It’s FRIDAY! Good morning!
Looking back, I realize that I wrote hundreds of words yesterday about lightning strikes and how to safeguard against them without mentioning to you that it’s National Lighting Safety Awareness Week. Whoops.
That runs through tomorrow, June 28. This happens to overlap with another week, which I find equally interesting (though not, as far as I can tell) related in any way, is Insect Week, which runs from June 26 through June 29.
Insect Week was created by the Royal Entomological Society, a UK organization (organisation?) “devoted to the understanding and development of insect science”. Their tagline for the weeklong event is “Stand Tall for the Small,” which I kind of love. I also appreciate their noting of the fact that one in every three mouthfuls of food we consume as humans depends on insect pollination.
As an aside, anyone who has been here for more than a hot second knows how I feel about bugs. Just the other day, I am ashamed to say, I stalked and viciously smashed a house centipede.
I am not proud of this, as I know that they serve a purpose – helping to control other bugs perceived as household pets like silverfish, cockroaches, and flies.
And, while they are venomous, they rarely bite if unprovoked and their bite is not usually potent enough to cause serious harm – unless you happen to be another bug. Some people are allergic, though, and the sting isn’t exactly a comfortable experience.
So that’s all well and good, but have you SEEN a house centipede? If you haven’t had the pleasure, they are terrifying – long, slender bodies rimmed by legs that go on for days, and they skitter very creepily and VERY quickly. They’re just, ugh, Horrible with an intended capital “H”.
The house centipede is just one of some 900 THOUSAND different kinds of known insects across the world. This represents about 80 percent of the entirety of species that lives on the planet AND it might well be an undercount, because the true figure is merely an estimate. Most experts agree there are still a fair number of bugs out there that have yet to be discovered – maybe as many as 30 million.
Yes, you read that right.
In the U.S. alone, there are around 91,000 described species of insects. Add to that some 73,000 undescribed species (those without a formal name and description in a formal scientific publication), and you’re talking real numbers. Generally speaking, there are four main Orders: Coleoptera (beetles), Diptera (true flies), Hymenoptera (ants, bees, wasps), and Lepidoptera (moths, skipper, and butterflies).
Pretty much everywhere on earth has bugs with the exception of Iceland, which is largely insect-free thanks to geographic and climatic conditions. Places that are colder and/or rockier and/or have higher altitudes tend to have fewer insects overall. While Iceland is known for having no mosquitoes, for example, Antarctica is the only continent with no spiders.
I mentioned before that house centipedes serve a purpose. This is true of every single bug on the planet; they all have unique jobs. Some help with pollination. Others focus on decomposition of dead things. Still others do a bang-up job of pest control, and all of them – more or less – serve as food for other bugs, plants, or animals.
Aside from the pollination-food thing, humans also use bugs for food, medicine, adornment and more. So, while I hate to admit it, bugs are important and they deserve this day of celebration. I just hope they do the bulk of their partying outside my house.
Another unseasonably cool day is on tap, with temperatures again struggling to get out of the 70s. Skies will be cloudy. Tomorrow is looking better, with temperatures soaring into the low 80s, though thunderstorms will develop in the afternoon. Sunday will be in the mid-80s and partly cloudy, though – at least for now until the forecast changes yet again – dry.
In the headlines…
An advisory panel recently appointed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. voted to walk back longstanding recommendations for flu vaccines containing the preservative thimerosal, which the anti-vaccine movement has falsely linked to autism.
Medical experts said the decision represents a jarring departure from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices history of making decisions based on strong scientific data.
“The risk from influenza is so much greater than the nonexistent – as far as we know – risk from thimerosal,” said Dr Cody Meissner, a panel member and professor of pediatrics at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine, who was the lone “no” vote.
A top Senate official rejected a slew of major provisions in Republicans’ sweeping domestic policy bill, sending party leaders rushing to salvage the legislation a week before the July 4 deadline President Donald Trump set for its enactment.
Elizabeth MacDonough, the parliamentarian who enforces the chamber’s rules, said several of the measures in the legislation that would provide hundreds of billions of dollars in savings could not be included in the legislation in their current form.
Additionally, the parliamentarian, who is the Senate’s chief arbiter of its often complicated rules and whose guidance is rarely ignored, advised against various GOP provisions barring certain immigrants from health care programs.
Senate Republicans said that they would forge ahead with a plan to slash federal food assistance to the poor, after they devised a workaround that would allow them to cut the program to help pay for their sprawling package of tax cuts.
Stephen Miran, chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisors, warned about the economic implications of not passing President Trump’s domestic policy bill by the deadline given by the White House.
After days of debate over how severely U.S. strikes had damaged three nuclear facilities in Iran, the fate of the country’s stockpile of enriched uranium remains a bigger mystery.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, yesterday offered the Trump administration’s most detailed descriptions yet of the planning and execution of U.S. airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
But Hegseth and General Caine gave no new assessments of the state of Iran’s nuclear program or the damage to the sites. Both men referred those questions to the nation’s spy agencies.
Hegseth admonished the press corps for its coverage of the strikes on the three Iranian nuclear sites over the weekend, arguing members of the media should be more focused on the details and danger of the mission carried out by U.S. service members.
Hegseth snapped at a female reporter when asked why he only praised the “boys” who bombed Iranian nuclear facilities last weekend, when at least one woman was also involved in those strikes.
“Why not acknowledge the female pilots that also participated in this mission?” the reporter asked during a heated briefing on the mission yesterday morning. “The early messages that you sent out only congratulated the boys.”
Less than three weeks after Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia was brought back from a wrongful deportation to El Salvador to face criminal charges in the United States, the Trump administration indicated it planned to deport him again, but to a different country.
Kenneth Chesebro, an attorney for Trump, has been disbarred in New York by a panel of judges for the Third Department’s Appellate Division.
Gov. Kathy Hochul visited LaGuardia Airport yesterday to celebrate enhancements of the Healthy Terminals Act, which provides improved health care and leave benefits for workers at John F. Kennedy (JFK) International and LaGuardia airports.
More legal troubles have been piled on Linda Sun, a former aide to two New York governors who has been accused of using her position to help the Chinese government.
Sun, the former aide to Gov. Hochul and ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo accused of working as a Chinese agent, also schemed to steer $35 million in state contracts to two PPE vendors run by a cousin and her husband at the height of the COVID pandemic.
Checks for school tax relief will be mailed out this week to New Yorkers, Hochul said.
Hochul announced a $1 billion investment to create or preserve nearly 3,000 affordable homes across New York State.
Attorney General Letitia James said New York should ban most high-speed police chases, highlighting the dangers pursuits pose at a time when many New York police departments have been chasing more often.
The state has approved $40 million in funding to bring a next-generation supercomputer to the University at Buffalo for the Empire AI initiative to develop a hub for artificial intelligence.
Trump’s right-wing supporters have hit Zohran Mamdani with a barrage of Islamophobic hate since he stunned the political world Tuesday night by winning the Democratic primary for New York City mayor.
MAGA loyalists have claimed that Mamdani might impose religious Sharia law in the Big Apple or even spark terrorism like the Sept. 11 attacks if he becomes the city’s first-ever Muslim mayor.
Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) suggested Mamdani should be deported and denaturalized ahead of the November election, calling him an “antisemitic, socialist, communist who will destroy the great City of New York,” on the social platform X.
As Democrats across the country wrestle with the implications of Mamdani’s stunning upset victory in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary, Hochul said she’s “not focused on the politics.”
Hochul mispronounced Mamdani’s name several times and declined to endorse his candidacy, saying: “We’re six months away from Inauguration Day, and that will determine who I’m working with for the next four years.”
State Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal, the projected Democratic nominee for Manhattan borough president, endorsed Mamdani, saying “now is a moment for Democratic unity.”
Rep. Laura Gillen, a freshman Long Island Democrat, said in a statement that Mamdani is ” is too extreme to lead New York City” and his campaign has been built on unachievable promises and higher taxes, which is the last thing New York needs.”
Rep. Tom Suozzi, who endorsed former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary and previously backed Mayor Eric Adams, said he’s also not on board with Mamdani.
Mamdani’s aides and allies are girding for a costly battle in November against opponents bankrolled by a fired-up business class desperate to stop him from taking over the epicenter of world finance.
Mamdani’s online videos had echoes of the meme-fueled Kamala Harris presidential campaign, but there were key differences that helped him defeat Cuomo.
Even even some of Cuomo’s allies said that up close, his campaign sometimes looked like an listing ship, steered by an aging candidate who never seemed to want to be there and showed little interest in reacquainting himself with the city he hoped to lead.
Mamdani said that he plans to win over moderate voters – even as a self-identified Democratic socialist – as he runs in the general election and also believes the Democratic Party needs to refocus on what working-class Americans are going through.
Mamdani’s parents, a filmmaker and a professor, gave him the foundation for his run for mayor of New York. But their own political views may open him up to attacks.
Adams formally launched his mayoral campaign with a sharp attack on Mamdani as the incumbent deals with strong headwinds ranging from the fallout over his now-dismissed criminal indictment to accusations of being too tight with Trump.
Two controversial Adams allies with ties to the Chinese government reportedly helped drive turnout for his reelection campaign kickoff rally: Winnie Greco and Robin Mui.
Also at the Adams re-election rally was former state Sen. Malcolm Smith, a Democrat who served seven years in prison for trying to bribe his way onto the Republican line for mayor in 2013.
In a conference room in Manhattan on Wednesday night, Adams and Daniel S. Loeb, the hedge fund manager, met with other business leaders and political brokers to discuss how to stop Mamdani’s rise and possibly bolster Adams’s re-election campaign.
Prominent donors are gunning to get Republican mayoral nominee Curtis Sliwa a job in the Trump Administration in hopes of pushing him out of New York City’s mayoral race, and perhaps the GOP will give Adams the line.
Sliwa defiantly insisted that he’s not going anywhere, as calls mount for him to drop his long-shot bid over fears of Mamdani’s surging campaign.
Negotiations on this year’s New York City government budget are coming down to the wire — with several sticking points remaining as talks reportedly turned tense yesterday between City Council Democrats and Adams’ administration.
The city’s adult lap swim program is returning for the first time since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, but will operate in a limited capacity amid a local and national lifeguard shortage.
University Hospital at Downstate in Brooklyn faces many of the problems plaguing other medical centers in New York, but the state has reversed course and is investing in it.
Mega-developers were vying for the chance to build the Big Apple’s first casino as today’s bidding deadline approached — and everyone from Broadway aficionados to union workers has an opinion.
The MTA made strides in funding its new capital plan, but still faces financial risk from federal actions that could hurt the transit system for its millions of users, according to a state financial report issued by the state comptroller’s office.
The cost of Uber and Lyft rides is about to go up modestly after New York’s Taxi and Limousine Commission regulators approved a driver pay raise beginning in August.
Under new amendments adopted by the agency, Uber and Lyft can still impose lockouts, but they must give at least 72 hours’ notice to the affected drivers. And the companies can’t lock out drivers for at least 16 hours once they start accepting trips.
The Interborough Express, a rail line connecting Brooklyn and Queens, could spur the building of tens of thousands of homes. Obstacles await.
Every night Monday through Wednesday, some residents in Delmar experienced a foreboding sound — the whirl of installed home generators nearby that automatically kick on just before the power goes out.
The new $35.9 million Saratoga County Airport was officially reopened with a ribbon-cutting ceremony yesterday morning with state, county and local officials hailing the private jet hub as one that will benefit both flyers and locals.
Albany Memorial closed its emergency department yesterday morning and diverted patients away after a significant disruption to its electrical system.
Ryan Mahan has ended his campaign for Saratoga County sheriff, pivoting instead to managing a small police department on the Vermont border that’s been beleaguered by administrative controversies and inconsistent leadership.
Carolyn McCarthy, a former congresswoman from Long Island and fierce advocate for gun control, has died at age 81 after a years-long battle with cancer.
Bill Moyers, the former White House press secretary who became one of television’s most honored journalists, masterfully using a visual medium to illuminate a world of ideas, died yesterday at age 91.
Anna Wintour, 75, is leaving her position as editor-in-chief of Vogue, though she will remain the global editorial director at Vogue and global chief content officer at Condé Nast.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
