Good morning, it’s Thursday, which is one day away from Friday. And next week is a short one, so hang in there!

We are now eight days out from Thanksgiving, and things are getting real if you’re going to be cooking and hosting. If you have a frozen bird, now is the time to move it to the fridge (which you have already cleaned out and made ready to accommodate large items) to start thawing – especially if it’s a big one.

If you are REALLY organized, you can get some of the prep work out of the way, making things that keep well and/or can be frozen, like pie dough, cranberry sauce and some desserts.

There’s a lot going on that merits attention on this particular day, so we’re going to do one of those quickie overview posts in an effort to fit everything in. A Rise and Shine speed round! Let’s dive in:

  • Today is the Transgender Day of Remembrance, which was established to honor the lives of trans individuals who died as a result of being the targets of violence. As a reminder: Trans people are four times more likely than cisgender people to be the victims of violence, including but not limited to rape, sexual assault, and aggravated or simple assault, according to a study by the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law. This day started in 1999 as a vigil organized by transgender advocate named Gwendolyn Ann Smith in memory of a trans woman, Rita Hester, who was stabbed 20 times in a brutal murder that occurred a week before her 35th birthday in 1998. Hester’s murder has never been solved, and though her story spurred what is now an internationally recognized day, her name is not well known.
  • The Great American Smokeout is held every year on the third Thursday in November, which is today. This observance grew out of a hyper local “Don’t Smoke Day” in Monticello, Montana in 1974. Two years later, on Nov. 18, 1976, the California Division of the America Cancer Society convinced close to one million smokers to quit for the day – the first step toward quitting what is now widely accepted to be a potentially deadly habit – both for the smoker themselves and those around them – for good. Some 480,000 people die every year as a direct result of smoking, most of them from cancer, and smoking also contributes to a host of other diseases and conditions – from heart disease and chronic bronchitis to Type 2 Diabetes and aneurysms.
  • Sigd, which is an Amharic word that translates into “prostration”, is celebrated today – exactly 50 days after Yom Kippur – by the Ethiopian Jewish community. It was officially recognized by a state holiday in Israel in 2008 and is now also widely observed in Jerusalem. This day is celebrated with a fast and prayers while wearing all-white attire to symbolize purity and humility. Traditionally, one would also climb the highest local mountain to hear spiritual leaders read from the Torah, but that might not be a realistic ask of everyone. When the fast is over around midday, there is much feasting and dancing and general merrymaking.
  • The third Thursday in November is also Beaujolais Nouveau Day, which is part of the French tradition of “vin de primeur” (AKA “early wines” that are released in the same year of their harvest. Though the release rules for Beaujolais nouveau have relaxed in recent years, retailers are still instructed not to sell any bottles until this date. Interestingly, until 1972, New York was the only U.S. state to import Beaujolais nouveau, (known for its light, fruity flavor with notes of banana, cherry, and bubblegum) but it is now available in most major metro areas and cities around the nation and the world. This year’s celebration has been marred by tariffs, but it is still taking place, despite increased costs.

That ought to hold us for a minute. Things are getting a little lengthy, however, and so I’ll cut it off here. More to come tomorrow.

Another fairly decent day is on tap with nothing-much-to-mention weather in the forecast. Clouds in the morning will give way to mostly sunny skies in the afternoon. Temperatures will reach into the low 40s.

In the headlines…

Relenting to pressure from his base, President Donald Trump yesterday announced on social media that he signed legislation calling on the Justice Department to release its files on the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein within 30 days.

“Democrats have used the ‘Epstein’ issue, which affects them far more than the Republican Party, in order to try and distract from our AMAZING Victories,” Trump said on Truth Social.

Trump blasted Jimmy Kimmel and ABC following the late-night host’s show yesterday, where the liberal comedian alleged the commander in chief was “bracing for Hurricane Epstein.”

“Why does ABC Fake News keep Jimmy Kimmel, a man with NO TALENT and VERY POOR TELEVISION RATINGS, on the air?” Trump wrote on Truth Social early this morning.

Harvard University has reopened an investigation into connections between former President Larry Summers and Jeffrey Epstein, a university spokesperson said, and Summers’ office said he would resign from the board of OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT.

Summers, a Harvard University economist and the university’s former president, will step back from his teaching duties while the university investigates his ties to Epstein, a spokesman for Summers said.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a Brooklyn Democrat, was peppered with questions yesterday regarding claims from Republicans that he solicited campaign money from Epstein.

The House Ethics Committee announced that it will create a new subcommittee tasked with investigating a wide swath of allegations against Florida Republican Rep. Cory Mills.

The House voted to repeal a measure that creates a new legal avenue for senators to sue the government for at least $500,000 each if federal investigators access their phone records without notifying them.

The Trump administration proposed to significantly limit protections under the Endangered Species Act, the bedrock environmental law intended to prevent animal and plant extinctions.

The administration is proposing to cut protections for species that are newly designated as “threatened,” which is a step below endangered. 

Taken together, four proposed new rules could clear the way for more oil drilling, logging and mining in critical habitats for endangered species across the country.

A federal judge grilled the prosecutors pursuing charges against former FBI Director James B. Comey, posing a series of questions that underscored irregularities in the case, including that the full grand jury didn’t see the indictment it was supposedly approved.

Nvidia’s sales of the computing chips powering the AI craze surged beyond the lofty bar set by stock market analysts in a performance that may ease jitters about a Big Tech boom turning into a bust that topples the world’s most valuable company.

The company said in its most recent quarter, its profit was $31.9 billion, up 65 percent from a year ago and 245 percent from the year before. Among the tech industry’s giants, only Google’s parent company, Alphabet, made more money in the same quarter.

In a preview of the role reproductive rights will play in the 2026 gubernatorial race, U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik and Gov. Kathy Hochul’s campaign spent yesterday engaged in combat over in vitro fertilization.

The state Department of Correction & Community Supervision is driving the pressure on Hochul to dilute reforms that strengthen prison oversight and accountability after a death in a state facility

Fewer international students enrolled in the State University of New York this fall, as the Trump administration continues its forceful campaign to remake the American higher education system.

International enrollment at SUNY is down 4% this school year, fueled by a collapse at the graduate level by nearly 14%, according to preliminary data this week. More than 20,600 students from other countries learn on SUNY campuses.

NYMCIA is trying to compel state regulators to “fulfill their legal responsibility to thwart the influx of illicit cannabis product…and to identify and sanction the companies responsible for the illegal ‘inversion’ of out-of-state cannabis products into New York.”

Shoplifting is down 13% in the Big Apple and across the state, Hochul said yesterday, taking yet another victory lap for her retail theft crackdown ahead of the holiday shopping season.

Wall Street exec Joseph Hernandez is throwing his hat in the ring to try to unseat longtime New York state comptroller Tom DiNapoli – arguing the position could be used to rein in incoming New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

After attacking and demonizing each other incessantly during the New York City mayoral campaign, President Trump and Mamdani have agreed to meet at the White House tomorrow.

Trump announced the meeting on social media on Wednesday night, saying that Mamdani had asked for it and labeling him incorrectly as the “Communist Mayor of New York City.” Mamdani is a democratic socialist.

Mamdani announced that Jessica Tisch accepted his offer to stay at the helm of the nation’s largest police force. The announcement secures Mamdani’s highest-profile appointment as he prepares to take office in January.

“He’s asked me to serve as police commissioner in his administration, and after several conversations with him, I have agreed,” Tisch said in an email to officers. “Leading this department is the greatest privilege of my life, and I am proud to continue doing it.”

“(I)n speaking with him, it’s clear that we share broad and crucial priorities: The importance of public safety, the need to continue driving down crime and the need to maintain stability and order across the department,” Tisch wrote of Mamdani.

Mamdani and Tisch have gaps to bridge on crime and policing. Their viewpoints, in part, are rooted in their political beliefs.

Chi Ossé, one of the City Council’s most progressive members, has spoken about how voting for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in the 2016 presidential primary was a formative experience for him politically. But he wasn’t actually registered to vote at the time.

Mamdani dismissed Osse’s potential challenge to House Minority Leader Jeffries, saying “right now is not the time to be engaging in that type of primary.” 

Mamdani appeared at a closed door DSA meeting last night to urge the group to not endorse his onetime campaign surrogate Osse’s 2026 challenge against Jeffries — a sticky situation that spotlights a power struggle unfolding inside the leftist organization.

Mamdani now says the New York City Police Department should be responsible for responding to domestic violence incidents, backtracking on his past controversial comments from 2020.

Big Apple lawmakers are considering a bill that would give the NYPD’s civilian watchdog group “direct access” to police bodycam footage — and cops are fuming about it.

A coalition of Brooklynites living on notoriously rodent-infested blocks are pleading with Mamdani to bring in a new rat czar – after their calls for the city to renew the fight against the filthy creatures allegedly fell on deaf ears.

Two more candidates launched campaigns for Manhattan’s 12th Congressional District: Cameron Kasky, a co-founder of the gun control group March for Our Lives, and Mathew Shurka, an LGBTQ+ rights activist.

How many people does it take to fill Representative Jerrold Nadler’s shoes? Technically one, but the number of Democrats fighting to succeed him, now that he has announced that he will not seek re-election, is far higher – 10 and counting.

The developers selected to build an affordable housing complex in Manhattan’s Elizabeth St. Garden sued Mayor Eric Adams and his top deputy, Randy Mastro, over their attempt to block the project by designating the site as “parkland.”

The developers argued that the mayor doesn’t have the authority to declare a property parkland by “fiat,” claiming the move was “an extraordinary act of executive overreach” aimed at killing “a duly approved, shovel-ready affordable housing development.”

Former City Hall aide Mohamed Bahi was sentenced this week to three years’ probation for helping funnel bogus donations into Mayor Adams’ 2021 campaign coffers.

New e-bike battery swapping and charging cabinets will soon appear across the five boroughs – New York City’s Department of Transportation announced it will begin installing the cabinets within the next two years.

The MTA greenlighted $257 million for more than 200 new buses, handing over the keys without soliciting bids from competitors.

A new state bill honoring slain NYPD Officer Didarul Islam will assist officers like him who took a circuitous path to joining the force.

New York City’s “Bernie Madoff of landlords” has defaulted on nearly $170 million in loans — and is facing foreclosure on a whopping 35 or so Manhattan properties, new court records show.

A driver who crashed into a woman and her two young daughters while they were crossing a street in Brooklyn in March, killing all three, was sentenced to as many as nine years in prison.

Weepy wigmaker Miriam Yarimi apologized for wiping out a Brooklyn mom and her two young children with her speeding luxury sedan, just before catching a break and receiving a three-to-nine-year sentence from a judge yesterday.

A new proposal would allow developers to buy their way out of complying with an Albany city law requiring a certain number of affordable units to be included in housing developments.

The eastbound side of Interstate 88 was closed for hours yesterday after two tractor-trailers crashed on the highway, causing significant vehicle delays in the surrounding area. 

Calling it an “important and necessary step forward,” Schenectady County Republicans announced that they have taken full control of the city GOP.  

All ballots will be recounted in Rensselaer County after formatting errors were discovered during the recanvassing process.

Despite the mayor’s objections, Schenectady City Council members plan to resume budget talks in the near future. But they’ll have to wait for the city’s finance commissioner to return from paternity leave before they can forge a deal.  

Incoming CEO Jose Luis Crespo took the stage this week at Plug Power’s annual investor symposium at the company’s headquarters in Slingerlands with plans to reach profitability within the next three years.

Photo credit: George Fazio.