Good morning, it’s a Thursday that’s acting like a Friday for a lot of people – including me – as we head into the long holiday weekend during which we will officially bid adieu to Summer 2024.
A reminder: There will be no “Rise and Shine” tomorrow, Friday, Aug. 29; or Monday, Sept. 2, so we can commemorate Labor Day. I’ll be back with you bright and early on Tuesday, Sept. 3 to mark the start of a brand-new month and ease our way into fall together.
But before we go, let’s take a few moments to pay tribute to two individuals associated with this day in history who, I’m guessing have impacted your life at one moment or another, if even they aren’t immediately recognizable household names.
The first is the British writer Edmond Hoyle, who became an authority on card games. Hoyle, AKA the father of Whist, was born in 1672 and died on this day in 1769 at the ripe old age of 97. (Whist, if you’re not familiar, is a trick-taking card game that was developed in England).
While Hoyle might not have invented Whist outright, he is believed to have been a member of a group of gentlemen who first played the game based on scientific principles in the Crown Coffee House in Bedford Row, London, sometime in the 1720s. He went on to publish what became widely accepted as the Bible on the game.
Hoyle also wrote treatises on chess, backgammon, and other games. He was an expert on games of skill and chance, in part because he was a student of the laws of probability. The phase “according to Hoyle” has over the years become synonymous with strictly adhering to the rules – not just of whist, but of whatever game you happen to be playing.
In other words, if you’ve played a game with rules – and I’m sure you have at one point or another – you’ve been influenced by Edmond Hoyle.
Also on this day in 1632 John Locke was born. Also English, Locke was a physician and a philosopher who is widely regarded as the “father of liberalism” and one of the most influential thinkers of the Enlightenment.
Locke is perhaps best known for refuting the divine right theory, basically arguing that everyone – not just royalty – are endowed with a natural right to life, liberty, and property and that rulers who fail to protect those rights may be removed by the people – if necessary, by force.
“Life”, “liberty”…sound familiar? Add “and the pursuit of happiness” in there and you’ve got the foundational underpinnings of one of America’s most important and enduring documents. (Um, it’s the Declaration of Independence, in case this didn’t immediately ring any bells for you).
Locke’s writings also laid the groundwork for another importance and fundamental U.S. concept – the separation of church and state. In other words, while you might not have heard of Locke, read his work, or studied him, his influence has definitely made itself felt in your life. It might be nice to take a moment today to think about him and maybe send up a little word of thanks.
The weather for the long weekend is looking pretty mixed right now. Today will be mostly cloudy with temperatures in the high 70s. Tomorrow will bring more sun, but similar temperatures. Saturday looks like the biggest bust with showers early in the day and a chance of thunderstorms later on. Temperatures again will be in the mid-to-high 70s.
Sunday and Monday so far aren’t looking bad, with things warming back up into the 80s at first and then dropping back down into the 70s again. Keep an eye on the forecast, though, because, you know, it’s upstate New York and things can turn on a dime when it comes to the weather.
In the headlines…
Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, started a bus tour in Georgia yesterday after Walz began his day delivering a speech at a gathering of the International Association of Fire Fighters in Boston.
Swifties for Kamala, a group that is not affiliated with Harris’s campaign or Taylor Swift, raised more than $120,000 for the campaign after hosting a two-hour organizing call Tuesday, said Irene Kim, a founder of the group.
Former President Donald Trump used his social-media website, Truth Social, to amplify a crude remark about Harris that suggested she had traded sexual favors to help her political career.
Trump’s campaign is feuding with the military over a photo op he carried out at Arlington National Cemetery.
Trump campaign officials attacked military officials who called him out for taking photos at the gravesites of soldiers who were killed in an Afghanistan terror attack, despite a federal law that bans campaigns from doing so.
Trump blames President Biden for crises around the globe. But the reality is that presidents inherit a world already hurtling through history.
F.B.I. officials said the profile that has emerged of Thomas Crooks, who tried to assassinate Trump in July, based on an analysis of his electronics, resembles that of a mass shooter more than a politically motivated assassin.
House Republicans made their latest attempt to rewrite the history of the Jan. 6 attack, releasing a video compilation that sought to shift blame away from Trump and onto former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was pursued that day by a mob of Trump supporters.
The Supreme Court refused to allow a key component of the policy, known as the SAVE plan, to move forward after an emergency application by the Biden administration.
The high court turned down a request from the Biden administration to put the plan back in play after lower courts blocked it this summer in a legal challenge to the plan brought by GOP-led states. There were no noted dissents in the brief order.
The decision from the court means that Biden’s student loan repayment (SAVE) program will remain stalled until the Eighth Circuit rules, leaving millions of borrowers in legal limbo.
Sarah Palin was granted a new defamation trial against The New York Times after a federal appeals court found “several major issues” tainted the first one, including jurors learning from breaking news alerts that the judge had dismissed the case.
The 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals found that Manhattan Federal Judge Jed Rakoff “improperly intruded on the province of the jury” when he determined Palin failed to provide clear and convincing evidence that the Times maliciously defamed her.
More Americans have become sick or have died in connection with a deadly multi-state outbreak of listeria that has been linked to eating deli meats, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
There have been 14 more illnesses across the country and five more deaths, the agency said in a statement. In total, 57 infections have been reported across 18 states. All of these people have been hospitalized.
New York and California have become unlikely focal points in the fight for control of the House, as Democrats toil to appeal to wary voters in districts won by President Joe Biden.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. may have suspended his run for president but his campaign is still trying to keep him on the ballot in New York, where 7% of voters said they would vote for him in a recent poll.
Gov. Kathy Hochul and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie visited the State Fair in Syracuse, squeezing some political talk in between taking in the sights and sounds.
Hochul promised that the price of a glass of milk at the annual New York State Fair won’t budge as long as she’s in the governor’s mansion — outside cost pressures and inflation be darned.
While at the fair, Hochul signed a bill to help the state’s maple producers and championing results of her executive order for state agencies to buy more locally grown farm products. She also posed for photos with a snake and ate a sausage sandwich.
“With the signing of this legislation, we continue our mission to uplift (New York’s agricultural) community and prove we are here to support them every step of the way,” Hochul said in a statement.
One year after signing Executive Order 32 to increase the state’s sourcing of local food from farmers and producers, Hochul announced that state agencies and authorities have surpassed the first-year goal of five percent to nearly 15 percent.
Hochul shared with reporters that the number of migrants coming into New York State is dropping as efforts continue to find them legal paths to employment.
The governor announced that construction of the extension of the “Crow’s Nest” at Niagara Falls State Park is set to begin.
Video shows the moment a road in Suffolk County collapses due to flash flooding late last week. Hochul visited the area, calling the damage “extraordinary.”
Advocates of drug policy reform highlighted New York’s ongoing opioid crisis with a protest outside Hochul’s New York City office yesterday – a bid to commemorate an annual day of action dedicated to overdose awareness.
Hate crimes in New York state surged nearly 13% in 2023 compared to the year before, with almost half of the incidents targeting Jews, according to a new report from the state comptroller.
Mario Cilento was unanimously reelected by union delegates to a four-year term of New York’s AFL/CIO. He was first elected in 2011.
Mayor Eric Adams is hoping to persuade his base of Black middle-class and older voters that his re-election bid is being undermined just as David Dinkins’s was in 1993.
As the Adams administration continues to crack down on unsightly scaffolding across the five boroughs not everyone’s convinced the city should be taking a victory lap.
Districts like New York are revamping elementary school reading instruction. But the middle and high schoolers who don’t read proficiently are an afterthought.
The City University of New York is beefing up security and surveying students on discrimination across its 25 campuses, university officials announced on the first day of school for many of its colleges.
An ultra-rare 1-in-30 million orange lobster survived nearly two months in a Long Island Stop & Shop water tank before it was rescued by animal advocates and released into the ocean this week.
Foot Locker announced the sneaker retailer will move its headquarters from New York City to Florida to escape the Empire State’s high costs.
The nine-person advisory board responsible for mapping out future plans for SUNY Downstate Medical Center has yet to convene, leaving the Brooklyn hospital’s fate unclear.
A two-alarm blaze tore through a Manhattan diner yesterday, injuring two firefighters. FDNY officials said 106 firefighters and EMS personnel responded to a 911 call around 11:11 a.m. at the Hollywood Diner, on the corner of Sixth Ave. and W. 16th St. in Chelsea.
Federal prosecutors have charged a Bronx Republican elected official with bribery, extortion, fraud and identity theft in connection with what they say was a scheme to force potential poll workers to bribe her.
The annual U.S. Open tennis tournament is more popular than ever — and has become a hot ticket for celebrities, influencers and brands looking to see and be seen.
Albany Medical Center has become the first hospital in northeastern New York to offer a new treatment that may delay Alzheimer’s disease.
Uncommon Grounds coffee and bagel shops are expanding, with work proceeding in Bethlehem, North Greenbush and Queensbury.
Million Air, at the Albany County Airport, has installed a show of photos and poetry by Natalie Gillis, the pilot-adventurer who was killed in a plane crash in June. Gillis’ mother and her friends came from Canada for the exhibition’s opening.
Mayor Steven Noble signed into law a package of tax exemptions designed to spur denser housing development in Kingston, which has faced an extraordinary affordable housing crunch over the past few years.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
