Good morning, it’s Friday, and I, for one, am relieved to make it to the end of a largely dreary and seemingly endless week.
I had been looking forward to getting outside this weekend for some much-needed mental health reset time. But, sadly, the weather gods are not looking kindly upon me. Rain, rain, and more rain is in the forecast. We’ll get to the specifics a little later one here, but I just wanted to get the bad news out of the way first.
Today’s date is noteworthy the fourth day of the fourth month of the year – 4/4. Interestingly, there are a few celebrations that are directly linked to this day.
One of them is hyperlocal, “404” is the area code for Atlanta, GA and its immediate environs. It’s one of the original Atlanta area codes, as – as is the case with so many other communities that needed to branch out as telephone use grew exponentially – that is now overlaid by others, including but not limited to 770, 678, 470, and 943.
“404 Day” or as it’s more colloquially known, “Fo-Oh-Fo Day”, is an unofficial holiday in Atlanta – a celebration of the city’s culture, community and enduring influence, as per a report in the The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. From what I can tell from the official 404 Day website, this is a very big deal, with events including but not limited to a parade, a gala, a celebrity baseball game, block parties, live music and much more.
404 Day is (or was) something else entirely to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which bills itself as the “leading nonprofit defending digital privacy, free speech, and innovation.” The organization used this day to “raise awareness about internet censorship and public schools and libraries” across the U.S., leading to blocked access to certain websites deemed harmful under the Children’s Internet Protection Act.
I’m sure you’ve at some point or another clicked on a “broken” online link that brings you to a “404 error”, which is what appears when a server cannot locate a website or resource at a specific URL. This could happen for a range of reasons from user error – a misspelling on the part of the searcher, for example, or a misspelling in the URL itself – to a server moving a page without establishing a redirect link.
I felt compelled to bring this up because increasingly people who are looking for information on federal websites are coming up with a “404” error – including the page on the White House website that used to house information on the U.S. Constitution, but doesn’t any longer for reasons that I haven’t been able to determine.
This is sadly not an isolated phenomenon. The New York Times reported in early February that more than 8,000 web pages across a dozen U.S. government websites had been taken down in an effort to conform with President Trump’s DEI executive orders. And this approach has extended outside the government to companies and institutions that receive federal funding, including some universities.
I’m not even sure what to say here, except that it’s deeply disappointing. Of course, there’s always the Wayback Machine. IYKYK.
As mentioned at the top of this post, the weather is looking not so great, though out of the next three days today is probably your best bet if you’re planning to get outside. It will be warm, at least, with temperatures reaching into the lower 60s, and skies will be partly cloudy. But there’s no rain in the forecast, so that’s something.
In the headlines…
President Donald Trump’s escalation of a global trade war fueled the worst stock market sell-off since the coronavirus pandemic, as investors worried that the steep tariffs imposed on America’s trading partners would push the economy into a downturn.
The S&P 500 sank 4.8%, more than in major markets across Asia and Europe, for its worst day since the pandemic crashed the economy in 2020. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1,679 points, or 4%, and the Nasdaq composite tumbled 6%.
Trump offered a rosy assessment after the stock market dropped sharply over his tariffs, saying, “I think it’s going very well,” adding: “The markets are going to boom, the stock is going to boom, the country is going to boom.”
Trump continued to project confidence and said nations to be affected are now trying to see if they can “make a deal.”
The president compared the United States to a sick patient in need of surgery, writing on Truth Social” “The prognosis is that the patient will be far stronger, bigger, better and more resilient than ever before. Make America Great Again!!!”
Grocery shoppers are likely to feel the impact of the Trump administration’s sweeping new tariffs before April is over. And the first place they’ll feel it is in parts of the store where the inventory has to move fast.
Trump administration officials are assuring farm-state Republicans they will funnel billions of taxpayer dollars to farmers who are hit by Trump’s intensifying trade war.
Trump’s tariffs have spared almost no corner of the Earth. Even tiny, sparsely populated islands that export close to nothing.
The Senate advanced its budget resolution, teeing up a weekend vote on a blueprint for Trump’s tax agenda and other top priorities.
Senators voted 52-48 to proceed to the budget resolution, which they hope can pass muster in the House after their first attempt failed to entice colleagues across the Capitol.
The final vote on whether or not to adopt the measure is expected to take place on Saturday, and afterward, House Republicans will attempt to move it through the lower chamber next week.
Democrats are wielding new official projections showing the price tag for extending Republicans’ expiring tax cuts could reach a bigger-than-expected $4.6 trillion.
The Pentagon acting Inspector General Steven Stebbins is beginning an evaluation of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of the Signal messaging app to discuss military operations.
Stebbins’ memo follows a request from the Republican chairman and the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee for a probe into the incident, which was first reported by the journalist Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic.
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that he expects about 20 percent of fired employees to be reinstated as the agency backtracks after making cuts directed by the Department of Government Efficiency.
A federal judge temporarily barred HHS from terminating a variety of public health funds that had been allocated to states during the Covid-19 pandemic, finding that the move had left those states stranded and unable to provide critical health services.
The Senate confirmed Dr. Mehmet Oz, the celebrity TV doctor, 53-45 and along party lines to lead Medicare and Medicaid, which insure nearly half of all Americans.
Trump reportedly fired several White House national security aides after right-wing provocateur Laura Loomer dished dirt on their supposed “disloyalty” — despite no apparent disciplinary action for the leaked Signal group chat scandal.
At least six and as many as 10 members of the National Security Council got the boot after Loomer unloaded a dossier of research about their alleged hawkish “neo-conservative” views in an Oval Office chat with Trump, the New York Times first reported.
Trump threw his support behind a bipartisan effort to allow proxy voting for new parents in Congress, dealing a major blow to Speaker Mike Johnson’s attempts to kill the measure.
“You’re having a baby, you should be able to call in and vote,” Trump told reporters flying to Florida with him aboard Air Force One. “I’m in favor of that.”
Though the president said he would defer to Johnson on the operations of the House, he also said, “I don’t know why it’s controversial.” Trump said he had spoken to Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, the leading Republican proponent of the effort.
The White House notified all 50 states that public schools could lose federal funding if they engage in the use of D.E.I. to “advantage one’s race over another” – the clearest threat yet to the country’s largest source of federal funding for K-12 schools: Title I.
The Trump administration sent Harvard a list of demands that would have to be met to end a government review of $9 billion the school receives in federal funding.
The demands include shuttering diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, which the letter says teach students and staff “to make snap judgments about each other based on crude race and identity stereotypes.”
The Trump administration reportedly intends to block $510 million in federal contracts and grants for Brown University in Rhode Island, expanding its campaign to hold universities accountable for what it says is relentless antisemitism on campus.
Multiple people were stabbed yesterday by a man in an “altered mental state,” according to police in Washington, D.C.
The mass stabbing began in the northeast part of the city, near the U.S. National Arboretum and Gallaudet University. Police said the suspect began stabbing himself and a female acquaintance, before he turned the weapon on others nearby.
Six victims, four women and two men, were wounded and transported to a hospital from the scene, D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith told reporters at a press conference. The victims were said to be in stable condition last night with non-life-threatening injuries.
A Hearst Newspapers investigation identified thousands of cases of surgical items left in patients that were reported in national and state health data between 2015 and 2023. It’s likely the true number of cases nationally is much higher.
Gov. Kathy Hochul racked up her first budget win yesterday after Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie told reporters that her bell-to-bell school cellphone ban was the first piece of policy mostly settled in the spending plan. Much of the rest of the budget is still in limbo.
Hochul and the state Legislature agreed to a second emergency spending measure as closed-door negotiations continue for a state budget that was due this past Monday.
Democrats who control the Legislature were sent home to their districts as negotiations continue between Hochul and the leadership of the Senate and Assembly. Lawmakers did not have a sense of when a deal would be reached.
The governor said she is “truly not in any rush” to get a budget deal, adding: “I will stay here as long as it takes to get the budget that I believe that delivers for New Yorkers.”
Hochul’s proposed public masking ban could be in jeopardy. Her plan has divided Democrats, with supporters seeing their elimination as a crime-fighting issue and others saying a ban would give Trump a win.
Hochul signed three bills intended to strengthen New York’s gun safety laws and announced a $370 million investment in the state budget to combat gun violence.
Trump’s sweeping tariff push is already hitting New York’s economy, with falling Canadian tourism and cross-border shopping driving down sales tax revenue, Hochul said.
Federal, state and local lawmakers across Western New York are denouncing a Trump administration practice of detaining individuals and families in cells at the U.S.-Canada border for as long as two weeks.
State Conservative Party official Jason McGuire pleaded guilty to illegally using more than $16,000 of local party funds on personal expenses.
Lobbying interests spent $377 million to influence New York elected officials in 2024, breaking the spending record set the year before.
Eric Adams announced that he won’t seek the Democratic nomination for mayor and instead run as an independent in this fall’s general election — a move that drastically reshapes the dynamic of the race.
Adams may have bolstered his chances of getting on the November ballot by skipping out on the Democratic primary in June, but he still faces long odds as he tries to secure a second term.
Adams waved off concerns at a candidate forum that his decision to seek reelection as an independent could wind up giving a boost to Republican mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa in this fall’s general election by fracturing the Democratic vote.
The New York Working Families Party will not commit to putting former Gov. Andrew Cuomo on its ballot line in the general election – even if he wins the New York City mayoral Democratic primary, setting up a possible four-way general election.
The WFP is taking steps to run a candidate in the general election for mayor, teeing up what could shape up to be the first competitive general election in New York City in more than a decade.
NBA legend Charles Oakley’s lawyer is urging a judge to disqualify First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro from defending MSG against a lawsuit brought by the former basketball star, after Mastro’s decision to stay on the case sparked ethics concerns.
Former City Comptroller Scott Stringer recently launched The Sick and Tired hotline, where potential voters can text him (at 646-601-5882) their questions about how he would deal with their gripes with the city if elected mayor.
City Comptroller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander called on Related Companies to pull the plug on its bid to develop a casino on Manhattan’s west side, saying the plan would pose a burden on the High Line and fall short when it comes to affordable housing.
One of the city’s most influential unions, 32BJ, will endorse Keith Powers for Manhattan borough president.
A Bronx man has been indicted after allegedly verbally and physically assaulting a gay Hispanic couple in Midtown earlier this month, according to the Manhattan district attorney’s office.
Wig-making social media influencer Miriam Yarimi denied killing anyone and said she was “haunted inside” after mowing down a mother and her two young children in a Brooklyn crosswalk, prosecutors said yesterday during her first court appearance.
Two New York police officers were suspended after a stolen SUV that they had chased was found engulfed in flames early Wednesday morning, with the driver dead inside, officials said.
New York City recorded the lowest number of shootings in any first quarter of the modern era during the first three months of 2025, police said. Rapes, however, increased by 21% the first quarter of 2025 compared to the same period last year.
Amtrak temporarily suspended all rail service out of New York Penn Station and Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station following a track incident in Pennsylvania yesterday evening, officials said.
Miller Gardner, the 14-year-old son of the longtime Yankees player Brett Gardner, died of carbon monoxide poisoning while on vacation with his family last month, the Costa Rican authorities said.
The Medical Society of the State of New York has called on Albany-based nonprofit health insurer CDPHP to make tens of millions of dollars in payments that it believes are due to doctors’ practices across the state.
Declining quality of care, increased fees and serious customer service issues at Optum-owned health care facilities were among the problems named by respondents to a community survey launched in late February by U.S. Rep. Pat Ryan.
A group of half a dozen Uncommon Grounds workers gathered outside its Saratoga Springs location yesterday to announce their union campaign, backed by a sign with the slogan: “It shouldn’t be uncommon to treat your workers right.”
City of Troy Comptroller Jack Krokos has resigned less than three months into the job, officials confirmed this week, saying he departed due to “family obligations.”
A group of St. Lawrence middle-schoolers on their first state Capitol visit as part of a class field trip coordinated with a GOP lawmaker learned a dubious lesson in civic engagement when they were ordered out of the Assembly during a child care debate.
Former Albany Fire Chief Warren Abriel Jr., a fourth-generation firefighter from a family whose history with the department goes back to the 19th century, died at the age of 76.
A woman recently fired after giving the go-ahead for a demonstration at the Niskayuna Town Hall gazebo where a local teacher critical of Trump admitted he touched former students says the town is using her as a scapegoat.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
