Good morning, it’s Wednesday.
When I was in middle school, I knew kids who were big fans of going to the nurse. They went for every little thing, basically to get out of class, I think, or to hide out from bullies in the lunchroom.
I was not one of these kids. I avoided the nurse – and doctors and dentists – like the plague. The nurse meant sickness and medicine and possibly pain in the shape of a strep throat test, or worse yet, a shot.
The nurse’s office, to me, was also a place equated with embarrassment. It’s where we were shown that weird movie about menstruation that danced around the subject and talked more about flowers (as I recall) than bodies.
It was also a place where you had to get tested for things – your hearing, your sight, scoliosis. That last one required wearing a bathing suit or training bra to school and taking your shirt off, which was something I definitely did NOT want to do in front of anyone as a pre-teen.
As an aside, I have grown up to be a distinctly non-prudish person when it comes to getting undressed. I was once chastised in the women’s locker room (of all places) by an older lady for my lack of modesty.
While in college, I worked under the table as an artists’ model at a local college (not mine). After races, I have been known to be so desperate to get out of my wet and sweaty tri clothes that I change in the car or behind a tree if there’s no bathroom around or the line is too long. (I get yelled at for this by my spouse, who is often scandalized by my behavior).
As far as I’m concerned, we all have bodies; we shouldn’t be weird about them. This country is so puritanical and squeamish about nudity, but also so body obsessed. It’s exhausting trying to make sense of it all, quite frankly. I’m far from an exhibitionist, but things would be a lot easier if we all just focused on something else for a while instead of worrying what everyone looks like.
But where was I? Oh, the school nurse.
As an adult, I have acquired a deep appreciation for nurses and an understanding of the enormous stress they’re under. It turns out that I was lucky that my school actually HAD a nurse. These days, a lot of kids aren’t so lucky. A 2021 survey by the National Association of School Nurses found that more than one third of schools across the nation have no full-time nurse on site – a phenomenon experienced by rural schools more than those located in urban centers.
That more or less tracks with the overall shortage of nurses the country has been experiencing for some time now, and which was exacerbated by the COVID crisis. The reality is that for those who do choose to go into nursing, working at a school is not high on the professional wish list. A very small number of nurses – about 3.3 percent, reportedly – are even qualified to work in a school.
This week – May 6 through 12 – is National Nurses Week, (May 12 is the birthday of Florence Nightingale, who is widely recognized as the founder of modern nursing), and today is set aside to specifically honor and recognize the work of school nurses.
This is getting pretty repetitive, but there’s rain in the forecast – again – today. We will see showers in the morning followed by clouds in the afternoon. Temperatures will again top out in the mid-60s.
In the headlines…
President Donald Trump said that three hostages held by Hamas in Gaza have died, leaving only 21 believed to be still living. In a statement on X/Twitter, Gal Hirsch, the coordinator for the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, disputed that assertion.
The U.S. Supreme Court has allowed the Trump administration to begin enforcing a ban on transgender troops serving openly in the military.
The ruling was brief, unsigned and gave no reasons, which is typical when the justices act on emergency applications. It will remain in place while challenges to the ban on transgender troops move forward.
The Trump administration has launched a review into the recent antisemitic activity at the University of Washington (UW) and its affiliates a day after around 30 pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested on the school’s Seattle campus.
Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada had one key goal in his high-stakes meeting with Trump yesterday. He needed to say, in no uncertain terms, that Canada is not going to become the 51st U.S. state, while avoiding a public fight. And he succeeded.
“Canada is a very special place to me,” Trump said at the top of the meeting. “I know so many people that live in Canada. My parents had relatives that lived in Canada, my mother in particular…I love Canada.”
The Environmental Protection Agency plans to eliminate Energy Star, the popular energy efficiency certification for dishwashers, refrigerators, dryers and other home appliances, according to agency documents and a recording of an internal meeting.
The Trump administration nixed the Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC), ending three decades of medical advice used by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) according to NBC.
The Trump administration is focusing on logistical issues, not constitutional ones, in its efforts to keep several international students in detention. The tactic has effectively slowed some high-profile cases.
Key Republican moderates said they had grown more comfortable with a revised House GOP effort to overhaul Medicaid following an evening meeting with Speaker Mike Johnson and other leaders.
Republican tax writers on the House Ways and Means committee are increasingly optimistic that they’ll be able to hold a vote on the GOP tax package in very short order.
The Senate is set to begin considering landmark cryptocurrency legislation tomorrow, setting the upper chamber on a courseto hold its first-ever vote on a digital assets regulatory overhaul.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said he will work to curb chaos at Newark Liberty International Airport this week after Tuesday’s delays.
“We’re rolling a plan out on Thursday. We’re going to need a lot of money from Congress to do this. It’s not going to take 10 years, like Pete suggested,” Duffy said during an appearance on CNN, referring to the network’s aviation correspondent Pete Muntean.
Trump called New York Attorney General Letitia James “a total crook” and said the Justice Department would “do what’s right” after receiving a criminal referral accusing her of mortgage fraud.
India said early today that it had conducted strikes on Pakistan, two weeks after 26 civilians were killed in a terrorist attack in Indian-administered Kashmir.
The move dramatically escalated tensions between the nuclear powers two weeks after a terrorist attack in Indian-administered Kashmir that killed 26 people.
Trump reacted to the strikes last night in the U.S., saying in part: “It’s a shame. We just heard about it as we were walking through the doors of the Oval.”
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker are being called to DC next month to face a congressional grilling over their states’ pro-migrant policies.
The three Democratic “sanctuary” state leaders will have to answer questions on June 12 about how their administrations reduced or banned cooperation with federal immigration authorities under former President Joe Biden.
Hochul announced that the state will be distributing inflation refund checks to more than 8 million New Yorkers.
As the first budget bill – transportation, economic development and environmental conservation – went to print last night, state lawmakers prepared to kick off what is expected to be a marathon day of voting today.
Thousands of pages of text that make up the budget bill were scheduled to be released starting last night, meaning the public and even rank-and-file lawmakers would only have hours to review the package before voting on it.
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie confirmed that legislators will give Hochul broad authority to make mid-year budget cuts in order to respond to a potential recession and fiscal turbulence caused by federal action.
Public school students in New York will no longer be allowed to use their phones during school hours starting in September, Hochul announced.
Democrats agreed to close up to three prisons over the next year and put at least $500 million toward the continued deployment of National Guard troops to backfill prison guard shifts, as part of the final phase of negotiations for New York’s budget.
A long-awaited effort to begin revamping the state’s antiquated school funding formula appears headed for the finish line.
New York lawmakers have agreed to delay regulations on nonpublic religious schools, bowing to pressure from Orthodox Jewish leaders and ignoring concerns from the state’s top education officials.
The state Senate Education Committee advanced legislation – with three Democrats voting with the GOP – that would forbid the state education commissioner from requiring schools to allow trans athletes to play on sports teams that align with their gender.
The move was immediately criticized by LGBTQ+ advocates, even though the bill is unlikely to ever come to the floor for a vote.
Dozens of state legislators whose outside income exceeds the $35,000 annual limit that was supposed to take effect in January are being provided a last-minute escape hatch thanks to a provision in the state budget delaying enforcement of the law for two years.
Republicans in New York state are eyeing the 2026 governor’s race with some newfound hope, and a deeper-than-usual bench.
The NHL is planning an international event at UBS Arena next February in lieu of the previously announced All-Star Weekend at the home of the New York Islanders. Hochul said that she wrote a letter to the NHL commissioner expressing her disappointment.
New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo announced that he will run on a new third-party “Fight and Deliver” ballot line in the general election, despite his sizable lead in the run-up to the Democratic primary.
Cuomo said in a statement that he made to move to appeal to voters who feel the Democratic party “has been hijacked.”
Cuomo counts same-sex marriage among his top accomplishments as governor, but he’s not targeting LGBTQ+ voters in his bid for New York City mayor.
Mayor Eric Adams jumped into the tunnel tug-of-war — blasting Amtrak’s East River shutdown plan and demanding feds step in before commuters are left stranded and steaming.
Adams joined the growing chorus of elected leaders calling on Amtrak to halt its plans to close a quarter of the East River Tunnel’s rail tubes for repairs – a project Democrats and Republicans alike worry will wreak havoc on the Long Island Rail Road.
Adams’ office said that his team has looked into the possibility of building a mental health facility instead of a jail on the Manhattan site selected to become one of the four borough-based lockups meant to replace Rikers Island.
The city’s car-free open streets are funded for just one more year under Adams’s proposed budget — but the current front-runner in the race to succeed him, Cuomo, won’t commit to the program.
A$AP Rocky (AKA Rakim Mayers) for mayor?
A group of House Republicans, including Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, is sounding the alarm over recent staffing cuts and plans for more cutbacks across the Social Security Administration.
Police in New York City are investigating whether the department violated policy by sharing a report with federal immigration authorities that included internal records of a Palestinian woman’s arrest at a protest.
U.S. officials asked for records about the New Jersey woman’s summons, issued at a Columbia University protest. Now the information is part of her deportation proceeding.
The department probe follows reporting by The AP on the cooperation between the NYPD and the Trump administration, which is seeking to deport Leqaa Kordia, a Palestinian resident of New Jersey, as part of its widening crackdown on noncitizens.
Columbia University is laying off about 180 researchers after the Trump administration revoked $400 million in federal funding over claims the school did not do enough to protect Jewish students from harassment.
Columbia University and NewYork-Presbyterian have agreed to pay $750 million to hundreds of women who were sexually abused by a former doctor who preyed upon patients at prestigious New York hospitals for two decades.
The city’s consumer protection agency is investigating LIU-Brooklyn following a Gothamist report on scholarship students at the Roc Nation School of Music who say they owe the university thousands of dollars tied to unexpected charges.
Four former housekeepers for retired record mogul Smokey Robinson and his wife, Frances Robinson, are suing the pair for alleged sexual assault and harassment so pronounced that each employee was forced to quit.
The Jane Does filed the lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court, accusing the former Motown record exec of sexual battery, assault, false imprisonment, gender violence and creating a hostile work environment.
The U.S. Department of Education said it has launched an investigation into the Saratoga Springs school district after its school board reaffirmed its support for transgender and gender-expansive students.
Rite Aid, the struggling drugstore chain with 1,245 stores in 15 states, is planning to close all 178 of its New York stores, including 11 local stores, as part of a plan to sell all of its assets through a Chapter 11 reorganization plan, its second bankruptcy in two years.
Citing Saratoga Springs’ shaky commitment to the 24/7 homeless shelter and a shift in federal funding, RISE Housing and Supportive Services notified the city that it will cease operating the Adelphi Street shelter June 3 – one day ahead of the Belmont.
Dennis S. Drue returned to jail amid allegations that he failed to comply with the conditions of his release from prison after serving time for a deadly 2012 crash that killed two Shenendehowa High School students and seriously injured two other teens.
Now that most property owners have received their allotment of three free bulky item stickers in the mail, Schenectady will begin imposing a fine on those who leave those usually heavier goods at the curb without the required sticker.
A candidate for Saratoga County sheriff who was removed from the primary ballot has filed a complaint with the state Commission on Judicial Conduct against the justice who made the decision, saying his ruling was political.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
