Good morning, it’s Thursday.
I remember when I was young talking to my dad about the assassination of JFK. He said he remembered exactly where he was when he heard the news that shocked the world and inalterably changed the course of history. (Interestingly, though I clearly remember the conversation, I don’t recall WHERE he said he was at the time; memories are funny like that).
I didn’t really comprehend at the time how something so monumental can stick with you for so long. I didn’t fully get that until it happened to me – on Sept. 11, 2001.
Though 24 years have passed, I can easily recreate that day and the moment I heard that a plane had flown into the World Trade Center, followed not long after by another one. I was living in Boston at the time, and was in the middle of conducting an interview for a freelance piece I was working on about historic buildings being relocated from their original sites.
The person I was interviewing had the TV on, and said: “A plane just hit the Twin Towers!” I started Googling right away; we thought it might have been an accident, and we both agreed that we would stop the interview and pick it up at some later date.
That never happened, of course, because it soon became clear that this was no accident, but rather the deadliest terrorist attack ever to occur on U.S. soil, the impact of which continues to be felt in multiple ways today.
Some policies that were put in place in the immediate aftermath of the attacks – the Patriot Act, most notably, and taking your shoes off at the airport – are no longer around, but 9/11-related deaths are still occurring and the number of first responders who have died as a result of the health impacts of being on the pile has now surpassed the number of day-of victims.
The World Trade Health Center recently reported that the number of first responders and others who have been diagnosed with 9/11-linked cancers has ballooned to close to 50,000 – a 143 percent increase over the past five years. This is due in part, according to news reports, to the fact that the population of those who were at Ground Zero is aging with most now in their late 50 and 60s.
And I can conjure up memories of that day as clear as if they occurred just yesterday. Boy, do I feel old.
It’s also not lost on me – someone who has spent their professional life watching and working in and adjacent to New York politics – the impact of 9/11 on governing and government in the Big Apple, not the least of which was the outcome of the 2001 election, since the attacks occurred on Primary Day.
The possibility of elections going sideways due to some unforeseen supposed “surprise” revelation or event has never been far from my mind when people ask me to predict the outcome of a race.
I am floored by the fact that an entire generation has grown up in the shadow of 9/11. More than 13,000 babies were born across the U.S. on that day ALONE. Over 100 million Americans have been born since the terror attacks on Lower Manhattan, (about 23 percent of the population, as of 2023), which means they’re too young to recall in vivid detail what happened that day.
So, it’s incumbent on those of us who were around at the time to make sure the memory of that day isn’t forgotten. I’m over here doing my part in my small corner of the world.
It will be mostly sunny today, with high temperatures in the high-70s.
In the headlines…
Charlie Kirk, 31, the charismatic founder of the nation’s pre-eminent right-wing youth activist group, was fatally shot yesterday while speaking at Utah Valley University.
“You try to get your bases covered, and unfortunately, today, we didn’t,” said Jeff Long, the Utah Valley University police chief. “Because of that, we have this tragic incident.”
The suspect arrested in connection with Kirk’s assassination was released after the FBI announced agents had detained the wrong person for a second time. The killer remains on the run, with the FBI and local cops hunting for him across the Salt Lake City region.
“The subject in custody has been released after an interrogation by law enforcement,” FBI Director Kash Patel posted to X last night, just over an hour after he announced “the subject of the horrific shooting” had been arrested.
Patel said that the agency’s investigation was continuing, reversing his earlier announcement that someone had been apprehended.
In the moments before the shot rang out, someone who appears to be a student asked Kirk if he knew “how many transgender Americans have been mass shooters over the last ten years,” speaking into a microphone. “Too many,” replied Kirk.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox described Kirk’s killing as “a political assassination” in remarks to reporters. “Nothing I say can unite us as a country,” Cox said. “Nothing I can say right now can fix what is broken. Nothing I can say can bring back Charlie Kirk.”
Initial expressions of grief and shock over Kirk’s killing were overtaken by open calls for reckoning and vengeance, as some proclaimed the country was on the brink of civil war.
In honor of Kirk, Trump issued a proclamation ordering flags to lowered to half-staff at the at all federal buildings, embassies, consular offices and other U.S. government properties abroad until sunset on Sept. 14, 2025.
“The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie.
Trump later said that rhetoric from the “radical left” contributed to the shooting death of his close ally Charlie Kirk, and he promised to find those responsible for political violence, as well as the “organizations that fund it and support it.”
MSNBC political analyst Matthew Dowd was fired from the network after his comments about Kirk following the shooting at Utah Valley University, according to Variety, citing sources.
Feminist website Jezebel boasted that a reporter paid witches on Etsy to “curse” MAGA conservative influencer Charlie Kirk two days before he was assassinated, with the publication later forced to add an editor’s note condemning the heinous act of violence.
A moment of silence on the House floor for Kirk devolved into a moment of chaos as a pair of Republicans called out Democrats. With every lawmaker standing up in quiet observance, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) demanded a spoken prayer.
“Silent prayers get silent results,” Boebert said, leading to jeers from Democrats, with some shouting about a school shooting that also happened yesterday. One unidentified Democrat blurted out: “Pass some gun laws!”
Three students, including a suspected shooter, were critically injured in a shooting at a suburban high school in Colorado on yesterday afternoon, the authorities said.
The shooting took place just before 12:30 p.m. on the grounds of Evergreen High School in Evergreen, Colo., about 30 miles southwest of Denver, according to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.
The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library postponed a book signing for conservative commentator Ben Shapiro yesterday, after his fellow right-wing media figure Kirk was shot and killed.
Senate Republicans narrowly blocked an unexpected effort yesterday by Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, to force a vote on releasing the Epstein files and put Republican senators on record on an issue that has divided their party.
The House passed a $892.6 billion defense policy bill that would enhance military readiness and raise pay for US troops, while banning gender-affirming care for military members and rejecting efforts to protect access to abortion care for service members.
Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison has dethroned Tesla CEO Elon Musk as the world’s richest person. Ellison’s net worth grew a massive $101 billion yesterday morning to $393 billion, surpassing Musk’s $385 billion fortune, according to Bloomberg.
Millions more in funding is being allocated towards security at the Canadian border as Gov. Kathy Hochul says $8 million is going to hiring new staff and improving equipment.
State health officials said they are scaling back a subsidized medical care plan for low-income New Yorkers that had previously been targeted by the federal government, calling it a “proactive action” to prevent further cuts.
Hochul said the move that could leave roughly 450,000 New Yorkers ineligible for free government health care is necessary because of funding cuts included in the domestic policy bill passed by Republicans in Congress earlier this year.
Hochul is in hot water for telling parishioners at a largely black church not to buy booze with their incoming state “inflation refund” checks — with fellow pols slamming her comments as tone-deaf and “demeaning.”
The governor said that this summer was the safest in the New York City subway in at least 15 years, even as federal officials have painted the transit system as dangerous and crime-ridden.
The Department of Financial Services this week issued guidance to insurance companies on Covid vaccines, saying they highly recommend that they cover the shots and implied that in some cases it may be required under state law.
Attorneys expect litigation that challenges the state OCM’s decision to change how it measures the required 500-foot distance between dispensaries and schools or houses of worship, sending hundreds of businesses into chaos, will move forward shortly.
A cannabis testing lab in New York is facing a three-year ban and a record fine of $2 million after state investigators found unacceptable levels of pesticides in products the company had cleared as safe for sale.
Glenn Liebman, chief executive officer of the Mental Health Association of New York State, says the organization is recommending the creation of a State Psychiatric Hospital Closure commission like the federal base closure commissions of the 1990s and 2000s.
Thomas H. Mungeer, former NYS Troopers PBA president, abruptly turned in his police credentials and equipment, submitting his notice of retirement as he prepares to face criminal charges in connection with his former leadership of the union.
Most of the state is now under a drought watch after a summer of high heat and little rain. Hochul and the state Department of Environmental Conservation added 30 counties to the drought watch list yesterday, bringing the total to 50.
Ahead of the 24th anniversary of Sept. 11, Zohran Mamdani, the front-runner to be the city’s next mayor, spoke about the importance of honoring the victims and the persistent Islamophobia the attacks provoked.
In a petition released Wednesday – the first day fans could begin to apply for tickets via a presale draw — Mamdani demanded FIFA reverse its plan to set prices for next year’s tournament based on demand, likening the practice to “price gouging.”
In a statement, a FIFA spokesperson defended dynamic pricing as a “developing market practice” and said that it would be setting aside tickets for “specific fan categories” that will be at a “fixed price.”
Democratic Hudson Valley Rep. Pat Ryan threw his support behind Mamdani in the New York City mayoral race, while also calling former Gov. Andrew Cuomo a “selfish POS.”
“@ZohranKMamdani fights for the PEOPLE. Andrew Cuomo is a selfish POS who only fights for himself and other corrupt elites. I know whose side I’m on. I’m with the people. I’m with Zohran,” Ryan wrote on X.
Mamdani yesterday ducked questions about his links to Hasan Piker, drawing outrage for refusing to condemn the lefty influencer’s statement that “America deserved 9/11.”
Cuomo’s mayoral campaign unlocked $4,000 in public matching funds off of donations made in the names of minors in violation of fundraising compliance laws, including a contribution from the 5-year-old son of a prominent supporter of the former governor.
Fix the City, a super PAC that spent an unprecedented $22.5 million in support of Cuomo’s failed primary campaign, is teaming up with at least one other independent spending group to boost the former governor as he faces off a second time against Mamdani.
A group of progressive education advocates is releasing a slate of policy proposals to make the school system more responsive to local communities in the hopes of influencing the next mayor.
The City Council voted to override the mayor’s vetoes of bills that would increase salaries for grocery delivery workers and decriminalize unlicensed street vending.
“The mayor’s vetoes demonstrate that he prioritizes taking action to fuel greater corporate profits at the expense of workers in our city, who continue to be exploited,” Speaker Adrienne Adams said at a rally on the steps of City Hall yesterday morning.
New York City pols – including Cuomo – strutted their stuff down the catwalk yesterday in a bipartisan New York Fashion Week show “Style Across the Aisle,” spotlighting more than 30 local designers, but one group of elected officials was noticeably missing.
The former interim police commissioner sent a criminal referral letter to the Department of Justice this week, urging Attorney General Pam Bondi to open an investigation into Mayor Adams and eight NYPD allies and top deputies.
The sex offender parolee suspected of setting fire to a Queens home and robbing and brutally murdering the elderly couple who lived there has been arrested.
Jamel McGriff, 42, who police have been seeking since the Monday double murder, was nabbed yesterday after he was spotted by sharp-eyed officers in Midtown, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch announced.
The Oltons’ son, a New York City Fire Department paramedic, was alerted to the fire by an alarm system and he responded to the house, police said. There’s no known connection between the victims and the suspect, Tisch said.
City leaders have stepped in to replace federal funding for an AmeriCorps program that pays New Yorkers to work in community service after nationwide cuts by the Trump administration.
The MTA lost roughly $1 billion to fare and toll evasion in 2024 — much higher than the already astronomical sum estimated by the transit agency itself, according to a bombshell new watchdog study.
Trump’s real estate company got passed over in its bid to reclaim management of Wollman Ice Skating Rink in Central Park.The city is now preparing to allow the existing rink operator, a firm affiliated with Related Companies, to retain control of the site.
For nearly a year, the city has failed to provide funds for critical medical payments to widows and children of first responders who died on 9/11 and other city employees killed in the line of duty.
A Columbia University graduate student was briefly detained and handcuffed by several people claiming to be federal agents near the Manhattanville campus, though it is unclear who they actually were.
The city probation officers union is demanding renegotiation of their contract terms over high turnover and unworkable caseloads they blame on managerial decisions, a copy of a Sept. 4 letter to the city Office of Labor Relations states.
A retired state judge on the Board of Correction scolded city jail officials for forcing defense lawyers to endure hourslong waits to see their clients, as well as mounds of red tape, confused rules, repeated searches and other indignities.
Manhattan federal prosecutors charged that the leader of a Mexico-based church that claims more than one million followers led a criminal enterprise that for decades sexually abused generations of church members and then destroyed the evidence.
The Albany County Legislature voted 25-8 to approve an $8,230 raise for Deputy Chairwoman Wanda Willingham during its meeting earlier this week.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer joined Riverkeeper to announce the launch of the “Water Quality Portal,” an interactive online map that lets residents track when and where it’s safe to swim, if fish are safe to eat and how clean their drinking water is.
The superintendent of the Saugerties Central School District was placed on administrative leave Tuesday amid an ongoing “internal investigation,” the district’s Board of Education president Jeffrey Riozzi announced in a public letter.
Windy Hill Orchard-East, the former longtime home of Goold Orchards in southern Rensselaer County, is void of activity and overgrown after five seasons. Its future is uncertain.
Charges against a Watervliet couple whose 9-year-old daughter died last month have been dropped after Albany County District Attorney Lee Kindlon said his office would not punish someone for being poor.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
