Good morning, it’s Monday.
There was a touch of fall in the air over the weekend, I thought, even though it was still quite warm. There are leaves on trees around my house that are starting to turn. Officially, there are 34 days until autumn gets underway, though Labor Day is just around the corner. Soak up that sun while you still can.
Thanks to the ongoing wildfires in Canada, the air has been hazy around the Capital Region, up into the Adirondacks and over to Vermont – so much so that the state issued an air quality advisory on Friday, warning that there was sufficient particulate matter in the air to make it unsafe for vulnerable groups (the very young, the very old, and those with health conditions that impact their breathing). Things were nowhere as bad as they were last year, but still worth taking precautions over.
My parents monitoring the Canadian wildfire situation quite closely, as they’re going on a cruise up the coast from Boston in a few weeks. It doesn’t appear that their trip will be impacted, but it’s still something to monitor. This is actually the second leg of a month-long, two-part cruise trip – the first was to Iceland and Greenland.
My parents, who, if you hadn’t already guessed, are retired (BTW, I’m speaking of my mother and step-father here, my father and step-mother, also retired, are vacationing in the South of France at the moment). We have been communicating via WhatsApp, which, if you’re not already on there, you should explore posthaste.
The idea of floating aimlessly on a large tin can – albeit one replete with amusements and endless food options – with a lot of other people doesn’t really appeal to me. When I got word that there had been a bumpy night en route to Greenland with 65-foot swells, my desire to cruise diminished even further.
As regular readers of this space are aware, I love the concept of traveling and exploring new places – especially if hiking is involved – but the actual getting there part is not my favorite.
Flying, in particular, is a problem, and has only gotten more fraught for me as climate change-induced turbulence grows more frequent and extreme – a phenomenon that is only getting worse, apparently – cancellations and delays have become increasingly commonplace, and parts of planes are falling off in mid-air.
For all my anxiety, the fear-inducing headlines, the rising prices/fees, and general discomfort of flying – not to mention the massive negative impact plane fuel has on the environment – the reality is that flying is still extremely safe and really the fastest and most economical way to get from Point A to Point B, especially when those two points are very far apart.
The fact that one can board a plane in the morning, soar through the air at speeds of hundreds of miles an hour, and disembark in an entirely different country/time zone/culture etc. just a few hours later is nothing short of a modern-day miracle. And for that, we owe a debt of gratitude to Orville Wright, who was born on this day in 1871 in Dayton, Ohio.
Orville and his brother, Wilbur, shared a fascination with flying. They started in the bicycle business and deployed some of the cycles they manufactured in their experimental gliders and flying machines. They relentlessly pursued the dream of building an airplane, and when Orville was 32, they finally succeeded when he piloted the first successful powered, controlled flight on Dec. 17, 1903, in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
With this flight – the first heavier-than-air, powered, controlled flight made by a man – marked the dawn of the aviation age and forever changed the way we travel.
Granted, they were hardly the first to dabble in flight experiments. Humans have long been obsessed with the concept of being able to break free of the earth-bound life and soar like birds. Leonardo da Vinci performed the first significant studies of flight way back in the 1480s, and the modern-day helicopter is based on some of his early drawings.
President Franklin Roosevelt established the first National Aviation Day through a proclamation issued in 1939 in celebration of Orville Wright’s birth. Interestingly, it’s also the birthday of Katharine Wright Haskell, the Wright brothers’ younger sister, who also played a key role in the early U.S. aviation industry. Roosevelt hoped to spur public interest in flying, which I think has more than been achieved, though I can’t say for certain what Aviation Day might have had to do with it.
International Air Transport Association (IATA) predicts that 4.7 billion people will travel by plane this year, which is close to the 4.5 billion passengers reported in 2019 (remember, there was a little thing called the pandemic between then and now that really put the kibosh on travel for a while).
Today will be a mixed bag from a weather perspective if you’re planning on taking to the friendly skies. It will be cloudy with a chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon. Temperatures will be in the high 70s.
In the headlines…
The Democratic National Convention in Chicago, kicking off today, will include tributes to President Joe Biden, whose opening-night, prime-time keynote address will make the case for electing Vice President Kamala Harris.
Even as feel-good displays of joy and confidence are set to dominate the DNC this week in Chicago, one painful issue is bitterly dividing the Democratic establishment from its left flank: Israel’s war in Gaza.
There are at least six major protests planned on the streets of Chicago during the DNC. The biggest is planned for the first today, with “tens of thousands” expected to march just blocks from the United Center.
Democrats released their party platform yesterday, unveiling a document that offers plenty of political comfort food for a newly energized party ahead of its convention in Chicago.
The preparations for the DNC are in high gear, and over the weekend, security measures surprisingly spilled over into neighborhoods nowhere near the United Center or McCormick Place.
Celebrities Mindy Kaling, Kerry Washington, Ana Navarro and Tony Goldwyn will serve as hosts at the convention this week – one for each night at the DNC, convention officials confirmed.
Vice President Kamala Harris joined her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, and their spouses for a bus tour across a crucial part of Pennsylvania, in a political show of force and call to action before Democrats kick off their national convention in Chicago.
The candidates landed at Pittsburgh International Airport, greeted by a crowd of supporters, before heading to Rochester, Beaver County, for a stop at a Democratic Party headquarters. They then made their way down the Ohio River valley to Aliquippa.
Pennsylvania, which Donald Trump won in 2016 and Biden in 2020, remains perhaps the state most coveted by both candidates. Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, will make campaign stops, separately, in York and Philadelphia today.
Trump returned to Pennsylvania over the weekend, this time speaking to supporters in scenic Wilkes-Barre – his second rally in the Keystone State since the attempt on his life in Butler, which he did not mention.
Trump again went after Harris’s physical appearance as his Republican allies have pushed him to instead focus on the policy differences with his political opponent. “I am much better looking than her,” he claimed.
Now that Walz is Harris ‘ running mate, his drunken driving arrest from 1995 in Nebraska — long before he entered politics — is getting renewed scrutiny.
Tropical Storm Ernesto strengthened into a hurricane again as it churns toward the northeastern Atlantic, bringing powerful swells to the U.S. East Coast in its wake.
Torrential rain on Long Island early this morning caused flash flooding, led to several water rescues and closed parts of major highways leading to New York City, as the National Weather Service declared a flash flood emergency.
More than 900,000 people in Suffolk County on Long Island were under a flash flood emergency until 4:30 a.m. on Monday, according to the National Weather Service.
“This is a particularly dangerous situation,” the Weather Service said. Between four and six inches of rain had fallen, it said, and another two to four inches of rain were possible.
Yesterday, the same storm pelted New York City, and police said that parts of Harlem River Drive in Manhattan and Major Deegan Expressway in the Bronx were blocked because of the flooding. It also forced all airports in the New York City area to ground flights.
The National Hurricane Center said yesterday that Ernesto became a hurricane again after its maximum sustained winds were clocked at 75 mph, just barely meeting the Category 1 threshold.
Former Long Island Rep. George Santos is expected to plead guilty today to campaign fraud charges. Santos could change his mind, but witnesses in his campaign fraud case were told by federal prosecutors of his plans to plead.
The court hearing was scheduled for this afternoon after prosecutors and Santos’ lawyers jointly requested one on Friday. They also sought and received a delay in certain pre-trial deadlines.
Republican Rep. Nick LaLota is questioning his Democratic rival John Avlon’s local bona fides as they battle over who is more authentically of Long Island, as the Democrats hope for a victory in a traditional GOP stronghold.
Gov. Kathy Hochul is considering proposing a lower congestion toll for Manhattan — and nixing it altogether for municipal workers such as cops and teachers.
Hochul is considering legislation that seeks to stop the state of New York from contributing to deforestation and degradation of tropical rainforests.
Hochul will soon decide whether to approve a controversial bill that would force oil, natural-gas and coal companies to fork over billions of dollars to the state for contributing to climate change.
Invasive spotted lanternflies are harming plant life across New York by sucking sap from trees and vines at an alarming rate. But scientists say the insects’ poop, known as “honeydew,” is also a major cause for concern.
The Israel-Hamas war has divided Democrats, particularly in New York City, with the largest Jewish population outside Israel. Mayor Eric Adams is a strong Israel supporter. One of his primary opponents, Comptroller Brad Lander says he’s a “progressive Zionist.”
In the wake of revelations that he was personally subpoenaed by federal prosecutors investigating him and his campaign, Adams said Friday he believes evidence collected as part of the probe will show he “did nothing wrong.”
Adams is throwing his support behind Nassau County’s new face mask ban and pushing for a similar law in the city.
Adams confused India with Pakistan while speaking at an event commemorating Indian independence on Saturday, leading the mayor to quickly apologize for the gaffe.
Families seeking shelter in New York City will no longer be required to bring their children to in-person intake proceedings under City Council legislation passed last week that’s meant to give some reprieve to families.
New York City Sheriff Anthony Miranda has been accused of repeatedly using the emergency lights and sirens of his department vehicle to speed through rush-hour traffic as he made his way to work and, on occasion, to escort his adult son to his job.
None of this year’s graduates of an elite Upper East Side Jewish high school, Ramaz, will be attending Columbia University’s premier liberal arts college for the first time in decades at least partly because of antisemitism.
Con Edison charges nearly 100% more for gas delivery to some Big Apple customers than rival National Grid, according to Bronx Rep. Ritchie Torres, who said a new study by his office exposes the energy giant’s “hidden overcharges.”
FDNY second-in-command Joseph Pfeifer, who was earning more than $500,000, has been booted by new Commissioner Robert Tucker just days after the new head took over.
A powerful city union that is pushing legislation to ban Big Apple hotels from contracting out certain front-line jobs outsources work all the time to manage its Manhattan headquarters — including to some non-union firms, records show.
An overwhelming number of legal-pot-shop owners and licensees oppose loosening the buffer zone that bars cannabis stores from being located within 1,000 feet of each other, according to an industry poll.
Partnerships with local colleges are expanding in high schools across the Capital Region. Supporters tout the perceived benefits of dual credit courses: the potential for earning transfer credits, graduating early and saving money as the cost of college skyrockets.
Albany County Executive Dan McCoy’s plan to take over airport CEO job was years in the making, though the board only just recently informed the current executive his contract would not be renewed.
Albany County leaders showed off the county’s first building to be completely powered by renewable energy on Friday.
Saratoga Spa State Park announced the restoration and reopening of a mineral spring last week.
Hundreds of licensed hemp stores across New York have been raided over the past several months by state regulators and police agencies that have seized millions of dollars in cannabinoid products.
A couple whose restaurants were a staple of the Ballston Spa community for 11 years have announced that a health crisis has forced the permanent closure after less than three years of Finnigan’s on the Lake Tavern & Grill on Ballston Lake.
Twenty military veterans from around the world are converging on the Capital Region this week to participate in what organizers call the first-of-its-kind trail orienteering event on U.S. soil.
The state Department of Environmental Conservation announced a $7 million remediation settlement with the owners of a former battery manufacturing facility in western Orange County designated a “state Superfund” site.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
