Good morning, sadly it is Monday again. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. Unless you’re on vacation, in which case, you are dead to me. I hope you’re sleeping in.
Summer is a great time for skywatchers, as we’ve discussed previously in this space. And for those who have been following along, it was a big year for the space program, with the success in April of Artemis II, which marked the first crewed deep-space voyage since the Apollo program.
That program notched its first big victory on this day in 1969 when Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin Jr. became the first humans to walk on the Moon as part of the Apollo 11 mission. (To be clear, this wasn’t the first ever crewed Apollo mission; that was Apollo 1 (originally designated AS-204), which never made it into space after a flash fire sparked during a Jan. 27, 1967, preflight launch at Cape Kennedy, killed three astronauts).
Apollo 11 would have ended in tragedy, too, had it not been for Aldrin’s ingenuity and quick thinking.
After collecting rock and dust sample’s on the moon’s face, Aldrin accidentally hit the circuit breaker switch on the lunar module and broke it off, which could have been deadly for the mission’s three astronauts.
But Aldrin remained calm, and, in true MacGyver style, jammed a pen into the board to serve as a makeshift replacement switch. Aldrin kept the pen in question – a silver plastic Duro Rocket model that was designed to write upside down – and it recently sold at auction for more than $850,000.
You’ve probably heard that Armstrong, upon walking on the moon’s surface, said: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” But he actually believed he was misquoted, insisting that he had actually said “that’s one small step for A man”, but the crew listening in back on Earth didn’t hear the “a”. The sentiment is more or less the same, as far as I’m concerned.
Speaking of miscommunications, you might also recall that reality star Kim Kardashian tangled not long ago with NASA after publicly claiming that the Apollo 11 mission was faked. Conspiracy theories have abounded for years and proliferated – thanks to the wonders of the internet – about whether humans ever truly walked on the moon.
The one that Kardashian fell for stems from comments that Aldrin made during a UK appearance in 2015 when the phrase “that never happened” is taken wildly out of context. Astronauts apparently are routinely confronted with conspiracy theorists – including the Artemis II crew, who reportedly handled the situation with aplomb – unlike Aldrin, who once infamously punched a persistent moon landing denier in the face.
Whether you believe or not, today is International Moon Day, designated by the United Nations in 2021 to commemorate “International cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space”.
We’ll see a mostly sunny day today, though there will be a few clouds around in the morning. Highs will top out in the low 80s.
In the headlines…
The U.S. military unleashed airstrikes against Iran on Saturday evening in retaliation for Tehran hitting two military bases in Jordan a day prior, during which two U.S. service members were killed, the U.S. Central Command announced (Centcom).
Two U.S. soldiers were killed and a third service member was missing after an Iranian attack on a base in Jordan on Friday, the U.S. military said. It was the first death of an American service member from hostile fire since a truce in early April.
Trump defended the war with Iran as the US launched retaliatory strikes on Tehran, saying troops made the ultimate sacrifice to prevent the regime from obtaining a nuclear weapon, and warned the region could descend into wider conflict if Tehran isn’t stopped.
The average price at the pump in the United States climbed today to $4 a gallon, according to the AAA motor club, as the war with Iran reignited, halting most shipping and pinching already-depleted global refineries.
Trump said on Sunday that the Boeing luxury jet donated by Qatar that he recently took overseas would soon be “maxed out,” suggesting it could get additional defensive capabilities to match the standards of the older jets used for presidential travel.
Ontario premier Doug Ford on Saturday blasted the criticism leveled at the Canadian government by the Trump administration and congressional Republicans over its handling of raging wildfires as “totally unacceptable.”
“We’re trying to get through this,” Ford told reporters during a press conference in Thunder Bay, Ontario, calling the rhetoric coming from some in the U.S. “shameful.”
A federal immigration agent told his former wife that he was the person who fatally shot a Colombian immigrant in Maine this week and defended his actions to her, the ex-wife said.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s message on the campaign trail increasingly echoes Barack Obama’s early rhetoric during his 2008 campaign for president.
Local Democrats in Maine are warning the top Senate Democrat, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, to keep away as they replace Graham Platner, and the candidates are giving his leadership in Washington low marks.
Troy Jackson has effectively secured the Democratic nomination in the crucial Maine Senate race, winning the support of a majority of the state delegates who will officially nominate a candidate next weekend.
Shenna Bellows, a leading candidate to replace Platner as the Democratic nominee in Maine’s marquee Senate race, dropped out Sunday, as Jackson gained momentum in a delegate selection process crucial to determining the new candidate.
Vice President JD Vance and second lady Usha Vance welcomed their fourth child to the world Sunday morning — marking the first time in over 150 years a child’s been born to a sitting vice president.
Usha gave birth to little Alec Neel, the couple’s third son, at Walter Reed Medical Center in Maryland, the vice president announced in a statement.
Ferran Torres’ goal in the 106th minute delivered Spain its second World Cup title Sunday in a win over Argentina that was tense but one-sided.
If this was Lionel Messi’s final match for Argentina, it ended in heartbreak. As expected, both squads were trying to take control of this match, which meant possession was key and chances to strike were going to be few.
Gov. Kathy Hochul is a diehard Buffalo Bills fan who used her influence to steer state tax dollars toward a new stadium. Now, the NFL team’s owners are some of the biggest champions of her re-election effort.
Many of the state’s biggest political donors aren’t directing their largest contributions to Hochul or her GOP rival Bruce Blakeman, but to political parties and their array of related campaign accounts — where the donation limits are high, if not nonexistent.
Hochul hosted her first major election rally of the year on Saturday in New York City with two of the other three candidates for statewide office: state Attorney General Letitia James and state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli.
Hochul’s pause on new state permits for data centers is sparking opposition from labor unions and business groups who stand to benefit from construction, but it’s unclear how much disruption it will create for projects in the pipeline.
Hochul told “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that she reversed her position on data centers because “the state has to lead,” signing an executive order that banned large-scale data centers for one year to further study the impacts.
Hochul rolled out support in New York’s Capital City on Friday with a slate of endorsements from Albany-area elected officials and appearances by key surrogates in the Capital City in an effort to put Blakeman on blast for his ties to Trump.
Hochul on Friday signed legislation to restore Orange County’s sales tax distribution rate to its municipalities, saving them from losing millions of dollars.
Hochul announced an additional $1 million to Erie and Niagara counties following a spike in gun violence over the Fourth of July weekend.
Since announcing a first-in-the-nation moratorium on data centers in New York lat week, Hochul has gone on the offensive to consolidate support and defend the decision from its detractors.
Congress is closer than it has been in years to ending the twice-yearly clock change and making daylight saving time permanent, but Hochul said last week that she wants to sleep on it.
Hochul caved to Democrat socialists when she made New York the first state to stop construction of large data centers, critics said.
With a record number of new college students failing their first-year English or math classes, SUNY is redesigning those “gateway” courses.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani said his administration was still discussing whether to arrest the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, if he comes to New York City as expected for the U.N. General Assembly in September.
“I believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu belongs in The Hague,” Mamdani told Lulu Garcia-Navarro this week on “The Interview,” a New York Times show, referring to the home of the United Nations’ International Court of Justice.
Mike Waltz, US ambassador to the United Nations, said on Saturday that Mamdani’s threat to have Netanyahu arrested during the UN General Assembly is “pure political theater.”
“The ICC is a kangaroo court that has no jurisdiction over Americans or Israelis,” the Prime Minister’s Office said, adding: “Instead of backing Khan’s criminal behaviour, Mr. Mamdani should focus on fixing the damage his policies have caused New York.”
Critics are blasting Mamdani for vowing to try to arrest Netanyahu when he comes to the UN in September, saying the mayor should focus on the city’s own major problems.
Mamdani engineered a seismic electoral realignment in New York City. The groups he pushed to the periphery are not going quietly.
The New York mayor’s government efficiency effort is a potential path forward for Democrats around the country. But some are concerned he’s moving too fast.
New York City Comptroller Mark Levine blasted state and Big Apple rent policies for contributing to the city’s affordable housing crisis.
The city’s detectives union put the Civilian Complaint Review Board on blast last week, displaying the names and photos of six “anti-cop activists” at the agency on a truck parked outside the group’s NYC headquarters.
As the DSA gains ground in New York City, traditional Black and Latino power seems to be eroding and leaders fear that their constituents’ bread-and-butter issues may get overlooked.
The New York City-themed World Cup jerseys announced by the mayor in June and released online from July 8 to July 16 sold out every morning within minutes, though the Mamdani administration insists there was no foul play involved.
The Mamdani administration has quietly made permanent a controversial pilot program that pays drug users cash for turning in used needles — a move critics contend will only encourage illegal drug use.
New York City dished out welfare checks to nearly 865,000 people over the past year — a historic handout that has sent public assistance spending skyrocketing to a record-breaking $2.7 billion.
A company responsible for oversight at the Manhattan building project under investigation for structural failures was founded by — and has remained closely entangled close with — a former city official who resigned in disgrace and was convicted of bribery.
New York-area residents were getting pummeled with rain mid-day Saturday, as a line of severe thunderstorms brought flash flooding, potentially damaging winds and the possibility of isolated tornadoes to the region.
Hundreds of homes and businesses in Queens were without power Sunday after a sudden storm caused havoc across the city a day earlier, flooding major highways and leaving motorists stranded.
Weeks before an outbreak of cyclosporiasis, now traced at least in part to iceberg lettuce, laid low thousands of Americans this summer, the New York City Health Department investigated a smaller outbreak connected to cilantro.
Two NYPD officers who were trying to make an arrest during a Brooklyn drag racing street takeover were injured after a BMW driver slammed into their cruiser on Saturday morning.
A person has died in the Upper East Side Legionnaires’ disease outbreak, the first death reported in a cluster that has now sickened dozens of people, city health officials said Friday.
A second person has died from the Legionnaires’ disease cluster in the Upper East Side, health officials announced, but the recent decline in new cases suggests that the source of the deadly outbreak has likely been eliminated.
The deaths brought the toll in the outbreak to three. The second person who died was an 88-year-old retired businessman who lived on the Upper East Side, his lawyer said.
The owners of Madison Square Garden have filed a defamation lawsuit against Wired magazine, claiming an article it published this month had manufactured a “false narrative” that the company was tracking the L.G.B.T.Q. community for “discriminatory purposes.”
Lillian Roberts, a crusading labor leader hailed as a “tiger” — and briefly jailed — during her fiery tenure at the nation’s largest municipal workers union, which now represents more than 150,000 New York City employees, died on July 9 in Manhattan at 98.
Hochul has appointed part-time Huletts Landing resident Suzanne H. Shad to the Dresden Town Board, which has been without a functioning local government after its supervisor resigned in February and two board members resigned in March.
Air quality in the Capital Region dipped to levels unhealthy for everyone Saturday afternoon, thanks to ongoing Canadian wildfires.
The Schenectady school administrator accused of snapping a photo of a student’s ankle monitor on graduation day and sharing it in a group text message is resigning, according to board of education documents.
The Crosstown Plaza shopping center in Schenectady was recently sold to a Pennsylvania-based real estate investment firm for $14.73 million, the real estate company that managed the sale announced.
Staff from a museum in the Adirondacks were in Albany this weekend, seeking feedback on its proposed new exhibit, “Black Experience in the Adirondacks.”
The owners of 16 manufactured home parks in Ballston Spa have lost their bid to quash a subpoena from the state attorney general’s office, which is investigating the parks’ business practices, including charging tenants property taxes.
An advisory group convened last week to formulate a plan to prevent the barn fire that killed 17 horses at the Saratoga Casino Hotel from happening again.
Bishop McKinley Bernard Johnson Sr., a singular figure in the city’s history whose spiritual and moral reach extended far beyond his South End church while remaining firmly rooted in it, died last week.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
