Good morning, it’s Thursday.
Here’s a sort of depressing statistic: The average person spends about 13 years and two months of their life working, which is about 90,000 hours, or 37 percent of their total lifetime. This assumes that one is working 40 hours, which is about 2,080 working hours in a year.
I don’t even want to contemplate how many MORE hours I work a week – or.year, for that matter – but I am pretty damn sure it’s a lot more than 40 on average. (By contrast, the average person spends about 26 years of their life sleeping and seven more years just trying to GET to sleep, which is something I sadly relate to).
To be clear, I enjoy my job, on balance. This post is not an anti-work rant. There was a time in my life when I was just DESPERATE to work, but wasn’t allowed to do so because I wasn’t old enough, according to the government.
As a pre-teen, I equated work with freedom, ironically. If I had my own money, I reasoned, I could do what I wanted with it – put gas in my car, once I was old enough to drive and had a vehicle at my disposal, buy clothes that my mother didn’t approve of, go to the movies with my friends, etc. etc.
I did get an allowance of $15 a week sent to me from Florida by my paternal grandfather, Ruby, may he rest in peace. But sometimes my parents confiscated it because I had failed to do the limited number of chores allotted to me, or talked back, or some other infraction that they deemed required disciplining.
As soon as I was legally able, which is 14 years old in New York State (in non-agricultural jobs and with certain limitations), I got my working papers and I was off to the races. My first official job that was not babysitting off the books was as a tea girl in the Lake Lounge at Mohonk Mountain House, one of my favorite places on the planet. I wore a high-necked white blouse and a long black skirt and served tea and cookies to the guests every day at 4 p.m.
I don’t recall how much I was paid to do this (not very taxing) job. It wasn’t a lot – the minimum wage at the time I graduated from high school was less than $4. I do recall being shocked when I received my first paycheck by how small it was due to all the withholdings and taxes. But that’s a post for s different day.
I do remember being annoyed that the government had rules about when and how much I could work. Who the heck were they to tell me what to do?! (Little did I know). Of course, now that I’m an adult and have done a little reading, I know that the rules – specifically the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) – were put in place for my own good, and the good of the millions of underage kids who were at one point working long hours and in dangerous conditions.
Just because there are rules in place, however, does not mean that they are followed.
You might think that child labor is something that happens in other countries. While it’s true an estimated one in 10 of the world’s children are, in fact, engaged in work that they are too young to perform and might damage their health, the practice of hiring underage workers for dangerous and menial and low-paid jobs is indeed occurring right here in the United States.
In fact, it’s on the rise, in part due to the influx of unaccompanied minors who come into the country – legally and illegally – and are forced to work in order to support themselves and their families. A New York Times investigation published in 2023 found that “migrant children, who have been coming into the United States without their parents in record numbers, are ending up in some of the most punishing jobs in the country.”
Today is the World Day Against Child Labour, which was launched in 2002 by the International Labour Organization (ILO) to raise awareness about the prevalence of child labor across the globe and the damage it causes to young people and also to revisit strategies to eliminate it.
Another fairly decent day is on tap, weather-wise. Expect intervals of sun and clouds and temperatures climbing into the high 70s.
In the headlines…
After two days of tense negotiations, the United States and China appear to have walked back from the brink of a devastating economic conflict — maybe.
Officials from the two countries reached a handshake agreement in the early hours of yesterday in London to remove some of the harmful measures they had used to target each other’s economies as part of a clash that rapidly intensified in recent months.
President Donald Trump said that China had agreed to supply US companies with magnets and rare earth metals, while the US would walk back its threats to revoke visas of Chinese students.
“Our deal with China is done, subject to final approval from President Xi and me,” Trump wrote on his media platform Truth Social.
“China reiterates that the two sides should act in the same direction, keep their promises and fulfill their actions, show the spirit of integrity in abiding by their commitments and the efforts to implement the consensus,” China’s state news agency Xinhua wrote.
Since taking office in January, Trump has, step by step, expanded domestic use of the military, testing the legal and political limits on involving troops trained to fight foreign wars in roles traditionally carried out by the local police or Border Patrol.
Demonstrators expressing anger with the Trump administration’s immigration raids were squaring off with the police in Seattle, Las Vegas, Spokane, Wash., and Los Angeles, where officers dispersed a crowd before an overnight curfew took effect downtown.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in Los Angeles were “political retribution” against residents of the predominantly Democratic city.
“Angelenos are trying to live their lives—going to work, caring for their families—while facing the constant threat of sudden immigration crackdowns,” Bass said in a post on the social platform X.
The Trump administration cannot for now deport or detain Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate and pro-Palestinian activist being held in a Louisiana detention center, a federal judge in New Jersey ruled yesterday.
Judge Michael Farbiarz granted Khalil’s motion for release and said immigration authorities currently can’t seek to remove him based on Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s determination that his advocacy for Palestinian rights may compromise foreign policy.
“This is the news we’ve been waiting over three months for,” Khalil’s wife, Dr. Noor Abdalla, said in a statement released by the American Civil Liberties Union, which is among the legal teams involved in the case.
In his decision, the judge said Khalil’s “career and reputation are being damaged and his speech is being chilled — and this adds up to irreparable harm.”
A bipartisan group of congressional lawmakers is calling on the Trump administration to address the continued sale of illicit, compounded GLP-1 products, warning consumers may be accessing these drugs without knowing the product could be fraudulent.
A dressed-to-the-nines Trump hit the Kennedy Center red carpet hand-in-hand with first lady Melania to see “Les Misérables” — and was unfazed by reports that some cast members of his favorite musical planned to boycott opening night due to his presence.
Trump’s fight to overturn his criminal conviction returned to the spotlight as his legal team clashed with the Manhattan district attorney’s office over whether the appeals process should play out in state or federal court.
Republican lawmakers crushed their Democratic counterparts at the annual Congressional Baseball Game in Washington, DC.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. named eight doctors and researchers, including four who have spoken out against vaccination in some way, to replace roughly half the members he fired from an expert panel that advises the CDC.
Kennedy made the announcement yesterday on the social media platform X, two days after he fired all 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
David Hogg, the young vice chair of the DNC who divided the party over his plans to intervene in primary races against sitting Democratic lawmakers, said that he would step aside from his prominent post after the party voted to force him to run again.
Former President Bill Clinton, 78, sparked concern on social media after he was spotted walking gingerly and stumbling ahead of a book event in New York City.
State Republican lawmakers offered advice to their congressional counterparts ahead of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s testimony on today over sanctuary policies – outlining a list of questions to fling at the Democrat.
Ahead of Hochul’s testimony, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform released a video detailing how sanctuary polices do not protect Americans—they only provide a sanctuary for criminal illegal aliens.
Hochul announced the completion of the rehabilitation of Ellicott Town Center, a decades-old 281-unit affordable housing development near downtown in the City of Buffalo.
Hochul says New York should have done a better job anticipating the state’s energy needs before negotiating the deal that shuttered the Indian Point nuclear power plant in 2021.
New York religious leaders are urging Hochul to veto a bill that would authorize physicians in the state to administer lethal doses of drugs to terminally ill patients.
House Republican Leadership Chairwoman Elise Stefanik has criticized Hochul for her silence on the medical aid in dying bill.
Democratic governors facing potential big budget problems exacerbated by the GOP megabill being fast-tracked in Washington are considering emergency measures to try to soften the blow.
State Attorney General Letitia James has released body camera footage from the death of Brandon Moore, the man shot by police at a Malta apartment complex after an alleged domestic disturbance two months ago.
Legislation that would require workers in care facilities that serve developmentally disabled individuals to call 911 when someone is injured or abused is not expected to be voted on again this year by New York lawmakers.
A longtime New Jersey congressman could soon help oversee the 6-million-acre wilderness of the Adirondack Park.
Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, the young democratic socialist who has been rising in the mayor’s race, is now ahead of Andrew Cuomo with just two weeks until the Democratic primary, a new poll reviewed in full by POLITICO found.
The survey, conducted by Public Policy Polling for Democrat Justin Brannan’s city comptroller campaign, found Mamdani beating Cuomo 35 percent to 31 percent — a difference that is narrowly within the 4.1 percent margin of error.
Cuomo was backed by former Gov. David Paterson, a onetime rival who is now an ally in Cuomo’s bid to become mayor of New York City.
Paterson announced he was backing Cuomo — the frontrunner to win the Democratic nomination for mayor — during an event where he was joined by union members and Manhattan Democratic Party Leader Keith Wright.
The two top contenders in the Democratic primary for New York City mayor engaged in heated exchange over who is most qualified to run the city and deal with Trump.
Cuomo argued that his leading opponent, Mamdani, lacks the experience to lead the city. “I think New Yorkers are smart. They know that somebody has to know how to do the job,” Cuomo told reporters.
Mamdani submitted bids Tuesday evening for equipment once purchased to fulfill his chief political rival’s dreams of a choreographed, colored light show to create an “international tourist attraction” on New York City’s bridges.
As he leans into his Muslim faith, Mamdani’s positions on the Israel-Gaza war have drawn criticism from across the political spectrum.
City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams confirmed she deleted a social media post critical of fellow mayoral candidate Mamdani because it didn’t reflect what she “wanted to say” and was “misinterpreted.”
In a Daily News op-ed, Speaker Adams makes the case for why she is the best candidate running in the Democratic mayoral primary.
Brad Lander, the New York City comptroller who is running for mayor, visited The New York Times for an interview.
Scott Stringer, the former New York City comptroller who is running for mayor, visited The New York Times for an interview.
StreetsPAC recommends that voters put Lander at the top of their ranked-choice voting ballots for mayor, saying his plan for safer streets and better public transit is “by far the most comprehensive blueprint … we’ve ever seen from a candidate for any office.”
The New York City Council narrowly granted a local approval needed for the state Legislature to allow a casino to be built on parkland at Ferry Point in the Bronx, where the Bally’s Corp. is vying for a license.
The City Council voted to advance legislation that would allow gaming operator Bally’s to convert part of Trump’s former Bronx golf course into a casino — after the mayor intervened to help secure its passage.
The city’s powerful teachers union is endorsing Council member Keith Powers in the race for Manhattan borough president — even though it endorsed his opponent for the seat the last time around.
The City Council voted unanimously to back a proposed tweak in state law that will allow the children of a slain NYPD cop to collect her pension — the final hurdle for the bill to go to a vote in Albany.
Mayor Eric Adams hit back at City Council members’ push to probe the NYPD over alleged violations of the city’s sanctuary city laws — saying they should instead be focused on “those who commit serious crimes.”
Dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested as they staged a sit-in in the lobby of a Midtown East skyscraper, demanding that a company in the building stop providing arms to Israel.
Less than a year after GQ called it “the hottest club in NYC,” the parking lot outside the bar Time Again, in Chinatown, has become the flashpoint of a neighborhood debate.
The New York City Council unanimously signed off on a rezoning plan to supercharge Hudson Yards with thousands of new apartments, office towers and a sprawling park — after booting the controversial casino that once threatened to roll in.
A City Council member from Queens is urging her constituents to arm themselves following a terrifying home invasion in which robbers posing as Amazon drivers tied up a family and snatched thousands of dollars in cash, according to cops.
Disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein was convicted on a sexual assault charge in a split verdict in Manhattan yesterday, a year after the verdict in his landmark 2020 trial was overturned.
Jurors found Weinstein guilty after five days of deliberation of conducting a criminal sex act regarding former TV production assistant Miriam Haley, but acquitted him on the same charge regarding Polish model and aspiring actress Kaja Sokola.
The panel was instructed to return today to continue deliberating on the final charge, third-degree rape.
The jurors who decided Weinstein’s fate in his New York retrial were ordered to take a break and “cool down” earlier yesterday, as their discussions seemingly broke down amid shouting and threats.
A founder of the Queens Defenders has been charged with diverting tens of thousands of dollars from the organization and using it for personal expenses including a vacation in Bali, rent for a luxury apartment and teeth-whitening procedures.
Silentó, the Atlanta rapper known for his hit song “Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae),” pleaded guilty but mentally ill to voluntary manslaughter and other charges in the 2021 shooting death of his 34-year-old cousin.
As immigration agents perform sweeps on Long Island, Nassau County officials said that police have no arrangements with federal officers to go into schools for immigration matters unless there is a threat to safety.
Dozens of people gathered along McCarty Avenue yesterday morning near the FBI’s Albany office to protest arrests made in the city by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
Attorneys for Mavis Discount Tire were allowed to sit in on interviews that State Police and Schoharie County DA Susan Mallery had with the auto chain’s employees during the early days of the 2018 Schoharie limousine crash criminal investigation.
Residents are concerned about the future of the Rensselaer County reservoir, which the state has deemed unsafe and wants to decommission.
A second associate of former Prime Capital Ventures CEO Kris Roglieri has pleaded guilty in a widening wire fraud case brought against the now-jailed loan broker.
Plans for a new Tesla dealership, which sparked a previous protest of more than 100 people, were approved this week by the Town of Colony Planning Board.
The League of Women Voters of Saratoga County is hosting a series of programs, “Profiles in Courage,” in an effort to lift the voices of marginalized groups.
Weeks before John C. Hudson Jr. was fired from the Hoosick Falls police force, a private firm determined that the then-officer-in-charge had “underlying issues with his reliability.”
Brian Wilson, who as the leader and chief songwriter of the Beach Boys became rock’s poet laureate of surf-and-sun innocence, but also an embodiment of damaged genius through his struggles with mental illness and drugs, has died. He was 82.
Wilson’s family announced the death on Instagram but did not say where or when he died, or state a cause.
“We are heartbroken to announce that our beloved father Brian Wilson has passed away,” they wrote. “We are at a loss for words right now. Please respect our privacy at this time as our family is grieving. We realize that we are sharing our grief with the world.”
Photo credit: George Fazio.
