Good morning, it’s FRIDAY.
With the arrival of Lent, we have entered into prime fish fry season, as Catholics are mandated to abstain from eating meat on Fridays during this 40-day period as a form of penance to commemorate the Crucifixion of Jesus on Good Friday.
Technically speaking, this practice is supposed to occur all year round, though in the U.S. another form of penance other than eschewing the flesh of warm-blooded animals is seen as acceptable.
As an aside, the definition of “fish” is rather broad, and has come to mean any cold-blooded animal that lives in the water. This includes frogs, clams, turtles, oysters, shrimp, crabs. Also allowed, rather inexplicably (to me, anyway) are some animals that are most definitely NOT fish – Capybaras, beavers, and muskrats.
Wisconsin is known as the nation’s unofficial fish fry capital, due to a combination of factors, including a high percentage of Catholic residents and its abundance of freshwater fish. If you’re in Wisconsin, you’re most likely going to be eating a fish fry made of walleye, perch, haddock, cod, or bluegill, accompanied by some sort of potato – fries or hashbrowns or pancakes – along with coleslaw and a slide of rye bread.
The typical condiments that come with a fish fry are malt vinegar and tartar sauce, which, by the way, has its national day of celebration today – the first Friday after Lent, when the first official fish fries of the Lenten season will be consumed.
The most basic tartar sauce is simply mayonnaise combined with some sort of pickle – relish, chopped dills or gherkins – but there might also be a variety of mix-ins, from vinegar or lemon juice to add an acidic kick to capers for a little extra salt and herbs like dill. Some people also like to add Dijon mustard or a splash of Worcestershire sauce, but I personally think this is gilding the lily.
Here in the Capital Region, there are still fish fries to be found, though we lost the iconic Bob & Ron’s locations in 2015 and 2016, due to, according to the former owners, economic pressures (most notable minimum wage increases) and changing dining habits. Thankfully, Ted’s Fish Fry has various locations that are still up and running, and there are plenty of other spots to check out – I’m partial to Hooked Market & Kitchen in Latham myself.
If you are in need of a fast fried fish fix, you could do worse – in my humble opinion, anyway – than the tried-and-true McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish. McDonald’s reportedly sells 300 million of these simple sandwiches – breaded fish on a steamed bun, topped with tartar sauce and half a slice of American cheese – every year, but 25 percent of those sales (75 percent) occur during Lent.
The Filet-O-Fish was created in 1926 by a McDonald’s franchise owner in Cincinnati, Ohio, in an effort to stem lost sales during the Lenten season when patrons were swearing off meat. It was the first – and at the time only – non-meat offering on the menu.
We will see periods of snow today, with temperatures holding in the low-to-mid 30s. Accumulation is predicted to be anywhere from one to three inches, so not too bad but enough to be annoying as heck – especially for those of us who are just done with winter, full stop.
Saturday and Sunday will be gray with temperatures again topping out in the mid-30s. We might see some stray snow showers lingering on Saturday. There may or may not be a nor’easter heading in our direction; forecasters say it’s too early to tell for sure if it will hit the area or not, so be sure to check the forecast as the weekend progresses.
In the headlines…
Three Vietnam War veterans filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration to bar it from constructing his proposed triumphal arch in Washington’s Memorial Circle, arguing that it does not have congressional approval.
A giant banner bearing President Donald Trump’s face now hangs in front of the Justice Department headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Large banners of Trump now hang from multiple federal buildings in Washington, including the nation’s top law enforcement branch, in a bold statement of power and influence over the government.
Trump said he will direct the Department of Defense and other agencies to release its files about UFOs and “alien and extraterrestrial life” to the public.
The president directed his administration to begin releasing files related to aliens, extraterrestrial life and unidentified flying objects, only hours after attacking former President Barack Obama for saying that aliens were real.
Refugees who were lawfully admitted to the United States could be arrested if they have not yet obtained a green card, a change to previous policy that is the Trump administration’s latest effort to scrutinize immigrants who were approved for status.
In a new memo, which was described in court filings, officials at the Department of Homeland Security said immigration agents would be required to detain refugees if they had not applied for legal permanent status after a year of living in the country.
The Department of Labor’s (DOL) headquarters banned Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer’s husband after two women employed by the department alleged that he sexually assaulted them.
The staffers claimed that Dr. Shawn DeRemer touched them inappropriately inside the department building, with one of the incidents caught on security camera on Dec. 18. The video shows DeRemer giving a woman an extended embrace.
In January, the women’s concerns about Dr. DeRemer, 57, were raised as part of an internal investigation by the department’s inspector general into alleged misconduct by Chavez-DeRemer and her senior staff, one of the people said.
The British police released Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew, after taking him into custody for several hours, intensifying a long-running crisis for the monarchy over his ties to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
King Charles III did not receive advance notice regarding the arrest of his brother. “Let me state clearly,” the King said. “the law must take its course. As this process continues, it would not be right for me to comment further on this matter.”
Epstein’s estate has agreed to pay as much as $35 million to resolve a class action lawsuit that accused two of the disgraced financier’s advisers of aiding and abetting his sex trafficking of young women and teenage girls, according to a court filing.
Bard College said that it had opened an “independent review” of its president’s connections to Epstein after emails recently revealed by the Department of Justice showed the two had a closer relationship than previously known.
The board of trustees at Bard said in a statement that it had retained an outside law firm, WilmerHale, to look into the ties between its president, Leon Botstein, and Epstein.
The firm will examine “the full scope” of communications between Botstein and Epstein, as well as “financial contributions connected to Epstein, and any related matters relevant to understanding these issues fully”, a message to the campus said.
Alyssa Liu, 20, is first American woman to win a figure skating gold in 24 years after a nearly flawless free skate performance at the Winter Olympics.
Hughes was the third gold medalist from the United States in four Olympic cycles, succeeding Tara Lipinski in 1998 and Kristi Yamaguchi in 1992.
The women’s hockey gold medal is coming back to the United States. The Americans came back from a late deficit to win a 2-1 thriller in overtime over their archnemesis in Canada.
The U.S. women’s hockey team accomplished what they set out to do four years ago after losing to Canada in the Olympic final in Beijing: They defeated Canada 2-1 in overtime to win gold at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics.
Following pressure from labor groups and continued public skepticism, Gov. Kathy Hochul has amended her state budget proposal to put the brakes on a potential expansion of self-driving vehicles in New York.
“Based on conversations with stakeholders, including in the Legislature, it was clear that the support was not there to advance this proposal,” Sean Butler, a spokesman for the governor, said in a statement.
Hochul will pull another switcheroo and raise taxes after the November elections — like she did when imposing congestion pricing after the 2024 campaigns, Republican elected officials claim.
AG Letitia James and 22 other attorneys general filed a motion in federal court seeking to force the restoration of federal funding for a program aimed at helping communities prepare for natural disasters.
At a time when New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and other municipal leaders are grappling with budget holes, Hochul is giving out even more cash.
Mamdani’s brash tax hike ultimatum tied to his first budget has City Council members fuming — with many railing that he should clean his own house before making New Yorkers pay.
Mamdani announced the opening of an Upper East Side preschool that was completed last summer, but failed to open this school year — despite parents clamoring for free child care in the tony neighborhood.
Mamdani is planning to appoint a deputy mayor for community safety as he readies to issue an executive order to launch the new department that the role would oversee, City Hall confirmed.
City Hall officials familiar with the plan said the mayor was moving closer to establishing a civilian corps that would respond to mental health emergencies.
If established through an executive order, the department would be a division of the mayor’s office and not a permanent fixture of city government. It’s not clear which, if any, other agencies would report to the new deputy mayor.
Mamdani and the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection today will roll out a new compliance check to make sure that employers are following the city’s revamped paid time off law.
Members of the New York City congressional delegation voiced concerns to Mamdani at a City Hall meeting yesterday about his proposal to hike property tax rates by 9.5%, the officials said.
Mamdani’s threat to raise property taxes is facing broad pushback from city lawmakers and budget watchdogs who say his fix for the budget gap is a “false choice” that could drive some owners into foreclosure and trigger rent hikes for market-rate tenants.
After touting the importance of libraries as a candidate, Mamdani is following in the footsteps of his predecessor by proposing budget cuts that could force service reductions at branches around New York City.
After vowing on the campaign trail to give libraries up to 0.5% of the city’s budget, Mamdani in his preliminary spending plan included a $30 million cut.
Mamdani’s campaign vow to only ever raise taxes on the city’s uber-wealthy came back to haunt him online, after he threatened New Yorkers with a nearly 10% hike in property taxes.
A federal judge in Manhattan has thrown out a sweeping corruption lawsuit brought by former interim NYPD Commissioner Tom Donlon against Mayor Eric Adams and police brass from Adams’ erstwhile administration.
Former GOP mayoral contender Curtis Sliwa says electronic dance music was his “salvation” during the 2025 campaign.
Retired Lt. Cmdr. Shamsul Haque is far from the first NYPD veteran to run for elected office, but he may be the first to run on a platform of taxing the rich, reforming the criminal justice system and making public universities tuition-free.
A young man who bludgeoned four people to death as they slept under scaffolding and in doorways on Chinatown’s streets was convicted of murder in Manhattan, with a jury rejecting his insanity defense.
A Manhattan appeals court yesterday put on hold one of NYCHA’s most ambitious and controversial projects, its plan to demolish and replace 2,000 units of public housing in the Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea Houses.
A city Sanitation supervisor was reportedly suspended after snow and ice improperly cleared from the Long Island Expressway in Queens may have led to a fatal car crash.
A Manhattan jury found a man guilty of murder for the bludgeoning deaths of four homeless men as they slept in the Chinatown neighborhood of Manhattan in 2019.
A Saratoga County day care abruptly announced it is closing, but did not inform parents that its director had been arrested and that its license is pending revocation for numerous violations, including corporal punishment.
The City of Albany’s Community Police Review Board is again unable to function amid vacancies, absences and the second resignation of a member in a month.
More than 70 environmental and social justice groups have signed onto an Earthjustice letter urging the state Department of Environmental Conservation to deny a waste management company a permit to experiment with contaminated soil in the village.
An appeals court rejected a judge’s ruling that Albany’s development agency owed an additional $2.74 million to the owner of 0.88 acres of land in Liberty Park, which the agency purchased through eminent domain for the goal of downtown development.
A decision from state Supreme Court will force the Saratoga Spring City Council to revote on its denial to pay legal fees for former Commissioner of Public Works Jason Golub.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
