Good morning, it’s Monday and we’re back at it! I hope you had an enjoyable holiday. I always find that the re-entry after a long weekend is a bit of a struggle, so I’m fully prepared for this week to feel incredibly long.
It doesn’t help that the sun – if it even bothers to make an appearance at all – sets before 4:30 p.m. at this time of year. By 6 p.m. I feel ready to call it a day and crawl into bed.
The good news is that the slow slog toward the longest night of the year is almost over – the winter solstice will occur on Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025. On this day, there will be only approximately 9 hours and 17 minutes of daylight because the Northern Hemisphere is tilted the furthest possible distance from the sun.
After we suffer through that, though, things start looking up – albeit slowly. The amount of daylight will increase each day until the summer solstice in June. At first, we’ll see just a few extra seconds of daytime a day, but that will gradually increase until we’re gaining daylight at the (comparatively) rapid clip of two to three minutes a day sometime around March.
Until then, we just have to make the best of it. We have plenty to look forward to in the month of December, which kicks off today. There are 24 days until Christmas, for example, and 26 days until Kwanzaa, but only 14 days until Hanukkah, which comes early this year (Dec. 14, 2025).
December, by the way, comes from the Latin word “decem”, which means ten. Of course, it’s not the 12th month, but the 10th, which is kind of confusing, I know.
In the original Roman calendar that started with March, December was indeed the 10th – and final – month of the year.
When the calendar was “reformed” around 700 BCE to add January and February, December was pushed down the ladder to No. 12, but still kept its name. The calendar continued to start at March until Julius Caesar came along and in 46 BCE decided that January would be a better kick-off for the new year, and here we are.
I have not yet opened my social media feeds this morning, but imagine that they will be inundated with “rabbit rabbit” content, as is the case on the first of every month. Supposedly, intoning this phrase – or “white rabbits” or “bunny bunny” even just “rabbits!” – first thing in the morning on the first day of a new month is supposed to bring good luck.
This tradition appears to have originated in the 1800s in the UK, perhaps inspired by Alice in Wonderland, and it had some famous American adapters – including none other than President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who also was known to carry around rabbit’s foot for good luck during the 1932 election, which he won by a landslide, and also the actress Sarah Jessica Parker.
No matter how much you say “rabbit rabbit” (or whatever variation you prefer), I don’t think you’ll be lucky enough to do anything about the weather, as winter seemed to arrive with a vengeance over the weekend and is here to stay for some time.
I managed to miss the bulk of the holiday snow because I was downstate running a race. (It turns out that Pelham, NY, is definitely NOT flat, by the way, and don’t let anyone tell you different). By the time we got back on Saturday afternoon, the roads were largely clear, though there are some vestiges of the white stuff on the lawn.
It was a bit of a rude awakening, I’ll admit, and it’s just the beginning of what is forecast to be a very cold and snowy season.
We’ll see partly cloudy skies today with highs in the low 30s. The next winter storm is bearing down on us, however, with up to eight inches of accumulation predicted tomorrow. Millions of people in parts of New York, Pennsylvania and New England are under a winter storm watch today, as forecasters warned that a potential nor’easter could leave up to a foot of snow by tomorrow.
Ugh. Buckle in, folks, because things are about to get real. It’s time to get out there and get your milk, your bread, your eggs. Also, make sure the shovels are in place, and the rock salt. I don’t know about you, but I have to dig out my snow boots, hat, gloves, and puffy coat from the back of the closet.
In the headlines…
A top Republican and Democrats in Congress suggested that American military officials might have committed a war crime in President Trump’s offensive against boats in the Caribbean after a news report said a follow-up strike was ordered to kill survivors.
The Washington Post reported last week that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth authorized a highly unusual strike to kill all survivors of one of the Trump administration’s attacks in recent months on boats allegedly carrying drugs in international waters.
Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Arizona, said on “Meet the Press” that the Senate Armed Services will hold a public hearing on potentially illegal military orders issued by Hegseth.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio emerged from talks with Ukrainian officials in Florida yesterday to say that there was still “much work to do” on a proposal to end the war with Russia.
The Trump administration announced on Friday that it is pausing all asylum decisions following the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., earlier this week.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Joseph Edlow said all asylum decisions are being halted “until we can ensure that every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible.”
The president is furiously demanding limits on migration and attacking ethnic groups as he steps up his efforts to equate immigration with crime and economic distress.
Trump’s approval ratings have fallen in recent weeks as he approaches the end of the first year of his second term.
A Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ) polling average of surveys on Trump’s approval rating shows it sitting at 42 percent, while his disapproval rating currently sits at 55 percent. That’s lower than roughly a month ago.
These polls paint a portrait of declining approval, rising disunity among Republican voters, and significant inroads for Democrats—even in historically conservative districts.
Democrats overperformed with young men in the off-year elections. Now comes the hard part: Replicating those results in the midterms amid an ideological divide in the party.
Trump said he intends to grant a “full and complete pardon” to former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, a move that would erase a major US drug-trafficking conviction for a onetime US ally who is currently serving a 45-year federal prison sentence.
The president explained his decision on social media by posting that “according to many people that I greatly respect,” Hernandez was “treated very harshly and unfairly.”
Across the country, Democrats have seized on rising anxiety over electricity costs and data centers in what could be a template for the 2026 midterm elections.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel asked its president to pardon him in his long-running corruption trial, a request that the president called “extraordinary” and that critics said would run counter to the rule of law.
Netanyahu’s unusual pre-emptive appeal to President Isaac Herzog, while his trial is still underway, came about two weeks after President Trump sent a letter to Herzog urging him to pardon the Israeli prime minister.
Pope Leo XIV said he spoke with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan about serving as a “mediating voice” to help Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories negotiate a two-state solution.
Leo, noting that the Vatican is “also friends with Israel,” said a two-state solution was “the only solution” to “the conflict they continually live.” He added, “Turkey has an important role that it can play in this.”
Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey celebrated his marriage to his partner Alexis Lewis in an intimate ceremony in Washington, D.C. on Saturday evening, less than three months after he announced their engagement in an Instagram post.
Only close family were present as the New Jersey senator, 56, tied the knot on Saturday in an interfaith ceremony blessed by both a pastor and a rabbi — Lewis is Jewish and Booker Christian.
Across suburbs, rural counties and small towns in New York, Democrats this past November posted electoral gains that rival — and in many cases surpass — the party’s 2017 “Blue Wave.”
State lawmakers called on Gov. Kathy Hochul to approve prison reform legislation that has been waiting months for her signature, citing an investigation by The New York Times that revealed an uptick in prisoners credibly accusing guards of violent attacks.
After a Democratic primary rival questioned some of Hochul’s fund-raising methods, the governor’s campaign said it will return thousands of dollars she accepted from people she’s appointed to state boards and councils.
When New York abruptly backed down this month from its plans to implement a nation-leading ban on gas in new buildings, some legal observers had questions.
New York shoppers will soon face one less barrier at the checkout, as a newly signed law forces merchants to accept cash payments.
Hochul has until the new year to sign or veto hundreds of bills, including the New York Medical Aid in Dying Act.
Hochul was in Schenectady last Thursday, distributing meals to members of the community at the Schenectady City Mission.
An investigation into the misuse of PGA credentials by members of the State Police who attended the recent Ryder Cup golf tournament on Long Island has expanded to examine whether members were improperly given dozens of free passes to the event.
New York’s CLCPA set strict mandates for shifting away from fossil fuels to “clean energy” sources. But with progress stagnating and consumers bearing more costs, it’s harder to ignore the gap between policy ambition and the state’s ability to deliver.
The state Gaming Facility Location Board will vote today to award up to three coveted casino licenses for the downstate New York area.
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards predicted both planned casinos in the World’s Borough will get licenses when bidders face a make-or-break vote today.
This month, New York became the first state to enact a law targeting a practice, typically called personalized pricing or surveillance pricing, in which retailers use artificial intelligence and customers’ personal data to set prices online.
In the latest humiliation for former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, an effort is gaining steam that would undo his decision to christen the reconstructed Tappan Zee Bridge after his late father.
For Robert Brooks Jr., the murder of his father last year at the hands of multiple correction officers at Marcy Correctional Facility has transformed his life and put him on a path to be a crusader in search of meaningful prison reforms.
Upstate renters, often living in squalid conditions, are now emboldened by the Tenant Dignity and Safe Housing Act. They spend months, sometimes more than a year, suing their landlords, property managers or housing authorities.
When Zohran Mamdani, the mayor-elect, announced that he would retain New York City’s police commissioner, Jessica S. Tisch, it meant he would be holding onto one of the architects of the department’s pervasive surveillance network.
Mamdani visited the National Action Network in Harlem to help distribute Thanksgiving meals with Rev. Al Sharpton, New York Attorney General Letitia James and other community members.
For decades, New York’s landlords were power brokers, not protesters. But after years of losses in Albany and at the ballot box, the industry has been increasingly sidelined — and Mamdani’s victory is the starkest indication yet of that reversal of fortune.
Car-hating Transportation Alternatives boss Ben Furnas has been appointed to Mayor-elect Mamdani’s transition team for transportation, climate and infrastructure — and his agenda is a nightmare for the city’s drivers.
Councilmember Lincoln Restler, a Democrat representing the 33rd District in Brooklyn, said that he’s confident Mamdani and the council will forge a smooth relationship and avoid some of the difficulties of working with the Adams administration.
Mamdani’s win has sparked progressives to target House seats across the city, including some currently held by Democratic heavyweights.
Manhattan US Attorney Jay Clayton said that he wants to root out more crime in housing projects — and already warned Mamdani not to undermine the NYPD’s “preventing policing.’’
Two U.S. House Republicans from Arizona are urging Trump to deny Mamdani a federal security clearance, a credential typically given to the head of the nation’s biggest city.
Whoever succeeds Mamdani in the state Assembly seat representing Astoria, Queens, might be even more left than he is. The three women lining up for the job are all members of the DSA and angling to get the party’s endorsement.
An influential New York rabbi said he schooled Mamdani on peace in Gaza after his father’s synagogue was targeted by a hateful mob of anti-Israel protesters.
On Jan. 1, Mamdani is expected to be sworn in as New York City’s 111th mayor. But a historian says he’s made a discovery that could rewrite five centuries of history: The number is wrong, and Mamdani is actually the 112th mayor.
Former Mayor Bill de Blasio was spotted dining with police Commissioner Jessica Tisch Saturday at Flora restaurant in Park Slope. But both participants are staying mum on what they discussed.
A super PAC backing Mamdani allegedly offered a top Hispanic business leader a job as an NYC commissioner and a spot on the transition team — if he could raise up to $1 million in three days prior to the mayoral election.
The NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau has been interviewing Manhattan North commanders in connection with a pro-Palestinian protest at Park East Synagogue last week that sparked outrage and questions about the department’s response.
A highly revered New York City firefighter, who rushed to the World Trade Center after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks — where his hero son perished — and then spent months aiding with recovery efforts, died on Thanksgiving Day.
New York City education officials have secured federal money to support programming at magnet schools this school year — but a broader budget fight with the Trump administration over policies for trans students is far from over.
Demonstrators clashed with police officers outside a parking garage in Manhattan’s Chinatown on Saturday, claiming they were blocking federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents inside who were planning enforcement action.
Immigrant advocates urged New Yorkers yesterday to continue resisting federal immigration enforcement — a day after protestors clashed with the NYPD while trying to block ICE from conducting operations in Chinatown
The man accused of assassinating UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a Midtown hotel a year ago will be back in court this week as his lawyers ask a Manhattan judge to toss out evidence in the case.
The Office of Chief Medical Examiner is investigating the cause of death of a woman found in a burning Bronx apartment building on Friday, according to a spokesperson from the New York Police Department.
The Rockefeller Institute is proposing a new system to address the lack of certified teachers to help students achieve fluency in English, which researchers say is one of the biggest problems facing New York schools.
Capital Region lowlands are slated to get 6 to 9 inches of snow as a result of a nor’easter tomorrow, according to the National Weather Service.
Rensselaer County Republicans will start 2026 with less influence in two cities, one town and the County Legislature. They will still hold significant power everywhere else.
Families around the Capital Region say their schools do not proactively plan for students with disabilities to attend after-school clubs, dances and other nonacademic activities. That leaves them feeling like their children are not wanted there.
There will be no Sunday Advent or Christmas Masses at the Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in North Albany this year for the first time since the late 1800s. But there is still a parish community determined to celebrate the season in its spiritual home.
The Loon Lake Community Association filed a lawsuit in state State Supreme Court in Warren County against the APA, which oversees public and private development in the 6-million-acre park, and two major landowners.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
