Good morning, it’s Monday and a brand new month – the shortest month of the year – is upon us. Welcome to February.
February only has 28 days this year, as 2026 is not a Leap Year – a phenomenon that occurs every four years, and will again take place in 2028. (More on this in a moment).
“February” got its name from a Roman purification festival known as “februa”, which translates to “cleansing” and occurred around the middle of the month.
This made more sense when February was the last month of the year – shedding old habits and getting prepared for a new year etc. But then things got shuffled around in around 450 BCE and then codified as such with the introduction of the Julien calendar in 46 BCE, which made January the official first month of the year.
For those of us in the Northeast who are suffering through a very cold and snowy winter, it’s nice that the shortest month of the year comes at this point in the calendar because it passes quickly and puts us that much closer to spring. (Reminder: The vernal equinox is on March 20 – just 46 days from now).
But that is not the reason why February is only 28 days (or 29 days, depending on the year) long. Officially speaking, it’s because the Romans were deeply superstitious people.
The original Roman calendar had only 10 months, but that was changed by a Roman king named Numa Pompilius, who decided to add January and February to the mix to sync things up with the lunar year. Numa, however, really didn’t like even numbers – at the time, they were considered bad luck – so he had to do some funky math to make the months – as well as the entire year itself – all have an odd number of days.
In the end, though, he couldn’t figure out how to make that happen and needed one month with an even number of days, he choose February to do the honors, because it was also the month in which Romans held their rituals to honor the dead.
There is a story out there that a different king, a guy named Augustus, stole a day from February to give his namesake month – August – and extra day. But this has been debunked.
Today is Candlemas, which is more formally known as the east of the Presentation of the Lord, which commemorates the day when Mary and Joseph brought the infant Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem to fulfill the requirements of Jewish law. It is traditional on this date for churches to bless the candles that are to be used throughout the year.
Candlemas is the midpoint between the winter solstice and aforementioned vernal equinox, so it’s seen as a kind of a turning point when we round the corner of winter and start heading toward spring. However, according to folklore, a sunny Candlemas means there’s still quite a bit of winter left ahead, while a rainy and overcast day indicates that spring is right around the corner.
The might be where the whole Groundhog Day thing came from. As a reminder: if the groundhog sees its shadow, which would ostensibly require the presence of the sun, then we are doomed to see more cold weather, while if it does NOT spot said shadow, the opposite is supposedly true.
You’re probably most familiar with the legend of Punxsutawney Phil, there are actually a total of 88 weather-forecasting groundhogs in North America – 74 in the US and 14 in Canada. I’m going to assume that they don’t all agree, and I’ll be inclined to go with whichever of them predicts less winter in our future.
Looking ahead in the (ostensibly science-based) forecast, things aren’t looking so great, though we will see slightly warmer weather, with highs climbing into the mid-to-high-20s – a nice change from the past week or so. Skies will be clear and sunny today.
In the headlines…
President Donald Trump announced that he would shut down the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, which has been battered by cancellations and boycotts, for two years starting this summer.
The closure, Trump said, will allow his administration to transform what he called “a tired, broken, and dilapidated Center,” into “the finest Performing Arts Facility of its kind”, as the nation’s preeminent arts institution contends with a flood of cancellations.
Trump, who wrote on Truth Social that the decision is “totally subject” to approval by his handpicked board, said that the center will close on July 4 and that “financing is completed, and fully in place.” He did not elaborate on where the funding came from.
Amazon’s gold-plated rollout for Melania Trump’s documentary resulted in opening-weekend ticket sales of $7 million in the US and Canada, box office analysts said. That gave “Melania” the best start for a documentary (excluding concert films) in 14 years.
It was a face-saving result for the first lady — last week, ticket sales were pacing at about $5 million — but not for Amazon, which spent an exorbitant $75 million to buy distribution rights to “Melania” and market its release in 1,778 domestic theaters.
Melania opened in an estimated 1,500 to 2,000 theaters nationwide. Throughout the week, social media was flooded with screenshots of poor pre-sales and empty theaters.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said he is confident Congress can end the partial government shutdown “by Tuesday” despite steep opposition from Democrats and turmoil within the GOP conference.
Johnson signaled he is relying on help from Trump to ensure passage. Trump struck a deal with senators to separate funding for the DHS from a broader package after public outrage over two shooting deaths during protests in Minneapolis against ICE.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a New York Democrat, issued a warning to Johnson Saturday: You can’t rely on Democratic votes to end the partial government shutdown.
Johnson said he does not have any additional questions about Trump’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein after the president’s name appeared multiple times in newly released documents.
Billionaires Elon Musk and Bill Gates and Mira Nair, mother of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, were both named in the second wave of Epstein Files that were released on Saturday.
The documents shed new light on the disgraced financier’s relationships with several prominent figures, including Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. They also contain a significant number of uncorroborated tips to law enforcement.
The Justice Department looked into sexual misconduct allegations against Trump in connection with Epstein but did not find credible information to merit further investigation, Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, said.
Liam Conejo Ramos, the 5-year-old boy detained in Minnesota along with his dad — and then sent to Texas — arrived back in Minnesota yesterday after a judge ordered their release.
Democratic Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro, one of the officials who had pressed for the father and his young son’s release, picked them up Saturday night from the detention center in Dilley, Texas, and flew back with them, spokeswoman Katherine Schneider said.
Bad Bunny’s “Débi Tirar Más Fotos” was named album of the year at last night’s 68th Grammy Awards — the first time a Spanish-language LP has won the Recording Academy’s most prestigious prize. Bunny delivered the speech primarily in Spanish.
The 31-year-old Puerto Rican singer and rapper is now the first Latin artist to walk away with the event’s top award in its 68-year history, beating Justin Bieber, Sabrina Carpenter, Clipse, Lady Gaga, Kendrick Lamar, Leon Thomas and Tyler, the Creator.
Earlier in the night, while accepting the award for best música urbána album, he directly spoke to the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. “Before I say thanks to God, I’m going to say ICE out,” he said. “…We are humans, and we are Americans.”
Here’s a complete rundown of the artists, albums, songs and videos that took home trophies at the 68th annual awards.
In an upset that rattled Republicans in Texas and beyond, a Democrat decisively won a state legislative special election on Saturday in a district around Fort Worth that Trump carried by more than 17 percentage points just over a year ago.
Trump’s nominee to lead the Federal Reserve, Kevin Warsh, has Capitol Region ties – he graduated from North Colonie’s Shaker High School and has returned to speak at local colleges occasionally about monetary policy.
Rep. Mike Lawler of New York, one of the most vulnerable Republicans in Congress, faced a raucous and sometimes hostile crowd at a town hall last night in the Lower Hudson Valley, where he allowed two audience members to be removed.
About 450 attended the town hall in SUNY Rockland Community College’s Cultural Arts Center. Prior to the event, about 100 gathered outside in a cordoned-off area for a protest labeled a “Vigil for Victims of ICE.”
Throughout the under two hour event, an audience of largely Democrat constituents laughed, jeered, or booed while Lawler answered questions. “If people would behave, then there wouldn’t be a problem,” Lawler said.
Hochul is seeking to prohibit eight counties and three municipalities from continuing with their written agreements to assist the federal government with immigration enforcement, including housing migrants facing deportation in local jails.
Hochul said she would propose legislation so the federal government could not “weaponize” local officers to enforce civil immigration laws.
Currently, eight counties across the state, including Nassau County, allow ICE to deputize local police to help detain undocumented immigrants. During a press conference Friday, Hochul said ICE has gotten “out of control” and “this ends now.”
Hochul said her bid to outlaw 287(g) agreements between ICE and local law enforcement wasn’t a shot at her GOP opponent, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, but that didn’t stop her campaign from using the announcement to attack him.
If Hochul’s bill is passed and Blakeman doesn’t comply, the governor said the matter “will be taken to court for enforcement.” In other words: she’s daring him to defend the increasingly unpopular federal agency in court.
In a marathon hearing last week, New York’s top energy and environmental officials hinted that Hochul could still be looking to amend a key component of New York’s climate law, despite leaving plans to do so out of her budget proposal earlier this month.
Multiple lawmakers are calling for the state Legislature to take action after a school district in the North Country was found to have “timeout boxes” in elementary classrooms, saying SED regulations revised two years ago don’t go far enough to protect students.
Hochul might pull another switcheroo — pledging not to raise taxes, only to boost them after the November election, as she did with congestion pricing, former Republican Gov. George Pataki warned.
The head of the powerful TWU blasted Hochul as “ignorant” as he threatened to spend millions “exposing” her as a spineless shill — and bring her the ugliest contract fight since the strike in 2005, when more than 30,000 workers walked off the job.
Attorneys for AG Letitia James are opposing the U.S. Justice Department’s request for a stay pending the outcome of its appeal of a judge’s decision invalidating two grand jury subpoenas that had been served on the state attorney general’s office last summer.
A new patient walks into a doctor’s office for a routine visit and pays $88. Another patient, seeking the exact same care from the same physician, walks into a hospital outpatient clinic down the block and is charged $436 — nearly five times more.
As the temperature in New York City dropped toward the single digits and the death toll during the deep freeze rose to 14, Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced the opening of 50 new single-room shelter units for homeless people in Upper Manhattan.
With Mamdani concluding his first month as mayor, it seems clear that his team is intent on continuing the campaign’s creative flood-the-zone approach to political messaging.
Mamdani hit the one-month mark of his first term as mayor over the weekend, ringing in February with five key agency appointments.
Mamdani has appointed Dr. Alister Martin to lead New York City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. In his new role, Martin will oversee an agency with more than 7,000 employees and an annual budget of $1.6 billion.
Mamdani named Stanley Richards to lead the Department of Correction at a press conference Saturday afternoon.The move puts Richards in charge of the same Rikers Island jails where he once served two-and-a-half years on robbery charges in the 1980s.
“Stanley will make history in this role as the first ever formerly incarcerated person to serve as commissioner,” Mamdani said during a Saturday news conference.
“Will & Grace” actress Debra Messing got stuck in gridlock outside a hospital in New York City as snow remained piled up on the streets a full week after Winter Storm Fern passed — and said that Mamdani is to blame.
In a press conference last week on New York City’s $12 billion budget gap, Mamdani zeroed in on the previous administration’s artificial intelligence chatbot as one of “a number of different things we’re going to pursue for savings.”
The Safer Sanctuary Act, which Mamdani is expected to sign into law shortly, significantly expands limits on city officials’ collaboration with federal agents during immigration crackdowns. Currently, sanctuary city status focuses on cooperation with ICE.
A Queens veterinarian and a dog he was treating were found dead inside a mobile animal care van wedged in the snow yesterday morning — and cops believe they may have been overwhelmed by generator fumes, police sources said.
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards is throwing his weight behind Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso in the race to replace Rep. Nydia Velázquez.
“Being homeless shouldn’t be a death sentence,” said Richards, who readily endorsed Mamdani in last year’s election. “You can’t let the people stay out there. These are people in crisis.”
Frustrated New Yorkers are raising a stink over mountains of trash piling up on city streets as “limited” collection drags on a week after a massive winter storm dumped more than a foot of snow.
The union representing 15,000 striking city nurses will meet with officials from three major hospital systems today to try to finally end the longest Big Apple nursing walkout in history.
The city’s education department said new guidelines are coming this month on artificial intelligence for New York City’s public schools – and for some parents the rules can’t come soon enough.
New Yorkers haven’t heard the last of Andrew Cuomo. The ex-governor has landed a weekly Sunday gig on 77 WABC radio. A source close to the deliberations said Cuomo won’t be receiving compensation, so he can speak his mind and avoid conflicts.
Predicting that every job in the future will require a “working knowledge of AI,” University at Albany professors are going to teach faculty at Hudson Valley Community College how to incorporate artificial intelligence into their classes.
A 61-year-old Cohoes man has been charged after allegedly operating a multi-million dollar embezzlement scheme over the course of four years while employed at an Albany-based company.
Six of the 10 City of Schenectady employees who earned the most money last year grossed more than $200,000 each. All of them were police officers.
Plug Power’s shareholder proposal, which would allow the company to double the number of outstanding shares of stock available to the public, is being given more time.
Democrat Patrick Nelson, a U.S. patent agent and Village of Stillwater trustee, has announced he will challenge Republican state Sen. James Tedisco for the 44th District seat.
The Adirondack Community Foundation has launched a new grant program aimed at helping small food pantries across the region upgrade aging equipment and strengthen their day-to-day operations.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
