We made it to Friday – Yee-haw!
Today is National Take Your Dog to Work Day. Of course, here at the at-home office HQ of CivMix/Marathon North, every day is bring your dog(s) to work day – except for the days that they go to hang out with their furry friends at doggie daycare.
Now the judgmental among you might be wondering: Why the heck is she spending the money to put the dogs in daycare up to three days a week when she’s home all day and could be taking care of them herself?
(Note: My husband asks the very same question on the regular – especially on days when I ask him to go pick them up outside Troy, which is where my preferred daycare is located….they don’t crate and they clearly adore the dogs as much as I do. I’m sold).
Anyway, the answer is that I do it for them – and also for me. But mostly for them.
Spending all day in the house, watching while I type furiously on the keyboard, barking during Zoom calls, begging to go out for walks, and generally lolling around is not really all that terribly interesting for interactive – not even for dogs who seem to much prefer napping over any other activity, except maybe chewing and destroying various expensive dog toys.
At daycare, they get to interact with other dogs, working on socialization skills, get spoiled with treats and attention, and romp or nap to their furry hearts’ content.
They seem happy, as far as I can tell. And that makes me happy, even though I miss the heck out of them on the days they’re not here. Also, I don’t get up from my desk nearly enough. Forced pee and poop breaks are healthy for all of us.
Dogs DO make your life healthier, though I know the jury is out about whether you should be letting them sleep in your bed, because of the harmful germs they can carry, to say nothing of the ticks they might pick up.
(I, for one, am team bed, germs and bugs be damned. But you do you).
That aside, research has shown that pets, writ large, can reduce stress and loneliness, ease anxiety, provide companionship, and even improve your cardiovascular health (see the aforementioned walks). Dog owners, specifically, have a lower risk of death, are more social, and even more attractive to others.
Also, gazing into the eyes of a dog can raise your levels of the hormone oxytocin, (AKA the “love” hormone) – a surefire mood booster, for both you AND your furry friend.
It looks like the spate of cold and dreary weather has finally come to an end. Of course, this being upstate New York, we do nothing halfway when it comes to the weather, and so brace yourself for a veritable heat wave. I’m talking about temperatures heading into the 90s this weekend (and the 80s today), with plenty of sunshine for everyone. Enjoy!
In the headlines…
The Supreme Court struck down a New York law that placed strict limits on carrying guns outside the home, saying it was at odds with the Second Amendment.
The ruling was only the court’s second major statement on the scope of the individual constitutional right to keep and bear arms and its first on how the right applies to firearms in public places.
Biden ripped into the Supreme Court’s ruling, saying it “contradicts both common sense and the Constitution” and should trouble Americans in the wake of recent gun violence.
The decision prompted frustration among some in Buffalo, the state’s second-largest city where 10 people were killed in gunfire at a grocery store last month.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams and the City Council zeroed in on ways to expand bans on guns in “sensitive places” across the city as a way to push back against the decision.
“It’s clear we’ve reached the point where we won’t have any sleep,” the mayor told reporters during a solemn press conference in City Hall held two hours after the opinion was released.
New York’s leaders pledged to pass legislation broadly restricting the carrying of handguns as soon as possible and blasted the court for striking down a previous measure in a decision that will affect five other states and tens of millions of Americans.
Gov. Kathy Hochul said she would call a special legislative session as soon as July and outlined proposals that could let the state maintain some of the nation’s most restrictive gun laws. Democratic leaders in the Legislature promised to work with the governor.
“It is outrageous that at a moment of national reckoning on gun violence, the Supreme Court has recklessly struck down a New York law that limits those who can carry concealed weapons,” Hochul said.
Hochul signed Alyssa’s Law, which requires New York school districts to consider installing silent panic alarms to directly alert authorities during emergencies.
Niagara Falls City School District Superintendent Mark Laurrie calls Alyssa’s Law another step forward in protecting schools, and his district is already taking action.
The U.S. Senate moved a step closer to approving bipartisan legislation aimed at keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous people, as a small group of Republicans joined Democrats to break their party’s blockade the measure to the brink of passage.
The bipartisan bill is the product of a compromise that could bring about the most substantial gun safety legislation in decades.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that the House will take up the Senate-passed gun safety bill “first thing” Friday morning, after the legislation cleared the upper chamber in a bipartisan vote.
Biden is bracing for a Supreme Court ruling that would strip away nationwide abortion rights in the US, potentially setting off mass protests and heaping pressure on the White House to act, even as there remains little he can do through executive action.
Infant adoptions have been on the decline in the U.S. Some sociologists and adoption specialists expect that number to increase if Roe v. Wade is overturned.
The rights of LGBTQ students would become enshrined in federal law and victims of campus sexual assault would gain new protections under rules proposed by the Biden administration.
The new rules clarify Title IX’s protections against discrimination apply to sexual orientation and gender identity and preventing someone from participating in a school program or activity consistent with their gender identity would be in violation of the law.
The proposal, announced on the 50th anniversary of the Title IX women’s rights law, is intended to replace a set of controversial rules issued during the Trump administration by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.
Federal investigators carried out a predawn search at the home of Jeffrey Clark, a former Justice Department official, in connection with the department’s sprawling inquiry into efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Trump’s plan to overturn the 2020 election by installing a loyalist at the top of the Justice Department would have led to mass resignations at the agency and sparked an unprecedented constitutional crisis, former department leaders testified on Capitol Hill.
At least half a dozen Republican members of Congress sought pre-emptive pardons from Trump as he fought to remain in office after his defeat in the 2020 election, witnesses have told the House Jan. 6 committee, the panel disclosed.
A filmmaker who recorded interviews with former President Donald Trump in the lead-up to and following the 2020 election said Trump appeared “quite irate and quite depressed and frustrated” when he interviewed him after the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.
The Biden administration announced plans to send a $450 million shipment of military assistance to Ukraine to fight the Russians, including four additional advanced rocket systems.
The European Union officially made Ukraine a candidate for membership, signaling in the face of a devastating Russian military onslaught that it sees Ukraine’s future as lying in an embrace of the democratic West.
The U.S. Department of Education has agreed to cancel the student loans of around 200,000 people who brought a class-action lawsuit against the government, claiming they were stuck with federal debts from schools that were found to have misled them.
Biden’s public approval rating fell for a fourth straight week to 36% matching its lowest level last seen in late May, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll completed this week.
Amid the will-he-or-won’t-he speculation about Biden running in 2024, Democratic governors are positioning themselves as future party standard bearers.
The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits edged down last week as labor market conditions remained tight, though some slowing is emerging.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell 2,000 to a seasonally adjusted 229,000 for the week ended June 18, the Labor Department said. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 227,000 applications for the latest week.
Companies within the technology and housing industries have begun shedding jobs in the wake of the Fed’s recent rate hikes, which have walloped tech stocks, boosted mortgage rates and slowed housing sales.
Nearly 20 million lives were saved in one year by COVID vaccines, according to a study published yesterday. With 4.3 billion people getting vaccinated worldwide, 19.8 million lives were saved, the study published in the Lancet Infectious Diseases Journal said
Biden’s coronavirus response coordinator said that he remained optimistic that Congress would approve billions of dollars in new emergency aid to fight Covid, even as Republicans on Capitol Hill have made clear the aid package is all but dead.
Dr. Deborah L. Birx, Trump’s Covid response coordinator, told a congressional committee investigating the pandemic response that White House officials asked her to change or delete parts of the weekly guidance she sent state and local health officials.
Adams has not enforced the city’s coronavirus vaccine mandate for employees at private businesses, and has no plans to begin inspecting businesses or begin fining those that are not in compliance.
Only a fraction of the city’s commercial office space — which totals nearly 500 million square feet in Manhattan alone — is occupied on any weekday. The lack of activity has meant jobs have not rebounded.
Long Island Rep. Tom Suozzi slammed Hochul for failing to take action against Ben & Jerry’s and its parent company from doing business with New York for allegedly violating an executive order against anti-Israel activities.
The state’s economic development corporation has refused to reveal how it plans to pay for the proposed renovation of Penn Station, advocates charged.
Hochul is launching an investigation following reports that the Smithtown Library Board of Trustees voted to pull LBGTQ materials from the children’s section at four branches – during Pride month.
Amtrak, which owns Penn Station and the tracks that run through it, is moving ahead with a plan to expand the station at an estimated cost of $12 billion, which envisions demolishing an entire block of Midtown that is home to a 151-year-old church.
Adams announced plans to redesign the stretch of Broadway where a taxi driver jumped the curb and sparked a horrific crash that took off an Ohio tourist’s leg.
Adams forgot to register an apartment building he owns in Brooklyn this year, according to the city’s housing database, but quickly resolved the issue as soon as it was brought to his attention yesterday.
Facing a growing outbreak of the monkeypox virus, New York City health officials expanded access to a vaccine, offering it to those who may be at higher risk: men who have had multiple or anonymous male sexual partners over the last two weeks.
A slate of left-wing candidates have mounted robust campaigns to unseat Democratic Assembly incumbents, an effort that party leaders characterize as a display of “arrogance.”
After losing a lawsuit filed by former “Baywatch” cast member Carmen Electra and two other actor-models for using their photos in advertising without permission or compensation, DiCarlo’s Gentlemen’s Club will close temporarily after business on Saturday.
The Albany City School District applied its dress code in a discriminatory manner that may have violated the U.S. Constitution when it disciplined students who wore sports bras at a track practice, the New York Civil Liberties Union wrote in a letter to the district.
As the American artistic swimmer Anita Alvarez, 25, from upstate, NY, sank slowly to the bottom of the pool at the world championships in Budapest on Wednesday, her coach, Andrea Fuentes, quickly scanned the pool deck and dived in to save her.
