Good morning, it’s Tuesday.
Along the same lines as yesterday’s post, today is Orthodox New Year, (AKA the Old New Year, which is a kind of funny oxymoron), observed by those who are still following the Julian – not Georgian – calendar.
This holiday is celebrated by some Orthodox Christians, who – again, due to their calendar quirk – also celebrate the birth of Christ in early January.
As for the Orthodox New Year, there are an array of customs and traditions, ranging from prayer and gathering with family members to eating traditional dishes like kutia (sweet wheat pudding), vasilopita (New Year’s bread). There’s also the burning of the Yule log (badnjak – traditionally made of oak), which is done to banish the troubles of the past year.
Interestingly, the interwebs inform me that Orthodox New Year is observed in Alaska, which I often forget once belonged to Russia. That is, until 1867, when Secretary of State William H. Seward negotiated a deal to purchase the territory for the eye-popping sum (back then) of $7.2 million. Alaska did not become the 49th state until many years later – in January 1959.
Much like the Jan. 1 New Year, the Orthodox New Year is often rung in with parties, food, dancing, and fireworks. It is mostly celebrated in Russia, Serbia, and other Eastern European countries, but also by Orthodox Christians here in the U.S.
Today marks a new year’s tradition of sorts, though it feels like it’s coming awfully late in the game to me. Governor Kathy Hochul at 1 p.m. will be delivering her annual State of the State address, as required by the New York Constitution. Technically speaking, the governor is giving this speech to the members of the state Legislature, laying out her vision and agenda for the coming year.
The speech is usually held the first Wednesday after the first Monday in January, according to the New York City Bar Association’s handy glossary of frequently used phrases related to the Legislature, governor, and all things Albany. But apparently, that’s not cast in stone.
State of the State speeches always make me think of the late Governor Mario Cuomo, who famously said: “You campaign in poetry; you govern in prose.” The SOTS, as insiders like to call it, is a collection of ideas – some good, some terribly bad, some just kind of head scratching. These involves a lot of posturing, pomp, and circumstance. It is heavy on concepts and light on details – like, for example, just how a governor plans to pay for all their great ideas.
THAT is reserved for the state budget, which, this year, will be coming on Jan. 21. Then the real fun begins.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not skipping the SOTS. I’ll be watching from afar like so many other denizens of planet Albany, and then I’ll play the traditional game of trying to read between the lines and monitoring who says what about whom. This, my friends, is what passes for fun in my world.
Clearly, I need to get out more.
After a few days of reprieve from the bone chilling temperatures, we’re headed back down into the 20s. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. It will be cloudy in the morning and cloudy in the afternoon. No snow is in the forecast, though. Small blessings.
In the headlines…
Jack Smith, the special counsel who indicted President-elect Donald Trump for trying to cling to power in 2020, said in a final report that there was enough to convict Trump in a trial, had his 2024 victory not made it impossible for the prosecution to continue.
The Justice Department delivered the 137-page volume — representing half of Smith’s overall final report, with the volume about Trump’s other federal case, accusing him of mishandling classified documents, still confidential — to Congress just after midnight.
The report spells out in extensive — if largely already known — detail how Trump tried to overturn the 2020 election. Smith’s team states strongly that they believed Trump criminally attempted to subvert the will of the people and overturn the election results.
Trump’s House GOP allies are clearing the runway for him to make good on his vow to acquire Greenland.
The county’s prime minister said that while Greenlanders do not want to become Americans, “the reality is we are going to work with the U.S. — yesterday, today and tomorrow.”
Incoming senior Trump administration officials have begun questioning career civil servants at the White House National Security Council about who they voted for in the 2024 election, their political contributions and social media posts.
Trump’s presidential transition team yesterday released a schedule of official parties, gatherings and other events that will surround his inauguration as the 47th U.S. president next week.
The four-day schedule includes a fireworks show and three VIP events at Trump’s golf course outside D.C., as well as a MAGA rally on the eve of his swearing-in. It also includes three inaugural balls, a relatively small number by recent presidential standards.
With a whirlwind of confirmation hearings launching on Capitol Hill, Republicans are more confident than ever that they’ve gotten Trump’s personnel blitz back on track — thanks to a combination of hardball politics, appeals to GOP unity and lots of charm.
With Trump returning to office next week, the Senate is set to hold confirmation hearings this week on many of his Cabinet picks, including Pete Hegseth for defense secretary, Pam Bondi for attorney general and Marco Rubio for secretary of state.
Senate Democrats said that an F.B.I. background check on Hegseth, Trump’s pick to lead the Pentagon, omitted key details on major allegations against him, in part because it did not include interviews with critical witnesses.
As Hegseth prepares for confirmation hearings, a coalition of outside groups is pressuring Republican senators to confirm him as Trump’s secretary of defense — or face daunting political fallout it they do not.
Trump is reportedly expected to speak virtually at the World Economic Forum, which convenes global leaders and executives next week in Davos, Switzerland.
Rachel Maddow pared back her on-air schedule during President Joe Biden’s time in office, reducing her popular prime-time program on MSNBC to once a week. With Trump returning to power, she’s going back to full-time duty.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said “there should probably be conditions” on aid to help California deal with deadly wildfires when asked if he’s open to sending funding, signaling a possible political battle over helping the traditionally Democratic state.
House Democrats are warning Johnson that tying federal wildfire relief for California to the debt limit could set a new precedent that would come back to bite Republicans.
Forecasters warned that severe winds starting last night could lead to “explosive fire growth” in the LA area, where firefighters have been struggling almost a week to get control of blazes that have destroyed thousands of homes and charred nearly 40,000 acres.
Two lawsuits filed against Southern California Edison allege the utility failed to de-energize its power equipment and clear brush where a blaze sparked near Pasadena, one in a cascade of wildfires burning in the Los Angeles area, driven by strong winds.
Nature is piling on in the deadly and destructive Los Angeles-area fires: Besides offshore winds that turn flames into firestorms, it has been giving the blazes plenty of dry fuel amid a historically rain-free winter.
Federal forecasters in San Diego say it’s the driest water year on record, with a tenth of an inch of rain recorded so far.
Netflix announced that it will donate $10 million to provide immediate relief to families and businesses for wildfire relief.
David Weiss, the special counsel who spent years investigating Hunter Biden, criticized President Biden for making “baseless accusations” about his inquiry that threatened “the integrity of the justice system as a whole” in a report made public yesterday.
“The president’s characterizations are incorrect based on the facts in this case, and on a more fundamental level, they are wrong,” Weiss wrote.
Gov. Kathy Hochul’s State of the State speech today is expected to respond to the voter dissatisfaction that became evident in November, especially regarding affordability and crime.
One of Hochul’s potential Republican opponents in 2026, U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler, who represents parts of the Hudson Valley, will be in Albany today to offer his party’s rebuttal to her remarks, alongside Republicans from the State Legislature.
Lawler penned a NY Post op-ed declaring “we need to get a handle on the out-of-control taxation regime operated by Kathy Hochul and Albany Democrats.”
Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers yesterday pledged to tamp down New York’s cost of living and ramp up public safety in urban areas, laying out their priority agendas ahead of Hochul’s scheduled State of the State address.
Hochul is pointing out possible benefits of congestion pricing to suburban commuters, an influential voting bloc that could decide her political fortunes.
Hochul – the state’s fist mom and grandma governor – is finally expected today to reveal more about her push to snatch those smartphones out of the hands of New York’s students later this month.
In a statement, which provided no other details, the governor said she would include the legislation in her proposal for next fiscal year’s budget.
Republicans are already lining up in opposition to some of the plans the Democratic governor has unveiled so far. There is one exception — the Child Tax Credit program.
State cannabis regulators overstepped their authority and the constitutional rights of licensed hemp stores when they used heavy-handed tactics to conduct warrantless raids of the shops, according to a court ruling issued yesterday.
New York will protect an additional 1 million acres of wetlands by 2028 after the state expanded its definition of regulated wetlands.
A grassroots coalition that advocate for more publicly operated renewable energy sources is calling on the New York Power Authority to move forward with building zero-emission power sources in New York City.
Hochul wants to spend $400 million on the revitalization of New York’s capital city, including $150 million for a remade State Museum and $200 million for unspecified downtown projects.
Airbnb has launched a Super PAC ready to pony up $5 million to help elect city and state candidates willing to support short-term rentals.
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo trounces Mayor Eric Adams and other candidates in a Democratic mayoral field Cuomo has not yet entered — but his negatives are among the highest of the contenders, a third-party poll found.
In the poll, 32 percent of likely Democratic voters named Cuomo as their preferred candidate in the race. Former comptroller Scott Stringer was second with 10 percent followed by current comptroller Brad Lander with 8 percent and State Sen. Jessica Ramos at 7.
When asked about the poll, Adams said: “This was out in February. Another Andrew, ‘Andrew Yang opens up huge lead in race to be next New York City mayor,'” Adams said, holding up a February 2021 story as “Exhibit A” for why polls this early don’t matter.
Adams announced he’s naming two top advisers to deputy mayor positions — a move that comes after one of the aides reportedly sought to leave City Hall for a private sector job.
During his weekly “off-topic” press conference, Adams announced promotions for Camille Joseph Varlack, his chief of staff, and Tiffany Raspberry, his director of intergovernmental affairs.
Adams said he’s hoping to score a coveted sit-down with Trump, and hinted he could even attend the upcoming inauguration.
If Trump moves to undo congestion pricing, don’t expect Adams to lead the fight to protect it. If Trump is able to scrap the program, there’s not a whole lot the mayor could do, he said, offering, in effect, a defense of federalism.
Transit and environmental advocates are looking to decrease car dependence statewide, kicking off the New Yorkers for Transportation Equity campaign in support of legislation meant to reduce total vehicle miles traveled statewide by 20% in 25 years.
The launch of congestion pricing led to some 43,000 fewer drivers on average entering Manhattan below 60th Street each weekday last week than would be typical for that time of January, according to data released by the MTA yesterday.
In the first six days of the program, officials estimated, there were tens of thousands fewer vehicles entering the busiest parts of Manhattan below 60th Street, which includes some of the city’s most famous destinations.
Comptroller Brad Lander, a contender in the 2025 race for NYC mayor, unveiled his blueprint for making subways and streets safer for New Yorkers called “Safer for All: A Plan to End Street Homelessness for People with Serious Mental Illness in NYC.”
Both sides in the federal corruption case against Adams have accused the other of making statements to the press about the case that violate rules about disclosing non-public information. A judge told them all to cut it out.
A Board of Elections bigwig accused of sexually harassing two employees said gays “bothered” him and “heterosexuals were being discriminated against” at the city agency, an explosive new $5 million court filing claims.
A new Uber-led coalition is launching a multi-million ad campaign to urge Albany and the City Council to lower drivers’ insurance costs.
Citizens for Affordable Rates is particularly supporting city legislation that would reduce the minimum liability coverage taxi and ride-share drivers are required to carry from a whopping $200,000 to $50,000.
It happened in five seconds. A police officer fired two shots at a 32-year-old man carrying a knife in a brightly lit hallway of a South Bronx building on Sunday evening, striking him in the torso. He appears to have called 911 to report a burglary.
Doctors Council SEIU reached a tentative agreement in the wee hours of this morning on a contract for 2,500 public-sector physicians across New York City, averting what would have been an historic strike.
A Manhattan-based construction company has been indicted on charges that it stole $67,000 in wages owed to immigrant laborers.
“Sex and the City” fans may soon have to clear another hurdle to visit one of the show’s most popular New York City locations.
Hochul is proposing an “Albany Public Safety Surge,” calling for $1 million in funding to go toward supporting law enforcement efforts in the city.
Several Albany-area legislators are promoting new legislation that would turn a portion of the Harriman State Office Campus into mixed-use development.
Warren County plans to launch an experimental compost program and facility this year as a way to gauge whether it should build a permanent structure.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
