New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and Albany state legislative leaders announced a raise in the minimum wage in New York City, to $15 an hour earlier this month. Small businesses that employ 10 employees or fewer will have until 2019 to gradually increase the salaries. But while employees celebrate this victory, small-business owners say these measures will hurt them.
Daniela Castro reports.
Roadblock. Impasse. Stalemate.
Never in the nearly seven-decades of struggle between Palestinians and Israelis has the situation seemed so bleak. Stalled peace talks, attacks and reprisals, and a growing sense that neither side has leaders who can bring the unending cycle of violence to a halt, have led to rage and frustration that many fear will have an explosive end.
It was into this setting that 18 journalists of the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism’s International Reporting Program ventured this summer. From the heady scenes of Tel Aviv’s gay pride parade, to the tense borders between Israelis and their Arab neighbors, to the overpopulated streets of Haredim, and the seething towns and settlements of the West Bank, we found Jews and Arabs with deeply rooted and complex grievances and hopes.
But amid the despair we also found people who were forging their own paths outside the political sphere. The entrepreneurs of Israel’s booming hi-tech industry, the creators of the Arab world’s most progressive women’s magazine and the bipartisan non-violence movement are just some of those striving to bring the peace and prosperity all sides crave.
These are their stories.