Good morning, we have made it – more or less with our faculties in tact, in my case – to Friday. Brace yourself for an insane few days of last-minute politicking as candidates race to squeeze in as much campaigning as possible before Election Day.
Oh, and thousands will truly race – literally – through the five boroughs for the NYC Marathon on Sunday. On top of that, costumed kids (and who remain young at heart) across the state and the nation will hit the streets in search of Halloween candy Saturday night.
And, PSA alert: Daylight savings time starts at 2 a.m. Sunday, thanks to the stalling of the Sunshine Protection Act in Congress, which have ended the turning-back-the-clock ritual once and for all.
It’s going to be a whirlwind of a weekend.
The good news is that it’s going to be a great weekend, weather-wise, for all manner of outdoor pursuits. It’s going to be bright and sunny both Saturday and Sunday, with high temperatures in the mid-to-high 50s – maybe even hitting 60 degrees in the Capital Region.
It’s going to flirt with 60 degrees in New York City, too, with partly cloudy skies on Sunday, which is PERFECT running weather and not bad spectating weather – if you happen to be in the marathon-watching mood. Remember, when it doubt, more cowbell is always appropriate.
Today is going to be another unseasonably warm day in the Albany area, with highs reaching past 70 degrees. Skies will be partly cloudy.
I could wax nostalgic here about trick-or-treating in my youth when it was safe to go out with a group of friends and eat homemade popcorn balls and cupcakes. Now, kids trunk-or-treat, which I guess is OK, since people get into the themes and decorating and all that. And, of course, there’s candy.
But it’s really just not the same as running up the sidewalk, knocking on someone’s door and yelling “TRICK-OR-TREAT” at the top of your lungs when it opens, collecting your booty and running to the next house.
This would lead me down a potentially depressing path of opining about the good old days and how nothing is the way it used to be, which mades me feel old and sad. So let’s talk about something else, something more upbeat and (more or less) positive and…furry!
Let’s talk about lemurs!
Today is World Lemur Day, which falls annually on the last Friday in October, and was created to, as the interwebs tell me, “raise awareness about lemur conservation, unique adaptations, and native habitats in Madagascar.”
Perhaps a little lemur primer is in order. First of all, a lemur is a primate with a large fox-like face, a body like a monkey and long back legs. Some of them have very bushy, long – and potentially ringed (more on this later) – tails.
Technically speaking, wild lemurs live ONLY on the island of Madagascar, which is located in the Indian Ocean about 250 miles off the coast of mainland Africa.
There are some mongoose lemurs to be found on the Comoros Islands, which are about 370 miles away from Madagascar, but they are believed to have been introduced to the area by humans. Scientists think that lemurs got to Madagascar on little floating vegetation rafts many years ago, and since they had no natural predators there, grew in population very rapidly.
There are more than 100 living species and subspecies of lemurs and about 98 percent of them are threatened with extinction, making them the most endangered animal on the planet. That said, scientists estimate that there might be hundreds of thousands to over one million individual lemurs living across Madagascar.
The numbers of certain species, however, like the extremely distinctive ring-tailed lemur, have dropped alarmingly, in part because its habitat is rapidly disappearing. Conservation efforts are underway to save the ring-tailed (and other) lemurs, and hopefully this post encourages you to help.
We already dispensed with the weather, so let’s get down to the news.
In the headlines…
The Republican Party said on Thursday that President Trump had canceled two planned campaign rallies in Iowa and Kansas this weekend, as polls show close races there and the party’s majority control of Congress increasingly in danger.
The Trump administration has widened a criminal investigation in its intensifying campaign to prove thousands of noncitizens are on California’s voter rolls, issuing federal grand jury subpoenas to local election officials.
As Republican anger grew over a Democratic effort to stack Alaska’s Senate ballot with candidates to siphon votes from the G.O.P. incumbent, the Justice Department issued dozens of subpoenas to people believed to be connected to the plan.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported a record number of illegal migrants in Septemeber, President Trump’s border czar Tom Homan boasted Thursday –– as he warned New York to cooperate with its agents.
President Trump and first lady Melania Trump welcomed 6,000 people to the South Lawn on Thursday for the annual White House Halloween event, handing out commemorative full-sized chocolate bars to tiny trick-or-treaters.
Hackers stole $6.3 billion from Binance, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, in a record theft that analysts pinned on North Korea and said could shake faith in digital assets.
Patrick Stewart, best known onscreen for his TV and film work on the “Star Trek” and “X-Men” franchise, has died at 86. The actor briefly battled Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia, according to his spokesperson. He passed Wednesday in Los Angeles.
Gov. Kathy Hochul’s re-election depends on New York City voters turning out for her in big numbers — so it’s no surprise she’s spent much of the campaign’s final stretch pressing the flesh in the five boroughs.
Hochul fired back at Nicki Minaj Thursday — hinting that she’s been brainwashed by President Trump — after the rapper called her “evil” and declared that she should be dumped by the Dems.
Congressional hopeful Cait Conley was buddy-buddy with Hochul at a campaign phone bank — just days after she appeared to agree the governor “has got to go” in a stunning viral video.
Bronx faith leaders endorsed GOP gubernatorial Bruce Blakeman as part of a last-minute push for the Nassau County executive as he seeks to unseat Hochul.
Blakeman is good friends with President Trump, an ex-husband to a Beatle’s wife and a Republican power player on Long Island. Now he wants to be governor.
Hochul is being viciously trolled by a parody X account pretending to be her “first gentleman” husband Bill Hochul.
A former state trooper who was fired last year after testing positive twice for THC has filed a lawsuit seeking reinstatement to his job, arguing that he had taken cannabis gummies last year to help him sleep as he recovered from a painful on-duty back injury.
Lawyers for one of the seven Cornell fraternity brothers accused of gang raping a student argued in court that AG Letitia James should be booted from the case, as the Ivy League university was forced to hand over reports of sexual assault to state police.
Survivors of sexual violence and advocates gathered outside of Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie’s District Office in Pelham Gardens on Thursday to gain support for the “Jane Doe Bill.”
New York state police will take over future sexual assault investigations at Cornell University, Hochul said on Thursday, in the latest fallout over the university’s handling of an alleged gang-rape on campus.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Thursday declined to say whether he supports the NYPD’s use of stingray devices that track cell phones — even as the department utilizes them and is moving forward with a procurement process to operate more.
New York City’s public schools lost 187,000 students in kindergarten through 12th grade in over a decade, according to a new report by the city comptroller — while enrollment is projected to keep falling.
Eight people were indicted in Manhattan, accused of stealing more than $7 million in food stamp benefits from thousands of low-income New Yorkers and spending the money on luxury vehicles, while also sending tens of thousands of dollars abroad.
Some residents of Brooklyn’s Marcy Houses are balancing their personal health against the difficulties of relocating after a steam leak deposited asbestos-laden residue on the exterior walls of two adjoining buildings, covering many windows with the white dust.
An estimated 500 newborns received doses of the hepatitis B vaccine that had been improperly stored at Albany Medical Center in recent weeks, state and hospital officials said.
Former state Supreme Court Justice Peter Lynch, a significant figure in the Capital Region’s legal community, is poised to become Albany County’s next public defender.
GE Aerospace flew its hybrid-electric test aircraft, a modified Saab 340B, over its research campus in Niskayuna on Thursday morning.
Two Albany High School teachers are not working at the school after they gave out an assignment featuring questions about sexual morality.
A former ShopRite in Bethlehem will be turned into a school for children with disabilities, thanks to $6.5 million from the state, the governor’s office announced Thursday.
A 20-year-old Queensbury man attending college in Colorado was found dead Wednesday alongside a fellow student after the two went missing days earlier.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
