Good morning, it’s Thursday, which is one day away from Friday – OK, two, technically, if you’re counting both today and the full workday tomorrow before you get to the weekend. But let’s adopt a glass-half-full approach to start the day off right.
I was born in 1972, which means I was only six when Ronald Reagan – the last Republican presidential candidate to carry deep blue New York State, by the way – was elected to the Oval Office. I was, at the time, not paying particularly close attention to politics, being more concerned with cartoons, climbing trees, and playing pretend with my friends.
Having since become a student (still learning) of politics and government, I have become familiar with the term “Reaganomics,” which is the catch-all phrase for the supply-side economic policies implemented by the president during the 1980s.
These included, but were not limited to, tax cuts for businesses and wealthy individuals (specifically reduction in capital gains and personal income taxes), with the belief that reducing their costs would spur job creation. In addition, Reagan implemented a series of government spending cuts, such as a reduction in funds for HUD, Social Security, Medicaid, food stamps and education.
Starting to sound familiar, isn’t it?
Compared to what’s happening now in D.C., however, with entire federal agencies on the chopping block and a newly created and uniquely empowered Department of Government Efficiency – run by the world’s richest man – taking aim at seemingly anything that’s not nailed down, what Reagan undertook in the name of reform and streamlining looks like child’s play.
I never thought I would feel nostalgic for the 80s, an era that certainly had a lot going against it – from crack and crime to AIDS and racial tension – but also a lot going for it, like, for example, Madonna, Princess Diana, power dressing, and leg warmers. (Hey, I was a pre-teen at the time, give me a break).
Ronald Reagan was born on this day in 1911. (He died at the age of 93 in 2004 after having Alzheimer’s disease for over a decade). From the small screen (he started his career as a TV sportscaster in Iowa) to the big screen (remember “Win one for the Gipper“?) to the governor’s mansion in Sacramento to the Oval Office, Reagan had one of those only-in-America sort of story arcs.
Love him or hate him, you can’t deny that the man was a powerful and iconic force in the conservative movement, though he didn’t start out that way, ideologically speaking. He’s also a throwback to an era in which Republicans were known for their decorum (those in the know will remember the Reagan 11th Commandment, “Thou Shalt Not Speak Ill of Another Republican”).
Ah, those were the bygone and halcyon days. Happy Birthday, Dutch. It’s probably better than you’re not around to see what’s become of us as a country, not to mention the state of the GOP these days.
A winter weather advisory is in effect from 4 a.m. this morning to 6 p.m. this evening. A sloppy mess of mixed precipitation is expected, starting out with snow and changing over to freezing rain, making for a dangerous combination on the roads, sidewalks, and stairways of the world. Temperatures will be in the mid-30s. Take all the usual necessary precautions.
In the headlines…
Top Trump administration officials walked back parts of the president’s proposal to “take over” Gaza and drive out the Palestinian population, insisting he hadn’t committed to using U.S. troops to clear the territory and that any relocation would be temporary.
Trump’s idea — announced Tuesday evening at a joint news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — was formulated over time, people familiar with the matter said, and appeared to originate with the president himself.
Although the president had been talking about the idea for weeks, there had been no meetings on the subject, and senior members of his government were taken by surprise by his pronouncement.
Israeli defence minister Israel Katz said that he had ordered the army to formulate a plan to allow Palestinians to leave Gaza, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, in an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News, called Trump’s bombshell proposal that the United States take over Gaza to rebuild it “the first good idea” for the enclave that he has heard.
Demonstrators gathered in cities across the US to protest the Trump administration’s early actions, decrying everything from the immigration crackdown to his rollback of transgender rights and a proposal to forcibly transfer Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.
Trump signed an executive order intended to ban transgender athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports.
“With this executive order, the war on women’s sports is over,” he said in a signing ceremony in the White House East Room. Trump announced the order as dozens of women and girls stood behind him.
Trump’s administration deepened its pressure campaign on government employees to resign before today’s deadline, rattling and angering a civil service steeling itself for a prolonged battle with Elon Musk and his ongoing foray into the federal bureaucracy.
The Trump administration is holding 10 migrants with suspected gang affiliations in the same prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, that has housed men accused of being members of Al Qaeda, U.S. defense officials said.
In the opening weeks of his second term, Trump and his administration have opened the throttle on blowing through apparent legal limits, often with no clear public explanation for how their actions could be consistent with the rule of law.
A federal judge in Maryland blocked Trump’s executive order to end citizenship for children born on U.S. soil to parents in the country without legal status.
Attorney General Pam Bondi is expected to order a review of the cases brought against Trump, including those undertaken by prosecutors in New York who successfully defeated him in court.
Bondi issued a directive establishing a “Weaponization Working Group” that she says will be tasked with reviewing “politicized” actions of officials who investigated Trump at both the state and federal levels.
Bondi also ordered the defunding of jurisdictions that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration authorities, potentially cutting off a significant money source for New York.
Senate Democrats are bracing to stay in the chamber overnight to make the case against the nomination of Russell Vought to serve as the White House’s next budget chief, who is expected to be confirmed later this week.
Lara Trump, President Trump’s daughter-in-law and a former co-chair of the Republican Party, will begin hosting a new weekend show on Fox News on Feb. 22, the network announced.
There is no precedent for the close relative of a sitting president to host a high-profile show on a major television news channel.
The Federal Communications Commission released the transcript of a “60 Minutes” interview with Vice President Kamala Harris that has been at the center of a lawsuit between CBS and Trump.
CBS said that the material it released yesterday show “consistent with ”60 Minutes’” repeated assurances to the public, that the “60 Minutes” broadcast was not doctored or deceitful,” CBS said in a statement.
The then-vice president’s interview with 60 Minutes was broadcast in October but caused confusion when an excerpt from it was first shown on sister show Face the Nation and Harris appeared to give different answers to the same question about Israel.
Dairy cows in Nevada have been infected with a new form of bird flu that is distinct from the version that has been spreading through herds over the last year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced.
The finding indicates that the virus, known as H5N1, has spilled from birds into cows at least twice and that it could continue to do so. It also suggests that the virus may pose a persistent risk to cows and to the people who work closely with them.
Eight U.S. states have reported dairy farm outbreaks: New Mexico, Texas, Kansas, Idaho, Michigan, Ohio, North Carolina, and South Carolina. A Texas dairy farm worker was also diagnosed with the virus.
A federal bankruptcy court has rejected a deal that would have cleared the way for a second attempt to auction off Infowars conspiracist Alex Jones’ media company.
The case of a veteran who was found dead in Syracuse last month after an apparent suicide drove advocates to the state Capitol on yesterday to rally for action from Gov. Kathy Hochul and state lawmakers.
An autopsy has found that the death of a New York State prison inmate who was handcuffed and shackled while corrections officers attacked him was a homicide, Hochul said.
The fallout from Brooks’ death has already prompted changes at Marcy Correctional Facility. Hochul replaced the prison’s leadership and introduced measures aimed at increasing oversight and accountability in the state’s correctional system.
Federal authorities are conducting a criminal investigation into Shen Yun Performing Arts, the touring dance group run by the Falun Gong religious movement, according to nine people with knowledge of the matter.
The National Women’s Soccer League will pay $5 million in player compensation after an investigation by three state attorneys general, including New York’s, found the league had failed to address widespread sexual and emotional abuse.
“We owe it to the brave women who came forward with their stories not to let it happen ever again,” New York AG Tish James said. “Today is about righting these wrongs and protecting women in sports.”
The attorney general’s office has determined that two state troopers were justified to shoot and kill a homicide suspect who opened fire on them a year ago after his vehicle was stopped on the Thruway in Rockland County.
Mayor Eric Adams will head to Washington next month to testify before the House Oversight Committee on New York City’s status as a “sanctuary city” protecting migrants from deportation — provisions he has criticized.
Mayor Eric Adams yesterday sparked more confusion about his health and delegation of power after telling reporters he’d undergone anesthesia for a procedure that he didn’t disclose at the time.
Adams at first said he underwent anesthesia last week for what officials said was a colonoscopy, but then the story changed. He also revealed First Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer briefly – and quietly – took over his duties as mayor of the largest US city.
Jumaane Williams, the public advocate, who is next in the city’s line of succession, accused Adams of violating the City Charter because Williams’s office had not been notified that the mayor was incapacitated.
More than half of the 51 staffers in Williams’ office did not complete an anti-sexual harassment training course, according to a new report from the Department of Citywide Administrative Services.
The mayor said he will return to his “fighting weight” after the doctor told him he has gained 25 pounds during his first term. He will go back to cooking his own food.
Adams is set to testify next month at a House Oversight Committee hearing on sanctuary cities, his office confirmed.
Adams made a last-minute trip to Washington, DC last night to attend a prayer breakfast where Trump was scheduled to deliver remarks the following morning.
New York City schools are bracing for major disruptions as Trump’s mass deportation operations get underway.
New York City’s practice of requiring child welfare investigations of parents who are victims of domestic violence is illegal, a state appellate court ruled.
Con Edison is proposing another massive rate hike that would make the average gas and energy bill cost $154 more per month than it did just five years ago, according to available data.
Partners at Andreessen Horowitz, the blue-chip venture capital firm in Silicon Valley, defended to investors their decision to hire Daniel Penny, a Marine veteran acquitted on a charge of criminally negligent homicide last year, according to an internal memo.
A Manhattan judge scolded Cooper Union for claiming in court that Jewish students should have hidden from protesters during the campus unrest after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 terror attack — noting the standoff unfolded in “2023 — not 1943.”
The U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., has ordered a dozen cadet extracurricular and social clubs to immediately and permanently “cease all activities,” with all affected groups centered on gender, race and ethnicity, the school acknowledged.
Democratic lawmakers in Nassau County, have sued to end a program created last year by Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Republican, that enlisted armed citizens to volunteer as “special deputies” whom he would activate in case of emergency.
“New York State law does not authorize defendants to create a taxpayer-funded militia,” the lawsuit states. “Defendants’ militia is illegal and represents a substantial and ongoing waste of public funds,” it later adds.
Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin recently picked James R. Gordon to be his deputy county executive after he and two other officials were acquitted of federal criminal charges for activities during the 2021 elections.
The limousine operator convicted of manslaughter in the deaths of 20 people in a horrific crash in rural Schoharie in 2018 is appealing his conviction to the state’s highest court.
Thomas Caulfield, who led GlobalFoundries into profitability and moved the company’s headquarters from Silicon Valley to Saratoga County, will step down as CEO of the Malta-based chipmaker in April.
High school students in Green Island will attend Watervliet High School in September after voters this week overwhelmingly backed a measure to end their enrollment at the local district’s Heatly School.
A change in civil service rules in Saratoga County increases new sheriff’s deputy probation periods from 12 to 18 months, which the president of the police benevolent association called forced retention in a department where people often leave for other jobs.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
