Good morning, it’s Thursday, which for some of you who are making the absolute most of the upcoming holiday weekend is more or less Friday.
Tomorrow is going to be pretty much a wash on the call front with people cutting out early, but I’m hoping the lull gives me a chance to get some solid writing done.
I’m not terribly great at planning ahead. Being in my line of work, which is to say putting out proverbial fires on the regular, doesn’t lend itself all that well to plotting things out in the long-term. The best-laid plans and all that.
For example, if I had just a tad bit more foresight and had looked ahead just a day when it comes to thinking about topics for these morning missives, I would have saved the scene setting photo and it would have been JUST perfect. Ah well. We will just have to make do. Thankfully, the topic of today’s post doesn’t move terribly far – it’s more or less their calling card – and so perhaps you can jut click and forth between today’s post and yesterday’s and get a good feel for the thing.
In a very roundabout way, I’m talking (if you hadn’t already guessed) about turtles.
Turtles are reptiles, but are differentiated from some of their reptilian colleagues by the hard cartilage shell that serves as a shield for their tender inner parts, making them fairly difficult to kill and also providing them with a handy hiding place when they get freaked out, which is fairly often.
Turtles are formally known Testudines, which is based on the Latin word “testudo” (tortoise), originating in the Latin testa, “shell”. In modern-day parlance, “turtle” is generally used to apply to pretty much all of the members of this particular order, and “tortoise” refers specifically to the very slow-moving land-based species.
There are 13 species in the turtle order, including but not limited to the aforementioned tortoise, as well as leatherback sea turtles, soft-shelled turtles, snapping turtles etc. and so on, and more than 356 species in those families. Six of the seven sea turtles, for example, are found in all the major oceans. But one – the flatback turtle – can only be found in the Western Indo-Pacific.
Since sea turtles don’t spend all that much time on land, it’s hard to get a good count of exactly how many of them there are in the world, but a lot of them are endangered, thanks to the usual menaces and threats – habitat destruction, climate change, pollution, egg poaching, marine debris etc.
That last one makes me particularly upset; I can’t even look at those pictures of turtles tangled in six-pack rings or fishing line or other sorts of sundry plastics that we idiot humans have a habit of tossing into the environment without tearing up.
Turtles are cute, in their own unique way, but are really best enjoyed from afar, because they commonly carry Salmonella on their outer skin and shell surfaces. This bacteria, as you probably already know, can cause a serious or even life-threatening infection in people, but don’t negatively impact either reptiles or amphibians.
If you do touch a turtle – even one you’re keeping as a pet – it’s best to wash your hands afterwards, and kissing them on their cute little beaks, no matter how tempting, is really to be avoided.
Today is World Turtle Day, which was launched in 2000 by American Tortoise Rescue to help people celebrate and better understand how to protect turtles and tortoises and their disappearing habitats. (The group itself was founded in 1990 in California, and, according to its website, at the time was first and only U.S. sanctuary helping re-home turtles and tortoises).
It will be cloudy and slightly less warm today, with temperatures hovering around the low 80s.
In the headlines…
President Joe Biden announced a new round of federal student debt forgiveness that his administration said will provide relief to 160,000 borrowers, part of an ongoing effort to provide relief after the Supreme Court blocked a broad-based forgiveness plan.
The Education Department said it’s canceling $7.7 billion for certain borrowers who received Public Service Loan Forgiveness, like teachers, nurses and law enforcement officials.
The administration has now erased a total of $167 billion in student loans for 4.75 million people, or about 1 in 10 student loan borrowers, according to the Education Department.
Ohio lawmakers are confident Biden will be on the November ballot, but how exactly that will happen remains the question and the fix won’t happen through the legislature.
The Republican majority in Ohio’s Legislature won’t pass special legislation to allow Biden to be on November’s general election ballot, Ohio House Speaker Jason Stephens said this week.
The Biden campaign is considering suing to ensure the president is on the ballot, after the Republican secretary of state said he would bar him over what is normally a minor procedural issue.
The Justice Department and a group of states reportedly plan to sue Live Nation Entertainment, the concert giant that owns Ticketmaster, as soon as today, accusing it of illegally maintaining a monopoly in the live entertainment industry.
Biden welcomed Kenyan President William Ruto to the White House for a three-day state visit and designating the East African nation a major non-NATO ally as it prepares to deploy forces to Haiti as part of U.N.-led effort to address a security crisis.
In her first public appearance since she dropped her Republican presidential bid in March, Nikki Haley, the former United Nations ambassador, yesterday said she would vote for former President Donald Trump, stopping short of an official endorsement.
Haley said Trump “has not been perfect” on policies important to her, including foreign policy, immigration and the economy, but Biden “has been a catastrophe.” “So I will be voting for Trump,” concluded Haley.
Haley said her priorities as a voter are supporting a president who would back America’s allies and hold its enemies accountable, who would secure the border, support “capitalism and freedom,” and who would lower the national debt.
A second Trump administration could more easily dismantle California’s nation-leading climate and air pollution rules if the Biden administration misses a fast-approaching deadline.
Trump accused the Biden administration of having been prepared to kill him during a 2022 search for classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, making the false claim that the president was “locked & loaded” in a fund-raising email.
Biden denounced Trump for posting a video to social media suggesting the Republican would usher in a “unified Reich” should he prevail in November, saying in Boston that Trump is using “the language of Hitler’s Germany.”
After weeks of being the headline-grabbing defendant in a criminal trial in Manhattan, Trump will head to Crotona Park in the Bronx for a rally today where he no doubt hopes to take a more favorable star turn.
A key adviser to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is stepping away from his presidential campaign, citing an “increasingly hateful and divisive atmosphere” that “no longer aligns with my values.”
The Democratic-led Senate confirmed Biden’s 200th federal judge yesterday, a milestone that highlights a sharp contrast with his election rival, Trump, as they seek to shape the courts over the next four years.
Reaching this number at this point is evidence, according to Biden’s allies, that he may achieve a goal his fellow Democrats fretted could be out of reach – matching Trump’s 234 judges appointed to life-tenured positions on the federal bench in four years.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called on Senate Democrats to launch “active investigations” into two separate reports that flags associated with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol were on display outside Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s home.
Former national security adviser John Bolton fiercely defended Alito against a barrage of criticism following reporting that, at one point, two flags associated with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol had been on display outside his home.
The campus police chief for the University of California, Los Angeles, has been removed from his post in the aftermath of a violent, hourslong attack on a pro-Palestinian encampment at the school, during which security officers did not intervene.
The vast majority of New Yorkers believe that the anti-Israel protests on Big Apple campuses were fueled by antisemitism — and they support the police crackdown on the ugly demonstrations, an eye-opening new poll shows.
An overwhelming majority of registered voters in New York support students peacefully demonstrating in support of those suffering in Gaza, but also believe the protests went too far and agree with police shutting down the protests, the Siena poll found.
Hundreds of Jewish students and professors at Rutgers are demanding action against widespread campus antisemitism, as the school’s president will face tough questions from lawmakers about anti-Israel demonstrators having “taken over the university.”
The heads of Rutgers, Northwestern and U.C.L.A. will be the first university leaders to testify since a wave of protest encampments roiled college campuses.
As tension continues to simmer over the Israel-Hamas war, New York City officials have embraced a privately funded initiative to send all eighth graders in public and charter schools to visit the Museum of Jewish Heritage.
Gov. Kathy Hochul tried her hand at comedy before a crowd of Albany wonks last night during an annual satirical performance by the state Capitol press corps.
Hochul said her “priority” is to seek passage of legislation that would prohibit social media companies from collecting personal data from children and also prohibit them using addictive feeds to keep young users online.
The governor and the State University of New York chancellor focused on how to make college affordable in yesterday’s annual State of the University address.
Kathryn Garcia, who ran a failed bid in 2021 to become mayor and is now a top Hochul aide is reportedly reaching out to labor unions in what’s being viewed as the groundwork for a potential City Hall run, though she denied this.
Hochul announced the confirmations of two administration appointees by the Senate. Walter T. Mosley as Secretary of State and Robert J. Rodriguez as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York.
New York is lagging on reversing overdose death rates compared to its neighboring states, according to provisional data released last week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Train service along the Northeast Corridor south of New York City ground to a halt yesterday evening because of fallen overhead power cables in Kearny, N.J., stranding commuters and travelers on trains and at stations as far south as Washington.
New York City council members are calling on Mayor Eric Adams to take back Sean “Diddy” Combs’ key to the city, less than a week after footage showed the music mogul assaulting ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura in a 2016 hotel incident.
In a continued effort to contain New York City’s rat problem, Adams announced the inaugural National Urban Rat Summit. The summit, which will take place on Sept. 18 and 19, will gather the best in the rat business from Boston, New Orleans and Seattle.
The Democratic mayor said that he “hates rats” and the “best way to defeat our enemy is to know our enemy.”
Adams – the self-proclaimed “tech mayor” – opened the Smart City Expo at Pier 36 yesterday, calling on the audience to step up with solutions to New York City’s problems.
As the mayor quickly sought to fill out a powerful commission that could reshape city government, possibly for generations to come, he predictably turned to a cadre heavy on loyalists – roughly half are campaign donors.
Teachers, advocates and students rallied on the front steps of City Hall yesterday to fight for funding for early childhood education. Supporters say Adams’ new city budget cuts $170 million for affordable child care.
Adams is facing negative opinions about his housing and homelessness record, which threatens his overall standing with New Yorkers, according to polling conducted for Newsweek.
Adams’ involvement in a fundraising event for his brother’s charity group sparked concerns over backdoor donors.
A pair of NYPD officers raced a badly abused puppy to the hospital for emergency veterinary care in an emotional Manhattan incident caught on body-worn camera.
Workers who refuel the planes at John F. Kennedy Airport in Queens plan to go on strike Friday — providing uncertainty for travel plans during the busy Memorial Day weekend.
The niece of Fox Business anchor Charles Payne was struck by a stray bullet in a shooting earlier this month on the Harlem street where he grew up, the journalist revealed on-air.
Fleet Week New York 2024 officially kicked off with the Parade of Ships arriving in New York Harbor yesterday, featuring naval vessels gliding past the Statue of Liberty and Manhattan along the Hudson River.
The controversial and erratic former NFL receiver Antonio Brown filed for federal bankruptcy in Florida this week and owes nearly $3 million to eight creditors, according to a Times Union report.
The former owner of the Albany Empire Arena Football League team cannot pay at least three six-figure civil judgments.
The Lifetime Healthcare Cos. will become the parent company of locally based CDPHP if the affiliation is approved by state and federal regulators, CDPHP said.
A National Labor Relations Board judge has ruled that the Capital Roots nonprofit group was within its rights to pull out of the SEIU Local 200 labor union when employees voted to do so last year.
UAlbany and the College of Saint Rose have reached an agreement to transfer the academic records of current and former Saint Rose students to the university over the course of the next seven months.
Gaffney’s on Caroline Street in Saratoga Springs has hit the market as court filings show the business faces potential foreclosure over hundreds of thousands of dollars of unpaid taxes an a massive mortgage that’s gone unpaid for months.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
