Good morning. We made it to Friday.
Actually, to me it felt like Friday arrived in record time.
I rarely say this. I’m not sure how to take it, really, because I read somewhere recently that one’s perception of time speeds up as one ages because the brain processes less information and makes fewer impressions/memories.
So, is this yet another indication of my advanced (OK, fine, advancing) years? I’d rather not think about it. Let’s just say I was really busy.
Maybe it was also because I was thinking about the coming weekend, during which I’m going to be traveling to Nashville – a place I’ve never been, but am pretty curious about. A lot of people have a lot of feelings and thoughts about Nashville, I’ve discovered, just like they have a lot of feelings and thoughts about country music. (I happen to be a fan).
It’s also a city where a lot of bachelorette parties take place, it appears.
I hate flying, as has been well documented in this space, but I love traveling. Unfortunately, those are two diametrically opposed feelings. There is no direct flight from Albany to Nashville, which means I’ll actually be taking off and landing – the worst part about flying, IMHO – four times in the span of four days.
I wonder who I should complain to about that?
We’re leaving Saturday afternoon, and at least at this moment it appears that the weather will cooperate. Nothing terrifies me more than flying in the middle of a storm. Or the middle of the night.
There is a slight chance of a rain shower, but generally there will be a mix of sun and clouds with temperatures in the mid-60s. Sunday, we’ll be up into the 70s – good thing I’ll be out of town (insert eye roll here) – with mostly cloudy skies and, again, a slight chance of a shower.
Though I’m not thrilled by the prospect of rain, it is good for all growing things – including trees, which have their own day of celebration today. It’s Arbor Day! I did not know until this moment that Arbor Day originated in Nebraska in the 1800s, thanks to J. Sterling Morton – a newspaper man and a naturalist.
It’s estimated than one million trees were planted in the state of Nebraska on the first Arbor Day, which he conceptualized and championed. This was accomplished in part by deploying an age-old tactic: Offering a prize for the largest number of trees successful and correctly planted.
It should go without saying that trees are a benefit to us all on a whole host of levels. They store carbon and help clean the air we breathe. Prevent erosion. Provide cooling shade and insulation from the wind. Soften the hard edges of an urban landscape. Offer shelter and food sources for a wide range of bugs, birds, and animals. Serve as a critical raw material for a wide array of products on which we rely. And much more.
If I haven’t convinced you yet I’m not sure what more I can say. Planting a tree is easy. It’s a lovely way to remember someone or honor someone or just do a nice thing. There are a large number of nonprofits that can help you get started. Or, you can just head to your local garden center and pick up a sapling yourself.
In the headlines…
President Biden and the leaders of 17 other nations called on Hamas to release all of the hostages seized during its Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel, an effort to raise international pressure on the group’s leader in Gaza to agree to a U.S.-brokered deal.
“The fate of the hostages and the civilian population in Gaza, who are protected under international law, is of international concern,” the leaders said. “We strongly support the ongoing mediation efforts in order to bring our people home.”
A top Hamas political official told The AP the Islamic militant group would agree to a truce of five or more years with Israel and lay down its weapons and convert into a political party if an independent Palestinian state is established along pre-1967 borders.
The messaging suggests a softening of Hamas’ position as its fate hangs in the balance with Israel’s pummeling of the Gaza Strip, which Hamas ruled before the war. The Palestinian militant group has long called for the Jewish state to be destroyed.
Army engineers began construction of a floating pier and causeway for humanitarian aid off the coast of Gaza, which, when completed, could help relief workers deliver as many as two million meals a day for the enclave’s residents, DOD officials said.
Biden was in Syracuse yesterday to celebrate a $6.1 billion grant awarded to Micron Technology, the memory chip maker that is building a $100 billion manufacturing campus in the town of Clay, just north of the city.
“I assure you, we’re just getting started,” Biden said — he was met with roaring applause at the Milton J. Rubenstein Museum of Science & Technology in downtown Syracuse. “We’re not just investing in our economy, we’re investing in our people as well.”
Upstate New York was officially designated an Investing in America Workforce Hub by Biden during his visit to Syracuse.
Biden’s relationship with the New York Times has soured and is significantly strained for a variety of reasons, a POLITICO Magazine story revealed.
Some on Biden’s team believe the Times has not adequately covered the importance of the 2024 election, which they view as “a matter of democracy’s survival,” according to the Politico report.
New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger reportedly confronted Vice President Kamala Harris over Biden’s decision to avoid interviews with major newspapers.
The New York Times released a blistering statement calling out Biden for his unprecedented lack of media access during his first term in office.
A U.S. Secret Service agent was removed from Harris’s security detail this week after the officer “began displaying behavior their colleagues found distressing,” an agency spokesman said.
The Supreme Court appeared likely to reject former President Donald Trump’s claim of absolute immunity from prosecution over election interference, but several justices signaled reservations about the charges that could cause a lengthy delay past November.
A majority of the justices did not appear to embrace the claim of absolute immunity that would stop special counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution of Trump on charges he conspired to overturn his 2020 election loss to Biden.
After nearly three hours of oral arguments, however, several of the justices seemed willing to embrace a result that could jeopardize the ability to hold a trial before the November election.
Trump’s criminal trial featured vivid testimony yesterday about a plot to protect his first presidential campaign and the beginnings of a tough cross-examination of the prosecution’s initial witness, David Pecker.
Pecker, the former publisher of the National Enquirer, testified about a deal made with Playboy playmate Karen McDougal and outlined the involvement of Donald Trump and his former personal attorney Michael Cohen.
A recurring theme in Pecker’s testimony has been how people around Trump lived in fear of his wrath.
As the first criminal prosecution of a former American president began just 13% nationwide feel Trump is being treated the same as other criminal defendants, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS.
A cargo ship exited Baltimore’s harbor for the first time since the Key Bridge collapsed last month.
The Balsa 94, a Panamanian-flagged bulk carrier vessel, was the first to be carefully pulled past the wreckage of the bridge and the stranded Dali cargo ship.
New York’s highest court overturned Harvey Weinstein ’s 2020 rape conviction and ordered a new trial, reversing a landmark ruling of the #MeToo era.
The court found the trial judge had improperly allowed testimony against the ex-movie mogul based on allegations that weren’t part of the case. Weinstein, 72, will remain in prison because he was convicted in Los Angeles in 2022 of another rape.
The court agreed that the trial judge who presided over the sex crimes case made a critical error when he let prosecutors call as witnesses several women who testified that Weinstein assaulted them, even though none of those allegations had led to charges.
#MeToo advocates noted that the ruling was based on legal technicalities and not an exoneration of Weinstein’s behavior, saying the original trial irrevocably moved the cultural needle on attitudes about sexual assault.
“This today is an act of institutional betrayal,” said actor and activist Ashley Judd, who was among the first women to publicly accuse Weinstein of sexual harassment. “Our institutions betray survivors of male sexual violence.”
It was unclear when Weinstein would be transferred to a California prison. A spokesman for the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, which runs the prison where he is now in custody, said the agency was “reviewing the court decision.”
Federal regulators have discovered fragments of bird flu virus in roughly 20 percent of retail milk samples tested in a nationally representative study, the Food and Drug Administration said in an online update yesterday.
The tested milk came from a nationally representative sample, with more of the positive results coming from milk in areas with infected herds of dairy cows, the FDA said. A spokesperson declined to say how many samples were tested.
Regulators said that there is no evidence that this milk poses a danger to consumers or that live virus is present in the milk on store shelves, an assessment public health experts have agreed with.
The University of Southern California announced that it has canceled its main-stage graduation ceremony for students, a move that follows campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war and a controversy over its selection of a class valedictorian.
As a deadline for Columbia University administrators and protesters to iron out a deal to clear a Gaza encampment edges closer, university officials are facing a lose-lose decision: Call in the NYPD again or allow a situation they said cannot continue to continue.
Anti-Israel chants erupted late yesterday at a pro-Palestinian encampment at City College of New York, where one passerby was driven away when a protester claimed she could “smell” he was a “Zionist.”
Columbia University’s faculty senate, fearing the repercussions of a censure vote against the school’s president, plans instead to vote on a watered-down resolution expressing displeasure with a series of her decisions.
In the week since Columbia started cracking down on pro-Palestinian protesters occupying a lawn on its campus, protests and encampments have sprung up at other colleges and universities across the country. There have been more than 400 arrests so far.
Students at City College have set up an encampment on their West Harlem campus, joining students at NYU, Columbia and universities around the country to protest the Israel-Hamas war.
More than a dozen students gathered at an encampment at the University of Rochester this week to protest Israel’s invasion of Gaza, amid rising tensions and arrests at campuses across the state, and other parts of the U.S.
As the demonstrations stretch into their second week, New York City Mayor Eric Adams says there is no reason for Gov. Kathy Hochul to call in the National Guard.
New York is likely to become the first state in the U.S. to create paid prenatal leave for pregnant moms.
Legendary columnist Cindy Adams finally got her high school diploma on Wednesday night at her 94th birthday party, presented by none other than Gov. Hochul.
A Sludge analysis found that Hochul has received at least $1.5 million from real estate industry donors since the start of 2023.
The licensing of a formerly illegal Queens cannabis dispensary exposed lapses in the vetting process, undercutting state officials’ assurances that those who jumped the line to cash in on cannabis would not be rewarded over those who played by the rules.
Though Adams scored a victory in the state budget, winning the battle of mayoral control over the city’s public schools, not all parents were celebrating with him.
Adams tried to reassure critics of his cuts to the city’s public library system that he was still in the “negotiation part” of his new budget plan — insisting that “everyone will be happy” with the final result.
Adams defended his proposed $111.6 billion budget, saying it is a sound plan as “all of us are dealing with the financial crisis.”
New building safety legislation in response to a partial collapse in the Bronx last year would require more stringent safety inspections, impose tighter deadlines for landlords to correct violations and escalating penalties for failing to meet those deadlines.
Scott Stringer, whose 2021 mayoral run was upended over sexual abuse allegations, got the go ahead to proceed with a defamation suit against his accuser, Jean Kim, in state court.
A new report finds that New York City recorded 60 traffic deaths during the first three months of 2024, marking the deadliest start to a calendar year under the city’s Vision Zero program, which launched a decade ago with the goal of improving street safety.
The City of Albany’s criminal courthouse on Morton Avenue will be closed Monday for more than a week as city and state officials try to remove mold that has infested the building.
The Albany County district attorney’s office is investigating the county’s process for awarding American Rescue Plan grants.
Fuel cell maker Plug Power says it has completed the ramp up of its two first green hydrogen plants in Tennessee and Georgia, with its third plant expected to be completed in the third quarter of this year.
School taxes will hold steady under a $277.7 million Schenectady school budget that board members unanimously adopted this week during their regular meeting.
After months of searching, veteran Albany restaurateur Yono Purnomo, 72, has a kidney.
Chef Noah Frese, executive chef of the Roosevelt Room in North Greenbush, will be taking over as Siro’s Restaurant’s executive chef for the upcoming season.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
