Good Tuesday morning.
If you’ve been around here a while, you know I married into the “Thin Blue Line” over a decade ago.
My grandfather on my father’s side was a member of the NYPD, so there’s a longstanding law enforcement history in my family. My husband retired from the force a year ago, but old habits – like constantly scanning a room, driving with the window cracked, and insisting on sitting in a restaurant with his back to the wall – die hard. (IYKYN).
Being married to a cop definitely changed my perspective on law enforcement. I always knew it was a hard job, but I didn’t really have any idea of the true pressures and challenges until I witnessed them from the inside.
Given the shifting public opinion of The Job, (with a capital “T” and capital “J”, which is how I envision it in my head when my husband meets a fellow officer – current or retired – and they start talking shop), it’s understandable that for a while there, fewer people were opting to pursue it as a career.
However, that trend has apparently shifted, as a survey by conducted by the Police Executive Research Forum, or PERF, found that departments across the nation reported a modest uptick in their respective ranks in 2023 for the first time since the twin blows of the COVID-19 crisis and the George Floyd killing, which sparked the Black Lives Matter movement and led to a mass exodus of cops.
Perhaps this has something to do with the fact that Americans’ confidence in the police increased eight percentage points over the past year to 51 percent – the largest year-over-year change in public perceptions of 17 major U.S. institutions measured in Gallup’s annual update.
Confidence in the police rose among most major demographic subgroups – most notably, three categories of individuals – young people, people of color, and those who describe themselves as politically independent.
(As an aside, if you’ve got a few minutes to delve more deeply into that survey’s findings, I think you’ll find it interesting. For example, the military and small businesses have the highest confidence level among Americans, and that has been the case for several decades now).
Policing in the U.S. has changed quite a bit, but one thing remains constant – the need to forge strong ties and and levels of communication and trust between a department and the community its officers are sworn to protect. When these are missing, the job of policing is much more difficult.
Fostering and nurturing that relationship is in part the mission of National Night Out, which will take place this evening in communities across the state and the nation. It started in 1984 – a joint effort between law enforcement agencies, civic organizations and neighborhood watch groups – also to send a message to those intent on wrongdoing that people cared about their respective communities and intended to fight for them.
Millions of people across the country now participate in National Night Out, hosting and attending a wide range of activities – from cookouts to block parties and front porch vigils. It’s a chance not only for residents and law enforcement representatives to get together and have a good time, but also to share information and break down barriers.
Unfortunately, it looks like Mother Nature might not be in the mood to participate in setting the stage for outdoor activities. It’s going to be overcast for most of the day, with showers developing in the afternoon.
Also, it’s going to be a bit on the chilly side, (for summer, and compared to the extreme heat we’ve experienced of late), with temperatures only maxing out in the mid-70s. So, if you do venture out and about this evening, bring an umbrella – and a jacket or a sweater.
In the headlines…
The stunning transformation of the 2024 presidential race will reach new heights today when Vice President Kamala Harris unveils her running mate after a sequence of events that left Republican nominee Donald Trump flailing.
Harris is due to join her vice presidential pick at a rally in Philadelphia that will kick off a joint sprint across an electoral map expanded by President Joe Biden’s shelving of his own reelection bid just over two weeks ago.
Harris has narrowed her search for a vice presidential running mate to two finalists, Governors Tim Walz of Minnesota and Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, three sources with knowledge of the matter said.
While the precise nature of the rollout is not final, campaign insiders are pointing to President Joe Biden’s 2020 video introduction of Harris as a likely model. A media leak of the pick could upend those plans, they said.
Her announcement will cap a frenzied period that had, in recent days, exposed some of the party’s internal fissures on matters ranging from labor rights to Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
Harris, a daughter of immigrants who rose through the California political and law enforcement ranks to become the first female vice president in U.S. history, formally secured the Democratic presidential nomination yesterday.
Harris is the first woman of color to lead a major party ticket, and she earned Democrats their highest lead over Trump in nearly a year, according to a poll from Morning Consult.
A Virginia man has been charged with making numerous death threats against Harris and appeared in federal court yesterday.
Frank Lucio Carillo, of Winchester, Virginia, posted a series of violent threats about Harris last month using an alias on the conservative social media site GETTR, according to a criminal complaint unsealed in the Western District of Virginia.
With Trump and his allies signaling that he will scale back assistance to Ukraine if he retakes the White House, a onetime close adviser, Kellyanne Conway, has accepted a $50,000-a-month contract to lobby for Ukrainian interests.
Jenna Ellis, a lawyer who played a major role in the efforts to keep Trump in power after his 2020 election loss, reached a cooperation agreement as part of a deal with prosecutors leading an election interference case in Arizona.
The Supreme Court yesterday rejected an audacious lawsuit by Missouri that asked the justices to intervene in the hush money case in New York in which Trump was convicted of falsifying business records.
Google acted illegally to maintain a monopoly in online search, a federal judge ruled yesterday, a landmark decision that strikes at the power of tech giants in the modern internet era and that may fundamentally alter the way they do business.
Judge Amit P. Mehta of U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said in a 277-page ruling that Google had abused a monopoly over the search business.
The ruling did not include remedies for Google’s behavior. Judge Mehta will now decide that, potentially forcing the company to change the way it runs or to sell off part of its business.
Anxiety over a slowdown in the U.S. economy intensified yesterday, with a retreat in markets that began last week snowballing into a global rout.
The turmoil was the latest example of how distinct economic forces can ricochet across markets, forcing down company stock prices and erasing billions of dollars in value. The Dow Jones Industrial Average posted its worst day in nearly two years.
It didn’t take long for Trump to make a political weapon out of the market sell-off. Economists blamed a variety of factors for the slide. But the former president was trying to disrupt weeks of momentum for Harris and her party.
A new book by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi details her clashes with the former president, but it was written before her most recent exercise of political might: helping persuade Biden to end his re-election bid.
Debby made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend as a hurricane and is now a tropical storm. Her forward speed will soon come to a halt, wringing out potentially historic heavy rainfall and major flooding in parts of the Southeast.
Despite weakening since moving over land, Debby is still maintaining its tropical storm status, producing maximum sustained wind speeds of 45 mph.
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper declared a state of emergency ahead of severe weather, including life-threatening flash flooding, expected across the state due to Debby.
Debby could bring historic rainfall to surrounding states like Georgia and South Carolina, too, the National Hurricane Center said, warning the storm is expected to cause “major flooding” to parts of the southeastern United States over the next several days.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called Gov. Kathy Hochul’s pause of congestion pricing a “reasonable thing to do at this moment,” doubling down on his support of a decision that blew a $15 billion hole in the MTA’s construction budget.
“I supported a temporary pause of a limited duration, while at the same period of time redoubling our efforts at the federal level to make sure that we’re securing the resources to undergo…transformational projects,” Jeffries said.
Hochul needs to give an answer sooner than later about where she stands on the future of congestion pricing, some state lawmakers argue.
As New York continues to lose correctional officers, Hochul said she is considering making some changes to the pay scale and age requirements associated with the job in a bid to get more people into vacant positions.
Hochul announced New York will host an energy summit featuring global experts next month as the state struggles to meet the mandates of the 2019 Climate Act, which some business leaders have warned could have devastating economic impacts.
Hochul took her statewide listening tour to Yonkers yesterday, as she considers banning the use of smartphones in public schools.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. arrived at the Albany County Courthouse for a trial this week in a lawsuit filed by a group of voters challenging his New York nominating petitions because they argue he hasn’t lived in the state for several years and resides in California.
One of RFK Jr.’s cousins says she had no idea he was behind the dead bear cub dumped in Central Park in 2014 when she reported on its discovery while working for the New York Times.
The candidate’s disclosure that he had left a cub’s carcass in Central Park overshadowed his court battle to remain on New York State’s ballot this fall
The first meeting of a state commission that will study how reparations could be offered to descendants of enslaved people in New York was emotional, chaotic and at times uncomfortable.
More Long Island Rail Road commuters are misbehaving on the train.
The leaders of labor unions representing thousands of New York state troopers and investigators are raising concerns about the agency’s hiring standards following an incident last month at a new training academy at the former Cazenovia College.
Mayor Eric Adams sought to rebuff reports last week on a city Campaign Finance Board (CFB) draft audit that found his 2021 campaign failed to report over $2.3 million in expenses.
“I think it’s unfair when someone produces a draft report that we’re supposed to respond to and that draft report is leaked by the agency that is supposed to be doing the right thing,” Adams told reporters at City Hall.
The wife of a top NYPD official with close ties to Adams has quietly been pocketing a six-figure salary in a newly-created gig she was appointed to nearly two years ago.
A charitable organization co-founded by Adams’ brother auctioned off a dinner with the mayor during a Hamptons fundraiser over the weekend — raising eyebrows with ethics watchdogs.
An audit by the city comptroller and mayoral contender, Brad Lander, found that a city agency allowed a troubled contractor tasked with managing the migrant crisis to bill for unnecessary expenses like unused hotel rooms.
New York State is providing a fresh infusion of $4 million for a grant program that helps city homeowners build unconventional forms of apartment units on their properties, Adams announced.
The City Council axed a portion of a bill to regulate hotels that would have doomed scores of top-rated eateries and rooftop bars — heeding outcry from chefs and restaurant owners.
Queens opened its first public animal shelter last month — 24 years after plans for it were first set in motion — as abandoned pets continue to overwhelm the city’s already packed system.
A legal advocacy group has filed a discrimination complaint against Fordham University, claiming the Bronx school offers race- and ethnicity-based scholarships that favor black and Latino students over white and Asian students in violation of civil rights law.
Over a million square feet of retail space is empty in vacant chain-drugstore locations across New York City. It’s very hard to fill.
The first evening of the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale had some early excitement and multiple respectable price tags — with four horses hitting the seven-figure mark early — even as the bidding continued last night.
Two Capital Region women who began their military careers as enlisted soldiers have risen through the officer ranks to lieutenant colonel in the New York Army National Guard.
Bloomberg News has disciplined several staffers after the outlet prematurely published a story last week on a prisoner swap between the U.S. government and Russia, which brought home Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, among others.
Elisa Mevius, who starred for two seasons with the Siena College women’s basketball program, earned a gold medal at the Paris Olympics in 3×3 women’s basketball.
Simone Biles concluded her Olympic comeback by winning the silver medal in the floor exercise but came up just short of taking home another gold. Her score of 14.133 was just behind the 14.166 put up by Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade, who won gold.
Shortly after the USA 3×3 men’s basketball team did not advance beyond pool play at the Paris Olympics, Glens Falls native Jimmer Fredette detailed the injury that derailed his involvement with the team.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
