Good morning, welcome to a brand new month. It’s Monday, the third of May.
May 1 – May Day, also known as International Labor Day worldwide, is observed as an occasion to commemorate the contributions of working people to society. It’s a national holiday in a number of countries, though not ours.
Says the interwebs:
One of the key moments in the story of organized labor came on May 1, 1886, when 300,000 workers walked off the job throughout the country in an organized strike, leading to several days of protest and tragic violence that would enshrine in history the recognition of May Day—a day of international worker solidarity.
This year’s May Day was marked by unrest, as protests surged in cities around the world and demonstrators called for better working protections and other causes.
Seattle Police said they arrested 14 people during unpermitted May Day marches for a variety of crimes from property destruction to assault and reckless driving. Portland, Oregon also saw violence and property damage.
At least 93 police officers were injured and 354 people arrested in Berlin during Labor Day protests. More here.
As for today, it’s World Press Freedom Day, established by the UN in 1993 as a reminder that publications and social media are censored, fined, suspended, while journalists, editors and publishers are harassed, attacked and even killed worldwide. This year’s theme is “Information as a Public Good”.
As a former member of the Fourth Estate, I have to doff my proverbial hat to my erstwhile ink-stained colleagues, who did really great work over the past year in the face of very difficult circumstances. And cheers to the LCA, in particular, which is fighting the good fight against an executive who is not at all interested in facing the press on a regular basis.
And the Google Doodle has a poignant video that highlights some special educators to kick off National Teacher Appreciation Week. Teaching, generally speaking, is grossly unappreciated (not to mention under-compensated). It has been a difficult year for all of us – especially for parents and students and teachers who have struggled with virtual learning as a result of the pandemic.
We’re in for more clouds and weather in the mid-to-high 60s, which is a nice change from rain, rain and more rain. But don’t worry! Rain will be back tomorrow for an encore performance.
In the headlines…
Lawmakers and administration officials signaled yesterday that they expected negotiations over an infrastructure package to ramp up this week, as Republicans and President Biden work to see if a bipartisan agreement is within reach.
The Biden administration’s $6 trillion in spending plans can be paid for by raising taxes on corporate fat cats and rich folks, not ordinary Americans, top officials said.
Biden’s multitrillion-dollar suite of economic proposals is aiming to both reinforce and rebuild an American middle class that feels it has been standing on shifting ground.
As Biden completes his first hundred days in office with a country that is more optimistic about the coming year, according to a new ABC News/Ipsos poll.
LGBTQ rights activists generally agree that Biden has accomplished many of the things he said he’d do for the community in the first 100 days of his presidency, most of them through executive orders.
Sen. Susan Collins was “appalled” at the treatment fellow Republican Sen. Mitt Romney received Saturday by his state lawmakers, many of whom wanted to punish him for trying to impeach former President Donald Trump.
Democrats hoping for some encouraging signs in Texas did not find any on Saturday in a special election to fill a vacant congressional seat. They’re locked out of a runoff that will now see two Republicans battle for the seat in northern Texas.
For the first time in a decade, members of Congress have the power to earmark billions in federal funding for specific local projects, reviving a process once pockmarked by corruption scandals.
Hillary Clinton warned that the U.S. could face “huge consequences” from Biden’s decision to pull all US troops out of Afghanistan.
Individual investors are holding more stocks than ever before as major indexes climb to fresh highs. They are also upping the ante by borrowing to magnify their bets or increasingly buying on small dips in the market.
Pent-up demand, combined with stimulus checks, rising vaccine rates, new styles and the weight many gained or lost during the pandemic, is expected to drive a surge in clothing sales not seen in years, according to industry executives, shoppers and analysts.
Consumers are splurging on cars and furniture, and facing extended waits for delivery. Restaurants and gyms are reopening, and struggling to find workers. Factories and home builders are trying to ramp up, but are short on semiconductors or raw materials.
America’s emerging limbo between a full-blown pandemic and a return to normal is throwing up new public health dilemmas that spark instant political fires – like a fresh round of grandstanding over mask wearing.
The Transportation Security Administration said that it is extending the face mask requirement for individuals through Sept. 13. The mask requirement was due to expire May 1.
Brothels across Nevada reopened for business and casino capacity on the Las Vegas Strip increased to 80% as Nevada continued to ease coronavirus restrictions over the weekend.
Tech positions were among the city’s fastest-growing jobs even as hiring slowed in most sectors during much of the pandemic, according to a new study from the Center for an Urban Future.
Rev. Al Sharpton will deliver the eulogy at today’s funeral for Andrew Brown Jr., who was killed by sheriff’s deputies serving search and arrest warrants at his Elizabeth City home on April 21.
Loved ones and supporters of the 42-year-old Black man marched yesterday afternoon in North Carolina to a museum for a public viewing of his body and memorial service.
The question of timing of public footage release has become an unsettled new frontier of policymaking as the use of police body cameras is more the rule rather than the exception.
New cases of Covid-19 are dropping sharply across the U.S. as millions of people get vaccinated daily, fueling optimism that the nation may have averted the surge of infections gripping other parts of the world and is finally turning the corner.
“It’s going to take us that much longer to get back to life as normal, to stop having to wear masks for our protection, if people don’t get vaccinated and we don’t have equitable distribution of vaccines,” infectious diseases specialist Dr. Celine Gounder said.
India’s second wave of Covid-19 infections shows no signs of slowing down as the country’s overwhelmed health-care system faces supply shortages for hospital beds, oxygen, medicines and vaccines.
A small school in Miami’s trendy Design District became a national beacon for anti-vaccination activists practically overnight last week, just as public health officials in the United States wrestled with how to overcome vaccine skepticism.
New York’s statewide COVID numbers extended their steady decline over the weekend, even as the pandemic wreaked havoc around the world.
Not since the stretch late last summer when New York saw rates below 1 percent has there been a such consistent lower positivity rate.
“New York is beating back COVID every single day as more people take the vaccine and we continue to keep the positivity and hospitalization rates down,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. “The numbers are all trending in the right direction.”
About 80,000 municipal employees who have been working remotely during the pandemic will return to their offices starting today. (Not all of them are happy about that, as they demonstrated at a City Hall rally over the weekend).
Manhattan landlords cut small retailers a break on rent during the pandemic, but stores are still struggling because too few office workers and tourists have returned.
The Covid-19 pandemic has given rise to a trend known as “stooping,” in which city dwellers eager to revamp their spaces for little cost scour streets for furniture that some New Yorkers threw away as they fled the city or switched apartments.
A group of “Cuomosexuals” have formed an online fan group to support embattled Cuomo and say they have been bombarding a state hotline set up to report allegations against to governor.
“Women for Governor Cuomo” is a private fan club of about 1,100 members who are mostly women over age 55. One of its members has even earned thanks from the governor for her efforts of support.
New York politicians are preparing for a contentious redistricting process after the U.S. Census Bureau said last week that the state’s delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives will decrease by a seat.
State Supreme Court Justice Scott J. Delconte dismissed a Republican-led court effort to invalidate the endorsement slate of the Albany County Working Families Party.
Federal law puts some limits on New York’s new cannabis labor laws, and more could follow.
Colleges and universities are adding new courses about cannabis to the syllabus to prepare students for jobs in the budding industry.
State lawmakers are set to vote on legislation today extending New York’s eviction moratorium,, which expired on Saturday.
It’s time the MTA ends the overnight subway closure, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said, joining a chorus of politicians and advocates eager for the city that never sleeps to stay up all night again.
“The City That Never Sleeps has a name that we have to live up to everywhere, including within our subway service,” Schumer said during an appearance outside the Lexington Av./53rd Street station in Manhattan.
City Comptroller Scott Stringer sought deliverance for his flailing mayoral campaign during a series of speeches to church worshipers in Brooklyn yesterday.
Stringer is increasingly losing progressive support in the fallout of sexual misconduct allegations leveled against him by former campaign worker Jean Kim.
The list of politicians pulling endorsements from Stringer’s mayoral campaign grew longer this weekend, including: Rep. Adriano Espaillat, City Council members Mark Levine and Diana Ayala, state Sen. Jose Serrano and Assemblywoman Carmen De La Rosa.
Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams won his second vote of approval from a fellow beep this weekend after Queens Borough President Donovan Richards agreed to support his bid for mayor.
Adams is planning the buildout of 300 miles of protected bike lanes in the city over the first four years of his potential first term.
NYC media is wrestling with how to avoid allowing coverage of one candidate to eclipse the rest of the field, even if Andrew Yang is “not in the same ideological universe as Donald Trump,” said Jere Hester, editor in chief of The City.
While at the helm of Venture for America, Yang raised tens of millions of dollars for the organization with the goal of creating 100,000 jobs in cities where they were most needed, but the results were uneven and far from what was promised.
Former Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields endorsed state Sen. Brad Hoylman for her old job.
There’s a new favorite in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary — for second place – Kathryn Garcia.
Garcia isn’t flattered by Yang’s repeated insistence he’d make her his deputy if he wins this year’s New York City mayoral election, calling his comments “totally sexist.”
A Bronx judge went rogue and ordered the accused Riverdale synagogue vandal held on $20,000 bail, even though prosecutors insisted the man had to be sprung under the state’s controversial bail-reform laws.
Jordan Burnette, 29, was slammed with 42 charges, including burglary as a hate crime and criminal trespassing as a hate crime, after police busted him for bicycling the wrong way down a Bronx street Saturday night.
Two Asian Americans were targeted in hate crimes in the Big Apple over the weekend.
A Black Starbucks barista is suing the city because she was arrested for filming cops handcuffing a Black man, while NYPD officers simply warned white people taking video to go home.
The state Department of Transportation erected a temporary bridge over the Northway on Sitterly Road early yesterday morning.
A Delmar man wearing a ski mask and soft body armor and armed with a Taser was arrested after he was found unconscious on the Albany County Rail Trail in the early morning hours last Sunday, town police said.
One of the nation’s largest trash haulers is, for the third time since 1999, seeking state permission to handle household garbage at its transfer station at the Port of Albany.
The Shenendehowa school district will offer a $26.5 million capital project to voters this month meant “to address strategic repairs and enhancements.”
Following a nearly three-year hiatus, the Valatie Falls Hydro power plant last week started once again generating electricity.
IPA and the state are at odds over who will pay for billions of dollars in upgrades needed to distribute the massive amounts of green energy that will come from offshore wind farms.
The Oneida Nation held a press conference after three people were killed in a shooting at the Oneida Casino Saturday evening.
When the bugle sounded Saturday afternoon at Belmont Park, the horses were off to the races. And for the first time in 552 days, fans were there to see them cross the finish line.
Medina Spirit won the 147th running of the Kentucky Derby, kicking off the 2021 race for the Triple Crown. Medina Spirit, ridden by jockey John R. Velazquez, came into the race at 12-1 odds.
With this upset victory, trainer Bob Baffert has now won a record-breaking seventh Kentucky Derby.
Four people were arrested at a Black Lives Matter march in Louisville, Kentucky, according to police, shortly after the Kentucky Derby was held at Churchill Downs a few miles away.
A legal showdown between Apple and Fortnite publisher Epic Games gets underway today in federal court in Oakland, California.
Hunters can apply starting today to participate in a controlled bison hunt inside Grand Canyon National Park this fall.
At least three people were killed and 27 were hospitalized when a boat overturned yesterday off the San Diego coast during a suspected human smuggling operation, authorities said.
A SpaceX capsule with four astronauts returning from the International Space Station splashed down safely in the Gulf of Mexico early yesterday – the first such nighttime return to earth for NASA in decades.
Olympia Dukakis, Hollywood’s favorite late bloomer who won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in “Moonstruck” — has died at the age of 89.
