5 Stories You Need to Pay Attention to This Week

NEW YORK, NY — At last, the finish of the presidential election is in sight as the debates close out this week. With each candidate trying to get in some final face-to-face shots, that is sure to be a disaster. But there is some good news, as this week will be very summer-like.

Patch takes a look at the top stories for this upcoming week:

1. Oct. 17: Are you ready for some football? — The New York Jets play their first Monday Night Football game of the year, and their first since Week 2 of last season, this week. It's not an easy matchup though, as they head out west to face the Arizona Cardinals. The Jets are a woeful 1-4 coming off three straight losses in which they were barely competitive (outscored 82-33). Only two teams in history (1970 Bengals and 2015 Chiefs) have made the playoffs after starting 1-5. Those are not good odds. Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis should be back from injury for a primetime one-on-one matchup with fellow future Hall of Famer Larry Fitzgerald. The game gets underway at 8:30 p.m. on ESPN.
2. Oct. 18: Wait, wasn't summer over? — You only thought summer was over weeks ago. We get a brief return to the warmer months this week as Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday will all see temperatures rise to at least 80 degrees. And on Tuesday, the high is forecast to be 84 degrees and sunny! It hasn't been that warm since Sept. 23, four weeks ago. Enjoy the bonus summer days while you can. The temperatures will be back into the 50s by next weekend.
3. Oct. 19: Finally the last debate — If you're like us, you can't wait for the presidential election to just be over. The fatigue is real, people. Well, the final debate of the 2016 election takes place on Wednesday and marks just 19 days until Election Day. Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton will be there. Republican candidate Donald Trump will be there. Moderator Chris Wallace, of Fox News, will be there. Ken Bone, presumably, will not be there. It will not be a Town Hall-style debate like last week's. The topics for the debate will be debt and entitlements, immigration, economy, Supreme Court, "foreign hot spots" and "fitness to be president." You can bet the topic of sexual harassment and assault will also come up, though. The debate from Las Vegas begins at 9 p.m., will be shown on every major network and lasts until 10:30 p.m.
4. Oct. 20: City Council circus — In this case, we're referring to an actual circus, as the City Council's Committee on Health holds a hearing on Thursday to discuss a bill proposed by Council Members Corey Johnson and Rosie Mendez that would ban exotic animals — lions, tigers, bears, and monkeys, oh my — from being used in circus acts in the city. Animal advocates — some of the same ones pushing to ban horse carriages — are in favor of the bill, while Ringling Bros. has stated they take good care of the animals in their show and they should not be banned. Ringling Bros. already stopped using elephants in their shows earlier this year over complaints from animal activists.
5. Oct. 20: Looking at "Build it Back" — Very little in the city's Build it Back program, established in the wake of Hurricane Sandy in 2012, has gone according to plan. After a total overhaul, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced almost exactly one year ago that the program would be complete by the end of 2016. As of this past summer, there were still hundreds of homes in need of repair. And so, the City Council will be taking a look at the oft-troubled program at an oversight hearing on Thursday. The Committee on Recovery and Resiliency meeting about the finances of Build it Back will be held at 10 a.m. in City Hall. The program came under fire in June when a house being rebuilt in Gerritsen Beach collapsed during construction. A few weeks later, Brad Gair, the former head of the program, called Build it Back a "categorical failure."

Photo Credit: Damage from Superstorm Sandy by DVIDSHUB via Flickr/Creative Commons