Good Thursday morning, there’s some nice symmetry in this day – 3/26/26.
This might seem counter intuitive, given the fact that it will soon be swimsuit season, but we are moving into peak candy-buying territory.
The weeks before Easter often rival even the best-selling candy holiday – Halloween – thanks to consumers snapping up all manner of chocolate novelties (bunnies, eggs, etc.), along with other traditional treats like jelly beans and Peeps.
Some of the demand is driven by the fact that certain items, like, say, Cadbury creme-filled and pastel colored, candy coated eggs, are hard to find outside of the Easter holiday window. A vast majority of Americans – some 65 percent – believe that Easter candy is the best seasonal candy, even rivaling what’s available for trick-or-treating in the fall.
Candy sales are expected to be a major component of what experts project will be a record-breaking Easter spending season, with Americans on tap to drop $24.9 billion – a 5.5 percent increase from last year, even though costs have been steadily rising. That breaks down to be about $195 per person.
What you receive in your Easter basket probably depends a lot on family traditions and origin.
For example, nougat-based candy – particularly the white version filled with fruit and/or nuts – is a favorite in European countries like France, Spain, and Italy and the Middle East – but is not something you see all that much here in the U.S. outside of candy bars like Three Musketeers, Snickers, and Milky Way. One version unique to the South is made with corn syrup, and might be found under another name: Divinity.
Nougat, in case you’re not familiar, is a light and chewy candy made by whipping egg whites with boiled sugar or honey. It comes in both very hard and marshmallow-soft varieties, which is determined by the temperature of the sugar used in its production, and also a range of colors. White is the most traditional, while brown usually indicates the addition of chocolate and potentially the absence of egg whites.
Nougat has been around for hundreds of years. It has both Mediterranean and Middle Eastern roots, kand is nown as torrone in Italy, turrón in Spain, and just plain old nougat in France. You might find slight variations – like the addition of spices such as cinnamon, cloves, and anise in the Spanish version, but the base recipe is usually more or less the same.
For the record, Halva, which widely available throughout the Middle East, is related to, but not the same as, nougat, as it is made with tahini paste, not egg whites, giving it a denser and more crumbly texture.
Another variation that might be found in the Middle East features Turkish Delight, which is a starch-and-sugar based sticky gel that might be flavored with rosewater, lemon, or bergamot, combined with nougat and rolled in crushed nuts like pistachios and/or covered in chocolate.
Happy National Nougat Day, which, like so many of these specialty days, doesn’t seem to be tied to anything other than an opportunity to enjoy the namesake in question.
It will be warmer, with highs soaring into the mid-60s, but also potentially wet today, with clouds and occasional showers possible in the afternoon – a good day to help encourage those little green shoots I’m starting to see everywhere to grow.
In the headlines…
President Trump said at the National Republican Congressional Committee’s (NRCC) annual fundraising dinner that he avoids using the word “war” to describe the conflict in Iran “because you’re supposed to get approval.”
“They want to make a deal so badly, but they’re afraid to say it because they figure they’ll be killed by their own people,” he said about Iran, adding: “They’re also afraid they’ll be killed by us.”
The Israeli military targeted the naval commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in an airstrike in southern Iran, three Israeli officials said, taking aim at the leadership of a force that has played a pivotal role in shutting down the Strait of Hormuz.
Oil prices rose and stocks declined today as investors continued to parse conflicting signals on whether the war in the Middle East was nearing de-escalation.
Trump escalated his attacks on judges yesterday, calling on Republican lawmakers to pass a crime bill that “cracks down on rogue judges.”
The White House reportedly plans to delay naming a candidate to head the CDC, an agency that has been roiled by a string of high-level departures and has had three different leaders since Trump returned to the White House.
A Los Angeles jury delivered a rare verdict against Silicon Valley giants yesterday – the second finding in two days — boosting hopes of safety advocates that courts will deliver a long-sought reckoning over social media’s harms to children.
Meta and YouTube harmed a young user with design features that were addictive and led to her mental health distress, a jury found – a landmark decision that could open social media companies to more lawsuits over users’ well-being.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman has pulled within striking distance of Gov. Kathy Hochul among New York voters, an internal poll shows.
Blakeman, who currently serves as Nassau County’s chief executive, trails Hochul by 9 points — 52 percent to 43 percent — among 800 voters polled during an internal survey conducted in early March by Republican pollster John McLaughlin.
“It’s obvious: people are being crushed by affordability and they’re unhappy about it,” Republican strategist David Catalfamo said. “That’s why Hochul’s been historically vulnerable and remains vulnerable.”
Blakeman wants to build on former Rep. Lee Zeldin’s Empire State success, but turning New York red is proving to be a steep climb. Since Zeldin’s overperformance four years ago, the state GOP has gained registered voters, but a yawning enrollment gap remains.
The governor held rallies at major cities along the Thruway, outlining her state budget agenda. One of her top priorities is building more housing and removing some of the barriers facing developers.
Hochul stopped in Syracuse yesterday to rally support for her budget agenda, urging Central New Yorkers to call their state lawmakers as negotiations intensify ahead of the April 1 deadline.
Hochul visited the Edgerton Rec Center in Rochester to speak about her affordability agenda while people rallied outside her office in Albany, demanding that she not make changes to the state’s landmark climate law.
The emergency rally was held inside the New York State Capitol to push back against Hochul’s proposal to weaken the CLCPA.
The irony of Hochul delivering remarks miles away from protesters seeking her attention underscores the frustration felt on both sides of the climate law debate.
Several upstate communities have raised their hands to host a nuclear reactor in response to the state’s request last fall, according to Hochul’s office.
New York Attorney General Letitia James was hit with two federal criminal referrals yesterday alleging she may have committed homeowners insurance fraud.
Large airports are bearing the brunt of the partial government shutdown, as soaring absentee rates among Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers strain security operations and drive long lines at major hubs.
ICE agents stationed at several airports yesterday were checking travelers’ IDs and performing other screening duties alongside personnel from the Transportation Security Administration.
Weary passengers were subjected to three-hour wait times at LaGuardia Airport yesterday with security lines snaking around terminals — and even to parking garages — on the 40th day of the partial government shutdown.
The federal immigration agents deployed to New York City’s airports this week do not appear to be assisting TSA workers in a meaningful way, which immigration advocates say raises questions about their actual purpose at the travel hubs.
Every metro area in the United States experienced lower immigration rates during the year leading up to July 2025 compared with the previous year, according to new estimates released today by the Census Bureau.
In the wake of stricter federal immigration and border policies, there has been a steep decrease in newcomers from other countries making their home in New York City, halting the recent population growth and blunting its post-pandemic recovery.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani has made only baby steps toward fulfilling his campaign pledges to overhaul New York City’s public safety apparatus — and police reformers who backed him say that’s just fine.
A 39-year-old man died while in custody at Rikers Island yesterday morning, marking the first reported death at the troubled jail since Mamdani took office.
The Mamdani administration has announced about $246 million in savings from the city budget — a fraction of the $1.7 billion the mayor built into his spending plan for next year — as it struggles to fill a multimillion-dollar budget gap.
The Mamdani administration has quietly identified another $1.3 billion in potential savings from scaling back programs that the mayor had endorsed on the campaign trail – cuts that have not been made public.
Mamdani defended his about-face on New York City’s costly rental voucher program, arguing the city’s dire financial situation makes it impossible to expand the program as he’d planned.
Mamdani did announce a new “Neighborhood Builders Fast Track” program to speed up affordable housing construction on city-owned land.
Nine Rent Guidelines Board members, six of whom were appointed by Mamdani, will meet today to begin weighing whether to enact a rent freeze.
As part of his vow to close a multi-billion dollar budget gap, Mamdani announced an initial wave of spending cuts to New York City’s Education Department. But the reductions represent a tiny fraction of what the mayor ordered the agency, and others, to trim.
As a candidate and then as mayor, Mamdani has portrayed himself as a much-needed salve for New York City’s working class. Now, that stance threatens to cost him at a time when the city’s pocketbook is skint.
The economic fallout from the war with Iran is already having an impact on key Wall Street businesses, threatening the big bet the Mamdani administration is making that the securities industry will continue to swell the city’s coffers.
New York City’s budget director testified yesterday in front of the City Council about the city’s $5.4 billion budget deficit and faced questions on a proposal to raid the city’s “rainy day” fund — which has never been done before.
Mamdani cited “halalflation” when he appointed Carina Kaufman-Gutierrez to lead the city’s Office of Street Vendor Services.
A bill will be introduced today to restrict the NYPD’s Strategic Response Group from being deployed at protests.
Council Speaker Julie Menin’s initial efforts to legislate buffer zones quickly ran up against First Amendment concerns, and her bill — which is expected to be approved by the Council today — has been watered down.
The buffer zone proposal is facing pushback from allies of Mamdani, a strident Israel critic who faces scrutiny from mainstream Jewish organizations over his response to antisemitism and pro-Palestinian protests.
Along with NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, Menin has formed what appears to be a bulwark against the democratic socialism radiating from City Hall.
Faculty members at New York University reached a tentative agreement to end a two-day strike at the private school, winning substantial salary increases after hundreds walked off the job over a contract dispute.
A lawyer for ICE provided false information to federal prosecutors to justify seizing thousands of people seeking asylum and lawful immigration status in the U.S. at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan and other immigration courts, according to new court documents.
The MTA will scale up an initiative to install modern fare gates at every entrance of 20 stations by the end of the year, officials at the transit agency said.
The Capital District Transportation Authority is planning a number of bus line schedule changes, reducing run times and cutting early-morning and late-night trips on certain routes starting May 24.
Weeks before Mayor Dorcey Applyrs publicly acknowledged a $37 million fiscal crisis, city officials received salary increases and new administrative positions were created.
State Department of Environmental Conservation rangers and volunteers carried out a controlled burn at the Albany Pine Bush Preserve, to sustain the rare inland pine barrens ecosystem, lower wildfire risk and maintain habitats for endangered species.
After a winter dominated by cold and snow, Albany jumped into the 70s earlier this month. The chill has since returned, but the sudden warmup raised a familiar question: Is it spring yet?
The new Shenendehowa superintendent, Cecily Wilson-Turner, started her career as a kindergarten teacher and never imagined she would one day lead the biggest school district in the Capital Region.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
