Episode 57: December 5-11, 2021

December 5-11, 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. Now, in this week’s episode for the week of December 5-11, 2021, de Blasio mandates new vaccine rules on private employers, Eric Adams chooses a new Schools Chancellor, Attorney General Letitia James drops out of the Governor’s race while Kathy Hochul places indoor mask mandates back in place. The FDA approves booster shots for teens and Biden holds a Democracy Summit after warning Putin not to invade Ukraine. The Supreme Court allowed a Texas abortion bounty hunter law stay in place for now while Congress remains on a tight timeframe to raise the debt ceiling. Now, onto the show; things may have changed by the time you hear this.

De Blasio

• COVID:
  • In one of his press conferences this week, Mayor de Blasio insisted that his private-sector vaccine mandate isn’t another mess for Eric Adams to inherit. De Blasio, amidst concerns of the spreading Omicron variant, mandated employee vaccinations on private businesses, and increased the number of shots for those who want to take part in restaurants and other indoor settings to two instead of one. Children 5-11 will now have to show proof of at least one dose. The private-sector mandate starts December 27th. 
  • Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and Queens Borough President Donovan Richards called for an investigation as to why de Blasio withheld certain COVID data, including a neighborhood-by-neighborhood map showing COVID casualties, at the height of the pandemic. De Blasio defended not releasing the map early on by saying that his team had to make sure the data was accurate.
  • According to Governor Hochul, the City has now logged 13 Omicron cases, referring to the fast-spreading strain that WHO officials said was a cause for concern. So far, it seems that the strain isn’t more virulent than the current Delta variant, but public health officials are warning that it may turn into the dominant strain if people don’t get their booster shots.
  • Positive rates are increasing in schools, with Education staff warning that the Department’s testing policy isn’t adequate. As of December 10th, 385 students tested positive for COVID. 
• Adams:
  • Incoming Mayor Adams is back from his spiritual trip to Ghana, and hosted a fundraiser at Casa Cipriani first thing. The recommended ticket price for those attending? $5100.
  • Adams made one of his first high-profile decisions about who will join his administration. As predicted, he tapped David Banks, the founder of the Eagle Academy for Young Men, and close friend, to replace Meisha Ross Porter as schools chancellor. In an interview, Banks said that he’s already looking into extending the school calendar to include Saturdays and summers, as well as changing the kindergarten reading curriculum to a more phonics-based approach, saying it’ll advance literacy levels in underserved communities. Questioned about kids bringing guns to school, Banks said it’s because they’re afraid of violence erupting in their own communities. 
  • The incoming Mayor is also expected to choose a first female police commissioner as soon as next week, with sources saying it’s between former Seattle chief Carmen Best and current Philly chief Danielle Outlaw.
• Crime:
  • Fox News was on fire! Well, not Fox News itself, but their Christmas tree. Craig Tamanaha, a homeless man, lit the 50-foot tree standing in front of Fox News headquarters in Manhattan at around 12:15am. He was arrested shortly after Fox News Media said the tree will be replaced. No one was hurt. 
  • A 15th Rikers inmate has passed away, adding to the body count of those that have perished in the jail this year alone since a glut in the number of Corrections officers and safety procedures have been all but abandoned. The federal watchdog overseeing reforms in Rikers slammed the Corrections Department this week for not having the “elementary skills” in place to positively change the system.
• Corruption:
  • Even though de Blasio was told by the New York City Conflicts of Interest Board in 2014 that his asking donors with business before the City for money is improper, he kept doing it anyway, according to a report from the New York Times. The COIB sent two written warnings to de Blasio and prosecutors declined to charge the Mayor, despite saying de Blasio violated the spirit of anti-corruption laws. De Blasio’s spokeswoman Danielle Filson, defended the calls with high-connected donors afterwards saying that they were about affordable housing and universal pre-K, and that the Mayor has been acting in good faith
• Development:
  • De Blasio promised that the City is going to finish their redesign of Queen’s Boulevard of Death next month. The road refers to Queens Boulevard and Yellowstone Boulevard, where 23 casualties took place between 2012 and 2016. The redesign includes a bike lane, wider crosswalks, and bigger medians dividing cars, the last phase in de Blasio’s Vision Zero initiative. 
  • The City has restarted construction for the East River Park after a ruling came down from Court of Appeals judge Rowan Wilson made it seem that demolition would have to stop. A statement from the Department of Design and Construction said that the City didn’t believe Judge Wilson’s ruling stopped the City from further continuing construction of the $1.45b project aiming to create a flood barrier. The East River Park Action group leading the opposition to the project filed a request from Judge Wilson to clarify his earlier ruling.
• Elections:
  • Another game of musical chairs is going down at the City Board of Elections. Dawn Sandow, the City BOE’s Deputy Executive Director, is being replaced with Councilman Vincent Ignizio, stepping down to take a reduced role as Deputy Chief Clerk of the BOE’s Bronx office. Sandow’s move was reportedly voluntary, despite being in the spotlight for mistakenly including 135k test ballots in the City’s first-round ranked choice voting election results.  

City Council

• Speaker race:
  • Francisco Moya will become the City Council’s next Speaker if incoming Mayor Eric Adams has anything to say about it. According to Politico, Adams surrogates, including Congressman Adriano Espaillat and Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., are pushing Moya to the top of the list of potential Speakers, who get chosen by secret vote, despite not showing up on many members’ lists. Adams promised his team isn’t impeding on the Speaker’s race, even though he promised earlier that he wouldn’t be involved. 
  • Female Council members signed onto a letter decrying a political “boys club” that seeks to diminish and bully members in the race for Speaker. They said it’s time for a female to lead the Council.
• Housing criminal checks:
  • A new bill by the City Council might eliminate criminal background checks for housing applicants. The main sponsor of the bill, Councilman Stephen Levin, said the bill would open up opportunities for applicants that were unfairly excluded from looking for housing in the CIty, and would include exceptions for those who are on the sex offender registry. 
• CCRB:
  • The Council passed a bill this week that would allow the police watchdog Civilian Complaint Review Board be able to launch its own investigations into police officers. Earlier, the CCRB was kind of toothless in that it didn’t have the power to start its own probes, having to wait until members of the public filed their own complaints.
• Rezonings:
  • The City Council Land Use Committee voted 15-1 this week to approve the rezoning of Manhattan’s SoHo and NoHo neighborhoods. The controversial proposal would add 3000 new apartments, 900 of which would be subsidized. Councilwoman Barron was the sole no vote. 
• Noncitizen voting:
  • The Council also passed a bill that would allow 800k non-citizens living in New York City the right to vote in municipal elections. The proposed law excludes undocumented immigrants and wouldn’t be constitutionally allowed to let immigrants vote in Congressional elections, nor in state elections as that’s something the state has to approve. Mayor de Blasio actually objects to the bill, questioning whether the Council had the legal authority to take up such a vote. If all is approved, noncitizens would be able to register in time to vote in January 2023.

Hochul

• COVID
  • Governor Hochul instituted a public indoor mask mandate starting on Monday amidst concerns of the Omicron variant spreading and the current surge of the Delta variant. After hospitals across the state began cancelling elective surgeries and reporting that they’re at capacity, the Governor said that public indoor venues such as restaurants, gyms, theaters, etc., have to enforce mask restrictions unless they have vaccine requirements, in which case the public do not have to wear masks. Some counties led by Republican Executives refused to comply with the mandate, saying that the order isn’t based on the science and that they’re properly monitoring the cases in their areas.
  • Meanwhile, Long Island is at its highest COVID positivity level this year og 6%, with 1800 new cases, and in Albany and Schenectady counties, Executive Dan McCoy and Manager Rory Fluman, respectively, called on people to wear masks in public no matter their vaccination status.
• Elections:
  • Governor:
    • Letitia James has dropped out of the Governor’s race. The state Attorney General opted to run to keep her seat, scrambling those who were already announcing candidacies for James’ office. Politico had just reported that despite the Attorney General’s high-profile investigations into the former Governor Cuomo and former President Trump, she hadn’t been around much on the campaign trail in these early election days, citing a handful of campaign events. James’ campaign had responded with a list of events James already attended and were scheduled for throughout the state. James made the decision to halt her bid for Governor after pursuing a court to approve Trump’s deposition in a case regarding alleged tax fraud of the Trump Organization.
  • Attorney General:
    • Law professor Zephyr Teachout’s run for Attorney General seemed off to a good start with the recent endorsements from activists Mark Green and Judith Enck, as well as the Chair of the Dutchess County Democratic Committee, Elisa Sumner. Teachout racked up liberal endorsements in order to replace James, but it’s yet to be seen what Teachout will do now that James has reentered her own race. Other candidates, citing James’ reentry, have fallen off.
  • Ballot proposals:
    • Aside from new politicians, New Yorkers will be able to vote on new ballot proposals, including one being advanced by the State’s Racial Justice Commission. The proposal would amend the City Charter to include language propping up the values of equity and opportunity, measure the “trust cost of living,” and create a new watchdog office to monitor the progression of racial justice in the state.
• SUNY:
  • SUNY Chancellor Jim Malatras has resigned. A 2017 audio recording shows how SUNY Chancellor Jim Malatras berated an administrative employee amidst complaints of the Chancellor’s temper. Malatras, a Cuomo holdover that couldn’t be easily removed, had also faced calls of removal this week stemming from 2019 texts showing him demeaning a female colleague. SUNY officials were calling for an independent investigation into the Chancellor’s behavior, including from the head of the SUNY Board of Trustees, Merryl Tisch.
• MTA:
  • The MTA Inspector General’s office released a new report this week, finding that after former Governor Andrew Cuomo ordered a crackdown against homelessness in the City’s subway system, transit police applied for a huge amount of overtime. Inspector General Carolyn Pokorny said the MTA did a poor job monitoring overtime from 2018-2020 which increased by almost $61m.
  • The MTA has launched a task force aimed at preventing so-called track trespassers. There was a jump in trespassers between October and November, causing 1,542 delays.
  • The MTA board might be adding more elevators to subway stations. The Board is set to vote on the motion next week, potentially starting new projects in 26 stations, with 19 currently having no elevators at all.
• Cuomo:
  • Andrew Cuomo is not the only Cuomo that faced a reckoning. His brother, former CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, was recently fired from the network after recent news came out revealing he helped out his brother more than known earlier. Specifically, despite denying it, Chris Cuomo used his journalist network to assess the extent of Andrew Cuomo’s accusations, as well as helping the former Governor how to respond to those accusations. As if his firing wasn’t bad enough, HarperCollins cancelled a future book deal with Chris Cuomo, citing the recent accusations.
• Crime:
  • The former Suffolk County, Long Island DA Thomas Spota and his former aide Christopher McPartland have reported to separate prisons this week to serve 5 years sentences related to corruption probes. As you may recall, Spota and McPartland tried covering up the beating of an arrested detainee in 2012.
• Afghan:
  • Hochul announced this week that $2m will go towards resettling refugees that come into New York State, which will undoubtedly help the nearly 1800 Afghan refugees that came to New York after the fall of Kabul in the hands of the Taliban.

State Legislature

• Senate Ethics:
  • Despite being called to testify at the State Senate Ethics Committee, state investigative agencies aren’t expected to attend. Only two staffers from the State Comptroller’s office have agreed to speak to state lawmakers while representatives from five other agencies turned the chance down. The committee hearing had a chance to see how the Joint Commission on Public Ethics is operating now that Governor Hochul appointed her own Commissioners. 
• Cannabis:
  • State Senator Jeremy Cooney is proposing setting aside some cannabis licenses for trasngender and non-binary business owners. The move, Senator Cooney said, is part of the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act’s attempts at correcting the War on Drugs, including reserving half of cannabis licenses to minorities, women, farmers, and veterans.
• Horse racing:
  • The state legislature isn’t horsing around when it comes to the horse racing industry. The State Assembly Racing and Wagering Committee is holding a hearing assessing the racing industry in light of the death of Kentucky Derby-winning horse Medina Spirit. The Committee is also weighing the importance of race betting to the State’s tourism industry as tens of thousands come to visit the Saratoga Race Course. 

State Judiciary

• The Third Department Appellate Division overruled Rensselaer Family Court judge Beth Walsh’s ruling that allowed a legal guardian to get COVID vaccines for two children in their car over the biological mother’s objection. The Appellate Division ordered Judge Walsh to hold a hearing on the matter. State law gives family court judges the authority to do whatever necessary for the welfare of the child, including medical treatment, the Appellate Division said, but Judge Walsh shouldn’t have granted it just after written arguments.

Biden

Domestic

• COVID:
  • As the Omicron variant spreads throughout the United States, Pfizer is the first pharmaceutical company to say that its booster show proved to be effective against the new variant, but the original two-dose regimen may not be enough. Early lab results showed that Pfizer’s booster provided 25x more antibody defenses against Omicron.
  • The FDA approved Pfizer’s booster shots for 16 and 17-year-olds this week, with the CDC joining in on the recommendation shortly after. Teens who’ve gotten their second dose will be eligible for the boosters 6 months out.
  • In the meantime, the US has surpassed 200 million vaccinations, a major milestone in the fight against COVID, totaling to more than 60% of the population. 
  • The US Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy, warned on Tuesday of a youth mental-health crisis on the rise because of COVID. Murthy pointed to increased symptoms of depression and anxiety, with 25% of young people showing those symptoms. Emergency visits for suicide threats amongst young people have increased.
  • New COVID rules for international travelers took effect this week, with the CDC narrowing pre-departure testing deadlines. Passengers have to show a negative test 24 hours before their flight to the US, with the earlier rule mandating three days before.
• Environment:
  • President Biden revealed a plan to make the US government carbon-neutral by 2050. The plan includes ordering agencies to buy electric vehicles for their fleets, use wind, solar, and nuclear energy to power federal facilities, and to use sustainable construction materials for future development.
  • Communities across the Midwest and Southern United States woke up on Saturday morning witnessing the sudden disappearance of entire neighborhoods as a series of storms and tornadoes ravaged six states. At least 70 are suspected to have died in Kentucky alone, with Governor Andy Beshear saying the death toll could be as high as 100. In Illinois, 6 died after an Amazon warehouse collapsed. 4 died in Tennessee. Biden approved an emergency declaration for Kentucky, allowing the state to access federal resources directly, and spoke to the Governors of Arkansas, Illinois, Missouri, and Tennessee to see what those states need.
• Unions:
  • The National Labor Relations Board held a vote amongst three Starbucks locations in Buffalo, NY, for the staff to decide whether they were going to unionize in a first for the coffee chain. Only one branch voted to unionize, while another voted no, and a third is having their ballots reviewed after challenges were issued.
• Economic:
  • The Labor Department said that inflation has hit a 39-year high. Consumer prices rose at an annual rate of 6.8% in November, with wages rising 4.3% last month.
  • Biden’s nominee for comptroller of the currency, Saule Omarova, has withdrawn after facing stiff opposition from Republicans who went after her writings as a legal scholar and her background from the Soviet Union. Republican Senator John Kennedy notoriously said that he didn’t know whether to call Omarova a professor or a comrade.
• Redistricting:
  • The Justice Department announced that it is suing Texas for the state’s new redistricting maps, which would allegedly discriminate against Latino and Black voters by weakening their voting strength. Attorney General Merrick Garland said Texas’ new voting maps violate the Voting Rights Act and were done to help Republicans in future elections. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton countered by saying Biden is trying to control Texas voters.
• Emmett Till:
  • The DOJ also announced that it is closing the 1955 Emmett Till lynching investigation without any new charges because a key witness rejected accusations she recanted her testimony about Till grabbing, whistling, and making vulgar comments at her. The DOJ further cited the statute of limitations and the lack of evidence to pursue perjury charges against the witness. 

Foreign

• Russia/Ukraine:
  • After speaking with Russian President Vladimir Putin over video conference, President Biden said that he stared Putin in the face, threatening him with severe economic and other types of sanctions if he invades Eastern Ukraine. Putin reportedly remained defiant, as he repeated calls to forbid Ukraine from joining the National Atlantic Treaty Organization, which was formed originally to counteract against the Soviet Union before its collapse, and denied that he is planning to invade Ukraine. Biden later went on to say that US troops would not be on the ground in Ukraine.
• Democracy Summit:
  • Shortly after having that video conference with the Russian President, Biden held his long-promised Democracy Summit, bringing democratic countries together to counteract the rising influence of authoritarian regimes around the world. China and Russia were not invited. Biden called on world leaders to lock arms in solidarity against autocracies.
• Olympics diplomatic boycott:
  • The US has announced a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Olympics, coming up early next year. Biden said that the boycott is in response to China’s genocide against the Uighur Muslim minority in Xinjiang, as well as other crimes against humanity. While the US Olympics team is allowed to participate in the games, no official American presence will be sent to China. China promised resolute countermeasures, and that US politicians weren’t invited anyway.

Congress

House

• Defense bill:
  • The House passed a $768b Defense bill this week, choosing to just get the thing done rather than passing some more ambitious provisions. Some dropped ideas included abandoning adding women to the draft, repeal the 2002 defense authorization that authorized the invasion of Iraq and that would have placed more sanctions on a Russian gas pipeline. But it did increase the defense budget $24b more than Biden asked for. 
• January 6th:
  • The January 6th Committee referred Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows for contempt charges to the Justice Department after Meadows abruptly decided he wasn’t going to cooperate with the Committee anymore. 
• Nunes:
  • Speaking of Trump sycophants, Congressman Devin Nunes of Texas announced that he is leaving Congress to run Trump’s social media startup, Trump Media & Technology Group, in January. Nunes will be remembered for serving as the chair of the House Intelligence Committee when Republicans controlled the House during Trump’s tenure, and for discrediting the Mueller investigation looking into Russian interference in the 2016 election. 

Senate

• Debt ceiling:
  • Minority Leader Mitch McConnell made good on his promise. 14 Republicans voted with Democrats to approve raising the debt ceiling with a simple majority vote before a December 15th deadline. The Senate acted quickly after the House passed the measure 222-212 on a party-line vote with one Republican voting yes. Republicans believe that they’re allowing Democrats to write their own attack-ads by raising the debt ceiling, but Democrats say they’re simply making sure the country can be fiscally responsible and pay its own debts.
• COVID Private-Sector Mandate:
  • The Senate also passed a bill 52-48 calling on President Biden to reverse his private-sector vaccine mandate, with Democrats Joe Manchin and Jon Tester joining the Republicans. The rule would mandate that businesses with more than 100 employees would have to get them vaccinated, but recent court rulings have stopped that.

Federal Courts

• Texas abortion:
  • The Supreme Court handed down a ruling this week that allows abortion providers to narroly challenge SB8, the law that allows citizens to sue anyone aiding and abetting an abortion for up to $10k. The law had not given providers any recourse as it did not allow actions against government officials. All of this is to say that the Court, led by the conservative majority, still allowed the law to stay, with the liberal Justices, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts, dissenting in that they would have allowed abortion providers to sue a broader group of officials. Advocates are worried, especially in light of last week’s arguments regarding a 6-week abortion ban in Mississippi, that the conservative majority are ready to either strike down or heavily deform Roe v. Wade, which codified a woman’s right to an abortion in the first trimester. 
  • Texas state District judge David Peeples did rule that SB8 violates the state’s constitution, but didn’t issue an injunction to prevent the law from going forward. 
• January 6th:
  • Trump loses another one. A DC Circuit 3-judge panel has denied Trump’s request to prevent the January 6th Commission in Congress access to White House documents outlining what Trump and his staff did on the day of the Capitol riot. Trump made the argument that the documents, held by the National Archives, should be kept confidential due to executive privilege, even though Trump is no longer President. Trump has two weeks to appeal to the Supreme Court.

National

• COVID:
  • Three states have activated their National Guards to fight COVID. Maine, New York, and New Hampshire have asked their National Guards to assist treating COVID patients in hospitals. In New York, 120 medics were sent to long-term care facilities. 
  • According to a new NPR analysis, COVID death rates are higher in pro-Trump counties, some as high as three times more likely than those who voted for Biden. The findings are attributed to vaccine misinformation and continued downplaying of the virus by Republican officials, including Trump. A Kaiser Family Foundation study found that 59% of Republicans are vaccinated versus 91% of Democrats.
• Ghislaine Maxwell:
  • The highly watched trial of Jeffrey Epstein co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell continues, with the prosecution resting their case after putting in their evidence of Maxwell’s disturbing assistance continuing Epstein’s alleged prowling on young girls for sex. Four alleged victims accused Maxwell of grooming them and making them participate in sex acts. Maxwell’s lawyers, while attacking the witness’ credibility, are expected to argue that Maxwell was simply a scapegoat for Epstein’s own crimes. Epstein had killed himself while awaiting trial in Manhattan.
• Bob Dole:
  • Former Republican presidential candidate and Senate leader Bob Dole passed away this week at the age of 98. The former Senator from Kansas lied in state in the US Capitol as prominent leaders, including President Biden, paid their respects. Biden said that Dole was one of our greatest patriots. 
• Smollett:
  • A jury found former Empire actor Jussie Smollett guilty of faking a hate crime this week, convicting him on five out of six counts of disorderly conduct. Smollett reported to Chicago police that he was beaten by two men who wrapped a noose around his neck and yelled homophobic and racist slurs at him while wearing MAGA hats, but it turns out that Smollett made an arrangement with the two black men beforehand. Smollett took the stand and said there was no hoax. His lawyers said they’re appealing the conviction.

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.