Good morning, it’s Monday of a short, four-day workweek, with the July 4th holiday fast approaching. All of a sudden, summer seems to be galloping along at a breakneck pace.
If you happened to be outside either very late at night or very early in the morning over the past several days, and lucky enough to be in a place with clear skies and not a lot of artificial light around, you might have caught the tail end of the June Bootids (JBO) – a series of meteors that are generated by a tail of debris connected to a comet named 7P/Pons-Winnecke.
This mid-sized comet has an orbit that is controlled by Jupiter’s gravitational pull, and has been classified by NASA as a “near-earth asteroid” because it’s pretty close to us, as comets go. However, it is not considered dangerous, as computer simulations indicate that it won’t be colliding with our planet any time soon.
So, we can simply enjoy the light show 7P/Pons-Winnecke creates as it streaks by on an annual basis with relative peace of mind that it bears us no ill will.
This meteor shower got its name from the fact that its radiant, which is the point from which what we call “shooting stars” appear to approach the Earth – is near the constellation Bootes (more commonly known as the Herdsman), located in the sky’s western horizon in late June. Bootes, for the record, is the 13th largest constellation in the night sky.
You may, as I was, perhaps require a refresher on the difference between asteroids and meteors, because the two are not actually interchangeable.
Asteroids are smallish, rocky, metallic and/or icy objects that orbit the sun. They are not generally big enough to be planets, though one – Ceres, is classified as a dwarf planet – and are thought to be leftover planetary material dating back to the creation of the solar system.
Unlike comets, which are made of ice and not rock, asteroids do not have a visible atmosphere or a tail. Both comets and asteroids can be the parent to meteoroids, which are basically space rocks on the small side – perhaps even as tiny as the average pebble – often created by space collisions.
A meteoroid that enters the Earth’s atmosphere is called a meteor, and if and when it collides with the Earth, it’s called a meteorite. When said meteoroid breaks through into the atmosphere, it’s usually traveling at a very high speed, which causes it to burn up and create a streak of light – and hence, a (ill-named, quite frankly) shooting star is born.
One of the best meteor showers of summer in the Northern Hemisphere is yet to come – the Perseids, which are usually active from mid-July to late August. You have two chances to catch them at their peak – the night. of July 12 and just before dawn on August 13. If the skies are clear, it’s possible to see as many as 100 shooting stars every hour.
There are two slightly smaller, but just as worthy, meteor showers to look forward to next month: Alpha Capricornids begins July 12 and runs through August 12, while the Southern Delta Aquariids will begin on July 18 – the same day as the Perseids.
Today is International Asteroid Day, which was established by the UN in 2016 to commemorate the anniversary of the Tunguska impact over Siberia in 1908, during which an asteroid exploded over the skies in a remote area, causing forest fires, killing reindeer, and flattening millions of trees for miles.
The powerful shockwave that the explosion caused was said to knock people off their feet and break windows hundreds of miles away from its source. No crater was ever found, since the incoming asteroid exploded before it had a chance to come in contact with the Earth.
Today is also National Meteor Watch Day, which explains the time spent on the explanations above.
A really lovely summer day is on tap, which is great news for those of you who might have taken the week off for a nice staycation. It will be sunny with the high temperature flirting with 90 degrees. Get out there and soak it all up while you can, just don’t forget that sunscreen.
In the headlines…
A man armed with a rifle started a wildfire yesterday and then began shooting at first responders in a northern Idaho mountain community, killing two firefighters and wounding a third during a barrage of gunfire over several hours, authorities said.
The two firefighters were killed and a third wounded when they were shot as they responded to the wildfire on an Idaho mountain that was set to lure them into an ambush.
A tactical response team used cell phone data to zero in on a wooded area where they found the body of what’s believed to be the lone suspect and a rifle nearby as flames were rapidly approaching, Kootenai County Sheriff Robert Norris said.
Canada’s government announced last night that it would cancel a tax on American technology companies that led President Donald Trump to suspend trade talks between the two countries, handing an important victory to Trump.
Prime Minister Mark Carney discussed the decision to scrap Canada’s digital services tax with Trump. In a sign that trade talks were resuming, Canada’s finance minister, François-Philippe Champagne, spoke with the US Trade Representative, Jamieson Greer.
“Today’s announcement will support a resumption of negotiations toward the July 21, 2025, timeline set out at this month’s G7 Leaders’ Summit in Kananaskis,” Carney said in the statement.
The Senate yesterday moved toward a debate on the embattled Republican tax cuts and domestic policy bill, as GOP leaders toiled to build enough support in their own ranks to push it through before a Fourth of July deadline set by Trump.
Democrats who are unified against the measure protested its consideration by forcing Senate clerks to read the 940-page bill aloud, a maneuver that delayed the debate and was likely push any major votes to today.
Republicans’ marquee domestic policy bill would result in deeper cuts and more Americans losing health insurance coverage than the original measure that passed the House last month, according to new estimates from the Congressional Budget Office.
Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina announced he is not seeking reelection next year, a day after he was one of only two Republicans who voted against advancing Trump’s sweeping agenda bill.
New York Republican Rep. Mike Lawler, a key House centrist, said in a Saturday interview that he supported the latest version of the state and local tax deduction in the Senate’s megabill, praising it as “a big win.”
Trump had threatened to back a primary challenger against Willis because he said he was opposed to the bill carrying the president’s domestic agenda.
Trump said that he had a buyer for the U.S. branch of TikTok, the popular Chinese-owned video app that faces a ban over national security concerns.
He added that he would need China’s approval to sell to the “group of very wealthy people,” but added: “I think President Xi will probably do it,” in reference to China’s leader, Xi Jinping. He said the formal announcement will come “in about two weeks.”
The Supreme Court delivered a major win to Trump on Friday in his ongoing war with the federal judiciary, limiting the power of courts to step in and block policies on a nationwide basis in the short term while judges review their legality.
“Big one, wasn’t it? This was a big decision,” Trump said from the White House, calling the birthright citizenship ruling an “amazing decision, one that we’re very happy about.”
North Country GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik is preparing to officially launch her campaign for New York governor, according to two sources familiar with her thinking.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Friday slammed Stefanik “endangering her own constituents’ lives, health, and jobs” by supporting Trump’s megabill.
Hochul claimed the GOP “One, Big Beautiful Bill Act” would put five hospitals in Stefanik’s district on the chopping block , citing an analysis from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill’s Sheps Center for Health Services Research.
Stefanik hit back in a lengthy post on the social media platform X, labeling Hochul the “worst governor in America” with the “worst run Medicaid program.”
Hochul stopped in Saranac Lake Friday afternoon to speak before a packed house at the Harrietstown Town Hall against federal policies and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act before Congress.
New York’s aggressive mandates to have all new light-duty passenger vehicles be zero-emission by 2035 faces significant obstacles due to shortfalls in the state’s battery charging infrastructure and the electrical grid that would be needed to power it.
The Appellate Division’s Third Department in Albany issued a ruling last week upholding a 2022 state law requiring electric utilities to reimburse customers for long storm-related outages.
In a growing effort to hold airlines like Avelo accountable for their role in controversial deportation flights, Sen. Patricia Fahy is spearheading a bill that would revoke millions of dollars in jet fuel tax exemptions from carriers found to be violating civil liberties.
The beloved pet squirrel and his raccoon sidekick, Fred, were not euthanized – they were viciously executed by New York authorities, according to a blistering new lawsuit.
New York City leaders on Friday announced a deal on a $115.9 billion city budget that included significant investments in early childhood education and expanded library hours.
The city will boost funding for immigrant legal services by $41.9 million amid Trump’s crackdown on noncitizens, as Mayor Eric Adams’ administration and the City Council struck a final deal on a roughly $116 billion dollar budget days before the deadline.
New York City will also start a pilot program to provide free child care for children ages 2 and under for hundreds of low-income families as part of the deal, which Adams called “a major step forward for our city and our working class families.”
Fresh off his victory in the Democratic mayoral primary, Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani made a national television appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press where he condemned New York City’s income gap.
“I don’t think we should have billionaires because frankly it is so much money in a moment of so much inequality,” he said during the appearance. “And ultimately what we need more of is equality across our city.”
Mamdani — dubbed “the Fidel Castro of New York” by one deep-pocketed critic — claimed his soak-the-rich proposal was “not driven by race” despite his campaign platform explicitly targeting white homeowners.
Mamdani spoke at a rally in Harlem on Saturday as he sought to build on momentum from New York City’s Democratic primary, telling the crowd that people struggling to pay for housing, groceries and bus fare are hungry for change.
Adams has ripped into Mamdani’s so-called “socialist” agenda, saying he “doesn’t have the authority” to tax the wealthiest New Yorkers.
Mamdani is a terrible negotiator unfit to lead NYC, according to Adams, who told The NY Post he witnessed his rival’s political deal-making ineptitude firsthand during the free bus pilot program negotiation.
Mamdani repeatedly refused to condemn the slogan “globalize the intifada,” despite calls from some Democratic colleagues and Jewish organizations to condemn it as inciting violence against Jews.
GOP megadonor John Catsimatidis wants his fellow billionaires to line up behind Adams’ longshot reelection bid to block the ascent of Mamdani. But the actual Republican nominee, Curtis Sliwa, said he won’t be cowed from leaving the race.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a New York Democrat, said that he is not ready to endorse Mamdani. “We don’t really know each other well,” said Jeffries. “Our districts don’t overlap. I have never had a substantive conversation with him.
Trump slammed Mamdani as a “pure communist,” warning that federal funding for the Big Apple could be at risk if the democratic socialist wins the general election.
All but a few involved with Cuomo’s Democratic mayoral primary campaign acknowledge, at least privately, how much they did wrong.
Even some of Cuomo’s allies said that up close, the campaign sometimes looked more like a 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.
The former governor decided Friday to keep his name on the general election ballot as the candidate of the “Fight and Deliver” party, a campaign official said.
The biggest loser in the Democratic primary race for mayor besides Cuomo is New York’s weakened labor movement.
Two major labor unions that backed Cuomo’s failed Democratic mayoral bid – HTC and 32BJ SEIU – endorsed Mamdani, even as the former governor pondered whether to run as an independent.
Former Bloomberg campaign manager Bradley Tusk writes in the New York Daily News: “I just don’t think a competitive election will happen and Zohran Mamdani will win in November. Here’s why.”
The Daily News editorialized: “Using the political and partisan disagreements with Mamdani as a hammer to twist American immigration law is as wrong as the old days of keeping blacklists of suspected socialists and communists.”
Adams’ Office of Special Enforcement has warned short-term rental hosts on Airbnb and other online platforms that it will step up enforcement against what it called “deceptive” tactics to skirt short-term rental regulations.
Boca Raton, Fla., Mayor Scott Singer told The NY Post he’s already had numerous discussions with New York city business titans about relocating to his beach city after Mamdani’s primary-race stunner.
The race to bring as many as three casinos to the New York City area begins in earnest after eight teams officially entered the competition Friday for a lucrative state license following years of campaigning.
Clusters of NYPD officers stood sentry along the Pride March route on Fifth Avenue, in full uniform and armed, watching the parade go by as they do every year. Nearby, dozens of their colleagues gathered behind metal barricades in protest.
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch on Saturday doubled down on her criticism of the Pride March organizer’s decision to ban the NYPD’s Gay Officers Action League from participating in the annual event in New York City.
“We will not be erased,” read signs carried by cops watching from the sidelines at the parade, along with others reading, “Let gay cops back into march,” and, “Our uniform is our protest.”
The New York City police were investigating a shooting in Manhattan last night that left two people injured steps from the Stonewall Inn, an icon of the L.G.B.T.Q. rights movement.
The shooting occurred outside a nearby building in Greenwich Village at 10:15 p.m., Sgt. Matthew Forsythe of the New York Police Department said.
It wasn’t immediately clear if the shooting was targeted — including whether it was a hate crime related to Pride — or how many suspects were involved. No arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing.
The Roosevelt Hotel — the century-old Midtown mainstay that served as the arrival center and home for tens of thousands of newcomers during the city’s migrant crisis – has ended its run as a migrant shelter.
The mayor of Mount Vernon tipped off a political pal that he was about to be busted for allegedly molesting a 12-year-old girl — two weeks before the creep was locked up, a bombshell lawsuit claims.
U.S. Attorney for the Northern District John A. Sarcone III, of Westchester, who is required by law to reside within the district’s 32-county region, has listed a long boarded-up Albany building as his primary residence.
The Mohawk Hudson Humane Society has put out an urgent call for donations after police rescued several dozen malnourished and neglected animals from a property in Westerlo earlier this month.
The developer planning to purchase the 36,600-acre Adirondack expanse called Whitney Park faces potential hurdles based on state conditions written into permits affecting the property.
Electric car manufacturer Karma Automotive of Irvine, Calif., said it previously cut ties with Bul Auto Sales and Service, the now-closed Colonie car dealer being sued over millions of dollars in unpaid loans.
A project to tear down several blighted buildings on Ballston Spa’s Bath Street and build 168 new apartment homes is being proposed.
Three people were airlifted to Albany Medical Center in two separate crashes involving ATV-style vehicles in Saratoga County over the weekend, the sheriff’s office said.
The Democratic primary elections for the City of Albany’s 3rd Ward and 6th Ward Common Council seats are headed toward recounts.
A sweeping swath of Pittstown’s countryside will someday be open to the public. Hudson Taconic Lands has purchased around 100 acres of land surrounding Otter Creek in the rural Rensselaer County town for conservation, water protection and recreation.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
