Happy Monday in New York City, where I sincerely hope you’re not reading this while stuck on one of the MTA’s emergency shuttle buses.

The Long Island Rail Road, the nation’s largest commuter railroad, shut down this weekend after three years of failed wage negotiations between labor unions and the MTA reached a breaking point on Saturday. Over 3,500 workers, including electricians, engineers, signalmen and others, walked off the job for the first time since 1994, leaving hundreds of thousands of commuters with very few options.

The MTA, which oversees the LIRR, is operating free weekday shuttle service during peak hours between multiple Long Island stops and two subway stations in Queens, but urged workers to stay home if possible. With a capacity of 13,000, the shuttles will only be able to service about 4% of the railroad’s usual weekday ridership. People taking Lyfts and Ubers should expect higher prices and longer wait times. 

The five unions representing LIRR workers are seeking a 9.5% retroactive raise to make up for three straight years of flat wages, as well as a 5% raise for 2026, citing rising inflation and living costs.

“The raises weren’t really raises, when you factor in inflation,” Steve Ammirati, a member of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen union, told CBS.

MTA representatives, on the other hand, argue that the unions have rejected MTA’s attempts at reasonable reconciliation. Instead, MTA CEO Janno Lieber said, the unions are insisting on impossible demands that would “implode” the MTA’s budget and force Governor Kathy Hochul to raise fares by as much as 8% and potentially even hike taxes on Long Islanders.

“A LIRR strike will be felt far beyond the tracks, triggering the loss of millions of dollars per day in lost economic activity, disrupting thousands of riders and throwing the region’s transit service into chaos and gridlock,” State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said in a press release on Friday. 

Meanwhile, the National Mediation Board, a federal agency, has interceded to compel both sides back to the negotiation table. Talks resumed at 7:30 a.m. today, but a deal remains nowhere in sight. 

It’s only 34 miles from the LIRR’s Huntington Station to Midtown Manhattan. Seems like the best option is to lace up those running shoes, mainline a couple bowls of mashed potatoes like ultramarathoner Rachel Entrekin, and get jogging. 

At the world premiere of “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” actress Meryl Streep leaned into her character’s devilish persona. She wore the character’s signature sunglasses along with long black gloves and a flowing red leather cape from Givenchy’s Winter 2026 collection.

Streep’s outfit, though, is a small moment in a much larger story – one in which Christianity and fashion have been intertwined for centuries, sometimes as adversaries, sometimes as collaborators.

Read on.

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