Good morning, it’s Tuesday.
This past weekend I was running along the Mohawk-Hudson Bike-Hike trail, having parked my car in Niskayuna. I am a big fan of this trail, but if you think it’s flat, think again.
A fair number of people were out and about, since we had a (brief) reprieve from the wind and the rain. So, I wasn’t surprised that I didn’t see as much wildlife as I usually encounter when the trail is less populated, aside from the occasional garter snake sunning itself on the warm asphalt and a treat – a small beaver, sitting in the grass and contemplatively munching his way through a stick.
First, let’s address the elephant, I mean beaver, in the room. Yes, this post is about the largest rodent in North America, formally known as Castor canadensis. Yes, I will be using the word “beaver” many times over. Yes, the word has, since the early 1920s, been used as a slang term for a women’s genitalia. Get over it. Thank you.
And now back to beavers, the large amphibious quadruped rodents. (As an aside, the plural of “beaver” can be either “beavers” OR simply “beaver”, in case you were confused).
Beavers are native to the Northern hemisphere, with the aforementioned Castor canadensis found throughout Canada and the U.S., with the exception of Hawaii and parts of the Northwest, and Castor fiber, the Eurasian beaver, making its home in parts of Europe and Asia. They are most often found to wooded areas with ponds, lakes, streams, rivers, and wetlands and they play a big role in helping to maintain the health of their respective ecosystems, ensure water quality and filtration, and prevent flooding.
Hence the nickname “nature’s engineers“.
Today is International Beaver Day, reportedly created in 2009 by a nonprofit called Beavers Wetlands & Wildlife, which may or may not still exist. (I can’t tell, as I am unable to connect to their website). The date – April 7 – was reportedly chosen because it coincides with the birthday of Dorothy Richards, AKA the “Beaver Woman.”
Richards, a conservationist who was born in Little Falls, NY (!), studied beavers for 50 years and worked throughout her life to highlight their role in wetland creation, water purification, and biodiversity. She established Beaverspite – a sanctuary in the Adirondacks – about which she wrote in a 1984 book. The Florence J. Reineman Nature Center and Beaversprite Wildlife Sanctuary in Johnsonville, NY, is now owned by the Utica Zoo.
Beavers are a rare good news story. Not only are they NOT endangered, but their numbers have rebounded considerably since the early 1900s when they were hunted and trapped to near extinction – mostly to be used in hat production – though their numbers are not nearly as robust as they once were. At one point, there were an estimated up to 400 million beavers in North American, while today that number is somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 to 15 million thanks to protection and management efforts.
Here’s a fun beaver fact: They have orange teeth, not due to bad oral hygiene, but because their enamel is fortified with iron and amino acids that protect their chompers and also enable them to gnaw on wood without getting hurt.
The weather is experiencing a brief bout of spring schizophrenia. It will be cloudy today with highs in the low 40s and brief periods of flurries or snow showers possible. Yes, you read that right. But, fear not! By the end of the week, we’ll be back into the 70s. And nest week, we might even flirt with 80 degrees.
Hang in there.
In the headlines…
President Trump came to the lectern of the White House briefing room yesterday for a lengthy news conference about the war on Iran. He spent much of time outlining how an airman who had been forced to eject from a fighter jet over Iran had been rescued.
Trump escalated his threats to devastate Iran if it does not agree to a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz by his deadline tomorrow night, even as he again floated the possibility that there could be a diplomatic resolution to the war.
Trump’s latest deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face a wave of destructive strikes drew closer with no public signs of a diplomatic breakthrough to end the war.
Trump said that a cease-fire proposal put forth by mediators between the United States and Iran was a “significant step,” but he warned that it was “not good enough” as his deadline of this evening for a deal approached.
Arizona Democratic Rep. Yassamin Ansari said she will introduce articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for war crimes following Trump’s planned strikes on Iran’s bridges, desalination plants and power plants.
The Trump administration terminated multiple civil rights settlements aimed at ensuring transgender students’ rights to equal opportunity to an education.
This is the latest effort by the Education Department to solidify its view that federal law barring sex discrimination does not extend to discrimination based on gender identity.
The Supreme Court – at the Trump administration’s request – agreed to clear the way for the dismissal of the criminal conviction of the president’s longtime adviser, Stephen K. Bannon.
Although Bannon was convicted and served jail time, he and the Trump administration are now seeking to have the case thrown out after the fact, in what would be a mostly symbolic outcome.
The Supreme Court’s decision follows a move by federal prosecutors in February to drop the indictment against Bannon for defying a subpoena from lawmakers investigating the Jan. 6 riot about brought during President Joe Biden’s administration.
NASA’s Artemis II — the first crewed lunar mission in more than half a century — made history on its trip around the moon yesterday, surpassing the record for the farthest distance from Earth traveled by humans, set by Apollo 13 in 1970.
The Artemis II crew has completed the mission’s lunar observation period and is now beginning the return trip home. Today, Orion will exit the lunar sphere of influence at approximately 1:25 p.m., at a distance of 41,072 miles from the Moon.
The astronauts’ day began with an unexpected voice – Jim Lovell, the pilot of Apollo 8, which orbited the moon in 1968. “Welcome to my old neighborhood!” Lovell said in a message recorded before he died in August, reminding the crew to “enjoy the view.”
The Michigan Wolverines ended the Big Ten’s 26-year men’s basketball championship drought yesterday, leading much of their title matchup against UConn and winning 69-63 to end the Huskies’ quest for a third title in four seasons.
The championship is the first for Michigan since 1989 and the second in program history. The Wolverines won desptie shooting 38% from the field and just making two 3-pointers on 15 attempts.
Gov. Kathy Hochul announced a significant effort to fill potholes and repave roads across following the very cold winter, pledging that 215 crews will place more than 8,000 tons of asphalt to fill what is estimated to be 175,000 potholes around New York.
Hochul said she’s still deciding how long to make the next budget extender. Lawmakers return tomorrow to pass 2nd stopgap measure as budget talks continue.
The governor indicated that little progress had been made in talks with legislative leaders over the weekend despite the blown April 1 deadline for the state spending plan.
The ultimate fate of prediction markets, the latest craze in a world saturated with sports betting and other forms of gambling, could rest on the outcome of an ongoing legal battle between the nascent industry and the state of New York.
Rikki Shaw, who was legislative director to the Assembly Labor Committee when she accused ex-Silver aide Michael Boxley years ago of sexually assaulting her, has for the first time publicly revealed excruciating details of her assault.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani inched further away from his campaign promise to ban the NYPD gang database, suggesting he could be open to reforming the database as opposed to abolishing it altogether.
Multiple activists were arrested for occupying the lobby of the Palantir building in the West Village after Mamdani joined hundreds of Jewish New Yorkers to protest the federal immigration crackdown on the sixth night of Passover.
The so-called Seder in the Streets returned yesterday, and Mamdani again appeared there – the first time a sitting mayor has attended the event, hosted by a left-wing group, Jews for Racial & Economic Justice.
As Mamdani contemplates vetoing a pair of bills regulating protests outside schools and houses of worship, City Hall has been inundated with more than 3,000 emails urging him to sign the legislation.
Nadia Shihata, the mayor’s pick to lead the Department of Investigation, faced a grilling from Council members on her past support for Mamdani’s campaign yesterday as part of her confirmation process.
Mamdani personally filled the city’s 100,000th pothole yesterday, as part of a month-long effort the city Department of Transportation has undertaken to repair roads across the Big Apple following a bitterly cold winter.
Mamdani and Hochul coincidentally both patted themselves on the back for filling in potholes yesterday, drawing scorn for celebrating doing the basics of their jobs.
Mamdani has tapped Rebecca Jones Gaston, a former senior Biden Administration official who spent time in foster care as an infant, to be his commissioner of the NYC Administration for Children’s Services.
Mamdani’s administration yesterday released New York City’s first-ever racial equity plan, a list of goals for local agencies to combat racial disparities across the city.
Under the plan, the city would aim to improve pay equity in city roles, provide anti-racism training for city staff, and improve data collection across various demographics, among other goals.
Mamdani, Deputy Mayor for Housing Leila Bozorg, and Cea Weaver of the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants fielded questions from New Yorkers in a public forum on Reddit focused on the city’s housing crisis.
A shelter for delivery workers was proposed years ago. Then Mamdani decided that it needed to be finished within his first 100 days in office.
The NYPD is adopting a more comprehensive method for reporting hate crimes in the city, following a report in which hate crime experts criticized a recent change in the department’s reporting method.
A floating pool that could one day offer New Yorkers a chance to swim in water filtered from the East River is moving forward despite delays caused by ice floes and blizzards and seaweed.
Dozens of streets across the five boroughs will transform into public pedestrian plazas for Earth Day on the last Saturday of April.
Parts of New York Penn Station – the busiest transportation hub in North America – will be closed to everyone but World Cup ticket-holders for four hours before the start of eight World Cup matches held in New Jersey this June and July.
Mamdani signed an emergency order that will block events including some concerts and food festivals from city parkland during the FIFA World Cup.
An advocacy group that counts the growing number of homeless students in New York City every year released a new brief yesterday underscoring a need for more support for these 154,000 children in local schools.
The data shows roughly 154,000 students in the city’s public schools during the 2024-2025 academic year were homeless, meaning they lived in shelters or “doubled up” with other families, marking a record high in a number that’s been climbing for a decade.
More than 11,000 law enforcement officers from across the globe have signed a petition asking a Bronx judge not to throw the NYPD sergeant convicted of killing a fleeing suspect by hurling a cooler at him in prison.
As New York decides on a plan to rehabilitate the Cross Bronx Expressway, environmental advocates and community members are pressing the state not to move forward with any plans that would expand the footprint of the much maligned highway.
Amit Forlit, who has been charged by U.S. prosecutors with running a so-called hacking-for-hire operation that targeted environmental groups, has been extradited from Britain to stand trial in New York.
The rapper Offset was shot near a casino in Florida yesterday. A representative for the 34-year-old hip-hop artist confirmed he was wounded in a shooting near the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood and is receiving medical care.
The former member of the chart-topping Atlanta trio was in stable condition after being shot in Hollywood, Fla., his representative said. The police said they had detained two people.
Anthony Constantino may not have the endorsement of the state’s Republican Party, but he’s secured more than enough petitions to be named on the ballot, along with the the backing of one of President Donald J. Trump’s most loyal allies in the state.
For the second year in a row, March brought little snow to the Capital Region. Is March snowfall declining, or are we just going through two “off” years?
Swifty’s Restaurant and Pub, the Four Corners mainstay that was briefly shut down by the state in December over a multimillion-dollar unpaid tax bill, owes NBT Bank over $100,000 and the lender is moving to foreclose on the property.
A sedan crashed into a Schoharie County Sheriff’s Office patrol car on Sunday on Interstate 88, leaving three people hurt.
Chief Master Sgt. Vincent Fasano has assumed the responsibility of command chief of the New York Air National Guard’s 1,100-member 109th Airlift Wing at the Stratton Air National Guard Base in Scotia.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
