Good Tuesday morning. A brand-new month is upon us!

Given what passes for normal these days, it’s hard to imagine anyone being taken in by an April Fool’s joke.

When the world is so damn unbelievable in real life – We’re going to annex Greenland! Screw the U.S. Constitution, the president is going to run for a third term! Let’s cut 6,000+ IRS employees in the middle of tax season! – quite literally anything is possible.

And before you come at me about all those examples being political, remember that I have never, for the record, for a second hidden my political leanings since leaving journalism. So, if you’re surprised I don’t know what it is you’re doing here.

That said, there are plenty of absolutely gob smacking things that have nothing to do with politics that – once you know them – render you completely unflappable when it comes to falling for pranks, jokes, and lies. For example, did you know:

In a simpler and less interconnected time, people were a lot more gullible. That is to say that back when no one had an entire universe of information at their fingertips 24 hours a day, it was easier to pull the wool over their eyes.

So, as hard as it is to believe in this day and age that anyone would fall for an April Fool’s prank in which a bona fide news organization “reported” about a spaghetti harvest in Switzerland, in which the locals plucked fresh pasta from the trees, this actually occurred.

What is believed to have been the first successful televised April Fool’s prank turned out to be something of a headache for the BBC. It fielded calls from excited viewers who wanted to know where they could purchase these miraculous trees, and also from people who were angry that the venerable (publicly funded) station would act so irresponsibly.

For the record, the BBC did continue the joke long after it aired, responding to people who wanted to know how to grow their own spaghetti tree that they should “place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best.”

Though they don’t measure up to The Beeb’s pasta-in-the-trees prank, there have been some other pretty darn good April Fool’s jokes perpetrated on the general public over the years – including by corporate America.

I am a newfound fan of the “Snoop Frog” pandemic-era collaboration between the renowned rapper and entrepreneur and the advocacy organization In Defense of Animals. (The purported purpose was to raise awareness about the dangers to amphibians of “chytrid fungus” and a push to use synthetic frogs in classroom dissections).

Still, for all my rabbit hole exploration in anticipation of penning this post, nothing quite hits like the spaghetti tree. But the day is young, there’s still time to pleasantly surprise me.

Get ready for weather whiplash. From the sublime – temperatures in the low 70s – to the ridiculous. It will only top out in the mid-to-high 40s today, and skies will be partly cloudy. There’s no rain in the forecast, so at least there’s that.

In the headlines…

Two states nearly a thousand miles apart today will provide the best evidence yet of whether President Donald Trump and his Republican allies maintain robust support or whether they face a growing backlash led by a re-energized Democratic Party.

In Wisconsin, a nearly $100 million race for control of the State Supreme Court has morphed from an important clash over the state’s direction into a referendum on Elon Musk’s supersized role in national politics.

In Florida, one of two special elections for deep-red House seats suddenly seems too close for comfort for Republicans. Democrats, while still expecting to lose, are watching the margins closely for signs that their party is ascendant.

Nearly every arm of the Democratic Party united in filing a lawsuit against the Trump administration, arguing that a recent executive order signed by Trump seeking to require documentary proof of citizenship and other voting reforms is unconstitutional.

The 70-page lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court in Washington, D.C., accuses the president of vastly overstepping his authority to “upturn the electoral playing field in his favor and against his political rivals.”

The Campaign Legal Center and the State Democracy Defenders Fund brought the first lawsuit yesterday afternoon. The DNC, the Democratic Governors Association, and Senate and House Democratic leaders followed soon after with a complaint of their own.

Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan immigrants will be allowed to remain in the United States without risk of deportation after a federal judge in San Francisco delayed Trump administration actions rolling back a program known as Temporary Protected Status.

The Trump administration on Sunday sent a fourth plane carrying deportees to El Salvador, claiming it was acting under a different authority than the obscure wartime law that it cited previously, prompting a federal judge to block the transfers.

The S&P 500 ended March with its steepest monthly decline in more than two years, driven by uncertainty about the scope of President Trump’s tariffs, which investors fear could accelerate inflation, slow consumer spending and stall the U.S. economy.

The S&P 500 rose 0.6% in another roller-coaster day, after being down as much as 1.7% during the morning. The reversal helped the index shave its loss for the first three months of the year to 4.6%, making it the worst quarter in two-and-a-half years.

Trump told NBC News that he would not fire anyone involved in the Signal group chat in which military attack plans were inadvertently divulged to a journalist and added later that he “couldn’t care less” if automakers raised prices because of new tariffs.

The notion that there is more to life than low-cost imports is an acknowledgment that tariffs could impose additional costs on Americans.

House Republican fiscal hawks are lining up against the Senate GOP’s emerging budget plan, threatening yet another delay in the party’s ability to begin drafting legislation to enact Trump’s agenda.

New Jersey Democratic Sen. Cory Booker is planning to hold the Senate floor for as long as he can in an effort to protest actions by Trump and congressional Republicans.

Booker took to the floor at 7 p.m. As of midnight ET, he was still speaking and had touched on a number of topics The speech is not a filibuster because Booker is not blocking legislation or a nomination, though he could disrupt business of the chamber today.

Booker said in video posted to media ahead of his speech that he was heading to the Senate floor because Trump and Musk “have shown a complete disregard for the rule of law, the Constitution, and the needs of the American people.”

“I rise with the intention of disrupting the normal business of the United States Senate for as long as I am physically able,” Booker said at the start of his speech. “I rise tonight because I believe sincerely that our country is in crisis.”

Claire Shipman is only days into her job as acting president of Columbia University but is already being targeted by a prominent House Republican – Rep. Elise Stefanik – who questions her commitment to fighting antisemitism on campus.

Stefanik predicted the new acting president of Columbia University “won’t last” after the prestigious institution lost its second leader in recent months to scrutiny of its handling of pro-Palestinian protests and antisemitism on campus.

College acceptance letters are rolling in — and, suddenly, some applicants don’t even want to hear from Columbia. An admissions consultant who helped 10 clients get accepted to the Ivy League school’s Class of ’29 said that not a single one plans to attend.

Trump tapped a former Long Island House member who lost a scandal-tinged reelection bid last year, Anthony Esposito, to serve as the Labor Department’s internal watchdog as part of a slate of nominations for top jobs at the agency announced.

Rep. Mike Lawler bragged about obtaining $32 million in federally funded projects for his Westchester County district before last November’s election. But after he won, he voted for a GOP spending bill that left out the grants for those community projects.

Cornell University student Momodou Taal, whose visa was revoked over his involvement in pro-Palestinian campus protests, said he left the US voluntarily after a judge declined to intervene to block the Trump administration from taking steps to deport him.

“I have lost faith I could walk the streets without being abducted,” Taal said on X, “Weighing up these options, I took the decision to leave on my own terms.”

Taal, a doctoral candidate in Africana Studies, had his student visa revoked due to his involvement in “disruptive protests,” and for disregarding university policies and creating a hostile environment for Jewish students, according to US government officials.

The University of Minnesota graduate student who was detained by immigration agents last week hadn’t participated in campus activism or been outspoken on political issues, according to a lawsuit he filed in federal court challenging the legality of his arrest.

Gov. Kathy Hochul is willing to hold up the state’s spending plan “as long as it takes” to get her proposals on discovery and involuntary commitment passed in the face of stiff opposition, her budget chief, Blake Washington, said.

Washington said Hochul “just can’t compromise” on her proposals to change discovery law and “mental hygiene” policy, a reference to her plan to lower the standard for involuntary commitment of the mentally ill.

Still up in the air are deals on policy items involving mental health, criminal justice and new taxes to help pay for future MTA projects.

Washington said budget officials have teed up a budget extender through Thursday for the Legislature to vote on. If there’s no budget by then, which is expected, the lawmakers will vote on another.

Progressive groups including The Legal Aid Society are putting the squeeze on New York lawmakers to reject Hochul’s proposals on involuntary commitment and discovery reform – and helping hold the state budget past its April 1 deadline.

The National Employment Law Project (NELP) has called on Hochul to delay the transition of New York’s Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program (CDPAP) to a single statewide fiscal intermediary, Public Partnerships, LLC. 

Groups representing survivors of sexual and domestic violence are split over Hochul’s proposal to change New York’s discovery laws. 

A coalition of environmental advocacy groups is suing New York over its slower than expected implementation of its landmark climate law, which requires regulations to meet the state’s mandated transition away from fossil fuels to reduce carbon emissions.

By not releasing economy-wide emissions rules, the suit alleges, the state DEC is “defying the Legislature’s clear directive” and “prolonging New Yorkers’ exposure to air pollution … especially in disadvantaged communities.”

A judge has granted a motion that will pause the effective date of a new law that limits the outside income of members of the state Legislature pending the outcome of an appeal by Republicans who are challenging the constitutionality of the 2023 statute.

Two state lawmakers are pushing a bill to force bad drivers to install tech on their cars that would stop them from going faster than 5 mph above the speed limit.

With days left before a critical campaign deadline, New York City Mayor Eric Adams is urging a federal judge to toss his five-court bribery case so he can run unencumbered.

Adams’ criminal defense attorney, Alex Spiro, penned a letter Monday to Judge Dale Ho saying Adams wants to proceed with his reelection bid without the criminal case hanging over his head.

“Now, with the petition-filing deadline just days away, we respectfully urge the court to issue its decision as soon as practicable,” Spiro wrote.

Adams made a last-minute push to cut income taxes for low-income New Yorkers as part of the upcoming state budget.

Two Manhattan lawmakers are advancing legislation to try to block mayoral front-runner Andrew Cuomo from using taxpayer dollars to bring another lawsuit against his longtime political nemesis, New York Attorney General Letitia James.

The former governor is running a “Rose Garden” strategy in his comeback bid for mayor, keeping his interactions with the public and press to a minimum, an anti-Cuomo group claims.

The former mayor of Syracuse, Stephanie Miner, says then-Gov. Cuomo forcibly kissed her several times when she was in office, and she angrily describes the encounters as “all about power.’’

Assemblymember and mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s public safety plan doesn’t call for hiring more cops, but creates a new city agency that would focus on expanding violence interrupter programs and mental health teams that respond to 911 calls.

Rep. Nydia Velázquez, a powerbroker of Brooklyn and Queens politics, is throwing her weight behind Justin Brannan’s city comptroller run, giving him his first endorsement from a member of New York’s congressional delegation.

Rep. Adriano Espaillat has endorsed City Councilman Keith Powers in the race for Manhattan borough president, his most prominent endorsement yet.

Dasheeda Dawson, who is in charge of helping people start New York City cannabis businesses, resigned abruptly as her agency investigated an accusation that she tried to pressure a woman into a polyamorous relationship in exchange for a city contract.

Announcing her departure on LinkedIn, Dawson reflected on the strides made under her leadership and signaled her intent to expand her influence on state and federal cannabis policy.

Dawson had said she formally stepped down from her role at Cannabis NYC to get some rest and relaxation before she takes on her next project.

Two rookie NYPD officers were arrested for stealing from two women and groping one of them while in uniform in Jackson Heights, according to police and prosecutors.

A former FDNY chief who pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge after federal prosecutors accused him and a colleague of taking more than $100,000 in bribes was sentenced to 20 months in prison in a Manhattan courtroom yesterday.

Redbirds will once again take flight on Queens’ elevated subway tracks on Friday, more than two decades after the MTA retired the vintage train cars.

The leader of the largest school district in the Capital Region, L. Oliver Robinson, is retiring at the end of the school year after leading Shenendehowa for nearly 20 years.

A federal lawsuit filed on behalf of a former server at the Spa City restaurant 15 Church alleges tip misappropriation and other pay irregularities and seeks class-action status to represent additional waitstaff who may have experienced similar treatment. 

The lone homeowner preventing the construction of a Costco in Guilderland has reportedly sold for more than $1.1 million.

Photo credit: George Fazio.