Good morning, it’s Monday. You may or may not be working today. If not, I hope you’ve slept in and are reading this over a leisurely cup of coffee/teat/hot chocolate what have you. If so, well, join the club.
Today is not the birthday of the civil rights leader and Baptist minister Martin Luther King Jr. He was born on Jan. 15, 1929 in Atlanta, GA.
Today IS, however, Martin Luther King Jr. Day (MLK Day, for short), a national holiday on which we remember King, who was assassinated on April 4, 1968 while standing on the balcony of a hotel in Memphis, TN, where he was supporting striking Black sanitation workers.
In the wake of King’s death, President Lyndon B. Johnson called for a national day of mourning on April 7, 1968, spurring the widespread closure of public buildings, schools, and even private businesses. The Academy Awards ceremony was also postponed.
A march honoring King was held on April 8 in Memphis, and he was buried on April 9 at South View Cemetery (now the King Center) in Atlanta, following funeral services at Ebenezer Baptist Church and a public ceremony at Morehouse College.
MLK Day didn’t become a federally recognized holiday until many years later – 1983, to be exact – thanks to a bill signed by then-President Ronald Reagan – 20 years after it was first introduced in Congress.
This followed a concerted and sustained campaign by the King family and their supporters, who pushed for a day to commemorate King’s nonviolent work to end segregation and racism in America – work for which he was awarded (not gifted by someone else, which actually, can’t be done, according to the prize committee, FWIW), a Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.
MLK Day, the placement of which is on third Monday in January and not King’s actual birthday due to the Uniform Monday Holiday Act of 1968, was not recognized by all 50 states until 2000, with Arizona and South Carolina among the final holdouts. It corresponds (rather jarringly) with Robert E. Lee Day, in honor of the Confederate general, in Alabama and Mississippi. (Legislation to separate the two days has consistently failed to pass at the state level).
This country has come a long way since the Civil War, the Jim Crow Era, and Brown v. Board of Education, but systemic racism is still alive and well, and in some instances, worse than it ever was. What would MLK Jr. think, I wonder, of what’s going on in Minneapolis, the dismantling of DEI programs, and ongoing disparities in wealth and opportunity.
MLK Day was transformed from just another federal holiday to a day of service in 1994 by former President Bill Clinton, who emphasized that this should be a “day on, not a day off” and formally expanded its mission as one of community service, interracial cooperation and youth anti-violence initiatives.
There are so many initiatives and issues that are worthy of your time, attention, and funds, if you can spare them. Hopefully, you’ll take a moment to give today if you can. The world needs all the help it can get.
After the brief gift of unseasonably warm weather that provided a tantalizing – but short-lived – hint of spring, we’re back in the icy grip of winter. There could be a few lingering flurries from the weekend today, with cloudy skies and temperatures topping out in the low 30s.
In the headlines…
Donald Trump’s escalating calls for the United States to seize or otherwise obtain Greenland has ignited fresh criticism from the president’s own Republican party, with some saying it could hurt the US economically or strain the Nato military alliance.
Trump said Saturday that the United States will impose new tariffs on several European countries unless a deal is reached for the purchase of Greenland, escalating his long-running push for US control of the Arctic territory ruled by Denmark.
EU ambassadors held an emergency meeting in Brussels yesterday in response to Trump’s threat, which he made after an estimated quarter of the population of Greenland’s capital Nuuk joined protests against any potential annexation.
Trump announced Saturday that he will be suing the investment banking company JPMorgan Chase within “the next two weeks” for allegedly “DEBANKING” him after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection.
Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposals to rein in Trump’s aggressive immigration enforcement tactics are putting swing seat Democrats in a tight spot.
Hochul used a speech at a church service honoring Martin Luther King Jr. yesterday to grandstand against ICE – and claimed Manhattan’s liberal DA could one day be the attorney general.
Hochul is vowing a crackdown on illegal flavored vapes flooding the New York market by creating a registry of legal products to aid enforcement.
Hochul announced more than 200 proposals in her State of the State Address, including a constitutional amendment to redevelop former correctional facilities in the Adirondacks.
Democrats in Albany are reviving contentious legislation introduced last session aimed at making it easier for municipalities outside of the New York City metro area to adopt rent stabilization, a move fiercely opposed by landlords.
Hochul and the state lawmakers who oversee horse racing expressed serious concern about regulators’ failure to investigate buyers of illegal horse drugs.
Hochul wants to revamp the way the state’s schools teach math in keeping with existing efforts to revamp literacy instruction.
The governor is crowing about injecting $109 million into Nassau University Medical Center — cutting the public hospital’s deficit in half — but critics argue she’s just providing funding it was already owed.
New York is one of 12 states that don’t offer public fiscal analyses on all legislation that could potentially impact state revenues or expenditures, according to a Times Union review of legislative practices in 50 states.
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman is facing an expensive , and for now significantly uphill, battle against Hochul and New York Democrats’ campaign apparatus funded by powerful unions, wealthy corporations and millionaire donors.
Hochul demurred on a fight with the Democratic Party’s far-left faction, choosing not to amend a controversial law preventing criminal 16 and 17-year-olds to be tried as adults.
Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado embarked on a “State of the People” listening tour, but one of the New Yorkers he heard out was a former member of the Black Liberation Army who spent nearly 50 years behind bars for killing two NYPD cops in the 1970s.
New York City socialists are mustering an army of more than 4,000 anti-ICE activists to form “rapid response” battalions and obstruct the feds in an expected imminent crackdown on illegal migrants in the Big Apple.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani, amid snow flurries drifting through High Bridge Park in the Bronx, on Saturday announced longtime public servant Tricia Shimamura as his pick to lead New York City’s vast parks system.
Mamdani framed the appointment as central to his broader effort to make the city more livable and affordable, calling parks one of the few truly accessible public spaces left in New York.
Shimamura will replace Iris Rodriguez-Rosa, who was appointed commissioner last year after nearly 40 years in the Parks Department.
Just two weeks into his new office, city Comptroller Mark Levine is warning that Mamdani faces a cumulative $12 billion budget gap that the new mayor must say how he intends to close in an early February budget plan.
Mamdani quickly used the dire forecast to push to his “tax the rich” dream, despite the comptroller’s numbers showing that spending is the problem, not the city’s revenue.
Mamdani’s preferred candidate to fill his former state Assembly seat, Diana Moreno, made a campaign stop in a city school, in an apparent violation of Department of Education policy.
New York City reached a $2.1 million settlement with A&E Real Estate covering 14 buildings in three boroughs, with Mamdani saying the agreement will force repairs and stop what he described as tenant harassment.
NYPD is still hitting bicyclists with criminal summons, and Mamdani, who once opposed the policy, still won’t even talk about it.
New York City’s pension fund could begin reinvesting in Israeli government bonds, even though Mamdani supports divesting from Israel over its conduct in the war in Gaza.
The Muslim man who helped stoped the deadly attacks at a Hanukah celebration at Australia’s Bondi Beach last month met with Mamdani Saturday.
The Trump administration wants to make school milk whole again, but New York City’s public schools are sticking with 1% and skim.
David Orkin, a DSA-backed candidate vying to unseat one of ex-NYC Mayor Eric Adams’ biggest allies in the state Assembly, promotes himself as a “working class” candidate, despite being the silver-spooned son of a celebrity colorectal surgeon.
The massive nurses strike hitting three major New York City hospital systems now has a body count. At least one death at Mount Sinai — is attributable to reduced care because of the strike, according to Darla Joiner, a union official.
Cops confiscated a whopping 148% more guns underground last year than in 2021, as officers have flooded the transit system to drive down crime, according to NYPD data.
The father of former Nickelodeon child star Kianna Underwood wondered in a heartbreaking social media post if his daughter was left to die like “roadkill” the day after she was struck by two hit and run drivers in Brooklyn.
Armed robbers targeted a Manhattan Pokémon shop last week in a heist that was unsurprising to trading-card fanatics, who say merchandise from the franchise has exploded in value and is being tracked by criminals.
Hundreds of staff members at the Metropolitan Museum of Art have voted to unionize, labor organizers and the museum announced on Friday, forming one of the country’s largest bargaining units within a cultural institution.
The city ripped a delusional 13-year-old NYC girl from her family, then failed to monitor the troubled child as she repeatedly fled her foster homes — until she finally committed suicide by jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge, her family claimed in a new lawsuit.
Four men were charged last week after a six-month investigation into alleged illegal gun sales culminated in the execution of search warrants at multiple properties around the Capital Region.
Retired News10ABC meteorologist Steve Caporizzo is mourning the loss of his wife, Lisa M. Caporizzo, who died last Wednesday following a brief illness. She was 57.
United Airlines will launch a new nonstop flight out of Albany International Airport this spring. The new route will run between Albany and Denver International Airport starting on April 30, according to a news release from the airport.
Otis Maxwell, the chair of the Saratoga Springs Democratic Committee, announced Saturday he will resign from the role. Maxwell, who succeeded former chair Pat Tuz in 2023, said he will step down from his position at the next committee meeting on Feb. 21.
Maria College nursing students will soon staff an outpatient clinic for Albany Medical Center Hospital patients who don’t have a primary care physician.
Described as the heartbeat of Woodstock, the iconic Bearsville Center is looking for a new owner. Listed for $7,995,000, the 15-acre complex gives event operators and investors the chance to own a living piece of rock ’n’ roll history.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
