Good morning, it’s Wednesday, and I keep getting the date wrong. Also, I was hacked yesterday and am now sending emails to people I haven’t heard from in years. Getting back in touch with folks is a nice silver lining…I just wish I didn’t have to inform them that no, I did not, in fact, intend to email them after all.
(PSA: if you have received an unsolicited RFP from me, do NOT OPEN IT).
Two interesting historical items of note today. First, on this day in 1776, the Second Continental Congress officially changed the name of the “United Colonies” to the “United States” on all official documents. This was a bit of catch-up, as Thomas Jefferson actually had used the phrase “United States of America” three months earlier while drafting the Declaration of Independence.
The British sometimes referred to the colonies as “the Americas” or “the American colonies”, which stems from the name of the Italian explorer and navigator Amerigo Vespucci, who traveled to the New World in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. He was the first Westerner to write in any significant way about how these new lands were indeed their own freestanding continents and not part of Asia, as some believed at the time.
So the name “America” wasn’t really the invention here, but rather the use of “United” to describe the states therein.
The actual use of “United States of America” by the Second Continental Congress was kind of…anticlimactic, because it wasn’t a big declaration or anything, but rather a sort of pro forma set of documents that had something to do with paying George Washington’s troops.
Also, at the time, the “u” wasn’t capitalized, while the “s” in States was – not a mistake by the founders, but rather a recognition that what they believed they were creating was a federation of independent states that had quite a bit of autonomy. The whole central government thing came years later. (It takes a while to get over the whole living-under-a-monarch thing, I guess).
Sept. 9 is also “Admission Day” in California, marking the date when The Golden State officially joined the U.S. President Millard Fillmore signed the bill making California the 31st state, and it entered the union as a slavery-free state as part of the Compromise of 1850.
If you happen to be in California’s capitol, Sacramento, today, and have some time on your hands, stop by the State Capitol building for some celebratory – and free! – cake and ice cream, served to you while supplies last by volunteers wearing historical attire.
We’ll see clouds early on today with a chance of showers in the afternoon. Temperatures will top out in the high 70s.
In the headlines…
The global price of oil reached $100 a barrel today for the first time since July as tensions in the Middle East escalated. That’s nearly 40 percent higher than on the eve of the war in Iran.
The U.S. military said on Tuesday that it had destroyed five Iranian oil tankers in reprisal for attempted strikes by Iran on a U.S. Navy warship, adding to the burst of fighting in recent days that has punctured weeks of relative calm.
U.S. Central Command said in a statement that it had destroyed four crude oil tankers used by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in the Gulf of Oman and another one near Kharg Island.
President Trump on Tuesday signed orders banning the import of Canadian alcohol, dairy and motorcycles — retaliating hours after Ottawa imposed a 50% tariff on American clothing, cheese, metals and wood.
Trump invoked a 1930 law after Canada imposed new tariffs on U.S. goods, which followed his own recent tariffs in a widening trade war.
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to reinstate a Republican-drawn congressional map in Missouri ahead of November’s midterm elections, dealing a setback to Trump and the party’s odds of maintaining its slim majority in the House of Representatives.
The US Supreme Court declined to intervene in a lawsuit brought by a New York mother who wanted to send her child to kindergarten while a challenge over the state’s vaccine requirements continues to play out.
House Republicans are effectively abandoning what was supposed to be a key battleground district in New York over concerns that their candidate, state Sen. Peter Oberacker, is too flawed to seriously compete.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries faces mounting behind-the-scenes frustration from progressive lawmakers and candidates that’s likely to burst into public view after the midterm elections.
Gov. Kathy Hochul voiced support for Mayor Zohran Mamdani after one of his predecessors, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, criticized him for planning to attend the city’s 25th anniversary commemoration of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
The city fire commissioner during the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, Tom Von Essen, urged Mamdani to skip Friday’s 25th anniversary memorial ceremony, claiming his presence will offend victims’ families.
Hochul directed a 9/11 Memorial Flag to be flown over the state Capitol and Empire State Plaza from Sept. 8 through Sept. 11 to mark the 25th anniversary of the terror attacks that killed thousands.
Republican Bruce Blakeman could pull off a stunning upset in New York’s closely watched governor’s race — with the conservative challenger just 4-percentage points behind Democratic incumbent Hochul in a new poll conducted for his campaign.
Hochul announced $70 million in state grants to prevent hate crimes ahead of the Jewish high holidays that begin Friday night.
The governor announced the funding through the state Securing Communities Against Hate Crimes program and said New York State Police will increase patrols and coordination with local police at sensitive sites across the state.
The trade war between Canada and the U.S. is a concern for New Yorkers – especially those in Buffalo who share a border with our neighbor to the north.
Hochul said New Yorkers are being caught in the middle of the escalating trade war that could hurt farmers, manufacturers and businesses who rely on Canada.
Senate officials approved reimbursements for Queens Democratic Sen. Jessica Ramos despite receipts showing the expenses had been charged to her campaign.
After enforcement measures for a ban on flavored vapes fell out of state budget talks, lawmakers passed another solution they hope will ensure the 2020 ban is properly enforced and put an end to the regulatory grey area, and now want Hochul to sign it into law.
Ex-acting state budget Director Sandra Beattie admitted she violated New York Public Officers Law and will pay a $5,000 penalty to settle an investigation that found she retained a lobbyist friend to serve as a voluntary consultant on a COVID-related project.
New York paid nearly $11,000 for a brief excavation delay related to renovations on the mammoth eastern entrance to the New York Capitol.
A federal judge will allow a former employee at the state Office of Mental Health to proceed with a claim that she was raped by her supervisor at their office.
Seriously ill and often elderly inmates in prisons around the state face a drawn-out, multi-stage process to make their case with the state parole board, which grants medical parole to most who come before it.
Nearly 2,200 people across New York were arrested during a monthlong immigration enforcement operation that concluded last week, according to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.
A federal appeals court on Tuesday put a halt on the proposed natural gas pipeline running from Pennsylvania through New Jersey and New York, ruling the massive project violates the Garden State’s water-quality standards.
Hochul dodged questions about Mamdani’s socialist network of influencers after troubling revelations they were fed City Hall talking points in a secret backchannel.
The Mamdani administration released nearly 170,000 documents related to concerning air quality reports in Manhattan in the aftermath of 9/11, nearly 25 years after the terrorist attacks.
Mamdani and advocates for 9/11 survivors, including “The Daily Show’s” Jon Stewart, accused government leaders of lying to New Yorkers about the safety of the air after the 9/11 attacks.
A group of aggrieved 9/11 victims’ relatives gathered at City Hall Tuesday to hand deliver a petition urging Mamdani to steer clear of ceremonies marking the 25th anniversary of the terror attacks.
New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin was notably absent from Mamdani’s Tuesday morning announcement that his administration would release a trove of long-sought documents related to the air quality around the World Trade Center after 9/11.
New York City registered voters give Mamdani high job approval ratings, and the vast majority say the democratic socialist is doing better as mayor than they expected, according to a Suffolk University poll released Tuesday.
They also overwhelmingly agreed – 74 percent – Mamdani should attend the 25th anniversary commemoration of the 9/11 attacks, despite some Republicans and relatives of victims asking him not to.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is making a whirlwind 24-hour trip to speak at the annual U.N. gathering of world leaders this month because “there is no option” after Mamdani urged his arrest over the war in Gaza, Israel’s U.N. envoy said.
With just two days until the start of the new school year and a preschool payment crisis still simmering, Mamdani on Tuesday named a new leader for the beleaguered office in charge of executing his ambitious childcare agenda.
The Mamdani administration is facing a new federal lawsuit alleging that its controversial plan to open taxpayer-subsidized grocery stores in the five boroughs violates antitrust laws.
A Bronx man was arraigned Tuesday on a murder charge in the killing of a Crown Heights woman who was stabbed at her own barbecue last month after she refused a man’s demands for sex, police said.
Neighborhood residents rallied on the first day of classes Tuesday to call on Columbia University to reopen its campus to the general public.
A woman pleaded guilty on Tuesday to luring four men she encountered on the street in Manhattan and then drugging and robbing them, leaving three dead, over a 10-month period between 2023 and 2024.
Julia Roberts will return to Broadway early next year in an all-star production of “Small Mouth Sounds,” an experimental, moving and funny play about a silent retreat.
New York 21st Congressional District candidate Blake Gendebien, who is trying to flip a district that voted heavily for Trump in 2024, joined six other Democrats last week in signing a pledge that denounces socialism and praises capitalism.
MLB Construction Services has amended its lawsuit against the Albany County Airport Authority to include allegations that the authority knew while seeking bids that the final price tag could end up being as high as $180 million – almost double its budget.
A crash on the Twin Bridges on Tuesday briefly closed two lanes on the Northway, creating traffic backups on both sides of the highway.
A dispute over a proposed Saratoga Springs charter change is raising questions about whether a ballot measure submitted nearly a month after a state deadline can appear on this November’s ballot.
The debate over when a night out should end in Saratoga Springs is resurfacing again, with public safety concerns on one side and the city’s nightlife and tourism economy on the other.
Dozens of people face charges in a multiagency crackdown on street crimes, law enforcement leaders said Tuesday.
When Shenendehowa’s new kindergarten, the Atrea Early Learning Center, opened its doors Tuesday, it made state history: Every public school district in the state now offers full-day kindergarten.
A tract of 5,800 forested acres once planned for the largest residential building project in the history of the Adirondack Park is scheduled for public auction this month in Malone.
In response to the seizure of seven puppies and dogs from a backyard breeder and a recent parvovirus outbreak in Hoosick Falls, Mohawk Hudson Humane Society is hosting a free vaccination clinic for dogs and cats today.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
