Good morning, it’s a Thursday masquerading as a Friday in a short pre-holiday weekend workweek (assuming you have tomorrow off, of course, which is not a foregone conclusion).
A reminder: There will be no Rise and Shine tomorrow, Friday, OR on Monday, in deference to the Labor Day holiday. (That second part is new, I know). Labor Day, which is always observed on the first Monday in September, is a tribute to American workers, their achievements and their sacrifices. It originated during a dark period for workers in this country’s history: The Industrial Revolution.
On the one hand, this era was a period of great change and innovation, as the country moved from a largely agrarian economy to one focused on industry and mechanical advancements. However, these achievements came at a great price for workers in the 1800s, who were routinely exploited and lacked both protections and benefits.
Historians don’t agree on who, exactly, came up with the idea of proposing a worker-focused holiday. Two men are contenders for the “founder” title: Peter J. McGuire, general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and a co-founder of the American Federation of Labor; and Matthew Maguire, secretary of Local 344 of the International Association of Machinists in New Jersey and the onetime secretary of the New York Central Labor Union.
What we do know is that the first known Labor Day Parade was held in New York City on Sept. 5, 1882. Somewhere between 10,000 and 25,000 people participated the event, which was organized by the Central Labor Union. Both Maguire and McGuire appear to have had a hand in the parade, though the former opted not to tout his role, while the later opted to publicly take credit.
New York was actually the first state to introduce legislation to make Labor Day an official holiday, but Oregon beat us to the punch by actually passing such a law on Feb. 21, 1887. That same year, four more states, including New York along with Colorado, Massachusetts, and New Jersey, followed suit.
Less than a decade later, 23 more states had adopted the holiday, and Congress finally got involved on June 28, 1894, passing an act that designated the first Monday in September of each year as a legal Labor Day holiday.
These days, it’s traditional to spend the weekend relaxing, holding picnics and barbecues and enjoying one last moment of summer freedom before getting back down to academic year grind. But if you spare a moment, think about the people who laid the groundwork for the rights and protections workers enjoy today – of course there’s always more work to do, but we have come an awfully long way.
The weather is looking pretty good for this last hurrah of summer, though if you’re planning to hit the beach/lake/pool, today might be your best bet in terms of heat. It will be partly cloudy, though high temperatures will reach into the low 80s.
For the remainder of the weekend – Saturday through Monday – will see temperatures in the mid-to-high 70s, which is comfortable, but not really in-the-water weather (from my oldster perspective, that is). Saturday will again be mostly cloudy, but we’ll see mostly sunny skies on Sunday and Monday, so get that Vitamin D in while you can.
In the headlines…
President Trump on Wednesday signed a stopgap government funding bill into law, affirming Congress’s efforts to temporarily avert a shutdown until at least Dec. 11.
By signing the “Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2027” into law, Trump ensured federal agencies will be funded through November’s midterms into December.
The Trump administration imposed tariffs of up to 100 percent on drones on Thursday, continuing its long-running campaign to thwart the Chinese drone industry and promote domestic manufacturing.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer faced questions from Republican lawmakers during a closed-door meeting Wednesday about the Trump administration’s trade stalemate with Canada and its controversial decision to lower beef import tariffs.
A federal judge in Maryland temporarily blocked much of President Trump’s latest effort to withhold citizenship from babies born in the United States to noncitizen parents.
President Trump suggested renaming Strait of Hormuz after himself, a move he predicted would make the strategic waterway at the heart of his conflict with Iran “hotter than ever before!”
“Should we change the name Hormuz Strait to TRUMP STRAIT???” Trump asked on his social media site. “Like America itself, it would be ‘hotter’ than ever before!”
Trump’s order renaming Lake Ontario to “Lake America” isn’t floating with Americans, with a majority opposing the name change and his new tariffs on Washington’s northern neighbor, per recent polling.
President Trump said he is “happy” that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle left the United States to resettle in England, adding that if he were the royal family, “I would not have taken them back.”
President Trump’s face is now on a new $1 coin being sold by the US Mint, and collectors will have to shell out more than a buck to get their hands on one.
The Trump Justice Department has weighed in on a landmark copyright infringement case against OpenAI, siding with the tech behemoth over the Daily News and other news organizations for the sake of “America’s global AI dominance.”
In Manhattan Federal Court papers, the DOJ informed the court of its position on the news organizations’ allegation that OpenAI trains its large language models using reporting stolen from journalists, in violation of copyright law, a central dispute in the case.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul joined Bronx elected officials and families in Co-op City for a back to school event as the borough prepares for the start of a new school year.
Hochul responded to President Trump’s reaction to her wearing a hijab at the Islamic Cultural Center of New York, saying, “I’ll never apologize.”
While attending Harvard College, Saritha Komatireddy, the Republican candidate for attorney general whom President Trump hailed as an “America First Patriot,” advocated for some of the diversity efforts that the White House now is targeting.
More than 8 million New York households are expected to receive one-time energy rebate checks beginning this fall, according to Hochul’s office.
There’s new progress in New York’s goal to make universal pre-K statewide by the 2028-2029 school year.
The governor cited a landmark $1.7 billion funding in the state budget — a $563 million increase over the previous fiscal year — to expand child care and pre-K statewide, boosting early childhood spending to $4.5 billion in the next fiscal year.
State Sen. Michelle Hinchey and a public service union have urged Hochul to sign into law legislation to provide counties the option to offer disability benefits to probation officers injured in the line of duty, according to her office.
New York, along with 20 other states and Washington, D.C., asked a federal judge to block a Trump administration rule to prevent funds from being used to cover gender-affirming care for trans youth under Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
The whistleblower in Attorney General Letitia James’ office who said he was ordered to dig up dirt on President Trump met with federal prosecutors for “several hours”.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani assembled an army of nearly 200 “influencers,” giving the social media stars VIP access to push the administration’s talking points, a new bombshell report revealed.
The web of online personalities are being fed talking points by City Hall through an encrypted Signal group text, potentially running afoul of local record-keeping laws, according to the study by the Columbia Journalism Review.
Mamdani appeared to defend his team’s use of Signal to communicate with hundreds of online influencers after a report that they receive talking points, daily updates and interview opportunities through the encrypted messaging app.
Some of the influencers on Mamdani’s Signal chat date back to his campaign days, while others don’t even live in New York City.
Mamdani announced that the nation’s largest public school system will impose a one-year moratorium on student-facing generative artificial intelligence (AI) from 2-K through eighth grade, while experimenting with a small group of vetted AI tools in high schools.
Mamdani feted Rev. Al Sharpton on the 15 year anniversary of his MS NOW show, “Politics Nation”, spotted biking down 126th St. with security detail in tow, where he then joined Sharpton and Hochul at Red Rooster.
Israel is vowing that Mamdani’s call for protests against Benjamin Netanyahu won’t stop the prime minister from addressing the upcoming UN General Assembly.
Stephanie Benshimol, a self-described “Boss Momma American Israeli Zionist” and the founder of United Zionists, berated Mamdani for visiting Eichler’s, a Judaica store in Borough Park, before the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah next week.
The Mamdani administration will open the New York City’s first day care for the children of municipal workers next week.
City Council members grilled city health officials over the Mamdani administration’s response to a deadly Legionnaires’ disease outbreak on Manhattan’s Upper East Side this summer that killed 11 people and ranked among the largest in the city’s history.
Former Mayor Eric Adams spent the night Tuesday partying it up for his 66th birthday — and was then spotted the next morning pedaling a City Bike across town while wearing an exhausted look and the same rumpled shirt he wore to the bash.
As the 2026 US Open is underway in New York City, Mamdani and New York Junior Tennis & Learning (NYJTL) highlighted support for the city’s local youth tennis programs and the opening of 10 newly resurfaced public tennis courts in the Bronx.
The city DOT announced that it has finally filled in a crucial link missing from Brooklyn’s bike lane network for years: A protected bike lane on Ashland Place that the prior administration left out of the street’s 2023 redesign.
Former President Biden will be at Ground Zero in New York City for the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The FDNY on Wednesday honored 36 heroes whose names will be added to the department’s World Trade Center Memorial Wall following their deaths due to 9/11-related illnesses.
An independent audit of a 2024 electrical explosion that stranded 4,000 subway riders found “systemwide failures” in oversight and maintenance of New York City’s trains.
SUNY Maritime is losing its new ship for at least the next six months, leaving the college struggling to find ways to teach its students. The federal government called on the ship for an unspecified mission for at least 170 days, which began on Monday.
Rensselaer could join a growing number of counties seeking to ban the sale of kratom, a plant-derived substance with opioid-like effects that has become common in convenience stores and tobacco shops as reports of overdoses have surged.
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation is reviewing plans to investigate a site in the Hamilton Hill neighborhood of Schenectady for potential contamination.
The speed cameras in school zones throughout the city of Albany have been activated for the upcoming school year. Drivers are reminded to slow down and stay alert.
The city of Albany is looking for a new flag design, and the Task Force on the Municipal Flag is accepting submissions. Anyone interest is asked to submit concepts that “reflect the city’s history, identity, character and future.”
Central Warehouse, one of the capital city’s most notorious eyesores, may finally be coming down. The once state-of-the-art shipping and cold storage facility is scheduled to be demolished by next June — just before its 100th anniversary.
The cause of a barn fire that killed 17 horses in Saratoga Springs back in June is still undetermined.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
