Good morning, it’s Tuesday.
Those of you who have been following this….whatever it is – Missive? Screed? Testimonial? Confessional? – for some time might remember my angry post about the cannabis poisoning of my Covid puppy, Mannix.
For those who are not familiar with this story, it was a terrifying experience. I looked up from my desk shortly after bringing him in from a walk and he was drooling, weaving his head, and couldn’t stand up. I thought he was having a seizure, abruptly ended a Zoom client call and rushed him to the vet, which was thankfully around the corner at the time.
Once there, I got a stern talking to by the doctor handling emergency calls that day, who told me I needed to keep a closer eye on my “stash.” I was indignant because I don’t smoke pot, and told the vet as much. Manny (that’s one of his many nicknames) chose this very moment to puke, whereupon the entire room quickly smelled like very skunky weed.
We got sent home with some hydration and instructions to sleep it off, which he did and emerged relatively unscathed. I, however, was mentally scarred, and now am militant about policing walks with the dogs, who, by nature want to put pretty much anything that smells interesting into their mouths – usually the more disgusting and putrid and decomposed the better.
The vet told me that they had been seeing a lot of cannabis poisonings in the wake of the passage of the MRTA, which legalized pot for recreational use and mistakenly was interpreted by many enthusiasts as a green light to smoke wherever and whenever they wanted, discarding their roaches hither and yon.
In fact, cannabis poisoning of companion animals has risen exponentially in recent years. In 2022, the ASPCA’s Animal Poison Control Center reported an 11% rise in calls about pets exposed to pot compared to the previous year and an overall increase of 300% in the previous five years.
Unfortunately, cannabis isn’t the only substance that can harm a dog (or other furry friend, if you’ve got one of those).
There’s a long list of things that can be potentially deadly to a dog if ingested. Some things, like batteries, dryer sheets, and antifreeze, are pretty obviously a no-no. And I think everyone is aware that chocolate is a big problem for canines and felines alike.
But there are a lot of less obvious foods – some of which on their face seem fairly innocuous – that are very bad for dogs. This includes raisins and grapes, macadamia nuts, onions, garlic, and xylitol, which is an artificial sweetener often found in sugar-free candy and gum.
And then, of course, there’s a host of non-edible things that some dogs love – in my household this includes socks, underwear, and towels, the dirtier and smellier, the better – as well as the squeakers inside a lot of soft, stuffed toys, that really should never be ingested. Why do they put those in there, anyway?
I have made far too many trips to the emergency vet over my dog-owning career, and my wallet is a heck of a lot lighter as a result. I have no regrets, because the dogs are everything to me and I would far rather err on the side of caution when it comes to their health. But in the case of ingestion, an ounce of prevention is certainly worth a pound of cure.
National Animal Poison Prevention Week started this past Sunday and runs through this coming Saturday. It’s a perfect time to reacquaint yourself with the many substances – including some household plants, by the way – that can be toxic for dogs and perhaps consider removing them from your abode. (Apparently, upon doing some further searching of the interwebs, March 16-22 is also about poison control education generally – for people AND pets – a week established by Congress in 1961).
Today should be lovely – a great day for walking your canine companion(s) out-of-doors, with sunny skies and temperatures in the mid-50s.
In the headlines…
Israeli forces launched a large-scale attack across the Gaza Strip early this morning, in the first major strikes on the territory since Israel’s cease-fire with Hamas began roughly two months ago. Gaza’s health ministry said more than 250 people had been killed.
Despite pleas from the hostage families, Israel has said it will fight on in Gaza for “as long as the hostages are not returned”, defense minister Israel Katz said after air strikes resumed on the battered territory.
The resumption of heavy Israeli strikes in Gaza immediately cast into question the status of the remaining hostages held there by Hamas and other groups — with fewer than half of the 59 left still thought to be alive, according to the Israeli government.
A recent New York Times analysis showed that at least 41 hostages had died during their captivity by Hamas and its allies.
The Trump administration stonewalled a federal judge seeking answers about whether the government violated his order barring the deportation of more than 200 noncitizens without due process, escalating a conflict that could become a constitutional crisis.
Trump wrote on social media that he no longer considered valid the pardons Joe Biden granted to people he sees as political enemies because they were signed using an autopen — a typically uncontroversial method of affixing a presidential signature.
“The ‘Pardons’ that Sleepy Joe Biden gave to the Unselect Committee of Political Thugs, and many others, are hereby declared VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT, because of the fact that they were done by Autopen,” he posted on Truth Social.
Trump went on to allege that Biden didn’t know about the pardons or approve them, and that therefore all the committee members would be “subject to investigation at the highest level.”
Trump said last night that he was ending Secret Service protection for Biden’s son Hunter and daughter Ashley.
Trump said that his administration would release approximately 80,000 pages related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy this afternoon. He did not provide additional details on what the trove of files would include.
“You got a lot of reading,” Trump said during a visit to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the cultural and political institution that he took over nearly five weeks ago, installing himself as chairman. “I don’t believe we’re going to redact anything.”
Negotiators working to end the Russia-Ukraine war have already discussed “dividing up certain assets,” Trump said over the weekend as he announced he planned to speak to Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin today.
The Kremlin said that preparations were underway for a phone call between Putin and Trump, as questions swirled over the American president’s comments suggesting that power plants and “dividing up” Ukrainian assets were on the agenda.
Two transgender service members are suing the Trump administration over a pair of executive orders targeting transgender Americans and their implementation by the U.S. military.
The lawsuit filed by two transgender men argues the orders proclaiming the government recognizes only two sexes and barring trans people from serving openly in the military subject trans service members “to unequal, harmful, and demeaning treatment.”
A simmering dispute between the DOGE and an independent agency dedicated to promoting peace broke into an open standoff involving the police yesterday, as Elon Musk’s government cutters marched into the agency’s headquarters and evicted its officials.
The EPA plans to eliminate its scientific research arm, firing as many as 1,155 chemists, biologists, toxicologists and other scientists, according to documents reviewed by Democrats on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology.
Trump is displaying a copy of the Declaration of Independence in the Oval Office after requesting it from the National Archives, according to a photograph he shared yesterday.
A French European Parliament member quipped over the weekend that the U.S. should return the Statue of Liberty to France after Trump decided “to switch to the side of the tyrants” against Ukraine.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer postponed a multi-city tour to promote his forthcoming book, citing security concerns amid backlash to his decision to vote with Republicans for a stopgap spending bill to stave off a government shutdown.
Schumer, who has been the target of scathing criticism from his own party after voting for a GOP-drafted stopgap spending bill that cut many nondefense programs, says things are looking good for the Democratic Party, which he says has “a real direction now.”
Schumer’s legislative director Meghan Taira, who has been with the Democratic leader for nearly two decades, is expected to leave Schumer’s office next month in a move that has been in the works for a number of months.
North Country GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik remains the only one of Trump’s cabinet-level appointments who is still awaiting Senate confirmation after Lori Chavez-DeRemer was sworn in as labor secretary last week.
Gov. Kathy Hochul said she has no intentions to “allow” Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to “just take people off the streets.”
The state Legislature is seeking a new infusion of federal funding to help pay for repairs, maintenance and upgrades to the public transportation system in and around New York City operated by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
Many judicial decisions across New York continue to remain unpublished, depriving voters and committees that reappoint judges the insight on how justice is administered and the Constitution is being interpreted.
Some upstate counties are considering legal action against Hochul’s executive order preventing COs fired during the recent prison strike from working for either the state or local municipalities.
“If there’s an opportunity to absorb a displaced experienced corrections family, and that experienced corrections officer meets our requirements, then he or she’s going to find himself working in Wayne County,” Wayne County Sheriff Rob Milby said.
Hochul said New York is ready to collaborate with the federal government to advance the development of AI and microchip manufacturing, but efforts to cut back federal funding threaten the state’s ability to advance the industries.
Mayor Eric Adams remains a registered Democrat, but yesterday he repeatedly refused to rule out running for reelection as an independent.
“When I’m ready to … do my official re-announcement and my plan, I will do so. And I will make sure all of you are invited,” he told reporters, when asked about a New York Post story speculating that he may run on a politically unaffiliated ballot line in November.
“New Yorkers, be careful what you ask for,” Adams added. “I know how well we have done, and I know how well we are going to continue to do for the next five years.”
Adams was denied city-funded matching funds yesterday in the latest blow to his flagging reelection bid, while other candidates were able to boast about their recent fundraising efforts.
Former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and Zohran Mamdani, a progressive state lawmaker from Queens, announced strong fund-raising numbers in the New York City mayoral race on Monday as they push to unseat Mayor Eric Adams.
“We have the momentum, the movement and the money to win,” Mamdani said in a statement after his campaign reported collecting around $845,000 over the past two months.
Mamdani’s haul was second only to Cuomo, who led the field of candidates for the June Democratic primary, bringing in $1.5 million since announcing his candidacy on March 1. He is expected to qualify for over $4 million in matching funds next month.
The Adams administration spent $3.5 million clearing 2,300 homeless encampments from public spaces between January to September last year, according to new numbers released by the administration on Friday.
City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams said Hochul privately told her “in so many words” that she supports Speaker Adams’ run for mayor, but the governor is saying the supposed conversation was nothing special.
The governor clarified on MSNBC’s PoliticsNation on Sunday that she would not be making an endorsement in the race but expressed her need for a mayor “who’s not looking to be at war with the governor, who will actually be a partner.”
The Uniformed Firefighters Association, one of the Fire Department’s powerful unions, is backing City Council Member Justin Brannan in the Democratic primary for City comptroller.
The president of the union representing the city’s deputy sheriffs was reportedly transferred out of her unit and punished by Sheriff Anthony Miranda and his team for questioning the agency’s crackdown on illegal pot shops and several personnel changes.
Plans to turn New York City’s largest fossil fuel plant into a green energy hub are facing complications amid Trump’s pause on wind power.
The New York City Department of Design and Construction is moving forward with a $273 million project to overhaul an NYPD training facility and shooting range on City Island, a notice published in the City Record shows.
The first legal battle for Mahmoud Khalil, the recent Columbia University graduate who was arrested and moved to Louisiana last week, is the fight to keep his case in New York.
Columbia University is facing a new federal investigation over allegations from two janitors who claim they were unlawfully forced to scrub off swastikas spray-painted on campus before later being attacked and briefly trapped by an anti-Israel “mob” last spring.
A federal judge has delayed the resentencing of former Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano, who saw two counts of his 2019 federal corruption conviction overturned by an appeals court last mont.
The New Yorker has parted ways with its art critic after the magazine received complaints about his behavior at its 100th anniversary party in February, according to two people with knowledge of the decision.
Two graduate students and a professor at Cornell University are suing the Trump administration over its executive orders targeting pro-Palestinian sympathizers who are in the United States on student visas.
A 33-year-old Albany woman pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges for lacing copy paper and business envelopes with synthetic marijuana and sending the documents into state correctional facilities disguised as legal mail.
The Adirondack Park Agency’s executive director addressed publicly for the first time allegations of a toxic work environment made anonymously by half of the agency’s union employees in a letter sent by their union a month ago.
The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority selected renewable energy developer CleanCapital to erect the state’s first “Build-Ready” solar facility on a former mine in the Adirondack Park.
A well-known Capital Region children’s performer – Stephen E. Bottino, 58, the keyboardist for the Zucchini Brothers – has been arrested and charged with first-degree sexual abuse in connection with an alleged incident from 2003.
Longtime local favorite ice cream stand Kurver Kreme on Central Avenue in Colonie is open for the season under new owners.
NASA’s Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore — who gained international attention as their planned short stay in space stretched into a nine-month, politically fraught mission — are finally heading home.
The astronauts climbed aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule alongside two teammates, NASA’s Nick Hague and cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov of Russia’s Roscosmos space agency, and departed the International Space Station at 1:05 a.m. ET.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
