Good morning. It's Thursday. Let's start with a question: Who can be a marijuana retailer in New York State? We'll look at a wrinkle in the state's plan that will vault some applicants to the front of the line. We'll also look at an emotional outpouring among sweet tooths. |
 | | Sara Naomi Lewkowicz for The New York Times |
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To become one of the first licensed marijuana retailers in New York State, you will have to have something in your past that you might not want to bring up under other circumstances. You have to have been convicted of a marijuana-related offense. |
Gov. Kathy Hochul will announce the policy on Thursday. My colleagues Jesse McKinley and Grace Ashford write that the goal is to see that people from communities that have been affected by the nation's decades-long war on drugs get in on the retail marijuana business from the beginning. |
Recreational marijuana was legalized in New York last year, and many previous convictions were expunged. But the retail rollout has been slow, with entrepreneurs on tribal lands near the Canadian border setting up unlicensed dispensaries and New Yorkers on the other side of the state heading to Massachusetts, which began selling marijuana in 2018. |
New York officials, who expect the first licensed dispensaries to open by the end of the year, do not want so-called social equity applicants and mom-and-pop marijuana businesses shut out. |
That has happened in other states where they ran short of capital or faced insurmountable competition from corporate operations. Chris Alexander, the executive director of the state's Office of Cannabis Management, said that by focusing early on "those who otherwise would have been left behind," New York would be in a "position to do something that has not been done before." |
Namely, the state could provide money to smooth the rocky road on the way to opening a new business in a new industry. Hochul has proposed — and the Legislature seems likely to approve — $200 million in this year's budget to support the fledging cannabis businesses. The money will go to line up and renovate storefronts. Such assistance could make a difference for would-be marijuana retailers in New York City, where real estate prices have rebounded as the coronavirus pandemic has receded. |
The state is setting aside half of all marijuana-related licenses — including licenses for growers and other parts of the supply chain — for women, minorities, distressed farmers, veterans and "individuals who have lived in communities disproportionally impacted" by the drug war. Black and Latino New Yorkers have been far more likely to be arrested on marijuana charges than white, non-Hispanic people. |
Alexander said that between 100 and 200 licenses would go to people who were convicted of a marijuana-related offense before the drug was legalized, or to those who have "a parent, guardian, child, spouse or dependent" with a marijuana conviction. |
But a conviction is not the only criterion. Alexander said his office would weigh applicants' likelihood of running successful businesses — a reminder that the state has both ideological and revenue goals to meet. Forty percent of tax revenue from the new dispensaries is earmarked to go to communities affected by drugs. |
Expect a mostly sunny day with temperatures in the high 40s. The evening will be partly cloudy, with temps dropping to the mid-30s. |
In effect until March 17 (Purim). |
At last: Unemployment numbers from January |
 | | Gabby Jones for The New York Times |
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Today we'll get a dose of unemployment statistics for New York City. The state Department of Labor, which collects the data, will announce the city's unemployment rate for January. I asked Patrick McGeehan, who covers the New York economy for the Metro desk, what to expect. But I started with a different question. |
The national unemployment figure for January was released on Feb. 4, and February's national jobs report came out last week. Why didn't we get the January figure for New York City released sooner? |
It's odd to be waiting for the January numbers for New York a week after we got the February numbers for the nation. |
The state releases these results about two weeks after the federal numbers come out at 8:30 a.m. on first Friday of the month — except in February. In February, they do not release the January numbers because they are working on an annual revision of the numbers. They call it benchmarking. |
So looking back at 2021 delayed the January 2022 results. Today we'll not only find out what the numbers for January were, we'll see what revisions they made to the numbers for last year as a whole. |
What about the January unemployment rate? What do you expect? |
Whatever the number is, my expectation is it's going to show the effect of Omicron because we were still in the thick of that crisis when this data was collected. |
My guess is the unemployment figure might be higher compared with the figure from December, when the city's unemployment rate was 8.8 percent, more than twice the 3.8 percent rate nationally. |
But the data from January — the data behind the figure that will be released today — is already old. We're into March. It looks like better times are coming, at least on the virus front, the reopening front and the rehiring front. Economically, if you think back, things were looking better going into December. Then we got hit by Omicron. |
Memories of the white boxes with the cellophane windows |
Word that Charles E. Entenmann had died in Florida prompted a question. He was the last of three brothers who ran a Long Island bakery, founded by their grandfather, as it became one of the nation's best-known baked-goods manufacturers. He was 92. |
The question was: What's so special about Entenmann's? |
There was no end of answers on social media, of course. |
"My father's favorite dessert was Entenmann's crumb cake, with coffee," @alexmckenna wrote. "He always left the butter knife in the box to make it easier to cut the next piece. We all fought over the corners." |
@Keith Olbermann — the journalist, writer and broadcaster — remembered "a vanilla-filled version of the crumb cake." |
"This I would not only kill for but, between you and me, I have," he wrote. "My body weight was once ~22 percent Entenmann's." |
It was 1969 and I wanted nothing more for my 16th birthday than to see "The Great White Hope" on Broadway. The show had just won multiple Tony Awards, including best actor for James Earl Jones and best actress for Jane Alexander. |
I lived in South Fallsburg, in the Catskills, and I never imagined that my boyfriend at the time would surprise me with tickets or that my parents would allow me to go into the city. |
The show was mesmerizing and when it was over, we stayed by the stage door to get my program autographed. After nearly an hour, we were one of two young couples still waiting when James Earl Jones popped his head out. |
Noting our perseverance, he invited us backstage. He was charming, and after a few minutes in the great actor's company, this star-struck teen left with his signature on her Playbill. |
More than 40 years later, I went to hear Jane Alexander give a lecture. When it was over, I got on the line with those who were waiting to get books signed. |
When I got to the front, I presented my treasured program, told her my story and left with her autograph next to the one from James Earl Jones. |
Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — J.B. |
Melissa Guerrero, Sadiba Hasan and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at nytoday@nytimes.com. |
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