Helllllooooooooo FRIDAY!
I’ve been waiting for this one all week…it’s a good one, given that a lot of us are dressing down these days, since going into the office – or any professional setting – still isn’t really a regular thing.
Today is Levi Strauss Day, celebrating the man who gave us the first blue jeans in 1873. Strauss was born on this day 1829 in Bavaria, and came to the U.S. sometime in the mid-1800s with his family.
He eventually established himself as a seller of dry goods in San Francisco, CA, specializing in items required by folks who were coming west for the Gold Rush – handkerchiefs, clothes, bags, bedding etc.
One origin story holds that a tailor who was one of Strauss’ clients, Jacob W. Davis, was asked by a woman to make her woodworking husband a sturdy pair of pants, and he obliged, using denim he had purchased from Strauss’ shop and strengthened the stitches with copper rivets.
A quick aside on denim, which is believed to have been invented in Genoa, Italy, as far back as the 1500s. It was made for members of the Italian Navy to wear while on duty.
Word of these amazing new pants spread quickly, and Davis couldn’t keep up with demand. He sought out Strauss for financial assistance and also needed help in securing a patent. The two men ended up business partners.
There are some deviations to be found on the internet about how jeans were born.
Another one I found suggested Strauss himself was commissioning clothing made out of tent canvas to sell to the prospectors, and then the material eventually shifted to denim. Latter, a merchandising partnership of Strauss and his two brothers, Jonas and Louis, was formed in 1853.
After Strauss’s death in 1902, the company’s leadership passed to four nephews, and then subsequently to some in-laws by the name of Haas. Its most significant growth occurred after it abandoned wholesaling in 1946 and decided to manufacture its own products under its own label: Levi’s.
By the 1960s, Levi’s and other jeans, once worn chiefly by American cowboys, had become popular worldwide. When the company went public in 1971, it was operating in 50 countries.
The oldest pair of jeans was found in 1998 down an old mine shaft; they were 115 years old. Talk about durable.
Today, 5 billion pairs of jeans are produced annually, 300 million of them in China. Twenty thousand tons of indigo are produced annually to keep up with demand. The average American buys about four pairs a year.
Needless to say, the environmental strain of producing all this denim is significant. You can, in this day and age, buy sustainable denim.
In typical upstate early spring…though technically, that’s not officially here for another 22 days, so I’m jumping the gun a bit…anyway, there’s a 40 percent chance we will see snow showers on and off today with temperatures in the high 30s-to-low-40s.
In the headlines…
The U.S. military struck a site in Syria used by two Iranian-backed militia groups in response to rocket attacks on American forces in the region in the past two weeks.”Up to a handful” of militants were killed in the strikes, a U.S. official said.
Biden authorized the strikes in response to the rocketing in Iraq and to continuing threats to American and coalition personnel there, said Pentagon press secretary John F. Kirby, who spoke with reporters traveling with Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III in California.
Former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm won U.S. Senate confirmation to be energy secretary, joining Biden’s Cabinet as a leader of Biden’s effort to build a green economy as the United States moves to slow climate change.
Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul was criticized for using anti-trans talking points during a Senate confirmation hearing for transgender Health and Human Services nominee Dr. Rachel Levine.
Biden’s pick to head the Office of Management and Budget, Neera Tanden, continued to face Senate opposition, narrowing her chances of confirmation and sending White House officials on a frantic search for at least one GOP vote to salvage her nomination.
The House passed the Equality Act, a landmark LGBTQ rights bill that prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in numerous arenas, including employment, housing, education, public accommodations, credit and jury service.
The bill is one of Biden’s top legislative priorities, one he wants passed in his first 100 days in office, though it faces an uncertain future in the U.S. Senate.
A ruling in the U.S. Senate dealt a severe blow to Democrats’ hopes of raising the minimum wage in the Covid-19 relief package, probably dooming the proposal in the legislation that is headed for a vote in Congress.
Nonpartisan Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough determined lawmakers could not include the policy under budget reconciliation.
The White House said that Biden is “disappointed” that the Senate parliamentarian ruled a minimum wage increase could not be included in a coronavirus relief bill, but said the president would respect the decision.
House Democrats will leave a provision to increase the minimum wage to $15 per hour in their version of the COVID-19 relief package set for a vote today despite a ruling from the Senate parliamentarian.
Costco is raising its starting hourly wage to $16, CEO Craig Jelinek.
Republican leaders are speaking out against Biden’s $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief bill, accusing Democrats of wasteful spending for items like the Seaway International Bridge, which connects the U.S. with Canada over the St. Lawrence River.
Former President Donald Trump’s tax returns and underlying tax documents are now in the hands of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance.
The voluminous records, including eight years of personal tax returns, were handed over to prosecutors on Monday, the same day that the Supreme Court rejected Trump’s final bid to block a subpoena for them.
U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said that he would “absolutely” support Trump if he won the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
As he highlighted his administration’s progress in the massive vaccination campaign against the coronavirus, Biden made a plea for Americans not to let their guard down despite a dwindling number of infections and hospitalizations in recent weeks.
Many scientists are expecting another rise in infections due to COVID-19 variants. But this time the surge will be blunted by vaccines and, hopefully, widespread caution. By summer, Americans may be looking at a return to normal life.
An increasing number of Americans are anxious to get COVID-19 vaccines as the rollout continues, with more than half of Americans saying they plan to get vaccinated as soon as possible or have already received at least one dose.
With the pandemic slowly receding, governors around the United States are beginning to relax restrictions meant to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
The Food and Drug Administration said Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine can now be shipped and stored at higher temperatures. The move should help with the vaccine’s distribution and administration.
Black residents of Tuskegee, AL say the pain and distrust fomented by a decadeslong syphilis study here are inseparable from their personal deliberations over whether to take a Covid-19 vaccine.
A woman in Michigan died 61 days after she received a pair of lungs from an organ donor who had been infected with the coronavirus, according to a case report published this month.
The FCC approved an emergency subsidy for low-income households to get high-speed internet, an effort to bridge the digital divide that has cut off many Americans from online communication during the pandemic.
Twitter plans to introduce a subscription service for content creators and said it would explore tipping, as it looks to double its annual revenue and accelerate user growth over the next few years.
Jobless claims fell sharply last week despite severe winter storms that swept across Texas and other parts of the South, the Labor Department reported.
First-time filings for unemployment insurance totaled 730,000 for the week ended Feb. 20, well below the Dow Jones estimate of 845,000.
“The numbers look encouraging on the face of it,” said Gregory Daco, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics.
Laid-off workers will be allowed to turn down jobs they think are too risky because of Covid and continue to collect unemployment benefits, under guidance issued by the US Department of Labor.
State Attorney General Letitia James is mulling a request from five female Republican state senators to launch an independent probe of sexual harassment claims leveled against Gov. Andrew Cuomo by a former aide.
Accusations that Cuomo sexually harassed a former staffer should get “a full and independent investigation,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said a day after the shocking allegations came to light.
The star-studded TIME’S UP Foundation joined the growing chorus that’s demanding an official probe into the allegations made against Cuomo by Lindsey Boylan — marking an about-face by two of its most famous board members.
Empire State Development Chair Steven Cohen took questions on the matter from reporters, and spoke in defense of Cuomo.
“I can tell you never in my time working with the governor, the former attorney general, private citizen Andrew Cuomo, I have never seen anything of the like of what Ms. Boylan has described,” Cohen said, adding that the governor’s conduct has always been “appropriate” with staffers, if not “always fun loving and a good time.”
“It appears he’s earned himself a primary,” said New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, a frequent critic of the governor and one of the names tossed around as a possible 2022 challenger.
“Now, cases of Covid-19 in his state are receding, and so are the glory days of Cuomo’s third term as governor.”
Cuomo himself has remained silent. He has not conducted a press conference in several days, despite having one on his schedule Wednesday.
“These allegations are serious and deeply concerning, and anyone has a right to come forward to be heard and have allegations be investigated,” U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said. “Governor Cuomo has a right to be heard, and he has come forward and has denied these allegations. But ultimately, the decision will be up to the state Legislature.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki, responded to questions about the sexual harassment allegations Cuomo by saying that “any allegation should be reviewed.”
“The president has been consistent in his position,” Psaki said. “When a person comes forward, they deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.Their voice should be heard and not silenced.”
Speaking at a joint legislative budget hearing, state Health Commissioner Howard Zucker defended the Cuomo administration’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic and decisions that affected nursing-home deaths during the height of the crisis.
“Yes, there were deaths. Too many,” Zucker admitted to legislators. “And yes, there have been questions.”
Zucker refused to say who in the Cuomo administration ordered that the number of nursing home residents who died of COVID-19 in hospitals be kept under wraps.
The Cuomo administration is taking a shot at Mount Sinai Health System for allowing New Yorkers to sign up for coronavirus vaccinations before ensuring adequate supplies.
Virus variants, including a new form spreading in New York City, could pose threats to the city’s reopening progress, but Cuomo said he did not want to keep things closed just because the variants were here.
New York City has a surplus of COVID-19 vaccines this week after delayed shipments finally arrived — so it’s ramping up hours and doubling the number of appointments at some inoculation sites.
The New York Police Department’s top uniformed officer, Chief of Department Terence Monahan, is leaving the department after nearly four decades to take a job in City Hall, de Blasio said.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez denounced the New York Police Department’s use of new robotic dogs designed to help officers better see their surroundings at crime scenes after one was deployed in a Bronx neighborhood.
Kosher barbecue is growing in popularity in NYC.
Supermarket mogul John Catsimatidis is open to the possibility of buying the New York Daily News to keep it away from hedge fund Alden Global Capital.
Nearly a year after closing due to the coronavirus pandemic, Lincoln Center announced it’s taking the show outside. The performing arts institution will create 10 outdoor stages for performances and rehearsals starting April 7.
As the first Black chancellor of the New York Board of Regents, Lester W. Young Jr. says one of his priorities is to ensure that the state’s education workforce reflects the diversity of its public school students.
After months of speculation, Trader Joe’s is building a store in The Crossings in Halfmoon, Supervisor Kevin Tollisen said.
Two Walgreens stores closed last Friday afternoon – one on North Pearl Street in Albany and one in Menands, raising concerns about food and pharmacy deserts – especially for low-income communities of color.
“Greed,” said Mark Yonally, who co-owns B. Lodge & Co., a clothing retailer on North Pearl Street. “It’s what big companies do. They don’t care about the community that gets hurt. Everything is just a number or a dollar.”
Beginning today, Schenectady County will offer in-person assistance to residents who need help scheduling a COVID-19 vaccine.
Hours after Michigan’s attorney general announced two dozen charges against the former U.S. Olympic gymnastics coach, John Geddert, including human trafficking and sexual assault, Geddert died by suicide.
The National Transportation Safety Board said it no longer needed to use a reconstruction of the TWA Flight 800 plane brought down in one of the deadliest crashes in U.S. history and will destroy the remaining wreckage.
The Utah Jazz said it is cooperating with an NBA investigation into former guard Elijah Millsap’s allegations that executive vice president of basketball operations Dennis Lindsey made racially-charged threats at the end of the 2014-15 season.
Lady Gaga’s dog walker was shot late Wednesday in Hollywood, CA and her two French bulldogs, Koji and Gustav, were stolen. A third dog was left behind and recovered.
One-time Gambino crime family boss Peter Gotti, the successor and older brother to John “Dapper Don” Gotti, died behind bars yesterday after losing two bids for early release, his lawyer confirmed. He was 81.
