Good morning, it’s Tuesday.
As far back as 1993, select states (mostly in the west and midwest) have formally celebrated today as a holiday in honor of the civil rights activist and farm workers organizer Cesar Chavez, who was born March 31, 1927 in Yuma, Arizona.
Chavez is best known for organizing migrant farm workers in California, emphasizing nonviolent resistance like picketing and boycotting and imbuing Catholic symbolism like masses and fasts into protests.
The galvanizing moment of his success was the grape workers strike in Delano, CA, in which Filipino and Mexican workers demanded better pay and working conditions from 1965 to 1970. During that strike, the organization Chavez co-founded in 1962, along with Dolores Huerta and Gilbert Padilla, the National Farm Workers Association, merged with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee to become the United Farm Workers (UFW), which exits to this day.
In 2014, Barack Obama, who famously adopted Chavez’s signature labor slogan/chant “Si Se Puede!” (Yes We Can!) as a cornerstone of his historic first presidential campaign in 2008, officially proclaimed March 31 in celebration of “one of America’s greatest champions for social justice.”
Two years earlier, Obama had dedicated the César E. Chávez National Monument in Keene, CA, at the site of the grave of Chavez and his wife, Helen, and UFW headquarters. That is hardly the only formal physical tribute to Chavez. To the contrary, there are statues, murals, and busts of him sprinkled around the U.S.
This year, however, Cesar Chavez Day is looking a lot different in the wake of a New York Times investigation that revealed Chavez had groomed and sexually abused girls who worked in the movement. Several women came forward and told harrowing stories about their interaction with Chavez, including Huerta, now 95 years old, who disclosed for the first time publicly that he had sexually assaulted her.
These women said they stayed silent for a variety of reasons, not only because of Chavez’s status and concern that no one would believe their word against his, but also out of fear that they would tarnish the movement and impede its important work.
“(F)or the last 60 years I have kept a secret because I believed that exposing the truth would hurt the farmworker movement I have spent my entire life fighting for,” Huerta said bluntly in a statement posted on Medium.
The fallout from the revelations about Chavez was nearly immediate, with organizations seeking to distance themselves from him without losing sight of the important work achieved during his lifetime.
The UFW most notably canceled its annual celebrations honoring Chavez. California fast tracked legislation to rename today’s holiday “Farmworkers Day” to expand the focus to individuals who are – to this day – toiling in the state’s fields. Multiple governments, institutions, and communities are still scrambling to decide what to do about all the public art, buildings, and streets named in Chavez’s honor, not to mention how to address the sticky wicket of teaching his legacy in schools across the nation.
There’s a lesson here about cult of personality and the danger of hero worship that we all will be grappling with for some time.
I want to be optimistic and say that spring weather has truly arrived and we’re on the cusp of putting the on-again, off again temperature roller coaster has come to an end. Let’s just go with that for the moment?
Yesterday was very warm. Today will be slightly less warm, though still pleasant, with highs in the mid-60s. The dry spell we’ve been enjoying is over, however, as we’ll see not only showers but potential thunderstorms developing later in the day. April showers and all that, as we’re on the cusp of a new month. Break out the umbrellas and waterproof boots!
In the headlines…
Gasoline in the US crossed an average of $4 a gallon, a threshold it hadn’t reached since August 2022, continuing a series of nearly uninterrupted increases since the Middle East war began that are chipping away at the spending power of American consumers.
Oil prices have surged to over $100 a barrel or more since the war began, raising the prices that consumers pay when they fill up. A month ago, regular gas averaged $2.98. A year ago, it was $3.17.
There continues to be disparity across the nation – with gas prices in Texas hovering around the $3.678 mark per gallon, compared to California, which is nearing $5.89.
As a result of rising costs, fuel surcharges are already being added to the shipping cost of certain food items, such as fruits that are highly perishable or seafood that is imported from far-flung locations, analysts said.
Most of the TSA’s 60,000 workers have begun receiving back pay, easing the financial strain that has troubled them since the partial government shutdown began more than six weeks ago. But with the shutdown persisting, it’s unclear when they’ll be paid next.
A new poll reveals President Donald Trump’s approval rating when it comes to his handling of the TSA is at a high of 78 percent.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt blamed Democrats for long TSA lines at airports, saying their party is at fault for not coming to an agreement to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Senate Republicans bypassed an opportunity yesterday to try to force a quick end to the shutdown at the Department of Homeland Security, leaving the closure in place while lawmakers remained on a two-week recess with no resolution in sight.
Eric Trump, President Trump’s son, unveiled the first renderings of his father’s presidential library and museum yesterday, which will be built in downtown Miami.
The younger Trump wrote on the social platform X that he has “poured my heart and soul into this project” with his team at the Trump Organization.
A video of the completed library at trumplibrary.org, also shared by the president’s son, shows a skyscraper with “Trump” emblazoned in gold near the top and a needle that lights up in red, white and blue.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis yesterday signed legislation renaming Palm Beach International Airport (PBI) to “Donald J. Trump International Airport.”
The name change, effective July 1, is subject to approval from the Federal Aviation Administration, according to the legislation.
Federal prosecutors are investigating whether a New York City Council member and her sister, an aide to Gov. Kathy Hochul, accepted bribes or kickbacks in connection with the appropriation of city funds to a migrant shelter provider.
Hochul has a multipronged plan to fix voters’ affordability woes. Her fellow Democrats fret it’s the wrong prescription.
Hochul’s office is readying a stopgap budget measure to ensure New York’s state government is funded for the next week as a final spending plan remains elusive.
Republican candidate for governor Bruce Blakeman attacked Mayor Zohran Mamdani yesterday, pitching himself as a foil to the mayor’s proposed tax hikes as he brought his race against Gov. Kathy Hochul to City Hall.
Insisting he is the “real” affordability candidate, Blakeman slammed Mamdani’s proposal to cut the estate tax exemption threshold by roughly 90%, from $7.35 million down to $750,000, and raise the top estate tax rate to 50% from the current 16%.
Blakeman is preparing to possibly sue the state — accusing Hochul and her fellow Democrats of “corruption” and trying to “rig the system” by denying him millions in matching campaign funds.
Mamdani is haggling with Albany over every cent he can get for New York City in the state budget. But he is raising no objections as the state embraces a tax policy, widely criticized by economists, that will cost the city hundreds of millions of dollars.
New York state Democratic lawmakers are pushing to raise the corporate tax rate on businesses to help bail out Mamdani, who is facing a projected $5.4 billion deficit in the city budget.
Bronx residents in state Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie’s district decried spiking utility bills as the state Legislature pushes back on Gov. Kathy Hochul’s cost-saving bid to delay New York’s controversial climate law mandates.
The state comptroller’s office is disputing that taxpayers should have to pay more than $700,000 in legal fees that attorneys for ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s former secretary, Melissa DeRosa, have billed the state over the past several years.
New York’s baffling laws restricting the sale of pepper spray would be loosened under a bipartisan measure being pushed by pols in Albany.
Dire financial outlooks are in place for local municipalities across New York as state lawmakers weigh whether to address changes to the Tier 6 state pension system.
With budget negotiations all but certain to blow past a Wednesday deadline, New York lawmakers are still hashing out central issues to city schools.
New York City is inviting some municipal workers to apply for free on-site child care for infants and toddlers, Mamdani announced yesterday.
The child care program will be on-site at the David N. Dinkins building at 1 Centre Street and is open to all 2,000 employees in the building, as well as all Department of Citywide Administrative Services employees, regardless of where they are based.
Mamdani is launching the city’s first undergraduate scholarship program for municipal workers, with applications opening Monday.
Mamdani appears well-positioned to win a rent freeze for some 2 million tenants who live in rent-stabilized homes, with a key vote slated for June. But there’s scant evidence he’s made any significant progress on overhauling the property tax system itself.
After receiving criticism from some Republicans for making a comedic video with Mamdani, Curtis Sliwa said it “was all about the cats” for him.
Two people detained at the Rikers Island jail complex in New York have died in the past week, the first deaths under Mamdani, who faces a 2027 deadline to close the troubled facility.
Dozens of union workers rallied at City Hall to demand that the city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) receive full budgetary funding, following Mamdani’s proposed cuts to the agency’s coffers in his preliminary spending plan.
The rally for a car-free Freedom Drive in Forest Park, Queens, is part of a new citywide campaign calling on Mamdani and city officials to ban personal cars from all New York City parks.
A thwarted assassination plot against Palestinian activist Nerdeen Kiswani at her home was the inevitable result of bounties placed on her head by several extremist pro-Israel organizations, she claimed.
A security guard was shot and wounded outside the Manhattan supportive housing non-profit where he worked yesterday afternoon, police said.
The redevelopment of two NYCHA complexes in Chelsea has emerged as a wedge issue in the high-profile race to succeed retiring U.S. Rep. Jerry Nadler.
While Councilmember Gale Brewer was going about her city business, someone purporting to be Gale Brewer requested a $32,980 loan from the pension fund for city employees known as the New York City Employment Retirement System (NYCERS).
The Abu Dhabi campus of NYU has closed until further notice after Iran warned on Saturday that American universities with outposts in the Gulf were “legitimate targets” in retaliation for strikes on Iranian universities during the war in the Middle East.
Nicole Daedone, the former leader of the wellness company OneTaste, was sentenced to nine years after being convicted of forced labor conspiracy. She is still finding ways to spread her message from behind bars.
An upstate jury will soon decide the fate of a New York prison guard facing criminal charges in the beating death of an incarcerated man during an unauthorized prison strike last year.
Last summer, Hudson residents were stunned to learn that the nonprofit Galvan Initiatives Foundation, the city’s largest private property owner, had suddenly given away most of its huge portfolio of residential and commercial properties to Bard College.
The Desmond, the iconic 1970s hotel and conference center in the Town of Colonie that was modeled on colonial Williamsburg, is for sale.
Rensselaer will receive $10 million from the Downtown Revitalization Initiative, a program that helps bolster projects that could spur economic growth in urban corridors.
Wynantskill school district residents will vote today on whether to give up their school district and have it annexed by the Troy City School District.
Albany Mayor Dorcey Applyrs has named a city religious leader to the Community Police Review Board.: the Rev. Marc Johnson, founder and pastor of the St. John’s Love Covenant Ministries, who previously served on a similar oversight board in Binghamton.
A Syracuse city court judge who balked at officiating a same-sex marriage has been censured by the state agency that investigates judicial misconduct.
The recent rearrangement of a room at Cheryl’s Lodge Outreach Center in Halfmoon may have spared people from injury when a car smashed through the corner of the building on Sunday morning.
Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin has conditionally agreed to lift his three-month-old ban on administration officials fielding questions about legislation at County Legislature committee meetings.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
