Take your child to work day

April 24, 2014

(Except, of course, that the pay gap between women and men remained!)

I remember when my older daughter participated; she had some great experiences. But I'm looking around my newsroom and I see not one kid here. Clearly the day has lost some of its heat. Maybe a good exhibit of that is Secretary of State John Kerry today, bringing his 1-year-old dog "Ben" to work, the closest thing, he said, to a child he has at home.

Yikes!

And then there's what happened at the White House, a real sign of the times. One little girl, a guest at the First Lady's "Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day," took advantage of being in Michelle Obama's presence by giving her a copy of her dad's resume. "My dad's been out of a job for 3 years, and I wanted to give you his resume," she told the First Lady.

"Oh my goodness," said Mrs. Obama, as she hugged the child.

Couldn't help but think of all the peeps out of work who, like this girl, can't take their kids to work.

Happy take-your-children-to-work-even-if-dad-or-mom-is-out-of-work day.

We'll have any news about the economy, tonight at 11.

We're also following the tortured and apparently now non-existent peace talks in the Middle East. Israel today pulled out, saying that if the Palestinian Authority doesn't give up its reconciliation with Hamas, then it couldn't negotiate with the Palestinians.

Can I hear a big "oy?"

Secretary of State Kerry, when he wasn't busy walking his dog at work, suggested that his department didn't think the talks were actually over. At least not yet.

Oy.

And how about the Yankees? And the pine tar? And the pitcher Michael Pineda, who has a 4 inch long swipe of pine tar on his neck for the world to see. Or at least the TV cameras on the field in Boston's Fenway Park.

Oy, again.

Pineda was slapped with a 10-day suspension today – but here's a twist:

Because of the way the Yankees schedule falls, he'll miss only one start. Can you say a pine-tar-slap on the wrist? So once again baseball tells all those young kids who idolize the players that cheating is okay.

Wow.

We're also down in Ocean County, New Jersey, where a fast-spreading wildfire has so far burned 300 acres, and forced the evacuation of several homes. Rob Nelson is there for us tonight.

And our Josh Einiger is covering a story that's breaking as I write this: A veteran New York cop busted for drunk driving on duty. He was arrested after he drove his partner to the hospital, in an NYPD squad car, after he accidentally shot him in the wrist. So to recap: Police say the cop was on duty, driving drunk, with his gun and it discharged, hitting his partner, who was sitting in the passenger seat, in the wrist. That is disturbing. The whole thing.

We'll also have any breaking news of the night, plus Meteorologist Lee Goldberg's AccuWeather forecast, and Rob Powers with the night's sports.

I hope you can join Sade Baderinwa and me, tonight at 11.

BILL RITTER

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