Good Wednesday morning. The holiday countdown: 14 days until Christmas/Hanukah, 15 until Kwanza begins.
It’s getting real, people, have you done your holiday shopping – and, more importantly, shipping? If the answer to the latter is “no” you might be out of luck. Sorry to be the bearer of a bad news.
If you live in the Capital Region or the Catskills, I’m going to assume it’s a safe bet you that have at some point in your life hiked up a mountain. For the purposes of our discussion today, I am not speaking of a “large steep hill,” which is, according to the dictionary, one potential definition for the word “mountain.”
In this case, I’m talking about something bigger, something more along the lines of this description: “A large natural elevation of the earth’s surface rising abruptly from the surrounding level” – something most geologists classify as a landform rising at least 1,000 feet (or 300 meters) from its base.
If we really want to get technical, we could also go with the UN definition, which states that “any peak above 8,200 feet (2,500m) is a mountain; as is any outcrop of 4,900-8,200 feet (1,500-2,500m) with a slope of at least 2°; as is a peak of 3,300-4,900 feet (1,000-1,500m) with a slope steeper than 5° or a local elevation range above the surrounding area of at least 300m for a 7km radius.”
For the sake of time and sanity, let’s just say a. mountain is something really damn high that challenges you when you attempt to climb it, and leave it at that, OK? OK.
Climbing a mountain should be challenging, in my opinion – like, REALLY challenging. You should be exhausted before you even make much of a dent in the elevation, breathing heavily, muscles screaming for oxygen.
You should feel insignificant in comparison to the mountain’s sheer vastness – like an ant crawling on its face, inching your way upwards, making only the slowest possible progress. I have had this experience on several occasions, and been defeated by a mountain, too. Believe me, it is humbling.
Why put yourself through all this, you ask? Because the mountain is there there. Because you want to get to the top and say you did it, of course. Also to (hopefully, depending on the weather) take in a breathtaking view that not everyone gets to see. To revel in your accomplishment, before turning around – or continuing on – and punishing your knees on the way down.
I’m not sure that one can quantify the number of mountains in the word, but at least one website I found has tried. It claims that the planet is home to 1,187,049 mountains, 77,706 of which are in the U.S. alone. The criteria: The mountains have names and “enjoy over 1 meter prominence,” (I’m not entirely sure what that means.
The same site also claims there are at least 100,000 mountains without names.
Aside from posing an opportunity to test your physical and mental mettle and get away from it all – albeit only briefly – mountains do serve quite a few other purposes.
For starters, they have been described as the world’s “water towers” because they capture precipitation (if you’ve ever been on top of a mountain, you’ll know how quickly weather at the peak can change and how frequently it rains/snows/etc.) and then release it slowly over time in the form of runoff and snowmelt. This accounts for up to 80 of the world’s freshwater resources, which is a lot.
Mountains are also biodiversity hotspots, providing a home to a wide array of flora and fauna. They also provide food – both cultivated and wild – for a number of mountain-specific crops, help regulate the climate, and, of course, are a source of ecotourism and/or hold spiritual significance on which many communities, including indigenous people, rely.
According to the UN, mountains are home to 15 percent of the world’s population, many of them are among the world’s poorest people, and as a result of the damage and degradation being done to their homes by climate change, they’re in dire straits.
Today, we celebrate mountains in all their complexity and importance. Happy International Mountain Day!
Weather-wise, winter can be tricky in the mountains. What looks like a perfectly harmless and clear day can go south quickly the higher up into the clouds that one goes. The Adirondacks and Catskills already have received quite a bit of snow, while down here (or up here, depending on where you’re reading this) it has been unseasonably warm and rainy.
Today will bring more of the same, with temperatures in the mid-50s (!) and the potential for heavy rainfall. We won’t be here long, though, do don’t you worry. Tomorrow, it’s back down into the 30s we go. Enjoy it while you can.
In the headlines…
Luigi Mangione, suspected in the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, indicated he would fight extradition to New York at a Pennsylvania court hearing, lashing out as he arrived about an “insult to the intelligence of the American people.”
The 26-year-old appeared in Blair County court as a fugitive from justice at around 1:30 p.m., a day after his arrest at a McDonald’s in the city of Altoona after a worker recognized him from widely circulated surveillance video images.
As Mangione arrived clad in an orange jumpsuit, media crews captured him appearing to be upset, struggling with court security officers and yelling to members of the press in mostly inaudible statements.
Thompson, the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare who was gunned down in a brazen killing in New York, was laid to rest this week at a private funeral service in his Minnesota hometown.
In some quarters, the suspect in Thompson’s murder is being defended and even applauded by Americans who share his outrage over the insurance industry.
President-elect Donald Trump named Andrew Ferguson to lead the FTC, installing a current Republican member of the agency who has promised to ease up on the policing of powerful American companies — except for the biggest technology firms.
“Andrew has a proven record of standing up to Big Tech censorship, and protecting Freedom of Speech in our Great Country,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
Trump also said he is selecting Mark Meador as his pick to be a FTC commissioner.
Wisconsin prosecutors filed 10 additional felony charges against two attorneys and an aide to Trump who advised him in 2020 as part of a plan to submit paperwork falsely claiming that the Republican had won the battleground state that year.
Thomas J. Barrack Jr., a former Trump adviser, was named ambassador to Turkey. Federal prosecutors accused him of espionage and of acting as a foreign agent for the UAE during the first Trump administration. He was acquitted of all charges by a jury in 2022.
Trump announced his one-time ambassador to El Salvador, Ron Johnson, would serve as ambassador to Mexico in his upcoming administration.
In new court filings, the Manhattan DA’s office asked state Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan to reject Trump’s bid to toss the verdicts in his hush-money case and dismiss the underlying indictment, claiming his legal arguments are based on nonexistent law.
President Joe Biden said that Trump’s plans to impose tax cuts for the wealthy and sweeping tariffs would be “a major mistake,” while warning that the incoming president would face blowback from Republicans if he moved to unwind the Biden agenda.
Biden is threatening to veto a bill to add 66 judges to the federal bench, an expansion discussed for years as a way to ease a tremendous backlog of cases.
Outgoing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, 82, is recovering from minor injuries after falling following Senate Republicans’ weekly lunch yesterday, his office said.
“Leader McConnell tripped following lunch. He sustained a minor cut to the face and sprained his wrist. He has been cleared to resume his schedule,” a McConnell spokesman said in a statement.
Federal prosecutors sidestepped some Justice Department rules when they seized the phone records or emails of reporters as part of media leak investigations during the Trump administration, according to a new watchdog report.
The rebel alliance that overthrew the Assad government in Syria vowed to hunt down and punish senior officials of the previous regime who are implicated in torture and other abuses, but said that rank-and-file conscripted soldiers would receive amnesty.
As soon as it became clear on Sunday that there would be regime change in neighboring Syria, Israel began a sweeping aerial campaign. The Israeli military said it carried out about 480 strikes across the country, hitting most strategic weapon stockpiles.
The prime minister of Syria’s new transitional government, Mohammed al-Bashir, the former head of the rebel administration in the north-west, has said it is time for people to “enjoy stability and calm” after the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad.
Syria’s new interim prime minister said he aimed to bring back millions of Syrian refugees, protect all citizens and provide basic services but acknowledged it would be difficult because the country lacked foreign currency.
More than half of registered voters in New York would prefer to elect someone other than Gov. Kathy Hochul in 2026, according to a Siena College poll released yesterday, with Democrats still largely united behind the first-term governor.
The poll found that 57 percent of respondents would prefer “someone else,” compared to the 33 percent who said they would reelect Hochul, who took office in 2021 and won reelection the following year. New York’s next gubernatorial election is in 2026.
Hochul was shocked at the price of an 18-pack of eggs as she placed them in the shopping cart of a woman who joined her at a Capital Region grocery store.
The state GOP spokesman accused Hochul of “resorting to bribing New Yorkers to like her” through a recently announced up to $500 in “inflation refunds” for those struggling with spiking costs of living.
Now, as the legal cannabis market approaches $1 billion in sales, there is an emerging push for the state to recognize its sacramental use so that members of ritualistic cultures like Rastafarianism can grow and sell it in accordance with their beliefs.
New York City officials announced yesterday that they would close a giant tent complex in Brooklyn that houses some 2,000 migrants, a preemptive step meant to fend off concerns that the shelter could be targeted by the Trump administration.
The city also says it will end the use of upstate shelters — including motels in Albany, Colonie, Newburgh and Poughkeepsie — to house migrants.
The announcement comes as the number of migrants staying in city shelters has declined for 22 weeks and is at its lowest point in a year-and-a-half. Eleven migrant shelters have already closed and another 14 closures are planned by the end of March.
Half of the claims for public matching funds that Mayor Eric Adams’ reelection campaign submitted in the most recent reporting period were deemed “invalid” by the city’s Campaign Finance Board, the highest rejection rate the mayor’s team has faced to date.
Adams is heading on a taxpayer-funded trip to Puerto Rico this week to speak at a cryptocurrency conference. The city is paying the mayor’s airfare and lodging as he left New York yesterday to attend the “Puerto Rico Blockchain Week” confab in San Juan.
Disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner appears to be trying to mount a political comeback and has officially registered to run for an East Village City Council seat.
Six weeks before Adams made Robert Tucker commissioner of the FDNY, eight employees from Tucker’s security firm donated to Adams’ reelection campaign.
If the death of Jordan Neely, a homeless man who struggled with mental health problems, left New Yorkers unnerved and divided, the verdict quickly became yet another flashpoint in the debate over how best to address issues of crime and homelessness.
E-bike riders may have to register for license plates under a proposal under consideration by the City Council.
The Brooklyn district attorney has decided not to pursue charges, at least for now, against an MTA cleaner who was arrested earlier this week for allegedly slashing a sleeping man while on duty — because cops can’t find the victim.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art just revealed renderings of its new modern and contemporary art wing—the first in the museum’s history designed by a woman.
Manhattan’s office market mounted a stirring recovery from its pandemic doldrums, with space so tight that tenants wanting to move or expand are out of luck.
Top administrators at Saint Ann’s School in Brooklyn knowingly hired a felon to teach math and then “shamed” teachers, students and parents who expressed discomfort with his conduct “as racist or not progressive,” according to a scathing report.
The teacher, Winston Nguyen, is now accused of soliciting lewd images from students and faces 11 felony charges, including using a child in a sexual performance, promoting a sexual performance by a child and disseminating indecent material to a minor.
SantaCon is coming to town this weekend — and the transit authority is attempting to control the chaos by banning alcohol consumption on Metro-North Railroad and Long Island Rail Road trains for 32 hours.
New York’s Friars Club, the seat of American comedy and legendary roasts, long made its home in a landmark East Side townhouse. That era appeared to end with a foreclosure auction yesterday in which the building was sold to a creditor for $17.2 million.
The U.S. Commerce Department said it had finalized a nearly $6.2 billion grant package for Micron Technology, the Idaho memory chipmaker that has plans to build a $100 billion fabrication campus in suburban Syracuse.
Storm King Art Center, the 500-acre outdoor museum, announced that Nora Lawrence, its artistic director and chief curator, will succeed its president, John P. Stern, as the institution’s leader in January.
HealthAlliance of the Hudson Valley, which has hospitals in Kingston and Margaretville, agreed to pay $550,000 in penalties for not addressing a vulnerability in its system that led to a 2023 cyberattack where patients’ personal and medical information was stolen.
In a shocking level of trust in its residents, Albany County lawmakers announced it will host a contest to name seven county snowplows early next year.
On Monday night, the New York State Nurses Association rejected what Dennis McKenna, Albany Med Health System president and CEO, called the health care provider’s “best and final offer” for a new contract after seven months of negotiations.
Though a state of emergency remained in the Village of Whitehall, the mayor said water tanks at the water treatment facility are slowly refilling and residents should see water return in the next 24-to-48 hours.
From a vaping fourth grader to a high schooler showing up at a perceived rival’s home to fight to a teen bringing a realistic-looking fake firearm to school, the restorative practices specialists in the Schenectady school district respond to a wide range of challenges.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
