Good morning, it’s Thursday.
What feels like a million years ago, while I was still in high school, I went on a scuba diving trip to the Cayman Islands with my Mom. Actually, I dove and she sat on the beach and read. Because, while Mom is an avid swimmer – to this day, she regularly does laps at the pool for exercise – diving wasn’t her thing.
And yes, I was a certified scuba diver while still in high school. That’s thanks to an amazing teacher named George Campbell. Technically speaking, he taught Earth Science and he was damn good at it – probably one of the most popular teachers New Paltz High School ever saw. But as a side hustle, he certified as many kids as possible to be divers, through both NAUI and PADI.
I distinctly remember those scuba classes. We learned in the pool at SUNY New Paltz, and then put those the skills to the test in open water dives in local lakes. FREEZING local lakes, I should say – Williams, Mohonk, and Minnewaska, specifically – which required diving in full suits, complete with booties, gloves, and hoods, and offered very little in terms of scenery or even visibility.
I was terrified while doing it, and I consumed a lot of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, which George swore by to keep our energy up. (I still eat them on long runs). Those dives got the job done, and I passed the written and practical tests in short order.
Needless to say, diving in the Caribbean was a revelation. No bulky wetsuit was required, which was amazingly freeing, and there was so much to see – fish, coral, eels, seaweed. I was completely hooked. While on that Cayman Islands trip, I even did a night dive, which was very scary in concept, but amazing in practice – all those bioluminescent creatures!
Now that I’m halfway through this post and not even close to what today’s topic is supposed to be about, I realize I need to speed things up a bit. Sorry, I got held up on Memory Lane there for a minute.
During that trip, Mom and I stayed at an inclusive resort as one tends to do in the Caribbean. The hotel offered breakfast and dinner, but for lunch you were on your own.
We fell into the habit of eating a very big breakfast on the late side and then an early dinner, with a snack in between. Often, having just come off the dive boat and out of the water, I wasn’t terribly hungry anyway, but I was very thirsty and also hot.
Enter the virgin Pina Colada. Minus the white rum, the classic recipe – pineapple juice, cream of coconut (NOT coconut cream), coconut milk (sometimes) and a splash of lime juice (also sometimes) all blended with ice and often garnished with a cherry and a pineapple slice – is basically a smoothie. It is delicious, filling and refreshing.
The Pina Colada (with rum) is the national drink of Puerto Rico, and is believed to have been created by a bartender named Ramón “Monchito” Marrero at the Caribe Hilton Hotel in San Juan sometime in the early 1950s.
An alternative origin story, however, is that the drink was the brain child of a DIFFERENT bartender at the same location named Ricardo Garcia. Yet a third claim is that the Pina Colada was actually invented somewhere else altogether – at a restaurant called the Barrachina in Old San Juan –
The version created by Marrero reportedly didn’t contain alcohol, but may have gilded the lily with the inclusion of vanilla ice cream. The modern-day Pina Colada – at least in its purest and most authentic form – should contain a specific brand of cream of coconut called Coco Lopez.
Today is National Pina Colada Day, and while it will certainly be hot enough out to enjoy a refreshing cool drink, with highs in the mid-80s, it will not be the greatest pool or lake day in the Capital Region, with cloudy skies and the chance of a stray shower or thunderstorm.
In the headlines…
The Trump administration appears to be targeting officials who oversaw the investigation into the 2016 Trump campaign’s connections to Russia, examining the actions of former FBI director James B. Comey and former C.I.A. director John O. Brennan.
The Secret Service had Comey followed by officers in unmarked cars and street clothes and tracked the location of his cellphone the day after he posted an image on social media in May that Trump’s allies said amounted to a threat to assassinate the president.
Brennan and Corey are reportedly under criminal investigation for potential wrongdoing related to the Trump–Russia probe, including allegedly making false statements to Congress, Justice Department.
Comey did not respond to a request for comment. The FBI declined to comment. Brennan claims he’s “clueless” as to why the FBI would open a criminal probe against him and says he’s had “no contact” with federal authorities related to an investigation.
“I know nothing about it other than what I read today, but I will tell you, I think they’re very dishonest people,” President Trump said when asked about the investigation by a reporter. “I think they’re crooked as hell and maybe they have to pay a price for that.”
“I believe they are truly bad people and dishonest people,” Trump added. “So whatever happens, happens.”
The Secret Service suspended six agents in connection with their “actions” during last year’s assassination attempt Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, a source from the agency confirmed.
The agents will not be fired, but upon return to work, they will be placed in roles with diminished operational responsibility.
The United States and Brazil appeared yesterday to have launched a sudden trade war after Trump threatened Brazil with a crippling tariff of 50% starting August 1 in a letter he sent to the country’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia is brushing aside Trump’s professed disappointment in him and is pushing ahead in Ukraine with renewed intensity, having already priced in the possibility of new U.S. pressure, analysts and people close to the Kremlin said.
Trump said that he was tapping Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to lead NASA on an interim basis after the president yanked his original nominee for the post.
Duffy responded to the president’s post on X, writing, “Honored to accept this mission. Time to take over space. Let’s launch.”
Democratic elected officials around the nation are coalescing around an effort to disrupt ICE arrests by prohibiting law enforcement officials from concealing their identity in public.
Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the FEMA has disbursed billions of dollars in grants to state and local governments to help with security and prevent terrorism. The agency is now two months behind in posting the latest grant application guidelines.
Nearly 1,300 cases of measles have been confirmed in the U.S. so far this year — making it the highest number of infections in more than three decades, according to data released yesterday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
This year, 1,288 confirmed measles cases and 27 outbreaks have been reported across 39 U.S. jurisdictions — including New York State and New York City, New Jersey and Pennsylvania — already surpassing the 1,274 cases reported in 2019.
The ousted CEO of Nassau University Medical Center is gearing up to sue – claiming she was axed as part of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s “hostile takeover” of the Long Island hospital.
The state agency responsible for monitoring the use of solitary confinement and the quality of mental health care in prisons has reportedly been kept out of state correctional facilities for about five months.
One in every five New Yorkers now identifies as part of the LGBTQ+ community, which faces higher rates of mental health distress and suicidal ideations, according to a new report from the state Department of Health.
The state Department of Health is not adequately overseeing adult care facilities that house thousands of the state’s most vulnerable residents, according to the state comptroller’s office.
Hochul announced that four New York State Police staff and three canines will deploy to Kerr County, Texas to support search efforts following devastating floods.
Over 100 people – including Hochul and former President Bill Clinton – attended a private funeral ceremony this week for former U.S. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, one of Congress’ fiercest gun safety advocates, who died June 26.
In a rare move, businesses and environmentalists have joined forces in court to furiously fight New York’s Empire Wind One offshore project, saying that it will devastate both the commercial fishing industry and marine life in local waters.
Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani publicly released his 700-plus SAT II scores in a jab at critics who have seized on his college career, including his decision to identify himself as both African American and Asian on a Columbia University application.
As Mamdani runs for mayor in the general election, some leaders are encouraging him to keep Jessica Tisch as New York City’s police commissioner. He is reportedly considering it.
Mamdani is leading the pack of candidates to potentially govern New York City in a new poll released yesterday.
Mamdani will announce today that he has hired Jeffrey Lerner, a former political director of the Democratic National Committee and senior Senate aide, to serve as his new communications director. Lerner once worked for former Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Vice President JD Vance slammed Mamdani during a speech over the Fourth of July holiday weekend for what he called insulting the U.S. on its “most sacred day.”
Jewish Democrats on Capitol Hill are raising concerns about Mamdani’s victory, arguing his refusal to condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada” or recognize Israel as a Jewish state could be dangerous during a moment of rising antisemitism in the U.S.
Democratic socialists in New York City emboldened by Mamdani’s mayoral primary win are warning that they may go after five House incumbents next — and Hakeem Jeffries, the minority leader at the top of their list, is daring them to try.
Will Chuck Schumer endorse Mamdani for mayor of New York? That’s a straightforward question, but the Senator from New York hasn’t given a straightforward answer.
Online Islamophobia spiked sharply in the immediate aftermath of Mamdani’s victory in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary, new research has found.
New York City real-estate executives are throwing support and money behind Adams in their fight to block Mamdani, who campaigned on a rent freeze to help solve the city’s housing crisis.
Adams is no longer looking for the possibility of jail time for offenders of his proposed mask ban amid concerns from stakeholders, including Tisch, who has otherwise been supportive of tougher restrictions on face coverings.
Adams of New York City searched for a new campaign manager, he asked his leading candidate to sit for private interviews with two crusading hedge fund titans he wants to bankroll his re-election effort.
As the MetroCard nears the end of its more than two-decade run as New Yorkers’ entry pass to the transit system, its high-tech successor, OMNY, faces an uphill battle for riders’ approval.
Driverless rideshare service Waymo deployed its fleet to New York City this week to begin mapping out the city roads – with humans still sitting behind the wheel while they await a change in state law to allow fully driverless riding.
A Manhattan mom whose 15-year-old son died while subway surfing can move forward with a lawsuit against the social media companies that she says helped to popularize the dangerous trend, a state judge has ruled.
The country’s most expensive mass transit construction project is slated to add some speed bumps for drivers and cyclists on Manhattan’s West Side.
Interim U.S. Attorney John A. Sarcone III directed his staff to remove the Times Union and its staff members from his office’s media distribution list after the newspaper published a story about him listing a boarded-up residence in Albany as his address.
The final terms of a proposed settlement in a class-action lawsuit filed by Hoosick Falls’ residents against DuPont Co. will add $27 million to the more than $65 million recovered from the litigation over the pollution of the community’s water supplies.
Several state lawmakers from the Capital Region said they will seek to tighten access to flare guns in the wake of a violent Fourth of July weekend in Albany that involved an historic home in the city’s Center Square neighborhood going up in flames.
The state attorney general’s office released video of the May 27 crash in which off-duty Town of Colony police officer Jason Tusch fatally struck John Bonds on Old Loudon Road.
A ruling from state Supreme Court Justice Sherri Brooks-Morton paves the way for the planned demolition of Albany’s Central Warehouse to move forward.
The Saratoga Lake Association has asked the four municipalities that share the lake’s shore to reduce their use of winter road salt after a Skidmore College student senior study found that “road salt is present (in the lake) at levels detrimental to aquatic life”.
Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin’s son Sean is back in ABC’s “Bachelor” franchise — this time appearing in Season 10 of “Bachelor in Paradise.”
Photo credit: George Fazio.
