McDonald’s plans to hire 375,000 U.S. workers this summer

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By DEE-ANN DURBIN

McDonald’s said Monday it plans to hire up to 375,000 U.S. restaurant employees this summer, its biggest hiring push in years.

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The Chicago burger giant said the beefed-up job openings are partly due to a U.S. expansion. The company, which has more than 13,500 restaurants in the U.S., plans to open 900 more by 2027.

U.S. Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer joined McDonald’s U.S. President Joe Erlinger at a McDonald’s restaurant near Columbus, Ohio, for the hiring announcement.

“McDonald’s is sparking a ripple effect of prosperity for our workers, communities and the economy,” DeRemer said. “By expanding their workforce, the corporation will be driving investment and setting the standard for industry growth, whether as a launch pad for a different career or as a ladder for internal achievements.”

McDonald’s said its last big summer hiring spree came in 2020, when it announced plans to add 260,000 workers. At the time, the company was reopening restaurants that were closed in the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Its decision to staff up for this summer signals optimism that U.S. restaurant traffic will improve as the year unfolds.

In the January-March period, McDonald’s U.S. same-store sales — or sales at locations open at least a year — slumped 3.6%. That was the biggest U.S. decline McDonald’s has seen since the pandemic shuttered stores, restaurants, schools and other public spaces in 2020.

McDonald’s said lower- and middle-income consumers, worried about inflation and the economic outlook, cut back on fast food during the January-March period.

But other restaurant operators seem to share its optimism. U.S. restaurants and bars added more than 46,000 jobs in March and April, according to the National Restaurant Association. Chipotle said in February that it hoped to hire 20,000 workers.

Overall hiring also continues to be strong. American employers added 177,000 jobs in April as the job market showed resilience despite the uncertainty caused by President Donald Trump’s trade wars.

McDonald’s also used Monday’s event to celebrate the 10th anniversary of its Archways to Opportunity program, which has given tuition assistance, English lessons and career services to more than 90,000 employees. McDonald’s said the program has doled out $240 million in tuition assistance alone.

Anamaria Monterroso, an eight-year veteran at McDonald’s, said Archways to Opportunity will help her become of the first member of her family to graduate from college. Monterroso is currently working toward her degree in human resources at Colorado Technical University.

“Just because you work in fast food doesn’t mean your dreams end there,” Monterroso said.

Shootout in St. Paul has Frost, Sceptres thinking goalies

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At their core, pro athletes are entertainers, paid to sell tickets to fans who want to see a good show. And if you like goals, there have been few games more entertaining than the Minnesota Frost’s wild 7-5 win over the Toronto Sceptres on Sunday evening at Xcel Energy Center.

In what was the highest-scoring game in the two-year history of the PWHL, the Frost took Game 3 and grabbed a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five league semifinal on a night where public address announcer Brian Sweeney might have been the hardest-working person in the building.

“I think it’s a fan’s dream and a coach’s nightmare, a 7-5 playoff game,” Frost coach Ken Klee said after 60 minutes of defense-optional hockey. “We found a way to win, and that’s the most important thing. Our team played hard, and we have to clean things up because the next game is going to be a lot tougher.”

Speaking to reporters via Zoom on Monday morning, Klee took a big picture view.

“Watching the film, I think it was a combination of both teams trying to stay on offense and keep attacking,” said Klee, whose team is now four wins shy of a repeat as Walter Cup champions. “When you look at it, it wasn’t huge breakdowns. Both teams were battling and both teams knew how important the game was. Watching it this morning, it was a lot of really great plays by both teams.”

Coaches aren’t the only ones having nightmares after a 12-goal playoff game. Sunday’s starting goalies, Kirsten Campbell for Toronto and Maddie Rooney for Minnesota, both have playoff goals-against averages of 4.00 or higher, and save percentages under .900. Both coaches said on Monday that their plans for who will guard the crease in Wednesday’s Game 4 are up in the air.

Toronto coach Troy Ryan said there was some discussion among coaches about pulling Campbell — who has played all three of Toronto’s playoff games — during Game 3 but decided to keep backup Carly Jackson fresh in case they decide to make a goalie change for Game 4.

But, he added, they’re not convinced a change is necessary.

“We also have trust in Soupy,” Ryan said, using Campbell’s nickname. “Soupy’s had some up-and-down games throughout the year, but ultimately we have trust in Soupy and want her to find ways to battle. … She’s a very good goalie and a driven athlete.”

In the Frost crease, Rooney has backstopped a pair of wins but Klee said they are looking at all of their options, including Nicole Hensley, with a chance to clinch the series in Game 4 at home.

“We haven’t really looked at the lineup yet. Today is an off-day for everybody and we’ll get together (Tuesday) and start looking at the lineup,” Klee said.

New intensity for an old rivalry

Between their PWHL games, their college games and their games on the international stage, it’s safe to say that Toronto forward Emma Maltais and Minnesota standout Taylor Heise know each other well.

United States forward Taylor Heise, right, and Canada forward Emma Maltais battle for the puck during the third period of a rivalry series women’s hockey game Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2023, in Tempe, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Maltais is from Ontario and has played plenty of notable games for Team Canada. She also played against Heise head-to-head in the WCHA when Maltais was at Ohio State and Heise — originally from Lake City, Minn. — was winning the Patty Kazmaier Award as college hockey’s top player while with the Gophers.

But even after all of those meetings on opposite sides of a faceoff, keen observers of the first three games between Toronto and Minnesota have noticed a new level of intensity, and even scrappiness, between Maltais and Heise.

Asked about any bad blood on Monday, Heise said the physical plays are just a part of the PWHL in May and denied there is any player-specific bad blood to be had.

“I mentioned this after the first game and the second game: Hockey’s feisty, and the playoffs should be feisty,” Heise said. “If there’s not some people going at each other every game, then it’s not playoff hockey. You watch it in the NHL and you see it here. … We’ve played against each other since college and she’s a good player. She gets under people’s skin. That’s her job. I think she does it well. As for me, I love getting competitive and just being part of the game. It makes it more fun.”

While checking is not allowed in the PWHL, it is definitely the most physical brand of women’s hockey available, and Heise said that when she and Maltais have bumped into each other, it’s to be expected.

“In our league, you’re only allowed to have some body contact,” she said. “And there’s for sure been some body contact.”

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St. Paul WestRock plant owners look to sell ‘as soon as possible’

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Smurfit Westrock says it intends to prepare its St. Paul paper recycling plant for sale and redevelopment “as soon as possible” following a planned closure this summer.

The company announced this month it would close the plant near Raymond and University avenues at the end of June, after 118 years in operation. Company spokespeople have declined phone interviews, but they recently confirmed the intent to sell the property, as many business advocates have hoped.

The company “has developed a comprehensive plan to remove manufacturing materials from the site, clean process tanks and take other actions to ensure the site is left in a secure and environmentally sound condition,” said a spokesperson for Smurfit Westrock, in an email. “Our intention is to decommission the site so that we can position it for sale as soon as possible.”

The Smurfit WestRock paper mill, seen from Vandalia St. in St. Paul on Wednesday, May 7, 2025. Smurfit WestRock, a global packaging company, announced May 1 that it will lay off roughly 189 employees in the permanent closure of its St. Paul coated recycled board mill at 2250 Wabash Ave., off Interstate 94 and Minnesota 280. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

Nearly 200 workers will be let go from the facility, which manufactures coated recycled boards, when it shuts down June 30. The core facility spans 25 acres, though Smurfit Westrock owns a total of 40 acres across the site.

The property generates around $300,000 in annual property taxes. Business advocates such as the St. Paul Port Authority are eager to see light industrial redevelopment that could bring in more jobs and a greater tax base.

Meanwhile, some real estate agents see potential for a residential component, given its proximity to Interstate 94, the Green Line light rail and other retail and restaurant amenities. The site is a light rail stop away from the Fresh Thyme grocery on University Avenue.

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Opinion: Mayoral Candidates—It’s Time for NYC’s Elite to Live for the People, Not off the People

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“As the race for who will be the next mayor takes shape, the city lies at the intersection of vast private wealth and public squalor. We need to hear who among the candidates has a new vision and narrative for our city’s future.”

New York City Hall. The next mayor’s term will start Jan. 1, 2026. (Benjamin Kanter/Mayoral Photo Office)

It was only five years ago, as COVID raged across New York City, that there was a glimmer of a new sense of community taking hold. Mutual aid groups sprang up in neighborhoods throughout the five boroughs. Many New Yorkers took part in a daily ritual of clanging pots to acknowledge the sacrifices of essential workers. But this spirit of community quickly faded; it was not just ephemeral but chimerical. 

Maybe it should not have been a surprise. As Adam Gopnik wrote in The New Yorker in May 2020, “Far from making us revise our fundamentals and reform our thoughts, major historical crisis, almost inevitably reinforce our previous beliefs and make us entrench deeper into our dogma.”

COVID affirmed the grip of self over community in our civic culture. In the wake of the pandemic, private wealth exploded and economic inequality grew. There are now 123 billionaires and 818 centimillionaires in our city, yet the rest of New York has struggled and experienced loss, hardship and financial insecurity. More than 2 million New Yorkers, including 420,000 children, are living in poverty and struggle to afford such basic necessities as food and housing. Of the more than 4.2 million residents who are employed, more than half earn less than $30,000. COVID affirmed and hardened our city’s already coarse culture and brought brutal economic harm. Today our city is grounded in exploitation.

As the pandemic receded, the primacy of our “blinkered” institutions—from Wall Street banks, developers, financiers, corporations and sports owners to foundations, well-endowed private universities, private hospitals, wealthy museums—and their dominance over the city’s political and social landscape grew. There were no consequences, or even expectations, that their accumulated wealth would be shared. Clearly, these institutions and their leadership have left the city bereft of a moral compass. The result: a glaring contrast in private wealth and public squalor, plagued by values where only power, self-interest, and growing wealth matters.

We need a new value proposition—for the many, not the few. Policies that move away from the donor class, ending their further enrichment. Five years into COVID, we are a city less about community and more about the individual.

As David Remnick of The New Yorker wrote, “The influence of money is hardly new.” But the grip of the monied elite—a grip they have held for decades—has tightened. The contrast of blinding wealth and public squalor has become the norm and core services are poorly and inadequately delivered. This is where we find ourselves today.

Compare it to another moment in our city’s history, when city government positioned itself to serve public needs in generous ways. Our public colleges were free and public housing was a national model, and the city built an expansive health and hospital network.

And in an earlier period in our city’s history, over 100 years ago, our past leaders, in and out of government, left us subways—opened in 1904—and the Parks Department as we know it opened in 1870, the nation’s first urban park system. Our public library system opened in 1895.

Our elders embraced the importance of public investment to leave a stronger city. Our elders not only built essential buildings and space, they embraced preventive maintenance to preserve investments, instead of subsidizing wealthy private development. Can we, as a city, be worthy custodians once again of the inheritance our past leaders left us? Will the next mayor understand our city’s history and end the begging for what the city needs, and end the ladling of billions in what the donor class wants

We need to end our current fixation on subsidizing shining objects, like the super-tall buildings and Hudson Yards—both playgrounds for the wealthy—and instead invest in our crumbling public infrastructure. we need a new value proposition, allocating massive public resources for public space and infrastructure needs. 

I spent more than a decade in city government, including as head of the Mayor’s Office of Operations under David Dinkins, as well as years at a major foundation, and a large non-profit organization. I’ve come to understand an arc since the 1960s, a shift in institutions from generosity to grifting, a shift in what is subsidized and who is being subsidized. A moral collapse undergirds too many of our city’s institutions and their leaders. 

Choosing to address this collapse is daunting: also, quite telling, about the city’s future. I’ve come to understand the failings of our major institutions and how they hold us back. These institutions, their lobbyists and the associated donor class, have fought hard to protect their power and wealth and erected obstacles that impair change.

We need a new governing narrative, one that emphasizes social and economic stability, forging systemic and structural changes for a fairer economy. We also need a well-managed government, where our finances are honestly presented and services are effectively delivered.

I’ve seen too many wrong turns that have hampered the city from bringing about a fair and just economy. A prime example is the delivery of basic safety net services. Staff shortages and an ossified bureaucracy have led to lengthy delays in processing food stamp applications, delays that have far exceeded the federal regulatory timeline of up to 30 days. The city has also been slow to process cash advances that can prevent evictions. These delays place increased demand on the city’s soup kitchens and food pantries that provide emergency food. Evictions can often lead to homelessness and the number of unhoused in our city has reached record numbers, including nearly 32,000 children.

Even as the number of unhoused New Yorkers has swelled, many apartments in our public housing sit vacant for months. When Mike Bloomberg left the mayor’s office, it took an average of 40 days for a vacated NYCHA apartment to be readied and reoccupied. At the end of the de Blasio administration, in the wake of COVID, it took 114 days. It now takes over a year—more than 420 days.  

The city’s efforts to provide supportive housing for people who have been chronically unhoused is also lagging. Last fiscal year, 9,600 people were deemed eligible for supportive housing, but only 2,400 were able to move into a permanent apartment.

 The city is failing not just the neediest among us. Public space and its buildings are in varying states of disrepair. Blight and squalor has become “an acceptable norm” in underserved neighborhoods. In fact, blight comes with a stiff social cost. Daily, residents are confronted with dilapidated playgrounds in our schools and public housing developments and too many of our parks are not well-maintained. And many of the city’s daycare, early childhood and senior centers, along with many of our libraries, museums, public hospitals and public housing developments need maintenance upgrades. 

Take vacant lots as one example. In fiscal year 2022, the city cleaned 1,652 of them, but by 2024 the number fell to 534. In the first four months of the current fiscal year, just 26 lots have been cleaned despite more than 1,400 requests for clean ups.  Similarly, a September 2024 City Council report found that out of 100 park bathrooms checked, two-thirds were either locked or had health or safety problems.

We need a new governing proposition, where public resources and invested in public space and infrastructure.

While deficient management can be blamed for some of these issues, a lack of funding is a major reason for the city’s tattered safety net and dilapidated public spaces. Yet the city forgoes hundreds of millions of dollars in potential revenue each year from the donor class—the elite institutions and individuals that call so many of the political shots at City Hall.  

Some of the wealthiest developers in the city benefit from substantial tax breaks on their properties. But as The City recently reported, that doesn’t stop them from seeking even more tax breaks for the same buildings. In one example cited, One Bryant Park, owned by the Durst Organization and Bank of America, reaped $296 million in property tax savings since 2010, yet in 2020 were granted a large reduction in the building’s assessment, saving an additional $21 million.

The billionaire owner of Madison Square Garden has an even better deal, paying no property tax for decades—a savings approaching $1 billion (in 2023 dollars), according to the city’s Independent Budget Office. Nor do the Mets, Nets or Yankees pay property taxes, saving the teams, and their wealthy owners, tens of millions of dollars annually.

Some of the wealthiest universities, museums and hospital networks also pay no property tax because they are non-profits, despite large endowments and extensive property holdings. A 2023 New York Times article by Matthew Haag and Meredith Kolodner detailed the history of the tax breaks, focusing on two major beneficiaries, Columbia and NYU. 

“The state’s tax breaks for non-profits date to 1799, long before Columbia and other higher education institution became vast enterprises with multi-million-dollar endowments,” it reads. Today, these non-profits have contributed little to the city’s property tax revenues, while amassing enormous land holdings. Salaries and benefits for their executives are approaching corporate wage packages. 

The Times article goes on to state, “In a city where land is more valuable than almost any anywhere in the nation, Columbia now owns more than 320 properties with a combined value of nearly $4 billion.” The authors continue, “But as Columbia has expanded its footprint, it has also become more of a drain on the city budget because a state law more than 200 years old that allows universities, museums and other non-profits to pay almost no property taxes. The law saves [Columbia] $182 million annually, according to an analysis by The New York Times.”

Today, as the race for who will be the next mayor takes shape, the city lies at the intersection of vast private wealth and public squalor. We need to hear who among the candidates has a new vision and narrative for our city’s future: someone who puts forward an honest assessment of where we are today and where we need to be going.

And we need to hear how values will inform choices that build toward a fairer economy and a government that focuses on what matters most in the daily lives of its residents. A vision that no longer accepts low-bar, cosmetic, expedient, half-measure changes. A vision that brings focus, discipline, decency and better results for the residents of our city. An ambitious and reimagined government that is willing to go big, and the courage to deliver change. And the strength to withstand fierce pushback from the donor class and its lobbyists when they bring their full arsenal to the table. 

Implementing changes based on such a vision would be hard in normal circumstances. But the Trump administration has assured us these are not normal times. We are already facing the threat of losing billions of dollars in federal aid for health care, housing, transportation and other critical needs. And that’s before adopting a governing vision for the city that couldn’t be more antithetical to the kleptocracy emanating from the White House. This can be more challenging if, as many economists predict, we see a recession.

Despite the threats from Washington, we need a mayor ready to commit to a major change in the relationship between the city and our local elite institutions and power players. A few antidotes to these dark times:

To start with, we need to stop the deep subsidies to private, non-profit universities and hospitals and wealthy museums by negotiating payments in lieu of taxes from these institutions as a substitute for foregone property tax revenue. In 2024, the private hospitals and universities in the city saved $1.5 billion on property taxes, according to the Independent Budget Office. In Boston these hospitals and universities pay the equivalent of 25 percent of their forgone property tax. Likewise, the teams that play in our stadiums and arenas must also ante up and make payments in lieu of property taxes.

We should divest from Wall Street banks and create a public bank in New York City. A broad coalition, led by New Economy Project, has been campaigning since 2018 for a public bank in New York City that would hold municipal deposits and reinvest locally:  to reclaim public money for the public good—serving the public interest, rather than to maximizing profits for shareholders and executives.

Currently, New York City deposits billions of dollars in Wall Street banks—institutions notorious for exploiting low-income neighborhoods, perpetuating racial and economic disparities and fueling the climate crisis. In fact, the bulk of the city’s funds are concentrated in just three big banks—Bank of America, Citibank, and JPMorgan Chase. By establishing a public bank, the city could channel its financial power toward long overdue investments in community needs.

A public bank would better safeguard city deposits from federal overreach and ensure public dollars serve New Yorkers. A public bank would invest in affordable housing, small business growth, and sustainable infrastructure, often in partnership with local Community Development Financial Institutions and other responsible lenders. Divesting from Wall Street would put an end to the city subsidizing these rogue institutions. It would also put an end to this broken financial system and build something better: key to achieving transformational change in underserved neighborhoods.

While we need to stop rampant subsidies for the city’s elite, we also need to craft honest budgets and commit to more effective management. This means being candid in projecting revenue forecasts so that resources are allocated accurately to meet core needs. It also means identifying service inefficiencies and addressing them in timely and systemic ways.

Additionally, it means confronting another major institution in the city—the often sclerotic and self-interested municipal labor unions. This requires renegotiating work rules with municipal labor that are costly and sustain service provision inefficiencies. Examples of significant changes include expanding, where suitable, hybrid work schedules designed with the goal of increasing productivity, to meet agency performance targets, as well as increasing the work week to 37.5 hours, equivalent to the state’s work week. Such changes would improve productivity, reduce the work force by attrition, and help pay for future salary increases. Ending unlimited sick leave for cops, firefighters, sanitation and correction workers should also be on the table. 

These are just a few of the examples of how we can craft a robust government that delivers for those who depend on the city to thrive. Or, as Robert F. Kennedy (not junior) stated succinctly many decades ago, “The problem of power is how to get men of power to live for the public rather than off the public.”

We can no longer continue to prop up private wealth through public subsidies. We can no longer base our fiscal decisions on austerity budgeting and our policy choices on neoliberal precepts.  We need to set an agenda that fits today’s moment, a fundamental rethinking of what kind of city we want and who the city commits to serve. We need a mayor who both embraces this vision and has the experience, courage and stamina to get it done.

Anand Giridharadas reminds us that the first Gilded Age eventually gave way to the New Deal, “…an era defined culturally by renewed public purpose and politically by the restoration of the state in areas where people are too powerless to solve problems on their own—defined by the use of shared institutions to solve shared problems.”

It’s time for a new social contract in the city, one that diminishes economic precarity. At the same time, we need an effectively managed government where the cornerstone of its work is to achieve a just city, where the principle of economic justice and fairness guides public choices.

The challenges are daunting. But it is the hand the new mayor must play at City Hall on Jan. 1, 2026.

Harvey Robins has worked in various positions in city government, non-profits, and foundations for more than 40 years. This includes: the NYC Human Resources Administration as first deputy administrator, the Board of Education as deputy chancellor for finance and administration, the director of the Mayor’s Office of Operations, the Children’s Aid Society as director of strategic planning, and the Edna McConnellClark Foundations as director of strategic planning and operations.

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