Good morning, it’s the first Monday of August – a month when it feels we need to pack as much summer living as possible into every day, as fall is most definitely just around the corner. (The autumnal equinox is Sept. 22, in case you were wondering).
I am starting this day the same way I have started every work day – more or less – since leaving Spectrum News and joining Marathon Strategies: at my computer, which is placed on the table that passes for my desk, which also doubles as the place we eat most of our meals (when we’re not standing at the kitchen counter).
I was working from home before the COVID crisis made that a universal thing. I have mixed feelings about it, because it can be lonely and striking a work-life balance is hard when you can’t leave work at the office. But generally the flexibility works for me and I vastly prefer it to the life I used to have.
People ask me fairly often if I miss being on TV. The answer is usually “no”, but that has a lot to of with my former employer and not the actual work that I did, which I enjoyed quite a bit. Would I go back? If the offer was right, I would consider it, sure. So Mark Thompson, if you’re reading this, feel free to give me a call.
The truth about TV news, though, is that it’s a lot less glamorous than people think. The hours are long, you’re tethered to the studio – unless you’re on location, of course – and the deadlines are relentless. Sometimes, however, you get to have a front row seat to history as it unfolds, which I was lucky enough to do on several occasions while covering the national political conventions.
I was on hand in 2004 in Boston when Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry accepted the Democratic nomination. (I was actually a print reporter at the time, still working for the Albany Times Union). That year turned out badly for the Democrats, as Kerry later lost to President President George W. Bush.
What was most memorable about that DNC wasn’t Kerry. It was the keynote speech delivered by a young rising star from Illinois, a Democratic Senate candidate named Barack Obama, who famously said: “There’s not a liberal America and a conservative America, there’s the United States of America. There’s not a Black America and White America and Latino America and Asian America, there’s the United States of America.”
That speech catapulted Obama into the national consciousness, and four years later, in 2008, I was again on hand when he accepted the Democratic presidential nomination at the DNC in Colorado, having defeated the insider favorite, then-Sen. Hillary Clinton, in the primary. He then went on to make history when he was elected the 44th president of the United States – the first Black person ever to hold that office.
I was also president for Obama’s inauguration, which I remember mostly as one of the coldest experiences of my life. It was hard to fully appreciate witnessing something of such significance when I couldn’t feel my hands or my feet or parts of my face. We had to show up to get through security at 5 a.m., and then stood in the cold for double-digit hours of live TV coverage. Being sufficiently bundled up wasn’t possible, due to maintaining some kind of on-camera presence.
And when the formal ceremony was over, our work was not yet done. There were talkbacks with the anchors back home, and then a stand-up to do and a news package to record before we could finally call it a day.
Like I said, not glamorous.
The Obama era and the hope and possibility it represented seems now like a figment of my imagination. So much time has passed and so much has changed – much of it not for the better. Yet Obama and his wife, Michelle, continue to be figures of much interest and speculation (most recently about the status of their marriage, which, according to the former First Lady, is completely in tact).
Today is Barack Obama’s birthday. He was born in 1961, and is turning 64. Barack Obama Day is an official holiday in Illinois, which also exists – albeit on a different day – in Alabama’s Perry County. Some Obama supporters also celebrate the former president on June 14, which happens to be Donald Trump’s birthday, because, as they see it, #allbirthdaysmatter.
I hope the former president enjoys his special day, and I’ll try not to get too maudlin about the state of the world since he left office.
Another lovely day is on tap, weather-wise, with sunny and cloudless skies and temperatures topping out in the high 80s. A great pool, lake, or beach day if you can swing it.
In the headlines…
When President Donald Trump didn’t like the weak jobs numbers that were released on Friday, he fired the person responsible for producing them.
Trump in a post on his Truth Social platform asserted that fired BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer “had the biggest miscalculations in over 50 years,” portraying Friday’s dismal jobs numbers as the latest example.
Trump said he would appoint a new commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics “over the next three, four days.”
Firing McEntarfer was a move with few precedents in the century-long history of economic statistics in the United States. And for good reason: When political leaders meddle in government data, it rarely ends well.
White House economic advisers defended Trump’s firing of the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, pushing back against criticism that the president’s action could undermine confidence in official U.S. economic data.
Trump said some Americans could get some kind of dividend or distribution of money as a result of tariffs being imposed on U.S. trading partners.
The Senate left Washington Saturday for its monthlong August recess without advancing dozens of Trump’s nominees, after days of contentious negotiations and Trump posting on social media that Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer can “GO TO HELL!”
Schumer had requested federal funds be released and that Trump agree not to push another legislative package that would slash federal funding. Trump on social media called Schumer’s demands “egregious and unprecedented,” a sign that talks had collapsed.
Texas Democrats left the state yesterday in an attempt to prevent the state House from holding a vote today on new congressional maps that Republicans hope will net them several additional U.S. House seats in the 2026 midterm elections.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said that the state would protect Texas Democrats who fled to the Prairie State over GOP efforts to redraw the Lone Star State’s congressional maps.
Hours after the Democrats departed, Gov. Greg Abbott responded with a further escalation, declaring that their walkout amounted to an “abandonment or forfeiture of an elected state office.”
If they do not show up for a scheduled floor debate on the maps today, Abbott said, he will invoke a legal opinion by the Texas attorney general and take steps to “remove the missing Democrats from membership in the Texas House.”
More than 600 retired Israeli security officials including former heads of intelligence agencies have urged Trump to pressure their own government to end the war in Gaza.
Trump reacted positively upon learning actress Sydney Sweeney is a registered Republican, adding that he now finds her viral American Eagle ad campaign to be “fantastic.”
“She’s a registered Republican?” Trump said in response to a reporter’s question about his thoughts on her political affiliation. “Oh, now I love her ad.”
Experts on historic preservation are raising concerns over the feasibility of Trump’s plans to complete large-scale renovations to the White House by the end of his term, and whether the project can be done while respecting the historic nature of the building.
The former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro, whose false statements about the 2020 election were part of a lawsuit against the network, was confirmed as the U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., on Saturday.
Pirro has been serving as interim U.S. attorney, and the Senate voted 50 to 45 to formalize her role, with all Democrats present opposed.
Trump railed at the radio host and author Charlamagne Tha God early yesterday morning, after the host said that the administration’s handling of information related to Jeffrey Epstein was fueling a “coup” in the Republican Party.
A small earthquake rocked parts of New Jersey and New York on Saturday night, according to officials. The magnitude 3.0 quake struck six miles beneath the ground in Hasbrouck Heights, NJ, at 10:18 p.m., according to the United States Geological Survey.
Gov. Kathy Hochul, who wore a headscarf to a Muslim police officer’s funeral, swatted back this weekend at Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz, who seemed to mock her in a tweet.
After an anonymous social media user posted a photo of the governor with a black scarf looped over her hair and asked — appending an expletive — why the governor was “wearing a hijab,” Cruz shared the post on Friday and added, “Um, wut?”
“I wore a headscarf to honor a fallen Muslim NYPD officer at his funeral,” Hochul wrote in response on X, formerly Twitter. “Respecting a grieving family’s faith is ‘wut’ leaders and anyone with basic decency would do.”
In a statement, the Council on American-Islamic Relations called on the senator to apologize to Hochul and to Detective Islam’s family, describing his posts as “despicable and disrespectful.”
But Cruz doubled down, replying to Hochul, “You should wear a hijab every day because you are so damn decent” and suggesting that she was unconcerned about the rights of women in New York.
A federal judge in New York declined in a ruling on Friday to order the Trump administration to restore hundreds of millions of dollars in terminated funding that had been awarded to research institutions by the National Science Foundation.
Hochul blasted “pathetic” GOP potential election foe Rep. Elise Stefanik as someone who would provide Trump with nearly unfettered power over the state, adding: “That’s what should give people great pause.”
Hochul ordered the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to investigate why New York City’s mass transit system gets overwhelmed by extreme weather.
Hochul was in Brooklyn Friday morning for a victory lap after the MTA board’s design contract approval for the Brooklyn-Queens Interborough Express, or IBX.
New York is leading another lawsuit against the Trump administration — this time against what state Attorney General Letitia James’ office has described as an attack on access to gender-affirming care for young people.
Multiple New York hospitals were among the top 10 worst in the nation for the longest wait times during emergency room visits last year.
New York Mayor Eric Adams penned a NY Post op-ed in the wake of the Midtown shooting, writing: “Families and entire communities have been shattered, and we, once again, have to ask why.”
The NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau looked into a rape allegation against Tim Pearson, a former top aide to Adams, that the police in Nassau County had once deemed unfounded, according to court documents filed Friday.
The woman’s 2013 allegation never resulted in charges against Pearson, and NYPD Internal Affairs records indicate a Nassau County detective concluded the encounter was “rough” consensual sex rather than rape and suggested it involved an ugly breakup.
Adams plans to meet privately this week with Sid Rosenberg, an influential conservative talk radio host who recently had a falling-out with the mayor, but whose sizable audience could be a key voting bloc for him in November’s election.
Suffolk County will offer tax breaks to Big Apple companies to relocate there if Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani is elected mayor of New York City, County Executive Ed Romaine said on WABC 770 AM’s “Cats Roundtable” show.
Mamdani and a pal stole a table while an undergraduate at Bowdoin College in Maine — only admitting to the heist in the campus newspaper after security had him dead to rights.
Mamdani’s camp is tracking the challenges faced by progressive Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and trying to avoid repeating Second City missteps, according to a person close to both Mamdani’s and Johnson’s teams.
Mamdani won over Jewish voters in New York City who were energized by his economic agenda and unbothered by — or sympathetic to — his views on Israel and Gaza.
A new poll in the NYC Mayor’s race released Friday showed that Mamdani leads the field among registered Jewish voters but there remains a great deal of mistrust over whether he can adequately support and defend them as mayor.
The rise of Omar Fateh—the so-called Mamdani of Minneapolis running for mayor there—is lending credence to the notion of a widening rift between the party’s centrist establishment and a progressive wing.
As Mamdani gets within striking distance of becoming New York’s first Muslim mayor, he is drawing fire from supporters of India’s populist prime minister, who accuse him of being anti-Hindu.
Staten Island Democrats are making nice with the party nominee after backing his rival, ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the June Democratic Party primary. Cuomo is now running in the general election on an independent, minor-party line.
Republican mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa will have voters decide whether the Big Apple should remain a sanctuary city if he’s elected mayor.
The Guardian Angels founder and Republican nominee for mayor has long been a New York curiosity. Can he become a serious contender?
Councilwoman Tiffany Caban and Assemblywoman Claire Valdez were among dozens of protesters arrested Friday at a pro-Palestinian demonstration at the Manhattan offices of Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, according to officials.
More than 100 protesters, who were organized by the antiwar group Jewish Voice for Peace, chanted and banged pots and pans in the lobby of the Third Avenue building where both Schumer, the Senate minority leader, and Gillibrand have office space.
A historic hotel marquee above the Clark Street subway station in Brooklyn Heights came crashing down yesterday morning, forcing the MTA to suspend service at the station.
NYC homeowners might not be getting the free garbage cans the City Council promised – as legislators and Mayor Adams literally fight over trash.
New York City’s decennial tree census will soon utilize cutting-edge technology to assess the health of more than 600,000 street trees.
A fundraiser for the children of security guard gunned down in last week’s mass shooting in Midtown Manhattan has topped $60,000 — as kin hailed him as “a pillar of strength” for his family.
Operators of a city drug-treatment program say they are seeing more patients addicted to marijuana since New York legalized the sale of weed for adult recreational use.
Two crypto bros charged with kidnapping and torturing an Italian millionaire so he would give them his cryptocurrency password were accused of holding another European tourist hostage at their Kentucky compound, according to a report.
A New York National Guard member from Brooklyn has been arrested on charges of selling contraband to state prison inmates at Collins Correctional Facility in Erie County, a medium-security prison where a statewide prison strike began in February.
A second person was arrested in an animal abuse case in which police said dozens of dogs were kept in deplorable conditions at a house in Milton.
Half of high schools in the Capital Region do not offer any computer science courses, according to a new report that calls for more “computational thinking” at all grade levels.
A common opinion among elected leaders: traffic bottlenecks on Hoosick Road are terrible. From there, their proposed solutions appear to differ.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
