Good morning, it’s Monday and the last day of March.
Out like a lamb, indeed.
This weekend was, quite frankly, awful. The less said about it, the better. Cold. Wet. Just, blech all around.
As for today, well, at least it will be warmer. Temperatures will soar into the low 70s! But along with the veritable heat wave will come showers in the morning and scattered thunderstorms in the afternoon.
May flowers and all that. There are green things shooting up all over the place, and I have even spotted a crocus or two. So, I guess I can’t complain.
Today (or yesterday, or the next few days, depending on where you might find yourself across the globe) brings cause for celebration for the millions of Muslims around the world who have been observing Ramadan, because the month-long dawn-to-dusk fasting has drawn to a close with the arrival of Eid al-Fitr (“festival of breaking the fast” ).
This is actually one of two main festivals in Islam; the other is Eid al-Adha (“feast of sacrifice“, which this year will occur in early June). This is the so-called “lesser” Eid; the other lasts four days and corresponds with Hajj. Both are often referred to simply as “Eid”, which makes things confusing.
This Eid begins at sunset on the night of the first sighting of the crescent moon and it might be celebrated anywhere from one to three days (this varies from culture to culture and country to country).
It is actually forbidden to fast on Eid, so there’s a lot of joyful eating involved – and a lot of frantic last-minute preparations. It’s also traditional to visit with family and friends and wear new clothes, so the markets leading up to Eid are usually very crowded with people shopping for the holiday.
The day typically starts with prayers and eating something sweet, and then moves on to asking for forgiveness from one’s loved ones and then visiting the gravesites of those who have passed.
Next, it’s time to visit, with families hosting open houses where dishes like ketupat, rice cooked in a palm leaf and symbolizing forgiveness and blessings, and rendang, meat (usually beef or chicken) stewed in spices and braised in coconut milk, are served, along with cookies dusted with powdered sugar.
Money might be given as a gift to children or to those in need. The traditional holiday greeting is “Eid Mubarak”, Arabic for “Blessed Eid”.
We already dealt with the (rather questionable, in my humble opinion) weather forecast at the top of this post. So let’s keep things short and sweet today and get right into it.
In the headlines…
President Donald Trump did not rule out the seeking a third term, which is prohibited by the Constitution under the 22nd Amendment, saying in an interview with NBC News that there were methods for doing so and clarifying that he was “not joking.”
“A lot of people want me to do it,” Trump said, referring to his allies. “But, I mean, I basically tell them we have a long way to go, you know, it’s very early in the administration. I’m focused on the current.”
Trump also said he is “pissed off” at Vladimir Putin for the Russian president’s recent comments on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s leadership and is planning “secondary sanctions on Russia” if they don’t cooperate.
The United States will not take control of Greenland, the island’s new prime minister said yesterday in response to Trump’s latest assertion that he wants to annex the territory.
“(Trump) says that the United States ‘will get Greenland,’” Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen, who was sworn in Friday, said on social media. “Let me be clear: The United States will not get it. We do not belong to anyone else. We decide our own future.”
This came after U.S. Vice President JD Vance’s visit to the strategic island. Over the weekend, however, Trump maintained an aggressive tone, telling NBC News that “I never take military force off the table” in regards to acquiring Greenland.
Vance told the people of Greenland that they would be better off being part of the United States rather than Denmark in remarks during a visit to a U.S. military base in the Arctic territory on Friday.
The Danish foreign minister on Saturday scolded the Trump administration for its “tone” in criticizing Denmark and Greenland, saying his country is already investing more into Arctic security and remains open to more cooperation with the U.S.
Senate GOP leaders will move as soon as Wednesday to begin advancing a budget plan — the next key step to unlock Trump’s massive agenda through a party-line bill.
Passing a budget framework would allow them to then write a tax, immigration and defense bill that can pass with just a simple majority in the Senate.
Democrats are hoping for a long-shot victory in special elections being held tomorrow in Florida’s First and Sixth Congressional Districts as they look to erode the G.O.P.’s narrow majority in the House.
Elon Musk was the star of a 2,000-person rally last night in Wisconsin — ostensibly for the conservative candidate in a closely watched state judicial race — just 36 hours before polls open on Election Day. Of course he was.
Musk handed out $1 million checks to two Wisconsin voters he deemed spokespeople for his cause after the court refused to hear a lawsuit from the state’s attorney general over the cash giveaways ahead of the consequential election in the battleground state.
Musk said one of the reasons he’s gotten involved in the race is because a new state Supreme Court could redraw Wisconsin’s congressional maps at a time when Republicans have a razor-thin majority in the House.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, ahead of a crucial House vote coming this week, ripped a Republican plan to raise overdraft fees at banks.
A group of Columbia University grads tore up their diplomas on campus over the weekend to protest the school’s cooperation with the Trump administration, and the feds’ detention of former student and anti-Israel demonstration leader Mahmoud Khalil.
The interim president of Columbia University abruptly left her post Friday evening as the school confronted the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding and the Trump administration’s mounting skepticism about its leadership.
Dr. Katrina Armstrong was named interim president in August on the same day former president Minouche Shafik, facing scrutiny for her handling of Columbia campus encampments protesting the war between Israel and Hamas, stepped down.
Claire Shipman, a co-chair of Columbia University’s board of trustees, was elevated to become Columbia’s interim president, remaining in the role until a search for a permanent president is completed.
As Trump seeks to extract concessions from elite institutions and punish his perceived enemies, some of New York’s most powerful people are suddenly confronting excruciating decisions.
Gov. Kathy Hochul’s attempt to amend the Democratic-led state Legislature’s recent changes to the criminal justice system are yet again at the forefront of state budget negotiations.
Local officials want legislative leaders to have a change of heart as lawmakers hold the line against Hochul’s budget priority to expand forced treatment for people suffering from mental health issues who pose a danger to themselves or others.
Hochul announced the selection of the former Sears Building at 1300 South Salina St. in Syracuse to be the future ON-RAMP Workforce Innovation Hub. It will be the first of four in the state.
Around $300 million of federal funding will be slashed from New York’s health and addiction agencies as the first wave of long-anticipated cuts hit government budgets this week, state officials estimate.
New York will lose $27 million for the state Office of Mental Health, $40 million for the Office of Addiction Services and Supports and $300 million for the state Department of Health, which will affect disease surveillance work across the state, Hochul said.
The late state budget will increase spending despite the threatened loss of billions of dollars in federal aid, provide a $3 billion tax cut for most New Yorkers and include several significant policies, including a “bell-to-bell” ban on student cellphones in schools.
The New York Post hopes the state budget stalemate lasts “for a good long time”.
The commissioner of the state Office of Mental Health is facing a no-confidence vote from one of New York’s largest public labor unions following a series of “violent assaults” on staff members at residential facilities.
A bombshell report from a clean energy group admitted that shifting to solar and wind may mean chaos for New York’s power grid as the state’s green energy law creates hurdles for cost and reliability.
The composition of forests in New York and the Northeast will change dramatically in the future as a result of climate change. And these changes have already begun.
Mayor Eric Adams attacked his election rivals for ripping his plan to build a pricey public-safety facility — saying the “defund-police, bail-reform candidates” simply don’t know what they’re talking about.
Andrew Cuomo, the former governor and potential Gracie Mansion tenant, was slapped with a pair of citations during his stops on the campaign trail earlier this month.
For left-leaning Democrats in New York City, stopping Cuomo from becoming mayor could rely on a perennial challenge: corralling its different factions behind one strategy.
The Working Families Party voted late Saturday to endorse a slate of four left-leaning Democrats —Adrienne Adams, Brad Lander, Zohran Mamdani and Zellnor Myrie — in the ranked-choice primary for New York City mayor.
The four candidates walked through City Hall Park arm-in-arm as they prepared to accept their endorsement. The party’s four-headed endorsement is part of a broader strategy among progressives seeking to thwart Cuomo.
Rep. Greg Meeks, an influential Black Democrat and county party boss, endorsed Cuomo for mayor with a rally in Queens.
Accepting Meeks’ endorsement, Cuomo positioned himself as the one candidate in the race who can take Donald Trump on and defend the Big Apple from the president’s most “diabolical” policies.
New York City Comptroller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander stormed out of a campaign event Saturday when a mob of protesters ambushed the stage and heckled him on climate change – brandishing a sign calling him “Black Rock Brad.”
Lander urged the former Biden administration to yank up to $4 billion in US funding to Israel if certain conditions weren’t met — peddling the threat seven months before the Oct. 7 massacre
With less than three months until the primary, the mayoral candidates are picking up more endorsements and trying to appeal to Democrats wary of Trump’s agenda and of political scandal. They are also focusing on quality-of-life issues in the city.
Adams and New York City Department of Parks and Recreation Commissioner Sue Donoghue detailed the expansion of the city’s $5.5 million free swim lessons program.
Queens State Sen. John Liu will back a plan that brings billionaire Mets owner Steve Cohen’s proposal for a casino near Citi Field closer to reality.
Cohen’s casino project cannot go forward unless the Citi Field lots are converted from parkland to commercial use. Now that the proposal has been inked it will need to pass the state Assembly and Senate, and be signed by Hochul.
Big Apple residents are legally required to compost their garbage, but steaming landlords say they’re getting the rotten end of the deal by being forced into dumpster diving to comply.
The city has taken a knife to its bureaucratic red tape and approved hundreds more outdoor-dining-shed applications for the start of the al fresco season tomorrow.
A mother and her two young daughters were killed Saturday in Brooklyn and a son is clinging to life after a driver with a suspended license slammed into an Uber and careened into the family on a leisurely walk home from synagogue.
Adams called it “ a tragic, tragic accident of a Shakespearean proportion.” The driver was charged with manslaughter.
Trump’s tariffs are straining the relationship between upstate New York and Canada, and having a negative impact on tourism on this side of the border.
Albany County is seeking to sell its Probation Department building on South Pearl Street for nearly $1.5 million.
The Catskill Central School District announced last week that administrators had graduated students who were ineligible to receive diplomas.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
