Good morning, it’s Monday.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the age of responsibility, sometimes also known as the legal age of majority, which generally refers to the age at which one is no longer considered a minor and so is legally responsible for their actions, can make their own decisions and is an adult in the eyes of the law.
In many countries – including here in the U.S. – that age is 18, which means when you pass that key threshold, you’re eligible to vote, marry without parental consent, enter into legal contracts, own property and pretty much manage all your own affairs.
This might differ sightly from state to state, however.
For example, the age of majority for marriage without a parent’s permission is 19 in Nebraska and 21 in Mississippi. Here in New York, a person is entitled to be supported by their parents until the age of 21, but if you’re under that age and in the military, self-supporting, and/or married, you’re considered “emancipated” and your parents’ obligation to support you ends.
To further complicate matters, the age of majority is different from the age of criminal responsibility, which is when one can be held legally accountable for their actions if they break the law. The juvenile age for court distinction varies from state to state and country to country.
At the age of 18, one can also join any branch of the U.S. armed forces without parental consent, but one must wait another three years to be allowed to legally purchase tobacco products and to purchase and publicly possess alcoholic beverages (more on this in a moment).
What’s curious about all this is that extensive research has shown that the human brain is not fully developed until a person is well into their 20s. The prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for high-level functions like making decisions and planning, is one of the last areas of the brain to finish developing.
Which is why I found it so perplexing when I heard the news last week that the U.K. announced it would be introducing legislation to lower its legal voting age from 18 to 16 as part of a broader effort to modernize the country’s democracy.
This is pretty drastic – and also pretty unusual. As far as I can tell, only 10 other countries allow 16 year-olds-to vote, and four have a voting age of 17. Most countries are aligned with the U.S. on the 18-year-old voting threshold, and a few require you to be 21. The UAE stands alone with the world’s oldest voting age – 25.
If you’re wondering if I support lowering the voting age here in the U.S., which is not a new debate and apparently has been done at the local level for school board elections in at least one New Jersey city’s – the answer is (for the moment) “no”, though I could be convinced about the school board, I think, given that the decisions made there impact students so significantly.
The debate over what age is appropriate for individuals to have certain rights and access to potentially harmful substances has been going on for decades. On July 17, 1984, then-President Ronald Reagan signed into law the National Minimum Drinking Age Act, which mandated a national drinking age of 21 and threatened states that refused to comply with a loss of federal highway funds.
Prior to the act’s passage, a number of states had actually lowered the drinking age to 20, 19, or even 18 in the wake of the Vietnam War. But a rise in drinking-related traffic accidents and fatalities spurred a movement – largely spearheaded by Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) – to institute a national standard for the drinking age and raise it to 21.
I thought the question of how old a person has to be to drink legally was a settled policy matter, but I was wrong. There are still people out there today agitating for the drinking age to the lowered to 18, arguing that, among other things, it’s the age of majority in so many other instances.
Some also claim that requiring people to be 21 to drink encourages binge drinking and underage drinking. It turns out that 18 is the most common minimum legal drinking age around the world, though in some places it’s as low as 16. I can say that when I lived in France for a year, where the drinking age is 18, the mystique of alcohol sort of faded away. I regularly drank a glass of wine or beer at the local cafe, but rarely did I drink to excess or feel pressured to consume the way I back home.
Food – or rather, a drink – for thought.
It’s going to be on the cooler side for a couple of days, with temperatures topping out in the mid-to-high-70s. Least you be concerned that summer is coming to an early end, be rest assured that there’s more hot and humid weather right around the corner, so enjoy this little respite from the heat while you can.
In the headlines…
Days after the Justice Department asked a federal judge to unseal grand jury testimony related to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, Republicans and Democrats suggested that the move was insufficient and called for the release of more information.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) acting director Todd Lyons said in an interview that aired yesterday that his agency will crack down on American companies hiring unauthorized workers.
A majority of surveyed Americans oppose the way Trump is using migrant detention facilities amid his broader crackdown on immigration, according to a new CBS News/YouGov poll.
Trump urged the Washington Commanders to revert to their former name (the Redskins) and threatened to derail a deal for the N.F.L. team to build a new stadium in Washington, D.C., if it didn’t submit to his demand.
Andy Byron, the chief executive of New York-based tech company Astronomer, has resigned from his role after he was spotted embracing an employee at a Coldplay concert, according to a statement released Saturday.
Astronomer’s board of directors accepted Byron’s resignation and will begin searching for its next CEO, the statement said.
The HR executive at the center of the viral infidelity scandal married into one of the oldest and wealthiest families in Boston.
GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik used the viral moment caught during a Coldplay concert to bash New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul.
Hochul’s office says CBS’ sudden cancellation of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” will cost hundreds of local jobs — about a decade after the state wagered $16 million to keep the show in New York City.
The Writers Guild of America is calling on New York Attorney General Letitia James to explore the circumstances of CBS’ decision to cancel “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” an end to the decades-old TV brand that will see its final episode air next May.
Hochul says she hasn’t reviewed legislation proposed banning masks for I.C.E. agents, but does have “personal” opinions on it, explaining: “I find it abhorrent,”
Hochul lurched her administration into uncomfortable territory last month when she announced that she had directed the New York Power Authority to build a new nuclear power plant upstate.
Millions of New Yorkers are at risk of losing their health insurance coverage, Hochul warned as the fallout from Trump’s recently signed One Big Beautiful Bill Act begins to take shape.
Hochul is getting serious about her demands to release the documents surrounding Epstein’s crimes — and the two Republicans involved in a proxy battle to win the GOP gubernatorial nomination are attacking her for it.
The amount New York paid to state government employees for overtime hours increased by over 10% last year even as the workforce continues to grow, according to a new report from the state comptroller’s office.
Overtime pay is rising among New York state workers — and a struggle to recruit corrections officers to work in the state’s sprawling prison system is partially to blame.
Legal and migrant advocacy groups fighting to block New York from helping the Trump administration enforce US immigration laws have been awarded more than $600 million in taxpayer dollars from the city and state governments.
New York City Democratic mayoral primary winner Zohran Mamdani announced he had traveled to Uganda to introduce his family and friends to his wife Rama Duwaji, who he married in February.
He joked in a video published to his social media accounts that many of his critics have called for him to “go back to Uganda,” where he was born to Indian parents and spent the early years of his life.
In a statement, Mayor Eric Adams criticized his opponent for taking a vacation, saying: “This election is about who’s prepared to lead, not who can rack up the most passport stamps or press headlines.”
The Big Apple will devolve into a crime-ridden dystopia unsafe for civilians and cops alike if Mamdani wins the keys to City Hall, Adams predicted.
Adams said he plans to rely much more on artificial intelligence to run a “smarter city” and assist New Yorkers if he’s re-elected to a second term.
Mamdani’s educational priorities could undermine progress in the nation’s largest school system, veteran education experts warn.
New York’s top three Democrat leaders are “hiding in the weeds” by refusing to say whether they support Mamdani for mayor, ex-Republican Gov. George Pataki said.
Mamdani and House Speaker Hakeem Jeffries huddled together in private conversation Friday in Brooklyn, their first face-to-face meeting since the asssemblymember’s primary win.
The meeting, which took place in Jeffries’s home district, lasted an hour and was “constructive,” according to Jeffries’s spokesperson Justin Chermol, but did not end in an endorsement.
A former top aide to Andrew Cuomo claims the New York mayoral candidate once gave an inappropriate, under-the-dress massage to a 72-year-old grandmother who told him to stop.
Karen Hinton, who herself accused the former New York governor of making an unwanted sexual advance toward her when he was working in the Clinton administration in 2000, made the allegation Friday on her Substack.
Brittany Commisso, who accused Cuomo of groping her during a workplace encounter at the Executive Mansion nearly five years ago, has agreed to settle her claims of sexual harassment and retaliation for $450,000.
Under the terms of the agreement, which will need a judge’s approval, Commisso would drop all claims against the state, including an accusation that she was retaliated against after coming forward about her experience.
Cuomo and Adams took aim at each other in separate interviews over the weekend, as each tries to position himself as the right choice for those who do not want their far-left opponent Mamdani to be the city’s next mayor.
Cuomo said he’ll pack his bags and move to Florida if he loses the November general election to Mamdani.
Cuomo is sharpening his attacks on Mamdani, accusing him “fueling antisemitism” and suggesting that younger Jewish voters and pro-Palestinian supporters helped the primary winner pull off his surprising upset victory.
Experts have queried if Cuomo has learned from the mistakes of his Democratic primary campaign and whether he can overcome the roadblocks facing him in order to stand a solid chance in the November election.
Adams over the weekend campaigned with Asian-American supporters in Chinatown — telling them to ignore his rivals in the race and remember what he’s done to support the Asian community.
New York City’s largest public defender organization – Legal Aid – has avoided a strike for now, but hundreds of other attorneys have walked off the job over labor issues, threatening to disrupt some of the busiest courts in the country.
A dilapidated building that once housed a public bathroom in Battery Park is set to be leveled and rebuilt as part of a bigger plan to overhaul the green space.
An off-duty customs officer was shot in the face and arm during a robbery attempt at a park in Manhattan late Saturday night, police officials said.
Disturbing video footage shows the horrific moment a stolen car plows into two people in Chinatown on Saturday morning — killing a 55-year-old Chase Bank loan manager and a 63-year-old woman.
A man who was critically injured last Wednesday after he entered an M.R.I. room on Long Island and was pulled into the machine by his chain necklace died the next day, the authorities said on Friday.
Capital Region Rep. Paul Tonko traveled to Plattsburgh yesterday to hold a town hall with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the progressive firebrand from New York City who is a constant target of Republican attacks on her party’s left flank.
Republicans are accusing Ocasio-Cortez of “fear mongering” during a stop in Stefanik’s upstate district — where she said the congresswoman is “not welcome here anymore.”
The New York state Health Department is warning the public about the potential for exposure to measles at two Capital Region hospital emergency departments, Albany Medical Center and Saratoga Hospital.
The authorities yesterday found the body of a 9-year-old girl who had been reported by her father as missing and possibly abducted in Lake George.
The girl, Melina Galanis Frattolin, of Canada, was found dead in Ticonderoga, about 38 miles north of where she was reported missing, the New York State Police said in a statement.
The 17-year-old shot in the head during an outbreak of violence on July 4 on Madison Avenue has died, police said. The Albany County DA’s office will seek murder charges against the 15-year-old who allegedly shot the teen and wounded several others.
For months, tenants at the Ida Yarbrough Towers have asked Albany Housing Authority to address their concerns about the property’s cleanliness and safety.
Public TV and radio stations that serve the Capital Region and the North Country will lose more than $3 million in annual revenue after Congress voted to cut $1.1 billion in funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and rural areas will be hit harder.
A longtime member of the East Branch Volunteer Fire Department was killed while responding to a car crash last week in the Delaware County town of Hancock, which is near the Pennsylvania border.
A middle-aged man who earlier this year admitted he brandished a butcher knife while trying to rob a drug store was found dead Friday evening in Albany County jail’s medical unit, according to a news release from Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
