Good morning, it’s Monday.
Depending on where you live, it’s Columbus Day or Indigenous Peoples Day, or maybe a combination of both. Also depending on where you live – and who you work for – you might have today off from work with pay OR it might be just another start of the workweek.
Welcome to one of the most inconsistently celebrated American federal holidays, and yes, it is one of the 11 holidays officially observed by the federal government, which means if you work for, say, the U.S. Postal Service, you get today off. Federal offices are closed, which means most banks are closed. The stock market, however, is open for business, as are most retailers.
So confusing, I know.
According to the Pew Research Center, only 16 states and the territory of American Samoa still observe the second Monday in October as an official public holiday exclusively (with government offices closed and all but essential state workers given a paid day off) known as Columbus Day, honoring the explorer Christopher Columbus, who supposedly “discovered” America (AKA the New World) while working for Spain.
As you probably recall, however dimly, from your grade school days, Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492 with three boats – the Santa Maria, Pinta, and Niña. He was looking for a new trade route to Asia, but found the Bahamas instead.
This and subsequent voyages to the Caribbean paved the way for European colonization of the New World, which, of course, was good for the colonizers and very bad for the colonized – namely, indigenous people who had “discovered” America long ago.
Explorers like Columbus introduce the folks back home to lucrative commodities such as sugar, tobacco, chocolate, and potatoes. In turn, they introduced the indigenous people to disease, exploitation, loss of land and culture, and ultimately, genocide. Not such a great trade-off, which is why modern day indigenous people have grown increasingly vocal in their opposition to Columbus Day.
As a result of this mounting protest, states and municipalities have taken a variety of approaches. California and Delaware, for example, nixed Columbus Day in 2009. Maine, New Mexico, Vermont and D.C. all retained the day an official holiday, but renamed it Indigenous Peoples’ Day in 2019.
Hawaii now observes Discoverers’ Day, which isn’t an official state holiday. And Puerto Rico celebrates Latin American peoples and cultures on the Monday in October, but also observes Día del Descubrimiento de Puerto Rico on Nov. 19, which marks Columbus’ arrival on the island
The first state to designate Columbus Day as a state holiday – Colorado – replaced it in 2020 with a new state holiday on an entirely different day, the first Monday in October, in honor of “an amazing humanitarian”, Frances Xavier Cabrini.
For those not in the know, Cabrini was a Catholic nun and Italian immigrant who founded schools, hospitals and orphanages that served immigrants. She was beatified on Nov.13, 1938, by Pope Pius XI, and canonized on July 7, 1946, by Pope Pius XII.
Cabrini was quite active here in New York, as well as elsewhere across the nation and the globe. Though New York City, in particular, has named a number of things in her honor, (one of which caused quite the political dust-up a few years back), we do not celebrate Cabrini Day. The Empire State is among the holdouts when it comes to observing Columbus Day, though there is legislation pending in the state Legislature that would change the name to “Indigenous Peoples Day.”
President Joe Biden signed the first federal proclamation in 2021 recognizing Indigenous Peoples’ Day. The Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples Day debate has caused considerable consternation among elected officials here in New York and elsewhere, especially for the past governor (Andrew Cuomo) and mayor (Bill de Blasio) both of whom are Italian American and took very different approaches to Columbus Day.
Under de Blasio, Columbus Day was removed from the New York City public school calendar in favor of Indigenous Peoples Day, something both Cuomo and his successor, Gov. Kathy Hochul, opposed.
If you do have the day off and were planning on attending some outdoor activity – like a parade, for example – best bundle up and make sure to have an umbrella handy. Rain is in the forecast earlier in the day, with cloudy skies later on. Temperatures will struggle to get out of the 40s.
In the headlines…
President Joe Biden visited Florida for the second time in a little more than a week to tour storm-ravaged communities as the state grappled with the flooding, power outages, and gas shortages of deadly Hurricane Milton.
While in Florida, Biden announced more than half a billion dollars in projects for electric grid resilience, as costlier and more frequent storms continue to strain the federal government’s disaster-relief funding.
Biden approved a major disaster declaration for Florida for communities ravaged by Hurricane Milton, freeing up federal funding to assist in the state’s recovery and rebuilding.
The United States will send a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery to Israel, along with the troops needed to operate it, the Pentagon said, even as Iran warned Washington to keep American military forces out of Israel.
Biden directed Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, or THAAD, and its crew, Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, said in a statement.
Israeli tanks forced their way onto a UN peacekeeping base in southern Lebanon yesterday, putting the lives of the soldiers there in danger. Hours later, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated his call for the UN to pull out peacekeepers immediately.
Local cops arrested an armed man outside Donald Trump’s Coachella Valley rally on Saturday, and the local sheriff said it may have been a third assassination attempt against the former president.
The man, identified as Vem Miller, 49, of Las Vegas, was found to be illegally in possession of a shotgun, a loaded handgun and a high-capacity magazine, the Riverside County sheriff’s office said.
Less than one month before the 2024 election, a new poll suggestsTrump is ahead of Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump leads Harris 50.6% to 49.4% in a poll released Wednesday by ActiVote.
Trump and Harris are deadlocked in the latest national NBC News poll, with Trump bolstered by Republicans coming back home to support him after a rough debate and polling deficit, as well as by a favorable voter assessment of Trump’s term as president.
These are among the findings of a new survey released three weeks before Election Day, which also shows Harris’ popularity declining compared to a month ago, after she got a big summertime boost.
The relationship between Harris’ team and Biden’s White House has been increasingly fraught in the final weeks before Election Day, 10 people familiar with the situation tell Axios.
CBS News’ “60 Minutes” is facing more pressure to release the transcript of Bill Whitaker’s interview with Harris, which aired on Monday, Oct. 7.
Trump is set to announce his new plan to bolster the US Border Patrol with 10,000 new agents who will be given raises and bonuses to keep them on the force, according to his campaign team.
At a campaign stop in Greenville, North Carolina, Harris attacked Trump for spreading misinformation related to hurricanes Helene and Milton.
The White House Military Office released Harris’ medical report on Oct. 12, sharing that the vice president, 59, “remains in excellent health” based on her most recent and “unremarkable” physical exam in April 2024.
Harris’ physical exam is significant because her approach to transparency differs intensely from that of Trump, 78, who has yet to share his health records, though he has said he would “gladly” do so.
Harris challenged Trump for refusing to do what she has done in recent days: release a report on his health, sit for a “60 Minutes” interview and commit to another presidential debate.
The owner of Time magazine called out Harris for turning down multiple interview requests with the prominent publication as the campaign for the White House enters the final homestretch.
The DNC planned to fly pro-Harris banners or write messages in the sky in support of the party’s presidential nominee over four NFL games on yesterday, marking the first time this cycle Democrats have advertised aerially at professional football games.
Pay raises could soon be coming to high ranking state officials, who are making far less than their counterparts in New York City, according to the Hochul administration.
Gov. Kathy Hochul spent time in Albany and Buffalo last week to show off hundreds of millions of dollars in state investments in artificial intelligence, or AI.
The Police Benevolent Association of New York State may file criminal coercion charges against Director of State Operations Kathryn Garcia after union leaders said she made a threatening phone call to the group’s president.
Non-flower cannabis products such as vaporizer cartridges and edibles are accounting for more than half of New York’s legal cannabis sales.
Artificial intelligence has established itself as a force in New York politics. With Election Day less than a month away, recent state legislation to regulate the use of AI in political campaigning is being put to the test with the ever-evolving technology.
Democrats’ strategy to spotlight reproductive rights in the post-Dobbs election cycle, has succeeded in compelling Republicans to tread carefully, especially vulnerable incumbents locked in tight races in New York.
Winnie Greco, a top fund-raiser and senior adviser to New York City Mayor Eric Adams, has long had dealings with people and groups connected to China’s communist regime. He kept her close even so.
Attention is increasingly turning to the people who might want Adams’ job – some of whom have formally announced their intention to run, while others are still waiting in the shadows.
If Adams leaves office before his term ends, what happens next depends on the date he steps down.
Adams said last week that he will soon appoint a new commissioner for the NYPD to replace interim Commissioner Tom Donlon.
The person in the least enviable position following the federal indictment of Adams is, of course, Adams himself. The person in the second-least enviable position is arguably Governor Hochul.
Adams is doubling down when it comes to who’s in charge at city hall, insisting that it is him, not Hochul, making calls when it comes to hiring top aides after a series of resignations.
Adams is relying on a group of respected civil servants to run the city and a trio of advisers to salvage his political career. Some say it’s too late.
A real estate developer who calls himself “Turkish Trump” was among a group of businessmen who gave money to Adams’ reelection campaign as part of a 2023 fundraiser that’s emerging as a focus in the federal corruption case against the mayor.
The reporters of Hell Gate are finding a gleeful rhythm covering Adams, the larger-than-life, nightclub-loving former police officer who last month became the first sitting New York mayor to be federally indicted.
Adams’s fund-raising disclosures not reported by the New York City Campaign Finance Board by the end of Friday. It was not clear if the mayor’s campaign filed disclosures at or past the deadline, or not at all.
Councilmember Lincoln Restler, long a political nemesis of Adams, is demanding that the administration release information about a longtime mayoral ally and city real estate honcho whose phone was seized by prosecutors last month.
Adams has found an unlikely supporter in his predecessor, Bill de Blasio, who defended the embattled mayor by suggesting the federal bribery and corruption charges he’s facing are weak. “Innocent until proven guilty is a real thing,” de Blasio insisted.
New York City’s incoming schools chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos said that she wants to get to the root of why so many students are missing class.
St. John’s — New York’s largest Catholic university — no longer refers to today’s holiday as “Christopher Columbus Day’’ in honor of the explorer hailed as a devout Christian.
The author Salman Rushdie, who was stabbed and blinded in one eye two years ago by an attacker who rushed him onstage in front of hundreds of people, will testify at the man’s trial, prosecutors said on Friday.
One of America’s most respected museums, the Art Institute of Chicago, has refused Manhattan DA’s art trafficking unit’s efforts to seize an Egon Schiele it holds. It is instead waging, in court, a sustained and very public battle to challenge the unit’s authority.
Ex-Gov. David Paterson says it’s “really annoying’’ how New York’s laws have become too lenient on “coddled” juvenile defenders — after he and his stepson were recently attacked by vicious youths on a city street.
A whistleblower is accusing police brass of steering NYPD funds to a Bronx restaurant owned by the brother of former Police Commissioner Edward Caban, according to a complaint filed with the city Department of Investigation.
In 1973, Joe Holtz helped start the Park Slope Food Co-op, a Brooklyn institution that is equally loved and ridiculed. Will it survive his retirement?
The Liberty, an original W.N.B.A. franchise, have been to the finals five times and lost each time. But their fans can’t help believing, again, this year.
Hudson Valley Republican Rep. Marc Molinaro, who long forged a pragmatic reputation, is now leaning right as he runs against Josh Riley, a Democrat, echoing Trump by accusing recent immigrants of committing violent crimes and killing pets.
Major unions are breaking from Big Labor in New York and backing GOP incumbents over Dem challengers in local tight House races — giving Republicans a better chance of keeping a majority in the chamber.
“Suffs,” a Tony award winning musical about the American women’s suffrage movement, has struggled to sell enough tickets to defray its running costs, and on Friday night the producers announced that it would close on Jan. 5.
The family of an Albany woman is suing a retirement community after she was allegedly left alone and incapacitated in her apartment for up to four days after having a stroke.
A special needs student has been missing school because the bus company will no longer transport her, after a bus video showed an aide hitting the student, her mother alleges.
A new live music and event venue called Ophelia’s has opened in downtown Albany. Owner Shane Spillenger chose the location at 388 Broadway because of its proximity to MVP Arena and future development plans of the downtown area.
In the Capital Region, residents are coming together to bring relief to victims impacted by hurricanes in the southeast.
In the wake of a horrific attack in which a Schenectady man was killed by a pack of pit bulls on an Albany street, other owners are defending the breed.
SpaceX pulled off a feat of technical wizardry yesterday, not only flying a 233-foot rocket booster back to its launch site, but also catching it out of the air with two giant mechanical arms.
Ruth Chepngetich of Kenya set a world record in the women’s marathon yesterday in Chicago, smashing the old record by almost two minutes.
Chepngetich, 30, ran 26.2 miles in 2 hours, 9 minutes and 56 seconds, making her the first woman to run a marathon in less than 2 hours and 10 minutes.
This story made my weekend.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
