel-casinos and calling off a strike deadline for another, telling members of the local culinary union, “When you do well, everybody does better.”
The Culinary Workers Union Local 226 said late Sunday night it had reached a tentative agreement with the Downtown Grand Hotel and Casino and would be extending talks with the Virgin Hotel Las Vegas to avert a work stoppage.
Donald Trump and Nikki Haley, the two major candidates still in the Republican race, will each compete in Nevada without even appearing on the same ballot.
Nevada Republicans hold caucuses on Thursday, which will be used to allocate delegates to the national convention, and Trump is running virtually unopposed. Haley is participating in today’s primary, mandated under state law with no delegates at stake.
Haley’s campaign said she had raised $16.5 million in January, her biggest monthly fund-raising total to date, adding a new infusion of cash to the $14.6 million her campaign brought into the new year to keep the nomination fight with Trump going.
Trump said that he wants to debate Biden ahead of November’s general election.
Biden’s promise for 23 million families across the U.S. is on shaky ground. That’s because a subsidy that helps people with limited resources afford internet access is set to expire this spring.
Biden’s approval rating hit a new low of 37% in a new NBC News poll.
A highly edited Facebook video of Biden will stay on the platform after an independent body that oversees its content moderation determined it doesn’t violate company policies, but also criticized its manipulated media policy as “incoherent and confusing.”
Trump urged the Supreme Court to keep his name on Colorado’s ballot, accusing his challengers of pursuing an “anti-democratic” legal case against him, in the final written argument he’s expected to make before the justices hear oral arguments this week.
Imminent rulings and looming trials could prove fateful to the Republican frontrunner’s 2024 campaign and his personal fortune. The powers and the limits of the presidency, and even America’s constitutional democracy, will be shaped by what happens next.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) relaunched an anti-smoking ad campaign, with a particular focus on the dangers of menthol cigarettes.
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken arrived in the Middle East in the hopes of preventing escalating tit-for-tat attacks with Iran-backed militias from spiraling into a broader regional war, and to rally allies around a proposed cease-fire agreement for Gaza.
A makeshift tent city estimated to hold more than 1 million displaced Palestinian civilians is rapidly expanding in Rafah, southern Gaza, according to new satellite images from Maxar Technologies.
US officials said that Iraq was not notified ahead of a series of strikes on Iran-linked targets in the country, contradicting earlier statements that the Iraqi government was warned before the strikes occurred.
McDonald’s and Starbucks, two of the biggest U.S. restaurant companies, both said the Israel-Hamas war hurt their sales at the end of last year.
Over the first two days of early voting this weekend, more than 21,000 New Yorkers cast their ballots in the special election for the state’s Third Congressional District.
The two candidates vying to replace expelled ex-Rep. George Santos in next week’s House special election clashed over a proposed $118 billion Senate deal that would crack down on border crossings and provide aid to Israel and Ukraine.
A state Supreme Court justice in Albany dismissed a Republican challenge to New York’s law allowing registered voters to cast their ballots by mail ahead of Election Day.
Gov. Kathy Hochul turned up the heat on Syracuse GOP Rep. Brandon Williams, urging him and nine other House Republicans from New York to push for House passage of a bipartisan border bill.
New York Republicans are focusing on a confrontation with the NYPD outside a migrant shelter last week to unload on Democrats — charging Hochul with failing to use tools available to her in New York as Congress debates the passage of Biden’s border bill.
Hochul is moving to strip away the paid sick days that New Yorkers infected with COVID-19 have been guaranteed since the beginning of the pandemic.
More than $15 million will go to support 19 projects involving technology, business redevelopment, manufacturing and transportation across New York as part of the Regional Economic Development Council initiative, Hochul’s office announced.
Hochul has announced the schedule for the 2024 Free Fishing Days in New York, allowing residents and visitors to enjoy freshwater fishing without the need for a fishing license on specific designated days.
Hochul, in Syracuse to discuss the budget yesterday, doubled down on her frustrations with the way the state’s cannabis regulators are operating, and said she’s looking at “opportunities to make major changes.”
Six members of the state Senate’s Subcommittee on Cannabis sent a letter to the Cannabis Control Board and New York’s top regulators urging them to “do better” as the rollout of the retail marijuana industry continues to stumble.
So-called junk fees are the latest target in a package of legislation scheduled to be approved today in the state Senate, including a bill that would require more transparency from sellers who charge them.
Organizations representing home health workers are trying to convince Hochul to reverse a provision tucked into last year’s state budget that left many providers without a revenue stream while boosting funds flowing to a powerful politically connected union.
The left-leaning wing of the Democratic Party has long favored rent control and eviction bans to address the state’s housing crisis. Now, progressives in New York also want to revive an old concept: let the government develop thousands of affordable homes.
Former Rep. Lee Zeldin, Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt, Conservative Party Chairman Gerard Kassar and “Stop NY Corruption” are amplifying their warning to Democrats that if congressional districts are substantially redrawn, more litigation will follow.
A former doctor from Arizona is facing a manslaughter charge in New York for his role in the suicide of a woman who died in a Hudson Valley motel room in November, according to his lawyer and law enforcement officials.
Mayor Eric Adams took the unusual step of joining an N.Y.P.D. raid to crack down on a robbery ring. His critics called it a political stunt.
The NYPD commissioner declared that the city has a problem with crimes committed by migrants, hours after Adams pushed back on Republican lawmakers who spent the morning trashing New York’s “sanctuary city” laws.
“The national government must solve this, and the challenges that we are facing, no city should be facing these challenges,” Adams said.
Adams is taking on 50 Cent over the rapper ripping the city’s $53 million migrant credit-card handout — telling Fitty to “hit me up’’ so he could personally explain his rationale. “Maybe he’ll write a song about me,” the mayor quipped.
Dwayne Montgomery, a former NYPD inspector who has been friends with Adams for years, pleaded guilty to conspiracy for his role in a scheme to funnel illegal donations into the mayor’s 2021 campaign coffers.
Montgomery, whose career in the NYPD overlapped Adams’, pleaded guilty to one conspiracy charge, according to a copy of the agreement released by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
In his plea, Montgomery agreed not to organize or host any fund-raisers or solicit contributions for a campaign for one year. In return, Bragg said that he would recommend Montgomery complete 200 hours of community service and pay a $500 fine.
Alleged thieves used stolen mopeds, scooters in more than 60 sidewalk robberies, Adams says.
Police have slapped street vendors with a skyrocketing number of criminal tickets since Adams took office two years ago, despite a 2021 shift intended to prioritize civilian enforcement in place of the NYPD, an analysis of department data by THE CITY shows.
New York City restaurant owners who spent thousands on outdoor sheds have blasted Adams’ crackdown on pandemic-era seating as new rules are set to get rid of nearly all existing structures.
Adams teamed up with New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy to tout the huge economic boost expected from netting the next soccer World Cup Final for MetLife Stadium.
Eighteen elected officials have joined a federal lawsuit by the teachers union aimed at blocking the controversial new $15 congestion pricing toll to enter Midtown Manhattan.
A public housing tenant has died due to complications associated with Legionnaires’ disease likely contracted at a Brooklyn NYCHA development, where the water is now the subject of ongoing testing and vulnerable residents have been advised not to shower.
Five years ago this week, the nation’s biggest public housing authority signed an unprecedented agreement committing itself to fix decades of mismanagement and neglect that had forced thousands of residents to endure squalid conditions for years.
Bob Beckwith, a retired Long Island firefighter from Long Island who aided in the search for 9/11 survivors and was catapulted to fame after photographs showing him and President George W. Bush standing atop the rubble-strewn pile, has died at 91.
Several Democrats are questioning the speed with which Assemblywoman Patricia Fahy was declared the Albany County Democratic Party’s favorite to succeed state Sen. Neil Breslin.
Classes at The Albany Academies are set to resume today with increased security after the Albany County Sheriff’s Office deemed threatening text messages received by some students and circulated widely through the school community as “low threat.”
King Charles III has been diagnosed with cancer and is now receiving treatment, according to a statement from Buckingham Palace.
“During The King’s recent hospital procedure for benign prostate enlargement, a separate issue of concern was noted,” a statement released yesterday read. “Subsequent diagnostic tests have identified a form of cancer.”
The announcement came a week after the 75-year-old sovereign was discharged from a London hospital, following a procedure to treat an enlarged prostate and casts a shadow over a busy reign that began barely 18 months ago.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
