Good morning, it’s FRIDAY. Once more for the folks in the back – FRIDAY has arrived!!
I”m not sure how we got here so quickly, but I certainly do welcome the return of the weekend.
We have all too few summer weekends in the fleeting season, which is what makes this time so precious and amazing. If we lived somewhere with great weather year-round – like California (minus the wildfires) or Florida (minus the hurricanes) – I imagine we would eventually grow cynical about the sun.
But here in the unpredictable Northeast, which is cold and gray for far too many months, I feel like we have an outsized appreciation for warmth and light.
Enjoy it while you can.
Since it is warmer and people tend to wear less clothes this time of year, I wonder about the intelligence of making July 10 National French Fry Day. French fries are not what one would consider diet food, but they are nevertheless beloved across the nation, with Americans consuming somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 pounds of fries per person every year.
That makes french fries second only to potato chips when it comes to overall U.S. potato consumption. Tater tots rank a close third. Potatoes are the king of vegetables in terms of pounds eaten annually, according to the USDA, with the overall average hovering about one potato per person per day. (I am definitely not keeping up my end of the bargain here, so someone out there is doing double duty on my behalf).
When it comes to per capita fry consumption, Belgium, which lays claim to creating the dish (despite the “French” in the name, which is actually an American invention) is – not surprisingly – king.
This tiny country is notoriously fry-happy, with a reported more than 5,000 “frites” vendors across the nation with a population of some 10 million. (That works out to about 11 times MORE stands per person than there are McDonald’s locations per American).
The average Belgian is said to eat about 165 pounds of fries a year and the dish is about as closely intertwined to the country’s cultural heritage as baguettes or croissants are to France, rice is to any number of Asian countries, and pasta is to Italy. (You get the idea). In fact, Belgian fries – most often eaten with mayo, not ketchup, which purists believe dilute rather than enhance the fry flavor – were officially added to the UNESCO list of cultural treasures back in 2017.
Authentic Belgium fries are actually fried not once, but twice. (Any aficionado will tell you this is the absolutely best way to make a fry – and also to use beef tallow or duck fat to ensure extra crispiness. Sadly, it’s getting harder to find animal-fat fries. McDonald’s, for example, did away with it back in 1990, though it reportedly continues to use a hint of beef flavoring in its oil.
It seems appropriate that we are giving some space to Belgium this week, given their resounding defeat of the U.S. men’s soccer team in the World Cup after a certain president inserted himself (again) where he did not belong.
The honor of introducing frites to America goes to another U.S. president, founding father Thomas Jefferson, or rather, to his chef, an enslaved man named James Hemings, who, during a trip to Paris with Jefferson, reportedly also learned to make macaroni and cheese, ice cream, and meringue.
Things are looking pretty good from a weather standpoint this coming weekend. We just have to get through today, which is going to bring considerably cloudiness and high temperatures in the mid-80s. Saturday and Sunday, meanwhile, will be sunny or mostly sunny, again with highs in the mid-80s.
Don’t forget your sunscreen!
In the headlines…
Israel shared new intelligence with the U.S. that it said indicated a fresh Iranian plan to kill President Trump, people familiar with the matter said, a finding that would mark an escalation in the war between Washington and Iran.
The latest assassination plan comes after years of Iranian regime threats to kill Trump as revenge for the 2020 killing of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Gen. Qasem Soleimani by US forces.
Sources familiar with the matter said the president flew out of Ankara on the older Air Force One out of an abundance of caution for a potential threat from Iran, although no threats were explicitly identified.
The new Air Force One reportedly lacks the same defensive countermeasures that were security features of the old model, including its advanced antimissile capabilities.
The White House defended the new retrofitted Air Force One as safe and secure after reports emerged indicating President Trump switched to the older model to leave Turkey out of an abundance of caution.
“The new Air Force One is a state-of-the-art aircraft that has been fitted with high-level security protocols that ensure the safety of the President and his staff,” White House communications director Steven Cheung said in a statement.
Trump has terminated the remaining members of the independent, federal commission that assists election administration officials nationwide just a few months before the midterm elections.
A key government agency is proposing to lessen the scope of environmental reviews for nuclear reactors, limiting public input and exempting some reactors altogether.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) this week announced that it is narrowing review under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), a bedrock environmental law.
The Daily News, The New York Times and other media want “serious sanctions” against OpenAI, saying the company destroyed evidence and intentionally hid its ability to locate stolen news stories in training data and responses to ChatGPT users.
Teacher’s unions and other groups are pushing back against a plan by Gov. Kathy Hochul to join a new federal education tax credit program.
Hochul is defending her LGBTQ-inclusive policies after gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman sided with a Westchester Catholic nursing home’s requested exemption from a state requirement that facilities to respect queer and trans patients.
Hochul announced a $110 million funding package to revamp emergency networks across the state.
There’s a call for Hochul to sign nation-leading food safety legislation into law before the end of the year. The legislation is part of a package with backing from multiple state lawmakers and advocates.
Hundreds of New Yorkers have become sick in recent weeks from a parasitic infection that causes severe diarrhea and nausea, state health officials said.
Attorney General Letitia James announced that she is suing the chemical companies responsible for producing harmful per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) because of the pollution they have created for New York.
The lawsuit claims that the companies, including 3M and DuPont, contaminated the environment and engaged in fraud by withholding information from the public about the harms of the chemicals, known as PFAS.
New research from the Empire Center for Public Policy found that New York is tied for the fourth highest electricity rates in the country, more than 50% above the national average.
Cannabis has overtaken Tylenol as one of the most common ways young children in New York poison themselves, the state’s top health official said as the first comprehensive accounting of how legalization has reshaped emergency rooms was released.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s international affairs commissioner made plans to meet with Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations.
Mamdani has resurrected the old ghosts of former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s days as his office of immigrant affairs comes under fire for producing a map that left out a host of immigrant groups.
Mamdani re-upped his call for the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) following the killing of a Mexican immigrant in Houston by the agency.
While the recent New York primary brought to the fore a slate of other democratic socialists for Republicans to use to rile up voters, party leaders and strategists say Mamdani is likely still their best target.
New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin accused the Department of Education of a “troubling pattern of opacity, slow-walking, and delay” related to a controversy over hundreds of no-bid school contracts.
Menin said that officials at the Department of Education have blamed staffing shortages and technical challenges for the delay. She noted that the Council could subpoena the records from the department.
As backlash against artificial intelligence — and educational technology more broadly — sweeps New York City’s public schools, Chancellor Kamar Samuels has told principals to hold off on new technology purchases until a long-overdue AI policy is ready.
A young union member spotted shockingly buckled support beams in the Midtown East high-rise that suffered a partial collapse, averting a catastrophe. His union is now hailing the hard hat as “The Hero of 42nd Street” and slamming the building’s developer.
Crews installed “temporary shoring” on more floors in the building, and the developer of the project has reassured investors that the project will be completed on time.
As the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene tries to identify the source of the Legionnaires’ outbreak on the Upper East Side, elected officials and residents are raising questions about the enforcement of a new law seeking to curb the spread of the disease.
A poll commissioned by the group that manages much of Central Park says most New Yorkers support ending horse-drawn carriages in the city — bolstering the not-for-profit’s own position as the City Council considers a new push to end the practice.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested at least five people inside New York City immigration courts in recent weeks, despite two federal court orders banning the practice in most cases.
A dispute between the Trump administration and House Democrats over an expiring emergency housing voucher program created during the pandemic has big implications for thousands of renters in New York City, the program’s single largest recipient.
Police said they found human skeletal remains on Wednesday inside a vacant East Harlem building where a homeless veteran was reportedly living, according to 311 complaints.
ICE is adding 100 beds to New York’s largest and only ICE-run immigration detention center in Batavia, but it has refused to describe what form the expansion will take.
Following multiple failed attempts to negotiate an adequate contract with the college, Bard workers voted this week to authorize a strike.
An injured owl that captured the hearts of Orange County workers and a local emergency medical technician two weeks ago is on the mend.
Bishop Mark O’Connell, the leader of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, has warned local followers of the ultraconservative Catholic group whose leaders were excommunicated by Pope Leo XIV that they, too, could face excommunication.
Swimmers are being asked to avoid some campsites on Turtle Island on Lake George after a beaver attacked two people over the July 4 weekend.
Clifton Park payroll firm CEO Michael Mann was sentenced in August 2021 to 12 years in prison, but his victims are still waiting for their money.
Troy City Councilwoman Noreen McKee is exploring a possible proposal to reduce time spent cleaning downtown streets by changing street-sweeping schedules from five to two days a week and moving cleaning hours from the current 4-6 a.m. to 6-8 a.m.
The Empire State VII, first launched in 2023, is home this summer to more than 500 cadets as they prepare for Coast Guard licenses. They docked in Albany for the first time Wednesday during their Summer at Sea program.
A state appeals court has ruled that the town of Colonie must pay thousands of dollars in legal fees to an attorney who successfully sued after the clerk of the town court refused to accept legal filings from him.
A seaplane overturned Thursday morning near Blair Bay on Lake George, according to the Warren County Sheriff’s Office.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
