Good morning, it’s FRIDAY.
I reconciled a long time ago what it means to be an only child.
On the plus side, those who grow up without siblings are generally more independent and self-reliant, with high levels of creativity achievement and responsibility and a greater level of comfortability around adults.
Being alone a lot of the time and getting a lot of parental attention will do that to a person.
Interestingly, recent research has debunked some of the long-held negative beliefs about only children – that we’re selfish, spoiled, and overly anxious. It turns out that there’s little evidence the so-called “only child syndrome” actually exists, which is encouraging.
This isn’t to say that I didn’t in my younger years pine for a sister or brother. (Actually, I think would have preferred the latter over the former, because my mother once told me that she had hoped to have a boy and then a girl, as she grew up the older sibling to a younger brother and thought it might be nice to have someone to look out for her instead of the other way around).
We traveled a lot when I was very young, living both in other states and also abroad for stints up to a year. Getting to see the U.S. and other parts of the world certainly shaped me and broadened my horizons considerably, but it was also lonely a lot of the time and also challenging to make friends – something that only gets more difficult with age.
Today is National Siblings Day, which was founded in 1995 by a New Yorker named Claudia Evart to honor the bond between brothers and sisters and also serve as a memorial to her own older brother and sister, both of whom died fairly young.
It’s estimated somewhere between 80 and 88 precent of people in the U.S. grew up with at least one sibling. There is this romantic view of your sibling being your built-in lifetime friend (perhaps something us only children are perpetuating?) Of course, the reality is far more complicated. (As an aside, there is a National Only Child Day – April 12 – for those who might feel left out by the subject of today’s post).
New federal data calls into question not only whether future kids will have siblings, but if they will even be born at all. This might seem dark, but the reality is that the U.S. fertility rate has been steadily dropping over the past two decades, and last year hit another record low of 53.1 births per 1,000 women of childbearing age.
This is in part because teen pregnancies are falling, which is a good thing, but also because women are putting off trying to get pregnant until they feel established professionally and financially.
Of the weekend, today – and yes, I’m including Friday as part of the weekend – is shaping up to the be the best of the bunch, weather-wise. It will be partly cloudy in the morning and then mostly cloudy in the afternoon, but it will be a lot warmer, with hjigh temperatures in the low-70s.
Both tomorrow, Saturday, and Sunday, will be mostly sunny and dry – a big plus – though temperatures will be stuck in the mid-to-high 50s. So, it’s still jacket weather, but nice enough to get outside and really enjoy spring.
In the headlines…
First Lady Melania Trump summoned reporters to the White House yesterday to clear her “good name” by saying she had no relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, was not a victim of his and had no knowledge of his crimes.
In her remarks from the White House, the first lady said that there have been numerous “fake images and statements about Epstein and me” circulating on social media and urged Congress to hold public hearings with victims to expose his associates.
The first lady delivered her stunning remarks in the ornate foyer of the White House, stoking speculation that she was trying to get ahead of a looming news report. “I am not Epstein’s victim. Epstein did not introduce me to Donald Trump,” she said.
President Trump assailed Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly and two other leading conservative podcasters who oppose the war in Iran in a blistering 482-word Truth Social post that insulted his critics in starkly personal terms.
“They’re stupid people, they know it, their families know it, and everyone else knows it, too!” the president raged on Truth Social. “Look at their past, look at their record. They don’t have what it takes, and they never did!
Weeks of harmony between President Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel as they waged war against Iran is coming under strain as Trump’s search for a peace deal exposes divergences between their respective long-term goals.
The Pentagon is obstructing reporters and defying an earlier court order that required it to restore access to credentialed journalists covering the Department of Defense (DOD), a U.S. judge in Washington ruled yesterday.
The government agency that keeps a list of draft-eligible men will begin automatically registering names later this year, abandoning a decades-old requirement that they register themselves.
The proposal would implement a requirement passed by Congress to include automatic registration for “every male citizen of the United States” between those ages.
The Trump administration’s plan to implement automatic registration for the military draft is drawing pushback from a coalition of anti-war groups who argue the effort will increase the likelihood of conflict and violate the privacy of US citizens and residents.
Gov. Kathy Hochul announced that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) and New York City Department of Transportation (NYC DOT) reached a major congestion pricing-funded milestone to improve air quality in the Bronx.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman wants to liquidate a dormant New York State “green” energy fund worth billions of dollars — and refund the money to ease the burden on taxpayers.
Weeks after their homes were searched as part of a federal bribery investigation, a New York City Council member and her sister, an aide to Hochul, appeared at a rally held by supporters that aimed to distance the pair from the unfolding scandal.
The New York Working Families has continued to lead the left-wing charge in the negotiating process as the days mount without a state budget agreement, remaining in constant communication with supportive elected officials.
In his private law practice, state Sen. Luis Sepúlveda has repeatedly missed court deadlines, failed clients and incorrectly completed legal paperwork, leading to evictions and lost cases, which one expert called “professional negligence” – all while earning up to $545,000 a year.
Since October 2023, the state Division of Election Law Enforcement — an independent arm of the Board of Elections — has filed court cases against at least 261 candidates and committees that have failed to file their campaign information or were delinquent.
New York state agencies spent more than $1.6 billion on overtime pay in 2025, marking a nearly 23% jump from the prior year, due in part to a corrections officer strike and ongoing staffing issues in the state’s sprawling prison system, according to a new report.
One year after a tourist helicopter plunged from the sky into the Hudson River, killing a family of five and the pilot, New York legislators proposed a bill that would require such helicopters to meet the same rigorous safety standards as commercial airplanes.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani said that most of the free child care seats New York City will roll out for 2-year-olds this fall will run the full working day and operate year round.
Mamdani has accrued a long list of quick accomplishments as mayor of New York City during his first 100 days on the job, but he has also abandoned some key campaign promises.
One hundred days into Mamdani’s mayoralty, crime is down, the police union is suspicious, the DSA is impatient — and key promises are unfulfilled.
New York City Comptroller Mark Levine wants stricter limits on when the city can dip into its emergency savings accounts, after Mamdani proposed drawing down $980 million in reserves to help close a $5.4 billion two-year budget gap
Amazon delivery workers and Teamsters shouted and booed each other yesterday at a raucous New York City Council hearing on a proposed bill that critics say could lead to thousands of lost jobs and much higher delivery bills.
A change in policy proposed by the Mamdani administration this week could make it easier for New Yorkers to cancel subscriptions, automatic renewals and continuous service offers.
A majority of voters say New York City is on the wrong track during Mamdani’s first 100 days in office — fueled by discontent among Hispanic, black and Asian voters, an Emerson College/Pix 11 poll released yesterday found.
Top city officials traveled to Columbus, OH, to learn how the Midwestern city works to deescalate protests as Mamdani reaffirmed he is “deeply committed” to disbanding the NYPD’s Strategic Response Group, an arm of the NYPD that responds to protests.
Mamdani said he was “honored” to host Jewish City Hall staff for a seder in Gracie Mansion this week.
Amazon-backed groups pulled out all stops yesterday to fight a City Council bill that would force e-commerce companies to directly hire and pay delivery workers, as Mamdani’s administration officially endorsed the proposal for the first time.
The Trump administration won’t be able to continue withholding tens of millions of dollars in funding for New York City’s magnet schools over the school district’s policies regarding transgender students.
A former NYPD sergeant convicted of killing a man by throwing a cooler at his head during an attempted drug bust was sentenced to three to nine years in prison.
Erik Duran, 38, learned his fate after being found guilty of manslaughter in February for causing the Aug. 23, 2023, death of Eric Duprey — becoming the first NYPD officer convicted of killing someone while on duty in a decade.
Eight Latino New Yorkers and a group of local civil liberties groups sued the Trump administration, claiming that Homeland Security agents target people for immigration enforcement based solely on the way they look.
Hours before he was set to appear at a debate, former Briarcliff Mayor Peter Chatzky suspended his campaign in the crowded Democratic primary to decide GOP Rep. Mike Lawler’s challenger in NY-17.
Assembly Member Micah Lasher’s campaign is trying to boot longshot candidate Micah Bergdale from the ballot in the 12 Congressional District race because they share the same first name.
A federal appeals court in New York weighed arguments over whether the 50-month prison term handed down to Sean “Diddy” Combs for his conviction on prostitution offenses was overly harsh and wrongly influenced by conduct he wasn’t found guilty of.
The Albany Common Council is retreating from a series of scheduled public meetings on the city’s fiscal health while scores of questions from lawmakers for the mayor, treasurer and budget office have, so far, not been answered.
Three children, including a 10-year-old, are accused of burglarizing and stealing thousands of dollars of tobacco, alcohol and cash from two gas stations in Albany County.
Schenectady could be on the verge of allowing the development of a battery energy storage system within its borders, even as other municipalities are enacting moratoriums amid concerns over fire and safety risks at these types of facilities.
A long-awaited consultant report on High Peaks visitor use proposes curtailing hiker access at key launching points into the High Peaks Wilderness during the region’s busiest trail days.
A Gloversville man who worked at a Veterans Affairs office in Albany has admitted to collecting around $85,000 in Social Security benefits he was not entitled to, according to the U.S. District Attorney’s Office.
The National Weather Service has announced a red-flag fire warning for several regions in the upper- and mid-Hudson Valley.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
