Good morning, it’s Monday.
Monday always brings with it an inherent feeling of both anticipation and anxiety on my part. What will the coming week bring? In my line of work, it’s hard to tell. Crisis communications is inherently unpredictable, which is what makes it both endlessly interesting and fraught with tension.
Certainly, it’s never boring, which is a good thing for a Type A++ individual like myself.
I have to confess to be entering this particular week with a higher sense of anxiety than normal, thanks to the impending election.
A number of people in my orbit are so overwrought by the closeness of the presidential contest that they simply refused to acknowledge the fact that the day of reckoning is finally here, and banished all mention of Election Day from calls. (I guess technically, this is probably a good thing, you know what they say about avoiding the topic of politics when making polite conversation).
Though I had previously pledged to vote on Election Day proper, the anticipation finally got too much for me and I decided Saturday while out and about to just get it over with and cast my ballot early. The process was remarkably painless (this is the benefit of living in relatively rural area), with a fast-moving line, no animosity among voters, pleasant and knowledgable poll workers, and, of course, ample “I Voted” stickers on hand.
Sadly, there was no bake sale or leftover Halloween candy on hand. Other than this, however, I have no complaints.
I did feel like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. No matter what the outcome tomorrow, I’ve done my civic duty. Sadly, this did nothing to improve my sleep situation, which was further disturbed by the Daylight Savings Time reset. I was up Sunday morning at 4 a.m., and though I was still very tired, was unable to get back to sleep.
Sleep is, of course, integral to our health as humans, and going without it can have all sorts of negative impacts and implications – even contribute to the increased risk of cognitive decline and dementia.
Even short-term sleep deprivation can weaken your immune system, make it harder to regulate your emotions, and impact on your brain’s ability to function, reducing your ability to remember and the speed at which you process information.
This is why driving drowsy is so damn dangerous. Your reaction time and awareness decreases the more tired you are. If you’ve gone 20 hours without sleep and get behind the wheel, it’s tantamount to driving with a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.08% – the U.S. legal limit.
However, you hear a lot about drunk driving and efforts to combat it, but not a lot about drowsy driving. My car does have an alert system that triggers with a steaming coffee cup icon when the driver’s attention is low (I guess I’m drifting too much?) I have to confess to finding that annoying, but upon reviewing the statistics, I think I’ve changed my mind.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has found that drowsy driving is responsible for at least 91,000 car crashes, 50,000 injuries, and 795 deaths annually. For comparison’s sake, alcohol, which, compared to drowsiness, is a lot easier to measure, was thought to be involved in 9,949 fatal crashes in 2017 – about 30% of all fatal crashes.
Given the difficulty of attributing for certain that a sleepy driver was the cause of a crash – you can’t measure it in the blood, assuming it’s caused by lack of zzz’s and not some outside substance – it’s possible that the number of crashes attributed to a lack of driver alertness, or even falling asleep at the wheel outright – could be far higher.
Nov. 3-5 is Drowsy Driving Prevention Week, which serves to both raise awareness about the dangers of driving while drowsy, but also encourage people to make sure they get adequate rest before getting behind the wheel and take breaks as needed while on long drives.
We’re in for another spate of unseasonably warm weather, starting tomorrow, which means no one will have the excuse of rain or snow or cold for preventing them from getting to the polls. Today, however, will be pretty normal for this time of year, with temperatures in the mid-50s and cloudy skies.
In the headlines…
The final set of polls by The New York Times and Siena College found Vice President Kamala Harris showing new strength in North Carolina and Georgia as former President Donald Trump erases her lead in Pennsylvania and maintains his advantage in Arizona.
It has been decades since the polls have shown the nation facing a presidential race that is so close across so many states in both the Sun Belt and the Rust Belt. The tight landscape means the race remains highly uncertain as the campaign enters its final hours.
Renowned election guru Nate Silver called the race for the White House a “pure toss-up” as he gave Trump a slight edge over Harris in his latest forecast.
The New York Times’ chief political analyst warned that pollsters may not have solved the underlying issues they encountered in 2016 and 2020 and could once again be underestimating Trump.
Harris campaigned at a Detroit church yesterday and later pledged to “do everything in my power to end the war in Gaza” in her final rally in Michigan, as she attempted to appeal to the state’s large Arab American and Muslim American population.
Trump delivered a profane and conspiracy-laden speech two days before tomorrow’s presidential election, talking about reporters being shot and suggesting he “shouldn’t have left” the White House after his 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
Trump later criticized Harris on the economy and immigration at a Georgia rally, capping a three-state blitz yesterday as he looks to solidify his base in battleground states two days ahead of Election Day.
The latest poll from the Des Moines Register and Mediacom delivered a gut punch to those inside Trump’s orbit Saturday night. The former president has been fuming privately over the numbers, arguing the highly anticipated poll should never have been released.
Trump raged in a post online after a shocking Iowa poll found Harris leading in the state. “No President has done more for FARMERS, and the Great State of Iowa, than Donald J. Trump,” he shared to his Truth Social site. “In fact, it’s not even close!”
The senior Republican commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission blasted Harris’ “Saturday Night Live” debut as a “clear and blatant effort” to evade the Equal Time rule.
NBC News aired a short video message from Trump yesterday evening during a NASCAR playoff race in an effort to provide the leading presidential candidates with equal air time.
During the message, Trump said a Harris presidency would cause a “depression” and he encouraged people to vote.
Trump expressed tentative support for former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s plan to remove fluoride from water.
Hundreds of tech staffers at the beleaguered New York Times could vote to walk off the job tomorrow if the company doesn’t deliver on their job demands.
The threatened Election Day walkout, which could critically hamper the newspaper’s coverage of the presidential vote, comes amid stalled negotiations between the two sides, the Wall Street Journal said.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said Friday that Republicans “probably will” try to repeal legislation that spurred U.S. production of semiconductor chips, a statement he quickly tried to walk back by saying he would like to instead “streamline” it.
Johnson later sought to clarify his comments, which he made while campaigning for GOP Rep. Brandon Willians in Central New York, where Micron is planning to build a $100 billion microchip manufacturing center with CHIPS Act support.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, at two separate rallies for Democratic CNY House candidate John Mannion, subsequently told Syracuse voters Saturday that Republicans “want to take a blowtorch to the CHIPS and Science Act”.
The candidates and political groups in NY-22 have spent a combined $18 million on the election, unleashing a barrage of political ads to amplify their messages.
As the top Democrat in a key state, Gov. Kathy Hochul has much to gain from her party’s success tomorrow – and possibly a lot to lose.
Hochul claimed people who voted for New York Republican candidates would be tied to Trump and are “anti-woman”, “anti-abortion,” and “anti-American.”
Hochul’s pronouncement immediately drew outrage from New York Republicans, who objected to Hochul questioning the patriotism of Trump voters. They connected it to President Joe Biden’s recent remark that Trump supporters are “garbage.”
In a post on X, GOP Rep. Mike Lawler responded to Hochul’s remarks, calling her an “embarrassment” to the state.
Every state legislative seat in New York is on the ballot this year. Just a small handful of these races are competitive.
Hundreds of migrants working for New York government agencies as computer programming consultants are the focus of a state and federal criminal investigation as many allegedly have fraudulent residency documents or doctored professional biographies.
Democrats in upstate New York are voting by mail at greater rates than Republicans, a Times Union analysis of mail ballot data obtained this week shows.
AI chatbots often give inaccurate information in response to questions about voting, including details on registration deadlines and where someone can vote, according to the state attorney general’s office.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams and the Department of Environmental Protection issued a citywide drought watch on Saturday amid a recent lack of rainfall.
Adams will stand trial on federal corruption charges starting on April 21, 2025, a judge said Friday.
The date upset the defense, which argued for a schedule that could end the trial no later than early April to accommodate “grave, grave Democratic concerns,” namely the mayor’s reelection campaign.
Adams’ attorney Alex Spiro said he wanted the mayor to avoid “running with this hanging over his head,” and that being in court wouldn’t give Adams “a realistic chance” of being “actually involved in the process” of campaigning.
A judge tossed out Adams’ claim that the feds leaked secret grand jury information leading up to his historic indictment — dealing a blow to the mayor’s case ahead of Friday’s highly anticipated court hearing.
Adams says he has not been in contact with Trump. But the embattled Democrat has access to a rich network of common friends and allies who do have entrée in the former president’s orbit.
Adams penned a Daily News op-ed urging New York City residents to vote “yes” on all the ballot questions.
Sheena Wright has resigned from her position as one of Adams’ appointees to the board of the New York City Housing Authority, THE CITY has learned.
A state-of-the-art facility that houses the New York City Police Academy was vandalized overnight less than two days after a graduation ceremony for NYPD recruits, and there doesn’t appear to be any surveillance video of the incident.
The NYPD’s top cop and a high-ranking department official got into a heated argument in front of crowds watching the New York City marathon and had to be physically pulled apart, law enforcement sources said.
Big Apple Uber drivers who worked 32 hours a week for 50 weeks a year netted $52,900 on average, according to an October report from the ride-share company. The figure dwarfs the base annual salary of $39,386 for the city’s first-year EMTs.
The MTA will shut down A train service in the Rockaways for five months starting in January, disrupting the commutes of more than 9,000 daily riders.
A major fight is brewing in Queens over a massive biking path critics say will reshape a suburban section of the borough into another bustling urban district – and might serve as a new frontier for scooter-riding bandits.
Although it faced eviction last month, Manhattan’s Elizabeth Street Garden will stay open at least until February, according to the nonprofit organization that runs it.
An upstate man whose beloved squirrel, P’Nut, was killed by the state said he was treated like a “terrorist” when 10 government agents descended on his home during a five-hour raid.
GOP Rep. Nick Langworthy said that he and other members of New York’s congressional delegation plan to demand answers from the governor’s office and the DEC about the Instagram famous squirrel’s death.
“What happened to P’nut was a tragedy,” state Assemblyman Jake Blumencranz said on X. “As a state lawmaker and an animal rights advocate, this tragedy can be an agent of change.”
“Saturday Night Live” made two Central New York references in its latest episode, hosted by former “SNL” writer John Mulaney. More here and here.
Harvey Epstein, a low-profile state assemblyman who is running for New York City Council, had no idea he would be the subject of a skit watched by millions.
An unusually dry autumn has put the Hudson Valley and Catskills at a high risk of wildfires — and 15 counties around the state are on a drought watch, according to an alert issued Saturday by the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
Numerous Bethlehem residents have complained about a “musty smell” in their water, according to an announcement Friday from the town. The culprit, according to the town, is algae.
The Warrensburg, Lake George and Bolton central school districts have canceled the remainder of the schools’ combined football team’s season in the wake of alleged “inappropriate conduct of a sexual nature toward a student” on a school bus.
A state trooper and tow truck driver were struck by a passing vehicle during a traffic stop Saturday afternoon on the Northway, State Police said.
A 40-year-old Malta man has been charged with several crimes including aggravated vehicular assault and driving while ability impaired by drugs in a crash that injured a State Police trooper and a tow truck driver Saturday afternoon.
Former Troy Councilwoman Kimberly McPherson was sentenced to a year of probation and fined $1,500 on Friday, more than two years after she pleaded guilty to a federal criminal charge related to ballot fraud in the 2021 elections.
A public hearing on a proposed 200-acre solar farm in Fulton County, which would be the largest in the Adirondacks if approved, drew a small turnout last week.
Albany Medical Center hospital’s unionized nurses and management will battle it out in an internal election for members of a special committee charged with helping to decide staffing and personnel issues.
Schenectady and Albany will serve as the backdrop for yet another major film production: Hallmark’s “Like Nobody’s Business” starring actress Rachael Leigh Cook.
As more than 50,000 runners hit the pavement yesterday for the New York City Marathon, a slew of friends and family turned out to support them, as well as the myriad causes for which they ran.
Abdi Nageeye of the Netherlands, who won a silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics, took the men’s professional title in 2:07:39. In the women’s professional race, Sheila Chepkirui, of Kenya, making her debut in the NYC event, won in 2:24:35.
It was Nageeye’s fourth appearance in the Big Apple run, and his first win in the event. In prior years, he placed fifth with 2:11:39 in 2021; third with 2:10:31 in 2022; and fourth with 2:10:21 in 2023.
A number of celebrities and elected officials ran the NYC Marathon.
Quincy Jones, the music titan whose legacy ranged from producing Michael Jackson’s historic “Thriller” album to writing prize-winning film and TV scores and collaborating with Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles and hundreds of other artists, has died at 91.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
