Episode 53: October 10-23, 2021

October 10-23, 2021

Good afternoon, I’m Dennis Futoryan, and this is the 25th hour, helping you remember everything that happened beyond the 24/7 news cycle. We’ll have a more truncated version of today’s show, and will be back in full force on October 17th. Now, in this special episode for the weeks of October 10-23, 2021, NYC vaccine mandates against teachers still stand while medical workers throughout the state win religious exemptions, the mayoral race between Eric Adams and Curtis Sliwa heats up, Governor Hochul apologizes to the families of nursing home residents, the FDA clears Moderna and Johnson & Johnson’s booster shots for those 65 and older and the immunocompromised, as well as mix and match boosters, Biden signs a bill raising the debt ceiling temporarily until December and continues negotiating for his infrastructure proposal amidst sagging approval, the January 6th Commission pursues subpoenas on former Trump officials and refers a criminal contempt proceeding against Steve Bannon, Senator Joe Manchin is single-handedly changing climate change provisions in the human infrastructure bill, and the Supreme Court hears a series of cases, including whether to reinstate the death penalty on the Boston Marathon bomber. Now, onto the show; things may have changed by the time you hear this.

De Blasio

• COVID
  • The 7-day average of new positive COVID cases is 1316 as of October 16th.
  • The death toll of children who died from COVID has risen to 30 after, after a child passed away, according to the Dept of Health and Mental Hygiene. 3500 kids have been diagnosed with COVID since the start of the school year.
  • Federal Southern District Judge Valarie Caproni upheld NYCs vaccine mandate on public school teachers and staff, knocking down an attempt by Department of Education staff requesting a permanent injunction due to a lack of religious exemptions. The case quickly was appealed to a 3-judge panel on the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, but the panel clearly indicated that the government had a rational basis for implementing the mandate, shooting down the hopes of those fighting the mandates in schools. One a decision is released by the panel, the school staff have a chance to appeal to the full 2nd Circuit.
  • The MTA has been slow to enforce its own vaccine and testing mandate, with the policy implemented a week and a half ago telling workers to either get their shots or show proof of testing once a week. 68% of workers are vaccinated, but some workers are saying their proof of negative testing hasn't been checked.
  • Mayor de Blasio announced that he is changing the vaccine mandate rules for all city workers in that he is getting rid of the weekly testing option, giving city workers no choice but to get vaccinated (aside from unpaid administrative leave). The Mayor was confident in his decision to change the mandate after recent court victories against the teachers union.
  • A video of two maskless city cops pushing a masked train rider off the subway for asking them why they weren’t wearing their own masks briefly set off a firestorm, with de Blasio saying he’s disciplining the cops for their actions. 
• Mayoral election:
  • As we mentioned in the opening, the mayoral race is starting to heat up. Eric Adams, the Democratic Brooklyn Borough President, recently reported receiving $7.7m in donations, with a huge chunk coming from the wealthy, according to the New York Times as 700 donors gave $2000, the legal limit. Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, on the other hand, has $1.2m on hand, with only 2 people giving him $2k. The two candidates have been sniping at each other this week while out on the campaign trail, with Sliwa criticizing Adams for wanting to carry a gun on him as mayor, while Adams deflected by calling on Sliwa to focus on illegal carriers of weapons.
  • Separately, Adams made some policy pronouncements this week, hinting at how his administration would respond to current issues. First, Adams hinted that he wasn’t going to go along with de Blasio’s rescission of the Gifted & Talented test, which lets kids as young as 4 enter advanced classes, with critics saying it perpetuates school segregation in NY. The Brooklyn Boro President said he would meet with stakeholders to see what changes have to be made, which can include keeping the test. De Blasio recently announced Brilliant NYC, the replacement to the Gifted and Talented program, with little details with a few months left in his term. Sliwa is in favor of expanding the Gifted & Talented program, simply increasing the number of slots available for students in the selective program. 
  • Adams also said that when it comes to any vaccination mandates for students, that he would consider doing so once the vaccine becomes FDA approved for kids. De Blasio has refused to mandate vaccinations on students. Sliwa sided with the Mayor on the issue, saying that for the second time in eight years, he agreed with the Mayor on something.
  • Otherwise, Adams also commented on a recent spike in shoplifting, vowing to crack down on the issue, and Sliwa, continuing his calls for compassion for New York’s animal community, commented on “phasing out” the Bronx Zoo, particularly regarding how zoos treat their animal inhabitants, and that he would consult with experts on the issue. A reminder that Sliwa lives with 17 cats.
  • Adams also apologized publicly apologized to a former fellow transit cop who Adams smeared and disparaged, after she called out her colleagues for allegedly cheating on a police exam.
  • The two mayoral hopefuls squared off in their first debate against one another, weeks away from Election Day. With the lack of polling and the assumption that Adams is going to beat Sliwa, the debate had little fanfare. Nevertheless, Adams’ strategy seemed to be about keeping a smile on and giving short answers, while deflecting questions about his residency and allowing Sliwa to talk.
• Comptroller race:
  • The candidates for Comptroller also faced off in a debate. Councilman Brad Lander, who won the Democratic primary, debated his Republican counterpart Daby Carreras virtually, after Carreras refused to share his vaccination status. Lander is another foregone conclusion for his presumed victory in the race to replace Scott Stringer, while Carreras made accusations that Lander stole $89m from non-profits but refused to divulge more details.
• Scandal:
  • Days after releasing a report outlining allegations that de Blasio improperly used the presidential security detail with taxpayer funds, Margaret Garnett, the Department of Investigations commissioner, is heading to a new job: Deputy Attorney at the Southern District. Garnett steps down on November 10th. 
  • And speaking of De Blasio’s security detail scandal, the Mayor refused to give straight answers in response to questions about the issue, including how the Conflicts of Interest Board ruled. The Daily News reported that the Board ordered that de Blasio repay the $320k in taxpayer funds used for his security detail during the Mayor’s short-lived presidential run. 
  • And speaking of other concerns regarding pay-back, the Mayor also owes the law firm Kramer Levin & Naftalis $435k in legal fees. The fees are in connection to representing the Mayor in a series of fundraising corruption probes, which didn’t see De Blasio prosecuted, but accused him of violating the spirit of the law. The Mayor said he plans to pay back the firm over time. 
  • The Post reported that according to Department of Homeless Services data, $4b have been paid to troubled homeless shelter operators, representing almost 30% of the City’s entire homelessness budget. There have been recent scandals involving shelter operators getting kickbacks and profiting off of their government contracts while the homeless population suffers. 
  • The Mayor was booed during his appearance at the Columbus Day parade this past Monday. Wouldn’t be New York without that happening.  
  • If you have ever been inside the City Council’s legislative chamber, you will have noticed a statue of Thomas Jefferson standing off to the side, and so it has stood there for almost 200 years now, but now Jefferson’s statue will be hauled off to the Historical Society, owing to his past as a slave owner. The Public Design Commission is reviewing the issue on Monday. 
  • One of the City’s lobbying firms, Mercury Public Affairs, is seeing some instability at the top as senior leaders are leaving in the midst of a high-profile legal fight with its parent company Omnicom Media Group. Three partners, Mike McKeon, John Gallagher, and Rachel Noerdlinger, who represents Al Sharpton, are heading out. A huge part of the fight with Omnicom has to do with the parent company’s practice to get employees to sign non-compete agreements forbidding continued representation of clients and prohibiting employees from working together.
  • The former head of the Sergeants police union, Ed Mullins, will face trial next Monday for violating NYPD conduct rules, which were expedited after Mullins filed for retirement. By way of reminder to our listeners, Mullins got in trouble for calling Congressman Ritchie Torres a whore for comments made about defunding the police and accusing the police of work stoppage following George Floyd protests.
• School:
  • Schools Chancellor Meisha Ross Porter recorded a phone robocall to public school parents urging them to keep up their kids’ attendance in schools. Parents are still worried about the Delta variant as corona infection rates increase marginally throughout the young population. 
  • A program that provides subsidies and discounts for public school families has remained largely untouched, according to Chalkbeat. Get on it parents!
• Crime/Rikers:
  • The Governor and the Mayor announced together on Wednesday that female and transgender prisoners are being transferred from Rikers to two state prisons 40 miles north of the City to address the staffing and prisoner crisis. But while those prisoners might be able to finally get the medical attention they haven’t been getting because of the pandemic, activists are concerns the prisoners are going to be further away from New York City courts and their attorneys. 
  • A report from the federal court-appointed monitor overseeing Rikers found that some of the reforms that de Blasio put in to try and improve Rikers haven’t worked, chiefly closing an intake center that held prisoners that weren’t even going through intake and punishing officers that went AWOL from work.
  • And capping off this week’s continued bad news about Rikers, another inmate died while in custody, raising the death toll to 13 for this year alone. The prisoner, Victor Mercado, was being held on weapons charges since July and contracted COVID, succumbing to the virus. 
• Development
  • A storm sewer planned for Willow Avenue in Staten Island is finally going to start breaking ground in 2022, 24 years after then-Mayor Giuliani announced the project. The Department of Design and Construction attributed the long delay to “unforeseen factors,” such as land contamination. 207 projects are planned over the next fiscal year meant to reinforce the City from climate change. 
  • Construction projects aren’t the only thing getting money to mitigate climate change. Your local food delivery person might be getting some too, if Senator Schumer has anything to say about it. Schumer says that money from the recently passed physical infrastructure proposal in the Senate can be used to give food courier non-profits the ability to build kiosks that can help those delivering food rest, recover, and even take a bathroom break.
  • The City’s Franchise and Concession Review Committee voted 4-2 this week to give Bobby Jones Links the right to take over control of the Ferry Point Park golf course from former President Trump’s company. De Blasio ordered the cancellation of a number of contracts held between the City and Trump’s company after the January 6th insurrection. 2 of the Committee’s members who dissented called the decision rushed, and not because they’re Republicans - the members represented Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. and Comptroller Scott Stringer, who are worried about what’ll happen to the staff currently at the link. 
• MTA
  • After originally promising the public the ability to testify at MTA Board meetings with the caveat of having to do it beforehand, the MTA has now said people will be allowed to comment live alongside those meetings. 
  • Anthony McCord, called the MTA’s “hatchet man” for being tasked with the job to cut about 2700 administrative jobs from the agency during Cuomo’s time, officially resigned this week. McCord ended up cutting 270 administrative jobs, but not before cutting 2455 jobs in other departments. 

City Council

• In the backdrop of a plastic straw stirrer ban going into effect next month, Queens Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer introduced a bill that would ban takeout spots from offering customers plastic cutlery unless those customers ask for them. 
• The Council also approved a separate bill this week that would expand a pilot program denying construction permits to landlords with tenant harassment history, saying the practice exacerbated neighborhood displacement. 

Hochul

• COVID:
  • The state’s COVID positivity rate is 2.54% on Friday, with the City’s rate at 1.29%. 
  • New York federal judge David Hurd sided with healthcare workers who wanted religious exemptions attached to the state’s vaccine mandate. The Judge agreed, leading to Governor Hochul filing an appeal to the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals. 
  • Governor Kathy Hochul also apologized to the victims of nursing home residents who perished at the outset of the pandemic, with the families blaming Cuomo for passing a health regulation declaration making hospitals send nursing home patients with COVID back to their homes, exacerbating the spread of the virus throughout the vulnerable population. Trying to contrast herself with Cuomo, Hochul told families of nursing home victims that she actually gives a damn about them.
  • The Governor also filled in some information about how much health care staff actually quit because of the vaccine mandate put on the industry. Only 3% of the healthcare sector quit their jobs instead of getting shots that can protect themselves and their patients, claiming either bodily autonomy or religious exemption, amounting to 34k personnel. 
  • The staff of Catholic Health’s Mercy Hospital of Buffalo, with 2k members of the Communications Workers union are protesting staffing and patient care policies, as the hospital uses Huffmaster, a temp staffing agency, to replace picketing members. Attorney General Letitia James came to the workers’ sides, issuing a cease and desist letter to Huffmaster for providing services without a license.
  • The State Inspector General’s office issued a report that found numerous issues with the state’s vaccine scheduling website, which gave some earlier access to scheduling vaccines than others. Sites meant for training were able to be accessed by the public, while the system was supposed to be limited to healthcare and frontline workers. 
  • State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s office launched a COVID relief fund tracker, showing that only a third of the funds have been sent, but with the money set to a spending plan. The state received $21b in total, and ahs spent over $6.1b.
  • Meanwhile, Governor Hochul, in her attempt to get more students and schools taff vaccinated, has set up #VaxtoSchool pop-up vaccination sites, for a total of 120 sites running for 12 weeks throughout the state.  
• Election: 
  • Not turning to the gubernatorial election: Kathy Hochul was endorsed by the abortion rights group Emily’s List, which supports pro-choice political candidates for office. The group’s endorsement has been noticed by politicos watching the race, insinuating that Hochul is the person to beat even before the rumored entry of Attorney General Letita James.
  • On the Republican side of things, Congressman Lee Zeldin, gearing up for his own gubernatorial run, launched a search panel looking for who would be his Lt. Governor running mate. Zeldin is joined by Rob Astorino, Andrew Giuliani, Derrick Gibson, and Mike Carpinelli looking to make a run in the Republican primary. 
  • A new Marist poll gave one of the earliest indications of how the candidates are doing, whether or not they’ve announced. Hochul and Letitia James would be at the top of the ballot at 44-28 respectively, while Public Advocate Jumaane Williams got 13% of the hypothetical vote. De Blasio, unfortunately, didn’t get enough support to make it on the poll’s list.
  • Another possible entrant into the Governor’s race? Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, with the City reporting Gonzalez calling his top donors, asking if they would support his run if Letitia James doesn’t enter the race.  
• Economy:
  • While the pandemic is on the mend throughout the state, the economy in New York is also improving in part, according to State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, because of an unexpected more than $7b tax windfall. Governor Hochul said $1.1b of that is being put in the state’s rainy day fund.
  • The state’s unemployment rate fell from 7.4% to 7.1%, according to the Labor Department.
• Labor:
  • The state Department of Labor has announced a new regulation that prohibits employers from testing for marijuana and preventing someone from working based on that, making New York the first state to take a step in bolstering legal marijuana in that way. 
• School
  • The Governor also said that the state has settled an issue revolving around how the state’s schools are funded, particularly those that are deemed “high-needs.” The state legislature, in their recent budget, has passed more funding for those schools after years of outcry from activists.
  • State exams are scheduled to go next spring after the pandemic messed things up, according to the Board of Regents. Students have still not received their scores from tests administered in 2020-21.
• Development:
  • An audit from State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli on how the Department of Transportation handles their maintenance contracts and repairs for their more than 4k vehicles. The state Comptroller’s office is recommending new ways to monitor the repairs of their vehicles to prevent financial waste. 
  • When it comes to train noise, Hochul is on it. The Governor signed a bill that would force the MTA to issue yearly reports on reducing noise across the entire transportation system.
• Prisons
  • The Columbia University Center for Justice has called the state’s prison system a new death penalty for seeing the deaths of 1278 inmates, calling for a change in the state’s parole system. 
  • Hochul also signed a series of bills meant to help prisoners after their incarcerated life, with the goal of lowering recidivism. The bills allow former felons to act as executors for wills, those under supervised release to protest labor conditions, simplified the process to attain certificates issued by corrections officials, and allowing parolees to take on overtime and night shifts without violating their parole.
• Immigration:
  • Hochul has signed a bill into law that would make it illegal to blackmail someone by threatening to report someone to ICE. The crime of extortion had included labor and sex trafficking, but will now include deportation threats.
• Propositions:
  • Appearing on New Yorker’s ballots alongside positions for office are five questions ranging from changing the state’s redistricting process to upping the amount of money needed for local courts to hear cases. The first ballot question is being challenged by good government groups, including Citizens Union, which say that the change being proposed by the ballot question would allow the Democrats in the legislature to solidify their control over the state, opting instead to allow an Independent Redistricting Commission to control the process. 
• Scandals
  • Records subpoenaed by the state Assembly’s Judiciary Committee are bolstering the credibility of one of Cuomo’s accusers, Brittany Commisso, who said that the Governor groped her during a meeting at the Executive Mansion. Even though Cuomo is now out as Governor, he is still facing criminal investigations in various jurisdictions. 
  •  SUNY Chancellor Jim Malatras is staying on after all, as Cuomo chose Malatras to stay as part of the NY Board of Trustees, which can’t be picked off by Hochul. Malatras also played a role in editing down the number of nursing home casualties during the onset of the pandemic. 
• Energy:
  •  One person stepping down as the New York Power Authority’s Gil Quiniones, who will go on to become the CEO of Chicago’s Commonwealth Edison Company. Quiniones was also placed in his position by Cuomo, but isn’t one of the agency heads being fired by Hochul. 
• Buffalo
  • Incumbent Buffalo mayor Byron Brown, who lost his primary to Democratic Socialist India Walton and has launched a write-in campaign to come back from behind, has received the endorsement from Republican mayoral hopeful Tom Suozzi. Suozzi said his endorsement was done in a bid to ‘defeat the socialists.’ 
  • Democratic Party Chair Jay Jacobs landed himself in further hot water when it came to the Buffalo mayoral race when he made an analogy comparing support for India Walton to supporting KKK leader David Duke, saying that he wouldn’t support Duke’s victory in a Democratic primary because of low turnout, causing confusion and exasperation among party members. Even though Governor Hochul called Jacobs’ comments disgusting, she is still refusing to wade into the race herself, and not calling for Jacobs to resign. Jacobs did apologize. Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, on the other hand, had endorsed Walton this week. 
• Rockland
  • Democrats in Rockland County are finally voting for their Party Chair in December after being embroiled in a court battle over choosing Chris Sampson, who is acting chair, to become the real chair. The choice of Sampson to be the chair was protested against by Rockland’s more progressive members, who said that calls for votes went ignored. 
• Nassau: 
  • The New York Post reported that after signing a bill earlier this month outlawing mailing out government letters to taxpayers promoting early voting sites with any candidate’s personage on it, Nassau County Executive Laura Curran did just that. A spokeswoman for Curran’s campaign said that the mailer is standard and goes to everyone regardless of party.

State Legislature

• The illegal basement apartments notorious for being the sites of those who perished after Hurricane Ida in New York might be finally brought into the light with safety regulations if a proposal by Assembly Member Harvey Epstein. 11 people in the City died after floods from Ida inundated their basement homes. 
• Criminal Justice reform groups testified at a State Senate hearing last week to call for the end of court fees, saying they operate as barriers against access for working families and individuals. Court fees can impact someone’s credit score, and not making bail can keep someone incarcerated before they ever get charged.
• As can be expected in government, bureaucracy has stopped the progress for home care workers to get a bump in their incomes. The Fair Pay for Home Care Act seeks to increase those salaries, but certain managed care plans can prevent providers of home care aid to pay workers increased salaries directly to those workers. 
• Albany County District Attorney David Soares testified at an Assembly hearing on gun violence that bail reform has to change enough for judges to have more discretion in keeping certain repeat offenders incarcerated, striking a nerve with lawmakers that claim no changes are needed. Soares wants to keep cashless bail, but once bail reform was put in place, conservative lawmakers and publications seized on examples of repeat criminal offenders being released to the public. 
• Newly installed Lieutenant Governor Brian Benjamin endorsed his potential successor last week. Legislative staff member and former Chief of Staff to Councilman Bill Perkins, Cordell Cleare, is a clear choice, said Benjamin, to represent his Harlem district. Cleare said she’ll focus on gun violence, affordable housing, and public education. 

State Judiciary

• State court officials have enlisted the help of powerhouse law firm Paul Weiss to represent the system in court against court labor unions fighting the system’s vaccine mandate.
• Judge Anne Minihan was picked by Chief Administrative Judge Lawrence Marks to become the 9th Judicial District’s new administrative job, covering five different counties in New York’s Lower Hudson Valley region. 
• Commission Picks Short List to Fill Fahey's Seat on NY's Highest Court. The state Commission on Judicial Nomination has chosen a short list of potential candidates to replace the aged-out Court of Appeals judge Eugene Fahey, who turned 70 on September 1st. The names include Francesca Connolly, Timothy Murphy, Erin Peradotto, Stan Pritzker, Corey Stoughton, Shirley Troutman and Joanne Winslow.
• The New York City Housing Authority will be forced to change the way it handles handicapped prospective tenants according to a settlement with Gaston Roberge, whose family had to turn down continuous numbers of apartments because they weren’t wheelchair accessible, running foul of NYCHA’s own “three strike” rule which drops tenant applicants if they turn down three apartments in a row. The settlement forces NYCHA to allow those who are handicapped to make clear that they’re turning down apartments because of accessibility issues.
• This story might be interesting to the personal injury folks out there: The First Department Appellate Division upheld a Bronx judge’s decision to increase a $5k verdict for a motorcycle rider’s accident injuries to $250k because the jury didn’t properly consider the rider’s herniated discs and bulges in his back. 
• U.S. District Judge Joan Azrack refused to grant a bail request for former Suffolk County DA Thomas Spota and his former aide Christopher McPartland while they’re appealing their corruption convictions. Spota and McPartland were convicted of covering up a police chief’s beating of a prisoner in his custody.
• Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Erika Edwards has ruled last week that the judicial inquiry into how City officials handled the investigation into Eric Garner’s death be held virtually, despite the pleas of Garner’s mother Gwen Carr, and her attorney, incoming Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, who wanted the inquiry to be held in person. Carr is leading a novel legal Avenue into deposing senior police officials, who can shed light on how they made decisions related to the officer Daniel Pantaleo after putting Garner in a chokehold. The inquiry continues October 25.
• Even though de Blasio ended the Gifted and Talented program as we mentioned earlier, a lawsuit seeking to correct the City’s segregated school system trudges along anyway. For instance, the plaintiffs, which include students, are challenging the specialized high school admissions system, which, they argue, perpetuates a racist system.
• State Supreme Court Judge Lyle Frank stayed a proposed change to the City government retirees’ health system that would seek cost cutting by changing healthcare plans. The NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees had sued to stop the City from switching the retirees’ current plan to one handled by the private EmblemHealth and Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield. The problem? The healthcare switch was part of a 2014 agreement that allowed for the change of plans in exchange for a raise in union income.

Biden

Domestic

• COVID
  • Merck, the company that made some news by developing an anti-COVID pill, has asked the FDA to fully authorize their pill for circulation, as expected. The FDA might clear the pill in time for winter, when people can catch viruses quite easily.
  • A study conducted by the National Institutes of Health found that it may be safe to mix and match booster shots. Those that use Pfizer or Moderna’s boosters after taking a J&J shot got a significant boost in immunity compared to the other way around. The study is yet to be peer reviewed. Nevertheless, the FDA had authorized mixing and matching of booster shots, giving way to easier access to Americans who want to get their third dose.
  • Nevertheless, the FDA says that J&Js booster shot increases someone’s protection from getting severely sick or dying from COVID. Dr. Fauci said earlier this week that Johnson and Johnson should have just made their vaccine a two-dose regimen as well. Pfizer came out with its own booster data, saying that it’s almost 96% effective against the virus in Phase 3 trials. 
  • And although Moderna and Pfizer get top notch scores, the Biden administration is urging particularly Moderna to produce more vaccines for the international vaccine producing effort Covax, specifically alleging Moderna can produce as much as a billion more doses to send throughout poor countries. 
  • In any case, the FDA green lighted both Moderna and J&Js booster shots for those who are 65 and older and the immunocompromised.
  • However, the agency also delayed a decision about whether to allow giving the Moderna vaccine to adolescents due to concerns of a rare side effect called myocarditis, which inflames the heart. Despite the delay, the CDC said that the benefit of vaccinating kids far outweighs the risks, and the White House plans to roll out vaccine distribution throughout the country to vaccinate kids 5-11.
  • Military archbishop says Catholic troops can refuse vaccine on religious grounds. Archbishop Timothy Broglio, who serves as the top Catholic official for the US military, has endorsed soldiers refusal to get vaccinated if it goes against their conscience. Pope Francis, as head of the Church, decreed that getting vaccinated isn’t sinful, and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin instituted a vaccine mandate throughout the armed forces, but Archbishop Broglio’s proclamation gives Catholic soldiers an out based on religious grounds.  
  • Meanwhile in the TSA, 40% of the staff working at airports and our borders are unvaccinated. TSA staff have until November 22nd to get their shots.
  • Starting November 8th, international tourists will be allowed to visit the US for non-essential travel as long as they’re fully vaccinated. 
  • The Labor Department has submitted their draft regulations about employers with more than 100 workers imposing a vaccination mandate to the Office of Management and Budget, meaning a rule may be finalized and ready for the notice and comment period within two weeks. Biden announced the policy in the beginning of September as another wave to fight the pandemic and kickstart the private sector.
  • Capitol Police Chief: Specialized agents must get COVID-19 vaccine or be reassigned. An internal department memo from the Capitol Police also made clear that officers who specifically serve to pervert Congressional leadership have until October 25th to get vaccinated or else they’ll be reassigned. 
• Health:
  • New guidance by the FDA clarified that Americans should reduce their salt intake by 12% to 3k mg a day, attempting to counter rampant high blood pressure prevalent in the country. 
  • The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force also has new guidance related to whether older adults at the age of 60 should take daily aspirin to prevent a heart attack or stroke, saying that the risk of internal bleeding from taking a pill is greater than the benefit of mitigating a first heart attack. 
  • The first e-cigarette to be approved by the FDA claims to help regular cigarette smokers kick the habit. The Vuse One, unlike the fruity cartridges that are now banned, has a plain nicotine flavor. 
  • White House is closing in on former FDA commissioner Robert M. Califf to serve as the agency's chief. Former FDA Commissioner Robert Califf is rumored to be one of the top choices for Biden’s next FDA Commissioner. The agency has had Hanet Woodcock as acting Commissioner for 8 months and the President has to nominate someone before mid-November. 
  • The US Public Health Service Commissioned Corp’s leader, Dr. Rachel Levine, who was also the first openly transgender official as Assistant Secretary of Health, has now become the US’ first transgender four-star office after she received her commendation this past week.
• Economy:
  • The President promised last week to put the spotlight on companies that aren’t doing their part to bring the country’s supply back up to speed after the pandemic wrecked everything. Biden said that distributors will be working 24 hours a day, especially the Port of LA.
  • But the optimism probably won’t do enough to save the scarcity of Christmas gifts and trees, according to experts, who say that the move is incremental. 
  • Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve plans to limit their asset purchasing program next month, with the plans to end it altogether by the middle of next year, as inflation increases and demand is high as well. 
  • Underscoring the increase in demand, retail sales in the US rose by .7% in September alone. 
  • And yet, in August, the Labor Department revised their jobless figures, revealing that 4.3m workers quit their jobs, mostly in the food and retail sectors. 
  • Not to despair, jobless claims fell to 293k for the first time since the pandemic began, a massive measure of cognitive dissonance as the pandemic drags on. 
  • In the meantime, those receiving Social Security benefits can see a slight bump in their checks, a 5.9% bump, to be exact. The kicker is that the level of inflation rising throughout the country offsets those gains. 
  • You may have noticed the high gas prices around the country as well. Top officials met on Tuesday last week, including the Secretaries of Energy, Agriculture, and State, to discuss how to counter increased gas prices coupled with inflation. 
  • Biden has signed a bill sent over to him from Congress that would raise the US debt ceiling until December, averting US default on its obligations. The Treasury contended the US would run out of money to pay creditors on October 18th.
• Infrastructure:
  • Underscoring the difference between where most Democrats in the country are and where moderate Senators Joe Manchin and Kirsten Sinema are, a CNN poll found that 75% of the party favor an expanded bill that strengthens the welfare system and combats climate change. But as Democrats debate amongst themselves, Manchin is the one being kowtowed to as he has the power to torpedo the whole thing. So while Biden said a deal is going to happen soon, Manchin had no qualms throwing sand on that idea.
• Immigration:
  • On the immigration front, Biden last week ended workplace immigration raids, reversing a Trump-era policy that placed emphasis on going after illegal workers rather than the employers violating labor laws hiring them. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said employers are now going to be the focus. Mayorkas had caught COVID this week, and is working from home.
  • According to government documents obtained by CBS, only around 3200 asylum seekers on the Southern border have been referred to an interview with an immigration officer to process their claim out of hundreds of thousands of people who were expelled under a law called Title 42, which began under Trump and which Biden continues. Out of the more than 3200 asylum applicants, only 8% passed their interviews.
  • But while Biden continues to use the Trump-era rules to kick anyone out with COVID as an excuse, the administration did try and stop using Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy which kept asylum applicants in Mexico while their claims were being proceed. A federal judge ruled that Biden must continue using the policy, which it will in the middle of November, but Biden has said he is still going to try and end the plan. The resumption of the plan spurred a “virtual walkout” amongst immigration advocates on an online conference with Department of Homeland Security officials and the White House Domestic Policy Council’s Esther Olavarria.
  • According to DHS data, the US has apprehended more than 1.7m migrants along the Southern border over the past 12 months ending in September, setting a record. 61% were sent right back to Mexico or their home country.
• Environment:
  • Sitting down in an interview with Associated Press, Biden’s climate envoy John Kerry said that the world is far short of its climate goal to avert catastrophe ahead of a climate summit taking place in Glasgow, Scotland. While Kerry said that the US, the UK, and Japan did a good job cutting emissions, if Congress doesn’t pass climate change legislation, it’ll be like Trump pulling out of the Paris Agreement again.
  • Meanwhile, Biden is showing how serious he is taking the Glasgow summit by sending 13 cabinet members and other high-level officials. The President himself is planning to attend. Biden is set to talk about how the US is planning to cut 50-52% of its emissions below 2005 levels by 2030.
  • Department of the Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced that the US plans to build wind farms along almost the entire US coastline, with the first step of identifying which areas of federal waters to lease by 2025. The administration had recently approved the first major commercial offshore wind farm in the waters off Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts.
  • The Environmental Protection Agency is also moving ahead with regulating a group of so-called forever chemicals, with EPA Administrator Michael Regan calling it a bold set of actions. The chemicals, known as PFAS, are found in cosmetics, floss, food packaging, clothing, cleaning supplies, and more. The EPA is going to set drinking water standards and propose that manufacturers give data on the compounds. 
  • The health publication Lancet published two reports that kept track of 44 global health indicators tied to climate change, finding that deaths, disease, and hunger are all on the rise due to human effects on climate. 
• State secrets
  • A Virginia couple were arrested and charged for attempting to share state secrets pertaining to the US’ submarine technology with a foreign power, according to court documents. Johnathan Toebbe and his wife, Diana, were officially charged. Mr. Toebbe worked as a nuclear engineer, and unbeknownst to him, was actually talking to an FBI agent the whole time that he thought he was going to sell nuclear propulsion technology to a foreign nation, which Russia and China have been clamoring for.
• Ransomware:
  • According to the Treasury Department, almost $600m in US transactions had to do with ransomware attacks in the first 6 months of 2021, already coming ahead of the amount of money from last year. Bitcoin amounts are higher, with $5.2b in Bitcoin involved in the hacking attacks.
• Census:
  • Two new analyses, one done by the Census Bureau, and the other done by statistician Connie Citro of the Committee on National Statistics at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, found that last year’s Census may have undercounted Black Americans of up to three times as high as in 2010, with a second report finding an undercount of Black children up to 10 times as high. Advocates worry the 2m less Black people were undercounted as a result. 
• Supreme Court
  • Biden’s commission studying changes to the Supreme Court came out with draft findings last week, saying that there are considerable risks to expanding the number of justices, while at the same time expressing optimistic takes on changing the terms of the Justices, which currently sit for life or until they resign. The 36-strong committee, made up of both Democrats and Republicans, warn that expanding the court isn’t supported by the public and would be seen as a partisan move, while giving the Justices 18-year term limits can be seen as a positive move. Biden himself isn’t in favor of giving Justices term limits. The committee’s report will come out next month.
• Trump
  • The State Department launched an investigation into whether officials who worked for Trump during his administration took gifts meant for foreign dignitaries. The Office of the Inspector General is zooming in on a cancelled G7 meeting that never got off the ground in 2020, in which Trump officials, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, made off with tax-payer funded gifts.
  • Andrew McCabe, the former FBI Deputy Director who was fired by Trump in 2018 just hours before McCabe would’ve officially qualified for retirement, ended up winning his pension benefits back in a court settlement with the Biden administration. McCabe opened investigations into Trump alongside then-FBI director James Comey, while Trump tried saying McCabe was biased because his wife ran for office in Virginia and accepted donations from the Clintons.
  • The FBI raided the home of Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, who has ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The raids were conducted based on two warrants tied to an as of yet unknown federal investigation related to US sanctions. Deripaska’s spokesperson said that the house doesn’t belong to him.
• NASA:
  • NASA launched a 12-year mission last week with the lift-off of Lucy, a robotic explorer who will study a group of asteroids near Jupiter, known as the Trojans. The mission is looking for information about the creation of our solar system, which are hypothesized to be found amongst those asteroids.

Foreign

• Afghanistan:
  • Even though Afghanistan has largely receded from the major headlines, there are still moves being made by the administration and the newly empowered Taliban government. While the US says it's in candid talks with the Taliban, the fundamentalist group says the US will provide humanitarian aid to Afghans while resuming regular flights to the country. Biden tapped experienced diplomat Elizabeth Jones as the Afghan relocation leader, who will oversee departure and resettlement efforts of Afghans into the US, and while one comes in, another comes out. Special envoy to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad resigned, saying that the time is right as another phase of Afghan history has entered. In the meantime, the Pentagon offered to pay the families of the 10 victims that were killed by drone under false intelligence, which could amount to millions of dollars. A separate blast at an Afghan mosque, claimed by ISIS, had killed 40 people, the second time in two weeks.
• China:
  • China has stunned US officials with the purported testing of a new hypersonic missile in July and August, surprising US intelligence officials with the advancement of the technology. The Chinese government denies they were testing missiles, and instead said it was launching space planes.
• Venezuela:
  • In Venezuela, President Nicolas Maduro, seen as an illegitimate ruler of the country in the US, rearrested 6 American oil executives in the country after an ally of his was extradited to the US, Alex Saab, for money laundering charges. The South American country are accusing the 6 oil executives of corruption, and were arrested just after opposition leader Juan Guaido met with then-President Trump.
• Haiti:
  • 17 American missionaries were kidnapped by a Haitian gang known for kidnappings last week, with the gang demanding a $17m ransom. FBI officials are already on the ground in Haiti coordinating a response. The missionaries were kidnapped while leaving an orphanage.
• Kenya:
  • Biden welcomed Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta to the White House last week. Kenyatta became the first African leader to visit the White House since Biden’s inauguration. In his meeting with Kenyatta, Biden announced a donation of 17m doses of COVID vaccines to the African Union. Countries all over Africa are finding it extremely difficult to get doses of vaccines, let alone inoculate their people while rich countries are already at the booster stage of their vaccinations. 
• Vatican:
  • In Biden’s upcoming trip to Europe for the Glasgow summit, he plans to meet the Pope to discuss COVID and climate change. Biden, the US’ second Catholic President, is also set to talk about how to take care of the poor.
• United Nations:
  • Three years after Trump took the US out of the UN Human Rights Council for what he called hypocritical actions, including piling on Israel, the US has regained its seat at the 47-nation group. Biden has said that it’ll be more in the interests of the US to come back to the group. 
• Russia:
  • The US has rejected a Russian claim that one of its warships tried to enter Russian waters last week, saying that the Navy destroyer, USS Chafee, was actually approached by a Russian destroyer. The Russians accused the US of trying to violate its sovereignty in the middle of naval drills conducted alongside China on October 15.

Congress

House

• Jan 6:

• The January 6th Commission has been busy. The select committee investigating the Trump administration’s response in the midst of a riot on the Capitol conducted by Trump supporters has subpoenaed a number of former Trump officials, including former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and strategist Steve Bannon. The committee advanced a contempt proceeding to the floor of the House against Bannon, in which then the House voted to refer the criminal contempt proceeding to the Justice Department on a party-line vote. Bannon wasn’t working for Trump at the time of the insurrection, but had said on his podcast days before that the event would be huge, prompting the committee to say Bannon knew more than he let on. Republicans say Bannon was a private citizen at the time and shouldn’t be hauled in front of Congress. Trump, meanwhile, has sued the National Archives, trying to prevent the release of documents from his tenure at the White House, claiming executive privilege even though he isn’t President anymore than the privilege lies with the current President. Biden has declassified documents related to Trump’s response to the insurrection, saying it is more in the national interest to declassify those documents than keeping them hidden.
• Tenney:
  • New York Republican Congresswoman Claudia Tenney is accused of having her campaign spend thousands of dollars on her own companies, including paying herself for rent, phone service, and office supplies, coming out to a total of almost $16k. 
• Yarmuth:
  • Kentucky Democratic Congressman John Yarmuth, who also chairs the House Budget Committee, announced last week that he’s not running for reelection, saying he wants to spend more time with his family. 
• Fortenberry:
  • Nebraska Republican Jeff Fortenberry pleaded not guilty after being indicted on campaign finance fraud charges and for lying to investigators about a campaign donation given by a Lebanese-Nigerian billionaire Gilbert Chagoury. Fortenberry is being accused of funneling those donations through multiple straw donors. 

Senate

• Human infrastructure:
  • As mentioned above, Senate Democrats continue to negotiate amongst themselves to pass a human infrastructure proposal. Where an earlier price tag had $3.5t as the amount being spent on free community college, universal elder and childcare, as well as other liberal priorities, moderate Senators Joe Manchin and Kirsten Sinema have forced the administration’s hand into lowering the amount to $1.5t, cutting away programs such as the aforementioned college program and scaling back climate initiatives, which is sure to piss of progressives. Other programs, such as universal pre-K and the child tax credit, will be reduced. Democrats hope to pass something by the end of October.
  • Five veterans on Sinema’s advisory council quit, saying that Sinema has turned her back on her constituents in favor of big donors, as Democrats get more exasperated at her negotiations for the infrastructure bill. Reports show that while Joe Manchin telegraphs his desires in what he wants to get passed, Sinema has become more of a contrarian, without public indication as to what she is fighting for.
• Voting rights:
  • Another attempt to pass a voting rights bill failed in the Senate as Republicans filibustered it. The plan would have reversed many Republican changes to voting laws around the country, including restricting mail-in voting and bolstering voter ID laws, but Republicans say that the attempt is just a Democratic takeover of elections. 

Federal Courts

• The Supreme Court heard arguments this past week about whether the death penalty should be reinstated against Boston Marathon bomber Dzokhar Tsarnaev, with the majority of justices seemingly ready to put Tsarnaev back on death row. Tsarnaev’s lawyers pointed to legal mistakes made by the trial judge in his case that tainted his due process rights. 
• The Supreme Court has also finally agreed to hear a case against Texas’ 6-week abortion ban, which includes a unique enforcement provision that allows private citizens that have nothing to do with the abortion doctors or women seeking the abortion to sue those people, down to the secretary sitting at the abotion clinic desk. The Court originally refused to stay the law, letting lawsuits work up the system, before it quickly landed on their desks anyway.
• Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas, who was part of the effort to dig up dirt on Joe Biden during the 2020 presidential election, was convicted this week of campaign finance charges, having ran a scheme that involved funneling campaign donations through strawmen.
• Bronx judge Judge Doris Gonzalez ordered last week for former President Trump to be deposed in a lawsuit launched by protestors who were injured in September 2015, when Trump’s campaign was still holed up there. The protestors were allegedly assaulted during rally at Trump Tower during that time.

National

• COVID
  • Former Secretary of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Colin Powell has passed away due to COVID complications. He was being hospitalized for blood cancer and caught the virus. Powell, despite his best efforts, will go down as being one of the biggest supporters of the Iraq War despite the lack of actual intelligence justifying the move, having given a speech in front of the UN claiming Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein harbored weapons of mass destruction. 
  • Texas GOP gubernatorial candidate Allen West hospitalized with COVID-19
  • Poll: Most Republicans want candidates who support vaccines, oppose mandates
  • Texas Gov. Abbott issues order banning Covid vaccination mandates in rebuke of Biden
  • Florida Governor DeSantis has called for a special session of the state legislature to fight the federal government’s vaccine mandates on companies with more than 100 employees and for federal workers to be vaccinated.
  • Nets say Kyrie Irving can't play until vaccinated
  • WHO Announces New Team to Probe COVID-19’s Origins
  • States spent at least $89 million on COVID-19 vaccine lotteries. None of them worked, new research suggests.
  • Five times as many police officers have died from Covid-19 as from gunfire since start of pandemic
• Polling:
  • Americans Revert to Favoring Reduced Government Role
• Health:
  • Johnson & Johnson Places Talc Injury Claims in Bankruptcy
  • Former President Bill Clinton hospitalized for urological infection, sepsis, released after 5 days
  • Surgeons have attached a pig kidney to a human for the first time, with NYU Langone’s Dr. Robert Montgomery saying it could be a breakthrough in a renewable source of organs. The pig kidney was genetically altered to function normally. The kidney was attached to a braindead patient, and it won’t be available for patients as a treatment anytime soon as more clinical information is needed.
  • CNN anchor John King has revealed a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis, a disease that weakens the nervous system, causing chronic symptoms that last a lifetime. 
• Labor:
  • More than 100K workers threaten strikes as unions flex muscles
  • Southwest cancels more flights as stock drops
• Environment
  • Huntington Beach shoreline reopens a week after oil spill
  • Study finds 85 percent of global population affected by climate change
  • Flood insurance rates are spiking for many, to account for climate risk
  • Biden Presses Climate Agenda on Wall Street
  • California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a statewide drought emergency, adding 8 more counties to an already-existing drought proclamation, urging residents to voluntarily reduce their water usage by 15%.
• Texas juvenile prisons:
  • Complaints Against Texas’ Juvenile Prisons Include Violence and Sex Abuse
• Nobel
  • The Nobel in economics goes to three who find experiments in real life.
• Facebook
  • Facebook unveils options for supervising teen Instagram use
  • Facebook Says AI Can Enforce Its Rules, but the Company’s Own Engineers Are Doubtful
  • Another whistleblower has alleged that Facebook put profits before safety, with the as yet unidentified whistleblower saying that Facebook’s communications teams shrugged off accusations that the social media giant wasn’t doing enough to screen foreign actors interfering during the 2016 presidential election, and would get “pissy” overall when being accused of allowing misinformation on the site.
• Southlake ‘Holocaust’ book outrage:
  • Southlake school leader tells teachers to balance Holocaust books with 'opposing' views
• Outer space:
  • William Shatner Launches Into Space on Blue Origin Flight
• Petito:
  • Coroner says Gabby Petito died by strangulation
  • The remains of Brian Laundrie, suspect number one in the death of his girlfriend Gabbie Petito, were found in a Florida nature preserve that was most recently underwater due to flooding. FBI agents had found a backpack and notebook, with another source saying Laundrie’s remains have been there for a while. 
• Durst:
  • Robert Durst, the subject of HBO’s “The Jinx,” has been sentenced to life in prison for the killing of a close confidante in 2000.
  • Robert Durst, the real estate scion convicted this week of murdering a friend decades ago, is on a ventilator with Covid, his lawyer said.
  • Durst was separately charged with the murder of his wife, Kathie Durst, who disappeared in 1982. 
• Parkland:
  • Nikolas Cruz plead guilty to 17 counts of premeditated murder for the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Fla., his lawyers said. Cruz went on the record apologizing for his actions. 
• Arbery:
  • Jury selection has begun in the murder trial of three men who killed Black jogger Ahmaud Arbery last February. 
• Noor:
  • A Minneapolis police officer, Mohammed Noor, was sentenced to five years in prison for killing Justine Damond, an unarmed woman who called 911 about her being raped behind her home in 2017. Noor has already served 29 months, and testified that he and his partners drove down an alley, heard a bang, and saw a woman run up to his window raising her right hand. 
• Baldwin:
  • Actor Alec Baldwin has accidentally shot and killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injured director Joel Souza. Hutchins was taken into emergency surgery, but didn’t make it, while Souza was discharged from the hospital after sustaining a shot to the shoulder. Balwin, who is cooperating with authorities, said that he was given a hot gun, which is a prop gun with live rounds in it, after being told the gun was cleared and safe. Baldwin fired one shot, which went through Hutchins and hit Souza. It’s still being investigated how the live rounds ended up in the weapon, with reports showing that the assistant director told Baldwin the gun was safe, while a separate stuntman may have shot the same gun twice earlier that same day.

And that’s it for this week’s show of THE 25TH HOUR, helping you stay on top of the 24/7 news cycle. Don’t forget to rate us on Apple Podcasts, share us with your friends, and subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts. You can email your tips and suggestions at the25thhournews@gmail.com and become a Patron today for as low as $2 a month to support the show at patreon.com/the25thhournews! Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next week.