It's Thursday. We are following two elements of the fallout from the scandal that led to Andrew Cuomo's resignation as governor in August. We'll also look at whether New York City is ready for the Omicron variant. |
 | | Carlo Allegri/Reuters |
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As the sexual harassment scandal involving Andrew Cuomo continues to reverberate, CNN suspended the former governor's brother, Chris Cuomo. And the forcible touching charge against Andrew Cuomo, filed by the Albany County sheriff's office last month, may be tough to prove. |
My colleagues Michael Grynbaum and John Koblin write that Chris Cuomo, CNN's highest-rated anchor, said on Wednesday that he was embarrassed by the suspension. He told listeners on his SiriusXM satellite radio show that "it hurts to even say it," but that he understood CNN's decision. |
He said "the last thing I ever wanted to do was compromise any of my colleagues" by advising his brother's top aides — a breach of basic journalistic rules. Thousands of pages of evidence released on Monday showed that Chris Cuomo's role in trying to head off the scandal was deeper than had been known. |
CNN said it would pursue a "further evaluation" of the evidence but declined to comment on the exact nature of that evaluation, calling it an internal matter. Someone who has been briefed on the company's plans said that CNN did not intend to hire an outside law firm or forensic investigators for the review, which is expected to focus on journalistic lines that Cuomo may have crossed. The network is also focusing on comparing the evidence released this week with what the anchor had told executives. |
For Jeff Zucker, the president of CNN, the suspension was a shift. For months, Zucker had defended Chris Cuomo, even as details surfaced that he had strategized with his brother's aides. In May, the network called the anchor's actions "inappropriate," and he apologized on the air. But Zucker also told CNN employees that the anchor "is human, and these are very unique circumstances." |
Zucker told CNN staff members on Wednesday that the decision to suspend Cuomo was his. It came after the testimony and text messages released on Monday showed that Cuomo sent feedback on his brother's public statements and attempted to check on the status of news articles in the works that could have been damaging to Andrew Cuomo. "Chris sends me a lot of things a lot of the time," one former top aide, Melissa DeRosa, told investigators. |
The complaint is based on the account of Brittany Commisso, a former executive assistant to Andrew Cuomo. She has told investigators that he reached under her blouse late last year and groped her breast while they were alone in the Executive Mansion. Cuomo has denied the allegations. |
Evidence filed by the Albany County sheriff — including cellphone records, official schedules, card swipes, emails and flight logs — attempts to place Cuomo and Commisso in the same room at the same time. As with most forcible touching cases, there is no known irrefutable physical evidence against Cuomo, putting the weight of the prosecution on the accuser's testimony. |
Commisso has said that she did not tell anyone about it until many months later, in part because her supervisor was the governor's "right-hand person." |
But prosecutors may face challenges in establishing when the incident occurred. She first told investigators for the attorney general that it happened in November, possibly on Nov. 16. The sheriff, Craig Apple, working with investigators for the State Assembly, determined that a more likely date was Dec. 7. |
Cuomo's defense team has seized on the dates and other inconsistencies in an effort to undermine Commisso's credibility. |
Prepare for a mostly cloudy day, with wind gusts and a chance of showers into early evening. Temps will drop from the high 50s during the day to the low 40s at night. |
In effect until Dec. 8 (Immaculate Conception). |
Is New York City ready for Omicron? |
How worried about the new Omicron variant should New Yorkers be, now that the first case has been reported in the United States? Will Omicron send caseloads and hospitalizations surging in New York and bring on new lockdowns? Or will it be more like the Delta variant, which the city seems to have weathered? |
For now, officials note that New York has a strong surveillance and testing system for spotting the new variant. Another factor in New York's favor is that New Yorkers have been far more willing to wear masks than people in some other parts of the country. And the vaccination rate is higher than in most American cities. Roughly 77 percent of New Yorkers have had at least one shot, and nearly 89 percent of adults have had at least one. |
"I think we are potentially more prepared than most," said Dr. Bernard Camins, an infectious diseases specialist and medical director of infection prevention for the Mount Sinai Health System. "The question is whether at this point people are more fatigued from all those mitigation strategies, and they may not listen." |
Amid the unknowns, Mayor Bill de Blasio's advice was straightforward. Get vaccinated or get a booster shot, and "get those masks back on now," he said. That was on Monday. On Tuesday, the mayor was asked why he had merely recommended wearing masks rather than mandating it. He answered that vaccination was the priority. "We got a mask mandate as an option if we get more specific data that tells us it's needed," he said. |
More shoes than Imelda Marcos |
 | | The Museum at FIT |
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Valerie Steele has ultimate responsibility for 4,000 pairs of shoes. "More than Imelda Marcos had," Steele said, referring to the notoriously flamboyant — or flamboyantly notorious — former first lady of the Philippines, "although I think she said she didn't have 3,000 pairs after all." Only 1,060, according to a 1987 inventory. |
Steele is the director and chief curator of the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, which is holding a virtual symposium called "Stilettos to Sneakers" on Friday. She and Colleen Hill, the curator of costume and accessories, will analyze 25 pairs from among the 4,000. Christian Louboutin, Jimmy Choo. They will also look at a pair of Balenciaga sneakers. |
"Carrie Bradshaw" — the fashionista heroine of the series "Sex and the City," which begins a 10-episode revival on HBO Max next week — "said 'I could have bought an apartment with the amount I've spent on shoes,' but now you're seeing men with these amazing sneaker collections," Steele said. "What is the appeal of this?" |
She promptly answered the question. |
"Men talk about collecting them more in terms of investments. They often won't wear them. They just keep them in the box." That was not the fate of the Manolo Blahniks that Carrie Bradshaw spotted in a store window in an episode of the original series when she declared, "Hello, lover." |
If you are what you wear, Steele said, "it's not just that a shoe tells a lot about your age and profession. A lot of people believe they're magical in a fairy tale way. Somehow, the right pair of shoes is going to change your life." |
No, she said. "Fashion, getting into fashion, that changed my life. Studying shoes was a big part of that. A newspaper described me as the high-heeled historian. They'd be disappointed now. I'm running around in little Belgian loafers." |
How odd these solitary birds,
their hunter hearts boiling
together in a cauldron of air
high above the Hudson's edge,
an eddy of raptor on raptor
heading south before the winter
swept in a dizzy updraft
spiraling like leaves in a gust.
— |
What is it like to lose
all sense of direction,
to melt as part and particle
of one another, to revolve
as stars in an avian galaxy?
Someday, I too will spin from
my bird body, become a dervish
of the wheeling wind. |
Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — J.B. |
Melissa Guerrero, Rick Martinez and Olivia Parker contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at nytoday@nytimes.com. |
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