Good morning, it’s Friday. All day long. And then it’s Saturday, and after that, Sunday. Yes, the weekend is upon us. Summer is fast coming to an end, so get out there and enjoy it if you can.
It looks like the weather will be cooperating with outdoor pursuits, and things will warm up again – thankfully, as I am not quite ready to pack all my shorts and t-shirts away for the season. I do hate these shoulder periods, when everything I put on feels wrong. I’m freezing in the morning, and then boiling hot by mid-afternoon.
I love a good outfit change as much as anyone, but two or three in a single day is starting to feel a bit excessive. I know, layering is key. So far, I haven’t mastered the art of that. Tips are welcome. ‘
I like to end the week on a high note, if at all possible. The world is so heavy these days, sometimes it’s nice to be able to focus on the frivolous and fun side of things. Spoiler alert: the rest of this post is not light in the least. If you’re feeling in need of something fluffy, you might want to look elsewhere today.
“Slavery” is a word we in the U.S. associate with the past, though its negative impacts continue to resonate and play out in so many ways in virtually every aspect of our society.
(As an aside, I am re-reading “Gone With the Wind”, which I originally read when I was a pre-teen – a time when I have very little understanding of racism and all its insidious implications. Picking this book back up as an adult has been a completely different experience, and a not altogether good one).
But the truth is that slavery is very much a modern-day issue that entraps an estimated 50 million people across the globe, who are being held against their will – often under violence or threat of violence – and do not have the means (financial, educational, etc.) by which to extricate themselves.
Modern-day slavery, by the way, is also known as trafficking, which is defined by the UN as “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, or receipt of persons by improper means (such as force, abduction, fraud, or coercion) for an improper purpose including forced labor or sexual exploitation.”
Today is the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition. This day was selected by UNESCO to commemorate the beginning of an uprising in 1791, in Saint Domingue (today the Republic of Haiti) that would play a crucial role in the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade.
The purpose of the day, according to UNESCO, is to “inscribe the tragedy of the slave trade in the memory of all peoples” and to “offer an opportunity for collective consideration of the historic causes, the methods and the consequences of this tragedy, and for an analysis of the interactions to which it has given rise between Africa, Europe, the Americas and the Caribbean.”
So this is primarily a day for looking back and recognizing the impacts slavery has had on our country and our culture, but, equally important (in my view) is not to be complacent about combatting a phenomenon that is sadly very much still with us – even here in the U.S. To wit, an estimated 1.1 million – the majority of whom are women and children – are in modern slavery in this country, according to the Global Slavery Index, which is produced by the Human Rights organization Walk Free.
The State Department found last year that there was “a continued lack of progress to comprehensively address labor trafficking in the United States, such as in efforts to identify victims, including those who participate in U.S. visa programs; provide labor trafficking survivors with specialized services; and hold labor traffickers, including contractors and recruiters, accountable.”
Which is damn depressing. You can’t say I didn’t warn you.
Perhaps it will cheer you to know that today will be in the low 80s with mostly sunny skies – a trend that will more or less continue (temperature-wise) through the weekend, though skies will be partly cloudy. I’ll take it.
In the headlines…
Before a convention hall packed with supporters in symbolic suffragette white, Kamala Harris became the second woman to formally accept the Democratic Party’s nomination as she tries to break through as the nation’s first female president.
Harris wrapped herself in the language of patriotism and American exceptionalism, unspooling the story of her upbringing by a single mother to present herself as a leader who understands the strains and aspirations of the middle class.
“My entire career, I’ve only had one client: the people,” Harris said of her career of public service. “The only client he has ever had,” she said of Donald Trump. “Himself.”
Trump posted on Truth Social throughout Harris’ DNC speech, where she has formally accepted the party’s nomination for president.
Harris gave her acceptance speech amid a Lollapalooza atmosphere in the United Center. As delegates pack up and head home, Chicago hopes its reputation as a world-class host city has been polished.
The vice president’s speech sought to reassure Americans of her values even as many may be unfamiliar with her background.
If Harris is elected this November, she will become the first woman president of the United States. It was a key detail she left out of her acceptance speech – not to mention first Black woman president or Southeast Asian American woman president.
In a prime-time speech at the DNC, four of the five men exonerated in the 1989 assault of a female jogger – including City Councilmember Yusef Salaam – said Trump’s public attacks were devastating.
When President Biden ended his presidential campaign on July 21, making Harris the presumptive Democratic nominee, he unleashed the biggest wave of small-dollar enthusiasm the race has seen.
Of all the issues that seemingly preoccupy Trump — his perceived persecutions, the evil of his enemies, the size of the rallies — there is one that may be the most consistent: other people’s looks.
Trump announced a new cryptocurrency project called “The DeFiant Ones” but offered few details about the enterprise.
Trump abruptly ended an exclusive interview with NewsNation when his security detail alerted the former president and Republican nominee for president that he would not be safe continuing the interview.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has filed paperwork to withdraw from the presidential race in Arizona, a spokesman for the Arizona secretary of state’s office said on Thursday night.
The move comes a day before Kennedy, an independent candidate, is set to give an address in Arizona about the future of his struggling campaign.
“He is a very good person. If he endorsed me, I would be honored by it,” Trump said of Kennedy. “I would be very honored by it. He really has his heart in the right place. He is a respected person.”
Kennedy, an anti-vaccine activist, appears to be angling for a Cabinet role in a would-be Trump administration – something the former president has said he’s open to. Kennedy has advocated dismantling core functions of federal health agencies.
The Justice Department plans to file an antitrust lawsuit as soon as today against the real estate software company RealPage, claiming its software enabled landlords to collude to raise rents, two people with knowledge of the lawsuit said.
The Supreme Court allowed Arizona, at least for now, to toughen some voting requirements, saying that people registering to vote before the coming election must show proof of citizenship.
The FDA approved the latest slate of annual Covid vaccines, clearing the way for Americans 6 months and older to receive updated shots in the midst of a prolonged summer surge of the virus.
Pfizer and Moderna are expected to begin shipping vaccines to pharmacies and doctors’ offices within days. The shots are tailored to a version of the virus that took off this spring before giving way to closely related variants, all of which appear to spread faster.
Similar to previous seasons, the CDC is recommending that all Americans ages 6 months and older get a shot of the “updated 2024-2025 COVID-19 vaccine” to protect against another expected surge of the virus this fall and winter.
Health officials have long acknowledged that the rollout of this year’s new COVID-19 vaccines would likely arrive too late for many Americans infected by this summer’s wave of the virus.
Mortgage rates dipped this week to a recent low, with analysts predicting a sharper drop in the coming months that could motivate potential home buyers.
The average rate on 30-year mortgages, the most popular home loan in the US, fell slightly to 6.46 percent this week, Freddie Mac reported. That was a slight decline from the 6.49 percent average a week earlier, but was the lowest level since May 2023.
Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages also fell this week, good news for homeowners seeking to refinance their home loan at a lower rate. The average rate fell to 5.62% from 5.66% last week. A year ago, it averaged 6.55%, Freddie Mac said.
MTA boss Janno Lieber and Manhattan lawmakers are “thrilled” that Gov. Kathy Hochul will propose a plan by year’s end to fund the MTA’s massive capital program that could include a lower “congestion” toll to enter Midtown.
For the second year in a row, state testing scores indicate that half of New York’s third through eighth graders are not considered proficient in math and English.
Three years after Mayor Eric Adams declared that as a tough-on-crime moderate, he represented “the future of the Democratic Party,” he was largely missing from the Democratic National Convention in Chicago this week.
Adams will help Harris get elected by encouraging disaffected Black men to vote, he said, adding that he’ll hit up barbershops and other spots where people get the word out.
Time is running out for developers to sign up for the hard-fought extension of the 421-a tax break for affordable housing construction, and the Adams administration is mounting a push to make builders aware of the impending deadline.
A group of Manhattan tenants filed a lawsuit alleging their landlord engaged in a “systemic” scheme to raise rents beyond the legal limit by claiming credit for fictitious repairs — a case advocates say points to a need for stronger state housing law enforcement.
A little park in NoLIta known as the Elizabeth Street Garden is getting last-minute support from some big names — Robert De Niro, Martin Scorsese and Patti Smith.
“The Garden is not only an oasis of greenspace within our city, but truly stands as a work of art,” Smith, 77, who has performed in the green space to raise awareness of its impending doom, wrote in her Aug. 14 letter.
Tens of thousands of New Yorkers who are married to U.S. citizens will be spared deportation after an executive action by the Biden administration went into effect this week.
The overwhelming majority of Metropolitan Transportation Authority transit workers said they’ve faced harassment or assault on the job, according to a new survey by New York University’s School of Global Public Health.
Columbia University’s medical school announced that a graduate was donating $400 million, the largest gift in its history. It comes at a critical time for the university, which spent much of the last school year convulsed by protests over the Israel-Hamas war.
The city is continuing its war on disease-carrying mosquitoes, this time with schedule sprayings in Manhattan and Brooklyn next week.
An under-fire Brooklyn bookstore has canned an apparent rogue manager who canceled and “unilaterally” derailed a Jewish author’s book launch event because of the moderator’s pro-Israel views.
New Yorkers are filing around 2,000 complaints per month to 311 alleging that city employees are misusing their parking placards to double park, obstruct crosswalks and park on sidewalks, city data shows – about double the number at this time last year.
Three pet emotional support parrots at a Manhattan apartment building irritated their neighbors, who moved to evict them and their owner. The owner took the neighbors to court and was awarded damages.
A failed Long Island congressional candidate was busted for illegally filling her campaign coffers with $400,000 from the disgraced crypto exchange FTX — where her beau worked as an top executive, prosecutors charge.
Killington Resort, the largest ski and snowboard area east of the Rocky Mountains, is being sold to a group of investors led by a pair of longtime skiers and residents there.
Philip F. Calderone, the chief executive officer of the Albany County Airport Authority, wrote a letter to the authority’s board requesting that his contract to run the facility be extended.
A candlelight vigil will be held tonight to celebrate the life and legacy of the late civil rights leader Alice Green.
The life of philanthropist and longtime Spa City personality John Hendrickson will be celebrated at the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame on Friday, Aug. 30, with a two-hour memorial event, the museum announced.
On top of the Grade I Travers Stakes tomorrow, there is no shortage of high-quality racing action at Saratoga Race Course.
Documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Albany reveal that Prime Capital Ventures, the defunct commercial loan company once run by Kris Roglieri, could be facing more than $200 million in legal claims from former clients and creditors.
A large algae bloom containing toxic bacteria is growing in Buckingham Pond, according to the Albany Water Department.
Malta-based Wright Electric has received a $3 million federal grant to fund its Ultra-High-Energy Battery Project, which is researching and developing batteries for a zero-emission electric passenger aircraft.
The REI Co-op’s grand opening kicks off at 9 a.m. this morning at Crossgates Mall in Guilderland.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
