Good morning, it’s Monday.
I’m writing this post – as I do pretty much every day – from my “desk.” It’s really just a small table at which most casual meals are consumed in this house. (Unless we eat them standing up over the kitchen island, which is a topic for another day).
I do have an actual desk, which is located in my “office” on the second floor. For some reason that I can’t quite figure out, I just like this particular location better. Maybe because I can see out to the street – not that very much happens there, since the house is on a dead end. Or maybe because it’s closer to the kitchen and I don’t have to descend the stairs to get a snack.
I’ve been working from home for about five years now – ever since I left TV news and went to the dark side to do public affairs and crisis comms. Though I really appreciate not being chained to a desk for eight hours every day, this setup can be isolating – as pretty much everyone, but for the essential workers, learned the hard way during the pandemic-induced shutdowns.
Even though we’ve all gone back to what passes for “normal”, close to 13 percent of full-time employees in the U.S. are still working from home, and another 28 percent have adopted a hybrid model of half in the office and half at home. According to Upwork, an estimated 32.6 million Americans – about 22 percent of the workforce – will be working remotely by 2025.
Remote work is enormously popular. Almost ALL workers – 98 percent – say they would like to work outside the office at least part of the time, citing the flexibility and productivity it allows. (Many bosses, by contrast, don’t feel the same way and are trying to lure workers back to the office – trying everything from perks like catered meals, upgraded spaces and happy hours to firing threats).
One thing that is challenging about working from home, I find, is what to wear. I pared down my professional wardrobe after I no longer had to be on camera every night, and now spend most of my time in casual clothes, which more often than not means jeans.
I own an embarrassingly high number of pairs of jeans. Skinny (yes, sorry young ones, I’m still wearing these), wide-leg, ripped, black, dark wash, bleached, baggy, flare, high waisted, hipster. I have a favorite pair that is more patches than anything else. I have had them forever and eschew washing them too much for fear that they will disintegrate into nothing.
I would not blink an eye at spending upwards of $200 on a pair that fits right, (hard to find for short ladies, let me tell you), though I also have at least one pair of Levi’s that I purchased from Walmart for maybe $10 at the most.
Where would our jeans loving culture be without Levi Strauss, who was both on this day in 1829? A German-American businessman who came to the US from Bavaria with his family at the age of 18, Strauss launched a dry goods wholesale business in San Francisco, selling sundries like clothing, bedding, bags and handkerchiefs – many of them to customers who came to seek their fortune in the Gold Rush.
Strauss also sold denim – a cotton twill cloth originally made in France. Its durability made it the perfect material for a pair of paints designed for hard work, riveted at the seams to prevent then from splitting. These were invented and patented by Strauss and his tailor partner, Jacob Davis.
And the rest, as they say, is history. Today, approximately 450 million pairs of jeans are sold annually in the U.S., while the global jeans market is worth upwards of $59 billion – with a B, you read that right, yes. (Sadly, denim is not at all good for the environment, but since this post is probably too long by half already, let’s leave that for another day.
I’ll leave you with this PSA for now: Buy vintage.
I’m almost afraid to say it, least I jinx the whole thing, but it feels like we maybe, possibly, perhaps, are turning a corner into spring. Temperatures today will be in the low 50s and may even warm up over the next several days to flirt with 60 degrees!! But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, because today we’ll have cloudy skies and could see some rain showers or even some wet snow. Yuck.
In the headlines…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told CBS’ “Face the Nation” that a hostage deal between Israel and Hamas will delay an IDF operation in Rafah, but stressed Israel will still conduct the operation later.
Negotiators from Israel, Qatar, Egypt and the US have agreed the “basic contours” of an arrangement during weekend talks in Paris, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told CNN, but the final details still have to be hammered out.
Israeli media reported that the prospective deal would allow for the release of 30 or 40 hostages in exchange for up to 300 Palestinian prisoners, and a ceasefire lasting up to six weeks.
Netanyahu of Israel said that the country’s military had presented a long-awaited plan to the war cabinet for evacuating civilians from “areas of fighting” in the Gaza Strip, a likely reference to an expected invasion of the southern city of Rafah.
An active-duty member of the US Air Force set himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC, yesterday, according to the Air Force and local authorities.
A video posted online showed a man shouting “Free Palestine” as he burned during the incident, which lasted about a minute before law enforcement officers extinguished the flames about 1p.m.
The man was taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries. The U.S. Air Force confirmed he was an active-duty airman.
President Joe Biden will convene the top four congressional leaders tomorrow as the White House ratchets up pressure on lawmakers to pass additional funding to Ukraine and ahead of a partial government shutdown deadline this week.
The meeting will include Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and comes at a pivotal moment following Johnson’s resistance to Ukraine aid.
A senior Capitol Hill staff member who is a longtime voice on Russia policy is under congressional investigation over his frequent trips to Ukraine’s war zones and providing what he said was $30,000 in sniper gear to its military, documents show.
Some 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since Russia’s full-scale invasion began two years ago, President Volodymyr Zelensky said, acknowledging for the first time in the war a concrete figure for Ukraine’s toll.
Biden told the nation’s governors he’s exploring what executive actions he can take to curb migration across the southern border after a bipartisan deal collapsed in Congress. He seemed to express frustration at the legal limits of his authority to act unilaterally.
Americans’ approval of Biden’s job performance has edged down three percentage points to 38%, just one point shy of his all-time low and well below the 50% threshold that has typically led to reelection for incumbents.
GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley says it’s not “the end of our story” despite Donald Trump’s easy primary victory in South Carolina, her home state where the onetime governor long suggested her competitiveness with the former president would show.
Ari Fleischer, former White House press secretary for President George W. Bush, said Haley’s speech on Saturday night sounded like a “No Labels” one after she lost to Donald Trump in South Carolina’s GOP primary.
Americans for Prosperity Action (AFP Action), the political wing of the conservative network led by billionaire Charles Koch, will halt spending on Haley’s presidential campaign, the group said one day after her disappointing showing in the South Carolina primary.
Black leaders are condemning Trump’s recent comments about Black voters as “racist.”
Haley called comments Trump made about Black people at an event Friday “disgusting” and proof Republicans would lose the presidential race if he’s the nominee.
Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) is endorsing Trump for president in 2024, a source familiar confirmed to The Hill.
The $454 million judgment that a New York judge imposed on Trump in his civil fraud case took effect on Friday, placing the former president in a precarious position.
The House GOP’s push to impeach Biden appears close to stalling out for good.
Revelations that Alexander Smirnov, an F.B.I. informant, was a serial fabulist were downplayed on air and online by those who continued to insist the president should be impeached.
Steve Kramer, a veteran political consultant working for a rival candidate, acknowledged that he commissioned the robocall that impersonated President Joe Biden using artificial intelligence, confirming an NBC News report that he was behind the call.
Paul Carpenter, a New Orleans street magician, told CNN that he was hired by Kramer, who was working for Phillips’ campaign at the time, to create the fake audio. Carpenter provided text messages, Venmo logs and other records to support his account.
Michigan Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer said that Biden faces some uncertainty in her state’s upcoming primary, while stressing to voters that the alternative, a second Trump administration, would “be devastating.”
With the state’s primary tomorrow, speakers at a gathering in Dearborn, Mich., pushed voters to cast a ballot for “uncommitted” in objection to Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war.
The most important First Amendment cases of the internet era, on tap at the Supreme Court today, may turn on one question: Do platforms like Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and X most closely resemble newspapers, shopping centers or phone companies?
Both Florida and Texas passed laws regulating how social media companies moderate speech online. The laws, if upheld, could fundamentally alter how the platforms police their sites.
The practice of New York governors meddling in the personnel decisions of the State Police unit that protects them has continued during the administration of Gov. Kathy Hochul.
An executive order in Nassau County banning female transgender athletes from competing on girls’ teams is causing controversy with state officials and lawyers – including Hochul – ridiculing it and questioning its legality.
Two different efforts to require the science of reading in New York schools aim to improve the state’s low reading scores by making sure teachers are trained on evidence-based practices.
As budget deadlines loom, state senators do not want to leave 421a’s fate up to developers and construction unions once again. In a letter to Hochul, 17 senators opposed the process laid out in her proposed budget for the tax exemption replacement.
Democratic leaders in the State Legislature face a key choice today: Accept a bipartisan proposal or try to redraw the congressional map in their party’s favor.
The choice could have major consequences for the national battle for the House. Even with only a handful of tweaks, Democratic state lawmakers could effectively stack the deck against Republicans in up to six swing seats from Long Island to Syracuse.
The pending vote is spurring a multilevel game of political chicken in Albany, with no one quite sure how it’ll resolve itself or whether the state’s congressional map will again find its way back to court.
State Democratic officials have yet to show their hand on how they plan to handle a widely watched — and potentially litigious — final chapter in New York’s turbulent redistricting process.
A program designed to resettle 1,250 families across New York State has moved only about 170 households, barely easing the burden on the city’s shelter system.
Less than a half dozen houses of worship in New York City are currently operating as temporary shelters for migrants as part of a program that’s supposed to involve 50 faith institutions.
Surplus weed produced in states like Oklahoma is increasingly ending up in New York, fueling its illicit market and complicating the state’s efforts to expand legal cannabis sales.
A renewed push to weed out the estimated 2,500 unlicensed cannabis shops in the city rolled forward Friday, another effort in what so far has been a largely losing battle.
Legal weed shop owners in New York are pushing for investigation into social media companies and tech giants they say are allowing promotion of their unlicensed competition.
State officials are reminding seniors of next month’s deadline to apply for increased property tax savings through the state STAR program.
Thousands of New York pharmacists and other health care providers have been impacted by a massive cyberattack on a national health care company that began last week, sending many providers scrambling to process prescription claims.
Trial lawyers pumped millions of dollars into the campaign coffers of New York politicians in a push to expand laws that made it easier to file lawsuits, according to a business advocacy group analysis.
Johnstown Republican Assemblyman Robert Smullen’s son was critically injured in a crash last week, Smullen said in a Facebook post Friday.
A rogue group called “SUNY BDS” used the state university system’s name to spew anti-Israel propaganda nearly a month ago — and officials are only now finally censuring it after a NY Post inquiry.
A Brooklyn preacher with ties to New York City Mayor Eric Adams is set to go on trial today in Manhattan federal court over charges that he looted a parishioner’s retirement savings and tried to extort a businessman to fuel his lavish lifestyle.
Just before the FBI conducted a series of raids as part of an investigation into whether Turkey’s government funneled illegal money into his campaign, Adams and a longtime aide appeared at a fundraiser with members of two Turkish-American interest groups.
Adams on Saturday insisted the “the Crossroads of the World” is still safe despite the migrant crisis fueling a flurry of recent crimes there, including a recent stabbing of a 17-year-old.
Ex-NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly claimed Sunday that New York City’s quality of life “has really deteriorated” as he railed against subway crime, a shortage of cops, anti-public-safety policies, reckless scooters and the migrant crisis.
The city shelled out a record $213 million in decisions and settlements from July through October, according to Adams’ preliminary management report. The total is a 200% jump from the $60 million forked over during the same period for fiscal year 2023.
A pilot program in New York City to give migrant families debit cards to buy food became an easy target for right-wing critics.
A jubilant celebration to ring in the Year of the Dragon was nearly marred by Free Palestine protestors seeking to disrupt politicians’ speeches.
A private bus operator that transports millions of tourists into New York City is fuming that they could be forced to fork over big bucks as part of a planned congestion toll to enter midtown.
In a sweeping rebuke of the National Rifle Association, the nation’s most prominent gun rights group, a Manhattan jury ruled on Friday that its leaders had engaged in a years-long pattern of financial misconduct and corruption.
Evidence showed that the National Rifle Association’s leader lived well on donated money as he fought regulations on firearms.
One person died and at least 17 people were injured in a two-alarm fire that tore through an apartment building in the Hamilton Heights area of Harlem on Friday, the authorities said.
RIP, Flaco the owl. Under Flaco’s favorite trees in Central Park and across the city, New Yorkers mourned Flaco’s death, and spoke of what the bird and his unlikely year of freedom meant to them.
The Eurasian eagle-owl was one of an estimated billion birds that will die in the United States this year after crashing into buildings.
The owner of a well known Capital Region HVAC company, Ted Danz, has announced his plans to run for the 46th state Senate district being vacated by Neil Breslin, setting up a rematch with Democratic Assemblymember Pat Fahy.
Bishop Jeremiah D. Williamson was ordained and consecrated Saturday as the 10th bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Albany before an enthusiastic congregation crowded into the Cathedral of All Saints.
The Albany County sheriff’s office has launched an app intended to help first responders combat both physical and mental health issues.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
