Good morning. Wednesday is upon us.
How’s spring treating you so far? As for me, I woke up yesterday – first day of astronomical spring, officially speaking – to a scattering of snow on the ground. I needed a hat and gloves to let the dog out.
Granted, it was 4 a.m., and by the time I went out for real most of it was all melted. Still, it was awfully demoralizing, to say the least.
It’s amazing how much the weather impacts your mood. I’ve written here before about seasonal affective disorder, or SAD, which is a type of depression that appears to be triggered by a chemical change in the brain brought on by shorter days a lack of daylight. This can trigger a downward spiral for many people, because research has proven definitively that one’s mood has a direct impact on one’s health – mental AND physical.
You’ve heard about the mind-body connection, right? Well, it turns out that being happy can improve your immunity, reduce stress, lower your blood pressure and your risk of heart disease, enable you to sleep better, and make it more likely that you’ll exercise and follow a healthy diet.
In fact, up to 80 percent of primary care doctor visits have some sort of stress-related component. And Americans are just getting more and more stressed out, which means they’re trending increasingly toward unhappiness.
It might seem counterintuitive so say the following about something that is an essential and natural human emotion, but being happy is WORK.
You know that saying about how it takes more facial muscles to frown that to smile? Well, turns out that’s dramatically over-simplified, and no one really knows for sure exactly how many muscles are involved in either expression. It depends on what KIND of smile and frown we’re talking about – a small mysterious smirk, for example, is less onerous than a full-own beaming grin, which might also involve the muscles around the eyes as well as those around the mouth.
Even assuming that it does take a little bit more energy to put a smile on your face, science says it’s worth the effort. Not only has smiling – even if you don’t really feel like it – been shown to elevate your mood, it can also release natural painkillers (serotonin and endorphins, for example), potentially lower your blood pressure, AND make you more attractive and approachable to others.
Yes, the smile is a universally recognized non-verbal communication device.
Now, some of us (like me, I suspect) are anxious by nature and might find being happy even more of a challenge than the average person. Turns out that this is not a figment of your imagination – up to 50 percent of why we’re happy (or not) is likely genetic.
The rest of it has largely to do with choice and circumstance, and though it has been proven that money is not the sole key to happiness, it sure as hell makes like a lot easier, removing obstacles to happiness (like, say, hunger, ill-health, and worry about making ends meet).
Believe it or not, so powerful is the concept of happiness and its integral nature into the longevity and perhaps even very survival of the human race that there is an official International Day of Happiness, which just so happens to be today.
According to the UN, the establishment of this day in 2012 recognized that happiness is a fundamental human goal and calls for “a more inclusive, equitable and balanced approach to economic growth that promotes the happiness and well-being of all peoples.” To mark this day, something called a World Happiness Report will be released at 12:00 PM EDT.
So be on the lookout for that. FWIW, last year’s report marked the 10th anniversary of International Happiness Day and too into consideration the short and long-term impacts of the COVID crisis. Pretty heady stuff.
You’re going to have to make your own sunshine – so to speak – today, because there’s nothing but clouds in the forecast, and perhaps some rain as the day progresses. Temperatures will be in the mid-to-high 40s.
In the headlines…
President Joe Biden and congressional leaders said in separate statements that they have reached an agreement for funding the government for the rest of the fiscal year.
Neither publicly announced details of the deal, which marks a breakthrough after months of baby steps with small continuing resolutions to keep the federal government funded.
“We have come to an agreement with congressional leaders on a path forward for the remaining full-year funding bills,” Biden said. “The House and Senate are now working to finalize a package that can quickly be brought to the floor and I will sign it immediately.”
The top two U.S. generals who oversaw the evacuation of Afghanistan as it fell to the Taliban in August 2021 blamed the Biden administration for the chaotic departure, telling lawmakers it inadequately planned for the evacuation and did not order it in time.
Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during their call on Monday that he is not trying to undermine him politically, two sources with knowledge of the call said.
Biden takes his reelection pitch to a pair of Western battleground states this week, heading to Nevada and Arizona to shore up support in key states he’s looking to defend against former President Donald Trump in November. He’ll also be in Texas.
Biden told supporters at a campaign office in Reno, Nevada, that he and Trump have a “different value set” and he criticized Trump for comments he’s made about veterans and others.
Biden, Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi will rally virtually with activists to mark the 14th anniversary of the signing of the Affordable Care Act, part of a broader push to make what Biden’s advisers see as one of the strongest arguments for his reelection.
The Biden campaign has released a new ad targeting Asian American and Pacific Islander voters in battleground states, aimed at highlighting his investments in small businesses.
It was the biggest primary night since Super Tuesday, and there were few surprises in the results.
It was primary day in Ohio and Illinois, and in the biggest contest of the day, Republicans chose Trump’s endorsee Bernie Moreno as their candidate in Ohio’s U.S. Senate race. It was a good night for other Trump endorsees too.
In the bruising and expensive primary to face Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown this fall, voters favored Trump-backed Cleveland businessman Moreno over state Sen. Matt Dolan and Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose.
The contest to choose who will finish out former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s term is heading to a runoff, while an 82-year-old incumbent won a Democratic House primary in Illinois.
Trump told the Supreme Court that future presidents could be vulnerable to “de facto blackmail and extortion while in office” if the justices did not accept his sweeping view of immunity against special counsel Jack Smith’s election subversion charges.
The arguments from Trump came in a brief submitted to the court before April 25 oral arguments, when the justices will consider whether and to what extent a former president has absolute immunity from prosecution for conduct alleged to involve official acts.
Trump posted complaints lamenting the “practically impossible” $464 million he can’t get a bond for in the civil fraud judgment against him, the day after he hit ABC News and George Stephanopoulos with a defamation lawsuit for an undisclosed sum.
Trump has launched his general election campaign not merely rewriting the history of the Jan. 6, Capitol attack, but positioning the violent siege and its failed attempt to overturn the 2020 election as a cornerstone of his bid to return to the White House.
Mark Cuban defended Trump after a Democratic lawmaker accused the former president of lying about his net worth.
The State of Texas was once again prevented from enforcing a strict new immigration law that gives local police agencies the power to arrest migrants who cross the border without authorization.
The order, issued by a Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals panel before midnight, capped a day of legal whiplash and came just hours after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the law to temporarily go into effect.
Gov. Kathy Hochul is ready to fight any legal opposition to her school aid proposal that would result in cuts to more than half of the state’s school districts.
Contraception will be made available to walk-in patients at New York pharmacies, following an order signed yesterday morning by state Department of Health Commissioner James McDonald.
Hochul said it was a “new day” for women in the state. New York’s action follows a similar move in New Jersey last year.
Lawmakers and advocates called on Hochul to include an annual $90.4 million in funding for “universal school meals,” which they contend would finally enable all school districts in New York to provide meals during school hours to students free of charge.
Dozens of Queens tenants boarded two buses before dawn yesterday, embarking on an early journey to Albany to advocate for greater tenant protections.
Pro-Palestine activists are encouraging Democrats to leave their presidential primary ballots blank to protest Biden, but the state Board of Elections says it won’t report blank ballots in its election night results.
The top equity official at the state Office of Cannabis Management, Damien Fagon, has been placed on administrative leave following allegations of improper retaliation against a Hudson Valley cannabis processor.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams again staunchly denied sex assault allegations against him by a former colleague of his in the transit department back in 1993, a day after a legal filing offered the first public details.
Adams said he did not recall meeting the woman who accused him of assault: “This did not happen,” he said, adding: “I know how I live my life. I have been an extremely respectable public person.”
Taxpayers are funding Adams’ defense against allegations of sexual assault. The New York City Law Department will represent the mayor against a detailed legal complaint stemming from his time as a transit police officer 30 years ago.
Adams poured cold water on schools Chancellor David Banks’ optimism that preschool cuts could soon be reversed, just 24 hours after the chancellor said he had “great confidence” there was money to undo the reductions.
Adams said that he met the Chinese billionaire, Hui Qin, who pleaded guilty a day earlier to making more than $11,000 in straw donations to three political candidates, but the mayor added he had “no involvement” in the scheme.
Adams urged the powerful teachers’ union to step up and help boost recruitment so that New York City can comply with the new state-enforced class size mandate.
New York’s highest court issued a new ruling that could upend the way New York City collects billions of dollars in property taxes each year.
The lawsuit seeks to overturn a system that has been under fire because it favors wealthier homeowners. The housing groups that sued hope to distribute the tax burden more equitably.
The plaintiffs argued that the city’s assessment process — which helps determine a property owner’s taxes — discriminates against minorities by unfairly jacking up their property values for tax purposes.
The New York City Council is poised to approve a bill that would track the city’s progress on reducing class size — a state mandate that the mayor’s office has opposed and that advocates say the city is struggling to meet.
Prominent publishers have sent a letter to the New York City Department of Education expressing alarm that books featuring diverse characters and subjects were discarded with the trash at a Staten Island elementary school.
Top Manhattan pols are urging Albany to finally yank a decades-old state law that’s been blamed for exacerbating the Big Apple’s housing shortage — ripping it as “a relic of another era.”
The Port Authority is set to make $15 million in upgrades to its police tech to increase response times and communication during critical incidents, putting it in line with other top police departments around the country.
Attorneys for the city this week told a federal judge that Rikers Island should remain in the hands of the city as a new, reform-minded commissioner takes a stab at curbing violent conditions at the notorious jail complex.
If you call for an Uber, you shouldn’t be surprised when a yellow cab shows up — the ride-share app is apparently hoping to rely on them more to ease a reported shortage of drivers, much to the chagrin of some riders.
After months of stalled contract negotiations, Mount Sinai Health System, a leading New York City hospital system, and the health insurance giant UnitedHealthcare announced a deal that will keep Mount Sinai’s hospitals and doctors in network.
Police officers in Brooklyn shot and killed a 20-year-old man this week who had been shooting at a mugger running off with his wallet, according to three law enforcement officials familiar with the matter.
Manhattan is the worst borough in the city for dropped cell-phone calls, according to a new survey — which sadly was news to absolutely nobody in Gotham.
Of all the things New York City needs right now, is another private university one of them? Jonathan Bowles, the executive director of the Center for an Urban Future, says yes “because we’re in a different economic environment, postpandemic.”
Incidents of student misconduct have risen in New York City since pandemic disruptions, though serious crimes in schools have decreased.
A ban on transgender women playing on women’s sports teams at county-owned sports facilities has turned a Long Island county into the latest battleground for conservatives who have put cultural issues at the center of a nationwide political strategy.
Tom Falcone, the chief executive of the Long Island Power Authority who helped raise the utility’s financial underpinnings but also brought attention to performance failures by contractor PSEG Long Island, announced his resignation.
An upstate New York man said he’s fighting to get his beloved 750-pound pet alligator back from state agents who seized it from his house in a raid where they treated him like “some kind of drug kingpin.”
Barring an upset, Caitlin Clark mania will hit Albany next week. The excitement promises to be through the roof at MVP Arena, and so are the ticket prices.
Albany County is investing $1.2 million to buy the former Cohoes Community Center to expand recreational opportunities in the northeastern part of the county.
The City of Saratoga Springs is rescinding its plan to pass an age exception in order to hire a former Troy police officer who in 2017 shot an unarmed Black man.
In 2023, commissioners, administrators and sheriff’s sergeants were among the top paid officials in Saratoga County.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
