Good morning, it’s Monday. It’s Presidents Day.
For the record, both Presidents’ Day, with an apostrophe for the plural possessive, and Presidents Day, no apostrophe, are correct; President’s Day, as in the day belonging to a single president, however, is not.
You may or may not have off from work on this day. Federal law does not require states to close on federal holidays like this one. In 10 states today, things are all business as usual, including Delaware, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, North Carolina and Rhode Island.
In the states that do observe, most non-essential services – like the Post Office, for example – are shuttered today, as are banks and the stock market. Most schools are also not open, but in many cases, this holiday falls in the middle of an already scheduled vacation week anyway.
The retail sector is not only open today, but likely booming – thanks to a wide variety of Presidents Day sales. This is, historically speaking, a relatively new phenomenon that dates back to the 1980s.
Before then, pretty much all businesses closed on the holiday. But then, in 1968, came passage of the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which moved a number of federal holidays to Mondays with an eye toward boosting business and commerce. The Act took effect in 1971, and over time, many business owners seized on the opportunity to offer deals in order to boost customer traffic.
Presidents Day is now known as a great time to get a good deal on things like furniture, mattresses, electronics, clothing, and major appliances, among other things. It’s also the last major holiday weekend connected to big sales until Memorial Day, which doesn’t come around until the end of May.
Washington himself was not big on birthdays, according to Mountvernon.org, the website of the organization that manages the first president’s estate. His own diary entries show that he usually spent the day working, and preferred to have a quiet evening at home with friends and family – and maybe some cake. Washington’s friends in government either did or didn’t make a big fuss about his birthday, depending on how popular he was at the time.
Washington died at the age of 67 in 1799. It wasn’t until 1832, which marked the centennial of his birth, that Congress established a committee to arrange national “parades, orations and festivals” to commemorate the bid gay. More than three decades later, in 1879, Washington’s birthday became a legal holiday – but only for federal employees in the District of Columbia.
By the way, Washington was NOT born on Feb. 17, but rather on Feb. 22, which was the date of this holiday until the aforementioned Uniform Monday Holiday Act was passed and implemented. Interestingly, though Congress voted to change the date of the holiday, members never formally changed its name. So what we now celebrate as “Presidents Day” is actually still officially Washington’s Birthday – at least on paper.
One traditional observance of this holiday that hasn’t changed – at least since 1896 – is the reading in the U.S. Senate of 7,641-word Washington’s Farewell Address on Feb. 22 by a current member of that chamber. (You might be more familiar with this famous speech as a result of the fact that it is excerpted in the song “One Last Time” from the hit musical, “Hamilton“).
The two parties trade off every year in doing the honors. Last year, was the turn of Sen. Ben Cardin, a Maryland Democrat.
After delivering the address, the senator inscribes their name and brief remarks in a black, leather-bound book maintained by the secretary of the Senate. The book’s first entry, made on Feb. 22, 1900, is Ohio Republican Joseph Foraker.
There’s a high wind warning in effect through 7 p.m. this evening. It will be cloudy and cold, with temperatures topping out in the mid-20s and a few snow showers or flurries possible.
In the headlines…
In the first case to reach the Supreme Court arising from the blitz of actions taken in the early weeks of the new administration, lawyers for President Donald Trump asked the justices yesterday to let him fire a government lawyer who leads a watchdog agency.
The administration’s emergency application asked the court to vacate a federal trial judge’s order temporarily reinstating Hampton Dellinger, the head of the Office of Special Counsel.
“This court should not allow lower courts to seize executive power by dictating to the president how long he must continue employing an agency head against his will,” the administration’s filing said.
Dellinger, filed a lawsuit last Monday in Washington, D.C., federal court after receiving a termination email Friday night.
The Trump administration’s effort to slash the size of the federal workforce reached the Food and Drug Administration this weekend, as recently hired employees who review the safety of food ingredients, medical devices and other products were fired.
Workers were also fired at the National Park Service, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Agriculture Department and the Energy Department, among other agencies, on Friday.
The Internal Revenue Service is preparing to give a team member working with Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency access to sensitive taxpayer data, people familiar with the matter said.
Trump named Jim Byron, the president and CEO of the Richard Nixon Foundation, to a senior archivist role at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).
After three years of war that forged a new unity within NATO, the Trump administration has made clear it is planning to focus its attention elsewhere: in Asia, Latin America, the Arctic and anywhere the president believes the US can obtain critical mineral rights.
The president said Russian President Vladimir Putin “wants to stop fighting” and shot down a suggestion that Putin’s ambitions could extend beyond Ukraine’s borders.
Trump was in attendance at the Daytona 500 at the Daytona International Speedway in Florida on Saturday, just one week after he attended Super Bowl 2025 at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, becoming the first sitting president to attend a Super Bowl.
The Washington Post has backed out of a “Fire Elon Musk” advertising order that was to run as a wrap on some of its Tuesday editions, according to the advocacy group Common Cause.
Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration — facing the heat over Con Edison’s proposed double-digit gas and electric hikes — is stepping up gas production that flies in the face of New York’s controversial green energy law.
Hochul chimed in and issued a warning on an E-ZPass toll scam yesterday — nearly a week after other agencies sounded the alarm — while failing to mention it’s tied her controversial congestion pricing.
The state Office of Information Technology Services has lost track of thousands of computers and other technological devices due to “significant weaknesses” in its inventory processes, according to an audit by the state comptroller’s office.
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo may not yet have entered the race for mayor of New York City, but his campaign in waiting received its most significant endorsement Saturday from H. Carl McCall, a Black elder statesman who was once Cuomo’s best-known rival.
McCall’s statement heaping praise on Cuomo’s political legacy was issued 20 minutes before Cuomo released his own prepared statement thanking McCall “for his faith in me and for his advice, trust and confidence.”
Mayor Eric Adams made clear that he would not leave office on his own after the Justice Department’s push last week to drop the corruption case against him, which raised concerns that he is now beholden to Trump.
“People are dancing on my grave,” the mayor said yesterday, predicting that he would rise from the dead like the biblical figure Lazarus. “I’ve got a mission to finish,” he said at Maranatha Baptist Church in Queens, adding: “I am going nowhere.”
“I have a mission to finish, the mission that God put me on many years ago,” Adams insisted.
New York Rep. Dan Goldman slammed the Department of Justice (DOJ) for dismissing the criminal case against Adams, saying it’s “outright extortion.” Goldman joined MSNBC’s “Inside with Jen Psaki”, where he weighed in on the mayor’s legal developments.
Judge Dale E. Ho of Federal District Court in Manhattan has yet to respond to the government’s request to dismiss the federal corruption case against Adams.
Pressure is mounting on Hochul to call for the resignation of Adams or use her executive powers to remove him from office as other top Democrats demand that he step down.
Although Hochul has the power to begin removal proceedings against Adams, doing so would test history, time and her own preference. No governor since FDR has tried to use the removal power against a sitting New York City mayor, and that effort failed.
If Hochul decides to try to remove the mayor — which is still a big if — it would kick off removal proceedings that no governor has even attempted since 1974, when then-Gov. Malcolm Wilson tried to remove an upstate sheriff who resigned instead.
Hochul left the door open to exercising her authority, saying she was “consulting with other leaders in government at this time.” “This just happened,” the governor said on MSNBC last week. “I need some time to process this and figure out the right approach.”
The Times Union called on Hochul to begin the process of removing Adams from office “as soon as practicable.”
The Asian Wave Alliance, a citywide group representing Asian Americans, recently had an extensive Zoom meeting with Cuomo and is now urging him to run for mayor because they think the Democratic Party has swung too far left.
Seven former top Manhattan federal prosecutors, including several who served under Republican presidents, issued a statement praising Danielle R. Sassoon’s decision to resign rather than obey an order to seek dismissal of corruption charges against Adams.
Adams intends to sue the Trump administration by the end of next week over its clawback of $80 million in federal funding meant to cover the cost of housing migrants in New York City, according to a letter from City Hall.
Trump’s border czar Tom Homan sat next to Adams on “Fox & Friends” Friday morning and openly threatened the mayor to comply with President Donald Trump’s immigration directives.
Homan denied that the Justice Department dropped charges against Adams in exchange for Hizzoner letting immigration agents onto Rikers Island. “I think that’s ridiculous,” Homan told CNN’s “State of the Union”.
Trump must pardon Adams immediately — because it’s the only way the mayor won’t feel beholden to the Republican commander in chief, Rev. Al Sharpton insisted Saturday.
A day after the National Park Service deleted the word “transgender” from prominent spots on its Stonewall National Monument website, hundreds of people rallied at the monument site Friday to protest the move and what they feared might come next there.
Catholic schools across New York City are falling like dominoes thanks to skyrocketing tuition prices and a deteriorating connection to religion, according to experts and dismal statistics.
A suspected Ebola exposure at a Manhattan urgent-care facility had two patients rushed to the hospital by emergency workers in hazmat suits yesterday, but the disease was ruled out.
A 24-year-old transgender man from Minnesota who had been missing since December was subjected to violence and torture before his remains were found this week in a field in the Finger Lakes region, the authorities said.
Five people were arrested in connection with his death and charged with murder, the New York State Police said on Friday. At least one of them was said to have been staying with the victim at a motel.
“Our investigation has revealed a deeply disturbing pattern of abuse that ultimately resulted in Sam’s tragic death,” said Captain Kelly Swift. “In my 20-year law enforcement career this is one of the most horrific crimes I have ever investigated.”
A grand jury in Oneida County has handed up a sealed indictment in the homicide of Robert L. Brooks, who died after he was beaten by multiple correction officers at Marcy Correctional Facility in December.
Democrats in New York’s 21st Congressional District face an unusual dilemma ahead of their upcoming special election: campaigning for presumptive nominee Blake Gendebien with no Republican opponent or election date in sight.
A state Supreme Court judge ruled most of the disputed write-in ballots in Jan. 28’s special election for Saratoga Springs Commissioner for Public Works are invalid, paving the way for Republican Charles “Chuck” Marshall to join the City Council.
A judge has agreed to drop a misdemeanor criminal contempt charge against a former Niskayuna resident accused of leaving a racist voicemail directed at then-town Supervisor Jaime Puccioni last year.
The Vischer Ferry Nature & Historic Preserve in Clifton Park has been closed indefinitely after a coyote attacked someone there.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
