Good morning, it’s Friday AND it’s the last day of the month.
When we reconvene next week, a whole new month will be upon us and we’ll be truly in thick of the “days until spring” countdown.
So we have something to look forward to – in like a lion, and all that. The unsettled weather has been playing havoc with my psyche. Cold! Warm! Sunny! Windy! Sometimes everything all in the span of a single day. How to play an outfit, to say nothing of an outdoor running schedule. It’s a lot.
It’s also not good news for the skywatchers among us. Ideally, one needs un-cloudy, clear nights to get an unfettered view of the heavens. Sadly, those have been few and far between of late, and tonight’s forecast is no different, calling for clouds and snow showers.
That’s certainly going to put a damper on the planetary parade that’s on the agenda this evening – starting from shortly after sunset/just after dusk (around 6:30 p.m.) through about 9 p.m.
Also known as a “planetary alignment” a parade is when more planets than usual are visible to the naked eye. This is not a terribly rare occurrence, though when seven of the eight planets line up (remember, our friend Pluto no longer makes the official definition), it’s kind of a big deal.
Tonight, a so-called “great” alignment of Saturn, Mercury, Neptune, Venus, Uranus, Jupiter and Mars will occur, creating an unusual and striking celestial event – if you’re lucky enough to be somewhere where you can actually SEE the sky. The last time this occurred was April 8, 2024, during the total solar eclipse; the next time it will happen will be over a decade from now (Sept. 8, 2040).
To be clear, only five of the planets – Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn – can be seen without any sort of optical aid. Uranus and Neptune are further away, and so therefore are harder to spot – generally speaking.
In the case of Neptune, you definitely need a telescope to spot it. Technically, though, IF you know where to look and IF the sky is dark enough (like you’re very far away from civilization) and IF you have really sharp eyesight, you might be able to make our Uranus – but only very faintly.
You probably won’t be surprised to learn that “planetary parade” is not an official term in astronomy. Meanwhile, a “planetary alignment” could be one of any number of phenomenon involving the moon, the sun, stars, and – as in this case – planets.
If you aren’t able to catch a glimpse of this celestial happening, don’t feel too bad – another one is right around the corner. A lunar eclipse, which will turn the moon a dark red, is on tap for March 14. That should be a pretty good show, weather permitting (again).
I started this post with today’s forecast, but looking ahead to the weekend, well, it’s a decidedly mixed bag.
Tomorrow will be cloudy with temperatures in the 40s, but it will be very windy – with gusts gaining speed as the day progresses, and the potential for winds up to 30 MPH or higher, so hang on to your proverbial hats. As Saturday progresses, the mercury will drop precipitously until it bottoms out in the 20s on Sunday, though skies that day will be clear and sunny.
In the headlines…
Tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico will go into effect on March 4 “as scheduled,” President Donald Trump said yesterday morning, claiming that those countries were still not doing enough to stop the flow of drugs into the United States.
China will also face an additional 10 percent tariff next week, on top of the 10 percent he imposed earlier this month, the president wrote in a post on Truth Social.
Turmp said that he trusted President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia not to violate the terms of a potential peace deal with Ukraine, even as he refused to pledge U.S. military support for a peacekeeping force.
“I think he’ll keep his word,” Trump said of Putin as he hosted Britain’s prime minister, Keir Starmer, at the White House. “I’ve known him for a long time now.”
But Trump refused to commit to deploying US forces to support a European-led peacekeeping force, although he said the US would “always” help the British military in the unlikely event it needed it.
A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to retract directives that prompted the firing of thousands of federal workers, saying that those directives were “illegal” and suggesting that the layoffs be stopped.
The directions, communicated in a Jan. 20 memo and Feb. 14 internal email, are “illegal” and “should be stopped, rescinded,” Judge William Alsup of the Northern District of California said from the bench.
Judge Alsup found that the government’s human resources division had exceeded its authority when it issued a pair of memos outlining steps to fire an estimated 200,000 probationary workers. But the ruling does not reinstate dismissed employees.
“OPM does not have any authority whatsoever, under any statute in the history of the universe,” to hire or fire any employees but its own, he said.
A federal judge issued order requiring four Trump administration officials to testify in a lawsuit seeking to expose the inner workings of the DOGE and answer questions regarding the legality of unexpected cuts to the federal workforce.
District Judge John Bates said their testimonies will be used to explain the “lack of clarity” on the issue of whether DOGE employees are also employed by the United States Digital Service (USDS), which was established in 2014.
The Trump administration has moved into its next push to drastically overhaul the federal bureaucracy, demanding that agencies produce plans for large work force cuts that involve closing offices and relocating employees outside the D.C. region.
Agencies have been instructed to turn in a detailed list of divisions that should be consolidated or cut entirely by March 13, according to a recent memo from the Office of Personnel Management and Office of Management and Budget.
Terse notes ended funding for some 5,800 projects financed by the USAID, indicating that a tumultuous period when the Trump administration said it was freezing projects for ostensible review – and any faint hope for continued funding – was over.
Congressional negotiators racing to avert a government shutdown next month appear to have hit a wall on the question of whether to limit Trump’s powers to spend the money.
For days, Attorney General Pam Bondi had talked about releasing the “Epstein files,” supposedly secret documents the federal government has on some of the powerful men who were in the orbit of the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
But the roughly 200 pages of documents that Bondi released yesterday contained little new information pointing to wrongdoing by anyone other than Epstein, a registered sex offender who died in jail.
Bondi demanded the full release of files related to Epstein in a letter to FBI Director Kash Patel. “You will deliver to me a comprehensive report of your findings and proposed personnel action within 14 days,” Bondi wrote.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt blasted a New York Times reporter as a “left-wing stenographer” after he compared Trump to Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s crackdown on press freedoms.
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said he wants to study the safety of mifepristone, one of two drugs used in medication abortion.
Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration and the union representing more than 13,000 New York correction officers reportedly reached a tentative agreement on ending an unsanctioned strike that has crippled the state prison system since Feb. 17.
The mediator-negotiated deal suspends aspects of the HALT Act, which drastically cut down on solitary confinement in state prisons, and includes a promise to ease mandatory overtime, two major sticking points in the guards’ decision to walk off the job.
The execution of the deal, reached after four days of mediation, may be tricky: Because the strike was unauthorized, its resolution could require the correction officers to individually accept the conditions and agree to return to their jobs.
Two men died while incarcerated at the maximum-security Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Westchester County on Wednesday, according to the state agency that oversees the prison system.
New York will not comply with an order from Trump’s administration to stop collecting tolls through the congestion pricing program in New York City next month, Hochul said yesterday.
Hochul dissed the Garden State over its war against her hated congestion pricing toll, sniping: “What do we care what New Jersey thinks?”
Fears over an anti-Israel protest prompted the last-minute cancellation of an event by Hochul at CUNY’s City College campus yesterday – one day after students seized a building at another city university.
Hochul is moving to strip her lieutenant governor, Antonio Delgado, of much of his office space after he hinted at a primary challenge to her next year. She also confiscated his state-issued electronic devices and is reassigning much of his staff.
Bronx Rep. Ritchie Torres accused Hochul of dragging her feet on a law to ban public mask-wearing as a way to thwart hate-spewing bigots — a day after a mob of keffiyeh-clad anti-Israel protesters took over a Barnard College building.
The Trump administration announced plans this week to reopen an immigration detention facility in Newark, greatly expanding its capacity to hold detained immigrants in the Northeast as federal authorities seek to ramp up arrests and deportations.
State health officials issued an alert on measles and urged New Yorkers to get their kids vaccinated, pointing to the recent death of an unvaccinated child in Texas, the first since 2015.
A mysterious $3 million sitting in Mayor Eric Adams’ reelection account is the latest irregularity giving campaign finance officials cause to deny him crucial public matching funds.
The CFB broadened the criteria it used to deny Adams matching funds in a Feb. 18 letter POLITICO obtained through a FOIL request, which cited a significant difference between money in the campaign’s coffers and what it has disclosed in official reports.
The judge presiding over the prosecution of Adams gave the U.S. Department of Justice until next week to challenge Adams’ new bid to get the case tossed, throwing the high-stakes legal saga further into disarray.
Federal prosecutors said they had proposed a new charge against Adams. Court filings suggest it related to the conduct of an aide who was charged with witness tampering.
If she runs for mayor and is elected, Adrienne Adams would be the first woman, the first Black woman and the first City Council speaker to become mayor of New York City – a triple milestone.
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo is days away from potentially entering the New York City mayor’s race, but even before he is set to make that announcement, some Democrats are already tossing around his name for the 2028 presidential campaign.
Influential former Brooklyn Democratic Party boss Frank Seddio, the law partner of Adams’ political adviser and former City Hall chief-of-staff Frank Carone, is abandoning Adams and backing Cuomo.
Working as an Uber, Lyft or taxi driver doesn’t come with many perks. But since the start of congestion pricing, those drivers do get one benefit: exemption from the tolls, regardless of whether they’re on the job or not.
Dead ducks, geese and other birds have been found “everywhere” along a Long Island Beach — and experts fear they were wiped out by raging bird flu.
The Metro-North Railroad has rolled out its latest addition to its “Heritage Series,” a commemorative locomotive wrapped in the historic colors of the New Haven Railroad.
A proposal to close a Social Security Administration office in White Plains is drawing ire from an array of elected officials, including the state AG, who has no legal authority over the decision but wrote a letter to the agency’s acting commissioner opposing it.
An ICE action in Kingston this week resulted in the detention of a person living illegally in the U.S., while another city resident who holds a green card was contacted by an ICE agent who allegedly said he was “with the police department.”
The Town of Niskayuna has fired its embattled systems administrator for what it says was misconduct and incompetence over telephone calls to and from Town Hall that were being secretly being recorded for upwards of two years without any disclaimer.
County and town planning boards approved a special-use permit for the controversial boat and RV storage facility on Saratoga Lake, sparking fear in the few remaining tenants who live on the land that construction will begin before they leave.
The lowest bidder on the contract to demolish Albany’s Central Warehouse is threatening legal action after a county public authority awarded the bid to a partnership of two downstate firms.
Public officials, unions, developers, nonprofits and trade groups from across Albany County are urging Hochul to support mixed-use development on the Harriman State Office campus as part of the state’s $1.7 billion Wadsworth Laboratory project.
Bethlehem’s first Muslim congregation is preparing for Ramadan, a holy month of praying and fasting that this year starts this evening.
“Today” show co-host Al Roker will deliver this spring’s commencement address at Siena College’s graduation ceremony.
The actor Gene Hackman was found dead in a mud room in his New Mexico home and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, was found dead on the floor of a bathroom. An open prescription bottle and scattered pills were discovered near her body on a counter.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
