Good morning, it’s Monday, and a whole new month is upon us.
Today is May Day, which means something different depending on where you are in the world.
If you are outside the U.S. – most notably somewhere in Europe – May Day is a festival that celebrates the halfway point between the spring equinox and the summer solstice.
Celebrations might be held on the day of (May 1) or the night before (May Eve), and may include gathering flowers, crowning a May Queen, bonfires, and setting up a Maypole (or a May Tree or May Bush, again, depending on where you might be) that is festooned with ribbons, which revelers hold while dancing in a circle.
You might have, in your travels and readings (especially if you were a “Mists of Avalon” fan, like myself), come across the word “Bethane”, which is the Celtic name for the aforementioned celebration.
This holiday is associated with spring, and renewal, and fertility. It’s a Pagan holiday – one of the eight Sabbats (aka, seasonal celebrations) – although its roots go back further than that, and perhaps May 1 isn’t actually the original date of this observance, after all.
During the 19th century, a new meaning for May Day was established. It came to be synonymous with International Workers’ Day.
In 1889, to be exact, an international federation of socialist groups and trade unions chose this day to express solidarity with workers and their various campaigns – at this point, for an eight-hour workday.
Three years earlier and three days later – on May 4, 1886, the Haymarket Riot – a violent confrontation between police and protesting workers – took place in Chicago, IL. The protest was organized in response to the death of one individual and the injury of several others on May 3 when police stepped in to protect strikebreakers at the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company.
During the riot, both police and civilians were killed and injured, and in the immediate aftermath, there was widespread backlash against immigrants and labor leaders.
May Day remains an important holiday observed in a variety of communist countries, but here in the U.S. (and also in Canada), elected officials uneasy with that connection decided it would be better to move a holiday dedicated to honoring the workforce to a different date.
And that is a very condensed historical version of the story of how we ended up with Labor Day on the first Monday in September.
These days, May Day is an official holiday in 66 countries. It’s unofficially celebrated elsewhere – including here in the U.S., where some hold marches and forums and other events to bring awareness to various ongoing efforts to improve the lives of workers.
I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling a little waterlogged. Two rainy long runs will do that to a person, I guess. I wish I could say we’re getting a reprieve, but no.
It’s no longer April, Mother Nature, what’s with all the showers? Give the flowers a break! Sadly, there’s more rain in the forecast for the foreseeable future.
It’s raining now as I write this, and the skies will remain cloudy for the rest of the day, with chances of showers and temperatures in the mid-to-high 50s.
In the headlines…
At the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, President Biden engaged in some timely skewering of those who usually skewer him — most notably Fox News, which fired Tucker Carlson just days after settling a defamation lawsuit for $787.5 million.
Biden also promised to free Americans unjustly held overseas — including Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter arrested last month in Moscow — during his remarks.
Biden, 80, nodded to recent media coverage about his age as he seeks another four-year term.
The “Daily Show’s” Roy Wood Jr. roasted Biden, former President Donald Trump, serial liar Rep. George Santos, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and fallen cable news stars Don Lemon and Carlson at the 2023 WHC dinner Saturday night.
Biden is considering a visit to Finland, NATO’s newest member, to coincide with the 30-member bloc’s July summit in Lithuania, according to three U.S. officials familiar with the discussions.
In the days since Biden formally launched his 2024 campaign, key members of the sprawling political coalition that lifted him over former President Donald Trump in 2020 are far from excited about the prospect of four more years – not just the left.
The most aggressively climate-minded president in history is getting flak from his green base — thanks to a series of pro-fossil-fuel moves that are starting to remind environmental activists of his old boss’ first term.
Despite a history of political differences and campaign challenges, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is backing Biden’s 2024 re-election campaign.
Federal regulators were racing over the weekend to seize and sell the troubled First Republic Bank before financial markets open today, in a bid to put an end to a banking crisis that began last month with the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.
A new effort by the government and the finance industry to prevent another bank from triggering a wider crisis is underscoring US and international worries about the sector and producing another no-win political headache for the Biden administration.
Texas law enforcement expanded its search over the weekend for a gunman accused of fatally shooting five people, including an 8-year-old child.
As survivors and the community came together at a vigil, more than 200 law enforcement officers were searching for Francisco Oropesa. Law enforcement officials conceded that they did not know the suspect’s whereabouts, and considered him a threat.
U.S. Covid-19 hospitalizations and deaths are hovering near new lows, providing fresh evidence that even as the virus endures it has become less damaging in a population with strengthened immune defenses.
Officials at the Los Angeles Department of Public Health (LACDPH) said that the new COVID-19 subvariant might cause pink eye after confirming three new cases of the strain.
While it is too early to determine if conjunctivitis can be considered a symptom, local public health officials have advised residents to “take the same sensible COVID precautions to help avoid infection from the new and likely more communicable XBB.1.16 strain.”
The number of animals killed in traffic collisions fell dramatically during covid-19 lockdowns in the UK, according to data from a citizen science project.
Chinese authorities were preparing to release a man who disappeared three years ago after publicizing videos of overcrowded hospitals and bodies during the COVID-19 outbreak, a relative and another person familiar with his case said.
Fang Bin and other members of the public who were dubbed citizen journalists posted details of the pandemic in early 2020 on the internet and social media, embarrassing Chinese officials who faced criticism for failing to control the outbreak.
Andrew Sullian, a top political adviser to Gov. Kathy Hochul, abruptly informed colleagues that he would resign yesterady, citing a New York Times report that called into question his political counsel and described a toxic work environment under him.
Colorado-based consultant Adam Sullivan, 42, told Hochul’s 2022 campaign staff of his decision in an email.
Hochul led a drawn-out state budget process that’s irritated labor leaders, business interests and her fellow Democrats — and ushered in a new era of dysfunction in Albany.
The state budget deal contained a series of hard-fought wins for the governor, but left her without a grand policy achievement to trumpet.
Judges in New York could soon have greater discretion to set bail and hold defendants awaiting trial after Hochul secured changes in the yet-to-be-approved state budget.
State lawmakers’ recent tweak to controversial criminal justice reforms is nothing more than “a band-aid on a gaping wound,” Staten Island’s top prosecutor, Michael McMahon, said.
New York will require new buildings to be zero-emissions starting in 2026 and make a state authority a major player in developing renewables as part of this year’s budget, Hochul announced.
The proposal has been a priority for environmental groups, who see it as a critical step in reducing New York’s dependence on fossil fuels and helping it meet its emission reduction goals.
Officials were expected to put the finishing touches on the 2023-24 state budget this weekend, including finalizing programs to protect the environment and satisfy the state’s strict benchmarks to fight climate change.
Policies to increase housing in New York City and statewide were a top priority for Hochul when she proposed her budget. After three months of wrangling, state lawmakers included virtually none of them in the spending agreement.
Under the tentative budget deal, Hochul and legislative leaders have agreed to a three-year plan to increase the minimum hourly pay rate before tying future hikes to the rate of inflation.
Concerned residents and advocacy groups are calling on Hochul to intervene and stop the dumping of 1.5 million gallons of radioactive water from the defunct Indian Point nuclear plant.
Hochul and Micron Technology have chosen 14 people to lead an advisory group that will help guide the company’s investments in the community.
The Staten Island Advance’s Tom Wrobleski writes: “Let’s legalize recreational weed but ban the sale of cigarettes. Only in through-the-looking-glass New York can something that goofy make sense.”
A statewide gun-buyback program took more than 3,000 weapons off New York’s streets Saturday — including a record-setting 300 in Syracuse.
Steep budget cuts included in House Republicans’ plan for raising the debt ceiling would be a major blow to New York, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said as efforts to increase the federal borrowing limit dragged on.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s strongest possible challengers in 2024, is all but closing the door on a possible run.
Delegates to the New York State United Teachers’ Representative Assembly on Saturday elected Melinda Person to a three-year term as President of the nearly 700,000-member union.
The state Office of Children and Family Services said it will investigate an unregistered child care center that state Democratic Assembly leaders have been operating for several months on the ninth floor of the Legislative Office Building.
Republicans just gained an unlikely ally in their attacks on the president’s immigration policies: the Democratic mayor of New York, for centuries a beacon to migrants seeking a new home in America.
The “conceptual” budget deal announced by Hochul represents a defeat for progressive legislators and their allies on the minimum wage and tax hikes — and a big win for Mayor Eric Adams as he negotiates his own budget with the City Council.
Adams has been taking a page out of Uncle Sam’s book — hitting the streets to personally recruit New Yorkers to apply for city jobs.
Adams and Council Speaker Adrienne Adams shared a somber moment Friday at a Queens street renaming ceremony honoring a police shooting victim.
Adams and the NYPD are hoping to pump the brakes on soaring Bronx car thefts by having motorists in the borough tag their vehicles for free.
Adams’ top lawyer and communications adviser are expected to step down from their posts in a few months — a shakeup that comes on the heels of multiple high-profile departures from the administration late last year.
Neither has settled on their next job and their replacements have not yet been chosen.
The NYPD’s top spokesman, Julian Phillips, will leave the department after a spending about a year on the job, according to a police official.
The phrase “affordability crisis” has become a part of everyday conversation, and no wonder: New York City seems more expensive than ever. Half the households in the city cannot afford to live there, according to a new report.
The Real Estate Board of New York plans to release its first quarterly Analysis of Location Data — a measure of Manhattan office building physical occupancy — later this month.
The new class-size reduction law for New York City has too many loopholes to make the huge impact some predicted any time soon, concerned educators and advocates maintain.
Middle-class co-op and condo building owners are rebelling against a massive city climate mandate, which they say will substantially hike maintenance bills to either pay for millions of dollars in upgrades or face gigantic fines beginning next year.
The pop-up Museum of Broken Windows in Manhattan takes on themes of state-sponsored racial injustice in light of Adams’s planned municipal budget allocating $11 billion to the NYPD.
The Big Apple’s “Open Streets” program discriminates against people with disabilities who rely on vehicles to travel and must be brought to a screeching halt, a new lawsuit says.
A controversial proposal by the city Department of Consumer and Worker Protection would hike pay for GrubHub, UberEats, and DoorDash delivery workers far past the $15 minimum wage.
Tenant advocates and landlords are stepping up the pressure ahead of a crucial preliminary vote this week by the Rent Guidelines Board — which has said it could potentially raise rates on two-year leases a staggering 15.75%.
A bill introduced by Queens Councilwoman Lynn Schulman would require the city Sheriff’s office, NYPD, and others to issue written warnings to a landlord whenever fines or other penalties are handed out to a tenant for running unlicensed marijuana businesses.
More than a year ago, a mass shooting on the subway in Brooklyn miraculously killed no one. But as the victims live on, so do their physical and psychological wounds.
Former New York mayoral candidate and radio host Curtis Sliwa owes hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid child support, according to a new lawsuit filed by his third wife, Mary Paterson.
An NYPD program aimed at identifying problem police officers before they get in serious trouble has singled out too few cops for retraining or other scrutiny, department critics say.
A pitch to build a casino and entertainment complex in Coney Island got losing snake eyes from community leaders who voted against a gambling joint along Brooklyn’s historic beach and boardwalk.
Jean Kim, the woman who accused former NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer of sexual abuse, launched her latest legal attack against the Upper West Side pol with two sworn statements from allies who both labeled him a “creep.
Models and fashion designers rallied outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art ahead of the Met Gala yesterday to demand basic worker protection for models and the end of rampant exploitation in the industry.
A grand opening for Noteworthy Resources of Albany’s new community center, featuring an indoor skate park, was held Saturday at the lower level of Redburn Development Partners’ properties at 930 Broadway.
A parking reservation system meant to promote safe access to trails in the Route 73 corridor will resume today, state Department of Environmental Conservation and Adirondack Mountain Reserve said Saturday.
Claiming their chief has “repeatedly failed to act in the interest of safety,” the Saratoga Springs Professional Fire Fighters Association unanimously approved a “no-confidence” vote against suspended Fire Chief Joseph Dolan.
King Charles III, keen to show that he can be a unifying figure for everyone in the United Kingdom, will be crowned in a ceremony that will for the first time include the active participation of faiths other than the Church of England.
A new screen will provide “absolute privacy” during the most sacred part of the May 6 coronation service for King Charles, ensuring the eyes of the world will not see the monarch being anointed, Buckingham Palace and its makers said.
The last coronation occurred 70 years ago, roughly the wait between sightings of Halley’s comet. And yet the coronation has yet to capture the imagination of a Britain preoccupied by other concerns.
