Good morning, it’s Tuesday. The eclipse has come and gone and we are all still here. I count that as a win.
With all the unusual natural phenomenon occurring of late – the earthquake, the eclipse, temperature swings from unseasonably warm to ice and snow and back again – it’s understandable if you’re feeling a little more anxious than usual.
There are a wide variety of self soothing methods one can use to try to take the edge off for those, like me, who prefer to eschew medication (to be clear, it’s just not for me, but I know it works wonders for a lot of people out there). Options include things like meditation, deep breathing, going outside, talking it out, writing it out, etc.
There’s also something that has been growing in popularity – particularly among hyper-connected young people – trying to stimulate the autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) by watching one of more than 13 million online videos.
For the uninitiated, ASMR describes the intensely pleasant tingling sensation – basically goosebumps – that starts in the scalp and neck and is experienced by many (but not all) people in response to specific triggering audio or visual stimuli.
A wide range of things can trigger this response – everything from massage or light touch to whispering, maintaining close eye contact, getting your hair brushed or cut, tapping or typing, hearing squishing or crunching sounds, and more.
A few studies have shown that people who DO experience this sensation share a few key traits: They’re anxious and neurotic.
Experiencing ASMR can possibly help address these feelings by, in part, lowering the heart rate, which might send a reverse feedback loop to the brain, resulting in relaxation, mood elevation, better concentration, pain relief, sleepiness (good news for the chronic insomniacs among us), and more.
This is a relatively new area of study, and there isn’t a lot of scientific research available on the subject as of yet.
Some popular ASMR videos that have been viewed many thousands – if not millions – of times include this one (whispering), this one (crinkling paper bags), and this one (stirring soup).
The concept of ASMR has been around for a long time, but our current understanding was born of a fairly niche internet sensation that dates back to the early 2000s. Today is International ASMR Day, which was designated as such by members of the community to raise awareness about this phenomenon and its benefits.
I can’t believe I’m actually about to write these words – FINALLY!! – but the forecast is looking decidedly spring-like today, with temperatures forecast to be up in the low 70s and mostly sunny skies. Get outside and enjoy it while you can, because the rest of the week isn’t looking so great. (Just a lot of rain on the horizon, nothing to get too unsettled about – so far).
In the headlines…
Millions witnessed the moon block out the sun during a total solar eclipse yesterday. People all over North America spent the afternoon awed by the movement of the moon’s shadow, the last time it will pass through so much of the continent until the 2040s.
Eight million New Yorkers gazed toward clear blue skies yesterday afternoon, eagerly awaiting a historic solar eclipse. One of the prime viewing locations was Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery, home to the highest point in the borough.
A once-in-a-lifetime celestial happening led to nightmarish traffic jams, as tens of thousands of people across the US clogged the highways after watching the eclipse. Shortly after the totality ended incrementally, viewers slowed traffic to a sluggish pace.
A woman traveling to to watch the solar eclipse at a campsite in upstate New York died Saturday after she fell from a moving trailer onto the highway.
If you’re worried that amid all the excitement you might have glimpsed the sun without the proper protection, vision experts have some advice about how to tell whether your eyes sustained any damage, and what to do next.
President Joe Biden announced a large-scale effort to help pay off federal student loans for tens of millions of American borrowers, seeking an election-year boost by returning to a 2020 campaign promise that was blocked by the Supreme Court last year.
Biden’s plan would reduce the amount that 25 million borrowers owe on their undergraduate and graduate loans. It would wipe away the entire amount for more than four million Americans. Some 10 million borrowers would see debt relief of $5,000 or more.
Biden will speak today at a rally hosted by Care Can’t Wait Action, a coalition of groups focused on expanding access to childcare, paid family and medical leave and home-based services.
Former President Donald Trump said in a video statement that abortion rights should be left up to the states, remarks that came after months of mixed signals on an issue that he and his advisers have worried could cost him dearly in the election.
“Many states will be different, many will have a different number of weeks or some will have more conservative than others, and that’s what they will be,” Trump said in the video, which he posted on his Truth Social website.
Former Vice President Mike Pence delivered a scathing rebuke to Trump’s abortion announcement, calling his former boss’s video statement a “slap in the face” to the anti-abortion voters who supported him in 2016 and 2020.
Biden’s re-election campaign released a searing campaign ad blaming Trump for the near-death of a Texas woman who suffered infections after she was denied an abortion following a miscarriage.
The 60-second ad focuses on Amanda Zurawski, a Texas woman who sued the state after, she said, she almost died from a miscarriage.
“Because Donald Trump killed Roe v. Wade, Amanda was denied standard medical care to prevent infection, an abortion,” the ad reads. “Doctors were forced to send her home,” it continues. Zurawski then “almost died twice” due to sepsis.
Jack Smith, the special counsel prosecuting Trump on charges of plotting to overturn the 2020 election, urged the Supreme Court to reject the former president’s claim that he is immune from prosecution.
Trump, a week away from standing trial in Manhattan on criminal charges that he falsified records to cover up a sex scandal, has indicated he plans to file a lawsuit against the judge overseeing the case.
Trump lost an 11th-hour bid to delay his criminal “hush money” trial as he seeks to get the case moved out of Democratic-heavy Manhattan.
The Vatican issued a new document approved by Pope Francis stating that the church believes that gender fluidity and transition surgery, as well as surrogacy, amount to affronts to human dignity.
The sex a person is assigned at birth, the document argued, was an “irrevocable gift” from God and “any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception.”
The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.
The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, the governing body for primarily small colleges, approved a policy that will ban transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports.
The state Legislature has pushed the deadline to adopt a new budget until Thursday, pending approval from Gov. Kathy Hochul. Lawmakers predict that a deal is not guaranteed this week and that a new extender beyond April 11 may be necessary.
Members of the Assembly gave themselves most of the day off so they could return to their districts to catch the eclipse, while about a dozen state senators ditched a vote on a temporary spending measure to keep the government open.
The state comptroller’s office is reassuring state workers that their paychecks will be delivered on time this week amid a holdup on the state budget, allaying some fears from some who yesterday said their direct deposits had been delayed.
Assembly Member Kimberly Jean-Pierre, now in her fifth term in the State Legislature, said she will not seek reelection.
Hochul’s second attempt in the past two years to craft landmark housing legislation is sputtering despite taking a completely different tack to pass it.
Hochul is reportedly getting on board with key parts of the “Good Cause Eviction” bill being pushed by progressive lawmakers, moving forward a massive housing deal being negotiated as part of the already-late state budget.
Disability Rights New York is suing the state Education Department for withholding documents the group says it needs to investigate serious allegations of abuse, neglect and civil rights violations at a private residential school for students with autism.
GOP Rep. Marc Molinaro of the 19th Congressional District is calling on Hochul to declare a State of Emergency following a report that his district has become an opioid epidemic hotspot.
High-profile attorney Alex Spiro will help defend Mayor Eric Adams against a lawsuit accusing him of sexually assaulting a co-worker more than three decades ago.
Spiro, a partner at the Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan law firm and a go-to defense attorney for the wealthy facing legal woes, was hired by the Law Department to serve as co-counsel in the case brought by Lorna Beach-Mathura.
Spiro has “come to specialize in protecting the rich and famous from the consequences of their poorest decisions,” according to a 2023 profile in The New Yorker about his work for Elon Musk, Jay-Z and Alec Baldwin.
Spiro charged over $2,000 an hour in a case defending a woman accused of defrauding JPMorgan Chase, Bloomberg Law reported. He is a partner at international law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan.
Some disabled foster children in city care aren’t receiving individual Social Security payments, though the Adams’ administration rolled out a policy two years ago designed to let the vulnerable kids use the federal benefits to build up personal savings.
As Adams doubles down on increasing police visibility to combat what he calls a perception of lawlessness, his administration continued to ratchet up police-involved sweeps of homeless encampments last year, new data analyzed by Gothamist shows.
The Bronx is the only borough that doesn’t have a hospital-based state-accredited rape crisis center even though 25% of reported rapes in New York City take place there — and Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark wants that to change.
A 46-year-old Bronx man was indicted on hate crime charges in connection with a subway slashing last month, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said.
A prominent Brooklyn criminal justice activist sued the city and top NYPD brass, alleging they circulated information about her 2017 sexual assault and spread claims she lied about it, the lawsuit alleges.
The American Museum of Natural History is set to make a bit of New York history this spring, serving as an early-voting site for the first time.
A former federal court clerk and a New York lawyer who together operated a long-running cash-for-clients bribery scheme were sentenced to prison yesterday, prosecutors said.
A Brooklyn charter school is experimenting with a new way to help families by expanding the school day. Students can arrive at 7 a.m. and leave any time before 7 p.m. For free.
Cara Castronuova, a former Golden Gloves boxing champ and celebrity fitness trainer on the reality show “The Biggest Loser,” claims she’s collected enough signatures to run in the GOP primary for US Senate against retired NYPD detective Mike Sapraicone.
Anthony Insolia, a down-to-earth former editor of Newsday who presided over that Long Island newspaper’s expansion and several big investigative projects, died on Saturday in Philadelphia. He was 98.
The state inspector general’s office confirmed there is an “ongoing investigation” involving the Adirondack Park Agency more than a month after dispatching investigators to the agency’s headquarters.
The first phase of the Fjord Trail is under way, but opponents of the linear park to connect Cold Spring and Beacon through the Hudson Highlands are still concerned about its impacts on the environment and tourism.
A week after going public as its own company, GE Vernova has landed a huge power plant deal in South Korea.
The Olde English Pub, a traditional British tavern in Quackenbush House, the city’s second-oldest building, has a new owner after 12½ years, bringing to a close one of the longer Capital Region restaurant handovers in memory.
UConn won its sixth national championship in program history and second in a row last night as the No. 1 seed Huskies beat No. 1 seed Purdue 75-60 inside State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.
The Huskies accomplished what no college basketball team had since Florida in 2006-07: winning consecutive NCAA championships.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
