Good morning, it’s Wednesday of a pre-holiday weekend week.
I imagine that some people are planning to cut out early on Friday and get a jump on the three-day weekend. (I’ve already received at least one “away” response to an email that indicates that at least one lucky soul has cut out even earlier than that).
Others of us (ahem, raises hand sheepishly) will be grinding right up to EOD Friday. But once that’s done, I hopefully will be (as the meme goes) slamming the computer shut until at least late Sunday afternoon.
I don’t go to the movies much anymore. I used to go quite a bit, but like so many other people, fell out of the habit during the pandemic and just never went back. I am chagrined that this lack of attendance is contributing to the struggles of independent theaters. (I was a big fan of the Spectrum, once upon a time, and also of Upstate Films, which is still going strong in my absence).
I do appreciate and understand the power of seeing something on the big screen. And there are a number of films that left a significant impression on me and stayed with me long after the lights came up. One of those was definitely “Milk“, 2008 biopic based on the life of trailblazing gay rights activist and politician Harvey Milk, who was the first openly gay man elected to public office in California and was assassinated in 1978.
Milk was a UAlbany grad, Class of ’51, (at the time, it was the New York State College for Teachers). He wasn’t out at the time, (he resigned from the U.S. Navy in 1955 after being forced to accept an “other than honorable” discharge and leave the service due to his homosexuality). He was, however, politically active in student government, once running unsuccessfully for freshmen class president. He majored in math and participated in a number of sports, including basketball, volleyball and softball and wrestling.
Milk was not, as is frequently misstated, the first openly gay elected official in the U.S. His tragic death and subsequent attention his story received – particularly through the Gus Van Sant film in which Milk was portrayed by the actor Sean Penn, who won an Academy Award for his performance – made Milk a recognizable name, which is how that mistake might be explained.
The “first” honor actually goes to Kathy Kozachenko, who, at the age of 21 and three years before Milk was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, made history by getting elected to the City Council in Ann Arbor, Michigan, beating her Democratic opponent (she ran on the now defunct Human Rights Party line) by 52 votes.
Less than a year later, an out lesbian named Elaine Noble was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives. She was the first openly gay person to hold statewide office, and represented Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood in the General Assembly from 1975 to 1979. She’s still alive, as far as I can tell, living in Florida with her partner and still engaged with the LGBTQ community.
Kozachenko was a very private person and didn’t speak publicly much about her accomplishment until later in her life, and it seems to me that she was spurred in part to do so out of a sense of dismay over the erosion of the hard-won rights that early LGBTQ advocates like her fought for.
“It’s tragic that gains that we made 50 years ago we’re now seeing either under attack or being erased,” Kozachenko said in an interview this past April. “We have to do the work again.”
I don’t think I’m going too far out on a limb to suggest that Milk would probably feel the same way, if he had lived to see this day. I’m sure, actually, that he would be quite appalled at some of the hate-filled rhetoric, bullying, and increase in violence against marginalized people.
Harvey Milk was born on this date in 1930 in Woodmere, NY. Had he lived, he would have been celebrating his 94th birthday. Instead of celebrating that milestone, we’re celebrating his legacy – as we do every year on this date. Harvey Milk Day was established as a California state holiday in 2009, under then Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
It’s going to be another stunner of a day, with a mix of clouds and sun and temperatures in the low 90s. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Don’t forget your umbrella.
In the headlines…
President Joe Biden was projected to win Oregon’s Democratic presidential primary. He is the Democrats’ presumptive nominee, but this could give him as many 66 more delegates as he heads toward a rematch with former President Donald Trump.
In Oregon, a write-in campaign in protest of Biden’s handling of the war in Gaza underperformed significantly, with less than 5 percent of all votes in the Democratic primary going to write-ins.
Nearly 30 percent of voters in the Democratic primary in Kentucky backed an option that wasn’t Biden, a notable underperformance for the president among Democrats in the state.
Trump has won Oregon’s Republican presidential primary. Though he has already the presumptive GOP nominee, the Beaver State could add as many 31 more delegates into his column as he heads toward a rematch with Biden.
The Democratic primary for DA in Fulton County, Ga., ended in a blowout. Fani Willis, who is prosecuting Trump and others over his effort to overturn the 2000 election results, crushed her opponent, Christian Wise Smith, winning with 87 percent of the vote.
Vince Fong, a California lawmaker and onetime aide to ex-Speaker Kevin McCarthy, won a special election to fill his seat — representing the state’s most conservative district. Fong succeeds McCarthy nearly five months after he resigned from Congress.
Oregon state Rep. Janelle Bynum has won the Democratic primary for Oregon’s 5th congressional district, according to a projection from Decision Desk HQ, defeating her progressive rival in the race to oust incumbent Republican Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer.
Oregon state Rep. Maxine Dexter is projected to beat the sister of Washington State Rep. Pramila Jayapal in the Democratic primary for Oregon’s 3rd Congressional District, according to Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ).
Republicans are pushing legislation to crack down on voting by noncitizens, which happens rarely and is already illegal in federal elections, in a move that reinforces Trump’s efforts to delegitimize the 2024 results if he loses.
Spain, Norway and Ireland said that they would recognize an independent Palestinian state, a rebuke to Israel over its war in Gaza and its decades of occupation of Palestinian territories.
The official recognition by the three nations of an independent Palestinian state will take effect on May 28, Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide told a news conference.
European Union members Slovenia and Malta have also indicated in recent weeks that they plan to make the recognition, arguing a two-state solution is essential for lasting peace in the region.
The fast-moving developments drew Israel’s condemnation. Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz ordered Israel’s ambassadors from Ireland and Norway to immediately return to Israel.
None of the food and supplies that has entered the Gaza Strip through a U.S.-built temporary pier in its first five days of operation has been distributed to Palestinians by aid organizations, Gen. Patrick S. Ryder, the Pentagon spokesman, said at a news briefing.
Trump’s lawyers mounted a minimal defense after prosecutors called 20 witnesses. Closing arguments in the first prosecution of an American president will take place May 28.
The defense rested its case after Trump declined to take the stand at his own criminal trial, forfeiting his only opportunity to defend himself but also avoiding what could have been a calamitous unforced error.
The Department of Justice authorized “the use of deadly force” when FBI agents swarmed Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in August 2022 looking for classified documents, according to court filings.
Rudy Giuliani and 10 other Trump allies were arraigned and entered not-guilty pleas on Tuesday in an Arizona criminal case that charges them with trying to keep the former president in power after he lost the 2020 presidential election.
Giuliani has agreed to stop accusing two former Georgia election workers of election fraud, attorneys say.
The former president suggested he might support letting states place restrictions on contraception, then said amid criticism that he didn’t support restrictions.
The day after the Cannes Film Festival premiered “The Apprentice,” a biopic of Trump, the former president hit back at the movie, calling it “malicious defamation” and threatening legal action.
The Biden administration announced that it would sell off one million barrels of gasoline over the coming weeks from a strategic reserve in the Northeast, a move it said was designed to keep gasoline prices in check for consumers ahead of the July 4 holiday.
Biden and Trump are neck and neck in New Hampshire, despite the Granite State voting Democrat in the past five presidential elections, new polling revealed.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s sister, Kerry, has become the face of the Kennedy family effort to block his candidacy and re-elect Biden. She has more at stake besides her relationship with her brother in this effort, which she calls “heart-wrenching.”
In an election fought partly through the images that inundate social media and pit archetype against archetype — Kennedy offers a Rorschach test of a different kind. At least stylistically speaking.
Gov. Kathy Hochul has named Merideth Andreucci as the leader for the new state agency tasked with developing New York’s semiconductor industry and coordinating efforts around Micron’s $100 billion investment in Central New York.
Hochul’s direction, flags across the state were at half-staff in honor of a fallen retired New York state police officer who died of a 9/11-related illness.
State senators grilled the acting chief of the state Dormitory Authority about the terms of a high-interest cannabis business loan program as part of his confirmation hearing — while the authority says it’s suspending new deals.
Robert Rodriguez, Hochul’s appointee to head the authority, faced questions about Chicago Atlantic, a private equity firm that offers loans to people who were awarded licenses to sell legal cannabis, and more during the Senate Finance Committee hearing.
New York’s highest court rejected a challenge from religious employers to a state regulation requiring them to offer health insurance to their employees that covers medically necessary abortions.
Child Victims Act advocates want lawmakers and the AG’s office to intervene in a case in which insurance companies are challenging if policies cover claims for the systemic sexual abuse of children possibly concealed by Catholic church leaders.
So far, 79 companies have expressed an interest in working with the New York Power Authority to build renewable energy power plants using solar and wind, as well as hydrogen and geothermal sources.
Albany’s effort to close the legal loophole that helped disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein get his state sex-crimes conviction overturned seems to be in limbo.
Brooklyn state Sen. Kevin Parker will not face charges for his role in a shouting match with a disability rights advocate who claimed the Democratic lawmaker shoved him at the Capitol in Albany last week. The two “worked things out,” the advocate said.
Just a month after the FBI seized his phones and other devices, Mayor Eric Adams spoke with tech entrepreneurs at an unusual private event where he asked for contributions to his legal defense fund, according to four people who attended.
Eric Adams announced last night plans to create a Charter Revision Commission — an otherwise mundane move that an increasingly restless City Council views as an attack on its independence.
The relationship between the Council and the mayor’s office has reached a new low during a time of acute vulnerability for the mayor.
A nonprofit that maintains and operates park space on Randall’s Island is threatening to sue the Adams administration if the city doesn’t shutter the 3,000-person migrant facility there by early August.
Adams’ effort to sweep away what his team says are archaic rules hamstringing businesses is headed toward approval by a key City Council committee this week, the administration’s second major victory in its City of Yes zoning overhaul.
New York City has “normalized antisemitism,” Adams said as he was asked about a Washington Post story that implied pro-Israel business titans influenced his response to the Columbia University protests.
Adams said his administration is “taking everything under analysis” regarding Sean “Diddy” Combs’ key to the city after a video surfaced of the rapper assaulting his ex-girlfriend.
“The committee and the team has never rescinded a key before, but we are now sitting down to see what the next steps forward are going to be,” said Adams.
A City Council proposal that would require New York City’s mayor to secure Council approval for top government appointments got little love from Adams, who said he disagrees with the plan.
The City Council is expected to approve the plan from the Adams administration to loosen zoning rules in order to encourage more business growth, but the council will soften several of the key components to pacify outer borough lawmakers.
New York City will begin a new push to evict migrants from its shelter system today as the city enters a more aggressive phase in its effort to ease the strain that the migrant crisis has placed on the city’s budget and shelters.
New York City’s beaches are expected to officially open this Memorial Day weekend. But some spots might be open for fewer hours if the city fails to fill hundreds of its remaining lifeguard vacancies, officials said this week.
A conservative Christian nonprofit that controls a section of the Jersey Shore will reluctantly open its beach this Sunday morning for the first time in 155 years. But the organization intends to challenge an order from the state that forced the change.
After shuttering twice due to some “inappropriate behaviour” on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, the viral art installation “Portal,” which provides a real-time video link between Manhattan and Dublin, Ireland, is back online – with some restrictions.
A former model filed a lawsuit accusing the hip-hop mogul Sean Combs of forcing her to perform oral sex on him at his New York City recording studio in 2003.
E. Stewart Jones Jr., an iconic figure in the Capital Region’s legal community, is facing possible disbarment following an investigation into allegations of professional misconduct for the misappropriation of client funds and improper bookkeeping at his prior firm.
A city criminal court judge has declined to dismiss charges against an Episcopal priest accused of slashing a former partner’s tires at a downtown parking garage in January.
School district residents went to the polls yesterday across the Capital Region and the state. Berne-Knox-Westerlo voters defeated a proposed $26.3 million budget, and a $94 million plan to improve North Colonie’s high school was approved 1,558 to 475.
The city’s economic development arm, Capitalize Albany, is seeking to buy the Greyhound bus station at 34 Hamilton St. for $1.7 million.
A 28-year-old Albany man was arrested after someone said explosives were placed at a church and fitness center in town, Colonie police said.
Kevin C. Miller Jr. was fired as head of Rensselaer County’s Veterans Service Agency after he was arrested on charges of threatening the county court judge who sentenced a man with ties to the killing of Miller’s son, according to county officials and court records.
Lawyers for the actress Riley Keough, the granddaughter of Elvis Presley, have sued to stop what they say is a fraudulent scheme to sell Graceland, the family’s cherished former home in Memphis.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
