Good morning; it’s Tuesday and the last day of September.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, and it’s probably going to be hard to warp your brain around since it still feels like late summer (during the day, anyway), but there are just 83 days remaining until the first day of winter. The Winter Solstice is Dec. 21, but if you’re following the seasons based on what the meteorologists say, winter starts even earlier – Dec. 1 – which is 63 days from now.
The temperature is starting to drop, albeit slowly.
Today we will see highs in the low-to-mid 70s with partly sunny skies. The never several days will feel like actual fall, with highs in the 60s. Before you say that I’m getting ahead of myself, remember that there will be no “Rise and Shine” on Thursday, which, for the record, is forecast to be mostly sunny with a high of 65 degrees, give or take.
I’m traveling again this week, and as such, have packed my tote bag that doubles as a purse/computer carrier/catch-all with the essentials: Reading glasses, laptop, extra charging cords, wallet, keys, snacks, headphones, compact umbrella, Tums, hairbrush, chewing gum. (No wonder my right shoulder hurts).
That last one is a controversial one, it turns out, as something that was once deemed an essential for those who do a lot of close talking with others has apparently fallen out of favor. Yes, it’s true, we’re chewing less gum than we used to. The popularity of chewing gum has slowly declined over the last several decades.
According to Circana, a market research firm, the number of packages of gum sold in the U.S. dropped by nearly a third in 2020, in part due to the fact that, thanks to the pandemic, people were wearing masks, social distancing, and therefore forgoing impose buys for products that would keep their breath fresh.
Though sales have picked up slightly since then, they’re still down significantly from 2018 – a 32 percent drop in the U.S. alone, and a 10 percent drop globally. Sugarless gum is faring better than its counterpart, perhaps thanks to increasingly sugar-leery/health conscious consumers.
Gum companies are trying to bolster sales by pitching their product as a stress reliever and/or concentration aid, and it turns out that there is, in fact, some scientific data to bolster those claims.
Scientists don’t exactly understand why, but chewing gum regularly can actually lower your cortisol levels. And some experiments have determined that chewing gum while working was associated with higher productivity and fewer cognitive problems.
This would like come as a surprise to the ancient people – the Mayans and the Aztecs – who made a habit of chewing tree sap and resins. It is believed that they did so primarily for purposes of oral hygiene and/or to alleviate feelings of hunger and thirst. Certain resins, like the sap from Spruce trees, for example, also had the benefit of anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving properties.
European settlers picked up the habit of chewing tree resin from Native peoples they encountered in the colonization process. The first commercial chewing gum was created by a man named John Bacon Curtis in 1848, who called his product “State of Maine Pure Spruce Gum.” Just a few decades later, a an inventor named Thomas Adams worked with a businessman named William Wrigley Jr. to establish the American Chicle Company, which went on to dominate the early gum industry.
It turned out that tree resin wasn’t really ideal for chewing – it didn’t taste all that great and became brittle after a short period of being masticated. Early adopters quickly pivoted to other substances, like paraffin wax, and later to chicle, a natural latex from the sapodilla tree that has a sweetish taste. This ingredient is still around today, though most gum producers have moved on to cheaper, synthetic polymers.
Bubble gum has its own origin story, and, like so many good things, its invention was actually an accident.
Today, if you hadn’t already caught on, is National Chewing Gum Day. I might celebrate by popping a few pieces, and just in case you were wondering, no, it does not take gum seven years to digest….it actually passes through your body relatively unscathed in – at most – a matter of days.
Since we already dispensed with the weather up top, we’ll get right down to business.
In the headlines…
President Trump and top Democrats failed to strike an agreement during a private meeting yesterday, with Senator Chuck Schumer citing “large differences” on health care and Vice President JD Vance saying the government is probably “headed to a shutdown.”
The central Democratic demand is to extend Obamacare tax credits to avert a premium hike next year, which some GOP pollsters warn would cause political harm to Republicans.
A new Times/Siena survey shows the president retaining the support of nine out of 10 G.O.P. voters, even as the government races toward a shutdown tomorrow.
House Democrats rallied in the Capitol in an 11th-hour strategy session with two distinct goals: To unify the party amid the partisan budget standoff and to compel GOP leaders back to the negotiating table on legislation to prevent a government shutdown.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and his leadership team used the rare recess gathering to mobilize the party’s opposition to the GOP spending plan, which excludes health care provisions the Democrats are demanding as a condition of their support.
Trump used an AI-generated video to mock Schumer and Jeffries, hours after he met with the Democratic congressional leaders at the White House to discuss the looming government shutdown.
The faux footage shows Jeffries – depicted with a mustache and sombrero – standing silently next to Schumer, who, in a fake voice, argues in favor of giving “illegal aliens free healthcare” as part of an effort to court “new voters” for the Democratic Party.
As mariachi music plays in the background of the video, posted on Truth Social, the fake Schumer voice says, “There’s no way to sugar coat it: Nobody likes Democrats anymore.”
“This is real”, Jeffries responded to Trump’s racist fake video by posting photo of the president with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
House Democratic leadership is growing increasingly vocal in accusing Speaker Mike Johnson of refusing to swear in their newest member in order to delay a vote on releasing the Epstein files.
Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said on social media this past weekend that she is “not suicidal,” raising the prospect of “heinous actions” in response to her support for a measure that would force the release of files related to Epstein.
The Trump administration is deporting a planeload of around 100 Iranians back to Iran from the U.S. after a deal between the two governments, according to two senior Iranian officials involved in the negotiations and a U.S. official with knowledge of the plans.
Trump formally unveiled a 20-point peace plan yesterday calling for an international peacekeeping force in the Gaza Strip and a post-Hamas transitional government overseen by a “Board of Peace” — that the president himself would lead as chairman.
In President Trump’s plan, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu got almost everything he hoped for in the end, despite mounting international isolation.
Trump cast his plan for a cease-fire in Gaza as a landmark deal to bring peace after two years of catastrophic violence. But in reality, it was more like an ultimatum to Hamas.
American support for Israel has undergone a seismic reversal, with large shares of voters expressing starkly negative views about the Israeli government’s management of the conflict, a new poll from The New York Times and Siena University found.
Gov. Ron DeSantis and other top elected Republican state officials are poised to donate a prime property in downtown Miami to the nonprofit raising money for President Trump’s presidential library.
Environmental groups say New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is quietly smoothing the path for two gas pipeline projects that Trump is pushing for in the state.
Months before a weeks-long strike from correction officers at New York’s prisons earlier this year, signs of tension between staff and the people incarcerated there had become apparent.
A federal judge ruled in favor of a company that wants to dump 45,000 gallons of radioactive wastewater into the Hudson River as part of a controversial plan to dismantle the defunct Indian Point nuclear facility in Westchester County.
As New York’s inflation refund program rolls out, cybercriminals are ramping up their efforts to scam unsuspecting taxpayers.
Political strategists across the state said that Hochul’s recent endorsement of Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, the frontrunner to be New York City’s next mayor, will come back to haunt her throughout next year’s tough reelection bid.
Mayor Eric Adams benefited greatly over his four years from Hochul’s commitment to maintaining a healthy working relationship with the leader of the nation’s largest city.
Trump, in a post on his social media platform, once again weighed in on the New York City mayoral race and indicated that Mamdani would not get federal funds the president believes he needs to fulfill his campaign promises if elected.
“Remember, he needs the money from me, as President, in order to fulfill all of his FAKE Communist promises. He won’t be getting any of it, so what’s the point of voting for him?” Trump wrote.
Mamdani rebuffed Trump’s renewed threats to withhold federal funds from New York if he is elected mayor, saying at a candidate forum in Harlem last night that he would fight any clawbacks of federal funds.
One day after Mayor Eric Adams ended his re-election campaign, the three candidates running to replace him hit the campaign trail or worked the phones to solicit donations, seeking to capitalize on his exit.
The way Mamdani references food at “the personal level and the policy level — and his skill in doing it is probably unusual, if not completely new,” said Grant Davis Reeher, a political science professor at Syracuse University.
A day after Adams ended his re-election campaign, Mamdani slammed Andrew Cuomo’s record as governor, Cuomo campaigned in Manhattan and a longtime Adams ally said he’s working the phones to try and rally support for the former governor.
The day after her boss dropped out of the New York City mayoral election, Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos announced the expansion of a pilot program on student homelessness ballyhooed by the race’s front-runner, Mamdani.
Adams consistently polled in the single digits. That suggests that his decision to stop campaigning for mayor is unlikely to affect how a significant number of New Yorkers vote.
As the mayor’s race enters its final weeks, the Mamdani campaign is sending some of its 75,000 volunteers into neighborhoods won by Cuomo in the Democratic primary.
Mamdani refused to denounce Hamas after he was asked to back Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s vow to wipe out the terrorists and secure the release of all remaining hostages.
Mamdani spewed more word salad about why he still hasn’t offered his promised apology to the NYPD — with sources suggesting he doesn’t want to upset his DSA allies. He said he’ll be “planning to reach out to police unions” as the electoral clock winds down.
Adams may have thrown in the towel on his reelection fight, but he’s still demanding millions of taxpayer dollars’ worth of campaign matching funds to pay off outstanding bills from his now defunct campaign.
City regulators are focusing on potential fund-raising irregularities that could result in the clawback of $10 million from Adams’s 2021 mayoral campaign, even though he has ended his re-election bid.
New Yorkers are “not safe” if Mamdani or Cuomo is elected mayor, Republican rival Curtis Sliwa claimed in a scorching new TV ad focusing on public safety.
Education experts are asking what’s next for the city’s schools chancellor, and the priorities she pursued, on the heels of Adams’ decision to exit the mayor’s race.
Anti-Mamdani forces are expected to pressure Sliwa to follow Adams’ lead and also drop out of the race. By Sunday night, those efforts were underway, at least on social media. So far, he’s not budging.
The cost of living in roughly 1 million rent-stabilized apartments across the city is set to go up this week. Starting tomorrow, Oct. 1, New Yorkers in rent-stabilized apartments will see increases of 3% on one-year leases and 4.5% on two-year leases.
Knicks owner James Dolan revealed he’s the “secret billionaire” backing independent candidate Diana Florence’s bid to oust Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg — as the ex-prosecutor vowed she’ll get tough on repeat offenders.
JPMorgan Chase & Co now employs more workers in Texas than in New York state — something one top city business advocate called a “scary” development.
A community advisory committee rejected a proposal to build a casino on Coney Island, ending a bid that project friends and foes argued would have fundamentally transformed the Brooklyn amusement park district.
The proposal to bring a casino to the Bronx survived a crucial vote yesterday while a rival bid planned for Coney Island was killed, further narrowing the field as the contest to build New York City’s first full casino comes to a head.
The FDNY is investigating two videos shared with the Daily News that show incidents of apparent hazing of new firefighters by veterans, including making them do pushups face-first into cake, and forcing them to hug naked men.
It’s a subway switcheroo that aims to shave a minute off daily commutes for nearly 50,000 riders. The F and M trains will swap East River tunnels between Manhattan and Queens starting Dec. 8, MTA officials announced.
A man walking on the Lower East Side was punched and slashed by two strangers who yelled anti-immigrants remarks at him, police said.
Three people were charged with vandalizing The New York Times building in Midtown Manhattan in July, according to the criminal complaints.
Giants co-owner John Mara, 70, announced in a statement that he has been diagnosed with cancer and said he feels “strong and optimistic” and is “committed to seeing this through to a positive outcome.”
An appellate panel rejected a request by Jackson Demolition Services for an injunction to pause the demolition of the Central Warehouse in Albany while a lawsuit over the demolition contract is pending.
Jury selection will continue this morning in the murder and manslaughter trial of a young Schenectady mother charged with killing her 11-month-old daughter last year.
A Colonie police officer was injured last Wednesday while arresting two men from Queens for allegedly coordinating a financial scam, police said.
New York’s top environmental agency filed a violation charge against the state authority running Whiteface Mountain ski center, a state official said.
The state has trimmed its tree-cutting plan for Lake George’s Prospect Mountain from 13,000 to 4,000 trees, but one environmental group is still concerned about the constitutionality of such work.
Murder and other charges were filed this week against Anthony Bechand, the man authorities believe killed his girlfriend in their Cohoes home before disappearing for days in the Adirondack Mountains.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
