Good morning, it’s Monday. Time to put on your big person pants and face the world. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.
I don’t, as a rule, like looking back in this space, preferring rather on the day (or even days, when we’re facing down a weekend) ahead. But it’s worth mentioning that we are officially in fall now, because the Autumnal Equinox took place yesterday roughly fifteen minutes before 9 a.m.
A brief refresher: An equinox is when the Earth’s axis is tilted neither toward nor away from the sun, which results in a day and night of almost exactly the same length. By contrast a solstice is the “longest day, shortest night” or “shortest night, longest day” situation, depending on whether the Earth’s axis is tilted as close to or as far away from the sun as it makes it annual orbit.
The fall season ends on the December solstice (Saturday, Dec. 21, at about 4:20 a.m.), when astronomical winter begins. For meteorologists, however, fall in the Northern Hemisphere started about three weeks ago (on Sept. 1) and will end on Nov. 30.
If the Autumn Equinox bums you out and you can’t figure out why, leaving you feeling just sort of blah. Well, it turns out that you’re not just imagining things. As the days become shorter and nights longer, your circadian rhythm, (AKA the internal body clock) is impacted, which can lead to changes in your sleep patterns and mood.
If you’re someone prone to Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), a type of depression that occurs when the seasons change and there’s light (so fall into winter), then now is the time to start thinking about how you’re going to take care of yourself and manage your symptoms.
It’s also a good time to start building up your immune system for the cold and flu season ahead. The whole “bundle up or you’ll catch cold” thing is apparently a myth. Exposure to cold temperatures has not been scientifically proven to weaken the immune system.
However, airborne viruses do live longer when the air is cooler and less humid, and being inside more with other people – usually with the windows closed – leaves us susceptible to getting sick more frequently.
There are some simple steps you can take to boost your immune system, which is basically the same sort of thing you should be doing all year round – getting adequate sleep, eating a healthy diet, cutting out smoking, reducing or eliminating alcohol, etc. and so forth. There are also some supplements you can take (Vitamin C, Zinc, etc.) but really establishing healthy habits and WASHING YOUR HANDS frequently to reduce germ exposure is probably the best bet.
I’m not going to opine on whether you should be getting the latest Covid booster along with your annual flu shot. You can take this fun little Covid quiz from the Washington Post to test your virus knowledge and also read what the CDC has to say on the matter here.
I’m one of the people who really goes down for the count after getting the flu-Covid combination. So, I’m still on the fence as to what I’m going to do here. I do realize I don’t have a lot of time to decide, as experts say to optimize results, you should be getting your inoculations at the end of September or in early October.
It’s hard to think that cold and flu season is right around the corner, given the warm, dry and sunny skies we’ve been experiencing as of late. However, after a spate of really amazing weather, we’re in for some not-to-great days ahead, sadly.
Today will be overcast with temperatures in the low 70s. There’s some rain forecast for later in the week, but we’ll deal with that when we get there. One day at a time over here, trying to live in the moment, as they say.
In the headlines…
Congressional leaders announced an agreement on a short-term spending bill that will fund federal agencies for about three months, averting a possible partial government shutdown on Oct. 1 and pushing final decisions until after the November election.
Temporary spending bills generally fund agencies at current levels, but an additional $231 million was included to bolster the Secret Service. More money was added to replenish a disaster relief fund and aid with presidential transition – among other things.
In a letter to colleagues, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said the “legislation will be a very narrow, bare-bones CR including only the extensions that are absolutely necessary.”
Johnson previously championed a longer, six-month continuing resolution. His original plan paired a spending patch with the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which requires votes to show proof of citizenship to cast their ballots.
The Israeli military this morning warned Lebanese civilians to evacuate from villages where Hezbollah was storing weapons, bringing Israel’s 11-month conflict with the militia closer to all-out war after a week of escalation.
Israel’s defense minister briefed his US counterpart on Israeli military operations against Hezbollah yesterday after Israel and the Iran-backed militant group exchanged their most intense fire since the war in Gaza began.
In a post on X, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said he gave US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin “a situation assessment of Hezbollah threats and briefed him on IDF operations to degrade Hezbollah’s ability to launch attacks against Israeli civilians.”
Hezbollah has said it has entered an “open-ended battle of reckoning” with Israel after launching a series of rocket attacks on the north of the country as world powers implored both sides to step back from the brink of all-out war.
Hezbollah launched more than 100 rockets, missiles and drones at Israeli territory in a large-scale response to a wave of deadly attacks against the group in Lebanon — exploding pagers and walkie-talkies, along with airstrikes against senior commanders.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to suggest Israel would not ease up on attacking Hezbollah, saying his country would take “whatever action is necessary” to diminish the threat of the Lebanese militia despite fears that the escalating violence.
Dozens of Israeli fighter jets pummeled Hezbollah targets across southern Lebanon late Saturday, a barrage that followed a week of violence in which exploding wireless devices and Israeli airstrikes fueled fears of a rapidly escalating regional conflict.
Battling in a tight race, the Trump-Vance team is sharpening the anti-immigrant nativism that fueled the former president’s initial rise to power in 2016, seizing on scare tactics, falsehoods and racial stereotypes.
A double-digit increase in popularity, rising Democratic enthusiasm and an early edge for representing “change” have vaulted Vice President Kamala Harris forward and reshuffled the 2024 presidential contest, according to a new national NBC News poll.
Harris on Saturday accepted an invitation from CNN to debate Trump on Oct. 23, challenging her rival to another engagement on a public stage in the final weeks of the campaign.
Speaking at a rally in Wilmington, North Carolina on Saturday, former President Donald Trump claimed victory in his earlier head-to-head against Harris and said “it’s just too late” for another.
Trump appeared at a campaign rally in Wilmington, N.C., on Saturday, two days after CNN reported that the Republican nominee for governor in the state, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, had called himself a “black NAZI” and defended slavery on a pornographic forum.
Most of the senior staff members Robinson’s campaign resigned, dealing a seismic blow to the embattled Republican who has faced widespread criticism after an explosive CNN report that he had made a series of disturbing comments on a porn website.
Even by the standards of a head-spinning presidential campaign, Trump’s campaign over the past two weeks has been tumultuous.
Harris has decided to dodge Trump and skip this year’s Al Smith Dinner — a major election year event that generations of candidates have attended — becoming the first presidential hopeful to duck out since failed candidate Walter Mondale in 1984.
The dinner benefitting Catholic Charities traditionally has been used to promote collegiality and good humor, with presidential candidates from both parties appearing on the same night and trading barbs.
Harris’s campaign told Al Smith Dinner organizers that she will instead stump in a battleground state on October 17, less than three weeks before the election.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. allegedly bragged about having “intimate” images of New York magazine reporter Olivia Nuzzi amid their sexting affair.
Nuzzi repeatedly denied accusations of a sexting fling with the former presidential hopeful when pressed by her boss.
According to the Daily Beast, the 70-year-old politician told his close friends about the pictures the political correspondent sent him, which led to the scandal blowing up.
Gov. Kathy Hochul continued her statewide listening tour on cellphones in schools, listening to teachers concerns at the New York State United Teacher’s “Disconnected” Conference in Albany Friday.
“I’ve talked to schools where they have banned cellphones. We’ve found out that there are a lot of challenges involved. But if you get ahead of it, we can be successful,” Hochul told Today, Explained co-host Sean Rameswaram.
Hochul is promising not to raise income taxes on New Yorkers next year – saying she doesn’t want more businesses to flee the state.
Western New York lawmakers are calling on Hochul to sign the Climate Change Superfund Act.
Illegal crossings along the 5,250-mile U.S.-Canada border represent a fraction of those that occur along the border with Mexico. But that fraction is growing, as more migrants look northward to what they see as a relatively safer crossing into the US from Canada.
New York lawmakers are eyeing new regulations to bolster certain consumer rights in the advent of generative artificial intelligence, a rapidly developing technology that has raised numerous concerns related to privacy, copyright and deception.
The chief equity officer for the state Office of Cannabis Management, Damien Fagon, will remain on leave and resign from his position in November, officials said Friday.
Multiple New York counties haven’t collected as much in sales tax as they did by this time last year, signaling a shift in consumer spending in those areas that’s not expected to rebound quickly.
SUNY Chancellor John King criticized UAlbany over the weekend for what he described as censorship in the wake of a scrapped panel discussion at the Albany Book Festival after writers dropped out of the discussion due to the moderator’s views on Israel.
There were a few cracks at the expense of former governor and one-time presidential hopeful Andrew Cuomo in D.C. last week. His former girlfriend Sandra Lee was on habd in her new role as the member of the White House Historical Association’s Board Council.
Enraged families of COVID-19 victims are calling for Cuomo to face charges after recently surfaced emails contradicted what he told a congressional panel about nursing home deaths.
Interim NYPD Commissioner Thomas Donlon said late Saturday that the feds raided his homes and seized materials from two decades ago. It wasn’t immediately clear if he is now the target of any investigation.
Donlon, who recently took the interim role after Edward A. Caban resigned under a cloud, said the authorities had seized material unrelated to the Police Department. “This is not a department matter, and the department will not be commenting,” he added.
Federal prosecutors scrutinizing a web of top officials in New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ administration subpoenaed the director of the city’s Office of Asylum Seeker Operations to testify before a grand jury.
The Associated Press reported that federal prosecutors issued the subpoena to Molly Schaeffer. A doorman at her parents’ building who spoke to Gothamist confirmed that law enforcement officials visited on Friday morning.
A top Adams under advisor investigation delayed for months a multimillion-dollar contract to provide caseworkers at migrant shelters, hampering efforts to help asylum-seekers get work papers and exit the system as their numbers in the city skyrocketed.
The New York City Department of Investigation is probing the city Sheriff’s Office and the man who leads it, Anthony Miranda, as investigations into Adams’ inner circle expand, according to five people with knowledge of the situation.
Orthodox Jews who observe the sabbath are trashing the New York City Sanitation Department over its stricter evening curbside garbage drop-offs, saying they are getting slapped with fines for adhering to their religion.
Five people were injured in The Bronx yesterday when a gas main exploded, leaving behind a smoking crater, noxious fumes — and panicked churchgoers fleeing into the street.
Residents were allowed to return to their homes after a major gas line rupture in the Bedford Park section of the Bronx on Sunday morning, according to the FDNY.
A 26-year-old woman wounded when NYPD officers shot a knife-wielding man at a Brooklyn subway station was not “grazed” by gunfire as officials have said, according to a lawyer for her family. Instead, she has a bullet lodged in her leg and can’t walk.
A veteran sanitation worker died on the job in Queens Saturday after he was crushed by his own garbage truck, according to city officials.
More than 100 cyclists gathered near the Brooklyn side of the Williamsburg Bridge on Saturday afternoon for a street race with a $1,000 cash prize and a catch: Citi Bikes only.
A person in New York has been hospitalized with Eastern equine encephalitis, a rare but serious mosquito-borne illness, the state’s Health Department said Friday.
The infection was reported in Ulster County, around 100 miles north of New York City, and is the first confirmed human case of the illness to be recorded in New York since 2015.
A least 10 cases of EEE were confirmed across the United States this year, including a deadly case in New Hampshire.
Albany County District Attorney David Soares, who has been in office since 2005, has mounted a long-shot write-in campaign after losing a June Democratic primary to rival Lee Kindlon by 10 percentage points.
New meters are coming to a neighborhood near you. Since spring, National Grid has been swapping out the 20-year-old mechanical utility meters for new digital smart meters across eastern New York.
A Queensbury man has been indicted on wire fraud charges, after previously being arrested and named in a criminal complaint, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of New York (NDNY).
According to Albany County officials, not one of the 52 car seats checked at the 40th Annual Traffic Safety Awareness Show and Car Seat Check on Saturday was correctly installed.
Glens Falls Hospital plans to build an expanded emergency room with a new covered ambulance bay and behavioral health area.
“We’re playing chess while everyone else in the state is playing checkers,” a Rensselaer county official boasted in a 2021 text exchange concerning efforts to secure absentee ballots favoring Republican candidates. “ … I love the strategy here.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
