Gasoline prices in the United States have breached $4 per gallon for the first time since 2022, says AAA, as fresh Middle East tensions and snarled supply chains push the national average to $4.02—over a dollar above pre-war times. Parisian drivers …
A recent study finds that AI data centers, basking in hums and blinking lights, may be heating up their local patches: researchers tallied a 3.6-degree Fahrenheit increase in temperatures within a six-mile radius, potentially affecting 300 million people worldwide. As Google, Microsoft, and others scale up their server farms, we may soon discover there’s no such thing as a free computational lunch.
The battle to redevelop Chelsea’s Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea NYCHA complexes has upstaged policy wonkery in the race to succeed Jerry Nadler in New York’s 12th District. With $1 billion in disrepair, City Hall’s plan to raze and rebuild—via private developers—divides hopefuls: Micah Lasher backs pragmatic new towers, Jack Schlossberg decries moves that might evict seniors, and, as ever, the only thing rising faster than rents is the rhetoric.
Brad Lander, vying to supplant incumbent Dan Goldman in New York’s Lower Manhattan-Brooklyn district, unveiled a plan to split federal surface transport funds evenly between highways and public transit, upending today’s 80-20 highway tilt. Lander also wants to let cities spend transit funds on actual operations—presumably handy for those four million daily subway riders fast running out of patience, if not alternatives. The June primary judges whose trains of thought most resonate.
As New York’s lawmakers approach their April 1st deadline to settle the state budget, anti-hunger advocates find both promise and potholes in the proposals: while the Assembly and Senate tout $75 million each for hunger prevention and Nourish NY—a notch above Governor Kathy Hochul’s sums—they note federal SNAP cuts and stricter eligibility may outpace state generosity, leaving some stomachs unsatisfied and fiscal creativity in high demand.
A newly opened free preschool in tony Tribeca has prompted musings about Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s drive to expand universal child care in New York—a policy that, by design, showers benefits on the Upper Crust and the rest alike. Proponents cite Scandinavian models; critics wonder why billionaires need subsidised crayons. We sense Manhattan’s toddlers won’t be clamouring for means-testing any time soon.
Five years after New York legalized marijuana, Pure Blossoms—a new dispensary on Manhattan’s Upper West Side—proudly claims the title of number 600, despite regulators’ chronic headaches over lawsuits, measurement mishaps, and a weed-friendly Wild West of illegal shops. With $3.3 billion in retail sales and over half of 2,000 licenses aimed at social equity, we see slow progress; at least the grams now add up correctly.
Quincy Surasmith of Feet in 2 Worlds urges newsrooms to let immigrant journalists take the lead in covering Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which, after a $75 billion budget top-up, appears poised to be a recurring headline. Embedding reporters with close community ties yields richer stories and fewer clichés—or at least reduces the temptation to recycle yet another “ICE raid” lede before our readers’ eyes glaze over.
A cross-continental investigation by CalMatters, Evident Media and Bellingcat tracked at least 25 masked Border Patrol agents as they cycled through American cities—including Los Angeles, Chicago and Bakersfield—applying forceful tactics to migrants and, in one case, artificial intelligence to incident reports. Lower courts have attempted to curb such measures, but higher courts, Supreme or otherwise, seem keener to let the gloves—and, alas, the masks—stay on.
