Good morning. It’s Tuesday and there are 11 days until Thanksgiving. If you are the sort of person who is hosting the big meal and are on a timetable, at this point you should have:
- Planned the menu.
- Finalized the guest list and seating arrangements.
- Placed any special orders (like organic, farm-raised turkeys etc.).
- Shopped for non-perishable items.
- Started to clean out the fridge to make room for holiday-related items.
- Buy alcoholic beverages.
- Decide on decor and/or flowers.
Or, if you’re me, you’ve already made restorations and called it a day. For many years, my mom and step-dad have celebrated all the big holidays – Thanksgiving, Christmas, and sometimes even New Years – at Mohonk Mountain House, which is one of my all-time favorite places.
While it tends to be crowded at this time of year, it’s also very festive, with pretty much every inch of the house decked out to the nines. I’ve lost count trying to figure out how many Christmas trees there are, starting with an enormous one in the cathedral-ceilinged main dining room.
Also, because Mohonk is Mohonk (and if you haven’t had the pleasure, you really should consider it a day trip, which is far more economical than an overnight), there are plenty of quiet nooks to sit down and chat. And while the gardens are no longer in bloom, the lake is spectacular any time of the year. And there’s ice skating!
We are about halfway through Native American Heritage Month, which was designated as such by then-President George H.W. Bush in 1990 to honor the history, culture, and contributions to this nation of American Indian and Alaska Native peoples. The choice of November is notable, given the Thanksgiving holiday – a day not of celebration, but of mourning for many Indigenous people, who see it as symbolic of colonization, genocide, and oppression.
Today is Native Women’s Equal Pay Day, which falls on whatever day of the year that an Indigenous woman would have to work full-time, year-round to earn what a white, non-Hispanic man would earns in the previous year. The wage gap between women and man is well known and well publicized, but it’s far less well known that Native women experience.
As an aside, I was today years old when I found out that there are a whole slew of equal pay days every year – each one designed to highlight the challenges of a specific subset of women. They are the brainchildren of the National Committee on Pay Equity (NCPE), which and were launched with the goal of raising awareness about the pay gap and how it varies from one community to another.
Sadly, the NCPE lost its funding and was subsequently dissolved in 2024, despite the fact that pay equity remains a problem – particularly among women of color. In 2025, women not only continued to be paid less than men for doing the same work, but the gap has actually widened.
On average, American women who are working full-time typically earn about 81 cents for every dollar a man earns, though, as mentioned above, this statistic worsens significantly for women of color, though the same goes for women with disabilities, migrant women, and LGBTQ+ women.
I’m just over here trying to keep this issue alive in my small corner of the world.
We’ll see mostly sunny skies and temperatures topping out in the low 40s. No precipitation of note is in the forecast.
In the headlines…
The UN Security Council approved President Trump’s peace plan for Gaza, a breakthrough that provides a legal UN mandate for the administration’s vision of how to move past the cease-fire and rebuild the war-ravaged Gaza Strip after two years of war.
The body’s support was a significant diplomatic win for the Trump administration and its efforts to stabilize Gaza. Many countries the U.S. has hoped will contribute troops and funds to the project indicated they wouldn’t do so absent the U.N.’s backing.
“Congratulations to the World on the incredible Vote of the United Nations Security Council,” Trump said online, predicting the vote “will go down as one of the biggest approvals in the History of the United Nations, will lead to further Peace all over the World.”
After the United Nations Security Council endorsed the U.S. peace plan developed under Trump’s leadership, Hamas rejected two of its vital conditions—the militant group’s immediate disarmament and what it called the “international guardianship mechanism”.
The Palestinian armed group wrote on Telegram after the resolution passed that the plan “imposes an international guardianship mechanism on the Gaza Strip, which our people and their factions reject”.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is to visit the White House today for the first time since 2018, when the killing of a journalist by Saudi agents made him a pariah.
Trump said that he planned to sell F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, despite concerns from national security officials in his administration that a sale could create an opportunity for China to steal the planes’ advanced technology.
Trump won’t rule out deploying U.S. troops on the ground in Venezuela, but also said he was leaving open the possibility of talking to Nicolás Maduro, the country’s authoritarian leader and the target of the Trump administration’s intensifying pressure campaign.
A Tennessee judge temporarily blocked the deployment of the National Guard in Memphis, siding with state and local lawmakers who argued that Gov. Bill Lee had overstepped his constitutional authority in sending troops to the city.
The Trump administration filed a lawsuit against the state of California, alleging its law banning federal immigration officers from wearing face masks is unconstitutional.
Trump told attendees at the McDonald’s Impact Summit that they are “so damn lucky” he won the 2024 presidential election, arguing the economy would have been a “catastrophe” otherwerwise.
Ex-Treasury Secretary and Harvard professor Larry Summers announced plans to step back from public commitments amid fallout from the release of emails between him and pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Summers, a former Harvard president, said that he was “deeply ashamed” about his relationship with Epstein, but the Harvard University professor also added that he will continue teaching as some call for the university to completely sever ties with him.
The Yale Budget Lab said Summers has indicated he would be withdrawing from his role in its advisory group. And a spokeswoman for the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank, said he would be ending his fellowship there immediately.
Thousands of documents related to Amelia Earhart were published online by the National Archives on Friday and billed as an effort to increase transparency about her disappearance, but Earhart experts said the collection was a dud.
Health officials have linked for the first time the measles outbreak that began in Texas with another in Utah and Arizona, a finding that could end America’s status as a nation that has eliminated measles.
A defense lawyer representing two prominent targets of the White House – including state AG Tish James – accused an administration housing official, Bill Pulte, of transforming his agency into an arm of President Trump’s revenge campaign.
Gov. Kathy Hochul says she has a strategy for keeping President Trump from surging federal troops and agents into New York City: convince him it will be bad for business.
“I can stand here today and say ‘We can do quite a few things without any source of additional revenue based on the revenue coming in,’ but I don’t know what Washington is going to do,” Hochul said.
Alleged Chinese mole Linda Sun brazenly forged then-LG Hochul’s signature in glowing missives sent to dignitaries from the Henan province, according to the feds and documents presented at her bombshell trial.
As temperatures begin to plunge across the state, Hochul called on the federal government to quickly distribute the $400 million earmarked for New York to help low-income ratepayers with their home heating costs.
Longtime state Democratic leader Jay Jacobs is staying on next year despite refusing to endorse Zohran Mamdani as party’s nominee for New York City mayor. “I have work to do. I’m staying on. I have no intention of stepping down,” he said.
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman challenged Hochul to draw a line in the sand as she faces pressure from Democratic Socialists of America to back Mamdani’s proposed tax hikes.
Trump said he plans to meet with Mamdani and said they’ll “work something out,” in what could be a detente for the Republican president and Democratic political star who have cast each other as political foils.
Mamdani said that his team had reached out to White House officials to set up a meeting with Trump, one day after the president mentioned the possibility to reporters.
Mamdani is weighing in on local legislative races, throwing his weight behind a left-wing Queens Assembly candidate whose political adviser believes it’s time “to draw the fire of the Israeli lobby.”
Mamdani’s support for Palestinian-American activist Aber Kawas puts him at offs with Assemblywoman Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas, who is vacating her seat to run for a state Senate spot next summer and has endorsed her chief of staff, Brian Romero, to succeed her.
Influential billionaire GOP donor John Catsimatidis — a fierce Mamdani critic during the mayoral campaign — now says he wants New York conservatives to work with the incoming administration to ensure the Big Apple’s success.
City Councilmember Chi Ossé of Brooklyn has taken the first official step toward a Democratic primary challenge against House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, the highest-ranking Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Insurgent Osse took the first major step in a primary bid to run for the 8th House District against Jeffries, a Brooklyn Democrat, by registering a “Chi Osse for Congress” campaign committee with the Federal Elections Commission, records show.
“It’s a real pain in the ass for them,” Democratic consultant Chris Coffey said of Osse’s run, referring to Mamdani and his team. “They really don’t want to be talking about Hakeem at a time when they need to reassure people and get money from D.C. and Albany.”
Mayor Eric Adams met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday as part of his taxpayer-funded multi-day trip to the Holy Land — as he took a veiled swipe at his successor Mamdani’s incoming tenure.
The two leaders “discussed the fight against antisemitism and the unbreakable bond between New York City and Israel,” Adams said on social media. “We stand strong, proud, and united against antisemitism and all other forms of hate.”
In an interview with the right-wing Israel Hayom newspaper before his sitdown with Netanyahu, Adams even encouraged the Israeli leader to come to New York for Mamdani’s Jan. 1 inauguration.
“I believe the prime minister should visit the city. I think he should start with the inauguration ceremony of Mamdani in the presence of the City Council on Jan. 1 to send a strong message to the largest Jewish community outside Israel,” Adams said.
Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that he “thanked Mayor Adams for his great support for Israel and for being a true friend of the Jewish people.” He posted photos from the meeting online.
“Being a city of international law means looking to uphold international law,” Mamdani said. “And that means upholding the warrants from the International Criminal Court, whether they’re for Benjamin Netanyahu or Vladimir Putin.”
Moreno, a lifelong activist and elected leader in the Democratic Socialists of America, is running to succeed Mamdani in his progressive Astoria Assembly district. She officially launched her campaign yesterday.
A program to support the city’s “invisible labor force” is getting millions in new money to bolster a Big Apple population over 60 that is expected to explode over the next few years, Adams announced.
Leaders in the southern Westchester County town of Eastchester say they’ve stayed blue wave-proof a few miles from the Bronx by rejecting “wokeism” and embracing traditional values, while some locals say they’re perfectly happy in the right-leaning “bubble.”
A man federal prosecutors say leads a neo-Nazi organization called the Maniac Murder Cult pleaded guilty to planning hate crimes against Jewish people and racial minorities.
A Georgian man who plotted for Jewish children in New York to be fed poisoned candy on New Year’s Eve by a man dressed as Santa Claus pleaded guilty to soliciting hate crimes.
Three people were charged with attempting to bribe a juror in a drug trafficking trial involving one of the largest cocaine seizures in American history, according to a complaint unsealed in Brooklyn federal court.
A labor union filed a petition yesterday to form a bargaining unit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art that would represent nearly 1,000 workers, including curators, conservators, retail specialists and educators.
Politicos across the Empire State are mourning the death of legendary power broker Sid Davidoff, who spent decades ironing out deals for some of New York’s most influential leaders. He was 86.
Former NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio is throwing his jilted ex-gal pal Nomiki Konst a bone — endorsing her client Michael Blake’s insurgent bid to topple Bronx Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY).
Mets owner Steve Cohen’s bid to build a casino near Citi Field cleared its latest hurdle by signing a deal to make nice with the operators of the US Open after a bombshell lawsuit.
A federal judge has granted preliminary approval to a proposed settlement in a class-action lawsuit filed against DuPont Co. on behalf of Hoosick Falls residents who were allegedly harmed by contamination of their community’s water supplies.
Town Supervisor Jack Conway scrapped controversial plans to build a town police station on a grassy plot of land owned by the East Greenbush Public Library.
A silver lining emerged for opponents of Rensselaer’s Democratic establishment in an otherwise bruising city election. Sara Beth Bollman, a Democrat endorsed by city COP, defeated Alderwoman Andrea VanBergen Lopez, a Ward 3 Common Council Democrat.
A 19-year-old SUNY Cobleskill student was killed Saturday after an SUV struck her as she was crossing the street near campus, officials said. The crash is still under investigation.
Two New York State Police troopers were injured last night when a vehicle struck them during a traffic stop on Route 23, according to State Police, in an incident that left the driver of the vehicle dead.
Veteran organizations are asking the public to help them find enough sponsors to place a holiday wreath on every veteran’s grave at the Gerald B.H. Solomon Saratoga National Cemetery at 2009 Duell Road in Schuylerville.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
