Good morning, it’s Tuesday.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about my erstwhile journalism career, thanking my lucky stars that I’m not drinking from the firehose of theTrump administration’s whirlwind of orders and actions, which strikes me as not only exhausting but also impossible.
During the 20 years that I was a reporter, I experienced my fair share of negativity – both from the people I covered (remember, my beat was politics, which is basically tantamount to close combat in New York) and members of the public. Input from the latter increased exponentially when I went on the air. People had a lot to say about my looks, my clothes, my aggressive attitude etc., etc.
I got a lot of emails, calls, and even some handwritten letters that included some version of “smile more”, “wear less black”, “wear more/less makeup”, you’re obnoxious”, “you’re biased”, “you’re not feminine enough”, etc. and so forth. Some of these communications were downright hostile, even threatening.
Early on, I didn’t take the threats terribly seriously. That changed after some high-profile incidents – the 2018 Maryland Capital Gazette shooting, which killed two staffers and injured two others, for example; and the 2015 fatal shooting of two CBS affiliate reporters during a live morning broadcast in Virginia.
The fact that I was engaged in a potentially dangerous job really hit home in the final years of my on-camera career when an antisemitic death threat targeted at me was sent to the entire newsroom, sparking a full-court press response from my employer and a State Police investigation that eventually went nowhere.
The threat came in the wake of a segment I did about a proposal to dedicated a fairly modest amount – $250,000, if I recall correctly – for a state-level study on the best policies to prevent firearms injury and mortality. Ostensibly, one might think that a law abiding gun owner would be fine with this concept, assuming it would result in legislative proposals that actually target illegal guns and don’t place onerous mandates on people who are following the law.
Apparently, whoever sent that email thought otherwise.
I am not naive enough to believe that science and research is apolitical, though in a perfect world it would be. I know it can be – and regularly is – manipulated and weaponized to suit the needs of a wide range of ideologies. But that does not, in my mind, rationalize not engaging in research – particularly, (and I know I have a hangup about this), when it comes to women’s health, about which there is woefully scant information, comparatively speaking.
One of the best way I can see to remedy this situation is to encourage more women to enter the STEM fields, where they are woefully underrepresented, making up only about 34 percent of the workforce. We know that girls traditionally are tracked away from science and math in school, which is why college programs in engineering and computer science – arguably two of the most high-paying STEM fields – continue to be overwhelmingly dominated by male students.
Today is the United Nations General Assembly’s 10th annual International Day of Women and Girls in Science, and I think the UN makes the case for this day better than I can, so I’m just going to drop their verbiage here:
“Gender equality in science is crucial for building a better future for all, yet women and girls continue to face systemic barriers and biases in pursuing scientific careers. Closing the gender gap in science requires breaking stereotypes, promoting role models to inspire girls, supporting women’s advancement through targeted programs, and fostering inclusive environments through policies and actions that promote inclusion, diversity and equity.“
Closing the loop on where I started this post – this day comes at a time when DEI as a concept and a practice is under siege AND the NIH is slashing funding for indirect research costs (which, by the way, are integral to ensuring that the research itself can continue) AND clinical medical trials being run by the USAID are being abandoned as the agency is gutted by DOGE.
That’s pretty damn depressing, I know, but the only thing I can say is: This moment won’t last forever, and it’s important that we continue to encourage women and girls who are interested in science to stay the course. They might just change the world.
Kind of a meh mid-winter day is on tap – nothing out of the ordinary, just more gray, cloudy skies with temperatures in the mid-30s.
In the headlines…
The Justice Department ordered federal prosecutors to drop the corruption charges against Mayor Eric Adams, a remarkable incursion into a criminal case that raises questions about the fair administration of justice during President Trump’s second term.
The order was sent in a memo from the department’s acting No. 2 official, Emil Bove III, to Manhattan prosecutors who brought the charges against the mayor last year.
Bove justified his ask for the dismissal by saying that the mayor’s indictment had limited Adams’s ability to cooperate in Trump’s immigration crackdown. He also suggested that the indictment threatened to interfere with the June 2025 mayoral primary.
Alex Spiro, the mayor’s defense attorney, celebrated the news in a statement sent to some reporters. He reportedly traveled to Washington, D.C. last week to meet with the Justice Department to try and have Adams’s case dismissed.
Spiro welcomed the move to drop his federal corruption case and insisted that the mayor was innocent. His assertions conflicted with evidence described by federal prosecutors.
Adams for months has refrained from criticizing Trump or his policies, even urging top aides not to do so, and has signaled a desire to work with the new administration.
Just yesterday, Adams urged a gathering of high-ranking New York City officials to refrain from publicly criticizing the Trump administration over concerns that such criticism could endanger federal funding for the city’s priorities.
The dropping of federal corruption charges against Adams could affect criminal investigations involving his associates in different ways, or not at all.
Eric Trump, a son of the president and the top family executive at the Trump Organization, which manages the family’s New York City office buildings, said Mayor Adams had always treated the family company well.
His remarks came in a radio interview last week in which he discussed the criminal case against Mr. Adams and the debate over whether the criminal charges against him might be dropped or he would be pardoned by President Trump.
With the criminal case against Adams now imperiled, his chances of re-election this year seem poised to receive at least a modest boost. But whether it will be enough to overcome his flagging poll numbers is far from certain.
A Fox News reporter caught up with Adams as he was dining with supermarket mogul John Catsimatidis. “We’re going to find out more information, (about the DOJ decision) I don’t have much now,” Adams said, according to footage posted on X.
A federal judge said that the White House had defied his order to release billions of dollars in federal grants, marking the first time a judge has expressly declared that the Trump administration is disobeying a judicial mandate.
The ruling by Judge John J. McConnell Jr. in Rhode Island federal court ordered administration officials to comply with what the judge called “the plain text” of an ruling he issued on Jan. 29.
Law professors have long debated what the term “constitutional crisis” means. But now many have concluded that the nation faces a reckoning as President Trump tests the boundaries of executive power.
Trump said he could cut aid to Jordan and Egypt if they refused his demand to permanently take in most Palestinians from Gaza, substantially increasing the pressure on key allies in the region to back his audacious proposal to relocate the entire population.
The president also said from the White House that if Hamas did not release all the remaining Israeli hostages by “12 o’clock on Saturday,” the cease-fire agreement with Israel should be canceled.
He said ending the ceasefire would be “Israel’s decision,” but that he felt it would be “appropriate” to cancel the agreement if the hostages aren’t released by his deadline.
Hamas has indefinitely postponed the release of Israeli hostages who were set to be freed from the Gaza Strip this weekend, a spokesman said, accusing Israel’s government of violating an already fragile cease-fire agreement.
A group of investors led by Elon Musk made an unsolicited $97.4 billion bid to take control of OpenAI – adding new intrigue to the billionaire’s legal war with the ChatGPT maker and its CEO Sam Altman.
A federal judge found that the Trump administration hasn’t fully followed his order to unfreeze federal spending and told the White House to release all the money.
The consortium reportedly includes Vy Capital and Xai, Mr. Musk’s artificial intelligence company, as well as the Hollywood power broker Ari Emanuel and other investors.
The bid for OpenAI is Musk’s latest and perhaps most audacious attack on an organization he helped create almost 10 years ago. It faces long odds: OpenAI’s board of directors is closely allied with Altman, who mocked Musk’s bid on X, the platform Musk owns.
Trump administration lawyers argued a court order blocking Musk’s aides from entering the Treasury Department’s payment and data systems impinged on the president’s absolute powers over the executive branch, which they said the courts could not usurp.
Trump pardoned former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, whose sentence he commuted in 2020 before completing his first term in the White House.
Blagojevich, who appeared on Trump’s “Celebrity Apprentice” reality TV show in 2010, spent eight years in prison before being set free. He was convicted on 18 counts of corruption — five of which were overturned on appeal.
JD Vance stepped onto the world stage this week for the first time as U.S. vice president, using a high-stakes AI summit in Paris and a security conference in Munich to amplify Trump’s aggressive new approach to diplomacy.
Trump has said it’s too early to know if he will anoint Vance as his would-be successor ahead of the 2028 election.
The Senate yesterday voted along party lines to advance the nomination of Tulsi Gabbard to be the director of national intelligence, signaling the collapse of Republican resistance to her nomination and placing her on a smooth path to confirmation.
If three Republicans oppose Gabbard to be director of national intelligence, GOP leaders will need the vice president — who is currently overseas — to break the tie.
The attorneys general of New York, New Jersey and 20 other states filed a federal lawsuit seeking to block billions of dollars in cuts in federal grants for scientific research ordered by the Trump administration.
Democrats in the state Legislature abruptly killed legislation that would have changed the rules for scheduling special elections in New York — a move that Republicans had alleged was being considered to try and weaken the GOP’s thin majority in Congress.
The Hochul administration urged state legislators to pump the brakes on a proposal that would let the governor delay special elections and frustrate Republicans in Congress, officials familiar with the matter said.
Neither Hochul nor legislative leaders gave any public explanation for the 11th-hour postponement. But in private conversations, the governor reportedly told them she was seeking to gain leverage with Trump over the future of congestion pricing.
Trump threw his weight behind the GOP candidate in the Westchester County executive’s special election set for today, blasting Democrats in the Big Apple suburb for “protecting” criminal migrants.
Hochul has issued a statewide ban on DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence from being downloaded on state-managed devices and networks.
“Public safety is my top priority and we’re working aggressively to protect New Yorkers from foreign and domestic threats,” Hochul said in the statement.
Hochul called on Altice and MSG to settle their longstanding dispute and restore basketball and hockey programming that has been blocked for New York consumers for more than a month.
The chief judge of New York State’s highest court, Rowan Wilson, urged the State Legislature to pass the Second Look Act, a bill that would allow prisoners who have been locked up for years to apply for reduced sentences.
The leader of the New York State Museum said he is pressing ahead with a $14 million renovation, despite a plan from the governor to rebuild the institution for $150 million.
The economic conditions that have tightened household budgets for many Americans have hit older adults especially hard, with the number of seniors who are living in poverty in New York jumping nearly 50% in the last decade, according to a new report.
Adams has been so slow to request more than $1 billion in state reimbursements for migrant funding that even his reliable ally, Hochul, has had enough.
Musk threatened to claw back $59 million he said the Federal Emergency Management Agency sent “last week to luxury hotels in New York City to house illegal migrants” – a claim that City Hall officials rebutted.
New York City is set to get 267 new fast-charging stalls for electric vehicles by 2027, Hochul announced.
State Sen. Zellnor Myrie, one of several mayoral challengers to Adams, appeared on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” — a coveted stop to reach Democratic voters — to announce an endorsement from Rep. Dan Goldman of New York.
The endorsement by Goldman, a former prosecutor who led the first impeachment case against Trump and was rumored to be considering a mayoral run himself, was notable because of its timing and because of the congressman’s background.
Misconduct complaints against the NYPD are on the rise, but many of the officers who are accused of wrongdoing aren’t facing discipline, according to a new police watchdog report released yesterday.
Amy Arundell, a former teachers union borough official, is charting a path back to the upper ranks — challenging United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew for the top spot.
The New York Police Department apologized on Sunday for falsely accusing a teenager of a deadly shooting at a Brooklyn parade last year and then declining to retract the allegation for months after privately admitting that the department had been wrong.
A Manhattan jury convicted three men of murder for drugging and robbing patrons of gay bars and clubs and luring them to their deaths.
A Brooklyn man pleaded guilty to smuggling hundreds of precious artifacts, including ancient Egyptian talismans, gold amulets and a sculpture with the carving of a king from the Ptolemaic dynasty.
A unionization wave sweeping across Off Broadway is poised to reshape the economics of theater-making in New York — for workers as well as producers.
The Westminster Dog Show is returning to Midtown Manhattan for the first time since 2020, and thousands of dogs have flooded the city with a single goal in mind: best in show.
The man accused of attacking the author Salman Rushdie appeared to be “on a mission” as he rushed onstage with a knife, a prosecutor said in opening statements in the stabbing trial in western New York.
Want to vote in June’s primary election? Not only do you need to be registered to vote, you must be registered with a political party.
Six months after a DEC officer shot a mother bear and her two cubs in Old Forge, community members are trying to make sense of the killing
Led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Capital Region Democrats and the heads of area community health centers vowed to ensure the federal funding their facilities need to keep their doors open remains intact.
Russell Sage has received approval to open a speech pathology program, replacing the one offered by the now-closed College of Saint Rose.
Hauling laundry at home or shopping bags around a mall counts as exercise, Albany County Department of Health officials pointed out Saturday at Crossgates Mall as they announced the launch of the “Move Your Way Albany County” campaign.
The state AG’s office has declined to pursue criminal charges against a former Troy police officer who sped through a red light on Hoosick Street two years ago and killed 30-year-old Sabeeh Alalkawi, who died when his spine was severed in the collision.
Fox Sports announced that its Super Bowl 59 broadcast of Philadelphia’s 40-22 rout of Kansas City drew a projected audience of 126 million viewers across Fox, Fox Deportes, Tubi, Telemundo and NFL digital properties.
That makes Sunday’s game the most-watched Super Bowl of all-time, topping last year’s record Super Bowl audience of 123.7 million viewers on CBS.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
