Good Wednesday morning.
A lifetime ago when I was a cub reporter working for the Albany Times Union, I was sent to Plattsburgh to cover an ice storm. The city had declared a state of emergency, but somehow myself and a photographer were able to make it into the downtown area. (It was a long time ago now, and I’m little hazy on the details).
I do remember being absolutely floored at the devastating power of frozen water.
Every surface was covered with a thick layer of slick ice, making driving and even walking treacherous. Trees and power lines were down. People were stranded in their homes without access to heat, food, or medicine. Farmers who couldn’t milk their cows experienced outbreaks of mastitis, and some had to cull their own herds.
It was a serious mess. The National Guard was mobilized and we went house to house with them, knocking on doors to do wellness checks and help people who needed assistance in getting to shelters.
We also spent a considerable amount of time with the Red Cross volunteers, even spending a night on the floor of their makeshift headquarters in a vacant downtown storefront. They let me use their fax machine to file my stories (remember, this was a long time ago) and made sure we had something to eat.
This was my first up close and personal experience with the Red Cross, which, if you’re somehow not familiar, is a global humanitarian relief organization that is primarily focused on providing assistance (shelter, food, clothing, water, emotional support etc.) in the wake of a wide variety of crises – both manmade and natural – and also in educating people about disaster preparedness.
What’s truly amazing about all of that is that the Red Cross is a volunteer-based organization and operates largely off donations. The American Red Cross is part of the largest global volunteer network, located in nearly 200 countries.
The Red Cross was founded on this day in 1881 in Washington, D.C. by Clara Barton, who had learned of International Committee of the Red Cross while visiting Europe not long after the end of the Civil War.
Barton had cared for wounded soldiers during the war, earning the nickname “the Angel of the Battlefield” for her efforts, and while in Switzerland, volunteered to provide civilian relief during the Franco-Prussian War.
Barton returned to the U.S. determined to replicate the Red Cross movement here at home. The first Red Cross chapter was established by Barton right here in New York – in Dansville, which is in Livingston County. Red Cross Chapter No. 1 is now a National Historic Site and is open to the public as a museum for the organization’s history and is still a meeting site for local Red Cross volunteers and staff.
Visiting Red Cross Chapter No. 1 seems like a worthwhile side trip if you happen to be heading west, since you can view things like a program signed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the chair that the President sat in during the golden jubilee celebration in 1931.
Pro tip: Tours are free but by appointment only, and you need to fill out an online form (linked again here for good measure) in order to sign up.
It will be cloudy today and on the chilly side, with temperatures struggling to get out of the 50s. There’s a chance of rain in the evening.
In the headlines…
Speaker Mike Johnson and moderate Republicans reportedly have zeroed in on an agreement for the state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap, solving a critical hang-up that has dogged the party’s “big, beautiful bill.”
The new deduction cap, which would be per household, will be limited to taxpayers making below $500,000. Under the tentative deal, the income cap and the deduction will grow 1 percent every year over a ten-year window.
The speaker got an assist from President Donald Trump, who told the holdouts to cut a deal and warned them to stop pushing so hard.
Trump made clear to the holdouts – like New York Rep. Mike Lawler – that he didn’t want the SALT fight to upend the “big beautiful” bill stuffed with campaign promises to extend his 2017 tax reform law while eliminating rates on tips, overtime and Social Security.
The president visited the weekly meeting of House Republicans to make the case for the legislation and pressure members of his party to fall into line. Later, negotiations with key holdouts appeared to be bearing fruit.
It remains unclear whether GOP hardliners who oppose raising the SALT cap deductions will sign off on the measure.
Senate Democrats are vowing that Republicans will face consequences over holding a vote to nix California’s emission standard waivers — even after receiving guidance from the chamber’s parliamentarian that those waivers didn’t qualify for reversal.
The Republican-led Senate passed the No Tax on Tips Act in an unexpected unanimous decision yesterday afternoon.
A defiant Secretary of State Marco Rubio clashed in sometimes personal terms with his former Senate Democratic colleagues during a hearing yesterday, calling their criticism evidence of his success.
The United States hit its record debt level at the end of 1945, after a world war and the Great Depression. That record, in which the debt was briefly larger than the size of the entire economy, is almost certain to be broken in the next several years.
New emails document how a top aide to National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard ordered analysts to edit an assessment, hoping to insulating Trump and Gabbard from being attacked for the claim that Venezuela’s government controls a criminal gang.
Trump unveiled plans for his “Golden Dome” missile defense shield, predicting that the ambitious plan to expand the country’s air defense system would be completed by the end of his term.
A federal court ordered the Trump administration to maintain custody of migrants on a deportation flight that immigrants’ lawyers said was headed to South Sudan, a transfer the judge said appeared to violate an injunction he issued in April.
Former President Joe Biden had never received a diagnosis of prostate cancer before last week, his spokesman said, pushing back against speculation that there had been some sort of coverup around the illness.
The spokesman, Chris Meagher, also said Biden’s last-known prostate-specific antigen test, the most common way to screen for prostate cancer, was in 2014. Biden would have been 71 or 72 years old at the time.
Guidelines advise no screening after age 70, and doctors say that even men who test diligently may develop an aggressive cancer after none was found at a recent checkup.
Scott Adams, 67, the cartoonist who created the comic strip “Dilbert,” said on his podcast this week that he had the same kind of aggressive prostate cancer as Biden, and that it had spread to his bones. He said he had only months to live.
Adams, 67, is a supporter of Trump and has been critical of Biden, but he expressed his sympathy for the former president.
The Monday night federal charges against a House Democrat caught up in a raucous demonstration outside a New Jersey ICE facility upended what might have otherwise been a routine congressional hearing on ICE operations.
At the roughly two-hour hearing convened by the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Oversight, lawmakers lobbed partisan attacks and challenged the other party’s narrative surrounding the events on May 9 outside the Delaney Hall detention center.
Gov. Kathy Hochul formally apologized for New York’s role in operating a boarding school in which Native American children from tribes across the state were forced to assimilate into U.S. society while being subjected to physical and psychological abuse.
The governor acknowledged the gesture was “long overdue” but called it a first step toward healing and better relations with the tribe. “I cannot change the horrors of the past,” she said. “I wish I could just wipe it all away.”
A majority of voters want someone other than Hochul to be elected the next governor of the Empire State, according to a new poll.
The Siena College Poll released yesterday showed 55 percent said they want “someone else” in next year’s gubernatorial race, while 36 percent said they prefer her. That’s a 10-point net negative shift compared to the same poll from last month.
The breakup between Hochul and Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado has resulted in his removal from overseeing the state’s 10 regional economic development councils.
Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins doesn’t expect a “big ugly” bill at the end of this year’s session.
The most powerful New York City Democrat in the state Senate – Deputy Majority Leader Mike Gianaris – endorsed legislation that would allow billionaire Mets owner Steve Cohen to submit a bid to open an $8 billion casino complex next to Citi Field.
Mayor Eric Adams insisted that his friendlier approach to Trump is what persuaded the commander-in-chief to lift a federal pause on a major wind farm project off the coast of Brooklyn on May 19. Hochul also took credit for the about-face.
In opening remarks at the inaugural NYC Crypto Summit, Adams announced the development of a digital assets advisory council designed to help bring jobs and investment to New York City, as it aims to cement itself as the world’s “crypto capital.”
Adams said he would create a “digital assets advisory council” that will help the city attract investment and jobs in fintech and integrate blockchain technology into city services.
Adams said he’ll be “fine” if he isn’t re-elected, telling reporters he’s cool with all he’s accomplished in his lone term in office — and in life, adding: “I get up every day sit on the back porch of Gracie Mansion, drink my smoothie and say, ‘Damn, life is good.’”
Democrat Sam Sutton has won a special election for a New York state Senate seat, repelling Republican efforts to flip the conservative-leaning district.
Sutton, a businessman who has led a nonprofit for years, defeated Republican Nachman Caller, an attorney who previously ran for state Assembly a decade ago. His win keeps the seat in Democratic hands after the resignation of former state Sen. Simcha Felder.
The Justice Department has reportedly opened a criminal investigation into former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo after congressional Republicans recommended that he be charged with lying over his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The inquiry, begun about a month ago by the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, comes after senior Justice Department officials in February demanded the dismissal of an indictment of the city’s current mayor, Eric Adams, on corruption charges.
The investigation follows a letter from a House Republican panel that asked Attorney General Pam Bondi last year to prosecute Cuomo for allegedly lying to the panel that was probing his administration’s COVID-19 pandemic-era nursing home policies.
Rich Azzopardi, a spokesman for Cuomo, questioned the basis of the investigation. “We have never been informed of any such matter, so why would someone leak it now?” he said.
“The answer is obvious: This is lawfare and election interference plain and simple — something President Trump and his top Department of Justice officials say they are against,” Azzopardi said.
Even Cuomo’s rivals are not sure how news that the Justice Department is criminally investigating the former governor will affect his chances.
The Cuomo campaign released its first ad this week. The 30-second ad, titled “Crisis,” focuses on his stewardship as governor during the Covid crisis.
Cuomo released a 25-point education plan, boosting several policies backed by the New York teachers’ union while toning down his support for charter schools hated by the labor group.
Since announcing his bid for City Hall, Cuomo has only attended mayoral forums where candidates are quizzed by moderators one at a time — a strategy that has largely shielded him from public clashes with his opponents and unscripted press questions.
The family of a Manhattan borough president candidate, Democrat state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal, owns a Maryland housing complex that has racked up 1,600 violations for rodent infestations, mold and other disturbing issues, records show.
Trump’s administration has upended a years-long attempt by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn to block the sales of a device that allows rifles to quickly fire a volley of shots.
Carnegie Hall is suing the operator of several restaurants called the Carnegie Diner & Cafe, accusing it of infringing trademarks belonging to one of the world’s most prestigious music venues.
The modernist Breuer building, formerly home to the Whitney Museum of American Art and purchased by Sotheby’s auction house in 2023, yesterday had much of its interior designated as a landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission.
Law enforcement officers searching the Manhattan apartment of a man accused of assaulting three pro-Israel demonstrators at protests found $750,000 in cash in a safe, prosecutors said in court yesterday.
In Central Park, where coexistence among the crowds is often fragile, a new effort to keep everyone in his or her lane — walkers, runners and cyclists — is nearing completion.
Roughly one quarter of the corporate donors to New York City’s annual Pride festivities have either canceled or scaled back their support this year, citing economic uncertainty and fear that the Trump administration could punish corporations for DEI efforts.
Columbia University acting President Claire Shipman was met with loud boos and chants of “Free Mahmoud” as she took to the stage at a graduation ceremony yesterday.
Harvey Weinstein accuser Jessica Mann stared down the disgraced movie mogul after taking the witness stand yesterday, pointing a finger at her eyes as she stalked past the defense table in Manhattan Supreme Court.
An angry Sean “Diddy” Combs demanded $20,000 from Casandra “Cassie” Ventura’s mother and threatened to release explicit sex tapes of his longtime girlfriend after learning she was dating someone else, the mother testified at the hip-hop mogul’s trial.
Tens of thousands of concertgoers were potentially exposed to measles at a Shakira concert at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford last week, according to the New Jersey Department of Health.
The flight restrictions that have been in place at New Jersey’s largest airport ever since air traffic controllers first lost their radar and radios briefly last month will remain in place into June, the Federal Aviation Administration announced.
The interim order issued yesterday limits arrivals and departures to 28 per hour during weekday construction periods through June 15 and on Saturdays for the rest of the year. Outside those windows, the cap will be raised to 34 flights per hour until Oct. 25.
“Our goal is to relieve the substantial inconvenience to the traveling public from excessive flight delays,” acting FAA Administrator Chris Rocheleau said in a statement.
The FAA is investigating a brief radio system outage at the Philadelphia air traffic control center responsible for handling flights at Newark Liberty International Airport.
The Trump administration is allowing work to resume on an offshore wind project that was using the Port of Coeymans as a staging area.
For a couple dozen students, walking across the stage at University at Albany, Russell Sage College and Siena College was a triumph over statistics that predicted their failure.
Early morning voters in the Albany City School District had to vote using emergency ballots yesterday after voter sign-in software and ballot machines failed.
The City of Albany has agreed to pay $140,000 to a man who was arrested in March 2020 after berating firefighters when a fire restarted at his home.
Weeks after RISE Housing and Supportive Services threatened to shut its 24/7 homeless shelter ahead of the Belmont Racing Festival, it said it will continue to operate — likely through 2026 — after a funding pledge from Saratoga City Council members.
A two-bay utility garage controlled by the inactive Rensselaer Volunteer Ambulance service has become the epicenter of friction between top elected officials in the city.
A bedbug sighting late Sunday afternoon closed the Bethlehem Public Library yesterday and Tuesday. A staff member noticed a single bedbug in the computer area of the library just before closing time, prompting pest control treatment.
RIP George Wendt, who earned six consecutive Primetime Emmy Award nominations for his role as the bearish, beer-quaffing Everyman Norm Peterson on the enduring sitcom “Cheers,” who died yesterday at his home in Studio City, Calif. He was 76.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
