Good Monday morning.
We’ll start with a helpful PSA. Do you know what time it is right now? Better check again, because we’ve lost an hour “springing ahead.”
Daylight saving (not savings, BTW) time struck again over the weekend, unless you happen to live in one of the following places: Arizona (with the exception of the Navajo Nation), Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, U.S Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands.
We’ve been through the whys and wherefores of this – quite frankly, in my opinion, outdated and antiquated – practice that has been observed since 1918 and officially adopted by the U.S. as part of the Uniform Time Act of 1966.
Some states – including New York – have drafted, introduced, and/or are contemplating bills that would end daylight saving time altogether. Congress is also trying to get in on the action. In 2022, the Sunshine Protection Act, sponsored by Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, was unanimously passed in the Senate.
The bill, which has bipartisan support, would make daylight saving time permanent, which means no more flipping the clocks back and forth twice a year. The House thus far hasn’t shown any interest in taking up the bill, even though most Americans – a whopping 62 percent – favor ending the required changing of the clocks, according to a 2023 Economist/YouGov poll.
And so here we are – slightly sleep deprived and getting up while the sun is still struggling to rise – again.
Also over the weekend, (last night, to be exact), the Muslim holiday of Ramadan kicked off, and will run through Tuesday, April 9 – on or about, more on that later. Ramadan is a month of fasting (sawm), prayer (salah), reflection, and community (sometimes also referred to as “good deeds”).
Many Muslims believe that the Quran was first revealed to the Prophet Muhammad in the final 10 days of Ramadan. The holiday is one of the religions five pillars. (The others: the declaration of faith, daily prayer, the giving of alms, and pilgrimage to Mecca).
During Ramadan, all able-bodied Muslims are expected to abstain from eating, drinking and sexual relations from dawn to sunset.
The idea, generally speaking, is to temporarily give up the things we take for granted, making it easier to reflect on life and become closer to God. Those who are old or ill are exempt from fasting. Interestingly, if one is traveling, it is also possible to skip fasting – as long as you make up for it by fasting an equal number of days in the month immediately after Ramadan.
It is also traditional for those who are practicing to say additional prayers – especially at night – and try to recite the entire Quran.
Ramadan ends with a grand finale called Eid al-Fitr (sometimes just “Eid”) the “festival of the breaking of the fast”, one of the two celebratory holidays in the Islamic faith. On this day, many Muslims attend religious services, visit relatives and friends, eat special foods (notably a one-pot rice and meat dish called biryani), and exchange gifts.
When, exactly, Eid rolls around depends on the moon, which makes it a little tricky to say exactly how long the fasting lasts. It would be 29 days, and it could be 30 days, depending on when the next new (crescent) moon is seen. It is predicted that Ramadan will end this year on April 9, as mentioned above, and the first of three days of Eid will commence the next day.
It’s going to be overcast and windy – with a wind advisory in effect, warning of gusts up to 50 miles per hour, through tomorrow – temperatures will be in the low 40s and a few snow showers or flurries are possible.
In the headlines…
International hopes at reaching a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan were dashed, hours before the month of daytime fasting began, as Hamas repeated demands for a comprehensive cease-fire, which Israel has rejected.
President Joe Biden sought on Saturday to make the case that Jerusalem must dramatically alter its prosecution of the war against Hamas in Gaza, indicating that he is prepared to return to Israel and speak before the Knesset in order to do this.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israelis overwhelmingly support his policies and rejected Biden’s assertion that the war in Gaza was hurting Israel.
“I don’t know exactly what the president meant, but if he meant by that that I’m pursuing private policies against the majority, the wish of the majority of Israelis, and that this is hurting the interests of Israel, then he’s wrong on both counts,” Netanyahu said.
Biden said that he regretted using the term “illegal” during his State of the Union address to describe the suspected killer of Laken Riley.
Meanwhile, Biden’s all-but-certain 2024 GOP rival, Donald Trump, blasted the Democrat’s immigration policies and blamed them for her death at a rally attended by the Georgia nursing student’s family and friends.
Early in his remarks in Rome, Ga., at what was effectively his first campaign rally of the general election, Trump called the State of the Union address an “angry, dark, hate-filled rant” that was more divisive than unifying, and mocked Biden’s lifelong stutter.
Trump on Saturday stood by his 2019 statement that writer E. Jean Carroll made a “totally false accusation” against him, despite similar claims resulting in him losing a defamation case in January.
Trump on Friday posted a $91.6 million bond in a defamation case he recently lost to Carroll, staving off a potential legal and financial disaster just days before a deadline to secure the deal.
Biden released a new campaign ad addressing his age as part of a post-State of the Union a $30 million ad buy, which was accompanied by presidential travel to swing states — Pennsylvania and Georgia – over the weekend.
A defiant and bitter Trump returned on Saturday to the state where he faces criminal charges for undermining the 2020 U.S. presidential election, looking to win the battleground of Georgia as a stepping-stone to taking back the presidency.
Alabama GOP Sen. Katie Britt responded to allegations that her response to Biden’s State of the Union address was misleading. The criticism centers on a story Britt told about a victim of human trafficking, which she implied happened during Biden’s tenure.
The Senate voted 75 to 22 to approve a package of six spending bills that will fund a portion of the federal government through the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30, getting lawmakers about halfway home in wrapping up their appropriations work for 2024.
Biden signed the bills on Saturday, marking the first step in achieving a major goal for this Congress: overcoming entrenched dysfunction to complete the fundamental of funding the government.
Two members of the New York State National Guard were identified as victims in a military helicopter crash that killed three people in Texas on Friday near the U.S.-Mexico border.
John M. Grassia III, a New York State trooper, and Casey Frankoski, a National Guard helicopter pilot, were killed near La Grulla, Texas, when the chopper crashed into a field. Chris Luna, a U.S. Border Patrol agent, also died in the crash.
It could take months to determine the cause of a helicopter crash near Rio Grande City, Texas, that claimed the lives of two New York Army National Guard pilots from the Capital Region and also a U.S. Border Patrol agent.
Gov. Kathy Hochul has pulled back the big guns in her subway safety surge, ordering the National Guard not to carry military-grade assault rifles when they check straphangers’ bags for weapons.
The National Guard will no longer carry long guns while checking the bags of commuters filtering through the city’s subway system, officials said.
Hochul is blaming judges for misunderstanding bail laws, while some critics argue it’s the governor who doesn’t understand her own law.
A federal appeals court has reinstated bribery charges against former Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin, who resigned from office in April 2022 after his arrest on allegations of campaign finance wrongdoing.
“We conclude that the indictment sufficiently alleged an explicit quid pro quo,” the three-judge panel ruled unanimously. “Therefore, we reverse the judgment of the district court and remand for further proceedings.”
To address a growing housing crisis, leaders in state Senate are set to propose sweeping legislation today that would encourage new construction, establish new tenant protections and also revive some older ideas for building affordable housing.
A controversial “potency tax” on marijuana products is on track to be repealed in the state budget as Hochul and state legislators are negotiating how to replace it with a flat excise tax.
New Yorkers who win employment bias lawsuits are often seeing only a fraction of the money allotted to them by juries — thanks to judges slashing the amounts — according to state lawmakers who are zeroing in on a legislative fix.
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo called the country’s migrant crisis a “government blunder” Sunday, taking aim at fellow Dems Hochul and Biden during a speech at a Bronx church.
A Dem fund-raiser who co-hosted a Martha’s Vineyard gig for key New York pols has landed a coveted spot on the state’s powerful Board of Regents over other candidates with more local backing.
A state commission that will recommend whether to give reparations for slavery and discrimination to black residents hasn’t even met yet — but it has already sparked a rift among black New Yorkers over who should be eligible for payouts.
The head of the powerful Transportation Workers Union is warning members not to be “fooled” by the AFL-CIO’s recently published scorecards for U.S. Congress members — because, he says, the process is “deliberately biased” to boost Democrats.
Rep. Jamaal Bowman defended a controversial mural that included a depiction of anti-Jewish firebrand Louis Farrakhan in a Westchester suburb last year — a move that sparked outrage among Jews as he tries to hold onto his seat in a competitive primary.
Mayor Eric Adams’ standing with Latino voters is plummeting in a looming threat to his reelection campaign next year.
New York City has quietly approved a controversial green plan to require pizzerias and matzah bakeries using decades-old wood- and coal-fired stoves to cut their smoky pollutants by 75%.
New York City quietly filled the role of director of artificial intelligence and machine learning. In mid-January, Jiahao Chen, former director of AI research at JPMorgan Chase and the founder of independent consulting company Responsible AI LLC, was hired.
Cops this year have seized 113% more guns in subway busts, recovering 17 guns from people arrested on the city’s rails through March 3, more than double the eight confiscated during the same period in 2023.
The city’s efforts to improve subway safety by moving the homeless into more stable housing have shown some signs of promise, but have yet to make significant inroads among the thousands of New Yorkers who sleep on the trains.
A 29-year-old woman was struck by a subway train in Manhattan and had both feet amputated after her boyfriend shoved her onto the tracks during a dispute, the police said. The man, Christian Valdez, 35, was charged with attempted murder and felony assault.
Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso and Councilmember Erik Bottcher are forming a “housing league” of elected officials, to push a pro-development agenda backing a litany of changes that will produce more housing in the city.
The head of the Brooklyn Democratic Party has accused a Democratic former state lawmaker, Peter Abbate, of engaging in “white supremacy” for allegedly discouraging members of the local Asian community from running for office.
NYC Sanitation Commissioner Jessica Tisch is looking to clean up — on her posh three-bedroom Upper East Side duplex. She and venture-capitalist husband Dan Levine have put their co-op at 9 East 79th St. up for sale for a cool $13 million.
FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh is hunting down smoke-eaters and other staffers who mercilessly booed New York Attorney General Letitia James – and cheered in support of Trump – during a department promotion ceremony this week.
Prevailing over Trump and the National Rifle Association has made James a lightning rod. Foes call her vindictive. Allies say she’s just doing her job.
The New York Rangers should be put in a legal penalty box — according to Uber, which is taking the NHL team to court for failing to give the ride-sharing company information on one of its players, according to court papers.
More than 60 demonstrators were arrested in three separate city protests Friday over the conflict in Gaza, police said.
New York City’s famed Metropolitan Opera added a website trigger warning for prospective ticket buyers to Giacomo Puccini’s “Turandot,” informing audiences that the 1926 masterpiece set in ancient China could be offensive.
The supervised release of four Long Islanders arrested last Tuesday in connection with two dismembered corpses found in Suffolk County parks has inspired new bail reform legislation.
A 10-month-old girl in upstate New York died yesterday afternoon hours after being kidnapped. Halo Branton, who would have been 11 months old on Thursday, was pronounced dead at Ellis Hospital in Schenectady, according to police.
A storm that brought snow to the southern Adirondacks caused more than 10,000 National Grid customers at one point to be without power in Essex, Hamilton, Saratoga and Warren counties as of yesterday morning.
League of Women Voters chapters in Albany, Rensselaer and Saratoga counties are launching a campaign to promote passage of the Equal Rights Amendment to the New York State Constitution this fall.
Albany has reassessed all of its more than 29,000 properties, a periodic revaluation that is meant to equitably redistribute its tax burden depending on how much property values in the city have changed since the last reassessment.
The purveyor of traffic cameras mounted on school buses is trying to change its automated ticket program. according to an Albany County official, after tickets issued under it were tossed out three times in a state appeals court.
Developers are planning to build warehouses on two industrial sites in Feura Bush and Selkirk that are located near the Thruway and the CSX rail line.
“Oppenheimer” was crowned best picture at the 2024 Oscars — and took home six other awards, including best actor for Cillian Murphy, best supporting actor for Robert Downey Jr. and best director for Christopher Nolan.
“Poor Things” was next behind “Oppenheimer” with four wins, including a best actress title for Emma Stone.
Jimmy Kimmel used some of his final stage time as Oscars host to read, to millions of Americans watching at home, a post published on Truth Social by Trump. (And yes, he really did post it.)
The in memoriam segment at the Academy Awards opened not with a Hollywood star, but with a clip of Aleksei A. Navalny from “Navalny,” the Oscar-winning 2022 documentary about the Russian opposition leader who died last month in a Russian prison.
Here’s the AP’s full list of winners.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
