Good morning, it’s Thursday.
PSA: The following post could be triggering for some people. If you or someone you know is struggling with a mental health challenge or showing signs that indicate a potential risk of taking one’s own life, please know that help is available.
If you are in crisis or experiencing emotional distress, call, text, or chat 988 to access the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Someone will be available to speak with you in English or Spanish.
September is National Suicide Prevention Month, declared in 2008 to raise awareness, break the stigma surrounding mental health issues, and encourage people to seek help if they need it. Today is World Suicide Prevention Day, which actually pre-dates the month-long observance, as it was established in 2003 by the WHO in conjunction with the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP).
The long and sustained effort to increase awareness about suicide risks – how to spot them and how to address them – has succeeded, in so much as the global rate of individuals taking their own lives has dropped between 35 and 40 percent since the 1990s. In 1995, the per capital suicide rate around the world was about 15 per 100,000 people, while it is about 9 per 100,000 in 2023.
However, the overall total number of suicide deaths has remained fairly constant due to population growth – around 720,000 to 770,000 annually. In the United States, suicide is the 10th leading cause of death overall, and rates dropped slightly from 2023 to 2024, which is good news.
More good news: Suicide rates among young people dropped significantly – 11 percent below projections – in the years following the rollout of the 988 national hotline.
OK, now the bad news: Men continue to have higher suicide rates, overall, than women – they’re about four times as likely to take their own lives. Also, and potentially related, firearms suicide rates across the U.S. have reached record levels, accounting for about 60 percent of all gun-related deaths and claiming the lives of as many as 27,000 people annually.
The unfortunately reality is that a gun is a very effective killing machine – about 90 percent of suicide attempts using a firearm result in death.
Those who own a firearm are far more likely to be at risk of taking their own lives than those who do not. Firearms are also more often than not involved in the estimated 18 veteran suicides that take place across the U.S. every day – a far higher percentage than other segments of the population.
What is the answer? I’m going to go out on a limb here and say it’s a combination of smart and fair gun laws and required gun safety measures. Also, improving access to mental health treatment AND making sure that people know the warning signs so they can intervene – or find assistance in doing so – before it’s too late.
Get educated here.
It will be partly cloudy and warm today, with temperatures topping out in the low 80s. Enjoy it while you can.
In the headlines…
President Trump delivered an extended director’s cut on Wednesday of his pitch to keep Republicans in power. He spoke for nearly two hours at an unusual midterm convention. But his message could also be summarized in a single line: Pretend I’m running.
In his convention speech, the president floated a $5,000 “Trump Dividend” for every adult American if Republicans keep control of Congress. The idea, like many others, may not come to pass.
Trump also emphasized his administration’s tough-on-crime approach, vowing to end cashless bail and increase the use of the death penalty during his speech at the RNC.
The Trump administration proposed to no longer count immigrants without green cards in the 2030 census or ask about race and ethnicity, part of an overhaul that would redefine who counts as a U.S. resident in the eyes of the federal government.
The proposed regulation, published online on Wednesday, would upend a process that helps determine the allotment of congressional seats, billions of dollars in federal funding and policies to address systemic disparities.
Senator John Fetterman, a Pennsylvania Democrat, appeared in a brief recorded video at President Trump’s midterm convention on Wednesday, a surprise move that could fuel Democratic fears that the increasingly isolated lawmaker might leave the party.
Fetterman’s stunning turn — a Democratic senator in a supporting role at the GOP’s showcase campaign event, fewer than eight weeks before the Nov. 3 midterms — marks a dramatic escalation in his growing estrangement from his party.
Rep. Chris Deluzio says he’s thinking about running against Fetterman in the 2028 Democratic primary in Pennsylvania, and says he heard support for the idea at Monday’s Labor Day Parade in Pittsburgh.
The state Department of Financial Services has introduced new regulations intended to limit the increase of auto insurance rates as part of a push by Gov. Kathy Hochul to reduce premium costs.
A new television ad funded by Uber cycles through images of kids doing kid things — finger painting and messily eating spaghetti — before a young girl delivers a final request: “Please vote for Governor Hochul.”
Brooklyn and Queens transit riders can finally see the MTA’s vision for its Interborough Express light rail project coming into focus, according to Hochul and the MTA.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Hochul announced that the city’s free lead service line replacement program has saved more than 900 homeowners in the Bronx and Queens more than $10,000 each, with more homeowners eligible to receive the no-cost replacement.
The decision to settle two lawsuits by releasing thousands of documents showing what officials knew about toxins after the 9/11 attacks might expand the number of people covered by federal benefit programs, but is unlikely to trigger new claims against the city.
The NYPD will be on high alert this week and weekend for both the 9/11 commemoration ceremony and the Jewish High Holidays, officials said.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch pointedly called for “moral clarity” ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks — decrying revisionists who blur the lines between heroes and terrorists.
Julie Menin, speaker of the New York City Council, feared for mom Agnes Jacobs’ safety during the 9/11 attacks, only for her to die years later of what they believe was a related cancer.
Before Menin was New York City Council Speaker, she was an attorney and a small business owner in Lower Manhattan. But the 9/11 attacks changed her trajectory.
The head of the federal World Trade Center Health Program, Dr. John Howard, has been reappointed to another six-year term after a bipartisan push by New York lawmakers to extend the longtime administrator’s post.
The Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks are still exacting a devastating toll on the FDNY, with more members now dead from World Trade Center-related illnesses than perished on that day itself, advocates said.
New York City lawmakers on Wednesday grilled the leader of a city technology agency at the center of a 911 system outage that prevented hundreds of callers from reaching operators, and was not disclosed for hours.
The Mamdani administration was forced to reveal it hid a nearly two-hour 911 system disruption for months as city lawmakers grilled the mayor’s team over a separate, troubling system outage.
Menin is backing a new bill aimed at reforming the press credentialing process, potentially making it easier for the city to suspend or revoke press passes and directing Mamdani’s administration to review its current practices.
More than 2,000 buildings in City are estimated to be subject to the latest version of the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act, which provides city-approved nonprofits and joint ventures the first opportunity to buy distressed multifamily buildings.
Two brothers – Joseph and Anthony Livreri – charged with bribing a former New York City buildings commissioner, Eric Ulrich, who was part of the Adams administration, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and bribery on Wednesday.
The rollout of 2-K has been mired in funding delays, stressing New York City’s child care operators at a pivotal moment.
The Brooklyn Democratic Party and reformers brought their heated battle over party leadership to court this week.
Police arrested a third person in connection with a mass shooting that took place at a hookah lounge in Crown Heights last year.
A garbage dump that has festered at an entrance to a Brooklyn park throughout the summer caught on fire on Tuesday after city officials said a lithium-ion battery nestled in its depths burst into flames.
Tal, Oren and Alon Alexander, three prominent brothers convicted of running a decades-long sex-trafficking scheme in New York earlier this year, have enlisted the lawyer Alan M. Dershowitz in their apparent pursuit of a pardon from President Trump.
Opponents of a proposed local tax on high-income earners in Ulster County have launched a new strategy to defeat the surcharge before it can move forward.
An Albany County sheriff’s investigator has been charged with using database information from Flock cameras to track a former girlfriend and four other acquaintances thousands of times, Sheriff Craig Apple said.
Rensselaer County is closer to joining a growing number of New York counties that have regulated kratom sales.
Thousands of Shenendehowa students waited hours for their school bus Tuesday afternoon, standing by on the blacktop at their schools while their parents waited at their bus stops.
A $3.3 million capital project in North Greenbush has come under scrutiny after an independent auditing company said in an annual financial review that it could not find Town Board “authorizations” for the spending.
A 62-year-old Cohoes man has been sentenced to four to 12 years in state prison for stealing more than $4 million from his former employer to fund crack cocaine purchases, the Albany County District Attorney’s Office announced Wednesday.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
