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Preparations for April’s solar eclipse have ramped up as the highly anticipated astronomical event nears — those preps, it turns out, include New York’s prisons.

The New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision announced its plans to cancel visitations at nearly two dozen facilities in the path of totality on April 8.

In total, the department said 23 facilities “will experience total darkness ranging from approximately one and a half minutes to approximately three and a half minutes.” Those sites will be closed to visitations all day, while facilities not “directly” in the path will end visits early at 2 p.m.

The DOCCS solar eclipse plan doesn’t just affect visitations. According to Hell Gate, a “system-wide lockdown” will be put in place during the eclipse “as a safety precaution.”

 

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JERUSALEM (AP) — Tens of thousands of Israelis thronged central Jerusalem on Sunday in the largest anti-government protest since the country went to war in October. Protesters urged the government to reach a cease-fire deal to free dozens of hostages held in Gaza by Hamas militants and to hold early elections.

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In his speeches and online posts, Trump has ramped up anti-immigrant rhetoric as he seeks the White House a third time, casting migrants as dangerous criminals “poisoning the blood” of America. Hitting the nation’s deepest fault lines of race and national identity, his messaging often relies on falsehoods about migration. But it resonates with many of his core supporters going back a decade, to when “build the wall” chants began to ring out at his rallies.

President Joe Biden and his allies discuss the border very differently. The Democrat portrays the situation as a policy dispute that Congress can fix and hits Republicans in Washington for backing away from a border security deal after facing criticism from Trump.

But in a potentially worrying sign for Biden, Trump’s message appears to be resonating with key elements of the Democratic coalition that Biden will need to win over this November.

Roughly two-thirds of Americans now disapprove of how Biden is handling border security, including about 4 in 10 Democrats, 55% of Black adults and 73% of Hispanic adults, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll conducted in March.

 

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Livestock at multiple dairy farms across the U.S. have tested positive for bird flu — also known as highly pathogenic avian influenza, or HPAI — in an outbreak that's likely spread to at least five states.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service confirmed Friday that cows in Texas, Kansas and Michigan had been sickened by the virus, and there were presumptive positive test results for additional herds in New Mexico and Idaho.

It's the first time the disease has been found in dairy cattle, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association.

 

Read the rest here.

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Today, 22 percent of apples sold in US grocery stores are the variety Gala, and most supermarkets offer only a few varieties. The backyard apple tree was left to grow wild—until a recent surge in interest in heritage varieties and hard cider production.

As scraggly and unkempt as an old apple tree may appear, it can still be a stellar start to an orchard or a fruitful addition to a family homestead. 

“Planting new trees is going to take some years before they’re mature and fruit bearing,” says Jennifer Ries, who coordinates the tree nursery department at Fedco, a tree and seed cooperative out of Clinton, Maine. “With these old trees, we have gifts from anonymous strangers of the past who planted these trees for particular reasons.”

Old tree discovery and restoration was once the purview of dedicated pomologists such as John Bunker, author of Not Far From the Tree, and Dan Bussey, author of The Illustrated History of Apples in the United States and Canada. Bunker would travel the backroads of Maine and knock on the doors of old farmhouses with peeling paint and sagging roofs. He would scout the property for aging apple trees and, if he found them, collect fruit and cuttings. He has worked to identify more than 500 cultivars in his ongoing career.

But today, it is more than just a few of the apple-obsessed who are discovering and rehabilitating old trees. The surging popularity of hard cider has inspired farmers to revitalize old orchards and plant new ones, and even single backyard trees are benefiting from the renewal.

“We get a lot of emails from cider makers,” says Amy Dunbar-Wallis, a graduate student at the University of Boulder in Colorado and community outreach coordinator for the Boulder Apple Tree Project. “And we hear from homeowners who have apple trees on their land and want to be cider makers.”

 

Read more about this here.

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Through his outspoken social media presence, farmer Chris Newman has killed a lot of sacred broiler chickens. His video about racism in agriculture, “I’m a Black Farmer,” went viral in January. When he and his wife started Sylvanaqua Farms, a multi-enterprise permaculture farm in the Virginia Piedmont in 2013, he had no idea that he was in for a harrowing ride that would teach him painful lessons about food and farming—and show him a better way for alternative agriculture to thrive. Food sovereignty, says Newman, just isn’t possible under the small farm model—but that doesn’t mean that the principles that motivate people to get into it in the first place aren’t valuable as guides. 

His new ebook, First Generation Farming, lays out his vision: building co-ops for first-generation farmers that hold resources in common and control a shared supply chain. His first such effort collapsed under the weight of interpersonal conflict four months after its formation in 2021, but he’s now building a cooperative structure in which his and two other farms supply livestock and eggs to a new entity, Blackbird Farms, a commonly held processor and sales distributor. Eventually, he says, Blackbird will buy the individual farm assets and fold those into a holding company.

 

Read the full interview here. 

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Many Americans are in a sour mood about the economy for one main reason: Prices feel too high. 

Maybe they’re not rising as fast as they had been, but average prices are still painfully above where they were three years ago. And they’re mostly heading higher still.

Consider a 2-liter bottle of soda: In February 2021, before inflation began heating up, it cost an average of $1.67 in supermarkets across America. Three years later? That bottle is going for $2.25 — a 35% increase.

Or egg prices. They soared in 2022, then fell back down. Yet they’re still 43% higher than they were three years ago.

Likewise, the average used-car price: It rocketed from roughly $23,000 in February 2021 to $31,000 in April 2022. By last month, the average was down to $26,752. But that’s still up 16% from February 2021.

Wouldn’t it be great if prices actually fell — what economists call deflation? Who wouldn’t want to fire up a time machine and return to the days before the economy rocketed out of the pandemic recession and sent prices soaring?

Many economists caution, though, that consumers should be careful what they wish for. Falling prices across the economy would actually be an unhealthy sign.

 

Read more here. 

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin loved pulling pranks, so much so they began rolling outlandish ideas every April Fools’ Day not long after starting their company more than a quarter century ago. One year, Google posted a job opening for a Copernicus research center on the moon. Another year, the company said it planned to roll out a “scratch and sniff” feature on its search engine.

The jokes were so consistently over-the-top that people learned to laugh them off as another example of Google mischief. And that’s why Page and Brin decided to unveil something no one would believe was possible 20 years ago on April Fools’ Day.

It was Gmail, a free service boasting 1 gigabyte of storage per account, an amount that sounds almost pedestrian in an age of one-terabyte iPhones. But it sounded like a preposterous amount of email capacity back then, enough to store about 13,500 emails before running out of space compared to just 30 to 60 emails in the then-leading webmail services run by Yahoo and Microsoft. That translated into 250 to 500 times more email storage space.

 

Read the rest here.

The New York State Police in Horseheads are investigating several suspicious incidents occurring in the Barrington housing development in the town of Horseheads.  Multiple surveillance devices have been located outside of the several residences. One residence was burglarized, and the homeowner had a quantity of US Currency stolen. 

The surveillance devices can be described as a cardboard box, with leaves glued to the outside as camouflage, containing a cell phone and a battery pack. 

The victims have primarily been local Asian American business owners. 

Anyone with information regarding these devices can contact the New York State Police at 585-398-4100.

Governor Kathy Hochul today announced completion of Reynolds Way Apartments in the city of Elmira. The scattered site development converted four historic buildings into 41 apartments, including 13 with supportive services. Located within Elmira’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative target area, the development helps achieve the city’s goals of restoring historic properties and increasing housing options downtown.

“We are bringing new life to our communities by renovating the historic properties that define them – lifting up neighborhoods for residents and future generations,” Governor Hochul said. “The transformation of the Reynolds Way Apartments builds on years of state investment in downtown Elmira that is improving people’s lives and building a stronger community for all.”

In the last five years, New York State Homes and Community Renewal has created or preserved nearly 300 affordable homes in Chemung County. Reynolds Way Apartments continues this effort and complements Governor Hochul's $25 billion comprehensive Housing Plan that will create or preserve 100,000 affordable homes across New York, including 10,000 with support services for vulnerable populations, plus the electrification of an additional 50,000 homes.

Reynolds Way Apartments consists of four previously vacant buildings, known as the Apartments, the Townhomes, the Warehouse, and the Stowell House, that are all located within one block of each other in downtown Elmira. All four buildings, which had been experiencing various stages of blight, have been completely rehabilitated.

The four buildings are within the Elmira Civic Historic District and both the Stowell House and the Warehouse are individually listed in the State and National Registers of Historic Places.

The development includes five studios, 30 one-bedroom and six two-bedroom apartments. All 41 apartments are affordable to households earning up to 60 percent of the Area Median Income.

13 apartments are reserved for families experiencing homelessness who will have access to supportive services and rental subsidies through an Empire State Supportive Housing Initiative award administered by the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance.

The completed development, which utilizes highly efficient heat and air conditioning systems in all buildings, has obtained the EPA’s ENERGY STAR® Multifamily New Construction and Enterprise Green Communities certifications.

“I am very pleased to see the completion of the Reynolds Way Apartment project undertaken by Arbor Housing and Development," said Elmira Mayor Dan Mandell. "The transformation of once dilapidated properties into much needed housing for the community will have a very positive impact on this downtown neighborhood. The project aligns closely with the city’s planning efforts including our form-based zoning codes, updated under the Downtown Revitalization Initiative. Many thanks to New York State Homes and Community Renewal; New York State Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation; NYSERDA; Empire State Development Corporation; and our many local development partners who helped make this transformative project a reality.” 

The developer and supportive service provider is Arbor Housing and Development.

State financing for the $20 million Reynolds Way Apartments includes $7.5 million in Federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credits and $5.8 million in subsidy from New York State Homes and Community Renewal. New York State Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation approved $5.7 million in State and Federal Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credits. The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority provided $41,000 in New Construction Housing Program incentives.

In addition to boosting the region’s Southern Tier Soaring revitalization plan, the new housing development is in sync with the State’s $10 million Downtown Revitalization Initiative investment in Elmira’s downtown, by helping the city meet a need for workforce housing.

80 years is a tremendous milestone—for anyone. To make it to 80 means you have overcome life’s greatest challenges and you truly become the elder, the sage, the one who knows a thing or two and should be listened to. Being the spokes-bear, if you will, of the longest running and most successful advertising campaign in American history, at 80 years old, I think Smokey Bear would agree.

And so does the USDA Forest Service.

Smokey’s actual birthday is August 9. However, starting in January, the Forest Service which has, in cooperation with the Ad Council and the National Association of State Foresters, managed the image of Smokey Bear since the 1940s will launch a yearlong celebration. The kickoff will start with Smokey sharing his iconic phrase of Only You Can Prevent Wildfires in the Tournament of Roses Parade on January 1.

In fact, across the country all sorts of activities are being planned from guest appearances at local events, a Facebook live stream from the California State Fair in July with Darley Newman, host of the PBS show Travels with Darley, and a social media campaign where the Forest Service is asking folks to sing Happy Birthday to Smokey with the hashtag #SingForSmokey.

Some of the #SingForSmokey videos will be streamed across numerous social media platforms on August 9 so get your vocal cords ready to belt for the bear! And the fun continues through the year with the Smokey Bear balloon appearing the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and the lighting of the US Capitol Christmas Tree!

To keep up on national events surrounding Smokey’s 80th, follow the Forest Service social media sites as well as the Ad Council’s Smokey Bear website www.smokeybear.com and social media sites.

Despite the success of Smokey Bear’s campaign over the years, wildfire prevention remains one of the most critical issues affecting our country’s forests and grasslands. With over 80 percent of wildfires being started accidentally or by careless or bad behavior, Smokey's message is as relevant and urgent today as it was in 1944.

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Louis Gossett Jr., the first Black man to win a supporting actor Oscar and an Emmy winner for his role in the seminal TV miniseries “Roots,” has died. He was 87.

Gossett’s first cousin Neal L. Gossett told The Associated Press that the actor died in Santa Monica, California. A statement from the family said Gossett died Friday morning. No cause of death was revealed.

 

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When the great toilet paper shortage hit in 2020, many Americans realized there could be another way to clean themselves. Environmental concerns around trees, paper and waste perhaps also played a role.

Using toilet paper had seemed, somehow, American, with toilet paper jokes a staple in bathroom humor and “TP-ing” a stereotypical rite of passage for teens. And little is more American than the Charmin bear, an industry emblem that already dominates aisles of supermarkets.

So, “getting consumers to do something different, they have to undo all those brand associations (with toilet paper) and all those habits they have,” Derek Rucker, a marketing professor at Kellogg School of Management told CNN.

Rucker said the bidet industry would need to become a social norm in the US, such as being built into more new home constructions. Many bidet users in the US were converted after visiting societies where bidet use is widespread.

 

Read more here. 

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There are plenty of reasons to savor the original movie, most of them having to do with the casting, some of it campy and awful in a truly wonderful way, some just plain spectacular.

As Moses, Charlton Heston brought a sense of conviction to this epic role (see also “Ben-Hur”) that anchored the movie in a way few actors could, before or since. Yet at the top of the heap look no further than Yul Brynner as Moses’ rival and eventual foe Rameses, who tells his reluctant bride-to-be with princely swagger and sexuality, “You will come to me whenever I call you, and I will enjoy that very much. Whether you enjoy it or not is your own affair… but I think you will.”

On the other end of the spectrum there’s Anne Baxter as Nefretiri, Moses’ first love and Rameses’ reluctant bride when he ascends to pharaoh. Famous for her role in “All About Eve,” Baxter chews through much of Egypt, repeating “Moses” so often (as in “Oh Moses, Moses”) that one might be forgiven for concluding that’s both his first and last name.

The supporting cast is equally delicious, including Edward G. Robinson sounding like he’s in a gangster movie and still stealing every scene he’s in as the traitorous Dathan, Vincent Price as pharaoh’s master builder and Sir Cedric Hardwicke as Rameses’ father, Sethi, who loves Moses more than he does his own son.

ABC has aired the film more than 40 times since 1973, making it a solid Easter and Passover staple. Already 220 minutes long, the broadcast window with commercials has ballooned to four hours and 44 minutes, spilling out of primetime before Moses can descend from Mount Sinai with the you-know-what.

 

Read the complete article here.

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People in the U.S. are leaving and switching faith traditions in large numbers. The idea of "religious churning" is very common in America, according to a new survey from the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI). 

It finds that around one-quarter (26%) of Americans now identify as religiously unaffiliated, a number that has risen over the last decade and is now the largest single religious group in the U.S. That's similar to what other surveys and polls have also found, including Pew Research. 

PRRI found that the number of those who describe themselves as "nothing in particular" has held steady since 2013, but those who identify as atheists have doubled (from 2% to 4%) and those who say they're agnostic has more than doubled (from 2% to 5%).

 

Read the rest here.

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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has announced a wealthy California attorney as the running mate for his independent presidential campaign, a necessary step as he tries to get on state ballots for November.

Nicole Shanahan, 38, is the president and director of the Bia-Echo Foundation, a charitable organization that says it focuses its investments in "Reproductive Longevity & Equality, Criminal Justice Reform and a Healthy and Livable Planet."

Kennedy is the son of the former U.S. attorney general and nephew of former President John F. Kennedy. He's a longtime environmental lawyer but has become known in recent years for his anti-vaccine advocacy and as a promoter of conspiracy theories.

Kennedy, whose independent candidacy has drawn concern from both Democrats and Republicans for potentially drawing support away from the two major parties, announced the running mate pick Tuesday in Oakland.

The announcement was preceded by speakers criticizing pandemic restrictions and alleged censorship.

 

Read more here.

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The title of Maisie Ganzler’s new book, You Can’t Market Manure at Lunchtime: And Other Lessons from the Food Industry for Creating a More Sustainable Company, was born out of an experience Ganzler had while operating as chief strategy and brand officer at Bon Appétit Management Company. Bon Appétit is a food service company that caters for universities and corporations, operating more than a thousand cafes across the country.

When challenging its pork producer about its use of manure lagoons and the myriad health and environmental issues they pose, Ganzler knew that Bon Appétit’s end goal was not only to source more sustainable pork but to be able to communicate effectively with its customers about the issue—something that is quite difficult, since no one wants to talk about manure when they’re eating.

This tension is at the heart of Ganzler’s new book: How can companies practice authentic sustainability and work it effectively into their marketing strategy? In the book, Ganzler details Bon Appétit’s progress and missteps in navigating issues such as farmworker rights, pigs raised in gestation crates, chickens in cages, and more. The book, which comes out April 2, also includes interviews with other industry experts who talk about their experiences, including:  Rob Michalak, former global director of social mission for Ben & Jerry’s, who talks about integrating sustainability into operations and his experience with Milk with Dignity organizers; Gary Hirshberg, co-founder of Stonyfield Organic, who discusses picking your battles and taking stands on issues; and Lisa Dyson, CEO and co-founder of Air Protein, who talks about creating alternative protein and striving to be the number one meat company in the world.

 

See the interview here.

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May the Force be with you, Captain Kirk.

Iconic “Star Trek” actor William Shatner is boldly coming to Syracuse for an autograph signing event at Destiny USA on Saturday, May 4. The event, presented by Cooperstown Connection and Gentlemen’s Corner Barber Shop, will take place from 1-3 p.m. at Cooperstown Connection on the mall’s second level.

Fans can get Shatner to sign flats (up to 16″x20″) for $159 each; oversized toys, pops and premium items for $179 each; inscriptions (limited to three words or less) for $49 each; and a photo with Shatner (up to 2 people taken with a cell phone) for $149 each.

 

Find out more here.

The historic Roe Avenue Fire Station #5 will soon undergo some critical upgrades to the building, particularly the removal of the original wooden flooring which has deteriorated to the point of needing replacement.

This building was built in 1911at a time when fire apparatus were horse drawn. Over the years, the building has been modified to accommodate the modern fire apparatuses used today, with the exception of the floor. Cribbing had been placed in the basement and replaced over the years to support the weight of the apparatus; however, 113 years of water, slush, and salt has taken its toll on the floor structure of the building.

The unsafe wooden floor will be removed and a concrete wall will be constructed in a portion of the basement. This section of the basement will be filled in, and a new concrete floor with drains will be poured.

This project will begin in the beginning of April and we would like the public to be aware that the Engine Company located at the Roe Avenue station will be temporarily displaced for approximately 8 weeks. Engine 5 will be on duty at Headquarters at 101 W. Second Street and will still respond to all emergencies throughout their district and the rest of the City should the need arise.

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 Pop music is, by the very origin of its name and the word, is usually quite popular. Whether or not it is popular for good reasons or for bad, however, is a different point entirely. Sometimes music is popular for a short time because the tunes are so catchy, but once you hear them often enough, you want to just rip your ears off. Some songs are classics that can be replayed endlessly. The songs on this list are all very well-known songs that some people love, and some people hate. But one thing that can be agreed upon is that they are downright annoying at times. Either they are played too often, or two or three plays are more than enough, but here is the list of pop music's most aggravating and grating songs, ranked in order. Can you guess which one made it to #1?

Here's some from the list at random:

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#24 - Los Del Rio - Macarena 

There is no arguing that the Macarena is one of the most well known songs on the planet. Just about everyone knows the dance that goes along with it as well. However, if you actually listen to the words of the song, it is quite sad as it is all about an unfaithful partner. It is strange to think that everyone is dancing so happily to this song as if it were also happy words. 

#15 - Billy Ray Cyrus - Achy Breaky Heart 

Billy Ray Cyrus is a legend in his own right, however, this song was not his best moment. There is something so embarrassing and cringe about it. It seems fun to dance to, which is more or less the real purpose of this song. However, there is something so lame about the phrase "achy breaky heart" that it was hard for non country music lovers to not make fun of this one. 

#22 - The Four Seasons - Sherry 

You might not think that this song would be so annoying, judging just by the name of it. Sherry seems like a pretty innocent and nice name for a song. However, when you listen to this song you will be shocked right from the beginning. And you will never hear the word or name Sherry the same. You won't be able to hear it in any other way than the loud and high pitched sounds of the song. 

 

See the entire list here.

What do you think? Any songs you would add to this list? Are there any you think don't belong on here at all?

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Gov. Kathy Hochul and her top aides on Monday announced the state’s preparations for the upcoming solar eclipse, which is occurring in two weeks and will be visible in 29 counties in western and northern New York. 

Hochul said while it promises to be a fun, once-in-a-generation event, people need to take some precautions — and be prepared for traffic gridlock.

State campgrounds will open early and are almost fully booked, she said, and there will be viewing events at state parks and historic sites. The Buffalo Bills have cut a special public service announcement, and the state has even compiled a special Spotify playlist— which includes the Beatles classic “Here Comes the Sun” as well as “Black Hole Sun” by Soundgarden and other songs by Jay-Z and Taylor Swift, among others.

“This is going to be great for our tourism,” Hochul said. “It's going to bring in thousands, if not millions, of people to localities all the way along the trajectory of this.”

 

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We'll put all eclipse related news here in one thread now.