Random News and Notes 23 February
We start in the North-East today where a winter storm unleashed powerful winds and copious snow on the residents. The powerful Nor’easter dumped 8-15 inches of snow across New York City boroughs including Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx, and Staten Island, with snowfall rates of 2-3 inches per hour, wind gusts of 40-70 mph, whiteout conditions, downed trees, and power outages affecting over 300,000 customers. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani imposed a travel ban until noon and declared the city’s first school snow day since 2019.
The storm also caused significant impacts in surrounding areas including New Jersey, Long Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts with up to 24 inches of snow and blizzard conditions.
Your editor is rolling in the schadenfreude today. For once a major snow event missed him. There is a mix of sun and clouds with a temp of 28℉. Good enough for the last week of February.
Jimmy’s Famous Seafood has a long history of NGAF about things. They have a longstanding beef with PETA that included a series of billboards in the Baltimore area.
Well, they are at it again, this time with HuffPo. The leftist outlet published an article titled “There’s a reason you feel yucky watching the Olympics right now” and promoted it with a tweet. Jimmy’s answered with a three word reply:
That reply went viral. The original HuffPo post got 1.4k likes. Jimmy’s reply? 179k. Apparently, the support for Jimmy’s was so strong it briefly crashed their site. The company has offered free crab cakes for life for the members both the men’s and women’s Team USA hockey teams.
It feels like the times are changing.
Speaking of the gold medal winning men’s hockey team, the President gave them a call yesterday.
Mexico is a failed state. That little tidbit is not a new thing, but the country has devolved into a warring state in the last 36-48 hours. The Mexican authorities – with help from US intelligence – offed the head of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. The cartels are not taking that lying down. Please note I used the plural there on purpose. Cartels across the country are attacking government forces, though the majority of the violence is in the area controlled by CJNG.
The cartels in Mexico are well armed and well organized. This editor is not entirely sure the Mexicans can handle them on their own.
The TSA has suspended courtesy escorts for lawmakers and VIPs one week into a partial DHS government shutdown, redirecting officers to essential passenger screening while workers go unpaid. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem pointed out the hardship on TSA staff from an airport video, urging thanks for them as Democratic lawmakers receive pay.
The budget standoff centers on DHS funding disputes over ICE reforms, with Republicans noting ICE is funded through 2028 and Democrats pushing for major changes. The TSA handled 1.8 million passengers Sunday without major delays but warns of potential issues ahead.