Good Wednesday morning.
I spend a lot of time driving up and down the Thruway, so much so that I have more or less memorized certain stretches. I know exactly where the cell phone connection will drop, the mile markers where the rest areas are, and the hide holes where the Troopers like to sit.
I am old enough and read in enough to the history of this state to remember a thing or two about the Thruway.
First, the tolls, which have been in existence for 70 years, were supposed to be temporary, going away once the bonds issued to fund the 570-mile highway’s construction were paid off. HA! If you know anything about government, you know that once it gets its claws into a relatively steady form of revenue, it’s extremely reluctant to give that revenue up.
Far from being eliminated, the Thruway tolls have been steadily increasing in order to balance the budget of the authority responsible for its operation and maintenance. Apparently, it’s not cheap to run a road.
If you’re of a certain age, you might not know that the tolls once used to be collected by actual human beings. Yes, Virginia, there were something called toll booths once upon a time, to which a driver would pull up, hand over a ticket, and then pay the amount owed, and receive change – if needed. One might actually exchange a few pleasantries about the weather or what have you.
When I lived in New Paltz, I drove to Poughkeepsie so much that I came to recognize a few of the toll takers who worked the Mid-Hudson Bridge, and even know one or two by name. I was saddened when the state decided to move to so-called “cashless tolling,” which was fully implemented along the Thruway and at bridges statewide in the summer of 2021.
Working from home and having most of my conversations over Zoom or on the phone leaves me a little starved for person-to-person contact. Even a passing exchange of chit-chat with the folks who work at Starbucks is welcome some days.
The loss of in-person exchanges has made the world a little colder, in my opinion, and this is coming at a time when we should be going in the OPPOSITE direction. We could all use a little more kindness in our lives.
Once upon a time, you could, if you were so inclined, pay the toll of the car behind you. This happened to me a few times. I would pull up to the toll booth, dollars in hand, only to be told that my toll had been covered by a complete stranger, have a nice day.
It’s kind of amazing how big of an impact so small a gesture could make on my life. It was a bright spot in the day that made me think there might be hope for humanity after all. One finds so much anger and hatred and inexplicable animosity out there. A little kindness goes a long way.
Today is World Kindness Day, which apparently, according to the interwebs, is observed in a number of other countries (Canada, Australia, Nigeria, and the United Arab Emirates) than here in the U.S. Given the state of the world these days, I think it’s time for this to change.
The definition of “kindness” is “the quality of being generous, helpful and caring about other people, or an act of showing this quality.” That doesn’t sound so hard, does it?
Perhaps it really is as simple as one of my favorite podcast hosts likes to say: “Take care of yourself, and if you can, someone else too.” (IYKYN). I’m going to make it a point to try to get out of my own head and do something nice for someone else today. I can’t pay the Thruway toll of a stranger, but I can still overpay for my own coffee in hopes of treating someone else.
Another cool, but dry, day is on tap, with lots of sunshine and temperatures in the mid-40s. This relatively dry stretch has perhaps been pleasant from an outdoor activity point of view, but it is decidedly NOT good for the forest fire situation. The small amount of precipitation we received a few days back wasn’t enough to make a dent in the fires ranging downstate and in New Jersey.
Unfortunately, there is no rain in the forecast until next Monday.
In the headlines…
President-elect Donald Trump announced that Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will lead a new “Department of Government Efficiency” in his second administration.
“Together, these two wonderful Americans will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies,” Trump said in a statement.
It is not clear how the department – which Trump said would “provide advice and guidance from outside of Government” – would operate, and whether a Congress even fully controlled by Republicans would have the appetite to approve its recommendations.
Ebullient Republicans returned to Capitol Hill after elections that put them on the brink of taking control of both chambers of Congress to face critical questions about how they will wield power — and how tight a grip Trump will have on their new majority.
Trump has chosen John Ratcliffe, currently a co-chair at the Center for American Security at the America First Policy Institute, a Trump-linked think tank, to serve as his CIA director, the president-elect announced in a statement.
“From exposing fake Russian collusion to be a Clinton campaign operation, to catching the FBI’s abuse of Civil Liberties at the FISA Court, John Ratcliffe has always been a warrior for Truth and Honesty with the American Public,” Trump said.
Trump has selected Mike Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas, to be his ambassador to Israel, choosing a loyal ally for a crucial foreign post at a time of crisis in the Middle East.
If confirmed by the Senate, Huckabee, a former pastor who has never served as an overseas diplomat, would play a crucial role in helping Trump’s quest to fulfill his promise to bring the war in Gaza to a swift close.
Trump stunned political observers last night by nominating Fox News personality Pete Hegseth, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, for secretary of defense, saying he “has spent his entire life as a Warrior for the Troops, and for the Country.”
Trump selected Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota to run the Homeland Security Department, a critical position in charge of the nation’s immigration system, saying she’s “very strong on border security.”
Huckabee, who has been a strong defender of Israel throughout his career, once said that there was “no such thing as a Palestinian.”
The State Department said that it did not plan to decrease weapons aid to Israel, as a 30-day deadline set by the Biden administration passed without the country substantially improving the humanitarian situation in war-devastated Gaza.
Philanthropist Bill Pulte is reportedly eyeing the post of Housing and Urban Development secretary in President-elect Donald Trump’s second cabinet.
Pulte, the founder of Twitter Philanthropy and CEO of Pulte Capital, is the grandson of home-building and real estate mogul William J. Pulte. The 35-year-old uses X as a platform to document his philanthropic efforts — including giving away thousands to strangers.
Trump’s demand that Senate Republicans surrender their role in vetting his nominees poses an early test of whether his second term will be more radical than his first.
TikTok, the Chinese-owned video app set to be banned in the United States in two and a half months, is hoping that Trump will find a way to rescue it after a smattering of promises to that effect on the campaign trail this year.
Higher education has been a favorite target of Republicans who believe schools have tilted leftward. Now, colleges and universities are bracing for the Trump administration to take action.
Even as the federal criminal cases against Trump seem to be dissolving in the face of his election victory, the racketeering prosecution against him in Georgia is moving forward for now. But it could be years before the he faces trial there — if at all.
A Manhattan judge has delayed a highly anticipated decision and sentencing in Trump’s hush money case following his election victory at the request of the president-elect’s lawyers and the Manhattan DA, according to court documents filed yesterday.
In the aftermath of the 2024 presidential election, The White Stripes have dropped their copyright infringement lawsuit against the Trump campaign for using their signature song without their permission.
The Harris-Walz campaign funneled some $500,000 to the Rev. Al Sharpton’s nonprofit, the National Action Network, prior to the vice president’s softball sit-down interview with the civil rights activist.
Vice President Kamala Harris’ team made two donations of $250,000 to Sharpton’s group on Sept. 5 and Oct. 1 respectively, according to Federal Election Commission records.
Top New York court officials are laying down the law and saying they will continue to shut their doors to federal immigration authorities looking to round up undocumented immigrants as they seek to launch mass deportation proceedings in the state.
Things didn’t get much better or worse yesterday in the fight against the Jennings Creek Wildfire, which has now burned more than 5,000 acres in southern Orange County and northern New Jersey.
Howling winds threatened to hasten the spread of the 5,000-acre Jennings Creek fire that was burning on the border between New York and New Jersey, state officials and weather experts said.
The Whitehouse Fire was contained late Monday after scorching about a square mile of forest in the Catskills, according to the supervisor of the affected town.
A week after the election, New York 19th district Rep. Marc Molinaro has conceded to Democratic challenger Josh Riley. The first-term Republican released a video statement last night, thanking his supporters and congratulating his opponent.
“We’re counting on California. The results aren’t in yet for California,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said of the Democrats’ chance of taking back seats they lost in 2022. Despite the odds, she took a victory lap for the New York Democrats who flipped seats this cycle.
Hochul signaled that she intends by year’s end to either move forward with congestion pricing — a new toll in the busiest parts of Manhattan — or unveil a plan to replace the revenue lost by its absence.
New York’s House Republicans are begging Trump to kill the controversial Manhattan congestion when he takes office in January after a post-election push to resurrect the plan.
Top state judicial leaders are moving to reform the troubled guardianship system after a ProPublica investigation found lax monitoring allowed court appointees to abuse and neglect the elderly and infirm New Yorkers they were supposed to protect.
New York Attorney General Letitia James is pushing back against a sweeping court ruling that strikes down a law meant to protect New Yorkers’ right to participate in elections.
Mayor Eric Adams said that Democrats have themselves to blame for Trump’s growing margins of support in New York City, contending that their embrace of a “far-left agenda” is backfiring on them.
Adams said his administration was “scenario planning” for changes coming down the pike once Trump takes office — after the incoming “border czar” vowed to crack down on sanctuary cities.
Adams voiced concern about a City Council bill that would prohibit landlords from forcing tenants to pay broker fees, arguing the measure could result in “long-term” affordability concerns for everyone involved.
The New York City Council is set to vote today on – and likely pass – the bill that would eliminate a steep upfront cost for most renters trying to move in the five boroughs: broker fees.
The average upfront cost of a Big Apple rental apartment with a broker’s fee has reached an all-time high — nearly $13,000, a new analysis shows.
Prominent Councilman Yusef Salaam — one of the exonerated Central Park Five — called to change public safety laws in the aftermath of a shocking Harlem shooting Monday that left a 7-year-old girl wounded.
Port Authority officials said they were racing to land a federal loan that’s key to the reconstruction of the Midtown bus terminal, and were hoping the money will be secured before Trump takes office in January.
NYU has retracted a survey of MTA subway and bus workers that found 89% of respondents claimed to have been assaulted or harassed on the job.
In a letter to the MTA on Friday, the lead researcher Robyn Gershon said her team had “detected anomalies” in the data it used for the study, which was published in August.
LGBTQ groups will be allowed to march in Staten Island’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade for the first time ever this year, organizers announced, ending a long-running controversy over the annual event’s anti-gay stance.
A man who helped Daniel Penny restrain Jordan Neely on an uptown F train in May 2023 lied to law enforcement after he learned Neely had died, because he feared he would be charged with murder, according to his own testimony at Penny’s criminal trial.
A male model who appeared in the pages of Vogue and ads for Calvin Klein and other big brands was arrested Monday for the fatal stabbing of a young dad in the Bronx over the weekend, police said.
An anti-Israel student group is sponsoring a lecture at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn that accuses Israelis of committing health care “genocide” in Gaza, provoking outrage from Jewish doctors who say it’s propaganda and “blood libel”.
P’Nut the Squirrel and Fred the Raccoon did not have rabies, officials announced — as it was revealed the animals were marked for death and decapitation days before they were seized by the state.
The prices of food and drinks in the airports that serve New York City, already a pet peeve of many travelers, are set to take a sharp upward turn next year.
An Amtrak transformer fire broke out near a Con Ed substation on the railroad’s Hell Gate Line yesterday afternoon, suspending Amtrak travel in both directions along the Northeast Corridor between Penn Station and New Haven.
Some of the top talent at iHeartMedia’s local radio stations, including WGY, are out of their on-air jobs after the company announced last week it planned $200 million in cost reductions across its properties.
Amazon is looking to fill 100 positions at its Granville distribution center in preparation for the holiday season.
The Albany Community Police Review Board says its funding has been shorted once again in the proposed 2025 city budget.
As unrest continues in Amsterdam in the wake of anti-Semitic attacks last week on Israeli soccer fans visiting the city, Albany’s Jewish community rallied Monday night.
Ratings-challenged CNN is reportedly set for a major bloodbath — with boss Mark Thompson expected to lay off high-priced on-air talent as part of wide-ranging layoffs.
The cable network — which lagged behind rivals MSNBC and Fox News during last week’s Election Night coverage — will implement “layoffs that will impact hundreds of employees across the organization,” according to Puck News.
Olivia Nuzzi, the high-profile New York magazine writer whose entanglement with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. set off a scandal, has withdrawn a request for a protective order against her former fiancé, the Politico correspondent Ryan Lizza.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
