Good morning, it’s Wednesday.
It’s National Walking Day, observed annually on the first Wednesday in April since it was launched by the American Heart Association in 2007 as part of its efforts to promote heart healthy habits and save lives.
As the weather is improving, I am trying to make it a point to get outside more (in addition to my usual workouts). If I can squeeze it in, I take a brisk walk in the afternoon. Even just 15 minutes in the fresh air and sunshine is enough to elevate my mood and energy levels even more (sometimes) than a midday espresso, which I try to avoid because insomnia, or sugary snack.
This is scientifically proven. Walking can help improve your mood because it increases blood flow to your brain and helps improve circulation.
There are a lot of other benefits – weight loss, stress relief, better sleep, and overall improvement in cardiovascular health. Walking after you eat, specifically, can also help improve your digestion and lower your blood sugar. (Remember if you’re walking at night to wear reflective clothing because distracted driving is, unfortunately, a real thing).
All of that, and it’s completely free. No gym membership or special equipment – other than a decent pair of shoes – is necessary, though you certainly can, if you so choose, up your walking game with any number of pricey accoutrements.
You could, for example, add more hills to your route, pick up your pace, or incorporate some light jogging.
Or, you could take up Nordic walking, which involves using specially designed trekking poles, swinging them in opposition to your stride and pushing off the ground. (As an aside, I own a pair of these and use them for hiking, which really does save your knees in a big way – especially on the descent).
Using poles while walking engages the upper body and core, burns more calories, and can help better your balance and stability.
If you want to kick things up a notch further, try rucking, which sounds fancy, but really is just walking with a weight on your back, usually in the form of a pack. You can buy an expensive weighted pack or weight vest, or you can simply put some stuff into a backpack – I’m sure you’ve got one of those lying around – strap it on and away you go.
Rucking is a low impact exercise that is based on military workouts. Soldiers regularly march long distances of 12+ miles carrying a variety of gear, weighing upwards of 60+ pounds. (The British Royal Marines call this “yomping“, which is amusing). There isn’t a lot of risk involved, compared to other exercises, as long as you start with a reasonable weight and build up slowly.
Also, while rucking on trails (grass, stone, sand etc.) will burn more calories, you don’t HAVE to ruck in the woods. Urban rucking is a thing – I am a big fan, and you might even see me doing stair repeats outside RPI. That is not a bulletproof vest I’ve got on, contrary to popular belief.
Rucking has become incredibly trendy and popular in recent years, but don’t let that deter you. The benefits are many – building muscle, improving stamina, burning fat etc. – and since people have been walking for hundreds of years, it doesn’t require any special skill.
The whole 10,000 steps thing turns out to be highly questionable. Instead of focusing on hitting a specific step count number or distance, try timing your walks. The best practice is to walk for between 30 and 45 minutes – anywhere from 2 to 4 miles, depending on your pace. You can break this up into little chunks of exercise “snacks” or do it all at once.
If you need motivation or help sticking to your walking routine, try pairing up with a friend. Or, better yet, get a dog. Rain or shine, hot or cold, dogs need to go out for walkies. If that doesn’t get you out the door, nothing will.
Today will be not bad for walking, from a weather perspective. We’ll see a mix of sun and clouds in the morning, with clouds thickening as the day progresses. Temperatures will top out in the high 40s.
In the headlines…
President Donald Trump has settled on a final plan for sweeping “reciprocal” tariffs, which are expected to take effect today after he announces the details at an afternoon Rose Garden ceremony.
The White House has not said how high the tariffs could go on what the president has dubbed “Liberation Day”, although various possible rates have been floated by analysts.
The administration has been weighing several different tariff strategies. One option examined by the White House is a 20 percent flat tariff on all imports, which advisers have said could help raise more than $6 trillion in revenue for the U.S. government.
Energized against the new Trump era, and against Elon Musk, Democrats pulled off a crucial special election judicial victory in Wisconsin and cut into Republican margins in two Florida congressional races.
Liberal Wisconsin Judge Susan Crawford handily beat Judge Brad Schimel, who ran on his loyalty to Trump and was aided by $25 million in spending by Musk, along with personal appearances by the president’s billionaire policy aide.
Crawford’s win maintained the liberal majority on the court in a key battleground state less than three months into Trump’s second term. The race was officially nonpartisan, but her victory was seen as a bright spot for Democrats in Wisconsin and nationwide.
A GOP-backed referendum to enshrine Wisconsin’s voter ID requirement in the state Constitution passed overwhelmingly, even as voters kept the state Supreme Court in liberals’ hands.
Republicans Jimmy Patronis and Randy Fine won special elections in two Florida congressional districts, bolstered by Trump’s endorsement to fill vacant seats in reliably Republican strongholds. The wins bolster the GOP House margin to 220-213.
While GOP wins were widely expected in both districts — two of the most heavily Republican in the country — it’s notable that Democrats narrowed the margins considerably from November.
New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker last night surpassed Strom Thurmond for the longest Senate speech on record, in an act of astonishing stamina that he framed as a call to action against the Trump administration.
Booker ended his speech at 8:05 p.m., 46 minutes after eclipsing Thurmond’s 24-hour 18-minute filibuster of a civil rights bill in 1957. He finished by quoting John Lewis, the civil rights hero and congressman.
Without bathroom breaks but with occasional pauses for encouraging questions from his fellow Democrats, Booker read from a binder of notes and waved a copy of the U.S. Constitution. He gesticulated and roared. At times, he draped himself over his lectern.
House Republican leaders yesterday canceled votes for the rest of the week after a band of GOP lawmakers staged a rebellion on the floor, bringing legislative action to a screeching halt.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has ordered diplomats overseas to scrutinize the social media content of some applicants for student and other types of visas, in an effort to bar those suspected of criticizing the US and Israel from entering the country.
Federal agencies have accelerated their efforts to cut thousands of jobs, offering buyouts and eliminating entire offices as the Trump administration’s deadline to downsize approaches.
The Trump administration laid off thousands of federal health workers yesterday in a purge that included senior leaders and top scientists charged with regulating food and drugs, protecting Americans from disease and researching new treatments and cures.
A federal judge in Maryland ordered the Trump administration to stop firing probationary employees who live or work in 19 states and the District of Columbia while a legal challenge to the mass terminations makes its way through the courts.
Trump announced his administration struck a deal with a law firm with ties to former second gentleman Doug Emhoff and the House panel that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol as Trump targets major firms for retribution.
The agreement with Willkie Farr & Gallagher states the firm will provide the equivalent of $100 million in pro bono legal services for causes the administration supports. It is the third such arrangement the White House has reached with a major law firm.
U.S. AG Pam Bondi has directed prosecutors to seek the death penalty against Luigi Mangione in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, following through on Trump’s campaign promise to vigorously pursue capital punishment.
It is the first time the Justice Department has sought to bring the death penalty since Trump returned to office in January with a vow to resume federal executions after they were halted under the previous administration.
“Luigi Mangione’s murder of Brian Thompson — an innocent man and father of two young children — was a premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America,” Bondi said. She described Thompson’s killing as “an act of political violence.”
Gov. Kathy Hochul’s budget folks are trudging along after missing the midnight Monday deadline, and state lawmakers are starting to get miffed.
“We’re not even discussing numbers,” a rankled Democratic state Sen. Liz Krueger told POLITICO Pro’s Bill Mahoney. “(Hochul’s) obsessed with her policy, and she doesn’t even want to talk about the other stuff. It’s frustrating.”
The Legislature agreed to pass an extender that will keep state workers paid and the government funded through Thursday. But lawmakers expect to miss that deadline, too.
Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie have said that policy disputes, not finances, are the main thing holding up the budget, though there are also questions about how to fund the MTA capital plan.
State lawmakers are pushing back on a proposal from Hochul that would result in New York City’s school system receiving $350 million less than expected.
The state attorney general’s office has asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed last month by the U.S. Department of Justice challenging a New York law that has allowed thousands of nonresident immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses.
New York’s beleaguered reorganization of a popular home care program faces a new roadblock after a federal judge issued a TRO blocking the state DOH from immediately ceasing to work with companies that have facilitated the services.
New York is going to begin letting incarcerated people out of understaffed state prisons if they are within 110 days of their release date and have a residence where they can live that has been verified by parole officers.
Two Democratic legislators introduced a bill aimed at Musk and the so-called Buffalo Billion project, in which the state spent $959 million to build and equip a plant that Musk’s company leases for $1 a year to operate a solar panel and auto component factory.
New York Attorney General Letitia James and 23 other attorneys general are suing the federal government to restore $400 million in funding that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services clawed back from the state last week.
Eight people, including a mother and her three children, were taken into custody by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement from an upstate New York farm last week — and now Hochul is calling for their release and return to the Empire State.
If Bally’s wins a casino license in the Bronx, it would have to pay the Trump Organization $115 million, according to a purchase agreement. That’s on top of the $60 million Bally’s already paid to acquire the remainder of its lease for the city-owned golf course.
As the deadline to file petitions to get on the June 24 primary ballot nears, Mayor Eric Adams would not say if he will have enough signatures by tomorrow night’s deadline to compete in the Democratic primary.
Some legal observers say the court-appointed expert who recommended dismissing charges against Adams failed to account for the extraordinary factors in the case.
Adams implored Albany pols to finally make changes to discovery laws and involuntary commitment – as he claimed that some state lawmakers deny the Big Apple even has a recidivism problem.
Though his own campaign status is in doubt, Adams was highly critical of two of the candidates leading the race for his post – Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo – during his weekly press conference yesterday.
A New York federal judge threw out a proposed class action suit blaming Cuomo and other state officials for COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes, saying the claims are legally deficient.
Mamdani wants to spend $1.1 billion on a new department overseeing mental health calls instead of the NYPD — a proposal panned as “another pie in the sky idea” by law enforcement experts.
Mayoral hopeful Scott Stringer is spelling out his plan to recruit and retain cops among the depleted ranks of the New York City Police Department, unveiling a plan today proposing reduced hours and on-site day care for working parents.
As the Adams administration fights to keep control of Rikers Island and other New York City lockups that have been plagued by violence and deaths, five incarcerated people have already died this year – the same number that died throughout all of 2024.
Comptroller candidate Justin Brannan is holding a campaign fundraiser Saturday with far-left anti-Israel Democratic Socialist Councilwoman Tiffany Caban — while rival Mark Levine released a poll claiming he’s on track to easily win the primary election.
The city has long grappled with traffic fatalities. Officials and residents are now asking what more can be done after a fatal crash that killed a woman and two of her children.
Violent crime in New York City took a nosedive in the early months of 2025 under NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch’s no-nonsense leadership.
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards took up arms in the battle to save Forest Hills Stadium as its concert series hangs in the balance — accusing neighbors of looking for an excuse to keep black concert-goers out of the wealthy nabe.
A federal judge has ruled that the lawsuit challenging the detention of Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student and lawful permanent U.S. resident, will proceed in New Jersey — not Louisiana, where Khalil is currently being held.
The decision, announced by the New York Civil Liberties Union and its legal partners, marks the second time a court has rejected the Trump administration’s attempts to move Khalil’s case to a Louisiana court.
Columbia University’s move to use police to clear demonstrators from a campus building last spring could have been avoided, as some students were urgently asking if they could leave voluntarily, according to a report released by the university’s senate.
Defense lawyers are calling for a city investigation into what they describe as the NYPD’s “unlawful” practice of detaining people for low-level offenses instead of issuing court summonses.
Albany Park Ride & Fly, which has offered an off-airport parking service complete with a shuttle service for the past 37 years, is closing on April 27.
Schenectady Mayor Gary McCarthy said plans to begin fining property owners who flout a new law requiring them to place stickers on bulky trash items for pickup are on hold temporarily.
Shelby Schneider, previously deputy director of the New York State Economic Development Council, has been hired as CEO of Upstate Capital.
Val Kilmer, the film star who starred in “Top Gun” and “Batman Forever,” died yesterday in Los Angeles at the age of 65. He succumbed to pneumonia. He was diagnosed with throat cancer, which required two tracheotomies, in 2015 and later recovered.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
