We made it to the end of another work week. Good morning, it’s Friday.
Looking ahead a few days, since we aren’t together on the weekends. This Sunday is the sixth and final Sunday of Lent, also known as Palm Sunday, which marks the start of Holy Week. Other observances by most major Christian churches – including Roman Catholic and Protestant – during this week include:
Holy Monday, Holy Tuesday, Holy Wednesday (AKA, Spy Wednesday), Maundy Thursday (AKA, Holy Thursday), Good Friday (the day Jesus was crucified), and Holy Saturday (AKA Black Saturday, the day that Jesus lay in his tomb). Some also observe Easter Vigil late Saturday night leading into Easter Sunday (the day Jesus was resurrected).
That’s a lot, and I’ll touch on – but not likely dwell on – some of it next week. For now, let’s talk about palms.
This day commemorates the beginning of the end of Christ’s work on earth, marking his entrance into Jerusalem. It’s called “Palm” Sunday, because fronds from the tree were reportedly placed in Jesus’s path as he made his way into the city. (The throngs who showed up to greet Christ also reportedly threw their own cloaks on the road to pad his path).
This was four days before his arrest on Holy Thursday (Aka Maundy Thursday, which is when I thought that the Last Supper also occurred, but maybe I’m wrong about that, and it was actually the day before?) and his crucifixion on Good Friday.
It’s traditional to mark Palm Sunday with prayers and processions. Also, palm leaves that have been blessed are distributed to those who attend mass. Some churches save the palms and burn them into ashes to be used on the next year’s Ash Wednesday. Others give them to parishioners to bring come and fold into decorative crosses.
As an aside, it’s interesting to me that palms play a key role in the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, as they are bound with other branches (myrtle and willow) to make the lulav, which gets waved, along with the etrog, in the Sukkah.
It’s also interesting how Palm Sunday traditions vary around the world. In the Netherlands, for example, Easter isn’t associated with chickens and bunnies, but with roosters. On Palm Sunday, kids participate in processions during which they carry crosses festooned with ribbons and topped with a rooster made of bread. (No, I am not making this up).
In Latvia, meanwhile, where palms are apparently in short supply, they use pussy willow branches instead. In Poland, also not known for its abundance of palm trees, it’s traditional to fabricate your own celebratory tree – some of which require multiple people to carry them – that are decorated with tissue paper flowers and ribbons.
Today will be partly cloudy with intervals of sun, but temperatures will struggle to get out of the high 30s. The weekend isn’t looking that great, from a weather perspective.
Saturday it’s going to rain. A lot. And it will be cold, with temperatures again only reaching into the high 30s. Sunday is looking a little better, with partly cloudy skies and temperatures FINALLY getting into the low 40s.
In the headlines…
Top congressional negotiators unveiled the $1.2 trillion spending bill to fund the government through September, though it remained unclear whether Congress would be able to complete action on it in time to avert a brief partial government shutdown.
The bipartisan bill emerged one day before the federal funding deadline, and it was not clear whether Congress could complete it in time to avoid a partial shutdown after midnight tonight.
Both parties were touting “wins” in the package well before unveiling the massive 1,012-page bill, which had already won President Joe Biden’s blessing and pledge to sign it “immediately.”
The Biden administration continued its effort to extend student debt relief, erasing an additional $5.8 billion in federal loans for nearly 78,000 borrowers, including teachers, firefighters and others who largely work in the public sector.
Economists in the Biden administration are calling for more aggressive federal action to drive down costs for home buyers and renters, taking aim at one of the biggest economic challenges facing the president as he runs for re-election.
The policy proposals in a White House report released yesterday include what could be an aggressive federal intervention in local politics, which often dictates where homes are built and who can occupy them.
The federal government’s aggressive crackdown on Big Tech expanded yesterday to include an antitrust lawsuit by the Justice Department against Apple, one of the world’s best-known and most valuable companies.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken returns to Israel today as part of an intensive diplomatic push to reach a “sustained and immediate ceasefire” in Gaza and deter an Israeli offensive into Rafah. He’ll meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The United States is circulating a resolution at the United Nations calling for “an immediate and sustained cease-fire” in the Gaza Strip, as experts warn of imminent famine in the enclave and pressure grows for stronger international action.
The resolution will be voted on today.
Americans are divided on how the U.S. should be involved in the Israel-Hamas war, according to new data from the Pew Research Center.
One of Israel’s longest hospital raids of the Gaza war stretched into a fourth day yesterday, as the military said that it had killed dozens of people it described as terrorists in the previous 24 hours in its operation at Al-Shifa Hospital.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office said in court papers that a large cache of newly disclosed documents contained little that might influence or delay the criminal trial of Donald Trump, which is scheduled to begin in mid-April.
DA Alvin Bragg called out Trump, saying the focus on discovery violations in his criminal case is a “red herring”.
Trump’s new shared fund-raising agreement with the Republican National Committee directs a portion of donations to the political account he has used to pay his legal bills before any money goes to the party itself.
State Attorney General Letitia James’ office filed judgments in Westchester County, the first indication that the state is preparing to try to seize Trump’s golf course and private estate north of Manhattan, known as Seven Springs.
These judgments were formally entered with the clerk’s office in Westchester County on March 6, a week subsequent to Judge Arthur Engoron’s ruling, which held Trump — and his sons, and the Trump Organization — liable for $355 million, plus interest.
New York taxpayers will spend tens of millions of dollars on the upcoming primary election — despite Biden and Trump being the presumptive nominees for their respective parties.
Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey announced that he would not run for re-election as a Democrat this year, bowing to intense political pressure and federal charges that place him at the center of an international bribery scheme.
But in a nine-minute video posted on social media, Menendez, 70, reiterated that he would not resign and left the door open to running as a political independent if he is exonerated at a trial scheduled for May.
“I am hopeful that my exoneration will take place this summer and allow me to pursue my candidacy as an independent Democrat in a general election,” Menendez, who has maintained his innocence, said.
A leading New York Republican is slamming Gov. Kathy Hochul over proposed budgetary changes to public education, accusing the governor of prioritizing “illegal immigrants” over students in the state.
As elected officials attempt to hammer out a housing deal before the state’s budget deadline at the end of the month, advocates want lawmakers to know they’re still fighting for tenant protections that aren’t watered down.
New York now has more licensed recreational dispensaries than any state on the East Coast except Massachusetts. However, they are struggling to break the illicit shops’ hold on consumers, who often don’t know or care which shops are licensed.
New York City hasn’t fined a single landlord for renting out space to unlicensed weed shops under a law that took effect nearly eight months ago with a delay in the program’s rollout and shortcomings in the measure itself as the main problems.
A former NYPD sergeant has accused a top aide and influential confidant of Mayor Eric Adams of sexual harassment, alleging inappropriate touching and unwanted advances in a court complaint filed yesterday.
Former cop Roxanne Ludemann’s suit accuses Timothy Pearson of engaging in a stomach-turning pattern of sexual harassment that included allegedly cornering her in a copy room during a December 2022 office party so he could rub her shoulders.
Frank Carone, Adams’ ex-chief of staff, rescinded his lobbying registration earlier this month – a move that coincided with his consulting firm revealing in filings that its other employees have lobbied officials in the Adams and Hochul administrations.
Nearly 84% of New York City public school students graduated on time last year, though stark disparities persisted for those with disabilities or learning English, data released yesterday showed.
Mets owners’ Steve and Alex Cohen’s foundation is making the largest donation in the City University of New York’s history to a new workforce development center at a Queens community college.
The Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation’s $116.2 million gift to LaGuardia Community College in Long Island City is also considered record-breaking for any community college in the country.
Four days after a 19-year-old woman was fatally stabbed in front of her twin sister outside a Brooklyn deli, law enforcement officials are still searching for the man who is accused of killing her when she rejected his advances.
A notorious New York City landlord turned himself in to the city’s sheriff to begin a two-month jail sentence after blowing off a judge’s orders to correct a raft of hazards at two Upper Manhattan apartment buildings he owns.
The owner of famed Manhattan pizzeria Grimaldi’s was indicted on charges alleging he regularly refused to pay employees and stiffed them when he did.
The MTA has reeled a former Penn Station eatery, and long-time favorite of commuters, into the Long Island Rail Road’s new terminal beneath Grand Central — convincing the oyster bar Tracks to open a second branch on the East Side.
The former top lawyer for the City of Schenectady is taking the mayor and two department heads to court in a bid to recoup about $31,039 of unused vacation and sick time he amassed during his tenure with the law department.
A political party leader is facing criticism after he repeated racist slurs at a Saratoga Springs City Council meeting this past Tuesday night.
Police and Saratoga Hospital officials evacuated the emergency department yesterday morning after a man made statements indicating he had a bomb while in the department, city police said.
The owner of a Troy barbershop has opened Saratoga County’s first marijuana storefront this week, offering cannabis in various forms including pre-rolled joints, vape cartridges, gummies, chocolate, tinctures, and more.
Velan Studios, a video game maker that is expanding with a new office in Montreal, is laying off 46 of its 70 employees in Troy, according to state documents.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
