If you’ve been around here for a while, you know that ours is a three-dog household. Now, I don’t have any children, but I have heard people talk about the whole “defense versus offense” philosophy – two kids means each parent can take one, but three means you’re outnumbered – and this definitely applies to fur children as well.
My dogs are rather notoriously misbehaved. They are not malicious by any stretch, or, for that matter, dangerous. They’re just not terribly well trained, which is entirely my fault. I am firmly of the belief that dogs should live their best dog life since they don’t get to stick around on the planet for nearly long enough.
I know there are those who believe dogs are, in fact, happier when they are disciplined and understand their place in the power dynamic of a pack. I’m not sure where I stand on this. I need to do more reading.
In the meantime, though, it’s safe to say that none of my goofy Doodles are good candidates to become service dogs of any sort, which is a shame, because they are smart and also downright adorable. I am in serious awe of people who dedicate their time to training service dogs, because it takes not only a lot of time but also a lot of patience – two things that I lack significantly.
There are somewhere between eight and 10 types of service dogs in the world. The most common types are: psychiatric services dogs, visually impaired service dogs, hearing-impaired service dogs, mobility assistance dogs, and Autism service dogs.
As an aside, the formal definition of a service animal is one that “has been individually trained to do work or perform tasks for an individual with a disability,” which does NOT include emotional support/therapy and/or comfort animals; though they arguably do important work, they don’t have the same legal entitlements as formally trained service animals do.
On this day in 1929, The Seeing Eye dog school was founded in Nashville, Tennessee, by a blind man named Morris Frank, who had read in 1927 an article about dogs getting trained in Switzerland to assist blind WW I veterans. He wrote to the article’s author, Dorothy Harrison, a US-born dog trainer who had relocated to Switzerland to train German Shepherds for police and military use.
Frank was frustrated by the mobility challenges posed by his visual impairment, and wrote to Harrison seeking her assistance. She agreed to help, and he traveled overseas to train with a dog named Buddy. Upon returning to the U.S. in 1928, he set up a “stunt” in New York City in which Buddy would assist him in navigating a busy street with reporters looking on.
The rest, as they say, is history.
The Seeing Eye dog school continues to operate today, though it was relocated to New Jersey in 1931 because, according the school’s website, the northeastern climate was more suitable to training dogs.
The organization, which still trains dogs but also does research into canine genetics, breeding, disease control and behavior, celebrated its 95th anniversary in 2024, and in its long history has matched more than 18,000 humans and service dogs.
Today, in celebration of the Seeing Eye’s founding, is Seeing Eye Dog Day.
Tired of having to carry my dogs home from their walks after their paws get too irritated and cold to continue (yes, they are the kings of drama), I have broken down and ordered a pair of dog booties – just one, as a test case. I’ll report back on how this goes.
Today’s weather brings more of the same – cold temperatures, with highs in the low 20s, and partly cloudy skies. It looks like this is going to be our reality for some time, so best to invest in some very warm gloves, socks, and hats, if you haven’t already.
In the headlines…
President Trump and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer moved toward a possible agreement to negotiate new restrictions on federal immigration agents, potentially averting a government shutdown early Saturday.
Under the emerging plan, the Senate would split off legislation funding the DHS from a six-bill package of spending measures needed to keep the military, health programs and other federal agencies funded for the remainder of the fiscal year.
Senate Democrats threatened to withhold votes for a spending package that would keep the government operating past a Friday deadline unless changes were made in the wake of Alex Pretti’s killing by federal agents.
Democrats want federal agents to remove their masks and end roving immigration patrols, Schumer said. They also want agents to observe conventional law enforcement use of force standards and carry proper identification.
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency was facing growing pressure over its crackdown in Minnesota, a day after the state’s chief judge condemned its agents for violating nearly 100 court orders and warned that “ICE is not a law unto itself.”
Alex Pretti, the intensive-care nurse shot by federal agents on Saturday, appears to have been filmed at a protest against immigration agents in Minneapolis days before his fatal encounter in footage that was published by The News Movement.
In the video, a man that appears to be Pretti, with a gun in his waistband, is shown kicking a taillight on an S.U.V. and cursing at federal agents in the vehicle, prompting agents to push him to the ground and hold him for about 20 seconds before letting him go.
A federal judge last night ordered federal agents to stop detaining and deporting refugees in Minnesota who were lawfully admitted to the United States, and to immediately release those currently held for re-examination of their cases.
Gov. Kathy Hochul has announced her intention to provide $30 million in direct relief payments to the state’s farmers, a move that has drawn praise from some agricultural advocates but brought criticism from others on how such a plan would actually work.
Hochul’s executive budget proposes bringing nicotine pouches under the state’s existing 75 percent wholesale tax on tobacco products.
Hochul’s proposal to streamline SEQRA would be the most significant amendment to the landmark environmental law since it was passed in 1975. It also could be one of the most significant fights over the cost of housing this legislative session.
Time is running out for Hochul to choose a running mate before next week’s state Democratic nominating convention in Syracuse. And while some choices have already turned her down, at least three others are still in contention.
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards and Bronx state Sen. Jamaal Bailey both reportedly recently turned down Hochul, who has had a bit of a cursed history with the role.
More than 1,000 builders, brokers, developers, bankers, attorneys and officials involved in the New York City real estate industry recently united to honor each other as Hochul said construction needs to be part of the solution to some of the city’s problems.
Hochul announced the availability of $43 million in state funding to expand psychiatric emergency services and increase inpatient mental health capacity across the state, aimed at improving access to care for New Yorkers experiencing mental health crises.
One of the three Democrats seeking to succeed Republican U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik in Congress this year is challenging his opponents to a round of debates as the deadline to change party enrollment in New York approaches.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani called out his political rivals for gross fiscal mismanagement, saying their decisions have left the city with a $12 billion budget gap that should be addressed by raising taxes on the wealthy.
Mamdani is amping up pressure on Hochul to hike taxes for the richest residents and corporations, asking the state to send billions more in aid to the city as he faces mounting budget holes.
Mamdani held his first budget briefing just an hour before Hochul took the stage for her first campaign event — a move that ensured the governor’s soft launch would compete with media coverage of a popular budget ask she does not want to fulfill.
“I’m not reading a whole lot into this,” Hochul said during a Midtown press conference at the headquarters of the powerful Hotel and Gaming Trades Council, downplaying Mamdani’s asks for a millionaire’s tax.
Mamdani faces a big budget gap. At an address about the severity of that $12.6 billion projected deficit, he named two culprits: former Mayor Eric Adams and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Both are conveniently powerless at the moment.
“We will meet this crisis with the bold solutions it demands,” Mamdani said. “…recalibrating the broken fiscal relationship between the state and the city, and it means that the time has come to tax the richest New Yorkers and most profitable corporations.”
Mamdani said he’s committed to disbanding an NYPD unit that responds to protests in the city – a day after officers from the unit arrested anti-ICE demonstrators for occupying a Manhattan hotel lobby.
Mamdani commended the protesters who took over the lobby of a Hilton hotel on Tuesday to protest against ICE. He also said he was “pleased with the NYPD’s response to the protest and that (the) demonstration concluded without violence.”
The son of former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, Dante de Blasio, was among dozens of protesters arrested for occupying a Manhattan hotel that activists accused of housing federal immigration agents.
The younger de Blasio, 28, said that he opposed the presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement “in New York City, a place where ICE has no right to be.” He also said he thinks ICE should be abolished.
Mamdani reiterated his call to disband the controversial police unit known as the Strategic Response Group the day after they arrested dozens of anti-ICE protesters occupying a hotel lobby.
An affordable housing bill championed by Mamdani is officially dead in the City Council after failing to win sufficient support, including from new Speaker Julie Menin, to overcome a last-minute veto by former Mayor Adams.
The Council today is expected to override 17 of the former mayor’s vetoes — more overrides than in the last 10 years combined, according to Council officials.
Council Speaker Julie Menin will announce her own task force to combat antisemitism today, rivaling Mamdani’s own pending group as critics question his commitment to the office.
A fuller picture emerged of the victims of the severe weather continuing to afflict the city, with Mamdani revealing that one man was found dead at a Bronx hospital campus and that exposure to the cold played a role in seven of the 10 deaths.
Federal officials were back in court to duke it out with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority over their ongoing – and so far stymied – bid to kill New York’s hotly contested congestion pricing program.
As a legal battle continues over the fate of New York City’s toll program, a judge appeared skeptical of the federal government’s arguments, but did not issue a ruling.
New York City’s congestion pricing tolls raked in $562 million after expenses during their first year of operation, according to financial figures announced by the MTA yesterday.
New York City police officers have pulled over tens of thousands of Black and Latino drivers and searched their vehicles without probable cause, stopping people in those groups at a far higher rate than white drivers around the city, according to a new lawsuit.
A man was arrested after repeatedly crashing his car into the Chabad Lubavitch world headquarters in New York City last night while people were gathered for prayer at the deeply revered Hasidic Jewish site.
No one was injured when the driver struck a door of a building in the complex before reversing and striking it several more times. Rabbi Motti Seligson, a spokesperson for the movement, said the ramming “seems intentional, but the motivations are unclear.”
The driver was arrested; the police are investigating the incident as a hate crime, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a news conference late Wednesday outside the building, where she appeared with Mamdani and state AG Letitia James.
A Bronx man was arrested in connection with a fatal fire at a NYCHA housing complex that killed one person and left another in critical condition, police said.
The President of the Transport Workers Union Local 100 said that ongoing issues with the two-way radios on buses are a danger to his drivers — while transit officials say system glitches shouldn’t stop bus drivers from talking.
A fuller picture emerged of the victims of the severe weather continuing to afflict New York City, with city officials revealing that one man was found dead just steps from a Bronx hospital and that exposure to the cold played a role in seven of the 10 deaths.
The off-duty NYPD sergeant who drove the wrong way on the Taconic State Parkway and killed a Peekskill man last week has filed for retirement, records show – a move that could preserve her pension if she is not fired following a potential arrest.
In her first State of the City address, Albany Mayor Dorcey Applyrs pushed back on persistent negative perceptions of the city she now leads.
City of Schenectady school board members recently heard mostly encouraging news during an early preview of the budget for the 2026-2027 academic year, even though they won’t be voting to adopt the spending plan until April.
GE Vernova, which employs thousands of people in Schenectady County, says its research and development spending in 2025 reached $1.19 billion, a more than 20% increase over 2024 spending.
CleanEarth, which has proposed trucking 5,000 tons of soil containing a group of chemicals known as PFAS to its local plant, has been notified by the Village of Fort Edward that it is not permitted to do so.
Another link has been secured in the 50-mile Sarah B. Foulkes Friendship Trail that is expected to stretch from Moreau Lake State Park to Saratoga Spa State Park.
East Greenbush resident Timothy Boel spent 23 years responding to fires on behalf of Rensselaer County. He was one of six deputy battalion coordinators on the county Bureau of Public Safety’s roster before annual appointments were recently suspended.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
