Good morning, it’s Wednesday. Warning: Rant ahead. If it’s too early for you, maybe you should do something else. Have another cup of coffee while contemplating the melting snow. Go for a walk. Hit the snooze button.
(Clears throat).
Women make up about 51 percent of the U.S. population. This statistic has remained fairly consistent for a number of years. (That’s about 97 men to every 100 women, for all those who are keeping track at home).
Women have registered to vote and cast ballots at higher rates than men in EVERY SINGLE presidential election since 1980, with the turnout gap between the two growing a bit larger every four years.
AND, here’s the trump card: Women bear children. Without women, the future of the human race would be, well, it wouldn’t.
So, considering all this, you might think that women would have the upper hand in this society. That we would be better represented in the halls of power in government, in corporate America, in sports.
But no.
Women are still earning, on average, 82 percent of what men earn, and the gender pay gap has remained about the same for two decades now.
Women are receiving substandard physical and mental health care because for decades, the entire medical system – research, medication, insurance coverage – has focused on men.
You want proof? Just try being a menopausal woman in the U.S. today. (Yes, there’s increasing attention to the matter, but no, we’re not even close to understanding it yet).
And women’s autonomy over their own bodies is still among one of the most hotly debated policy matters across the nation, and we are losing ground by the day.
Happy Women’s History Month, everyone! And Happy International Women’s Day! I could go into a whole song and dance about the importance of this day, but I’ll let the official IWD website patter speak for itself:
“Imagine a gender equal world. A world free of bias, stereotypes, and discrimination. A world that’s diverse, equitable, and inclusive. A world where difference is valued and celebrated. Together we can forge women’s equality. Collectively we can all #EmbraceEquity. Celebrate women’s achievement. Raise awareness about discrimination. Take action to drive gender parity. IWD belongs to everyone, everywhere. Inclusion means all IWD action is valid.”
Amen. I couldn’t have said it better myself.
Take a moment to tell the women in your life how much you value them. No gifts are necessary, though tokens of appreciation in the form of spa day certificates, coffee, drinks, and/or chocolate I’m sure would be welcome.
It will be cloudy with temperatures in the high 30s today.
In the headlines…
Wealthy Americans will pay higher taxes under the proposed budget that President Joe Biden will send to Congress tomorrow, but he says he will keep his promise not to raise taxes on middle-class Americans.
The plan would raise Medicare taxes to 5% from 3.8% for those top earners and effectively expand the reach of the tax so it applies to business income as well as investments, wages and self-employment income.
Biden in the NYT: “The budget I am releasing this week will make the Medicare trust fund solvent beyond 2050 without cutting a penny in benefits…we can get better value, making sure Americans receive better care for the money they pay into Medicare.”
SoFi, a private lender, sued the Biden administration last week in an effort to end the pause on federal student loan payments that has been in place since March 2020.
This week, 126 lawmakers, led in part by Sens. Chuck Schumer, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and more, sent a letter to Biden affirming their support for his plan to cancel up to $20,000 in student debt for federal borrowers making under $125,000 a year.
Schumer said he’d support a Republican-backed measure to nullify a District of Columbia law on criminal penalties, underscoring Democrats’ defensive position on crime before an election year.
Paul Manafort has agreed to pay $3.15 million he owes to the US government over misrepresentations he made on his tax returns almost a decade ago, bringing to a close the former Trump campaign chairman’s financial tangles in court.
Court documents filed Feb. 22 in U.S. District Court for Southern Florida, where Manafort, a chairman of Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, lives, detail the settlement.
Michelle Obama broke down shortly after leaving Trump’s inauguration, the former first lady candidly shared in a new podcast, as the emotions of leaving their family’s home after eight years and resentment over him taking office overwhelmed her.
In a speech before his supporters, the former president charged forward in an uncharted direction, talking openly about leveraging the power of the presidency for political reprisals.
Fox Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch privately bashed Trump and his attorney, Rudy Giuliani, following the 2020 election, according to court records made public on Tuesday as part of Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News.
Trump is pondering his running mate options for another presidential run in 2024, and he is reportedly “strongly” considering former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell made clear the central bank is prepared to react to recent signs of economic strength by raising interest rates higher than previously expected and, if incoming data remain hot, potentially returning to a quicker pace of rate increases.
Powell said the Federal Reserve would consider raising interest rates by a larger half percentage point this month and was likely to lift rates higher than previously expected this year to cool an economy that has shown surprising strength
The NTSB said that it had opened a special investigation into safety practices at Norfolk Southern because the company had suffered five significant accidents since December 2021, including a major derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, last month.
The US is reportedly planning to relax Covid-19 testing restrictions for travelers from China as soon as Friday, citing a decline in Covid cases, hospitalizations, and deaths and more data surrounding the variants that were circulating in China.
The plan to roll back the restriction comes as a once-enormous viral wave subsides in China, and after other countries have announced their own easing of restrictions for people traveling from China.
House Republicans today will dig into the origins of the pandemic in a hearing likely filled with political theater and substantive questions about lab safety and what, if anything, could have been done to prevent the worst public health crisis in a century.
Nearly 50,000 preterm births may have been averted across a group of mostly high-income countries in one month of the Covid lockdowns alone, a new study shows.
Wages grew slower for women compared with men since the start of Covid, increasing the pay disparity.
Oklahoma voters rejected a ballot initiative that would have legalized recreational marijuana use by adults 21 and over, thought he state has embraced medical cannabis.
Florida Republicans introduced parallel bills that would further restrict the state’s abortion ban to six from 15 weeks of pregnancy. If a ban passes and is signed into law, Florida would prohibit abortion before many women even realize they are pregnant.
“We’re for pro-life. I urge the legislature to work, produce good stuff, and we will sign,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said during a February briefing when asked if he would approve a so-called heartbeat bill that would ban abortions after six weeks.
Walgreens landed at the center of a consumer and political firestorm, after saying it would not dispense an abortion pill in 21 states where Republican attorneys general have threatened legal action against pharmacies that try to distribute the medication.
California will cease all its business with Walgreens, the retail drugstore chain, Gov. Gavin Newsom said, days after the company announced it would not dispense abortion medication in 21 Republican-dominated states.
Five women who were denied abortions under Texas law while facing medical crises are suing the state, asking a judge to clarify exceptions to the laws.
Freshmen congressional Republicans from New York proposed legislation to bar Rep. George Santos from making money off his story if he is ever indicted or convicted.
The legislation does not mention Santos by name, but lawmakers who introduced the two related measures made clear they are directed toward him.
Six of Santos’ New York colleagues, particularly the four who flipped tight battleground districts last fall, are working — out in the open and behind the scenes — to contain the blowback from the embattled lawmaker’s deceptions about his past.
In the summer of 2014, eight years before his election to the House, Santos was in Queens Housing Court, begging a judge to let him feed his pet fish.
Making further changes to New York’s controversial cashless bail law will make the state’s criminal justice system more fair, Gov. Kathy Hochul said as she makes a push for her anti-crime proposals in her $227 billion budget plan due April 1.
“We have this inconsistency in the law,” the governor said during an event at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Rochester. “Confusion is understandable, and I want to make sure that we remove that one standard, give them criteria to look at.”
Hochul visited Rochester to tout a decrease in gun violence last year and highlight proposals in her executive budget that aim to improve public safety.
Hochul turned up the heat on fellow Albany Democrats by publicly pushing them to change “absurd” limits on cash bail despite resistance from their legislative leaders.
A handful of major state highways and roadways in New York would have a speed limit of 70 mph under a measure proposed by Democratic state Assemblyman Angelo Santabarbara.
Hundreds of charter school leaders and families, joined by two state lawmakers, rallied to urge the Legislature to support the local expansion of charter schools with efforts expected to face tough headwinds in Albany.
Stronger regulations for lithium-ion batteries in New York are needed amid concerns over fires caused by the devices, two state lawmakers said this week.
Mayor Eric Adams announced a shift in policy on asylum-seekers that includes a more formal process of resettling migrants throughout the state and in other cities across the country.
The Adams administration is launching a job training program for migrants at an upstate New York college and plans to resettle some asylum seekers to other parts of the country as the city continues to house tens of thousands of them.
New York City will open a 24-hour center to welcome migrants and create a new agency to coordinate efforts to deal with the arrival of thousands of asylum seekers, Adams announced.
Adams said stumping for Biden won’t inhibit him from continuing to criticize the federal government’s handling of the migrant crisis that’s left New York City awash in asylum seekers — and suggested he’d continue speaking out if the city doesn’t get what it needs.
Council Speaker Adrienne Adams is expected to call for an expansion of the city’s Fair Fares program in her State of the City address this afternoon.
The New York City Council demanded less conservative budgeting from the Adams administration this week, and the two branches’ differences in revenue estimates could set the stage for budget negotiations over the coming months.
City Council members repeatedly clashed with budget officials from Adams’ administration at a hearing on Monday, pressing for answers about an ongoing staffing crisis at city agencies that has affected the delivery of municipal services.
An ex-city cop booted from the force for associating with Trump adviser Roger Stone says Adams should follow the same standard and fire NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell for inviting rapper Cardi B, a convicted criminal, to speak at the Police Academy.
Ridership on the NYC Ferry is exceeding immediate pre-pandemic levels, according to the city’s non-profit Economic Development Corporation.
Full-time subway cleaners are replacing the contractors the MTA hired in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic — part of a long-term effort to shine up trains and stations for riders and the agency’s employees.
A corrupt Rikers correction officer pleaded guilty to ripping off the city by collecting more than a year’s worth of sick pay while he was off bowling, doing house work and traveling abroad.
Federal prosecutors said the man who killed eight people when he plowed a truck down the West Side Highway bike path in 2017 has no remorse for his actions and should face the death penalty for his crimes.
Attorney Larry Hutcher, a four-decade season ticket holder now banished from Madison Square Garden, was in Miami to watch Jalen Brunson and Co. defeat the Heat last week — and he sent a courtside message to MSG CEO James Dolan.
Price gouging, flight cancellations and predatory debt collectors were among the top consumer complaints received by the state attorney general’s office last year.
In the wake of the recent Ohio rail crash and toxic chemical burn, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is demanding that major freight railroad corporations operating in upstate provide officials with “basic information” on staffing levels and safety protocols.
State Attorney General Letitia James has joined with 13 of her counterparts in other states opposing a proposal by a Texas-based company to ship frozen ethane from Marcus Hook in southeastern Pennsylvania to the Gulf of Mexico and Canada.
About a dozen Black Lives Matter activists appeared at a Saratoga Springs City Council meeting to call out the public safety commissioner for charging Chandler Hickenbottom with disorderly conduct for talking too long at a February meeting.
A local Black Lives Matter leader was arraigned this week in Saratoga Springs City Court, after a summons to charge her with disorderly conduct was requested by a city official after a heated City Council meeting last month.
Schenectady police are continuing to investigate the discovery of a small gun at the Rivers Casino last month that a security employee later accidentally fired while trying to secure the weapon, according to police Sgt. Jeff McCutcheon.
The Schenectady City School District is eyeing a downtown building that formerly housed an OrthoNY office as the site of a new family and community engagement center.
The New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) announced the stakes schedule for the 2023 summer meet at historic Saratoga Race Course, which will include 71 stakes worth $20.8 million in total purses.
The Giants and quarterback Daniel Jones agreed to a four-year contract extension with $82 million in guaranteed money, securing his role as the franchise’s starter after months of negotiations.
The Federal Trade Commission is intensifying an investigation into Twitter’s data and privacy practices and is seeking testimony from Musk, who has laid off the bulk of Twitter’s work force since acquiring the company last year.
Musk said Twitter was recovering financially after seeing a 50 percent decline in ad revenue, making one of his first public disclosures about the state of the social media company since he acquired it last year.
Toni Morrison, the acclaimed author who became the first African American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, will be memorialized on a Forever stamp, which was unveiled yesterday by the United States Postal Service.
A new Girl Scout cookie flavor, Raspberry Rally, is in such high demand that, after swiftly selling out online, boxes are now being peddled for far higher prices on resale websites.
