Episode 59: January 2-8, 2022

January 2-8, 2022

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 January 2-8, 2022, Eric Adams completes his first week as Mayor, Governor Hochul contends with a resistant Nassau County on mask mandates in schools, Biden delivers a scathing speech against Trump on the anniversary of the January 6th insurrection, the Supreme Court looks a private sector vaccine mandates skeptically, and much more. Now, onto the show; things may have changed by the time you hear this.

Adams

• COVID
  • The COVID surge from the Omicron variant has caused massive anxiety throughout the City, raising the number of positive cases and hospitalizations, but thankfully not deaths like in spring of 2020. Still, the absences of workers in the MTA caused the subway system to shut down three train lines, while the number of students and teachers missing school has only kept growing. The Mayor had made it clear this priority is to keep schools open, citing the absence of schooling a more prevalent danger than closing them due to COVID.
• Personnel:
  • The Mayor has made a series of appointments after his inauguration following the NYE ball drop. In some of the higher-profile hires, Adams chose one of his closest confidantes, Frank Carone, to be his Chief of Staff, and chose 5 women as his Deputy Mayors, sending a message underlining female empowerment in the new administration. Another close surrogate of Adams’, former Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez, was chosen to be the next Transportation Secretary. Reaching across the aisle, Adams appointed former Queens Republican Councilman Eric Ulrich as a senior adviser, and luxury real estate lawyer and Trump supporter Edward Mermelstein as commissioner of international affairs. Adams has also appointed a new Corporation Counsel, which leads the City Law Department, tapping 2nd Department Judge Sylvia Hinds-Radix.
  • The mayor’s first week was not without its controversies, however, as Adams called cooks, dishwashers, shoe shiners, and even Dunkin Donuts employees, as low-skilled workers, in an attempt to justify why office workers should come back to work considering the former group can’t enjoy remote work themselves. Then, Philip Banks, the brother of new Schools Chancellor David Banks, announced his own appointment as the new Deputy Mayor of Public Safety through a news editorial. Banks was removed from his prior role as a Police Chief due to a 2014 corruption probe. One of Philip Banks’ first moves was to fire the deputy commissioner of the Internal Affairs Bureau, Joseph Reznick, who oversaw Banks’ own corruption probe. Eric Adams also appointed his own brother, Bernard Adams, to the role of Deputy Police Commissioner. Bernard Adams retired from the NYPD as a Sergeant in 2006. He has been working in Virginia ever since as a parking administrator, according to his LinkedIn.
  • Meanwhile, Mayor Adams this week also signed an Executive Order this week called Small Business Forward that cut fines for small businesses and also announced $111m in funding to public hospitals in a public-private partnership with Goldman Sachs. 
• Brooklyn BP:
  • Brooklyn has a new Borough President, former Councilman Antonio Reynoso, whose first official action involved banning cars from the plaza surrounding Borough Hall. Signs now adorn the plaza threatening to tow any vehicles that park in the plaza that Reynoso has now said he reclaimed for pedestrians.
• Crime:
  • The new Manhattan DA, Alvin Bragg, raised eyebrows right away as he quickly put in place policies he said he would if he got elected, including deprioritizing and not prosecuting fare evasion, resisting arrest, prostitution, and more. 
• Voting:
  • Mayor Adams released a statement this week professing support for a recently passed Council bill that would allow legal residents living in NYC to vote in municipal elections after threatening to veto the measure over a 30-day residency requirement. De Blasio wasn’t in support of the bill, saying the Council didn’t have the authority to pass such a bill.

City Council

• Adrienne Adams:
  • This week saw the appointment of the City Council’s first Black female City Council Speaker, Adrienne Adams, no relation to Mayor Eric Adams (although they did go to the same high school!). The Queens Councilwoman, in brief remarks, listed off fighting COVID, gun violence, and inequality as some of her main issues.
• Rikers:
  • New Councilmembers took a tour to Rikers for the first time together. Members Alexa Aviles, Tiffany Caban, Shahana Hanif, and Sandy Nurse slammed the condition of Rikers after seeing the complex. Rikers has been the scene of increase work stoppage by Corrections officers and an increased amount of deaths, up to 15 last year alone.

Hochul

• COVID
  • Despite signing an executive order mandating wearing masks in public schools, Nassau County’s new Republican Executive Bruce Blakeman signed his own order running counter to Hochul’s, letting schools choose whether to mandate masks on students. Hochul threatened to withhold school funding as a result, and Education Commissioner Betty DeRosa said Blakeman’s order has no authority and the state mandate stays in place, setting a showdown.
  • Meanwhile, Hochul said that healthcare workers in the state will have to get booster shots in order to protect them from infection and hospitalization.
• State of the State:
  • Governor Hochul gave her State of the State address this week, outlining her future priorities and policies. Among her prime objectives, Hochul promised $10b for the state’s healthcare labor force, which would go towards bonuses to retain workers and prop up healthcare infrastructure. She also wants an “Interborough Express” transit line from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, to Jackson Heights, Queens, as well as more financing for cops and prosecutors to combat gun violence, and advance a middle-class tax cut put in place by former Governor Cuomo to go into effect two years earlier to 2023. Other highlights included in the Governor’s speech included remaking the ethics agency, called the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, and pitching a bill that would expand the number of affordable housing units. Last but certainly not least, Hochul professed her support for permanent to-go cocktails after former Governor Cuomo allowed their presence in the beginning of the pandemic. 
• Elections:
  • Meanwhile, City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams is racking up endorsements from the progressive side of the City Council in his race for Governor. Hochul continues to rack up her own endorsements from establishment groups, such as labor unions.
• AG James:
  • State Attorney General Letitia James has subpoenaed Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump in relation to an investigation into the Trump Organization’s business practices, according to court documents. The investigation revolves around allegations that former President Donald Trump’s company lied to banks and the federal government in evaluating his assets in order to get favorable loans and tax cuts. Trump’s kids are trying to block the subpoenas in court. Eric Trump has already been questioned by the AGs office. 
• Online sports betting:
  • Mobile sports betting has begun in New York as of this week. After a long fight by advocates, people can now download apps and place bets on their winning teams. Only four companies are licensed to operate mobile betting in the state so far: Caesars Sportsbook, DraftKings, FanDuel and Rush Street Interactive.
• Hochul state air travel:
  • The Times Union published a report looking at three separate times Hochul used air travel throughout the state, which may have violated ethical rules related to using state resources for campaign activities, which Hochul’s campaign did not reimburse the state for. Hazel Crampton-Hays, Hochul’s press secretary, said the Governor’s ethics counsel is reviewing the flights.

Legislature

• Heastie:
  • One person noticeably missing from the Governor’s State of the State address is the Assembly’s Speaker, Carl Heastie, who said he failed to pass a COVID test, and opted to quarantine at home. Heastie already had his booster shot and wasn’t experiencing symptoms. 

State Courts

• Cuomo:
  • Former Governor Andrew Cuomo saw himself clear of criminal danger related to his sexual harassment scandal when the Westchester and Albany County DAs dropped charges against him, saying that there wasn’t enough evidence to meet the burden needed in criminal court, although the girls accusations were “credible,” according to Westchester DA Miriam E. Rocah. Meanwhile, the Manhattan DA, Alvin Bragg, dropped an investigation related to Cuomo’s nursing home scandal, as announced by Cuomo’s lawyer. Cuomo still faces investigations related to covering up the nursing home death toll from COVID by the federal government.
• Rent relief:
  • State Supreme Court Justice Lynn Kotler ruled that the state has to continue accepting rent relief applications within three business days although the state doesn’t have money to pay for the program anymore, having already appropriated the $2.4b. The state has already asked the federal government for more money, closing the application portal in November even though the state moratorium doesn’t expire until January 15th. All of the Borough Presidents save for Staten Island have called for the state to extend the moratorium.
• COVID:
  • Members of the Association of Supreme Court Justices of the State of New York have called on all personal trial appearances to be stopped on account of the Omicron surge. Chief Judge Janet DiFiore said that court officials are trying to find the right balance between in-person and remote appearances. 

Biden

Domestic

• COVID
  • The CDC and FDA supported Pfizer’s booster shots for 12 to 15-year olds, which would add another tool in America’s arsenal against COVID as the country goes through a surge of cases with the Omicron variant. 
  • The CDC has also released new guidance related to quarantining without testing, saying that those who are exposed to COVID and are asymptomatic need only isolate themselves for 5 days even if they test positive, as long as they also wear a mask for another 5 days after their isolation period. The guidance also applied to healthcare workers, saying that medical personnel can report back to work if they’re asymptomatic, causing waves of rebukes from the healthcare sector. Anthony Fauci acknowledged the blowback to the CDCs new guidance, saying that the agency would clarify their guidance soon. 
  • The United States Postal Service has asked for a 120-day waiver from Biden’s employee vaccine mandate. The postal service argued that the mandate would complicate mail delivery, while OSHA isn’t expected to issue any violation until February 9th.
  • After bungling its handling of purchasing anti-COVID pills for Americans, the White House announced that it’s doubling the number of COVID pills it is purchasing 20m courses for distribution, even though the pills wouldn’t be available for weeks.
  • A group of former health advisors to the President publicly asked Biden to change his COVID strategy, publishing articles in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The health advisors said Biden should shift his attention away from the amount of positive tests there are, and to preventing hospitalizations as a measure of how the country should act anytime there’s a COVID outbreak.
  • Moderna’s CEO Stephane Bancel said this week that a fourth shot might be necessary next fall as the vaccine’s efficacy wanes over months. A fourth vaccine is already underway in Israel, but it’ll hit the massive burnout here in the US.
  • The White House said that another COVID stimulus is in the works with Congressional leaders, more specifically for businesses, with a bipartisan group in Congress looking into aid for restaurants, although nothing specific has been released yet.
  • The US hit a record 1m single-day COVID case count on Tuesday according to Johns Hopkins data, with hospitalizations having risen by 27% but with deaths declining by 8%, underscoring the virility of Omicron but its lack of mortality compared to its sister variants. The death toll from COVID in the US has almost reached 830k as of the time of this recording.
  • The US is set to launch a website next week that will coordinate delivery of 500m testing kits to American homes.
• January 6th:
  • On the eve of the anniversary of the January 6th insurrection, Attorney General Merrick Garland gave a speech vowing prosecutions against not only those who were there inside the Capitol that day, but at any level, including those that instigated the insurrection. It’s still up in the air whether the Justice Department will receive a referral by the House Select Committee investigating January 6th to prosecute former President Donald Trump, who originally had plans to give a counter-speech on the upcoming anniversary deflecting from his role in the insurrection and spreading the lie that the 2020 Presidential election was rigged against him. 
  • Biden had his own speech on January 6th, forcefully denouncing Trump’s role in the insurrection, representing a more aggressive tone that was welcome by Democrats and which spurred Republicans to call it a political stunt. The President described Trump’s continued falsities about the 2020 Presidential election as a “web of lies” and vowed to “stand in the breach” and stand in the way of any “dagger to democracy.” Trump, as we mentioned earlier had cancelled his planned speech, replied in an emailed statement that Biden’s speech was political theater meant to distract from his own failings. A poll released this by USA Today and Suffolk University found that a majority in the US believe democracy is in danger, with more than 80% of Republicans, Democrats, and independents feeling that way. There’s a stark divide, however, on how the two parties describe the insurrection on January 6th, with 85% of Democrats saying the rioters were criminals while a 2/3rds majority of Republicans said the rioters had a point and 58% of Republicans said Biden wasn’t legitimately elected.
  • A separate Washington Post and ProPublica investigation found that more than 650k posts on Facebook attacked the 2020 election before the riot on the Capitol.
• Economy:
  • In a concession to liberals who feel snubbed by Biden’s choice to renominate Jerome Powell as head of the Federal Reserve, the White House is planning to nominate Sarah Bloom Raskin as top regulator, and Lisa Cook and Philip Jefferson as governors.
  • Minutes from a Federal Reserve meeting in December 2021 show that the Fed may support rate hike increases faster than agreed to before in order to counter rising inflation.
  • Federal data released this week shows that a record 4.5m workers quit their jobs in November 2021, an increase of 300k from October the month prior. 
  • Labor Department data showed that the economy only added 199k jobs in December as the Omicron variant spread throughout the US. The unemployment rate fell to 3.9% from 4.2%. 

Foreign

• Kazakhstan:
  • What started off as protests against increased gas prices in the oil-rich nation of Kazakhstan turned deadly, as the country’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev asked Russia for help and issued a shoot to kill order on protestors. More than 160 people have been killed and 5k detained, and Russia sent over troops from the Collective Security Treaty Organisation, a military alliance of former Soviet states. Secretary of State Blinken said this week that the US is increasing security at the embassy in Nur-Sultan, and urged Kazakhstan to practice restraint.
• Russia:
  • After rebuking Russian President Putin’s demands for Ukraine not to join NATO, the US has signaled willingness to still come to the table with Russia to discuss limiting future missile deployments in Ukraine and limiting military exercises in exchange for Russia turning down the temperature on their side of the border with Ukraine. Biden has repeatedly threatened Russia with economic sanctions if it invades Eastern Ukraine, as concerns have mounted due to an increased Russian troop buildup across the border.
• US bases in Iraq and Syria:
  • On the second anniversary of the assassination of Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani by US forces, the Defense Department reported that rockets and gunfire targeted US troop bases in Iraq and Syria, including an attempt to use a drone against one of the bases, but there have been no casualties.
• Japan:
  • The US and Japan have discussed working together on projects that would develop technology to counter hypersonic missiles and developing space-based weaponry.
• Egypt:
  • FBI agents have arrested an Egyptian man, Pierre Girgis, on charges that he was spying on opponents to Egyptian President Abdel al-Sisi.
• Haiti:
  • And US officials have charged a suspect in the assassination of the Haitian President, Jovenel Moise. Mario Palacios, a Colombian commando, was detained in an airport in Panama, and flown to Miami from there. Palacios is being accused of being one of 12 retired Colombian special forces troops who were hired by a firm called CTU Security to break into the Haitian Presidents residence and murder him.
• Cuba:
  • The US has placed a travel ban on 8 Cuban officials for their role in silencing dissenting voices from the Cuban political protests last July, which were the biggest since Cuba’s 1959 revolution led by Fidel Castro. Secretary of State Antony Blinken pointed out that 600 people are still held in captivity after the protests.

Congress

House

• State of the Union:
  • House Speaker Pelosi has formally invited President Biden to give his State of the Union speech on March 1st. The speech is normally given earlier in the year, but the COVID pandemic has delayed things. 
• Democratic retirements:
  • House Democrats continue to drop like flies after 2 of them announced their retirements this week: Bobby Rush and Brenda Lawrence. Rush, a former Black Panther, is set to retire after working 15 terms in the House, and is expected to return to his work as a Pastor in Chicago. Lawrence, who is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus alongside Bobby Rush, would have to face off in a tough primary as her district was redrawn in the latest round of redistricting. 
• Jan 6:
  • The January 6th Committee continues to pull off high-profile moves this week. The committee reportedly has been planning public hearings with the full knowledge that with a Republican takeover of the House comes the disbandment of the Committee and its work. Additionally, the Committee has officially requested Sean Hannity to cooperate by texts revealing Hannity’s involvement with getting Trump to try and stop the insurrection, as well as cease spreading lies about election fraud. The Chair of the panel, Bennie Thompson, has also asked former VP Mike Pence to come testify as well. 
  • The Committee seems to also be working with a group of former Trump staffers who are dedicated to preventing Trump from ever reentering the White House, including former Trump Press Secretary and Melania Trump Chief of Staff Stephanie Grisham, former Department of Homeland Security chief of staff Miles Taylor, former national security official Olivia Troye, and others. Grisham mentioned how Trump was watching the insurrection “with glee” in his dining room for hours before finally saying anything.
  • Politico, citing four separate sources, reported that Vice President Harris was present in the Democratic National Committee building when a pipe bomb was discovered outside on the day of the insurrection. No one has been arrested in connection with the pipe bombs there and at the RNC.

Senate

• Voting rights:
  • Coming back from their break, Democratic Senators have opted to put Biden’s human infrastructure agenda to the side for the moment, and choose to move forward in trying to pass voting rights bills again, despite Republicans filibustering past attempts this session. Targeting, who else, Joe Manchin, Senate Democrats seek to get rid of the filibuster for the narrow reason of amending voting rights and reversing restrictive election laws in Republican states that followed Trump’s lies about voter fraud. Manchin threw cold water on the idea, saying that he would only see a path for a modest change in the filibuster, changing the 60 vote requirement to pass legislation to 54. None of this deterred Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who said that if Republicans filibuster another round of voting rights bills put on the floor, a change to the filibuster will be put up for a vote on January 17th, notwithstanding Manchin’s and Senator Kirsten Sinema’s positions on the issue.
  • Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell deems to be on board with the idea of amending an 1887 law which governs the way Congress certifies the Presidential results following an election, hoping to never get to the point where someone would be in former Vice President Mike Pence’s position when his life, and Congress’ life, was in danger when Trump’s supporters ransacked the Capitol. 

Federal Judiciary

• Avenatti:
  • If the name Michael Avenatti sounds familiar, it’s because he’s the guy that represented porn star Stormy Daniels in her lawsuits against former President Trump, and who then was later convicted himself of an extortion scheme against apparel company Nike. Manhattan federal Judge Jesse Furman recently shot down Avenatti's request to delay a separate lawsuit against him, which was brought by his former client, Stormy Daniels, for allegedly stealing from Daniels’ book deal. 
• Vaccine mandate:
  • The Supreme Court heard oral arguments about Biden’s private employer vaccine and mask mandate, with two separate policies examined for generally private employers with over 100 personnel and separately, health care providers, with the attorneys arguing against the policies arguing remotely because they have COVID. The conservative majority of the Court signaled their skepticism of the general mandate, citing the unprecedented nature of the sweeping policy, with Chief Justice Roberts suggesting Congress should have made a law authorizing the move, and Justice Thomas throwing doubt on the vaccine’s efficacy, leading Justice Kagan to bitterly reply that almost a million people have died. The Court looked at the healthcare worker mandate with less suspicion, as the healthcare mandate applies to organizations accepting federal funds.
• Navy SEAL vaccine mandate:
  • Texas federal District Judge Reed O’Connor placed an injunction against the Defense Department from punishing 35 Navy Seals attempting to get religious exemptions from a federal vaccine mandate, saying “there is no COVID-19 exception to the First Amendment.” Defense Department spokesman John Kirby said the Department is reviewing the lawsuit.
• Perdue Pharma Bankruptcy:
  • Manhattan District Judge Colleen McMahon has allowed Perdue Pharma to appeal her own ruling vacating the pharmaceutical giant’s bankruptcy settlement agreement with multiple states, including New York. Judge McMahon put a hold on approving the settlement because she ruled she didn’t have the authority to allow the Sackler family, which has a majority stake in the company, off the financial hook. Perdue Pharma had settled with the majority of US states in its role for spreading and overprescribing opioids, leading to overdoses throughout the country. 

National

• COVID
  • Chicago schools closed this week after the teachers union refused to report to work amidst rising Omicron cases. The union asked Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration to have at least some remote learning in light of the surge in cases, but the Lightfoot refused to close any schools, citing their safety, and later called the union’s actions an illegal strike. 
  • At least 28k flights have been cancelled since before the Christmas holiday as a result of COVID surges and freezing weather, according to flight tracking website FlightAware. 
• Philly rowhouse fire:
  • 13 people have perished in a fire in a Philadelphia roadhouse on Wednesday. Two people are in critical condition, with 4 fire alarms failing to work and being attributable to the high number of casualties. It took firefighters almost an hour to control the blaze. 
• Tesla:
  • US electric car maker Tesla is in a bit of hot water after opening up a flagship dealership in China’s Xinjiang region, the site of concentration camps filled with the Muslim Uighur population.
• Apple:
  • Apple has become the first company worth $3t after briefly hitting the mark in the stock market. 
• I95:
  • This week’s freezing cold weather saw one of the largest traffic jams on I95 this week, with motorists stranded for almost 24 hours when a tractor trailer jackknifed and blocked the whole road. One motorist stranded in the jam was Virginia Senator Tim Kaine.
• Maxwell:
  • Ghislaine Maxwell has been found guilty of child sex trafficking by a jury of her peers. The former accomplice of late-predator Jeffrey Epstein is now awaiting sentencing.
• Holmes:
  • Meanwhile, someone else was found guilty by a jury as well - former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes, who claimed to have created technology that allows people to screen their own blood test results, but which turned out to be a total fraud. A jury found Holmes guilty of 4 charges out of 8 which were about wire fraud related to defrauding her investors, with each count resulting in at least 20 years in jail, but the judge may strike more leniency in her sentencing. 
• Arbery:
  • The three white men convicted of killing black joffer Ahmaud Arbery have all been sentenced to life in prison. Father-son duo Travis and Greg McMichael won’t have the possibility of parole, and William Bryan, who videoed the murder and chased Arbery, does have a chance at parole. 
• Poitier:
  • The first black person who won an Oscar for Best Actor, Sidney Poitier, died this week at the age of 94. Poitier was best known for his roles in movies like Lilies of the Field, for which he won his Oscar, and for breaking barriers for black actors in Hollywood in the 60s.

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.