Good morning, it’s FRIDAY. Hooray!! This week flew by, notwithstanding my persistent confusion about what day it was.
If you spend any time at all at the gym AND on social media, I’m betting that you probably get hit with a lot of content pushing the importance of protein – especially if you’re a woman over 50 years of age.
The protein-muscle-building train, once limited to a highly specific group of raw egg-pounding body builders, is now an “everyone on board” situation. Not is there protein in the traditional form – meat, dairy products, the aforementioned eggs, fish, beans, etc., but protein is now seemingly added to everything – yogurt, cereal, bread, peanut butter, ice cream, you name it.
Just this morning, I was at my neighborhood Starbucks and asked if I wanted to sample their new “protein foam”, which is a new offering that has received mixed reviews.
Real talk for a minute: More protein is not necessarily a silver bullet from a health perspective. It CAN help curb your appetite as it digests slower than a simple carb, for example, and can help build muscles while keeping your immune system humming along at optimum levels.
Too much protein is, well, too much of a good thing. It can stress the kidneys while leading to gastrointestinal issues and putting you at a higher risk of certain cancers.
So how much protein is actually enough. The answer is: It depends. If you’re older, (read: after 45 or so), which is when muscle mass more easily diminishes, or if you’re a very active person, you need more, though no more than 2 grams per kilogram of body weight – if you’re an average sedentary adult, you need less, probably closer to about .8 grams per kilogram of body weight.
Caveat: I’m neither a doctor nor a dietitian. If you’re really serious about nailing your protein intake, consult a professional.
I’m nearing the point of no return here and I belatedly realize that I haven’t even come close to what the POINT of today’s post was supposed to be, which is the fact that it’s National Pasta Day. (I had some protein pasta the other day, which was really disappointing, remaining far too al dente no matter how much I boiled it).
Obviously, I’ve very much lost the plot here. So I guess I’ll just say that unless you’re sensitive to gluten or have some other health issue that prevents you from doing so, just eat the regular pasta. It’s delicious.
If you want to feel less guilty about that, try a whole wheat pasta, which has a lot going for it, and also stick to modest portions – like the Italians, who, on average, consume as much as 60 pounds annually, per person, with the average portion size of about 2.6 oz of dried pasta per sitting.
I hope you have some outdoor activities planned for the weekend, and if you don’t, well, you might consider getting some on the calendar. It’s going to be perfect doughnut-eating, leaf-peeping and apple and pumpkin-picking weather.
Today will be mostly sunny with temperatures topping out in the low 60s. Both Saturday and Sunday will bring intervals of clouds and sunshine, with temperatures growing progressively throughout the weekend, perhaps even hitting 70 degrees on Sunday.
In the headlines…
John R. Bolton, 76, the national security hawk and former adviser to President Donald Trump who became one of his most outspoken critics, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Maryland on charges of mishandling classified information.
An 18-count indictment accused Bolton of sending more than 1,000 pages of “diary” notes about his day-to-day activities as Trump’s national security adviser in 2018 and 2019 that included “national defense information.”
Some charges against the onetime national security adviser resemble the dropped case against President Trump, but there are also differences.
“I have become the latest target in weaponizing the Justice Department to charge those [Trump] deems to be his enemies with charges that were declined before or distort the facts,” said Bolton in a statement.
Adm. Alvin Holsey, the military commander overseeing the Pentagon’s escalating attacks against boats in the Caribbean Sea that the Trump administration says are smuggling drugs, announced yesterday that he was stepping down for unknown reasons.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a statement: “On behalf of the Department of War, we extend our deepest gratitude to Admiral Alvin Holsey for his more than 37 years of distinguished service to our nation as he plans to retire at year’s end.”
Trump said that if Hamas continued to kill people in Gaza, “we will have no choice but to go in and kill them,” a stark warning after Hamas fighters were captured on video in recent days executing members of rival groups in the Palestinian territory.
“If Hamas continues to kill people in Gaza, which was not the Deal, we will have no choice but to go in and kill them,” Trump wrote in a social media post.
Trump yesterday refiled his defamation lawsuit against The New York Times and several of its reporters, again accusing the news organization of seeking to undermine his 2024 candidacy and disparage his reputation as a businessman.
The amended complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for Florida’s Middle District in Tampa, accuses the paper of defamation, citing two articles published in 2024 and a book authored by two Times reporters. He is seeking $15 billion plus punitive damages.
Three labor unions represented by the Electronic Frontier Foundation sued the Trump administration over a program that is searching the social media posts of visa holders, arguing this violates the First Amendment rights of people legally in the US.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce sued the Trump administration over its decision to raise the fee for H-1B work visa applications to $100,000, arguing that President Trump exceeded his authority in altering the visa program.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in New York, asks a judge to block the administration from engaging in “viewpoint-based investigation and surveillance” and asks for a court order to purge any records created so far under the administration’s program.
After the Supreme Court appeared ready to dismantle one of the remaining provisions of the Voting Rights Act, Democrats and Republicans began to reckon with a political future that could see the balance of power in Congress tip decisively toward the G.O.P.
Republicans’ near-permanent House majority, however, is not inevitable—even if SCOTUS does deliver a death blow to minority voting rights. That’s because the court’s decision would also allow blue states to draw more efficient Democratic gerrymanders.
The decision will likely hinge on Chief Justice John Roberts, who has been dubious about the Voting Rights Act for years.
Gov. Kathy Hochul vetoed a bill that would have required platforms like Instacart, Uber and DoorDash as well as food retailers to let customers know if they can expect a price hike by ordering groceries online.
Building owners and property managers will no longer be able to use algorithm-based software to artificially inflate New Yorkers’ rents as a result of a bill signed into law by Hochul yesterday.
New York’s highest state court rejected arguments from several counties that a state law approved to move most elections from odd- to even-numbered years violates the state Constitution.
The state Republican committee reportedly will disband its Young Republicans chapter after a vile group chat between its members revealed they joked about rape and praised Hitler.
After racist texts among members of the New York State Young Republicans were made public, the party’s state leaders were slated to meet today and vote to disband the group, three people familiar with the matter said.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer vowed to fight to keep the Gateway/Hudson River Tunnel project funded, hours after President Trump insisted — perhaps incorrectly — that the project had been “terminated.”
The first debate in the general election of the New York City mayor’s race was a bitter and combative affair, with the three candidates trading personal attacks, disagreeing fiercely over the Israel-Hamas war and questioning their rivals’ credentials.
In their efforts to carve out breakout moments and stunt their opponents’ momentum, the candidates for New York City mayor did not shy away from attacking one another, often levying deeply personal insults.
Frontrunner Zohran Mamdani did not make any major or minor mistakes in last night’s mayoral debate. He was calm, smiled and made his points over attacks from rivals Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa.
Despite frequent criticisms that the democratic socialist would drive business out of the city, Mamdani delivered the most cogent answer onstage in response to a question on fostering a business-friendly city.
Mamdani declined to endorse Hochul for reelection on the debate stage — even after she took a big political risk by endorsing him in the mayoral contest.
Mamdani’s past statements on Israel and Palestinians came up several times during the night in both questions from moderators and opponents’ criticisms.
Cuomo put Mamdani on his back foot as the two sparred over whether prostitution should be decriminalized in New York City.
While unlikely to vault him beyond his steady, third-place polling position, GOP nominee Sliwa’s colorful commentary generated a new type of meme and saw him trending on the social media platform X.
Mamdani’s defensive stance on policing — and his efforts to clean up equivocal remarks about Hamas this week — exposed the fault lines Democrats still face heading into the midterms.
When asked about how they would handle Trump, Mamdani said that he’s willing to work with him on lowering the cost of living for New Yorkers and Cuomo said that he would fight every step of the way if the president went after New York.
Cuomo’s last-ditch effort to stop Mamdani from becoming mayor of New York City got an expensive boost in the run-up to Thursday’s debate from a pair of billionaires with close ties to President Trump.
Mamdani has a 21-point lead in the race to become mayor of New York City, with voters seeing him as the best choice to handle the city’s problems, according to a new Fox News poll.
Mamdani faced vitriolic attacks that suggested he was a terrorist sympathizer after he gave an indirect answer to a question on Wednesday about whether Hamas should lay down arms and step aside in Gaza.
Mamdani’s artist wife Rama Duwaji was spotted teaching a ceramics class in a trendy Brooklyn neighborhood last night, while her socialist democrat husband was trading barbs during the New York City mayoral debate.
In an interview, Mayor Eric Adams said that endorsing Mamdani was a “nonstarter” because of his membership in the Democratic Socialists of America and his embrace of policies such as decriminalizing prostitution and closing the Rikers Island jail complex.
New York City officials are suing the Trump administration over its decision to block $47 million in education funds for public magnet schools. Adams’ office announced the new lawsuit.
The lawsuit comes weeks after the Trump administration asserted the city’s gender guidelines, including rules allowing students to use bathrooms and locker rooms based on their gender identity, violated civil rights law and demanded they be revised.
Once he’s out of office in January, Adams plans to get a doctorate degree, write a book, shoot a documentary and start a new “dream job” that might relate to “things in other countries,” he said.
A Manhattan federal judge yesterday ordered the Trump administration to restore nearly $34 million in antiterrorism and security funding for the New York City subway and regional railroads that he said had been withheld illegally.
The New York Police Department is creating a unit of 450 investigators to respond to domestic violence, a move that comes as the city is grappling with a surge in such cases, Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch said.
Domestic violence complaints in New York City have spiked 18% over the past five years according to NYPD data obtained by Gothamist and city officials are unable to point to specific drivers of the surge.
The Big Apple’s roughly 13,000 electric Uber, Lyft and other for-hire vehicle drivers should be allowed to switch to hybrids because the city doesn’t have enough EV chargers, taxi advocate Fernandeo Mateo argued.
Two powerful labor unions representing Broadway performers, musicians and stage managers have authorized a walkout in a contract dispute with theater owners, and theater patrons aren’t too thrilled.
The state Office of Court Administration is threatening to withhold $13.3 million in state aid in a high-stakes showdown with the City of Schenectady over “deficiencies” at two municipal court facilities.
A mother was found guilty yesterday afternoon of causing the death of her nearly 11-month-old daughter, who froze to death after she was left in a utility area at General Electric’s downtown plant.
Albany County Executive Dan McCoy released his proposed 2026 budget this week, which raises the tax levy while lowering the tax rate.
A scientist whose discovery of an appetite-controlling hormone that advanced the way obesity is understood and treated was awarded the 2025 Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research.
A Kingston elementary school principal whose mysterious absence went unexplained as a questionnaire circulated about her “disturbing” treatment of students is being replaced, administrators said.
The abandoned Saratoga Sites housing complex in Cohoes — often associated with its proximity to a controversial hazardous waste incinerator — has been likened to a ghost town. That could soon change.
A jury convicted Austin Breyette of assault this afternoon in the horrific dirt bike crash that nearly killed a University at Albany student last year.
A Colombian national admitted in federal court this week that he smuggled a pregnant woman who died in a North Country river while she was being trafficked from Canada to the U.S.
Ace Frehley, the original lead guitarist of the hard-rock band Kiss, who often performed in white-and-silver face makeup as the group sold millions of records during his two tenures with it, from 1973 to 1982 and then from 1996 to 2002, has died at 74.
Diane Keaton, the Oscar-winning actress known for her roles in “Annie Hall,” “The Godfather,” “Reds” and other films, died of primary bacterial pneumonia, according to a death certificate that was released yesterday.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
