Good morning, it’s Tuesday.
I was never a terribly fast runner. At my peak, I could probably hold a sub 9 minute mile for a good stretch of time. These days, I’m lucky if I can hold that for any length of time. Aging is a killer.
As I’ve gotten slower – and more injury prone – I’ve switched my focus from speed to distance. Ultra running, which is basically anything longer that 26.2, is not for the faint of heart, though it is gaining in popularity.
The best thing about ultra is that it’s (usually) just about getting to the end in one piece.
However you do that – run, jog, hike, shuffle, crawl – is your prerogative. Big races have time cutoffs, though some focus on AMRAP (as many rounds, or in this case, miles, as possible within a certain amount of time).
The training for ultra requires spending a lot of time on your feet, over and over and over again. That’s a lot of time spent inside one’s own head. The good thing for those of us who have hamster wheel brain is that at some point, the world narrows to nothing other than getting to the next tree, or rock, or telephone pole. Yes, there is a lot of physical pain involved, but it’s a small price to pay (for me, anyway) in exchange for quieting of the mind.
I don’t actually run in silence all that much. I also don’t listen to music, but rather to podcasts. I have a whole list of favorites, many of which involve food. (Running makes one hungry). This past weekend, I listened to a fascinating/horrifying report on the Sweetwater, TX, Rattlesnake Roundup, which bills itself as the largest event of its kind – presumably in the world.
For those who are not familiar, a rattlesnake roundup is, well, pretty much exactly as it sounds: Hundreds, if not thousands, of rattlesnakes are hunted, captured, corralled, and eventually killed in a festival-like atmosphere that involves the sale and consumption of (among other things) rattlesnake meat.
This has been going on for years in various locations around the country. Under pressure from animal rights activists, who have decried rattlesnake roundups for some time, a number of the festivals have transitioned to educational experiences in which the snakes are not killed. But others – like the Sweetwater event – continue to maintain the tradition of killing the animals and making a considerable amount of money off them in the process.
There is certainly no love lost between me and snakes. Quite frankly, I hate them and they scare the bejeezus out of me. That said, I do recognize the important role they play in the ecosystem, as they help control the small rodent population and, in so doing, reduce the spread of Lyme disease.
Some species of rattlesnakes are endangered, but as far as I can tell, those are largely concentrated in the Northeast and not the western states, but they are pretty plentiful. That said, rounding them all up for sport and killing them for entertainment just sort of strikes me as not a great thing to do – especially not when we’ve already made their lives difficult by encroaching on their habitats and building roads for cars that run over them.
You may wonder why I’m going on and on about the practice of rounding up rattlesnakes when, if you clicked on the Sweetwater link, you know that particular event won’t be held for well over a month. However, the interwebs tell me that today is, in other parts of the country, anyway, Rattlesnake Roundup Day, so it seemed as good a time as any to delve into this rather obscure topic.
FWIW, this is definitely NOT rattlesnake weather. Though they do not officially hibernate during the colder months, rattlesnakes do enter a low-movement, low-energy state called “brumation“, so they can maximize their stored body fat and survive until it gets warm again. They do eat and drink during this period, they just move around a lot less.
Remember: Snakes are cold blooded and can’t generate their own body heat, so they bask in the sun to warm themselves up. Don’t be surprised on very sunny winter days to run into a basking snake or two if you’re out and about (in the wilderness, that is).
It’s going to be partly cloudy, cold and windy today, with temperatures in the low 30s. Flurries and/or snow showers will likely be developing later in the day.
In the headlines…
One week in, the Trump administration is broadening its assault on the functions of government and shifting control of the federal purse strings further away from members of Congress.
The budget office ordered a total freeze on “all federal financial assistance” possibly targeted under his executive orders pausing funding for a wide range of priorities, other than for Social Security, Medicare and other programs with direct aid to individuals.
The budget office memo says the temporary pause is intended to ensure agencies are complying with Trump’s executive orders to root out “Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies” from programs within their purview.
The National Science Foundation canceled all of its grant review panels this week, as the organization works to align its grant-making process with new executive orders from the Trump administration.
Trump announced he had signed four executive orders that will reshape the military, including banning transgender service members from serving in the US armed forces and gutting the military’s diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
The orders, which Trump signed while aboard Air Force One on a return flight to Washington from Florida, also reinstated with back pay service members who were discharged for refusing to get vaccinated from Covid-19.
Acting Attorney General James McHenry fired more than a dozen prosecutors who worked on the two criminal investigations into Trump for the special counsel Jack Smith, saying they could not be trusted to “faithfully implement” the president’s agenda.
“This action is consistent with the mission of ending the weaponization of government,” a Justice Department official said.
It wasn’t immediately clear the exact number of officials who were fired yesterday, but the move was largely expected after Trump’s threats leading up to the 2024 election stating he planned to fire Smith “on day one.”
It was also not immediately known how many of the fired prosecutors intended to challenge the terminations by arguing that the department had ignored civil service protections afforded to federal employees.
The Trump administration placed several dozen senior officials at the U.S. Agency for International Development on administrative leave in response to what an official characterized as resistance to Trump’s policy.
An email on to U.S.A.I.D. staff from the agency’s acting administrator, Jason Gray, said that Trump officials “have identified several actions within U.S.A.I.D. that appear to be designed to circumvent” an executive order.
Border czar Tom Homan said last night that the Trump administration has “no apologies” for the ICE raids targeting illegal migrants in the US when asked about Selena Gomez’s since-deleted Instagram post in which she sobbed over the law enforcement action.
CNN chief domestic correspondent Jim Acosta is expected to leave the cable news network after his show was replaced and he was yanked from all scheduled programming.
The Gulf of America and Mount McKinley will soon appear on Google Maps to reflect Trump’s decision to rename the two topographical features, the company announced.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in his first full day at the Pentagon, said more military personnel would most likely be dispatched to the southern border soon, joining about 4,000 already there.
Deborah F. Rutter will step down as president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington at the end of the year, the center announced, in the latest sign of uncertainty at the institution as it navigates Trump’s second term.
The World Bank Group warned Colombian staff members not to exit or enter the US following a travel ban and visa restrictions that Trump imposed on Colombians after the government in Bogotá briefly rejected U.S. military flights returning illegal immigrants.
Trump’s “mass deportation” initiative, off to a middling start in the New York metropolitan area, would ramp up significantly under new quotas reportedly put in place over the weekend by the White House.
Trump and writer E. Jean Carroll are arguing over whether a Supreme Court decision affording him substantial criminal immunity also shields him from paying tens of millions in damages for insulting her and saying she lied about his sexually assaulting her.
Gov. Kathy Hochul is seeking $400 million in the next state budget to more quickly install surveillance cameras across the entire New York state prison system.
Hochul said in a television interview last week that there should not be “an inch of space” in a state prison that cannot be seen on a surveillance camera.
New York has a separate, lower minimum wage for restaurant workers who earn tips but that could change under a bill revived this year by state lawmakers and their supporters.
Former head of DEI for US News & World Report Marion Phillips III and retired real estate executive Greg Reimers were selected to the New York Gaming Facility Location Board (NYGFLB) in a meeting today.
Due to his health-related light public schedule, Mayor Eric Adams will not have his weekly off-topic Q&A news conference today, and his scheduled appearance tomorrow in his federal court case has been waived. That hearing is about classified evidence.
A spokesman asked for privacy for the mayor’s personal matters. Adams’ office “will continue to communicate in the unlikely event he is unable to fully discharge his duties on any particular day,” the spokesman said.
The mayor had been poised to spend this entire week at events highlighting a jobs push, sources said – a key plank in his re-election campaign against a crowded field of Democratic challengers looking to topple him from Graice Mansion.
First Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer could briefly take the reins, but if Adams can’t “discharge the powers and duties of the office of mayor,” the official line of succession proceeds to public advocate Jumaane Williams and then comptroller Brad Lander.
Queens Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar — a close ally of Adams — announced a new campaign to “better help a city in crisis” by seeking the public advocate’s post after saying for months she planned to run for city comptroller.
More than 100 more New Yorkers sued the city yesterday alleging they were sexually abused by staffers and other detainees at the city’s juvenile detention centers while they were held there as children — bringing the total number of such cases to 540.
Good cause eviction is quietly reshaping parts of the New York City housing markets, as renters are challenging landlords – both in court and informally – and property owners are growing more cautious.
The union boss who controlled New York City’s lifeguards with an iron fist for decades has retired ahead of a disciplinary proceeding this week over his methods.
The city is giving a break to landlords who house hipsters in trendy white neighborhoods — at the expense of struggling minorities — despite a court order to nix the inequity, a housing group says.
A state trooper staged his own shooting on the Southern State Parkway in Nassau County in October — firing into his own leg, state police and local prosecutors said.
Thomas Mascia, 27, surrendered to police yesterday morning, a spokesperson for the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office said. He faces charges of official misconduct, falsely reporting a crime and tampering with evidence.
Mascia was arraigned alongside his parents in Hempstead as new details were revealed in his bizarre scheme — including that he sprinkled bullet casings on the Southern State Parkway, then fired at his own leg on Oct. 30.
Park Strategies, one of Albany’s top strategic advisory firms, has entered into an agreement with Carm Basile, former CEO of the Capital District Transportation Authority (CDTA), to serve as Senior Advisor, effective immediately.
The CLCPA became a key issue in a drawn out court battle between a private energy developer and the town of Athens, which had sought to protect its residents from a major solar panel project proposed in a rural residential area.
A woman charged in the shooting death of a U.S. Border Patrol agent had received a handgun that same day from a Vermont man who is also a person of interest in a dual homicide in Pennsylvania.
State parks and historical sites saw record attendance numbers in 2024 during the 100th anniversary of the state park system.
Lucas Healey was found guilty of assault and robbery charges after an attack caught on camera last spring left a Madison Avenue restaurateur with severe, and likely permanent, brain injuries.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
