Good Tuesday morning.
Over the weekend, I ran into someone I knew a long time ago – in a different lifetime, really, when I was a reporter and he was an elected official about whom I sometimes wrote stories. It was a pleasure to reconnect with him – and his wife – and to learn that they are avid readers of this morning missive of mine.
It’s particularly gratifying to be reminded that no, I am not shouting needlessly into the void, and there are indeed people – at least two, plus my dad! – who are reading this. These specific readers expressed how they were very fond of posts in which I wax poetic about my dogs.
So, long-lost friends and newfound neighbors, this one’s for you!
An event akin to the dog lovers’ Olympics is taking place in New York City this week: The 148th Annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, held at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, Queens. (For the record, the show used to be hosted at Madison Square Garden, but the pandemic ended that tradition).
The Westminster Dog Show remains the second-longest continuously held sporting event in the U.S., which is really quite something when you think about it. Also, since 1948, is has been the longest nationally televised live dog show.
The purpose of this competition, which costs $100 to enter (not accounting for the hundreds of thousands of dollars it requires to breed, raise, train, and prep a champion dog), is to crown the Best in Show, which, by the way, comes with bragging rights and a trophy and NO prize money.
The agility and obedience contest winners do win prizes of $5,000 apiece, but they don’t get to keep their spoils. They are required to donate the money to a training club of the winner’s choice or to the to the American Kennel Club Humane Fund.
Winners can sometimes make money through brand sponsorships and ambassadorships, and there are also considerable stud/breeding fees that one can charge is one’s dam or site is a champion. But unlike human athletes, there are no Wheaties boxes, or NIL deals for dogs.
An absolute crime, if you ask me. I personally would much prefer to purchase a product endorsed by or emblazoned with the mug of a Westminster winner than, say, Travis Kelce. But I guess that’s just me.
The competition starts with more than 2,500 dogs (hello, is this HEAVEN?) across 205 breeds. Every single one of the American Kennel Club (AKC)-recognized breeds fall into one of seven Groups: Hound, Toy, Non-Sporting, Herding, Sporting, Working, and Terrier. Last year’s winner was a charming Petit Basset Griffon Vendeen (AKA, a PBGV) named Buddy Holly.
My favorite winner by far in recent years was Wasabi the Pekingese, who more or less retired after his big 2021 win at the ripe old age of four. How could you not be won over by a dog that basically looks like a well-groomed mop that is levitating across the floor?
I know people like to poke fun at dog shows. And yes, the 2000 satire “Best in Show” WAS actually very funny. But have you actually ever sat down and watched Westminster? I dare you to try it and not get hooked. It is mesmerizing. Full stop.
It does, however, make me feel just the tiniest bit guilty about not training my dogs better (OK, more or less at all). But I am a strong believer that dogs are only here for a very short time and so should live their absolute best lives, and I’m not sure that includes being washed, dried, styled, poked and prodded by strangers and run in circles around a ring.
Poodles are usually the biggest winners at Westminster – or, at least, frequent Best in Show sweepers. Also Wire Fox Terriers have historically been very popular. I don’t have a favorite yet, but I’ll be watching. Best in Show will be announced today at 11 p.m.
I hope I don’t jinx us by writing this, but FINALLY things are warming up in the weather department. Temperatures are predicted to top out at or around 80 degrees today, with partly cloudy skies and a slight chance of an afternoon shower.
In the headlines…
President Biden trails former President Trump in five of six key battleground states, according to new polling from the New York Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer and Siena College, even as Democratic Senate candidates lead GOP challengers in the same states.
The new polls, released yesterday morning, found Trump leading Biden among likely voters in a head-to-head matchup in Arizona, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Nevada and Georgia, with all but the latter two results within the margin of the error.
Many voters in a new poll say the country’s political and economic systems need major changes or to be completely torn down. The Biden campaign says it’s not satisfied with business as usual, either.
A Missouri man who crashed a rented U-Haul truck into security barriers near the White House last year has pleaded guilty to damaging government property, federal prosecutors announced.
A senior White House official met with a small group of students and faculty at Morehouse College on Friday, amid some objections on campus to having Biden deliver the commencement address there this weekend.
Biden issued an order blocking a Chinese-backed cryptocurrency mining firm from owning land near a Wyoming nuclear missile base, calling its proximity to the base a “national security risk.”
An investigation identified national security risks posed by a crypto facility in Wyoming. It is near an Air Force base and a data center doing work for the Pentagon.
Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker recently called out Biden over his “delusional” support for abortion as a practicing Catholic.
In a commencement speech last Saturday at Benedictine College — a Catholic liberal arts college in Kansas — Butker claimed the negative parts of society in recent years can be blamed on “bad leaders who don’t stay in their lanes.”
Michael Cohen, once one of Donald Trump’s closest confidants and his loyal protector, offered an account yesterday that could convict the man he used to refer to as “boss” and now calls an enemy.
Cohen testified he feared there would be a “catastrophic” effect on Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign if porn star Stormy Daniels went public with her claim of having sex with the billionaire real estate mogul a decade earlier.
“[Trump] told me to work with [National Enquirer head] David [Pecker] and get control of this, purchase the life rights, we need to just stop this from getting out,” Cohen said, adding that he was directed to “push it” as long as he could, until after the election.
Trump’s attorneys today will likely begin cross-examining Cohen, the prosecution’s key witness, getting a chance to suggest holes in his account of a $130,000 hush-money payment and chip at the credibility and composure of a historically combative New Yorker.
Trump’s presidential campaign has sent supporters a steady stream of fund-raising solicitations featuring exaggerated portrayals of his days in court.
John Catsimatidis, the CEO of WABC radio, explained the station’s decision to pull Rudy Giuliani from its airwaves, saying the ex mayor repeatedly violated an agreement prohibiting him from spreading claims that fraud caused Trump to lose in 2020.
A top Biden official said the U.S. does not believe Israel’s “total victory” over the militant group Hamas is “likely or possible.”
At least one United Nations aid worker was killed and another injured after a vehicle marked as belonging to the agency was attacked in Rafah yesterday.
A shipment of humanitarian aid bound for Gaza was intercepted and ransacked by Israeli activists opposed to sending help to Palestinians living in the besieged enclave.
The US believes an Israeli operation in Gaza’s southern town of Rafah would be a mistake and is “urgently” working toward a ceasefire, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said.
An Army officer assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency has resigned in protest over the United States’ support for Israel, which he said had “enabled and empowered” the killing of Palestinian civilians.
In the almost 45 years since their historic peace deal, Israel and Egypt have become essential partners, a close though never warm relationship that underpins both countries’ national security. Israel’s Rafah offensive is threatening to undo all of that.
Israelis gathered across the country yesterday for the first national day of mourning since the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attacks, with protesters disrupting several ceremonies as they demanded that government ministers do more to secure the release of hostages.
Democrats’ smoldering divisions over the war in Gaza flared in New York yesterday, as Rep. Jamaal Bowman, one of the House’s most endangered incumbents, debated a party rival over Israel’s war tactics, American military aid and a powerful pro-Israel group.
Sniping, snark and interruptions defined the first TV debate in one of the most competitive primaries between Bowman and Westchester County Executive George Latimer, underscoring the pivotal role the Israel-Hamas war is playing in Democratic politics.
Two-term Rep. Bowman has been trying to paint Latimer as a Trumper, while the Westchester County executive has called the congressman an extremist. From the very start of the face-off, sparks flew.
Bowman attacked Latimer over receiving funding from pro-Israel donors, and also accused Israel of an “onslaught against innocent civilians.”
Bowman insisted the phrase “from the river to the sea” — which implies the destruction of Israel — isn’t hateful.
Two advocacy organizations have filed a class-action lawsuit accusing New York of violating a law that went into effect two years ago that prohibits prisons and jails from placing inmates with disabilities in solitary confinement.
Hundreds of migrants who were relocated from New York City to upstate hotels over the past year are familiar with Platinum Community Care caseworkers, which turns out to be intertwined with DocGo.
Gov. Kathy Hochul will travel to Europe later this week to make an address at Pope Francis’ summit, “From Climate Crisis to Climate Resilience,” and deliver keynote remarks at the Global Economic Summit in Ireland, the governor’s office said.
She’ll be giving a 15-minute talk, titled “Climate Leadership in the Empire State: Building Resiliency for All,” at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, Vatican City time.
Hochul said: “Our goal for this trip is simple: strengthen international connections that will create economic opportunities for New Yorkers and a cleaner future for the next generation.”
Hochul and Western New York officials unveiled the final design for the 5/14 memorial, created in remembrance of the victims of the 2022 Buffalo mass shooting
A review of court documents, land records, contracts and business filings reveals a tangled web of family members who apparently will continue benefiting from the city’s emergency contract with DocGo, seemingly with no public oversight or enforcement.
Liberal criminal justice groups are telling Albany not to move forward with a last-minute push to update New York’s evidence rules that have to thrust into the spotlight after the Court of Appeals tossed out Harvey Weinstein’s conviction last month.
What has become an annual parade in mid-town Manhattan for Asian Americans was set up with the blessing of Mayor Eric Adams by the CEO of a company that is a registered foreign agent of China, according to documents obtained exclusively by Newsweek.
Adams’ office reportedly recently started setting up one-on-one meetings between City Council members and Randy Mastro, an ex-federal prosecutor whose expected nomination as the city government’s next top lawyer has drawn intense pushback.
Adams is facing scathing criticism over the “haphazard” implementation of a limit on the length of time migrants could stay in city shelter — with a new report finding that the policy was hurried, lacked clear objectives or written protocols.
Councilman Lincoln Restler warned of a “disaster” for the city after the number of proposed beds for mentally ill inmates was slashed in half for the jail under construction on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn.
The mayor announced that over 12,000 families have been served across the five boroughs since the city expanded its infant health and doula services.
Adams penned an op-ed touting Operation Padlock – a new initiative to shut down illegally operating cannabis dispensaries.
Mets owner Steve Cohen lined up the backing of 100 civic leaders, small business owners and residents to back his $8 billion “Metropolitan Park” plan to build a casino complex project next to Citi Field in a bid to woo state Sen. Jessica Ramos’ support.
Manhattan federal prosecutors have asked for convicted scam artist Lamor Whitehead — known as the “Bling Bishop” for his flamboyant lifestyle — to be jailed ahead of his July sentencing, according to new court filings.
George Clooney is planning to make his Broadway debut next spring in a stage adaptation of his 2005 film “Good Night, and Good Luck.”
The office of Attorney General Letitia James will host a gun buyback program Saturday in Watervliet, offering prepaid gift cards in exchange for firearms.
The number of children in prekindergarten is growing in the Capital Region, years after the state began pouring money into the area school districts to encourage more early education.
Smith College Prof. Andrew Zimbalist, one of the world’s foremost experts on sports construction as an urban revitalization engine, doesn’t share Albany leaders’ enthusiasm for a $300 million entertainment hub anchored by a minor league soccer stadium.
The former Albany Rural Cemetery general manager was charged with two felonies for reportedly embezzling nearly $32,000 from the nonprofit that oversees the historic cemetery where a former president, business tycoons, war heroes and others are buried.
Computer chip manufacturers like GlobalFoundries are eligible for a 25 percent investment tax credit to help spur growth of sector, which is set to expire after 2026, so chipmakers are looking to take advantage now.
Albany County is forming a new partnership with businesses in the county to provide free Narcan kits and fentanyl test strips to firms wishing to participate, County Executive Dan McCoy said.
Photo credit: George Fazio (taken at Tulip Fest this past weekend).
