Good morning, it’s Tuesday and there’s some nice symmetry in today’s date – 2/25/25, very satisfying, I find. It’s the little things.
The name “Doris Day” probably doesn’t ring any bells for anyone born after, say, 1970. The heyday for the American singer and actress was in the 50s and 60s, when she was featured in films such as ” Calamity Jane“, Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Man Who Knew Too Much“, in which she co-starred with James Stewart, and “Pillow Talk,” in which she appeared along with Rock Hudson.
Day, who was born Doris Mary Anne Kappelhoff on April 3, 1922, actually did go on to have an extensive career following her departure from Hollywood in 1968.
She starred in a TV sitcom called (what else?) “The Doris Day Show”, received lifetime achievement awards from both the Golden Globes and the Grammys, and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 2011 – at the age of 89 and eight years before her death on May 13, 2019 – she released her 29th studio recording, “My Heart“, which went on to be a Top 10 album in the UK.
Day was also known for her lifelong activism on behalf of animals, which, according to PETA, became a bit of an issue when she filed “The Man Who Knew Too Much” in Morocco. She personally rescued hundreds of different animals, fostering them in her own home. She also founded Doris Day Pet Foundation in 1978, which later became the Doris Day Animal Foundation (DDAF), and, later still (in 1987), the Doris Day Animal League (DDAL).
The focus of the DDAF was, in large part, educating the public about the importance of spaying and neutering their pets, and also providing grants to help them do so. The organization also provided vet care for homeless pets and tried to rehouse them with forever families.
I can’t delve too deeply into this topic because, as a deeply devoted dog owner, it hurts me terribly to know there are suffering animals who I cannot save. Three dogs is already a handful, and, though I would not change it for the world, I am well aware of what a privilege it is to be able to afford to keep them safe and well fed and provide them with proper medical care.
This county is facing a animal shelter crisis. Some people who adopted during Covid now find themselves having to return to in-person work and unable to care for their fur friends. Others simply find it too expensive, with rising food prices, to be able to fill the stomachs of both their families AND their pets. Still others have been displaced by natural disasters.
I know there are people who prefer not to spay and/or neuter their pets, and I guess that’s their prerogative – as long as they’re responsible for what comes next. Personally, though, I am a big proponent of “fixing” your pets – as well as strays, if they can be humanely captured – to ensure that unwanted baby animals don’t come into the world.
Today is World Spay Day, held each year on the last Tuesday in February. The observance was established by the DDAF in 1995, when the estimated annual euthanasia rate in overcrowded shelters was between 14 and 17 million dogs and cats. That number has, reportedly, come down considerably, but it is too far too high.
Another warm(er) day is on tap, with temperatures again reaching into the mid-40s. Skies will be cloudy, however, and showers will develop later in the day.
In the headlines…
President Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron sought to project unity during a White House meeting yesterday, even as cracks widened in the alliance between the U.S. and Europe over the path forward in Ukraine.
Trump and Macron put on a show of friendship in their first meeting since last month’s inauguration, but for all the clubby hugs and handshakes they could not disguise the growing rift between the United States and Europe over the Ukraine war.
Macron managed to navigate what could have been a tricky day in Washington without conceding or revealing too much.
Trump expressed hope that Russia’s war in Ukraine is nearing an endgame. But France’s leader cautioned that it’s crucial that any potential agreement with Moscow does not amount to surrender for Ukraine.
Trump declined to call President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia a dictator while Macron contradicted him and stated flatly that “the aggressor is Russia.”
A showdown over Ukraine between the US and its longtime European allies played out in the United Nations yesterday, as the US opposed an effort to condemn Russian aggression and call for the immediate withdrawal of Russian forces from Ukraine.
Elon Musk’s monthlong rampage through the federal bureaucracy appears to have met its first real test, as some of Trump’s top loyalists flatly reject the billionaire’s demand that their employees justify their jobs or be summarily fired.
Just 48 hours after the “what did you do last week?” email was sent, the office behind it clarified responses were voluntary. But then Trump weighed in, saying that workers who did not comply with Musk’s demand would be fired or “sort of semi-fired”.
“What he’s doing is saying, ‘Are you actually working?’” Trump said in the Oval Office. “And then, if you don’t answer, like, you’re sort of semi-fired or you’re fired, because a lot of people aren’t answering because they don’t even exist.”
The acting commissioner of the IRS is expected to announce today that he is retiring, according to three people familiar with the move, the latest agency head to depart after Musk’s team pushed for access to sensitive data and mass layoffs.
The Office of the Special Counsel (OSC) determined that six probationary employees were improperly terminated, asking an employment body to intervene and temporarily bar the removals in a matter that could impact thousands of others.
The Food and Drug Administration has reinstated dozens of specialized employees involved in food safety, review of medical devices and other areas who were laid off last week, according to more than a dozen workers who got called back.
A federal judge in Washington said yesterday that the way the Trump administration set up and has been running Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency may violate the Constitution.
Musk is flexing his political muscle in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race in an effort to tip the scales in favor of the conservative candidate.
A small group of protesters hung an inverted American flag — historically used as a sign of distress — off the side of El Capitan, a towering rock formation in Yosemite National Park, hoping to draw attention to cuts to the National Park Service.
Organic farmers and environmental groups sued the Agriculture Department yesterday over its scrubbing of references to climate change from its website.
A group of Democrats have introduced a bill to protect diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in the military following President Trump’s January executive order to dismantle such programming.
Speaker Mike Johnson revealed why Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York has yet to have her confirmation vote to serve as ambassador to the United Nations: He cannot afford to lose another Republican vote in the House.
A White House spokesman didn’t respond to questions about Gov. Kathy Hochul’s meeting with Trump, except to say: “President Trump has made his position on New York’s congestion pricing program unambiguously clear” calling the program “dead.”
Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado will not seek another term for his job, he wrote in a post on X, following an ongoing feud with his former running mate, Gov. Kathy Hochul.
“I have made the decision to not run for reelection with the Governor in 2026,” he wrote. “I remain deeply committed to finishing my full term, as I was independently elected to do, by the people of New York.”
Delgado wrote that he is “determined to be your voice in state government now and in the future. All options are on the table, and I will be exploring them.”
A source close to Delgado told The NY Post that the lieutenant governor initiated the decision to break from the ticket, but a Hochul-connected source suggested the governor decided a month ago she wouldn’t be running with him next year.
State troopers began serving judicial orders on striking correction officers at their residences over the weekend as they face the possibility of being arrested if they are held in contempt of court for not returning to work.
Mediation is underway between state corrections leaders and union officials as correction officers continue striking for a second week across New York’s prison facilities.
If the Trump administration is successful in killing congestion pricing, a controversial new toll in Manhattan, Republicans at the state Capitol say they have a solution for the gap in revenue that would leave behind.
New York is about 30 years overdue for a massive health care overhaul, according to a new report published yesterday.
New York’s progressive Democrats say consolidating — and expanding — the state’s existing tax credits and exemptions would be the most effective way of putting money in the pockets of the working and middle classes.
Mayor Eric Adams announced that the city will close the Asylum Seeker Arrival Center at the Roosevelt Hotel, a site that was the frequent target of criticism from Musk and the Trump administration.
“While we’re not done caring for those who come into our care, today marks another milestone in demonstrating the immense progress we have achieved in turning the corner on an unprecedented international humanitarian effort,” Adams said.
The Roosevelt Hotel, a century-old building in the heart of Midtown Manhattan, became the improbable symbol of New York City’s migrant crisis, nicknamed “the new Ellis Island” for its role as an arrival center for migrants seeking shelter.
Adams did not rule out recusing himself from immigration matters, a disclosure that comes amid worries he’s trying to avoid criminal prosecution by agreeing to help carry out Trump’s deportation agenda.
Adams maintains, to staff and allies, that everyone has the Trump story wrong — he’s not in the president’s pocket but simply managing a mercurial executive.
Three years after resigning the governorship in a cloud of scandal, Andrew Cuomo is making final preparations to run for mayor of New York City and could announce his candidacy as soon as this weekend, according to four people familiar with the planning.
Democratic Bronx Rep. Ritchie Torres, who has emerged as an outspoken critic of – and potential primary challenger to – Hochul, has endorsed Cuomo for mayor.
New York City Council members sparred with police officials over a pair of bills that would abolish the NYPD’s gang database and prohibit the department from collecting DNA from minors who have not been arrested.
Raymond Santana was wrongly imprisoned as one of the so-called “Central Park Five”. Now, he wants to join Yusef Salaam, also wrongfully accused in the rape of a Central Park jogger, on the City Council.
The MTA has canceled a popular program that allows students with autism to record public announcements to be played throughout the subway system — stunning Big Apple parents and their kids alike.
The U.S. Coast Guard suspended its search for a missing boater who was last seen after a vessel capsized Sunday near the entrance to the Ambrose Channel, near Breezy Point, officials said.
As part of a settlement with the New York attorney general’s office over a practice of keeping workers’ tips that ended in 2019, DoorDash will return as much as $14,000 to some delivery Dashers.
The New York Amsterdam News, which was founded 115 years ago and has published civil rights leaders, will convert most of its Harlem building into a museum and community space.
The state attorney general’s Office of Special Investigations said that there was not sufficient evidence to prove City of Troy police officers caused the death of a man while he was being taken into custody in October 2023.
Democrat Hank Kuczynski officially conceded in the race for Saratoga Springs commissioner of public works to his Republican challenger after a state Supreme Court judge ruled that most of the disputed write-in ballots were invalid.
Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin is no longer in the running for the job of president of Hudson Valley Community College.
Union College has hired its first female president in its 230-year history: Elizabeth Kiss (pronounced “quiche”), an Oxford-trained philosopher and the former college president of Agnes Scott College, an all-women’s liberal arts college in Atlanta.
A woman who was shot nearly three years ago at Crossgate Mall is suing the mall, alleging it failed to protect her safety and the safety of other visitors to the mall.
MSNBC said that Jen Psaki, the former White House press secretary who has become one of the most prominent hosts at the network, would anchor a nightly weekday show in prime time.
Psaki, 46, will host a show at 9 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, replacing Alex Wagner, a longtime political journalist who has anchored that hour since 2022, according to a memo to staff from Rebecca Kutler, MSNBC’s president.
Roberta Flack, the magnetic singer and pianist whose intimate blend of soul, jazz and folk made her one of the most popular artists of the 1970s, died yesterday in Manhattan. She was 88.
She died en route to a hospital, according to Suzanne Koga, her manager and friend. The cause was cardiac arrest, she said. Flack revealed in 2022 that she’d been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS.
Flack leaves behind a rich repertoire of music that avoids categorization. Her debut, “First Take,” wove soul, jazz, flamenco, gospel and folk into one revelatory package, prescient in its form and measured in its approach.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
