Good Friday morning. Don’t you just love a four-day week?
On a whim, I Googled “four-day work week,” and discovered that Spain recently approved a pilot project to extend the weekend by a day, basically admitting that working longer isn’t necessarily working better, and productivity might actually improve if an overall better work-life balance is established.
I might have to move. I’ve always liked Spain, though I speak French…but those Romance languages aren’t too terribly different from one another.
Here’s something else:
An in-depth examination of the relationship and productivity conducted by Sanford University revealed a clear correlation between the two factors. Overworked employees are actually less productive than employees working an average or normal working week.
The New Zealand based company, Perpetual Guardian, conducted a trial study of a four-day work week. Not only did employees maintain the same productivity level, but they also showed improvements in job satisfaction, teamwork, work/life balance and company loyalty. Employees also experienced less stress with a decrease of 45% to 38%.
Also, in case you missed it – likely because you were working – the WHO recently released a study that found long working hours are leading to hundreds of thousands of deaths per year. Working more than 55 hours a week in a paid job resulted in 745,000 deaths in 2016, the study estimated, up from 590,000 in 2000.
I love the concept of a three-day weekend, but I also find that it sets me back considerably and increases my workload on the days I DO work. But maybe if four-day work weeks were normalized and everyone was on that schedule, then expectations would be reset and the workload would take care of itself.
It’s a nice thing to contemplate.
Today is National Gun Violence Awareness Day. The date was originally chosen to honor Hadiya Pendleton, a Chicago teenager who was shot and killed on Jan. 29, 2013, not long after she had taken part in President Barack Obama’s second inaugural parade. June 2, 2015, which would have been Hadiya’s 18th birthday, was the first observance of the day, and her friends wore orange in her memory.
National Gun Violence Awareness Day is now held on the first Friday of June. The weekend that follows is known as Wear Orange Weekend. Everytown for Gun Safety sponsors the day, as do other community organizations.
Over 100 people are killed with guns in this country each day. Another 200 are shot and wounded. Almost two-thirds of gun deaths are suicides; the risk of suicide is three times higher for those who have access to guns. One-third of gun deaths are homicides. The U.S. has a homicide rate about 25 times higher than other high-income countries.
Motor vehicle crashes and guns are the leading causes of death for children and teens in the U.S., but Black children and teens are 14 times more likely to die by gun homicide than their white counterparts.
If you haven’t been living under a rock recently, you know that gun violence is up and has been unusually high for about a year now. The rise in shootings corresponds with an increase in gun sales, which jumped at the outset of the pandemic as stay-at-home orders unleashed a wave of unemployment across the country.
Homicide rates in large cities were up more than 30 percent on average last year, and up another 24 percent for the beginning of this year. Law enforcement officials and municipal leaders across the nation are bracing for a violent summer, and wondering: How much worse can things get?
For those who are been complaining about the weather (personally, I prefer things on the cooler side), you’re in for a treat this weekend, as temperatures are heading up into the 90s. (Ugh). Today, however, we’re in for more rain – showers and thunderstorms early in the day, with temperatures in the mid-70s.
In the headlines…
President Biden offered concessions to try to secure a $1 trillion infrastructure deal with Senate Republicans, narrowing his spending and tax proposals as negotiations entered the final days of what could be an improbable agreement or a blame game.
Biden signaled he could accept a narrower infrastructure package that didn’t include raising the corporate tax rate, telling a top Senate Republican that he wants $1 trillion in new spending and floating alternative ways to pay for the measure.
Biden expanded restrictions on American investments in certain Chinese companies with alleged ties to the country’s military and surveillance efforts, adding more firms to a growing blacklist.
The new order, which initially lists 59 Chinese firms, substantially expands an order issued in November by then-President Donald Trump.
The U.S. Justice Department is investigating the postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, over possible violations of campaign finance laws while he was running a company and building a reputation as a top Republican donor.
Facebook plans to announce today that it will no longer keep posts by politicians on its site by default if their speech breaks its rules, reversing how it has allowed posts from political figures to remain untouched on the social network.
Google removed a senior member of its diversity team over anti-Semitic remarks in a 2007 blog post, marking the second time in a month that a big tech company has been forced to make a staffing change after public outcry over an executive’s previous writing.
The Biden administration tasked six humanitarian groups with recommending which migrants should be allowed to stay in the U.S. instead of being rapidly expelled from the country under federal pandemic-related powers that block people from seeking asylum.
American intelligence officials have found no evidence that aerial phenomena witnessed by Navy pilots in recent years are alien spacecraft, but they still cannot explain the unusual movements that have mystified scientists and the military.
State Department leaders were warned not to pursue an investigation into the origins of COVID-19 amid fears that it would bring attention to U.S. funding of research at the Wuhan Institute where the virus may have escaped.
Dr. Anthony S. Fauci called on Beijing to release the medical records of nine people who fell ill with covid-like symptoms prior to the pandemic, including three Wuhan Institute of Virology researchers who may have been sick one month before the first confirmed case in Dec. 2019.
The White House announced it would distribute an initial 25 million vaccine doses this month across a “wide range of countries” in Latin America and the Caribbean, South and Southeast Asia, and Africa, the Palestinian territories, war-ravaged Gaza and the West Bank.
At least 75% of these donated vaccines will be shared with the global vaccination program called Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access, or COVAX, and 25% will be shared directly with countries in need, the White House said.
The EU is pushing back against U.S.-backed calls to temporarily waive intellectual property rights for Covid-19 vaccines, preparing a plan officials said would better safeguard drug companies’ patents and look for ways to boost supplies for developing countries.
China administered about 18.7 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines on June 3, bringing the total number of doses administered in the country so far to 723.49 million, data from the National Health Commission showed.
A handful of U.S. states are unlikely to reach the threshold of vaccinating 70 percent of their adult residents before the end of the year.
Since March, more than 400 colleges and universities in the United States have announced vaccine mandates, requiring students to be immunized against the coronavirus. But the rules have been designed primarily with domestic students in mind.
A sudden, sharp rise in coronavirus cases in parts of Africa could amount to a continental third wave, the WHO warned, a portent of deeper trouble for a continent whose immunization drives have been crippled by shortfalls in funding and vaccine doses.
Paramount Picture’s “Mission: Impossible 7” has shut down production again – this time in the U.K., due to positive COVID-19 tests, months after star and producer Tom Cruise made rebuked set workers for letting their guard down in an expletive-filled rant.
Cruise is reportedly “fuming” after cast and crew members on the set of “Mission: Impossible 7” tested positive for COVID-19, forcing the actor to self-isolate this week.
Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas and Symphony of the Seas, two Oasis Class vessels, have received permission from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to start test cruises, the cruise company announced.
The tight labor market is hampering new restaurant and supermarket openings, putting a potential check on growth in a food industry that is being reshaped by the pandemic.
Covid-19 hospitalizations in New York fell by 37 Wednesday to 970 – the first time hospitalizations dropped below 1,000 since Oct. 21.
More than half of eligible people in New York City have received a first dose of Covid-19 vaccine, a milestone that has plunged the overall number of newly reported coronavirus cases to their lowest levels since the beginning of the pandemic.
New York failed to provide protective gear, testing and help with staffing for group homes serving residents with developmental and intellectual disabilities at the peak of the pandemic, leaders of those homes and family members said at a legislative hearing.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the first wave of winners in the state’s scholarship incentive to encourage 12- to 17-year-olds to get vaccinated.
Lindsey Boylan, the first woman to accuse Cuomo of sexual harassment, called him an “abusive man” and compared him to “Darth Vader” in an interview on Hill.TV’s “Rising.”
A bill filed days after reports that the governor’s office was circulating Boylan’s personnel file in the wake of her sexual harassment claims against Cuomo moved through the state Senate under unanimous consent.
An anti-sexual harassment group of former legislative staffers blasted the Democratic-led Assembly for stalling a package of bills that would protect abuse survivors and for “providing cover” for embattled Cuomo over sexual misconduct accusations.
Cuomo said he was “disgusted” by an apparent act of vandalism of a Vietnam War memorial in New York City, and asked state police to help with an investigation.
The state Senate passed the Adult Survivors Act, a companion bill to the 2019 Child Victims Act that reformed statutes of limitation on sexual abuse and opened a look-back window for civil lawsuits to be brought from anyone regardless of age or time elapsed.
Lawmakers this week passed a bill that, if signed by Cuomo, would ban the use of coal tar, the dense acrid-smelling goo that is used in domestic and commercial pavement sealing.
The owner of an iconic Schenectady business, Perreca’s Bakery, is angry after a gubernatorial hopeful, Andrew Giuliani, swung by to press palms in a visit the proprietor claims was organized under false pretenses.
GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik raised $1.2 million for her campaign from January to April, demonstrating her formidable fundraising and handing her a strong base on which to launch a campaign for governor or seek re-election in Congress.
Stumping in the Capital Region this week: Long Island GOP Rep. Lee Zeldin, who has announced his 2022 gubernatorial run.
The rivalry between New York City mayoral race frontrunners Eric Adams and Andrew Yang has taken center stage after a tense in-person debate say heated exchanges between the two this week.
With the campaign in its homestretch, candidates took turns attacking one another, but largely failed to distinguish themselves in a crowded and still undecided race.
Instead of making fun of Mayor Bill de Blasio outside his beloved YMCA in Park Slope, Brooklyn, Yang was forced to ditch a crowd of rowdy protesters yesterday morning.
“Sadly, I don’t think it was much of a debate,” de Blasio said. “I don’t think it shed a lot of light. And New Yorkers need a lot more information about these candidates; they need a lot clearer vision from these candidates.”
While preserving small businesses is on his agenda, Yang also wants to help generate their growth through the creation of a “People’s Bank of New York.”
Yang complained in broad terms about de Blasio’s “irresponsible” budget spending — but offered no specifics about how the city can rein it in.
The city emergency ambulance service workers’ unions are backing Adams for mayor.
Adams said the recent proliferation of graffiti leads to increased crime, and he pledged to scrub the city of the eyesores if he wins the election.
Mayoral hopeful Kathryn Garcia won an endorsement from one of Planned Parenthood’s political arms a day after her performance in the second Democratic primary debate.
Garcia claimed she didn’t know about unequal pay allegations made by 13 former agency workers — even though their salary complaints date back to 2017.
Steve Cuozzo: “A career bureaucrat who boasts of her accomplishments in various city positions — mostly notably, or ignominiously, seven years at the helm of the Department of Sanitation — Garcia compiled a track record of incompetence bordering on dereliction.”
New York City’s GOP candidates for mayor were confronted by past misdeeds during their debate this week, but mostly kept their cool and held back the gut-punches while delving into the issues.
GOP mayoral candidate Fernando Mateo met with Trump, and says the ex-commander-in-chief doesn’t recognize his hometown anymore.
Lax oversight of inspections of New York City’s elevated subway lines resulted in potentially dangerous track conditions and debris raining down onto streets, according to an inspector general’s report released yesterday.
Unruly protesters smashed a window at the famed Greenwich Village eatery Carbone last night, leaving one diner with minor injuries, police and sources said.
New York City was cleared to move dozens of homeless men out of an Upper West Side hotel called the Lucerne, after a state appeals court rejected an effort to stop the city from relocating them to another hotel downtown.
Take a look at New York City’s Pride Month programming, and the pandemic-related clouds that shadowed Pride 2020 appear to be passing.
Federal prosecutors and lawyers for Rudy Giuliani have recommended that Barbara S. Jones, a former judge in Manhattan, be appointed to review materials seized by the F.B.I. during recent searches of Mr. Giuliani’s home and office.
The Tri-City ValleyCats will play their home opener at The Joe tonight.
Mechanicville Commissioner of Public Works Anthony Gotti has been arrested in connection with a domestic incident, police said.
The Troy City Council heard from person after person asking that it not to conduct the environmental review of a proposed rezoning that would permit construction of up to 240 apartments on the Hudson River instead of 36 single-family houses.
Malta is formally joining the long list of municipalities that do not offer curbside, bulk trash collection.
Municipal pools in the Capital Region are facing opening delays due to a lack of lifeguards.
Albany Police is adding a third dog – an 8-week-old male Goldendoodle – to its therapy dog program.
Lawmakers and city officials were on hand for a ribbon cutting ceremony introducing the renovation of Clinton Avenue’s historic apartments in Albany’s Arbor Hill neighborhood.
A colorful crosswalk in Saratoga Springs intended to celebrate Pride Month might have to be removed because it doesn’t comply with state and federal standards.
United Airlines hopes to zoom travelers across the globe in half the time it takes today with an order for new supersonic jets.
F. Lee Bailey, the theatrical criminal lawyer who invited juries into the twilight zone of reasonable doubt in defense of Patricia Hearst, O.J. Simpson, the Boston Strangler, the army commander at the My Lai Massacre in Vietnam and other cases, has died at age 87.
Beginning Monday, the century-old frankfurter emporium Nathan’s Famous will begin serving meatless hot dogs at 13 eateries across the New York metro area, including at its famous Coney Island flagship.
