Good morning, it’s Monday.
On this day in 1862, French forces sent by Napoleon III, who thought it would be a nice idea to establish a satellite state in Mexico, were defeated by the Mexican army in the Battle of Puebla.
The Mexican militia was largely outnumbered in this fight, with about one third of the number of French soldiers. Also, the Mexicans – most of whom were volunteers who left off tending their crops to come defend their country – were ill-equipped compared to the well-trained French, with only outdated guns or even farm tools at their disposal.
Nevertheless, they were able to turn back the French invaders, thwarting their path to Mexico City, in just a single day.
It’s a good thing the Mexicans were successful – not only for their country’s sake, but also for ours. There are some historians who believe that had the French been victorious, they would have engaged in the Civil War on the side of the Confederacy, which could have changed the outcome that war – and the direction of history – for the United States, and for slavery, too.
Apparently, the French were unhappy with the Union’s blockade of southern ports, which was making it difficult for cotton growers to export their wars, and, in turn, having a negative effect (AKA the “cotton famine“) on the French textile industry.
Publicly, Napoleon maintained an attitude of neutrality, but behind the scenes, he was angling on behalf of the Confederacy and even considered recognizing it as a separate nation – a move he and his advisors ultimately rejected out of fear of a full-scale war with the U.S.
Cino de Mayo, as this day is known, is a holiday that celebrates Mexico’s determination to maintain its independence and reject foreign intervention. However, ironically, it has become a bigger deal here in the states than it is in Mexico itself. It is a significant day in the state of Puebla, with a recreation of the Battle of Puebla and military parades, but it’s not a federal holiday and so elsewhere in the country, it’s pretty much business as usual.
Cinco de Mayo should not be confused with Independence Day in Mexico (Día de la Independencia), which is commemorated on September 16.
In the U.S., meanwhile, Cinco de Mayo has evolved into a celebration of Mexican culture and heritage, with lots of food, music, and fun. (There have been some concerns about the commercialization of the holiday, which has led to accusations of cultural appropriation). Unfortunately, this year, it’s falling on a Monday, which doesn’t lend itself to in depth margarita consumption, per se, but perhaps a basket of chips and guac and some moles, chilaquiles, or tamales, are in order.
If you are celebrating, you’re probably going to want to do so inside.
So much for April showers and May flowers. Someone must have forgotten to tell Mother Nature that we turned the calendar over into a brand new moth, because the showers are continuing well into May. The weather we’re having lately is perfect – if you happen to be a duck. Otherwise, this is a very good time to invest in a high quality raincoat. “
A steady rain in the morning will give way to showers in the afternoon today, with temperatures in the low 60s.
In the headlines…
President Trump said he didn’t know if every person on US soil was entitled to due process, despite constitutional guarantees, and complained that adhering to that principle would result in an unmanageable slowdown of his mass deportation program.
The revealing exchange, on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” was prompted by the interviewer Kristen Welker asking Trump if he agreed with Secretary of State Marco Rubio that citizens and noncitizens in the United States were entitled to due process.
In response to a clip posted to the social platform X, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said the president “has just admitted that he ‘doesn’t know’ whether he needs to uphold the Constitution.” “This is as un-American as it gets,” he added.
During the interview, Trump also ruled out running for a third term — which the Constitution prohibits. “This is not something I’m looking to do,” he said. “I’m looking to have four great years and turn it over to somebody.”
“I’ll be an eight-year president, I’ll be a two-term president. I always thought that was very important,” Trump said, acknowledging the constitutional constraints preventing him from seeking a third term.
Trump, who has frequently raised the idea of pursuing a third term in defiance of the Constitution, told “Meet the Press” that his vice president, J.D. Vance, and his secretary of state, Marco Rubio, were potential successors.
Trump says he is directing his government to reopen and expand Alcatraz, the notorious former prison on a hard-to-reach California island off San Francisco that has been closed for more than 60 years.
“For too long, America has been plagued by vicious, violent, and repeat Criminal Offenders, the dregs of society, who will never contribute anything other than Misery and Suffering,” he wrote on Truth Social.
Trump said he will hit movies made in foreign countries with 100% tariffs, as he ramps up trade disputes with nations around the world.
“The Movie Industry in America is DYING a very fast death. Other Countries are offering all sorts of incentives to draw our filmmakers and studios away from the United States,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
“This is a concerted effort by other Nations and, therefore, a National Security threat,” he added. “It is, in addition to everything else, messaging and propaganda!”
An AI-generated image of Trump dressed as the pope is drawing criticism from some Catholics after it was posted on social media just days before the papal conclave to select the next pontiff begins in Rome.
Trump confirmed that he had pressed Mexico’s president to let U.S. troops into the country to help fight drug cartels, an idea she summarily rejected.
Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the Proud Boys, said he personally thanked Trump on Saturday night for issuing a pardon that cut short the 22-year prison term he was serving in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
Republicans are at loggerheads over the fate of a controversial tax deduction that is critical to winning enough votes in the House to pass Trump’s legislative agenda.
A pro-Trump group is running ads in 10 swing House Democratic districts across the US — including those of Rep. Laura Gillen on Long Island and Josh Riley in the Hudson Valley — to push tax-cut extensions.
Billionaire investor and Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett, 94, announced he’ll retire at the end of the year, in favor of his long-designated successor, Greg Abel.
“I think the time has arrived where Greg should become the chief executive officer of the company at year end,” Buffett said, shocking an arena full of shareholders.
The United States would be better off, and safer, with a prosperous free-trade world than one where others are left behind, Buffett said.
This year’s state budget is now the latest budget in 15 years. According to Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, leaders are close to wrapping up budget talks, but there are at least two outstanding issues to resolve: Foundation Aid and capital funding.
“The governor controls 90% of this budget process, so ask the person who controls 90% of it. Maybe she’ll tell you it’s done,” state Sen. Liz Krueger quipped to reporters before leaving for the long weekend.
State budgets have always provided a fiscal road map for the priorities of the governor and state legislative leaders. But in New York, the budget can also be a blueprint for an assortment of political imperatives and a roadmap for future campaigns.
New York lawmakers are considering a measure that would dramatically weaken their oversight over religious schools, potentially a major victory for the state’s Hasidic Jewish community.
Gov. Kathy Hochul has finally (sort of) come around on the Housing Access Voucher Program as part of the state budget, but not for free.
Hochul and the state Legislature are planning to use the state budget to allocate more taxpayer money for candidates running for public office.
Hochul shored up her public safety agenda when state lawmakers agreed to loosen the legal standard for involuntary commitment of the mentally ill — a major victory for the Democrat and a sign that political winds on the issue are shifting to the center.
Political spats, an FBI probe and a mysterious house break in are swirling around Hochul’s decision to wrest control of a Long Island hospital that Democrats say serves as a patronage palace for Nassau County’s GOP.
Nassau University Medical officials said the once financially challenged hospital doesn’t need the state to step in because it has turned things around and is on track to net an $11 million profit this year.
North Country GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik believes she’s “in the strongest position to defeat” Gov. Hochul and become the first Republican leader of New York state in nearly 20 years, as she inches closer to a 2026 challenge.
Stefanik specifically expressed frustration with New York being the “highest tax state” within the country, one of several “crises” she argued Hochul and “single-party Democrat rule” brought into the state.
Federal cuts to AmeriCorps funding have “ripped away” more than $26 million in community service projects across the state and will result in the termination of thousands of New Yorkers who work for the agency, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said.
New York State Attorney General Letitia James says she plans to sue the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to block cuts to key programs for low-income Americans, people with disabilities and people contemplating suicide.
New York State transportation officials had fun with Star Wars Day over the weekend, translating digital highway signs into Yoda-speak to tout road safety.
New York City officials will install panic buttons in 500 bodegas with the highest levels of crime to allow employees to immediately call the police during an emergency, Mayor Eric Adams announced.
The buttons will connect directly to the NYPD’s central command center, bypassing traditional 911 dispatchers to reduce response times, the mayor said.
Randy Mastro in the Daily News: “When I recently returned to City Hall, I asked myself this question: “Are we better off today than we were four years ago?” Now, having just helped Mayor Adams prepare his latest budget, I know the answer: we surely are. “
The Justice Department failed to publicly disclose documents in the now-dismissed corruption case against Adams by a Friday deadline, in apparent defiance of a court order.
The US Department of Justice asked a federal judge Saturday for a week-long extension to unseal documents in Adams’ dismissed corruption case – after missing the deadline a day earlier.
A series of ads designed by Adams’ team boasts about how great things have been since he took office — but critics aren’t buying the rosy picture the campaign is selling.
Adams is exploring a move to abandon the current plan to close Rikers Island, and instead turn the borough-based sites intended to replace the notorious jail complex into housing.
“Squad” Rep. Rashida Tlaib is doing a text blast to raise funds for a super PAC backing Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani for mayor — but not everyone is pleased with the solicitation.
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo holds stock options in an advanced nuclear technology company worth more than $2.6 million, but did not disclose those assets in filings with the New York City Conflicts of Interest Board.
Nearly all of the mayoral candidates have made housing policy a key part of their campaign platforms. But this November, housing itself could appear on the ballot in the form of measures put forward by a 13-member panel of mayoral appointees.
Ella Emhoff, the stepdaughter of failed presidential candidate Kamala Harris, officially backed Democratic socialist candidate Zohran Mamdani for New York City mayor yesterday ahead of his rally at Brooklyn Steel.
Emhoff, whose father is former second gentleman Doug Emhoff, shared a video on Instagram of herself and Mamdani together at Brooklyn Steel ahead of the candidate’s speech.
NYC Public Advocate Jumaane Williams recently lost a two-family home he owned in Brooklyn to Bank of America after racking up nearly $1 million in debt over 15 years by refusing to pay his mortgage.
Members of New York’s largest health care workers union ousted their longtime president, George Gresham, amid accusations of mismanagement and lavish spending.
The Subway-Surface Supervisors Association, the second largest city transit union, representing some 4,000 bus and subway supervisors, announced Friday it was backing Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine in his bid to become city comptroller.
New York City cultural institutions are reeling from the Trump administration’s abrupt withdrawal of National Endowment for the Arts funding, complicating upcoming summer productions.
Throngs of demonstrators marched through the normally sleepy streets of Sheepshead Bay to protest plans for a family homeless shelter — as locals claimed the city pulled a bait and switch to get the project approved.
The condo board at a troubled 1,400-foot luxury tower on New York City’s Billionaires’ Row is accusing developers of “deliberate and far-reaching fraud” by failing to disclose early cracks in the facade that it says could lead to dangerous structural issues.
Economic uncertainty is taking a giant bite out of New York Girl Scout cookie sales — leaving the local chapter of the organization with its lowest performing season in over a decade.
Celebrities from Cardi B to Tom Cruise who are staying at a tony Manhattan hotel for the posh Met Gala tonight will be confronted with an ugly labor dispute before walking the red carpet, union bigs warn.
Nearly all of the mayoral candidates have made housing policy a key part of their campaign platforms. But this November, housing itself could appear on the ballot in the form of measures put forward by a 13-member panel of mayoral appointees.
Manhattanhenge is coming back this month. On May 28 and May 29, the midpoint of the setting sun will align perfectly with Manhattan’s grid, flooding the canyon of buildings with its rays. The final day of Manhattanhenge comes on July 12.
Newark Airport was again plagued by dozens of cancellations and delays yesterday, the latest in a series of issues that prompted United Airlines to cut 35 daily flights from the airport.
A former Warren County jail correction officer will spend up to 25 years in state prison after years of abusing his ex-wife, prosecutors announced Friday.
Five Democratic candidates for Common Council had their petitions to run for office tossed after a recent hearing found errors, officials said.
Two top officials at Hudson Valley Community College have reportedly been forced to resign over allegations of waste, fraud, and abuse.
After two contentious committee meetings this week, the Albany County Legislature is poised to vote on whether to sell a county building at 60 S. Pearl St. to busy local developer Jeff Buell and a partner.
Saratoga Springs Mayor John Safford announced last week that he has appointed an 11-member Charter Review Commission that will once again be chaired by former City Attorney Vincent DeLeonardis.
The Saratoga County GOP named Bruce Tanski its “Republican Citizen of the Year” at a ceremony held at the politically active developer’s Halfmoon golf course.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
