Good morning, it’s Wednesday.
Skywatchers in some parts of the world are in for a treat – a rare celestial doubleheader, as the interwebs have dubbed it – when a daytime solar eclipse is followed by the nighttime peak of the famed Perseid meteor shower.
There’s good news and bad news here.
First, the good news, because everyone needs more of that in their lives, I think: If you live in the Northeast, you have a fair shot of seeing the Perseids when they peak.
Now the bad news: Unless you happen to be on vacation across the pond, you’re not going to be able to watch in-person while mainland Europe experiences its first total solar eclipse in some three decades. Reminder: a total eclipse occurs when the sun, moon, and Earth completely align, but only if you are somewhere in the path of totality will you experience the view of the moon fully blocking the sun, creating a black disc in the sky that is illuminated at its edge only by the sun’s fiery corona.
If you DO happen to be somewhere in Europe, remember NOT to look directly at the eclipse for burning your retinas. For a refresher on how to safely view an eclipse, click here. Also, if you’re planing on sticking around in Europe for a while, I hope you brought your lightest clothing, because the continent is bracing for yet another heat wave – the fifth one it has experienced since May.
You will be able to experience a partial eclipse in some parts of the U.S. – most notably in Alaska, and then with depreciating coverage moving south from Maine to North Carolina. Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, though, you can safely view the whole thing from the comfort of your own home or office, compliments of NASA’s livestream.
Now onto the Perseids, which, by the way, you should Google without delay to get a little computer screen light show.
Unlike with some past meteor showers, the moon’s cycle is cooperating here, with just a sliver creating near-pitch black skies that make for premiere stargazing conditions (assuming there’s minimal cloud cover). If you’re lucky and patient, you could see somewhere between 60 and 100 shooting stars an hour.
The Perseids are created when Earth passes through the debris of the Comet known as 109P/Swift-Tuttle (no relation to Taylor Swift), which generates fast and bright meteors with notable trains. The meteor activity will start to build shortly after midnight and reach a crescendo sometime between 2 a.m. and dawn on Thursday, Aug. 13.
Today’s weather will be mostly sunny, though a stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High temperatures will peak in the low 80s. Tonight, for those of you who will be headed out to try and catch the Perseids show, there will be a few clouds from time to time, which bodes well.
Remember to get as far outside urban centers to minimize light pollution and maximize your viewing potential, let your eyes adjust for about half an hour before training your sights on the sky. You shouldn’t need a telescope or binoculars to spot these very bright fireballs as they streak across the night sky.
Temperatures will drop into the 60s overnight, so bring a sweater. Also, it would be prudent to be on the safe side and bring an umbrella, too, as the threat of a stray thunderstorm or shower remains.
Side note: If you somehow aren’t able to catch any of the night sky action, don’t despair – there will be a lunar eclipse two weeks from now that should be pretty cool, too. More on that later.
In the headlines…
President Trump’s outside advisers — individuals who are not employed by the federal government — may now be protected from future congressional and legal investigations, according to a new opinion from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel.
Senate Republicans are rallying behind Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) after President Trump declined to support the GOP leader serving another term following the midterm election.
In the days since Dr. El-Sayed’s victory in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary, Republican leaders have embraced Islamophobic attacks and falsehoods like those three comments to portray him as an anti-American extremist.
The onslaught is being fueled in part by Republican Party officials and has quickly become a central aspect of the strategy to beat Dr. El-Sayed in the fall.
Voters in half a dozen states went to the polls Tuesday. The results highlight the ongoing conflicts within both parties ahead of the November midterms.
Everyone got a little bit of what they wanted in Tuesday’s primary elections. It was a good night for the Democratic establishment, the progressives and Republican candidates endorsed by President Trump.
The progressive wave sweeping the Democratic Party ran straight through Michigan on Tuesday evening, but far-left candidates fell short in key races and nationwide results yielded mixed results in the progressive vs. establishment fight rocking the party.
Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan won the Democratic primary race for Senate in Minnesota, campaigning on a higher minimum wage and universal health care, defeating a centrist congresswoman in the latest victory for the party’s left wing.
David Crowley, a moderate, won an upset victory for the Democratic Wisconsin gubernatorial nomination, prevailing over Francesca Hong, a democratic socialist who led in opinion polls despite questions if she could win the swing state in the general election.
Gov. Kathy Hochul announced $21 million in state funding to create three new Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Programs (CPEPs) and improve four existing sites.
It has been five years since former Gov. Andrew Cuomo resigned amid a sexual harassment scandal and left Albany to contemplate a myriad of issues, from sexual harassment in the workplace to executive power.
New York has myriad entities that oversee ethics in state government but their work can be stunted by uncertainty over funding, political interference and a lack of coordination, according to a new report.
A new study will determine whether summertime at New York’s state parks has gotten a little dimmer — documenting what firefly species are found there and which ones might be vulnerable or threatened.
Onondaga County lawmakers are calling on Hochul to sign a piece of legislation called Good Food NY, which would give greater leeway to organizations like schools and hospitals to buy locally sourced food.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman slammed Hochul Tuesday as she distanced herself from the new pied-a-terre tax — while claiming she’s not the state Democratic Party’s real leader.
Blakeman is closer to unseating Hochul and turning the Empire State red than former Rep. Lee Zeldin was in the home stretch of last election — when the GOP rival mounted a nail-bitingly close challenge, a stunning new poll reveals.
President Trump will join Blakeman Friday on a tour of Nassau County’s “state of the art” police facility to “pay tribute” to the area’s first responders.
The Justice Department has sued three states — Connecticut, New York and Vermont — over policies that offer in-state tuition to undocumented immigrants at public colleges and universities.
The lawsuits argue that the policies are unconstitutional, violate federal law and discriminate against U.S. citizens from other states who pay thousands of dollars more in out-of-state tuition.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani threw his staff under the bus after an awkward public disagreement between City Hall and NYPD officials over whether the department will send cops to serve as security detail for his wife Rama Duwaji’s upcoming Middle East trip.
The Mamdani administration is continuing to roll out the pied-à-terre tax as it waits for an appellate court to weigh in on the ongoing legal fight over the surcharge.
President Trump on Tuesday decried New York City’s pied-à-terre tax and said he is exploring whether the federal government “has any legal right to avert this disaster, before it is too late.”
The tax on non-primary residences of wealthy owners “doesn’t work in America, and must be stopped, NOW!” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
The president’s Trump Tower penthouse is likely subject to the tax. Condos and co-ops with a market value of at least $1 million, as assigned by the DOF, are subject to the surcharge, and Trump’s penthouse has an assigned market value of about $6 million.
A trio of New Yorkers — two family members of a GOP lawmaker and the other a self-described supporter of Mamdani – are the standard bearers for a legal fight that temporarily put New York City’s pied-à-terre tax on hold.
The Staten Island judge who issued a temporary order blocking parts of Mamdani’s pied-à-terre tax rollout appears on the sprawling property roll at the center of the lawsuit himself, an amNewYork review of city records found.
Mamdani is facing growing discontent from New Yorkers upset with his anti-Israel rhetoric and business community slights. Efforts to fulfill some of his marquee campaign pledges have stumbled. His relationship with the City Council is fraying.
If the progressive left, largely, has gotten what they wanted from Mamdani, there’s one policy area where, for now, they have had to accept an uncomfortable compromise. Serious criminal justice reform has not yet come to pass.
Amazon has quietly poured $5,001,377 into a New York political operation dressed up as a small-business coalition – its largest disclosed New York state lobbying spend ever – in a battle against Mamdani and the City Council over last-mile delivery.
Amazon’s chief lobbyist fighting the delivery worker protection bill recently endorsed by Mamdani is Jessica Schumer, the daughter of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, according to public lobbying records and three sources with knowledge of the situation.
A decade-long dispute over the future of a city-owned lot turned community greenspace may finally, officially be coming to an end – roughly 14 months after then-Mayor Eric Adams abruptly canceled a plan to build low-income senior housing there in June 2025.
Mamdani is expected to walk away from a plan to build affordable housing on the site of a community garden in Lower Manhattan, handing a victory to some celebrities and other neighbors who had vigorously opposed the development.
The City Council data analyst whose arrest by ICE officers in January was denounced by Hochul and in local protests has been granted asylum, allowing him to remain in the United States, City Council Speaker Julie Menin announced.
A new survey of students who use a free version of the OMNY payment system say most of their problems would be fixed if the card was made out of plastic.
A solid majority of the rapidly growing New York City Democratic Socialists of America (NYC-DSA) self-identifies as white — despite the far-left faction touting itself as champions of diversity and inclusivity, according to a new survey.
Five Palestinian Americans – a professor, a former professor, a student and two former students at Columbia – filed a lawsuit against the university, claiming it helped to foster a hostile and discriminatory environment on campus following the Oct. 7, attack.
The New York Yankees on Tuesday announced a $2.6 billion financing agreement with Marc Rowan’s Apollo Sports Capital in a deal touted as fueling growth at the MLB giant and keeping the Steinbrenner family in control.
Central Park Conservancy bigwigs are raking in big bucks with 10 administrators earning salaries of $300,000 or more, according to the organization’s 2025 tax filing.
A teenager drowned at Rockaway Beach on Sunday night more than an hour after lifeguards cleared their chairs for the day, parks department officials said.
The Heritage Health Care Center in Harlem, has seen better days. But a group of residents and local politicians have sued to block a city-approved plan to tear down the clinic and build affordable apartments.
Jurors at Luigi Mangione’s high-profile murder trial will remain anonymous, a Manhattan judge announced Tuesday — after prosecutors raised concerns about potential “intimidation” and “harassment” by the accused killer’s twisted fans.
Police are finding fewer ghost guns than they did two years ago, though seizures of the untraceable firearms are up compared with the same period last year.
Businesses found selling concentrated and synthetic kratom products will now face penalties in Dutchess County after legislators banned the opioid-like substance, which state officials have linked to at least 100 deaths in New York.
Copper sample strips tested at a Town of Niskyuna water treatment plant and pump station broke down at a severe rate, a recently released study from MJ Engineering shows.
Advocates in the Capital Region say they’ve witnessed an uptick in Immigration and Customs Enforcement action over the past two weeks, with the most activity occurring on July 26, Aug. 4 and on Monday.
Mayor John Safford’s controversial efforts to loosen development rules in Saratoga Springs’ historic and architectural districts are leading some residents to question whether a Stewart’s Shops director has too much influence over the city’s preservation policies.
A 49-year-old Malta man is facing a misdemeanor charge after troopers say he tried to kiss a student he met while working as a bus driver for the Shenendehowa Central School District.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
