Good morning, it’s Tuesday.
I want to start off this post by assuring you that I am well aware that today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which marks the 81st anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp by Soviet troops.
More than 1 million people – most of them Jews – of the many millions murdered by the Nazis died at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Some 7,000 prisoners were still alive and present (thousands of others had been previously evacuated, and many killed, by the Nazis during death marches) when the Russian soldiers arrived.
Given the alarming and sustained rise in antisemitism across the country and the world and the troubling lack of knowledge – among young people, in particular – about the Holocaust, coupled with rampant misinformation that fuels the belief that the Nazi’s slaughter of million of innocents never occurred, it is more important than ever before that this day is observed.
And in highlighting it here, I am doing my small part to ensure that the memories of those who died will not be forgotten.
In what will likely seem completely incongruous and inappropriate, I would also like to spend a moment on a far more lighthearted – yet completely universal – subject.
Today is also the anniversary (in 1910) of the death of a Victorian-era inventor named Thomas Crapper. If that surname sounds vaguely familiar, it’s because “crapper” is a rather off-color slang word for the bathroom. And yes, Thomas Crapper – unfortunately named, given his chosen profession as head of a pumping company – had something to do with that.
Crapper was an evangelist for sanitary plumbing and is believed to be the first person to set up showrooms dedicated to selling bathroom fixtures, which helped popularize the concept of installing a W.C. (another British term for the loo) inside the home.
There is an urban legend that the connection between Crapper, the man, and crapper, the slang for toilet, was coined by American GIs stationed in Britain during WW I, who saw the inventor’s name on the toilet tank and, well, you can figure out the rest.
That may be the case – the interwebs certainly seem to think so, based on how many times and in different places this story is repeated. But the truth is that using the word “crap” to describe human excrement – or just waste in general – actually dates back centuries.
I’m sure there’s some kind of through line here on misinformation, but, quite frankly, I’m not sure what it is. I think I’ve spent too much time over the past 48 hours removing snow, walking dogs through snow, cleaning the floors of snow and ice, and trying to heal my chapped hands while also working and have less than two brain cells to rub together at this point.
It looks like the snow – from an accumulation standpoint, anyway – is finally over, though the cold persists. Highs will be in the 20s today. Skies will be cloudy with the chance of a few flurries – and no, I do not consider this substantial “snow” compared to what we’ve just seen.
In the headlines…
The Trump administration appeared to acknowledge that its investigation into the killing of Alex Pretti by federal agents this weekend was limited to a “use of force” review meant to establish whether government employees had violated training standards.
Trump softened his tone on the immigration crackdown in Minnesota, touting productive conversations with the governor and Minneapolis mayor as he sent the border czar to take charge of much of the enforcement effort.
The US Border Patrol’s chief Greg Bovino and some agents have been ordered out of Minneapolis in a stunning turnaround after a second US citizen was killed by federal agents in the city this month.
The White House tried to distance Trump from the response of his most senior officials, who had immediately characterized the man fatally shot by ICE agents as a “domestic terrorist” who was “brandishing” a gun, before video evidence undercut their charges.
Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz urged the Trump administration to embrace a more measured tone in response to ICE shootings in Minnesota, saying officials undermine their credibility by escalating their rhetoric before an investigation has taken place.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, said that Congress should move to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem if she does not resign from office.
In a video posted yesterday to the social platform X, the Democratic senator joined growing calls for Noem’s impeachment amid growing concern over her handling of the administration’s crackdown on immigration in Minnesota and across the country.
Noem agreed to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee in early March, a spokesperson for the committee’s chair, Sen. Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, confirmed.
Trump met last night in the Oval Office with Noem and Corey Lewandowski, her top aide, for nearly two hours, as his administration tries to shift its strategy after federal agents killed a second Minneapolis resident.
A frame-by-frame new video assessment of actions by Pretti and the two officers who fired 10 times shows how lethal force came to be used against a target who didn’t pose a threat.
Israel recovered the remains of its last captive from the Gaza Strip yesterday, scouring a cemetery to unearth the body of a 24-year-old police officer and help a traumatized nation turn the page on one of the most agonizing chapters in its history.
The Israeli military said it found and brought back the body of Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, a member of an elite police counterterrorism unit who had rushed into battle as Hamas led a surprise assault on Oct. 7, 2023, setting off the two-year war in Gaza.
Last week, the forecasts had been alarming, with predictions of a powerful winter storm system sweeping through the South that had the potential to be among the worst in a generation. By yesterday, it was clear that is exactly what happened.
At least 22 deaths were attributed to the weekend’s snowstorm. More than 700,000 homes and businesses, particularly in the South, remained without power yesterday, and officials said it could take days to restore it.
After a second fatal shooting of a U.S. citizen in Minneapolis, Democrats say public opinion is on their side and they are willing to risk a backlash to counter what they see as police-state tactics.
Long Island Rep. Tom Suozzi, one of seven Democrats who crossed party lines last week to support a Department of Homeland Security funding bill, told supporters he regretted the vote.
In a statement on Facebook, the moderate Democrat said the backlash from his constituents — paired with the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Minneapolis resident Pretti by a Border Patrol officer — has compelled him to reconsider his vote.
New York Assemblyman Micah Lasher, who is running for Congress, is facing blowback after skipping town just hours before Winter Storm Fern slammed his Big Apple district to make a “solidarity” trip to the Twin Cities.
A report released this morning by the centrist Citizens Budget Commission found New York collected $12,495 in taxes per person in 2023 — the highest among the 50 states. Also, New York and its localities are the third highest spenders per person in the country.
The report’s findings come as Gov. Kathy Hochul is under left-flank pressure to hike taxes on rich New Yorkers and corporations. The Democratic governor’s $260 billion state budget proposal, released last week, did not include any broad-based tax increases.
As this weekend’s blizzard blew through the Empire State, Hochul received blowback for her response to an offer of federal assistance from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, whose office oversees FEMA.
Dissension is already flaring between the newly inaugurated Democratic governor of New Jersey and her counterpart in New York, and the friction has left the leadership of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in limbo.
Hochul’s latest budget proposal would quietly strip away basic legal protections for people injured by cars — especially pedestrians and cyclists — and dump the costs of traffic violence onto victims, their families, and taxpayers.
Hochul’s efforts to get the state’s Office of Cannabis Management on track have been slow to yield results.
Hochul is refusing to jump at the chance to help some of the state’s neediest students obtain crucial scholarships, critics gripe — but she’s laying the blame on President Trump.
New York lawmakers say a recent court order adds new fuel to their push to change the state’s redistricting process, but observers said they’re unsure it will result in any changes to the political map before November.
The attorney general’s Office of Special Investigation announced it was investigating an off-duty New York Police Department sergeant who struck and killed another driver last week in Westchester County.
A perennially unsuccessful Brooklyn-based candidate for office is now running to oversee the state’s finances as comptroller — but the bean-counter wannabe couldn’t even get his latest campaign finance filing in on time.
As the New York City area shovel out from more than a foot of snow, officials are warning that the real threat now is the brutal cold that’s gripping the region, and it’s not going away anytime soon.
For those in the Greater New York area who had to travel to work yesterday, the commute was rough — or, in some cases, impossible. Today should be better, but expect delays and modifications across several modes of transit.
The death toll from this weekend’s bone-chilling winter storm has climbed to eight, with New York City officials unable to answer key questions about how so many lost their lives on the streets or say whether the deaths were caused by the extreme cold.
The city is now continuing a desperate operation to get people inside, especially as temperatures are expected to be below freezing all week.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani seemed to pass his first weather test as mayor amid a blizzard on Sunday that buried the five boroughs with between 8 and 15 inches of snow — the most snowfall the city has seen since 2021.
The Democratic Socialists of America are having a moment with Mamdani’s New York City mayoral win. By December 2025, NYC-DSA had grown to 13,145 members, and the national DSA had grown to 92,912 members.
Mamdani ran on a message of making the Big Apple more affordable for everyday Americans, but some of his actions in the first few weeks of his tenure have served to undercut that reality.
New York City public schools will reopen for in-person learning today after a one-day shift to remote instruction due to the snowstorm, officials said.
Some children skipped remote classes in city schools in favor of activities they felt were more important: sledding and snowball fights.
The number of downloads of “Heated Rivalry,” the second book in the Game Changers series by Rachel Reid, surged by 529 percent after Mamdani’s pre-storm news conference, according to Lizzie Tribone, a spokeswoman for the library.
As a mayoral candidate, Mamdani voiced full-throated support for a City Council bill that would give local housing preservation groups first dibs on buying distressed properties in their neighborhoods. His own Law Department is singing a different tune.
At least two Dem candidates seeking to challenge GOP Rep. Mike Lawler in New York City’s suburbs now say they’d welcome an endorsement from Mamdani — after previously ducking the issue.
Striking nurses said they’ve reached an agreement to keep their health benefits as negotiations continue with Big Apple hospitals and a union work stoppage hits a third week.
Former New York City Mayor Eric Adams, channeling his inner Kevin McCallister, rigged City Hall in the waning days of his term with a maze of governmental booby traps primed to stymie his successor, Mayor Mamdani.
New York is getting its first-ever museum dedicated to the American civil rights movement.
Police shot and injured a man they say came at officers with a kitchen knife in Queens yesterday morning, according to the NYPD.
An argument over a previously damaged mailbox turned dangerous after a 68-year-old Johnstown man fired his rifle at a plow truck driver during Sunday’s winter storm, State Police said.
Despite public concerns over fire risks, the Adirondack Park Agency permitted the first utility-sized battery storage system in the park last week, and expects more such projects to come.
Schodack town officials by the second quarter of 2026 hope to have a dedicated paramedic to assist town emergency medical service agencies and open the door for mutual assistance.
At a time when the village land-use boards are considering sweeping changes to the zoning code, the village Board of Trustees is moving to change the residency rules for members of those panels.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
