Good morning, it’s Friday. Finally. Enough said. It has been THAT sort of week on my end.
I’ve been writing early morning news roundups for longer than I care to recall. It’s probably going on 20+ years now, if you include my days at the TU after launching Capitol Confidential.
BTW, shoutout to Dan Clark, who is an amazing journalist and was once my intern – if you can believe that. He has breathed new life into CapCon with an amazing political insider email/newsletter.
If you want to keep up with everything that’s going on with Planet Albany, consider subscribing by clicking this link. And no, he didn’t pay – or even ask – me to do this. His work is just that good and deserves organic recognition.
From time to time, I question my own sanity and wonder why I’m still at it. Does anyone really NEED my musings and headlines at 4-5 a.m., Monday through Friday? (Sometimes earlier, depending on how strong the insomnia is raging). Maybe I should monetize this and move it to Substack? Would that be futile, like yelling into the void?
Basically, it’s a combination of laziness, inertia, and the power of habit – with a hefty dash of obsessiveness – that makes me keep at it. There’s also the added benefit that this space provides a semi-creative outlet and enables me to learn new things, which, they say, is the secret to long-term brain health – or one of the secrets, anyway.
For example, prior to Googling around in preparation for today’s post, I had no idea that tonight is Laylat al-Qadr (also sometimes spelled Laylat al-Qadr), which translates into “The Night of Power” but also referred to as the “Night of Destiny”, “Night of Decree”, “Night of Determination”, or the “Precious Night”.
It is the the holiest night of the year for Muslims and is believed to occur during the last 10 days of Ramadan, though the exact date is uncertain. It is said that one this night, the first verses of the Quran were revealed to the Prophet Muhammed through the angel Jibreel. Other verses were subsequently revealed over the course of the next 23 years.
Some choose to observe Laylat al-Qadr by forging sleep and praying all night long. Praying at this time with sincerity and asking for forgiveness, along with participating in good deeds, is believed to result in the pardoning of prior sins. On this night, it is said, a single act of kindness gives the blessings of 1,000 months.
The worst appears to be over, weather-wise, but that by no means indicates completely clear skies ahead. It will be cloudy today with occasional showers in the afternoon. Temperatures will top out in the low 40s.
As for the weekend, well, things are starting to look up. Tomorrow, Saturday, will be cloudy with highs in the mid-40s, while the sun will make a reappearance in the afternoon on its namesake day – Sunday – and temperatures will climb into the 50s.
In the headlines…
President Biden threatened to condition future support for Israel on how it addresses his concerns about civilian casualties and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, trying for the first time to leverage American aid to influence the conduct of the war against Hamas.
During an evidently tense 30-minute call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, Biden went further than ever in pressing for change in the military operation that has inflamed many Americans and others around the world.
The president “made clear the need for Israel to announce and implement a series of specific, concrete and measurable steps to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering and the safety of aid workers”, the White House said in a statement.
Netanyahu is facing challenges on multiple fronts, with his domestic support appearing to erode at a time when international frustration with the war in Gaza has reached new heights.
The White House is warning that spending cuts in a budget proposed by a large group of House Republicans could lead to longer wait times for people seeking assistance with Social Security and Medicare.
The centrist group No Labels has abandoned its plans to run a presidential ticket in the 2024 election, having failed to recruit a candidate, its leader, Nancy Jacobson, said.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s campaign said in an email that rioters charged with crimes in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and held in a Washington jail had been “stripped of their constitutional liberties,” and then retracted the statement.
Biden is 81 and his rival, Donald Trump, is 77, and many voters believe both men are too old for another term. Their doctors proclaim them fit to serve, but neither has agreed to throw open his medical charts to prove it.
Trump was dealt two major setbacks in his efforts to derail the criminal cases against him, with judges in the Georgia election interference case and in the federal classified documents case both rejecting his bids to have those cases thrown out.
An Atlanta-area judge upheld the criminal indictment against Trump in Georgia, rejecting the argument that Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election were protected under the First Amendment.
“The defense has not presented, nor is the Court able to find, any authority that the speech and conduct alleged is protected political speech,” Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee wrote in his order.
Todd Blanche was a registered New York Democrat and a partner at Wall Street’s oldest law firm. Now, he’s a registered Florida Republican who runs his own firm, where the biggest client is a man both famous and infamous for legal problems: Trump.
A pair of Florida brothers pleaded guilty to insider trading charges, admitting they pocketed millions of dollars by illegally swapping secrets about the recent money-making merger that saw Trump’s media outfit go public.
The New York attorney general’s office took exception to a $175 million bond that Trump recently posted in his civil fraud case, questioning the qualifications of the California company that provided it.
A bird flu pandemic with the potential to be “100 times worse than COVID” may be on the horizon after a rare human case was discovered in Texas, experts have warned.
The New York state Legislature blew through yesterday’s already extended deadline to reach a budget deal and agreed to continue talks through Monday in time for the 2024 solar eclipse.
With no final budget agreement expected, a third extender lawmakers will need to pass an additional extender by noon Monday to ensure thousands of state employees get paid on time.
Gov. Kathy Hochul said that she had ordered the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to drop its effort to charge the New York City Marathon roughly $750,000 for its use of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge.
“I’ve directed the MTA to fix this mess and allow the marathon to move forward as it always has,” Hochul said. “The marathon is an iconic symbol of New York City’s tenacity and resilience that unites communities across the five boroughs each fall.”
Schools in New York may be able to breathe a sigh of relief, as Hochul is largely retreating from her more controversial proposals to change the way the state determines how much funding districts receive, at least for this year.
“We’ve talked about putting a process in place,” Hochul said. “so by this time next year, giving everybody the notice and warning that they all asked for, there will be a different formula.
A bipartisan group of state lawmakers is calling on Hochul to declare a public health emergency around the opioid epidemic in New York.
Three main factions are fighting over a few key priorities in a housing deal coming together in Albany, including tough new restrictions on evictions and significant tax breaks for developers. The groups are still at odds but appear to be moving closer.
Facing increased Medicaid enrollment and a cash crunch across New York’s health care system, Democrats in Albany hope to employ a maneuver that they say will allow the state to generate billions of dollars a year essentially out of thin air.
Syracuse native and current resident of space Dr. Jeanette Epps spoke with Hochul yesterday from the International Space Station.
Hochul announced plans to overhaul the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles by contracting a new software company to upgrade the agency’s aging technology systems.
A New York court has struck down the state’s marketing regulations for its troubled adult-use marijuana market.
The Albany County Supreme Court ruled in favor of cannabis information website Leafly, finding OCM’s rulemaking process problematic and its regulations unconstitutionally vague and in violation of free speech rights.
The judge dramatically scaled back his order from the previous day that had invalidated most of the state’s cannabis regulations in a case challenging rules for advertising marijuana.
New York State’s corrections department agreed to allow six men who had sued to view Monday’s total solar eclipse to do so at the upstate prison where they are held, but the department stopped short of lifting a statewide prison lockdown during the eclipse.
The Supportive Housing Network of New York is pushing for more housing options as homelessness soared last year in a state where 62,000 units are home to at-risk populations.
The number of youth in state-run juvenile centers soared after New York raised the age of criminal responsibility to 18, leading to an increase of incidents involving assaults, contraband, self-harm, employee misconduct and the use of physical restraint.
Rep. Elise Stefanik, who has been floated as a potential Trump running mate, joined high-profile members of her party in New York City, toasting their perceived success on border security as they gear up for the White House and midterm races this November.
Mayor Eric Adams offered a sarcastic helping hand to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott during his New York City stay, saying that the Republican could sleep in a migrant shelter “so he can see what he has created.”
A newly released accounting of expenses tied to Adams’ legal defense fund shows that six lawyers have so far worked on the matter, and that two of them began the same day the mayor’s top fundraiser was raided by the feds.
Adams keeps finding eye-catching ways to seize the spotlight on the issue of public safety, even when the narrative turns against him.
Top New York City officials announced that the city is suing 11 distributors of vaping devices in a lawsuit that seeks to end their illegal distribution and create a new fund to warn youngsters off nicotine.
Oral arguments in New Jersey’s congestion pricing suit wrapped up yesterday, leaving the fate of the MTA’s plan to toll drivers entering Midtown and lower Manhattan in the hands of a Newark federal judge.
The federal judge said that he plans to rule on the fate of the MTA’s congestion pricing program by early June — just before the agency seeks to begin tolling drivers who go south of 60th Street in Manhattan.
The state health department has rejected plans for closing Lower Manhattan’s Mount Sinai Beth Israel as “incomplete,” sending hospital leaders back to the drawing board.
Kate Shindle, who has served as president of Actors’ Equity Association for nine years, is stepping down after a tenure dominated by the coronavirus pandemic that for a time idled all of the labor union’s members.
Former Bad Boy Records rapper G. Dep has been released from New York prison after serving 13 years for a murder he committed as a teen.
A federal judge denied Nassau County’s request for an order preventing the state attorney general from suing the county over its sports ban on transgender women and girls.
A Western New York man has been charged with sending death threats to the state attorney general and the Manhattan judge who presided over Trump’s civil fraud case.
NXIVM co-founder Nancy Salzman, who spent two decades as the top deputy to cult leader Keith Raniere, has been released from the Albany halfway house where she had been staying since September.
Drivers on Interstate 787 staring down another work week were treated again to the relentless, nauseating smell of human waste as they motored through Albany and neighboring communities.
A portion of Everett Road in Colonie was closed as firefighters continued cleanup after an explosion early yesterday that leveled a building that housed two restaurants.
Saying he believes in strong conservative principles and limited government, Republican Jeremy Messina, a businessman and farmer will challenge longtime Democratic incumbent Carrie Woerner in the 113th state Assembly District.
A Netflix docuseries spotlighting abuse allegations at a long-shuttered boarding academy for teens in rural northern New York has prompted dozens of new complaints to the local prosecutor and a fresh investigation.
Brace yourself: In a rare occurrence, a trillion cicadas from two different broods are expected to begin appearing in the Midwest and Southeast regions of the United States at the end of April.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
