Good Monday morning!
When I was in high school I thought I wanted to be a marine biologist. I was obsessed with Jacques Cousteau. I got my scuba diving license – NAUI and PADI – and went on trips to exotic locales (for a teenager, anyway), like Belize and the Cayman Islands.
I was undone by two things: Claustrophobia, which I discovered quite by accident while watching a PBS special on cave diving and nearly passing out from a combination of unconsciously holding my breath and gasping for air; and math, for which I never had an affinity and, as it turns out, is something one more often than not needs to master in order to be a scientist.
I never did lose my fascination with and awe of the ocean, which covers about 71 percent of the Earth’s surface, but is still vastly known and unexplored. Even though it’s really accessible – or at least more so than, say, space – about 95 percent of the ocean remains unknown to us, which might explain why humans are so interested in what lies beneath its depths.
That interest extends to the ships that have wrecked and been claimed by the deep – chief among them, the Titanic, which has captivated – and also taken the lives of – generations of explorers.
The Titanic, a British luxury passenger liner that sank on this day in 1912 while en route to New York City from Southampton, Hampshire, England, after striking an iceberg during its maiden voyage, remains one of the most famous shipwrecks of all time, immortalized in countless museum exhibits, documentaries, movies (a rather prominent one of which is back in the news of late), books, articles, photos, paintings, songs, and more.
Part of the interest in the Titanic, I think, was probably due to the fact that there were survivors who lived to tell the tale of how the great ship struck an iceberg and the horror that followed. Just over 31 percent of passengers and crew survived the sinking – many of them first class passengers who were women and children – though it is estimated that more than 53 percent could have survived, given the number of spaces that were available on the lifeboats.
All told, however, there weren’t nearly enough lifeboats for every single person on board to have a seat.
The Titanic’s wreckage was found 39 years ago – 73 years after the ship’s sinking – during a joint exploration by an American oceanographer, Robert Ballard, who was also a Navy officer, and a French oceanographer, Jean-Louis Michel, who, as it turns out, were actually on a secret mission to locate downed military submarines – not ill-fated cruise liners.
Even though the Titanic wreck has been documented quite a bit, there’s still apparently mysteries left to solve. I can’t imagine the fixation with the doomed ship will die down any time soon, though it’s worth noting that it was quite a bit smaller than the luxury behemoths that cruise the sea today – none of which you will catch me on.
Roiling, rolling buffet/disease carrier vacation? Count me out.
FWIW, it’s also Tax Day, the deadline for most people deadline to file a 2023 tax return and pay (if they owe) or await a payment from the government. It’s also the deadline to turn in an extension request before penalties and interest apply. I see poetic justice in the juxtaposition between Tax Day and the Titanic sinking anniversary, but I haven’t figured out what that is yet.
AND, if you live in Massachusetts, it’s Patriots’ Day, which also means the Boston Marathon will be taking place and thousands of people uninterested in putting themselves through 26.2 miles of pain have the day off. Good luck, runners!
Trust Mother Nature to straighten up and fly right just in time for the workweek to begin. After a dismal weekend, weather wise, we’re in for a stretch of lovely days that will undoubtedly lead to some mysterious spring fevers. It will be partly cloudy and in the low 60s today.
In the headlines…
Barring a last-minute turn of events, Donald Trump will go on criminal trial today – the first time in history that this has occurred to a former American president.
Trump is fighting 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election. If convicted, the charges could land him in prison.
Trump and his lawyers realize his chances in the courtroom are dicey. He intends to make whatever transpires a political triumph.
As Trump sifts through potential running mates, he has peppered some advisers and associates with a direct question: Which Republican could best help him raise money for the rest of the presidential campaign?
Views of Trump’s presidency have become more positive since he left office, bolstering his case for election and posing a risk to President Biden’s strategy of casting his opponent as unfit for the presidency, according to a new New York Times/Siena poll.
Strict security measures — and plenty of headaches — are expected as the first criminal trial of a former U.S. president gets underway in Manhattan.
While Trump is in his hometown of New York this week for the start of his criminal trial on charges of falsifying business records, President Joe Biden plans to campaign in his birthplace of Scranton in battleground Pennsylvania.
According to the New York Times/Siena College poll released on Saturday, Biden has whittled down the four-point lead Donald Trump held in February, with Trump leading Biden 46% to 45% among registered voters.
The number of American voters who approve of Biden’s handling of the economy is rising, but concern over inflation, including rising fuel prices, could derail his re-election bid, according to a new poll.
The United States and other members of the UN Security Council urged restraint in the Middle East, as officials in Israel debated how to respond to a direct attack by Iran over the weekend that threatened to further destabilize the region.
President Joe Biden warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the U.S. will not take part in a counter-offensive against Iran, if Israel decides to retaliate for a mass drone and missile attack on Israeli territory overnight, U.S. officials said.
Biden and his senior advisers are highly concerned that an Israeli response to Iran’s attack on Israel would lead to a regional war with catastrophic consequences.
Biden met with G7 leaders in an emergency session yesterday as his administration said it will leave it up to Israel to decide how to respond to Iran’s blistering drone attack — and Iranian and Israeli authorities prepared for their next moves.
Late Saturday, Iran began firing hundreds of drones and missiles at Israel, including weapons that experts say are more sophisticated than anything Israel had encountered until now in six months of fighting with Hamas and its allies in the region.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called on Congress to pass a stalled aid package for Israel and other countries, pointing to Iran’s weekend attack as additional impetus for the funding.
Speaker Mike Johnson said after Iran’s overnight attack on Israel that the House would vote in the coming days on aid for Israel, and he suggested that aid for Ukraine could be included in the legislation.
Long Island Rep. Tom Suozzi penned an op-ed in defense of Johnson, calling on Democrats and Republicans to unite behind him in the face of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s effort to remove him from power.
As a “precautionary measure,” the New York State Police, New York National Guard and New York State Division of Homeland Security “are on high alert to protect houses of worship and high-profile locations,” according to Gov. Kathy Hochul.
Mayor Eric Adams says he has directed police to deploy extra resources to guard “Jewish communities and houses of worship citywide.”
According to a statement posted to social media, the NYPD is continuing to “closely monitor recent events in Israel,” but said there are no credible threats to security in New York City.
A deal is near on a broad legislative package meant to boost housing production and provide renters with some new safeguards against eviction, which would clear one of the major remaining hurdles to reaching a final state budget agreement.
News of a potential housing deal late Friday by New York lawmakers elicited furious responses from some landlord and tenant groups.
The preliminary agreement would allow tenants in many market-rate units in New York City to challenge lease hikes of more than 10% in housing court. It also aims to boost production of badly needed new and affordable housing in the city.
With the final state spending plan overdue by nearly two weeks, home care workers and disability rights advocates clamored Friday for state lawmakers to refuse rollbacks to a popular Medicaid program that allows New Yorkers to choose their own caretakers.
The New York state budget is now two weeks late, and lawmakers are due back this afternoon to pass a fourth extender to keep government running.
Hochul and her husband, Bill, brought home much more bacon in 2023 than the year before. The couple made around $2 million in adjusted gross income in 2023, up a staggering $1 million from 2022, media reports covering the pair’s tax returns indicate.
Most of the couple’s income – $1.5 million – came from Bill Hochul in the form of bonuses and other compensation when he left his job at Delaware North.
A group representing the legal marijuana industry is warning Hochul’s cannabis regulators that a dramatic increase in the number of pot stores could have “disastrous consequences” for current licensed operators.
Hochul’s administration is over saturating Harlem with drug treatment facilities — and it’s got to stop, fed up Rep. Adriano Espaillat said.
Hochul recently reminded residents that all drivers must take precaution and abide by New York’s Move Over Law.
New York’s major transportation authorities have embraced cashless tolling, and thousands of drivers have embraced the art of evading the electronic payment systems.
The city’s correction officers union is backing Mayor Adams’ bid to block a federal court takeover of Rikers Island, insisting the violence-plagued jail would only get more dangerous.
With Adams’ authority over the city’s public schools on the line, a new study of mayoral control that painted an unfavorable picture of how parents and teachers feel about the status quo has added a new wrinkle to the debate in Albany.
Adams caused a major uproar among City Council members on Friday by inaccurately suggesting that constituents cannot simply walk into their offices to request assistance — a practice common among most city lawmakers.
New York City’s largest police union has sent a “cease and desist” letter to the NYPD, demanding the department rescind its “unilateral changes” to its grooming and appearance standards due to begin next month.
NYC agencies would be prohibited from buying their water in single-use plastic bottles for a combined 330,000-plus workforce under new legislation by Councilman Erik Bottcher and co-sponsored by Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and three others.
The one-time down-ballot mayoral candidate charged with randomly punching a TikToker in the face in Manhattan posted a podcast about the attacks to his social media — then hurled insults at the NYPD.
The pilot of the FDNY fireboat that collided with another vessel and killed a visiting Belgian firefighter has quietly retired on a boosted, three-quarters-pay disability pension worth six figures annually, The Post has learned.
NYPD Police Commissioner Edward Caban cleared two police officers of wrongdoing in the killing of Kawaski Trawick, drawing sharp rebuke from the man’s family and police reform advocates who have for nearly five years called for the officers to be fired.
Trawick’s parents, Ellen and Rickie Trawick, condemned the commissioner’s decision, saying in a statement that Mayor Eric Adams and the Police Department “don’t seem to care about protecting New Yorkers from cops who kill.”
The NYPD continued on Friday to defend its arrests of two conflict mediators in Brooklyn in February, releasing body-camera and surveillance videos of the episode that police officials said showed one of the workers striking an officer.
This week marks the 500th anniversary of Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano’s arrival in New York Bay — and to commemorate it, drivers should get a toll break on his famed namesake bridge, a local pol says.
The city’s noise code has limited the use of vehicle horns for almost a century. Enforcing the law is another matter.
The union representing hundreds of New York City Council staffers voted to approve its first-ever contract last week, its president told Gothamist on Saturday.
Nearly three years after a series of suicides shut down the Vessel, the 150-foot-tall centerpiece of the Hudson Yards complex in Manhattan, the project’s developer said on Friday that it would reopen this year with new safety measures.
Buffalo state Sen. Tim Kennedy is asking a state court to remove former Grand Island Town Supervisor Nate McMurray’s name from the ballot in the Democratic primary for the 26th Congressional District because of alleged defects in his electoral petitions.
Low-income New Yorkers are getting left out of incentives to shift to solar power, according to a report released over the weekend.
A state audit found an upstate BOCES district in many cases over a two-year period didn’t document the need for meals at its meetings. On top of that, officials didn’t record who attend at least three dozen meetings where meals were consumed.
Many left- and right-wing members of the City Council expressed serious concerns over Adams’ “City of Yes for Economic Opportunity” proposal aimed at boosting business and job growth by overhauling more than 60-year-old zoning regulations.
The Village of Scotia plans to follow through on a promise to put new rules in place for all garage sales including the popular village-wide event that’s normally held every year in the first week of June, according to Mayor David Bucciffero.
City firefighters were continuing to douse a blaze yesterday on a three-story brick building in Albany’s warehouse district.
The WNBA’s television partners are planning ahead for Caitlin Clark’s expected rookie season with the Indiana Fever.
The college star hasn’t even been drafted by the Indiana Fever yet – that’s expected to happen tonight at the Brooklyn Academy of Music – but ticket prices to Fever games in the tristate area have already climbed.
When Michael Che introduced Clark on his and Colin Jost’s “Saturday Night Live” segment “Weekend Update,” viewers expected a fellow comedian in a long, dark wig to slide into frame. Instead, the basketball star herself appeared.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
