Good morning, the middle of the week has arrived. Happy Wednesday.
Yesterday was all about fun and festivities – a sort of last gasp, if you will, before we settle in for a sustained period of self-reflection and self-denial. Lent, a 40-day period of fasting and prayer, is officially underway, kicking off with Ash Wednesday.
As an aside, growing up Jewish, I was not terribly familiar with the practice of putting ashes on one’s forehead as a sign of penance and wearing them throughout the day.
I can’t remember when I first encountered the practice, though it was probably when I arrived in Albany and started working in and around the state Capitol. I do recall being genuinely confused and having to ask someone why so many people were walking around with what appeared to be dirt on their foreheads.
Ash Wednesday is one of the most popular and important holy days in the liturgical calendar and actually has its roots in the Jewish tradition of penance and fasting.
The ashes, which are made by burning the palms used in the previous year’s Palm Sunday services, are intended to remind the wearer that they are effectively, nothing but the dust. In case you didn’t get the message, as the priest applies the ashes to your head he drives it home by saying : “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” (He may also say: “Repent and believe in the Gospel”).
The words also refer back to what God said to Adam as he was cast our of the Garden of Eden along with Eve, basically condemning them to a life of mortality – ending with death – as a result of their disobedience by eating the forbidden fruit.
This is pretty heady stuff. (And no, I did not intend the pun there; maybe “weighty” would have been a better adjective).
Facing one’s own mortality and then heading off to work (or home to make dinner, or to the gym, or what have you) is, well, kind of a daunting challenge. But that’s really the whole point. It’s a chance to publicly profess and advertise your faith, and reflect on your human frailty.
It’s also, according to some of what I’ve read, intended to have a bit of a hopeful element for those who believe in the resurrection, which, in the end, is what the Easter season is all about.
Personally, I’m finding it easier to feel a little more hopeful in these tumultuous days simply because the weather has taken a turn for the better – or at least the warmer.
We’ll see temperatures in the 50s again today, though skies will be cloudy and rain showers in the morning will likely evolve into a steadier rain in the afternoon. It may even feel a little muggy, given the high level of humidity in the air. But, look at the bright side – it’s not snow, sleet, or freezing rain. I’ll take it.
On the headlines…
President Donald Trump took a defiant victory lap in the House chamber last night, using his address to a joint session of Congress to promote the flurry of drastic changes to domestic and foreign policy that his administration has made in just the first six weeks.
Delivering the longest address to Congress in modern presidential history – one hour and 40 minutes – Trump reprised many of the themes that animated his campaign for president and spent little time unveiling new policies, as presidents traditionally have done.
Trump vowed not to lift tariffs on America’s biggest trading partners, but appeared ready to reduce tensions with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine days after an Oval Office blowup in which he threatened to abandon a key ally fighting an invasion.
Trump called for Congress to repeal the CHIPS and Science Act, the law that convinced Micron Technology to spend up to $100 billion building computer chip plants in Central New York.
Trump announced that the US has apprehended the “top terrorist” responsible for the deadly bombing outside the Kabul airport during the Biden administration’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021.
Trump announced that the US has apprehended the “top terrorist” responsible for the deadly bombing outside the Kabul airport during the Biden administration’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021.
The president referenced his Democratic predecessor at least 16 times in one way or another, including name-checking Joe Biden, calling him the “worst president” and blaming him for the price of eggs. (Former Vice President Kamala Harris also got a mention.)
Trump complained there’s “absolutely nothing” he could do to get Democrats to applaud his addresses to Congress, and then lashed out at his predecessor for the Justice Department’s criminal prosecutions against him.
Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan delivered an economic-heavy message on behalf of the Democrats last night, arguing that Trump’s policies will drive up costs for consumers and painting the president as a threat to democracy.
“Americans made it clear that prices are too high and that government needs to be more responsive to their needs,” Slotkin said during her 10-minute rebuttal. “America wants change. But there is a responsible way to make change, and a reckless way.”
Democrats, eager to register their opposition to Trump before a big television viewing audience, wasted no time and displayed little timidity in venting their animus for him during his evening address to a joint session of Congress.
Speaker Mike Johnson said Texas Democratic Rep. Al Green could be censured for interrupting and yelling during Trump’s address. The speaker had Johnson instructed House staff to remove Green from the chamber after his outburst early on in the speech.
Green, who has long pushed to impeach Trump dating to his previous term in office, stood and shook his cane toward the president in the opening minutes of his speech. Others cheered and booed him, causing further chaos.
The premier of Canada’s most populous province threatened to retaliate and cut off energy to the US “with a smile on my face” — as Trump’s new 25% tariffs on imports took effect yesterday.
“If they want to try to annihilate Ontario, I will do everything — including cut off their energy with a smile on my face,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford vowed Monday, the Toronto Sun reported.
Republicans in Washington, at the behest of Trump, are crafting a bill to cut spending and use the savings to pay for tax cuts that could reduce aid to New York by tens of billions of dollars, blowing huge holes in both the state and city budgets.
Tariffs from the Trump administration that took effect yesterday are expected to disrupt the agriculture industry in New York, where farmers are bracing for higher costs and lower profit margins.
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine offered a course of action that he said could end the war, while trying to assure the Trump administration that his government was dedicated to peace.
“Our meeting in Washington, at the White House on Friday, did not go the way it was supposed to be,” Zelensky wrote on X. “It is regrettable that it happened this way. It is time to make things right.”
Vice President JD Vance has sparked a storm of criticism in Britain after declaring that an American economic deal in Ukraine was a “better security guarantee than 20,000 troops from some random country that hasn’t fought a war in 30 or 40 years.”
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) announced that the Inter-American Foundation has removed all but one employee from its payroll in order to comply with Trump’s executive order on reducing federal bureaucracy.
The Trump administration said that it could sell hundreds of federal properties around the country, including offices for the Social Security Administration, the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Mission to the United Nations.
The Internal Revenue Service is preparing to shed as much as 50 percent of its staff, according to four people familiar with the matter, a significant cut that could jeopardize the agency’s ability to complete its basic mission of collecting taxes.
Agencies that work with refugees called on New York lawmakers to double state funding that supports resettlement efforts, seeking to fill a hole caused by the Trump administration’s executive orders.
“Everybody has to know the ripple effect that these tariffs will have on every sector of our economy, and it’s just starting today,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said.
Hochul had some tough words for New York prison guards in danger of losing their jobs due to their ongoing illegal strike, warning they could “lose everything” if they don’t heed the state’s warnings and return to work.
Hundreds of correction officers and their supporters rallied at the state Capitol yesterday as they sought to draw the attention of lawmakers as their unsanctioned strike continues to affect operations at more than 30 New York prisons.
“They have threatened you with jail. They have threatened to take away your family’s health insurance,” Joe Pinion, a Saratoga-based Newsmax commentator and former GOP US Senate candidate said. “You’ve got nothing left to do now but hold the line.”
The death of a 22-year-old prisoner at a New York state prison over the weekend is raising further questions about dangerous conditions and basic care for incarcerated people as an illegal strike by state correction officers drags on for its third week.
Hochul said that she directed the corrections department to place 15 individuals on administrative leave in connection with the death of the Mid-State inmate, Messiah Nantwi.
“While the investigation into this incident is ongoing, early reports point to extremely disturbing conduct leading to Mr. Nantwi’s death and I am committed to accountability for all involved,” Hochul said in a statement.
Hochul said that early reports suggested “extremely disturbing conduct” leading to Nantwi’s death. Nine prisoners interviewed by The New York Times said he died on Saturday after he was beaten by prison guards at Mid-State Correctional Facility in Marcy.
An ad hoc coalition of civil liberties lawyers, mental health providers and advocates is speaking out against a proposal by Hochul that would make it easier for authorities to involuntarily commit someone for mental health treatment.
Hochul declined to say whether she thinks that her predecessor, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, is fit to serve as New York City’s mayor.
Mayor Eric Adams is in Washington D.C. preparing to testify before the House Oversight Committee this morning as one of four “sanctuary city mayors” in what’s expected to be a brutal grilling from Republicans advocating aggressive immigration enforcement.
Ahead of his testimony, Adams penned a New York Post op-ed in which he rejected the :the misperception that a ‘sanctuary city’ classification means our city will ever be a safe haven for violent criminals.”
Adams is reportedly leaning toward naming controversial attorney Randy Mastro as his next top deputy at City Hall.
Adams’ bid to have his federal corruption indictment dropped is getting a legal boost from Michael Flynn, a controversial former Trump advisor.
U.S. Senate Democrats are urging New York legal authorities to investigate whether acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove engaged in professional misconduct by engaging in a supposed quid-pro-quo to drop corruption charges against Adams.
The complaint, sent to the Attorney Grievance Committee in New York, the investigative group that scrutinizes potential misconduct by lawyers licensed to practice in the state, is signed by the Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Cuomo ranted about how the movement to defund police has led to an increase in crime during an interview with Stephen A. Smith — even though he once called the activist idea a “legitimate school of thought.”
Cuomo’s opponents are now push-polling voters, looking for the most productive opening. A call in New York City last weekend asked whether calling him a “bully” or “scandal-plagued” changed respondents’ views of him.
In her final State of the City speech as council speaker, Adrienne Adams hinted at a potential mayoral run and highlighted her work on issues high on voters’ priority lists — affordability and public safety.
“New York City is bigger than one person, and our city deserves leadership that prioritizes its people over individual glory or interests,” she said inside the Rose Auditorium at Jazz at Lincoln Center.
Speaker Adams said that the public has lost “trust” in local government and vowed to turn the tide on that trend by standing up to Trump and fighting to boost funding for libraries, parks and child care.
Her remarks received mostly muted applause, with few rousing standing ovations from the crowd that included city Comptroller Brad Lander, who is running in the Democratic mayoral primary, and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams.
The Trump administration is threatening to cut tens of millions of dollars in federal funding for Columbia University, making the school the first major target in its effort to root out what it considers antisemitic harassment on college campuses.
A comprehensive review of Columbia University’s federal contracts and grants was announced Monday night, shortly after Linda McMahon was confirmed as the secretary of education in a party-line vote.
Top city cop Jessica Tisch vowed the NYPD would fight antisemitism “no matter where the threats originate” – and slammed many of the anti-Israel protests at local colleges as “especially despicable.”
State Assemblyman Steven Raga is leading a group of Democratic legislators who want to install 150 new cameras that would be part of a $35 million pilot project to get tough on bad parkers — including delivery drivers who double park to drop off their goods.
Two cases of measles have been confirmed in New York City as of the end of February, according to the City Health Department. Officials didn’t disclose the ages or vaccination status of the two cases, but they are urging parents to vaccinate their children.
An NYPD commanding officer facing criminal charges for trying to cover up an off-duty drunk-driving crash involving a cabbie has reportedly been fired from the force.
Thirty construction workers died on the job in New York City in 2023 — the most in a decade, according to a new report.
A Westchester County attorney has been selected by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to serve as U.S. attorney for New York’s Northern District, which stretches from Kingston to the Canadian border and west to Syracuse.
The custom-printing company Sticker Mule, which won a legal battle to display a giant “Vote for Trump” sign on one of its buildings in Amsterdam, is back in court over the new “America Loves Trump” display it wants in its place.
City of Troy officials are once again asking residents to have their water tested after a test on 69 residential properties last year found that all homes tested positive for lead, with 24 exceeding safe drinking levels.
Plug Power is planning another round of layoffs and cost-cutting to try to reduce its annual spending by another $150 million to $200 million as the company looks to show investors that its green hydrogen strategy will pay dividends sooner rather than later.
After 16 days of raw milk sales, Willow Marsh Farm in the Town of Ballston has shut down its dairy a second time after its milk tested positive for listeria.
The 20,000-square-foot stone mansion in Saratoga Springs known as Palazzo Riggi is back on the market for $24.9 million.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
