Food deliverers to get regulated

Getting tasty food delivered straight to your door is a staple of New York City living. But now the city council says you can accept that delivery with a little more peace of mind.

The council voted last week to license third-party food delivery services like Seamless, Grubhub and Uber Eats. Doing that creates permanent caps on commission fees, the lawmaker says, probiting them from charging restaurants more than 15 percent per order.

Once passed into law, delivery companies would have to obtained a license every other year from the city’s consumer and worker protection department.

It also would prevent them from listing restaurants on their platform without that restaurant’s permission, and also requiring them to share a restaurant’s direct phone number with customers.

“We are not here to enable billion-dollar companies and their investors to get richer at the expense of restaurants,” said Queens councilman Francisco Mayo, in a release. “By limiting, without expiration, the fees charged to restaurants by third-party food delivery services, we are ensuring that mom-and-pop shops have a real opportunity to recover and thrive.”

Bowman glad to be out of Afghanistan

President Joe Biden is getting a lot of heat about how the United States withdrew from its 20-year military operations in Afghanistan. But at least within his own party — including more progressive elements that don’t always align with him — Biden is getting some support.

“We never should have begun America’s longest war in the first place,” U.S. Rep. Jamaal Bowman said, in a statement.

“A top priority right now must be raising the refugee cap and assisting as many Afghans as possible with resettlement. My office stands ready to help.”