Good morning, it’s Thursday. I can see the weekend from here. Hang in there.
Back before I quit drinking, my summer beverage line-up included ice cold white wine and Bombay Blue Sapphire gin and tonics. Pretty straightforward, but I was never really a complicated drink girly. I never got on the Cosmo bandwagon, and after a memorable and very bad experience with screwdrivers, tended to steer clear of fruit-based concoctions.
Now that I’m 10+ years dry, I indulge from time to time in a mocktail – along with an ever growing number of people who are eschewing alcohol. There’s a mock Negroni that I swear tastes just like the real thing (at least as far as I remember it) and I keep bottles of it in the fridge for when I’m feeling like I need a little something, but don’t want the headache in the morning.
More restaurants are offering a mocktails section on their drinks menu and I really appreciate when they mixologists go the extra mile and flex their creativity instead of just throwing some flavored syrup together with some soda water and calling it a day.
Though I do keep up with this trend, I can’t claim to be any kind of expert on what the kids are drinking these days, and so I did what any self-respecting aging Gen Xer would do and Googled “what’s the drink of summer 2026?”
The AI-drvien search spit back something called a Hugo Spritz, described as “a floral and bubbly mix of elderflower liqueur, fresh mint, lime, Prosecco, and a splash of soda water.” This was closely followed by “fresh twists on Ranch Water” and “Cucumber & Herb Gimlets.”
None of these rang a bell for me, but Prosecco did sound familiar – something I also enjoyed back in the day, and which some people consider a budget-friendly alternative to Champagne, which, of course, is something very specific to a particular region in France. My untrained palate can’t tell the difference, but though both are sparkling wines, they are not interchangeable, differing greatly when it comes to origin, grapes, and production.
To start with, Prosecco hails not from France, but from Italy (mostly the Veneto region), which is in the northeastern part of the country and includes the City of Venice. Prosecco is light, fruity and tank fermented (for its second fermentation), while Champagne is more complex, and its second fermentation occurs right in the bottle.
And then there is the question of grapes. Prosecco is made from primarily one kind: Glera. Italian law specifies that 85 percent of a bottle of Prosecco MUST be Glera, which, until 2009 was itself called “Prosecco” (a little confusing). The remaining 15 percent can be something else, either locally grown or important, like, for example, Chardonnay.
Champagne, meanwhile, is made primarily from three grape varieties – one white (Chardonnay), and two reds (Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier) – which account for virtually all of the vineyards in the Champagne region.
The strict French and international laws governing the production of marketing of champagne – known formally as the Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée (AOC) – is part of the reason why this bubbly beverage is so pricey, as the inherent cap on supply influences the ability to meet demand.
Thankfully, for those of us who are not picky and/or discerning and/or wealthy, there are other sparkling options to choose from. Today is National Prosecco Day, a marketing brainchild of Riondo Prosecco that was established in 2016 to coincide with the peak summer season in hopes of boosting interest and consumption in the product, which, apparently, is having a moment.
Another rinse and repeat day, weather wise, with partly cloudy skies and a chance of showers and/or thunderstorms. High temperatures will peak in the lower 80s.
In the headlines…
Karoline Leavitt on Wednesday announced she is stepping down as White House press secretary, citing the demands on her time posed by being a mother of two.
Leavitt, 28, who is one of President Trump’s closest advisers, said she would leave the post at the end of the month. She recently returned from maternity leave after giving birth to her second child in May. No successor was immediately named.
Sources within and close to the administration say that early front-runners for the role Leavitt is vacating are believed to include Alina Habba, the former acting US attorney for New Jersey, and Breitbart Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle.
As President Trump secretly left an Air Force One jet on a catering truck last month in response to a potential Iranian assassination threat in Turkey, he was accompanied by some of his most loyal and longest-serving aides but no Cabinet officials.
Two media organizations sued President Trump on Wednesday over his social media platform Truth Social’s new service offering faster access to his often market-moving posts, calling it “extraordinary, corrupt, and unconstitutional.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s sharing of her decision to freeze her eggs, the news that her longtime relationship had ended and talk of a presidential run have intensified the debates that swirl around her.
Prominent progressives – including Ocasio-Cortez – have a new humorous shorthand as they distance themselves from unpopular left-wing policies: “Woke 1 was crazy,” sparking a debate as progressives face key elections across the country.
The reality of that new level of exposure became apparent on Tuesday night after a reporter for Puck and TMZ reported that Ocasio-Cortez had split with her longtime boyfriend which was confirmed to The New York Times.
The Trump administration plans to spend millions of dollars equipping immigration officers with gloves that can deliver electric shocks.
A Guatemalan immigrant who had been taken to a troubled detention center in Newark last month experienced a medical emergency and died after having been transferred to a hospital, federal officials said – the third individual detained there to die.
Francesca Hong’s surprise loss in the primary election for governor of Wisconsin dealt a blow to the progressive movement and initiated a scramble among Democratic factions to define her narrow defeat.
The top editor of Forbes was fired last month after the company discovered that he had received a payment of about $6 million from the founder of a firm that does business with the magazine, according to three people familiar with the decision.
A day after President Trump signed an executive order calling for revamped childhood vaccine recommendations, state Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald said New York’s immunization requirements would not change.
Gov. Kathy Hochul leads Republican challenger Bruce Blakeman by 10 points in a Siena University poll released Wednesday morning, the first major poll of likely voters this election cycle.
Blakeman, who is vying to become the state’s second Republican governor in the last 50 years, pushes President Trump’s agenda even as he avoids mentioning his name.
Blakeman told Democrats to get over it after party leaders filed a complaint against him for a series of AI campaign ads.
Hochul received $55,000 in campaign contributions from social adult daycare centers (SADCs) in fraud-plagued Flushing, Queens, records show.
Hochul and state Attorney General Letitia James criticized a federal plan to equip Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents with new shock-emitting devices, while announcing state funding for legal services for unaccompanied immigrant children.
The Republican seeking to unseat James is accusing her of steering more than $54 million in government funding to six legal aid groups that the challenger contends have been critical of law enforcement and New York’s criminal justice system.
Police unions from Buffalo, Syracuse and Rochester have announced their formal support for Conservative challenger Saritha Komatireddy, who is looking to unseat James in the New York Attorney General election.
A top Wall Street regulator hit back at James’ lawsuit against Kalshi – the latest salvo around who oversees the burgeoning prediction US markets. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission said it ordered Kalshi to keep operating as if it were business as usual.
Democratic leaders announced the state would provide $7.25 million in legal aid services for unaccompanied migrant children, presenting a united front behind Gov. Kathy Hochul against Trump amid a surge of federal immigration activity across the state.
A coalition representing religious private school parents is ramping up pressure on Hochul to opt into a federal tax-credit program that would make more than 2.7 million students in the Empire State eligible for “freedom scholarships.”
Almost half of New Yorkers oppose the Democratic Socialists of America movement, according to a newly released poll. Only 30% of likely voters said they have a favorable view of the DSA, while 47% view them unfavorably and 23% were unsure.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani will be taking a vacation in upstate New York next week with his family, the mayor’s office announced. First Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan will lead day-to-day operations until he’s back, in accordance with the City Charter.
Mamdani, whose campaign promises last year included free buses and free child care, will announce plans for a lottery to give New York City high school students 2,100 free tickets to several Broadway productions.
Mamdani laid the blame on former Adams Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro for his own step back from a highly controversial plan to shut down Lower Manhattan’s Elizabeth Street Garden to build affordable housing on the site.
New York City’s five pensions beat their investment target over the past fiscal year, propelled by a record-breaking U.S. stock market.
Global credit-rating service KBRA has lifted New York City’s outlook to stable from negative.
Mamdani offered a rosy and optimistic assessment of his budget stewardship and the city’s economy in his first meeting with the state Financial Control Board.
NBA player Kyle Kuzma has continued to go after Mamdani, with his latest comment asking New Yorkers to”‘read the fine print” on the mayor’s promises like city-grocery stores.
Mamdani sidestepped a question Wednesday about whether the New York Police Department would go ahead with plans to visit Israel in the fall to meet with the Israel Police for training.
Mamdani rode his promise to make one of America’s most expensive cities more affordable all the way to City Hall. But for New Yorkers hunting for an apartment, rents have never been higher.
There’s no way NYPD cops should put themselves in harm’s way by tagging along with Big Apple first lady Rama Duwaji on a risky “social” trip to the war-torn Middle East, the boss of the city’s detective union said.
Mamdani plans to boot cars from swaths of The Bronx’s East Tremont Avenue in a bid to speed up city buses — but local drivers blasted the move as “crazy”.
The City Council can’t pass laws preventing prediction markets like Polymarket and Kalshi from operating, but is launching an investigation into how those companies advertise themselves within the five boroughs and how it could regulate their practices.
The City Council is expected to approve a package of bills that would authorize restaurants to again set up dining structures on city streets year-round, and also allow them to winterize the structures to render them more comfortable in the cold.
With less than a month until the new school year begins, the NYC Department of Education has not provided updated public-facing guidance on the use of AI in schools and classrooms — leaving parents and advocates in the dark about what to expect.
In response to the June fire that killed 17 horses at the Saratoga Casino Hotel, the state’s Gaming Commission met to discuss progress on devising new regulations to prevent fires at the state’s horse racing tracks and improve emergency responses.
Ellis Medicine filed a lawsuit Wednesday against St. Peter’s Health Partners, accusing the Catholic health system of blocking its access to a Schenectady cardiology practice.
Coming off late July’s historic flooding, the rain kept coming across the Capital Region and Hudson Valley. The summer is now among Albany’s wettest on record.
Thomas P. Constantine, a Union College campus security administrator and retired Niskayuna detective sergeant with ties to Schenectady County politics, is the city’s new public safety commissioner.
Five organizations in Saratoga Springs have written a letter to the mayor and City Council members, urging them to rescind their decision to take away the city’s Civilian Review Board’s subpoena power.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
