Good morning, it’s Friday. I’m sensitive around this time of year about saying “Good Friday morning,” since Good Friday – the official one – is right around the corner (March 29).
About half the world’s population – and just OVER half of the U.S. population – is female.
And as a member of that population, I feel justified in saying that I somewhat resent the fact that we need multiple days, weeks, and months to recognize the outsized contribution women make to the economy, society, culture, etc. and so forth. It should just be a foregone conclusion that we are more than pulling our weight around here.
Yet, somehow, women remain behind the eight ball on far too many fronts. We earn less than men for doing the same work. We are more often caregivers for family members in need – both young and old, we do more household chores than our male spouses (even if we’re the family breadwinner).
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Seven in 10 human trafficking victims are female. Women are more likely to be the victims of repeated domestic violence and sexual abuse. Women are more likely to die in car crashes, to experience forced marriages, to undergo genital mutilation, to experience common mental health challenges – including eating disorders and depression, to report higher levels of stress.
So, yeah. I don’t want to complain or anything, but being a woman is hard. And it’s even harder if you’re BIPOC or trans or low-income, or live in a state or country that devalues women’s lives. (I’m sure I’m leaving marginalized community out here, and so please forgive and accept my apology on the front end).
All this to say that I guess International Women’s Day – a day that, according to the UN, “when women are recognized for their achievements without regard to divisions, whether national, ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic or political” – is, in fact, necessary after all.
International Women’s Day has been observed since the early 1900s – a time of considerable unrest when women were organizing and marching and demonstrating for all manner of things like better working conditions, the right to vote, and better pay. In 1909, The Socialist Party of America declared the first National Women’s Day, to be observed across the nation, on the last Sunday in February.
The movement went international in the coming years, starting in Copenhagen and moving on to Austria, Germany and Switzerland. Observance moved to March, and more than one million individuals – women and men – attended rallies in 1911 demanding rights for women, and most Italian and Jewish immigrants. Just over a week later, the disastrous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire took the lives of 146 people – most of them women – and crystalized a movement for workers rights.
The UN didn’t get around to observing International Women’s Day officially until 1975. Two years later, the General Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming a United Nations Day for Women’s Rights and International Peace to be observed on any day of the year by Member States, in accordance with their historical and national traditions.
The day celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2011, and it’s still going strong. Even the Google Doodle is on board.
Finally, a break in the rain has arrived, though flood warnings are still in effect. (The Hudson River at Troy is the subject of a flood watch, for example). It will be partly cloudy today, with temperatures in the mid 50s. Rain is back in the forecast for the weekend, however, with showers possible both Saturday night and Sunday morning. Some sleet or snow might be mixing in for good measure on Saturday. Temperatures will be in the 40s both days.
In the headlines…
President Joe Biden said he wanted to use his State of the Union to “wake up” Congress, but he was the one who seemed suddenly energized as he sparred with Republican hecklers and repeatedly criticized former President Donald Trump.
Shaking off lackluster approval ratings and his own party’s anxiety about his political and physical health, the 81-year-old delivered one of the feistiest and most political presidential addresses to Congress in recent memory.
Biden did not mention Trump by name but made clear the former president was a dire threat to American democracy and stability in the world.
Biden soaked up the atmosphere after finishing his State of the Union address, shooting the breeze with well-wishers and taking his time before departing for the White House.
Biden in his State of the Union address defended U.S. efforts to increase the amount of aid reaching Gaza, while imploring Israel to “do its part” and not use humanitarian assistance as a bargaining chip.
The U.S. military will build a temporary port on Gaza’s Mediterranean coast to receive humanitarian aid by sea, Biden said.
Although Biden had signaled repeated optimism that a temporary ceasefire could soon offer some relief for the beleaguered territory, the prospects of that happening any time soon seemed to be growing dimmer.
Dozens of Democratic congresswomen donned white outfits to Biden’s State of the Union address to raise attention for “women’s rights,” including access to abortions and in vitro fertilization.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said GOP lawmakers who heckled Biden during his State of the Union address were responding to an “overly partisan speech.
Disgraced ex-Rep. George Santos made a surprise return to Congress for the State of the Union address. Like other former representatives, he has the right to return to the House floor whenever they want.
Scarcely three months after he was expelled from the House of Representatives and bitterly swore his intent never to return, Santos went back on his word and declared his intent to run again.
Santos posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that he will challenge incumbent Rep. Nick LaLota in the race for New York’s 1st Congressional District.
Two weeks after announcing that GlobalFoundries won preliminary approval for a $1.5 billion federal grant to build another computer chip fab in Saratoga County, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer invited one of its workers to the State of the Union.
Trump’s Hail Mary pass seeking more time to secure $83.3 million owed to E. Jean Carroll failed, giving him less than four days to come up with the colossal judgment — weeks out from a deadline to find half a billion dollars more in his historic fraud case.
Prosecutors in Trump’s classified documents case sought to rebut his claim that he is a victim of selective prosecution, rejecting the his argument that he was treated more harshly than Biden had been in an investigation into his handling of sensitive materials.
A New York judge effectively barred Trump from exposing the identities of potential jurors at his first criminal trial later this month, emphasizing a need to protect those who might decide the highly sensitive case.
State officials are pointing fingers after four suspects arrested in connection with body parts found throughout Long Island over the past week were freed without bail on Wednesday.
New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams threw cold water on Hochul’s plan to have 1,000 National Guard members and state police patrol the city’s subway system, saying more emphasis needs to be placed on addressing the “root causes” of disarray.
Hochul’s decision to deploy the National Guard and state police to check bags in New York City’s subway system struck some as an overreaction, but the governor argued the presence of armed forces was meant to have a “psychological” effect.
Hochul’s subway safety plan was meant to show how Democrats can take action on crime, but the response illustrated how the issue divides her party.
NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell was among the chorus of critics who lashed out over the governor’s move to suddenly deploy 750 National Guard troops and 250 state law enforcement to combat what she described as a subway crime “crisis.”
Under the Fourth Amendment, which guarantees the right to protection from unreasonable searches and seizures, a rider can decline a bag search if the police lack a reasonable suspicion that the rider has done something illegal or is carrying a weapon.
Westchester County Youth Bureau Executive Director DaMia Harris-Madden has been nominated by Hochul to serve as the next commissioner of the state Office of Children and Family Services, the governor’s office announced.
With the state losing $50 million or more annually, Hochul’s proposals for cracking down on drivers who obscure or hide their license plates to avoid tolls appear to be gaining steam in the state Legislature.
The time for the U.S. to “spring forward” this weekend comes with a renewed push by lawmakers to make daylight saving time permanent in New York.
The Citizens Budget Commission, a non-partisan fiscal watchdog group, released their outlook for the New York state budget that warns that even with a brighter outlook for the state’s economy, a focus should be placed on spending restraints.
As a bill that aims to drastically cut the use of plastic packaging gains momentum in Albany, the chemical industry has increased spending to stop it, pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into the effort.
A state government watchdog found that some state agencies are responding to FOIL requests, but improvements can be made to increase transparency and decrease barriers to submitting records’ requests and receiving timely responses.
More than half of Asian New Yorkers were on the receiving end of race-related hate in 2023, and fewer than half of those people reported the incidents to anyone, according to a new survey published yesterday.
A Syracuse-area man who opened Onondaga County’s second licensed marijuana shop is suing the OCM alleging he suffered unnecessary financial losses when regulators forced him last year to abandon the site of the initial storefront he had hoped to use.
The Adams administration is pushing back against claims they flubbed paperwork required to unlock $107 million in federal migrant aid, arguing the application rules for the relief don’t jibe with the reality of the city’s crisis.
Support is growing for Adams’ proposed zoning changes to spur new construction — including from local elected officials looking to lead a pro-growth civic culture.
The City Planning Commission green-lighted the City of Yes for Economic Opportunity zoning proposal this week, clearing the penultimate hurdle for 18 commercial zoning reforms proposed by Adams’ administration.
Civil rights activist The Rev. Al Sharpton demanded that Adams host a “summit” at City Hall to address high unemployment among black New Yorkers, while also fighting a movement to eliminate controversial corporate diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
A group of City Councilmembers unveiled a package of bills meant to stop landlords from using illegal construction and city vacate orders to move tenants far from their homes and ultimately pressure them to leave for good.
Home health care, among the fastest growing industries in New York, is also one of the lowest paying, with often grueling hours, and there is a push among New York City home care workers to ban 24-hour work shifts with a New York City Council bill.
Eighteen people, including federal, state and city government workers, were charged yesterday in a sprawling indictment that accused them of manufacturing ghost guns, identity theft, fraud and robbery, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said.
The chief of the MTA’s biggest union — which once supported New York’s controversial congestion pricing plan — is now threatening a “massive confrontation” with transit management over the proposed toll to enter Midtown or Lower Manhattan.
State Attorney General Letitia James was met with a chorus of boos and chants of “Trump” while delivering a speech at an FDNY promotion ceremony.
An 8-year-old boy allegedly threatened another 8-year-old boy with an unloaded pistol at an elementary school in Brooklyn yesterday, an NYPD spokesperson said.
Morton Povman, a soft-spoken but whip-smart Brooklyn-born lawyer who represented Queens in the New York City Council for 30 years, becoming the chamber’s longest-serving member in history, died this week at home in Kew Gardens Hills. He was 93.
Two New Jersey men who owned and operated a 24-foot boat that capsized in the Hudson River, killing two people, including a 7-year-old boy, were arrested and charged with misconduct and neglect that prosecutors say caused the deaths.
Keith Raniere is still claiming he was wrongfully convicted of possessing child pornography. And the jailed-for-life NXIVM leader is still failing to convince a federal judge in Brooklyn those arguments have any merit.
The state AG is seeking an order of contempt against the Norlite mine/aggregate mill for what it says is the company’s failure to control dust emissions and its slowness in installing monitoring equipment and alert authorities when dust levels are high.
Playhouse Stage Company will present one of its two summer musicals in its longtime home on the amphitheater stage in Washington Park, but for the first time, the second will run for a month indoors, at Cohoes Music Hall.
Boston Symphony Orchestra’s 86th Popular Artist Series will welcome a parade of classic rock icons, pop stars and returning artists and debuts to Tanglewood’s Koussevitzky Music Shed this summer.
Two lawyers who work in the Schenectady County attorney’s office and another who once worked there, as well as the incumbent, are seeking the Schenectady County Family Court judge seat.
A combination of warm weather, rain and melting snow has turned trails in the High Peaks into a nearly impassable mess of muck, slippery icy spots and high-water stream crossings, prompting state officials to warn people away from the area until it dries out.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
