Good morning, it’s Thursday. The weekend is almost here.
We’re entering into another big holiday season, with Easter and Passover both on the horizon as spring approaches (37 days and counting until the vernal equinox is finally upon us). There are many observances in the lead-up, including one happening today that might be lesser known to those outside the Polish community: Fat Thursday.
Fat Thursday is the last Thursday before Ash Wednesday – the first day of Lent in Western Christianity, a solemn period of prayer and fasting that starts the countdown to Easter Sunday. Most people are probably more familiar with Fat Tuesday (AKA Mardi Gras), which is the final day before Lent and is known for its festive celebrations and indulgent food.
Fat Tuesday comes the day before Ash Wednesday, so we’ll get back to that next week when he time is ripe.
In the meantime, back to Fat Thursday (AKA Tłusty Czwartek), which is a significant traditional holiday in Poland and parts of Germany, whereas Fat Tuesday is more commonly observed in the US, Britain and French cultures. Because it falls so close to the weekend, Fat Thursday offers the chance for a more extended celebration than its counterpart, though food plays a big role in both of them.
In the case of Fat Thursday, the food in question is usually pączki, (pronounced “pohnch-key”) a type of donut, and faworki, which translates into “angel wings.” Faworki is a very thin, airy, and crunchy treat made of thin strips of dough that are fried and dusted with powdered sugar.
Unlike standard donuts, pączki are a very dense and rich dessert made from a brioche-style, egg-forward, yeast-raised dough. The dough is flattened and then filled with some sort of fruit preserves – plum or rose-hip jam, for example – or perhaps custard/Bavarian cream or lemon curd, deep fried, and then dusted with powdered sugar and maybe decorated with a slice of candied orange peel.
The secret ingredient in pączki dough is a very small amount of grain alcohol. This evaporates during the frying process and is believed to prevent the dough from absorbing too much oil, ensuring that they end up light and fluffy (not in calories, of course, but in texture).
Much like the pancakes and crepes that are often served on Fat Tuesday, the point of making pączki and faworki is to use up all the eggs, fat and sugar before they become no-nos during Lent.
Here in the US, you can find Fat Thursday celebrations wherever there’s a strong Polish-American diaspora – including here in New York in Buffalo, as well as Detroit, Chicago, and Cleveland. If you happen to be in Buffalo today and are looking for some Fat Thursday fun, try St. Teresa’s Parish Center for an event sponsored by the General Pulaski Association, featuring polka music, a full bar, and traditional food – including pączki, of course.
There are also a number of Buffalo-area bakeries and cafes that specialize in paczki; click here for a list. Also, you can search online, but prepare yourself for a rather heated debate about who has the best and most authentic version of this much-loved treat.
The warming trend continues today, with high temperatures flirting with 30 degrees. We’ll see a mix of sun and clouds in the morning, with the clouds growing thicker and more or less taking over as the day progresses.
In the headlines…
The House yesterday voted 219-211 on a resolution to block President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canada, with six Republicans joining the Democrats in the symbolic rebuke.
The Republican-controlled House also voted 218-213 to pass the SAVE America Act, a sweeping election bill that Trump is pushing Congress to enact.
The 32-page legislation would require states to obtain documentary proof-of-citizenship “in person,” such as an American passport or birth certificate, from someone in order to register them to vote in a federal election.
The measure had no path forward in the Senate, where Democrats are all but certain to block it and Republicans have said they will not try to skirt filibuster rules to ram it through.
Trump told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a meeting yesterday that he would continue seeking a diplomatic arrangement with Iran, despite skepticism within Netanyahu’s government toward Trump’s dealmaking efforts.
AG Pam Bondi launched into a passionate defense of Trump as she tried to turn the page from relentless criticism of the Justice Department’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, repeatedly shouting at Democrats during a combative hearing on Capitol Hill.
Besieged by questions over Epstein and accusations of a weaponized Justice Department, Bondi aggressively pivoted in an extraordinary speech in which she mocked her Democratic questioners and painted Trump as a victim.
Bondi called Rep. Jamie Raskin — a former constitutional law professor and the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee — a “washed up loser lawyer,” as a clash between her and committee Democrats escalated over her approach to their questions.
The leaders of three federal immigration agencies are set to testify at a Senate hearing today, while senators are locked in a dispute over new restrictions that would curb their operations.
Last year, as Immigration and Customs Enforcement hired droves of new agents, the immigration pipeline lost staffers who process asylum claims and preside over court hearings, according to a New York Times analysis of new government work force data.
The abrupt closure of El Paso’s airspace was reportedly precipitated when Customs and Border Protection officials deployed an anti-drone laser on loan from the DOD without giving aviation officials enough time to assess the risks to commercial aircraft.
Kennedy Center staffers received a memo this week warning that impending job cuts will leave “skeletal teams” in place as the embattled institution prepares to close for two years of renovations.
The center’s president, Richard Grenell, informed workers that “departments will obviously function on a much smaller scale” due to adjustments expected to be both permanent and temporary as operations grind to a halt in July.
Gov. Kathy Hochul paid a visit to the Stonewall National Monument in a show of support for the LGBTQ community after the federal government removed the Rainbow Flag at that site earlier in the week.
The Trump administration says their removal of a rainbow Pride flag from the monument is merely reinforcing a decades-old policy — but during the Biden presidency the feds installed a flagpole specifically to fly the LGBTQ flag at the historic site.
State lawmakers are actively negotiating a proposal with Hochul’s office to allow New Yorkers to sue federal agents who violate their constitutional rights – a direct response to Trump’s immigration agenda.
Hochul dashed off to Suffolk County to tout her budget proposal that aims to make car insurance more affordable. Meanwhile, the two men serving as the main obstacles to her biggest goals in 2026 were laying the groundwork to stop her in her tracks.
Republican assembly members sent a letter to Hochul calling for an immediate declaration of an energy state of emergency in New York, as families and small businesses across the state grapple with electricity price spikes and supply shortages.
After a rocky start to the week around filling out the ticket, the state Republican Party formally designated Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman as its nominee for governor and Madison County Sheriff Todd Hood for lieutenant governor.
As he continues his battle against incumbent Hochul, Blakeman is sticking to a simple message: New York needs saving from the “lunatic left.”
“(Hochul) has put our state in crisis. Taxes are souring. Electric bills and insurance premiums keep climbing out of control. Crime is rising. Businesses are leaving the state in record numbers. Families and seniors are being priced out of their homes,” Blakeman said.
Federal judges in upstate New York appointed a new U.S. attorney yesterday only to see him abruptly fired by the White House, in the latest clash between the Trump administration and the judiciary.
The White House last night fired a new interim U.S. attorney in New York’s Northern District less than five hours after a panel of federal judges had appointed Donald T. Kinsella to the position.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani asked state legislators to “end the drain” and allow him to raise income taxes on the city’s wealthy residents as part of the annual “Tin Cup Day” budget hearing.
“I’m asking for a 2% raise in personal income taxes on the most affluent New Yorkers, someone earning $1 million a year. The top 1% of New York City can afford to contribute $20,000 more in taxes,” the assemblymember-turned-mayor said.
Mamdani returned to Albany with a piece of happy news: New York City’s $12 billion two-year budget gap, which he presented just two weeks ago, has been significantly revised down to $7 billion.
The mayor said his administration reduced the city’s budget-deficit forecast to $7 billion based off new estimates on revenue from Wall Street bonuses.
The disclosure reinforced Hochul’s opposition to raising taxes on the rich, possibly helping her escape a tough policy fight in an election year. But it didn’t stop Mamdani from making the same case he’s been making since launching his long-shot mayoral bid.
For the most part, the mayor’s entreaties were greeted politely, but skeptically by the state lawmakers who were once his colleagues.
Sen. John Liu told Mamdani the “honeymoon is over” adding: “(I)t’s mid-February, so I will respectfully say that the time for blaming past mayors and governors is passed. We need to hear the details of your plan. And it’s good to hear your revenue proposals.”
Mamdani is reportedly pressing the governor’s office to make all New York City buses free during the five weeks that FIFA World Cup matches are taking place in the region, as he seeks to drum up excitement for one of his key campaign promises.
Mamdani has pledged to hold private landlords accountable. But he has said less about how he will fix the crumbling public housing system he now oversees.
Confronting a grim fiscal picture in his second month as mayor, Mamdani no longer intends to back the growth of the $1 billion-plus initiative known as CityFHEPS, despite a plan passed by the City Council and upheld in court.
Emergency Management Commissioner Zach Iscol is stepping down without a successor to lead his agency as the city continues to deal with the fallout of a deadly winter cold spell.
Mamdani’s administration has begun scouting sites for city-backed grocery stores in each of New York’s five boroughs, pushing ahead on a signature campaign promise that drew widespread skepticism during last year’s electoral race.
The Mamdani administration is prioritizing so-called food deserts, or areas where availability of fresh and affordable food is scarce, said Julie Su, the city’s new deputy mayor for economic justice. She declined to provide additional details on the potential locations.
Hot Girl for Zohran co-founder Kaif Gilani was fired from Brad Lander’s House campaign after his social media history, which included praise for Hamas and virulent attacks on the police, emerged.
The New York Police Department has urged the Trump administration to grant it the authority to take down drones in the city’s skies, as local officials across the United States grapple with the growing threat from cheaper versions of the machines.
More than 10,000 nurses who have been on strike for a month will return to work at two major New York City hospital systems after voting to approve a new contract. But more than 4,000 strikers were still holding out for a better deal.
More than 50 nurses want a formal disciplinary investigation into top union leadership over assertions that they’re forcing a vote on a tentative agreement with NewYork-Presbyterian that rank-and-file representatives already rejected at the bargaining table.
Measles has exploded in South Carolina since the beginning of the year, with more than 700 cases reported. And this week, a case was reported in New York City, the first in 2026.
The maker of a gun part used in a mass shooting in 2022 agreed to pay $1.75 million to settle lawsuits that said the design of the accessory made it easier for a gunman to kill 10 Black people at a Buffalo supermarket.
On his first day in office, newly minted Supervisor John Polimeni moved to reduce the time residents are given at Rotterdam Town Board meetings to address the governing body.
A regional developer has agreed to buy the education building on the former College of Saint Rose campus for $4 million.
The Daily Gazette in Schenectady is acquiring the Adirondack Daily Enterprise in Saranac Lake, the only daily print newspaper in the Adirondacks.
A City of Albany man has been sentenced to two to six years in prison for his role in a scheme that involved stealing $230,000 in benefits from a state retiree.
Calling Albany a city that quietly carries the weight of state government while struggling under decades-old financial constraints, new Mayor Dorcey Applyrs asked state lawmakers for help.
Two candidates vying to succeed Waterford Mayor Bert Mahoney, who will retire at the end of March after 28 years as mayor, have set up the village’s first contested mayoral race since Mahoney first ran for office in 1998.
Merchandise at 272 Hoosick St. in Troy will be cheaper than ever before. Free, in fact. Vermont-based Free Store Mission Inc. plans to launch its second donation-supported store out of a former Rite Aid on the corner of Hoosick Street and Burdett Avenue.
There were 11 earthquakes in and around New York in January 2026 alone. It’s unlikely you noticed any of them.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
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