Good morning, it’s Monday – again – and we are steaming right through November. We are already well past the halfway point of fall, with 32 days remaining until winter.
Look, I know it’s unpleasant, but better to be prepared. It has been pretty darn chilly in the early morning hours anyway, of late. And in case you need a silver lining here, NOAA is predicting a warmer-than-usual winter.
Along with that comes a forecast (long-range, mind you, is very unpredictable) for above-average precipitation levels. Whether that comes in the form of rain, sleet, snow, freezing rain or a little bit of all of it, remains to be seen.
Enough about what might or might not be in the cards for the not-too-distant future. These days, in particular, the most predictable thing one can say is that the future is definitively unpredictable. We have today, and for today, we are celebrating the birthdays of a very famous and much beloved mouse and his mouse girlfriend.
I’m speaking, of course, of Mickey and Minnie, who were introduced to the world on this day in 1928, starring in a short film called Steamboat Willie, which was released at New York City’s Colony Theater, which still stands to this day but is now the Broadway Theater.
Actually, third time was the charm for Mickey, who has starred in two previous animated shorts called Plane Crazy and The Gallopin’ Gaucho – neither of which were picked up for distribution.
Steamboat Willie was an animation milestone for a number of reasons – not the least of which was the aforementioned mouse debut. It was the first Mickey film that featured synchronized sound, officially marking the beginning of the end for silent animation and distinguishing Disney from its cartoon competitors.
The short is, however, problematic in a number of ways by modern standards – most notably for depictions of animal cruelty and racist tropes. This shouldn’t come as any big surprise. Walt Disney wasn’t the nicest guy around, apparently. He reportedly held some rather controversial views about women, Jews, and people of color.
Interestingly, Steamboat Willie received a surge of attention this past Jan. 1, because on that date Disney’s copyright claim to the original character of Mickey ended – along with all the other characters, including Minnie, featured in the film. (U.S. law limits copyright to 95 years).
Disney still protects Mickey under trademark laws, and that stands to reason, because Mickey is BIG business.
By 1934 – just six years after his formal debut – merchandise featuring the famous mouse was selling to the tune of about $600,000 a year. (That’s just shy of $14 million in today’s dollars accounting for inflation). Today, Mickey is one of the most recognizable and profitable characters in the world, arguably worth about $178 billion, which is what Walt Disney Co. itself is worth.
Love it or hate it, Disney has been incredibly influential on many young lives, and continues to enjoy an outsized ability to mold young minds. Happy Birthday, Mickey and Minnie. You’ve come a long, LONG way.
It’s going to be on the warmer side today, with temperatures up in the high 50s. We’ll see clouds in the morning and sun breaking through in the afternoon. Much-needed rain isn’t in the forecast until later in the week. Keep those grills unlit, folks, and no leaf burning, cigarette butt throwing, outdoor fire pit enjoyment, etc. until further notice.
In the headlines…
President Joe Biden has authorized Ukraine to use powerful long-range American weapons inside Russia, according to two US officials familiar with the decision, as North Korean troops deploy in support of Moscow’s effort.
The decision comes as Moscow has deployed nearly 50,000 troops to Kursk, the southern Russian region where Kyiv launched its surprise counteroffensive in the summer, to prepare to take back territory.
A spokesman for President-elect Donald Trump said, “As President Trump has said on the campaign trail, he is the only person who can bring both sides together in order to negotiate peace, and work towards ending the war and stopping the killing.”
Biden pledged new financial help to protect the Amazon, the planet’s largest tropical rainforest, during a visit to Brazil on Sunday, making one final push to combat climate change before Trump returns to power in January.
It will be another two months before Trump takes office, but China is already setting boundaries between the two countries. On Saturday, Chinese leader Xi Jinping outlined his “four red lines” in US-China ties at a meeting with Biden.
Trump won farm country by wide margins in this month’s election. But some farmers, economists, analysts and others in the agriculture industry are voicing alarm over his plans that could disrupt America’s $1.5 trillion food industry.
Trump is eyeing a new candidate for Treasury Secretary amid internal debate over who should have the role: the former Federal Reserve governor Kevin Warsh. He is also considering the Wall Street billionaire Marc Rowan.
Trump has told advisers he is standing by his nominee for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, after the transition team was jolted by an allegation he had sexually assaulted a woman in an interaction he insists was consensual.
Multiple current and former senior Justice Department and FBI officials have begun reaching out to lawyers in anticipation of being criminally investigated by the Trump administration, according to three people with knowledge of their deliberations.
Ben Carson broke his silence around rumors of him joining the second Trump administration as the U.S. surgeon general, but noted that he plans to speak with the president-elect soon.
Trump has selected Brendan Carr to be chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. Carr currently serves as the senior Republican on the FCC.
Trump tapped longtime fracking advocate Chris Wright to lead his administration’s Department of Energy, he announced Saturday.
The editor in chief of Scientific American, the oldest continuously published magazine in the United States, has resigned more than a week after she posted comments on social media that called some supporters of Trump “bigoted” and “fascists.”
Trump returned to the World’s Most Famous Arena Saturday night as the people’s “champ” — when he got a thunderous ovation while doing a heavyweight-style walk-in to the UFC 309 fight at Madison Square Garden.
UFC legend Jon Jones handed Trump his title belt and thanked the President-elect after winning his match to retain the heavyweight title at UFC 309 on Saturday night.
Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign shelled out nearly $2.5 million to Oprah Winfrey’s production company for the celeb-packed town hall it hosted — more than double the initial estimate reported.
Harris spent a remarkable $1.5 billion in her hyper-compressed 15-week presidential campaign. But in the days since losing to Trump, her operation has faced questions internally and externally over where exactly all that cash went.
The Clean Slate Act law went into effect in New York State on Saturday, aimed at giving some who have been convicted of a crime a better shot at a second chance in life.
Gov. Kathy Hochul’s move to revive congestion pricing in New York has energized her Republican opponents, giving them fodder to fight her re-election in 2026.
The MTA plans ramp up Manhattan’s congestion pricing tolls to $15 in 2031 — a sharp increase from the $9 charge Hochul announced last week, according to documents published by the transit agency.
Slashing the original $15 toll raises questions about whether a smaller revenue stream could delay projects or lead to higher costs for New York’s public transit agency.
Republicans are pledging to make sure Democrats pay the political price for a new Manhattan congestion toll – as a new report revealed affected neighborhoods already have some of the worst vacancy rates in the city.
While Hochul lags in the polls and Democrats struggle to connect with voters on issues like affordability and immigration, recently re-elected GOP Rep. Michael Lawler has his eye on higher office.
Hochul has signed a bill into law that will expand access to fluoride treatments for children across New York.
Questions have arisen about the future of Southern District of New York’s aggressive pursuit of prosecuting corruption in government — and the case against Mayor Eric Adams, in particular — following Trump’s election victory.
Adams announced Friday the city awarded $1.59 billion to minority- and women-owned business contracts under the city’s Local Law 174 program — the highest contract amount in the program’s history. This is up slightly from $1.4 billion last year.
Documents reviewed by the NBC New York I-Team suggest the Big Apple’s municipal workforce may be more distracted than ever under Adams – by side jobs with private sector companies that have business dealings with the city.
Adams visited “The View” Friday to give his thoughts on Trump’s presidency and what it will mean for the city. He also dodged questions by the hosts about a potential pardon from the president-elect over his ongoing federal investigators.
“I did nothing wrong,” Adams told the hosts. “I spent 40 years of my life, 22 of them as a police officer, protecting the children and families of the city.”
Adams has visited the Queens burial site of the late Chabad Lubavitch leader Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson at least twice since being indicted on public corruption charges in September, insiders said.
Backers of Adams’ “City of Yes” housing plan are mounting a final blitz to try to pressure the City Council into approving the zoning overhaul — and they’re going straight to New Yorkers with it.
An elite team of FDNY fire marshals, fire protection inspectors, and drone operators is being pulled together to combat the stunning rise in brush fires across New York City exacerbated by the area’s ongoing drought.
The highest paid member of the NYPD is not the Police Commissioner. Quathisha Epps, a lieutenant special assignment who works in Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey’s office, made $406,515 in fiscal 2024 which ended June 30, city payroll records show.
The Archdiocese of New York is laying off workers — and says more staff may have to go — to help pay for the Catholic Church’s sex-abuse scandal.
A surge of food and drink businesses, led by Mexican, Japanese and Caribbean kitchens, most of them outside Manhattan, have played an outsize role in the city’s storefront revival, according to a study released Friday by the Department of City Planning.
The number of students enrolled in New York City public schools slipped this year by just 0.1%, according to preliminary enrollment data released by the city’s education department Friday.
Lawyers for the family of Malcolm X have filed a $100 million lawsuit against the U.S. government, Department of Justice, FBI, CIA and the NYPD for conspiring to allow the assassination of the civil rights leader in 1965.
The late Mayor Ed Koch’s sister, Pat Koch Thaler, 92, a cancer sufferer, availed herself of New Jersey’s medical aid in dying law and gave a final interview to the New York Times, in part to call for passage of a bill to make the practice legal in the Empire State.
Trump has vowed to end the sweeping scrutiny of the police – including the New York Police Department’s storied, but scandal-scarred sex crimes unit – that Biden used to uproot abuse.
A small sponge cake topped with whipped cream and a maraschino cherry is the crux of a political skirmish between Whoopi Goldberg and a 146-year-old Staten Island bakery.
On Friday, the island’s GOP borough president, Vito Fossella, held a news conference outside the store to “stand up for one of the best families and businesses not just Staten Island but this country would appreciate.” He called on Goldberg to apologize.
An MTA worker stationed on Staten Island was in disbelief when a New Jersey lottery app informed her she had just won $1 million after playing Powerball last week.
A public space in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge near Chinatown is reopening today, roughly 15 years after it was closed off and used as a construction site.
New York’s Planned Parenthood chapter, forced by financial troubles to close reproductive health clinics on Staten Island and outside the city in recent months, is bracing for more budget strain after Trump and the new GOP-led Congress take power.
The City Council voted overwhelmingly in favor of legislation last week that would require a steady increase in the number of parks with composting facilities through July 2028.
Rockland County police fished a live alligator out of a small creek as a mystery remains over how the reptile got there.
Some residents in the town of Warwick were asked to evacuate Saturday evening after the Jennings Creek wildfire jumped a firebreak near Greenwood Lake and Wah-Ta-Wah Park.
The voluntary evacuation plan was put in place in areas affected by the Jennings Creek wildfire. Officials encouraged residents of 165 homes to move out temporarily.
A storm system could bring much-needed rain to the Capital Region late next week — and even some snow at higher elevations.
New York Democrats in Congress reached across the aisle last week, urging Trump to make good on a campaign promise to lift the cap on state and local tax deductions.
In the days following Trump’s victory, lawyers and organizations that work with immigrant communities in the Capital Region and the Hudson Valley began receiving calls from people worried about the president-elect’s plans.
The historic Elijah Missionary Baptist Church in Albany’s South End was torn down after a large fire last Thursday night, sparking sadness and nostalgia among community members who gathered to witness its demise.
The misdemeanor petit larceny charge against Rotterdam Town Board member Joe Mastroianni will be reassigned to another municipal court now that both village justices have recused themselves from the case, according to Mastroianni’s attorney.
NORDTECH, one of eight regional hubs developing computer chip technology for the Department of Defense, has been awarded $10.5 million in funding through October 2025.
Free college — including tuition, books, room and board — is available for cybersecurity students willing to work for the Department of Defense after graduation, U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand told University of Albany students Friday.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
