Good morning, it’s Thursday! There are 20 days remaining until spring is officially here.
We have, I feel safe saying, entered that crazy weather window when anything can happen – 60+ degrees one day, blizzard the next. Brace yourselves. Expect the unexpected, and for goodness sake, don’t pack those sweaters and heavy coats away just yet.
One aspect of spring I distinctly DO NOT look forward to is the mud. Not only it is unsightly, but it gets everywhere – especially if you have dogs who track their dirty paws all over the place. Also, I do not like the way it smells.
Maybe that sounds weird to you, but I am acutely aware of the way things smell these days – especially since I briefly lost my sense of smell when I was very sick not too long ago and it scared the living daylights out of me. It is downright disconcerting when you’re standing in the shower and all of a sudden realize the shampoo smells like…nothing.
Smell is one of those things that you don’t realize how precious it is until it’s not there anymore. And forget about eating. Without smell – at least in my opinion – everything sort of tastes the same, and what’s the fun in that? Eating ceases to be about pleasure and only about shoveling in the fuel.
My sense of smell took it’s sweet time in returning. Some days I’m convinced it’s still not 100 percent there. I do, when I think of it, engage in some nose training, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like – sniffing strong scents (peppermint, lemon, cinnamon etc.) to help your olfactory organs remember how to work again.
It turns out that the smelling operation is a rather delicate and intricate business.
It comes from specialized sensory cells – officially known as olfactory sensory neurons – found in a small patch of tissue high inside the nose. Each of these is outfitted with an odor receptor and connect directly to the brain. Blowing your nose really hard – the sort of desperate honking one engages in when one is completely clogged – is not a good idea for any number of reasons, the least of which is potentially damaging your smell cells.
There is a formal name for temporary or permanent loss of smell, it’s Anosmia. Awareness of this problem became more acute during the Covid crisis, but it is a problem that one to two percent of Americans struggle with annually. It is an issue that can worsen as people age, and it’s more common in men than in women.
Aside from the obvious loss of joy that smell and taste provide, Anosmia can present some significant health-related problems. For example, people who can’t smell or taste terribly well are at risk of consuming food or beverages that have spoiled, making themselves sick in the process. They are also unable to detect smoke or potentially harmful fumes.
Today is Anosmia Awareness Day, which was launched in 2012 by Daniel Schein, a Long Island man who was born without the ability to smell, (sometimes referred to as “nose blindness”) though he didn’t actually realize that until he was in grade school.
It will be cloudy and rainy this morning, with the rain ending in the afternoon. Temperatures will again be in the mid-40s.
In the headlines…
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. handed the Trump administration a victory for now in saying that the U.S. Agency for International Development and the State Department did not need to immediately pay for more than $1.5 billion in already completed aid work.
Roberts issued an “administrative stay,” an interim measure meant to preserve the status quo while the justices consider the matter in a more deliberate fashion, and ordered the challengers to file a response to the application on Friday.
The administration said it could not feasibly resume payments on the rapid timeline set by U.S. District Judge Amir Ali, who on Tuesday directed the State Department and USAID to resume funding for foreign aid contracts and grants by yesterday.
Lawyers for President Donald Trump in line to take top jobs at the DOJ sparred with Democrats over whether the administration could ignore some court orders — an early skirmish in a larger fight over efforts to claim more sweeping presidential powers.
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) paused an effort to terminate hundreds of contracts after pressure from Democrat lawmakers, according to Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee ranking member Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.).
Elon Musk grabbed center stage at the first cabinet meeting of Trump’s second term — despite not heading an actual Cabinet department — saying “America will go bankrupt” without his budget-slashing efforts.
Wearing a black MAGA cap and “Tech Support” T-shirt, the billionaire first buddy told the president and assembled agency leaders that he would continue implementing deep cuts across the federal government.
Seated in the White House’s Cabinet Room with Vice President JD Vance, the heads of his departments and agencies and Musk, Trump said he wants DOGE’s cost-cutting efforts to lead to a balanced federal budget within a “reasonably short period of time.”
The Trump administration moved forward with plans for more mass firings across the federal government, hours after the president reiterated his support for Musk and his effort to shrink the federal government.
During his cabinet meeting, Trump casually mentioned that Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, intended to fire 65 percent of employees, an incision so deep that officials said it would hobble the E.P.A.
A panel of scientific experts that advises the FDA on vaccine policy — and that has been the target of criticism from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — learned that its upcoming meeting to discuss next year’s flu vaccines had been canceled.
A child has died of measles in West Texas, the first known death in an outbreak that is spreading in the region and in neighboring New Mexico, state health officials said yesterday.
The patient was an unvaccinated school-age child, according to officials in Lubbock, Texas, and the Department of State Health Services.
More than 130 people have been sickened with measles in the two states, most of them children under the age of 18. The ongoing outbreak is the largest since 2019, when two closely related outbreaks sickened hundreds in New York.
The U.S. Agriculture Department predicts record egg prices could soar more than 40% in 2025, as the Trump administration offered the first new details Wednesday about its plan to battle bird flu and ease costs.
The U.S. Department of Transportation sent a letter to the MTA and to city and state leaders calling for New York City’s congestion pricing program to end by March 21.
The deadline came in a letter Federal Highway Administration executive director Gloria Shepherd sent to the head of MTA Bridges and Tunnels and the commissioners of the New York City and New York state Departments of Transportation.
“We have said that you may have asked for orderly cessation, which was the phrase that came in the letter to us. I will propose something in the alternative – orderly resistance,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said during remarks before the MTA board yesterday.
Public transit is facing an existential threat from Washington right now, whether it’s the overall funding or whether it is the attack on congestion pricing,” Hochul added. “One thing we’ve established: New Yorkers do not back down.”
Hunter College has removed a job listing for a Palestinian Studies professor at Hochul’s direction, the university system said, and faculty are up in arms over what they call a brazen intrusion into academic affairs from a powerful state lawmaker.
“We oppose antisemitism and all forms of hate, but this move is counterproductive. It is an overreach of authority to rule an entire area of academic study out of bounds,” the Professional Staff Congress wrote.
Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado filed a new campaign committee with the state Board of Elections on Tuesday, a day after announcing he would not seek reelection with Hochul less than 24 hours earlier.
Correction officers across New York continued striking for a tenth day yesterday, despite the state’s efforts to reach an agreement to get the officers to return to work.
New York state troopers are serving court notices ordering corrections officers to end their unauthorized strike as the state considers transferring prisoners out of state, adding fuel to a prison policy debate that has followed lawmakers back to the Capitol.
Advocates at the state Capitol yesterday called on lawmakers to pass legislation that would improve access to paid family and medical leave for New York workers.
The leader of the state’s economic development agency sought to reassure lawmakers that the state’s MWBE certification program is fair and impartial when choosing whether to grant the coveted designation to small business owners.
Assemblyman Robert Smullen is pushing a bipartisan bill to raise awareness around the fatal consequences of impaired and reckless driving in memory of his son, Alexander John Smullen, who died at the age of 14 last March after being hit by a car.
Mayor Eric Adams said he pulled out of a mayoral candidate forum held by District Council 37, the largest municipal union in the city, after his lawyer told him to wait until a federal judge decides how to handle the corruption case.
Mayor Adams has informed us that he will no longer be able to participate in tonight’s forum at the advice of his legal counsel,” District Council 37 spokesperson Thea Setterbo said in a statement.
The move was sure to cast further doubt on Adams’ commitment to running for reelection this year, even as the indicted mayor insists he is forging ahead.
Council Speaker Adrienne Adams filed paperwork yesterday establishing a citywide campaign committee to run for mayor, and said she intended to make a final decision about whether to run after her State of the City address next Tuesday.
Adams’ criminal case should be tossed once-and-for-all because bombshell letters from Manhattan federal prosecutors “destroyed whatever presumption of innocence” the mayor had left, his lawyers argued in a new court filing.
Adams is facing backlash after invoking a comparison to Jesus and calling Black leaders who have urged him to resign “negroes” who need forgiveness from God during a Black History Month event at Gracie Mansion on Tuesday.
Allies of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo launched a super PAC to boost his likely campaign for mayor of New York City, the most concrete sign yet that he is preparing to jump into the race in the coming days.
The super PAC, called Fix the City, was registered yesterday with the State Board of Elections. It aims to raise up to $15 million from wealthy donors to help amplify Cuomo’s message, according to people familiar with the group’s plans.
Cuomo is reportedly talking to close friends and family this week as he makes final preparations for the inevitable tumult that would come if he runs for New York City mayor, and his team is eyeing Sunday for an official campaign launch.
A state panel is exploring whether Cuomo’s law license should be in jeopardy for his alleged sexual harassment of women.
The NYPD is reducing the number of college credits that potential officers need as it reels from an exodus that shows little sign of slowing.
At the same time, the department plans to prioritize fitness at the academy and has reinstated a long-standing requirement of completing a 1.5-mile run in less than 14 minutes and 21 seconds.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch raged against an “unsustainable” revolving door of recidivism driving Big Apple crime — singling out a violent maniac with 70 past busts who allegedly tried to rape a woman on a train.
City officials announced that the roughly 364,000 people enrolled in the program can now receive tap-to-pay OMNY. Unlike the old vinyl swipe cards, riders can reload the plastic OMNY cards online.
The MTA reversed course and said it would revive a popular program that allows students with autism to record public service announcements to be played throughout the subway system.
Pro-Palestinian protesters assaulted a Barnard College employee in a forced takeover of Milbank Hall, school officials said — as students demanded the affiliate of Columbia University reinstate two expelled students who disrupted an Israeli history class.
The masked protesters pushed past a security guard as they entered the building about 4 p.m., video that they shot showed, with the goal of occupying the area outside Dean Leslie Grinage’s office.
The sit-in ended last night after Barnard set a deadline and threatened to take further action, such as calling in the New York Police Department.
Two high-ranking members of the city Sheriff’s Office have resigned. Wilfredo Perez and Thomas Egan, both hired in September by Sheriff Anthony Miranda, abruptly submitted their resignations Monday night, the Sheriff’s Office confirmed.
“Harriet the Spy” and “Ice Princess” star Michelle Trachtenberg, 39, was found dead inside her Midtown apartment yesterday morning.
The NYPD said that the medical examiner would determine the cause of death, but added that criminal activity was not suspected.
A top Justice Department lawyer criticized prosecutors in the Southern District of New York on X for bringing wire fraud charges against Albany NanoTech founder Alain Kaloyeros and several upstate real estate developers in the Buffalo Billion bid-rigging case.
A complete state Department of Health report that details 480 staffing violations at Albany Medical Center was released publicly for the first time yesterday, nearly six months after administrators first learned of its findings.
Parents of students at three Catholic schools in Albany were presented a choice this week: close one of the three schools, or cut middle school from two.
Legendary Hollywood actor Gene Hackman has been found dead in his Santa Fe, New Mexico home alongside his wife, classical pianist Betsy Arakawa, according to the Santa Fe New Mexican, citing police.
Santa Fe County police discovered the body of the two-time Oscar winner, 95, and 63-year-old Arakawa — his wife of 34 years and their dog — yesterday afternoon. No foul play is suspected.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
