Good morning, it’s Tuesday.
Any day now, it will be warm enough to truly feel like ice cream season. Before you come at me, yes, I KNOW that ice cream is a year-round treat. I am not talking here about the pint you enjoy while rotting on the couch and binge watching shows, or snuggled in bed in your favorite pajamas.
I’m speaking of the tried-and-true summer tradition of patronizing one of the Capital Region’s many outdoor ice cream stands, and sitting at a picnic table or perched on the hood of the car (assuming it’s not blazing hot) and trying to consume your sweet treat before it melts all over your hands.
THIS to me is one of the true joys of an upstate summer.
Given an option, I am more of a hard ice cream person, though I wouldn’t necessarily say “no” to soft if that’s all there was available.
In terms of toppings, I like sprinkles as much as the next person. Anything else – chocolate chips, peanut butter cups, fudge ribbons, nuts, etc. – I prefer combined INTO the ice cream as opposed to added on top, which, in my opinion, provides a better ice ream to mix-ins ratio.
Chief among the mix-in ice cream flavors – again, in my opinion, and I recognize that this is a highly subjective matter – is rocky road, which traditionally features marshmallows (whole or diced) and nuts (usually almonds) in a base of chocolate ice cream. (Sadly, though, it doesn’t even crack the Top 10 list of Americans’ favorite flavors, according to the International Dairy Foods Association).
The most widely circulated origin story for rocky road ice cream is that it was a Depression-era collab between ice cream maker William Dreyer and candy maker Joseph Edy in Oakland, California. The original concoction featured walnuts, not almonds, and was intended to give people a short-but-sweet – and affordable – lift from the struggles they were facing during this challenging time.
There’s a competing story, though, which also originates in Oakland. In this version, Dreyer is said to have based his recipe on an ice cream flavor invented by his friend, George Farren, of Fentons Creamery.
To be clear, there was a non-ice cream version of rocky road that was invented in Australia decades before the ice cream bearing that name was released. This version was a candy made from melted chocolate with mix-ins like marshmallows, coconut, nuts, and fruit (think melted trail mix).
Today is National Rocky Road Day, which is a good time to reconnect with your inner ice cream lover. It’s a good time for it, too, because we’re trending in the right direction when it comes to the weather, with mostly sunny skies and highs in the high 70s in today’s forecast. Things are looking up!
In the headlines…
President Trump said Israel and Hezbollah agreed to end their attacks on each other, and the Lebanese government said a new cease-fire between the enemies was taking shape, just hours after threats by Israel and Iran indicated that fighting would escalate.
This came after the U.S. said that it bombed radar and drone sites in Iran after Tehran shot down an American drone over the weekend. Iran then said it targeted American soldiers in Kuwait with missiles, which the U.S. says it shot down.
The nominal ceasefire between Iran and the U.S. has been repeatedly tested, though officials from both countries are still trying to negotiate an end to the war. It’s not clear how close they are to a deal, and there’s always the risk an attack could derail those talks.
The Trump administration yesterday proposed a 25 percent tariff on a broad range of Brazilian imports, concluding after a trade investigation that Brazil had engaged in unfair practices that imposed burdens on American businesses.
In a news release, the United States Trade Representative, Jamieson Greer, said the investigation found that Brazil had failed to adequately enforce intellectual property rights and had not taken sufficient measures to combat corruption and bribery.
Trump has nominated Florida House Speaker Daniel Perez, a Republican who frequently and publicly clashes with Gov. Ron DeSantis, to be the next U.S. Ambassador to Brazil.
A Pentagon policy illegally banned transgender troops from military service, a divided panel of federal appeal court judges ruled yesterday in another legal setback for President Trump’s sweeping agenda.
The majority opinion — by a three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia circuit — held that the Trump administration’s policy was designed to exclude people from the military based on their gender identity.
“See you at SCOTUS,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote on the social platform X, responding to Fox News reporter Bill Melugin’s post on the ruling.
With both Democrats and even Republican allies objecting, Trump is reportedly planning to scrap his $1.8B “anti-weaponization” fund that critics deride as a corrupt slush fund for MAGA allies and Jan. 6 attackers.
Democratic Sens. Mark Kelly (Ariz.), Adam Schiff (Calif.) and Elissa Slotkin (Mich.) introduced legislation to block the Trump administration’s “anti-weaponization” fund, which the Department of Justice (DOJ) scrapped earlier in the day.
Florida is accusing OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman of putting profit over safety, in the first lawsuit brought by a state against the ChatGPT maker over the alleged shortcomings of the chatbot.
The lawsuit, filed in Florida state court yesterday, claims the company and Altman failed to warn users that ChatGPT could be dangerous and instead marketed it as safe and reliable, including for children.
Anthropic, the artificial intelligence company behind the chatbot Claude, confidentially filed yesterday for an initial public offering, joining what could be a once-in-a-generation, moneymaking moment on Wall Street.
With its I.P.O. filing, Anthropic is expected to be among three high-profile companies preparing to go public this year, along with the rocket company SpaceX and OpenAI, which started the A.I. boom in 2022 with its ChatGPT chatbot.
Nick Bilton — a 49-year-old tech journalist who was named the new boss of “60 Minutes” in a major reshuffle — abruptly ended a meeting with the storied news magazine’s staffers following a heated exchange with correspondent Scott Pelley.
Pelley accused CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss of “murdering” the venerable newsmagazine at the staff meeting with Bilton, according to an audio recording and a source who was in the room.
Pelley also told Bilton, who has never worked in traditional broadcast news, that he had “slender” qualifications for his new job and questioned the network’s commitment to the future of the program.
Multiple hosts on ABC’s “The View” slammed Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner for his litany of controversies, after reports surfaced over the weekend that he sent sexually explicit messages to women after he married his wife.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) defended Platner and told reporters that he’s not at all rethinking his endorsement of the progressive firebrand, saying the candidate is “getting through” problems in his marriage with his wife, Amy.
Newark police are now leading public safety operations outside the Delaney Hall immigration detention center after weeks of protests at the facility.
Gov. Kathy Hochul said she’s open to the possibility of imposing limits on screen time in schools, citing the success of the smartphone ban and growing calls to curb technology in classrooms.
New York residents would soon be able to hang small solar panels from their windows or balconies under a measure headed for Hochul’s desk.
Nicotine pouches in New York will now be taxed like other tobacco products such as cigars after Hochul signed the state’s $268 billion budget into law last week.
Hochul traded barbs with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott as the Knicks prepare to face off against the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals. Abbott started it, posting an AI-generated image of himself dunking over Hochul as Trump laughs gleefully from the front row.
New York isn’t typically considered a political battleground at the national level, but Republicans are laying the groundwork to pour millions of dollars into the state ahead of next year’s elections.
A widely anticipated last-minute deal will give New York City two additional years to comply with a state law to shrink classes, according to legislation introduced yesterday.
Bruce Blakeman may be aiming to unseat Hochul. But at a Republican Jewish gathering in Manhattan on Sunday, the brunt of his remarks were targeted at another Democratic politician: New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
A state oversight board raised ethics concerns about a trip by state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli to Israel that a local pro-Israel Jewish group sponsored.
Assembly Member and congressional candidate Alex Bores has been supportive of dozens of artificial intelligence-related bills, but on a handful of occasions, he’s been a detractor on bills aimed at addressing guardrails around technology and AI.
Thomas J. Kenny’s state Assembly candidacy is an early test of a law Democrats approved in response to alleged spoiler campaigns targeting the Working Families Party ballot line. It is also exposing limits in how quickly the party can act to disenroll someone.
Mamdani is expected to announce a major road redesign today that would improve bus speeds along one of the busiest corridors in Manhattan — a project that the Trump administration had warned the city not to pursue.
As New York City faces slowing job growth and broader economic concerns, Mamdani has not offered a detailed plan to create jobs.
The NYPD plans to hire 580 additional uniformed officers by the end of the year, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said yesterday, revealing an unexpected staffing increase given Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s vow to keep police headcount flat.
The increase marks a turnaround for Mamdani, whose campaign promises are often at odds with the direction his police commissioner wants to take the department.
Tisch provided new insight into possible threats during the World Cup, hinted at the beef between the police department and the mayor’s office over the scale of celebrations in New York City and ballparked how much police overtime will cost.
City Hall and NYPD officials have yet to discuss shifting police responsibilities from issues such as dealing with people having psychiatric emergencies to Mayor Mamdani’s Office of Community Safety, Tisch testified.
Supporters of a proposal to add a fifth firefighter to New York City fire engines rallied this week to get Mamdani’s administration to reverse FDNY cuts in place since the Bloomberg era.
Mamdani says that he was “offended” by the participation of several far-right Israeli politicians – including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich – at the annual Israel Day Parade held Sunday in Manhattan.
Parade organizers and New York lawmakers who marched in the parade sought to distance themselves from Bezalel Smotrich, a hard-line Israeli official who attended.
Mamdani has launched a civil war in the Democratic Party with his controversial endorsement of a fellow socialist’s bid to oust incumbent Bronx Rep. Adriano Espaillat, insiders said.
The attorney for Mamdani and the city’s Department of Education has been granted an extension to respond to a lawsuit alleging discrimination against Asian Americans at New York’s Stuyvesant High.
The mayor was joined by a group of students yesterday morning to sign an executive order that repeals bedtime so the kids can stay up late to watch the Knicks.
As New York City ushers in Pride Month, an LGBTQ+ Democratic club is mounting a campaign to have former Mayor Ed Koch’s name removed from the 59th Street Bridge. But now it’s unclear where he stands on the question.
When Mamdani was running for City Hall last year, he said he would support legislation to remove Koch’s name from the Queensboro Bridge — but now it is unclear where he stands on the matter.
Senate Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer got the cold shoulder from the two Democratic candidates running for the House seat in the district he calls home: Rep. Dan Goldman and his Democratic primary rival, former NYC Comptroller Brad Lander.
An NYPD officer pointed a loaded gun in a female subordinate’s face at 1 Police Plaza in March after subjecting her to incessant sexual harassment, often joined by a supervisor, a bombshell lawsuit filed in Manhattan revealed.
Two people exposed to hantavirus have returned to New York state, the city’s health department said.
Members of the Republican minority in the Albany County Legislature were left off an official county newsletter that residents have been receiving by mail over the last 10 days.
A woman hurled a piggy bank, leaving her target with a head injury despite a court order that forbade the assailant from having any contact with the person, according to the Saratoga County Sheriff’s Office.
Operations are back in service less than a week after a blaze gutted part of the Menands Fire Department. On Saturday, the agency responded to its first mutual aid call since a fire destroyed a truck and heavily damaged the Broadway station.
Former University at Albany football star Jared Verse, the 2024 NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year with the Los Angeles Rams, is heading to the Cleveland Browns as part of a deal that is sending superstar pass rusher Myles Garrett to Los Angeles.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
