For those who decide to have their babies in hospitals, in most cases, the second most important person after the mother is the maternity ward nurse. The maternity ward nurse is the one who checks on the mother regularly, and a great maternity ward nurse can make the delivery much easier. Which is why Buzzfeed's interview with a NYC maternity ward nurse is fascinating—and not for the queasy! more ›

Want to make the PATH train go express? All you need to do is pick a day in the future when you'll be in a rush and get knocked up nine months in advance. Then, when your water breaks in New Jersey, just make sure commute to the hospital via mass transit, which will snap into high gear in tune with your contractions! At least, that's what we've learned from 31-year-old Rabita Sarker, of Harrison, NJ, who gave birth on the PATH this morning with the help of her husband and another passenger. more ›

The 2012 baby derby seems to be won by a couple who delivered a 7-pound, 3-ounce, 18.5-inch baby girl at Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx. The hospital says Rania Ali was born at the stroke of midnight. Also, she is VERY ADORABLE (see picture). But Maimonides Hospital in Brooklyn says 5-pound, 8-ounce Emma Sieminska was also the first baby of the New Year (and Emma's pretty cute too)! more ›

If your retirement is tied up in New York City pension funds, you're technically investing in Wal-Mart. The funds own 5.7 million shares in the company, and in a shareholder meeting on Friday they're planning on asking Wal-Mart's board of directors to "require vendors to publish annual reports detailing working conditions in their factories" overseas, the Times reports. Given that Wal-Mart has a history of using prison labor and that working conditions in the US haven't always been peachy, this makes sense. Unfortunately, those 5.7 million shares add up to less than 0.2 percent of an ownership stake. In Wal-Mart terms, the funds are like this gallon of mayonnaise that they sell: big but still worthless. more ›

David Blaine couldn't pull a cab out of his bag of tricks last week when his pregnant fiancée, Alizee Guinochet, went into labor during the latest blizzard. According to the NY Post, "the doorman and people on the street tried to help him flag down a taxi. But there were absolutely no cars on the road," and not a car service in town would pick the couple up. But it turns out Blaine had luck on his side, and a plow owned by a private contractor came around the corner and picked them up. The couple welcomed a baby girl, whose name they have not yet released, but... what would the baby version of Mr. Plow be? more ›

The NY State Senate Democrats had to return a $15,000 donation from mega retailer Walmart after labor union leaders freaked out. According to the Post, "The action came just days after last week's disclosure in The Post that the Democrats had accepted the cash from the union-resisting Arkansas-based retail chain, which is believed to be interested in putting its first city store in Senate Democratic Leader John Sampson's Brooklyn district." A spokesman for Sampson, who also heads the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee, said, "I can confirm that the money was returned. That's as far as I'm going to go on it." more ›

At around 930 a.m. Ben Sisario of the NY Times took to Twitter to alert fellow Brooklyn straphangers, "Manhattan-bound C delayed at Nostrand because someone is having a baby! Per station agent." It's just so much less frustrating when delays are caused by the miracle of life. The MTA confirms, noting on their site, "Due to someone requiring medical assistance at the Nostrand Avenue Station, Manhattan-bound trains are running on the express track between the Broadway Junction Station and the Hoyt-Schermerhorn Street Station. Expect delays." UPDATE: Word is the mom went into labor on the train but gave birth in a hospital. more ›

Today wasn't a good day on Wall Street. Concerns about the domestic job market and debts facing foreign countries lead to drops of 2.61 percent on the Dow Jones, 2.99 percent on the NASDAQ, and 3.11 percent on the Standard & Poor's 500, "feeding anxiety about the health of the global recovery," the Times reports. The cost of insuring debt in Greece, Portugal and Spain surged on Thursday because growing deficits "could put them at risk for default." According to Uri Landesman, head of global growth at ING, investors must ask: "How big is this fire going to be? What is panic, and what is legitimate, we don't know at this point. These things tend to turn on a dime." Not helping the situation was the release of a "bleaker-than-expected" report on the US labor market. more ›

The Brooklyn mother of four suspected of trying to abort and poison her husband's lovechild told investigators she would never hurt a kid. Prosecutors told the Daily News that 38-year-old Kisha Jones said she didn't trick her husband's pregnant mistress, Monique Hunter, into taking a labor-inducing medicine, nor did she try to give the child tainted breast milk after his premature birth: "I know [Hunter] and I don't like her, but I wouldn't hurt a baby like that." more ›

A Brooklyn wife tried to kill her husband's child with another woman — first by slipping the mistress a medicine to induce abortion, then by attempting to poison the baby with tainted breast milk, according to cops. more ›

The city’s unemployment rate is at 10.3 percent, its highest level in 16 years, and the unemployment rate statewide reached 9 percent in October, the highest rate since April 1983, the State Labor Department reported yesterday. Making matters worse, the usual holiday hiring bump doesn't seem to be happening; instead, the retail sector shed 1,100 jobs in October. Leisure and hospitality, which usually picks up toward the end of the year, lost jobs last holiday season and is doing slightly worse so far this year. At this point, we'd ask for a stiff drink, but who's left to pour it? Yet there is a silver lining empty lining where some copper wire used to be! more ›

Stella D'Oro, the local makers of cookies and breadsticks that you used to be able to take almost anywhere, has been sold and is leaving its longtime home up in the Bronx. Earlier this summer, workers of the Kingsbridge cookie factory were put on a roller coaster ride when a judge ruled in their favor of their yearlong strike only to be told by owners Brynwood Partners that the court's costly decision was prompting a shutting down of the factory. Workers demanded that Brynwood sell Stella D'Oro so that operations could continue and the company complied...only to have new owners Lance Inc inform them the new jobs would be about 500 miles west in Ohio. Following the news, the union released a statement saying, "We weren't wrong in what we did. What's wrong is that the law allows companies to sell off its business in order to avoid a judgment of the law." Well, at least 75 years of baking cookies and a hardfought labor battle aren't all for naught—Lance Inc says Stella D'Oro is "a perfect fit in with the niche brand strategy that we have." more ›

The Atlantic Avenue exit of the BQE turned out to be the exit ramp used by one more passenger than was expected Thursday morning when a police officer ended up helping deliver a baby alongside the highway. 37-year-old Officer George Tsoukaris said he hasn't had to help out on a case like this since his rookie days on the NYPD. When Tsoukaris was flagged down Thursday around 11a.m. by a woman in labor and her husband intending to take the BQE out to a Staten Island hospital, he quickly discovered that there wasn't going to be enough time until an EMT arrived...or even time for him to put on gloves for that matter! The couple has chosen not to reveal themselves after taking their healthy newborn to Long Island College Hospital. But the News got the adorable story out of the cop, who says, "She was screaming at the top of her lungs. he's yelling, 'The baby's coming out, the baby's coming out!' ... It's one thing to see the miracle of life in a controlled environment like a hospital, but it's another thing to have it happen on the highway." more ›

The move by Stella D'oro to close its Bronx bakery after a judge ordered its striking union workers reinstated is raising questions about the strength of unions in today's economy. With tough times all around, it seems unions are facing uphill battles to get public support. A NY Times story today on the strike's aftermath includes an interview with CUNY history professor Joshua B. Freeman, who notes, "A lot of people are hurting right now, and sometimes you look at someone else and they have a job and they’re resisting making a concession and you think, ‘These people seem to be sitting pretty, what are they complaining about?’" Indeed, the Stella D'oro strikers had a hard time even getting noticed—as the Daily News observes today, "news media virtually ignored the story of this largely immigrant workforce. In a town that prides itself as the heart of organized labor, the other unions were AWOL." While unions may be suffering in the economic climate, the workers appear to be bearing the brunt of this harsher labor environment. Stella D'oro worker Richard Pererira, 51, sums it up for the Times this way: "I feel cheated...All these years we worked so hard, and now they want to shut us down. That’s horrible." more ›

In Manhattan federal court yesterday, a judge sentenced former Queens Assemblyman Brian McLaughlin to ten years in prison for taking in over $3 million in embezzlement, bribes from taxpayers and other illegal means. McLaughlin even stole $95,000 from a Queens Little League, promising voters that their donations meant that "A Child in Sports Stays Out of the Courts." Judge Richard Sullivan said that McLaughlin harkened back to the era of Boss Tweed and accused the former president of the nation’s largest municipal labor council of validating “the harshest critics of organized labor who accuse the leadership of corruption, and point to you as an example of that corruption.” Prosecutors had asked the judge for leniency, in part because of McLaughlin's cooperation in the recent indictment of another pol, Queens Assemblyman Anthony Seminerio. At the sentencing, McLaughlin, who has entered into Alcoholics Anonymous in recent years, said, "I'd like to say I make no excuses for it. But over the past three, 3-1/2 years I've had the opportunity to live the way I'd like to live my life." more ›

While Elizabeth Brew managed to hold out until her husband parked outside of Mount Sinai Hospital on Fifth Avenue, the twin babies she was pregnant with couldn't any longer. So she went into labor in the SUV. Luckily nurse manager Lucille Nassery, inside the hospial, has good ears—"There's a certain kind of sound that comes from women who are about to deliver. It's not just a typical scream. It's a whole-body scream"—and brought a team of doctors and nurses outside. The AP reports that Brew's "legs extended toward busy Fifth Avenue and Central Park - the hospital staff brought equipment into the middle of the street. Nassery and other staffers used their bodies to block off two lanes of traffic." The Post has video showing the scene, too. Interested drivers and passengers from other cars inquired about the mother's health and cheered when a 4 pound, 13 ounce baby girl was born in the middle of Fifth. A few minutes later, her twin brother, 5 pounds, 5 ounces, arrived. The babies are healthy; but since they are preemies, they will stay in neonatal intensive care while their mother is recovering in a hospital room. Three cheers for the babies, the mom and the hospital team! more ›

A National Labor Relations Board judge ruled yesterday that Starbucks engaged in unfair labor practices at several of its New York coffee shops, the Associated Press reports. The decision is the culmination of a lengthy trial which began in March 2006 when the Industrial Workers of the World filed charges against the company, accusing managers of interrogating employees and firing workers who supported the union. more ›

The state Department of Labor closed a garment factory yesterday, citing sweatshop conditions. Jin Shun manufactured clothing for The Gap, Macy's, Banana Republic, The Limited, Victoria's Secret and more in a factory, and officials say mostly Chinese immigrants were working "66-hour, six-day weeks" for $250/week, cheating them out of $5.3 million. Jin Shun allegedly coached workers to lie about their working conditions at the Long Island City factory and made them use two time cards so it was unclear how long they worked each week. Labor Commissioner M. Patricia Smith described how one worker, while working 60-70 hours/weeks, "was paid 22 cents per garment or 40 cents for more complicated pieces." While the retailers said they had zero tolerance for the conditions, Smith said, "We think with aggressive enforcement they should have known." more ›

Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer seems to have turned the corner after resigning from his Albany office in the middle of a prostitution scandal. And instead of whiling away his summer at the beach, the Steamroller is planning on establishing an investment fund that will focus on turning people's failed dreams into cold hard cash for himself. more ›

Two years after the FBI raided his offices, a former State Assemblyman and labor leader pleaded guilty to racketeering. Brian McLaughlin was charged with over 40 crimes, using his power as a seven-term Assemblyman, division head of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, and head of the NYC Central Labor Council to bribe and steal. more ›

Costumed performers and tour guides are fighting for unionization at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, where they work to recreate the squalid living conditions of turn-of-the-century Jewish immigrants, the very group that was integral to 20th century unionization efforts. Dozens of the tenement employees protested last night outside a fundraiser for the museum at Chelsea Piers. more ›

A judge has finally ruled on a long-simmering dispute between a restaurant and its deliverymen. Last March deliverymen at the popular Vietnamese restaurant Saigon Grill, which has locations in Greenwich Village and on the Upper West Side, demanded a raise from owners Simon and Michelle Nget. The deliverymen reasoned that since the chain was pulling in more than $2 million a month, they ought to earn more than $120 for a 75-hour week. more ›

The Independent Budget Office of the City of New York released a five page report [pdf] yesterday projecting that beginning next year, the City will face a serious fiscal crisis when it runs a deficit of $3.1 billion. By 2011, that budget shortfall could more than double, to $6.3 billion. The projections merely take into account current trends in New York City and don't factor in the possibility of a widespread national recession. more ›

Last week everyone from writers on the picket line to bored couch potatoes were abuzz with news that the late night heavyweights would be returning with all new shows. Last night was the big night (Letterman, O'Brien, Kimmel, Ferguson and Leno all returned), and both Conan O'Brien and David Letterman took the stage showing solidarity with strike beards intact. Letterman threatened to shave his later on Conan's show, saying that he'd probably be helping his New York late night pal out since he's returned sans writers. more ›

When we decided to check in on the status of the proposed bill to regulate New York’s exotic dancers, it was partially in the interest of pleasuring ourselves with some droll double entendres. But it seems you’ve got to get up pretty early in the morning to beat Daily News Bronx Borough Chief Bob Kappstatter to the pun:

A bill that would license exotic dancers has been bumping and grinding its way ever so slowly through the legislative hopper in Albany - but the "sin-tax" in the measure may leave legislators poles apart.

Remember that cruel(la) couple from Long Island that enslaved two Indonesian women who worked in their mansion? After their million dollar bail plan was announced back in June we hadn't heard much about these two. Today, however, silence was broken after Varsha Mahender Sabhnani and her hubby Mahender Murlidhar Sabhnani's trial has ended...and the latest is not good news for them! more ›

Sick of watching reruns? Nervous you'll only get 8 episodes of Lost next season? Well, The NY Times reports on the first break in the writers' strike.

David Letterman is pursuing a deal with the Writers Guild of America that would allow his late-night show on CBS to return to the air in early January with the usual complement of material from his writers, even if the strike is still continuing. more ›

Approximately 85 undocumented workers are being fired from the high-end grocery delivery company Fresh Direct on the on the eve of the holiday season because their status as U.S. residents is disputed. Dozens of workers filed out of the company's Queens warehouse. Fresh Direct blamed a federal probe for the axing of almost a hundred workers. According to the Daily News, "management insisted it carried out the purge under pressure from federal authorities to crack... more ›

The Trinity School, a private school on the Upper West Side that charges annual tuition of $30,000 a year, is prepared to cash in on the rise in property values by opting out of the Mitchell-Lama housing program. That program was designed to reserve housing for middle-class tenants in New York through government subsidized loans and tax breaks. The disparity in below-market rents required by Mitchell-Lama and the value of the building that houses the... more ›