Good morning, it’s Monday.
If that makes you feel a little woozy, maybe comfort yourself by thinking that it’s really Wednesday, since this is a three-day holiday week. (Though if you’re working the holiday, this little Jedi mind trick isn’t going to work; very sorry).
This seems as good a time as any to remind you that Rise and Shine will be taking a holiday hiatus, which means there will be no posts Thursday, Nov. 28 through Monday, Dec. 2. Don’t worry, I’ll remind you again. Just though I would start to prime the pump a bit here so no one was surprised.
I will not be traveling terribly far for Thanksgiving. After turkey trotting and dropping the doggos off with their granddad for safekeeping, we will be jumping into the car and driving an hour south down the Thruway to meet my mom and step-father for a lovely mid-afternoon lunch at one of my favorite places on the planet.
According to travel experts, we are going to be hitting the sweep spot of holiday travel – a time when the roads are most likely to be free of the insane traffic expected in the days leading up to Thanksgiving. By the time the day-of dawns, most people have already gotten where they’re going, and it’s smooth sailing to your final destination.
A little PSA as an aside: If you can help it, perhaps stay off the roads the night before Thanksgiving, AKA Black Wednesday, which has the reputation of being one of the busiest bar nights of the year – even out-ranking New Year’s Eve, if you can believe it.
This is supposedly due to all the college kids coming home for the weekend and then looking for a bit of an escape from the fam and/or reconnecting with their old high school friends. Also, it’s the start of a four-day weekend for a lot of people, which more enough cause for celebration, if you happen to be looking for an excuse to tie one on. Plenty of time to recuperate.
A record 80 million Americans are expected to travel 50 miles or more away from home for Thanksgiving this year, according to AAA, which is an increase of 1.7 million people compared to last year and 2 million more than in 2019. For the first time, AAA is including the Tuesday before and the Monday after the holiday in its forecast to more accurate capture the flow of travelers.
The projected increase is occurring across the board when it comes to mode of transportation – car, air, or “other”, which AAA defines as buses, trains, and cruises (apparently, demand for these has been very high in the post-pandemic era, with bookings up 20 percent compared to this time last year, though I personally cannot think of anything worse).
This leaves a lot of modes off the table, as fas as I’m concerned, what about scooters and e-bikes? Or tractors? Or horse-drawn carriages, which do still exist in certain parts of the country.
If you’re planning to travel by air, best not forget to pack an extra dose of patience. Expect long lines, crowds, delays, etc. and so forth. If ever there was a time you could forgo checking your bag, now would be it. The Port Authority estimates that a record 3.2 million travelers will pass through JFK, LaGuardia, Newark and Stewart airports alone this Thanksgiving season.
The New York Times has a few other helpful tips to consider when hitting the road, airport, bus and/or train terminal etc. Good luck. I’ll be thinking of all you stranded travelers idling in traffic as I stretch my toes out to the fire and enjoy another helping of pie.
A pretty nice day is on tap, with temperatures in the high 40s and mostly sunny skies. Enjoy it while you can. The holiday forecast is not looking too fantastic at the moment. Fingers crossed that it will change.
In the headlines…
President-elect Donald Trump has selected former White House aide Brooke Rollins to lead the Department of Agriculture in his second administration, completing his cabinet roster.
“As our next Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke will spearhead the effort to protect American Farmers, who are truly the backbone of our Country,” Trump said in a statement.
Rollins is the chief executive of the America First Policy Institute, a prominent think tank founded in 2021 to promote Trump’s agenda and staffed with many who worked in his first administration.
Trump chose Scott Bessent on Friday to serve as Treasury secretary, tapping a billionaire hedge fund manager to lead an economic agenda that is expected to be built around raising tariffs and cutting taxes.
A key figure in Project 2025, Russell T. Vought, has been selected by Trump to lead the Office of Management and Budget, elevating a longtime ally who has spent the last four years making plans to rework the American government to enhance presidential power.
Trump’s nomination for labor secretary, Republican Oregon Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, is a “toxic” anti-conservative RINO with cozy ties to unions, outraged critics said.
Other Trump cabinet picks announced Friday: Dr. Martin A. Makary to lead the FDA; Dr. Dave Weldon, a former Florida congressman, to be CDC director; and Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, a New York medical director, to be the next surgeon general.
Trump’s choices to lead key federal health agencies don’t have experience running large bureaucratic agencies, but they know how to talk about health on TV.
Breaking with past practice, Trump has not agreed to disclose the donors paying for his planning effort or to limit their contributions.
Trump has vowed to slash immigration — both legal and illegal — and ramp up deportations on Day 1. Immigrants are racing to get ahead of the crackdown.
Democrat-led states successfully challenged policies during the first Trump administration. Now, they worry the new White House will be more prepared and less restrained.
An Israeli rabbi in the United Arab Emirates who had been missing since Thursday was found murdered, Israeli and Emirati authorities announced. Israeli officials called the death of Zvi Kogan an act of terrorism, without providing any further details.
Authorities in the United Arab Emirates have arrested three people in connection with the death of Kogan, who, according to Israel, was killed in an “antisemitic act of terror.”
The UAE Ministry of Interior said three “perpetrators” were arrested and the “necessary legal procedures were initiated” after Kogan’s was discovered yesterday.
Kogan’s grieving family they always thought he was “invincible,’’ even as they recalled warning him against moving there, given their tragic ties to a past terrorism act.
Ex-Florida congressman and onetime US Attorney General hopeful Matt Gaetz has taken a page out of disgraced former Rep. George Santos’ playbook and launched a Cameo account, where he is raking in cash by cutting videos for the public.
The Federal Highway Administration approved New York City’s congestion pricing program on Friday, though it could still be stopped by lawsuits. Trump is also opposed.
The FHA signed a Value Pricing Pilot Program Agreement alongside the MTA and state Department of Transportation. The VPPP is the document the state transportation commissioner was ordered not to sign during the governor’s brief pause on the program.
The MTA board approved the new tolling structure for drivers traveling south of 60th Street last week. Federal highways official Richard Marquis wrote that no further analysis was necessary before initiating the tolls, which the MTA plans to activate on Jan. 5.
Hochul has expressed strong disapproval of U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s recent move to reduce hours of operations at dozens of New York-Canada border crossings beginning in January.
After two weeks and more than 5,000 acres burned, the Jennings Creek Wildfire is now fully contained, Hochul’s office announced Friday.
You can now cheat on your spouse in New York without having to worry about going to jail. That wasn’t the case for more than a century before Hochul signed a bill on Friday to decriminalize adultery in New York.
Hochul signed a bill on Friday that requires building owners and lessors to provide written notice soon after they’re informed of an infestation.
New Yorkers are the most degenerate gamblers in the country. Mobile sportsbooks in the state racked up $2.3 billion in bets in October, shattering its national record of $2.1 billion in bets set last year, according to new state Gaming Commission stats.
New York is set to hit the $1 billion mark in cannabis sales since the legal market launched two years ago, state officials tell The Post.
New York lawmakers are looking for ways to mitigate the spread of so-called “forever chemicals” into the state’s water supplies.
Michael Blake, a former New York State assemblyman from the Bronx and a veteran of the Obama administration, is entering the crowded race to unseat Mayor Eric Adams.
He is the seventh prominent candidate to challenge Mr. Adams, a Democrat who was indicted in September on federal corruption charges. Blake created an exploratory committee on Friday and put up a campaign website on Sunday.
Park lovers and their allies in the City Council were dismayed to find no additional funding for the most pressing issues at city parks, when Adams announced this week there was more money in the city’s coffers than originally thought.
The deal negotiated by the City Council on Adams’ signature zoning plan will require developers to build parking spaces for new housing in most outer-borough neighborhoods, after the mayor’s initial proposal eliminated the mandates citywide.
City Council members are set to review a legislative package addressing youth mental health in public schools at a committee on mental health, disabilities, and addiction hearing this morning.
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn have reportedly opened a criminal investigation of Dao Yin, a recent state Assembly candidate suspected of using fake donors and forged signatures to artificially inflate his allotment of matching funds.
Hotels in New York City charged an average of $417 per night in September, the highest monthly rate ever for the city. “I don’t understand how normal people can go there,” one tourist said.
A longtime vendor in Manhattan’s Chinatown is finding it harder to make a living as people shun his intricate crafts, haggle over cheap knickknacks and shift their spending online.
Street side sheds and shanties helped keep city restaurants afloat during the worst of the coronavirus pandemic. Now, for better or worse, new rules are forcing their removal.
The NYC Ferry system hit a new yearly ridership record last week, which city officials say is a sign the highly subsidized service is a worthwhile investment for taxpayers.
A push to digitize the entrance exam to New York City’s specialized high schools is reigniting a long-standing debate over a process that relies on a single test to admit students.
New York City tolerated Trump, and then it loathed him. Now, some New Yorkers have begun to embrace him. The Kid from Queens couldn’t be happier.
“In New York City, it would take a lifetime to clear the city of the criminals that we have” if the status quo remains the same, Kenneth Genalo, the head of ICE’s Big Apple field office, said in his first interview since Trump was elected president.
Maud Maron, a former Legal Aid attorney, is seeking the Republican Party nod next year to challenge the re-election of controversial Democratic Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
It’s time New York City ditches the sanctuary policies that protect criminal migrants and endanger New Yorkers, a Queens Democrat, Councilman Robert Holden, urged last week — after some inspiration from Trump’s new border czar.
Two more city migrant shelters have closed up shop as the flood of asylum-seekers into the Big Apple continues to plummet.
An Italian tourist was slashed in the hand by a stranger in an unprovoked attack in Midtown Saturday morning, cops said.
A 6-foot-2, 360-pound New York Public Library employee claims he’s been “traumatized” by being forced to work at a desk that is too small — and wants $4.6 million to make up for it.
A Times Union analysis of the expenses found the state’s 57 counties and New York City appropriated more than $343 million this year to pay for the general election and two earlier primaries.
The state comptroller’s office said it found no evidence that Burt Gulnick Jr., who admitted to stealing funds from a nonprofit and a campaign account, committed financial crimes in his former role as Ulster County’s finance commissioner.
A state Supreme Court justice issued a decision last week finding that the policies of SiriusXM Radio violated the law by forcing customers to listen to lengthy sales pitches from customer-service representatives when trying to cancel a subscription.
Albany Med recently filed a federal trademark lawsuit against the nurses’ union representing health care workers at the hospital, a move that comes amid an ongoing dispute around workplace conditions and as labor contract negotiations are ongoing.
The Dolly Parton Imagination Library is coming to the Capital Region. The program aims to mail a free book a month to every local child under the age of 5.
The Troy Turkey Trot has attracted a significant number of first-time runners and walkers: 2,265 (36%) of the 6,211 that were signed up. As of Saturday at midnight, the number of participants jumped to 6,319.
Additional hours to serve holiday diners have begun to be announced by Capital Region restaurants.
Cafe Hollywood, the Lark Street mainstay that has periodically been accused of being a locus of crime and violent behavior in the Center Square neighborhood, has been shut down by the city hours after a man was shot at the bar yesterday morning.
The Rev. Robert W. Dixon Sr., the last known living Buffalo Soldier and longtime activist and faith leader in Albany, died Friday, Nov. 15. He was 103.
Campbell Island, located on the Hudson River just outside of Albany, is an undeveloped plot of land in search of a buyer.
Photo credit: George Fazio
