After Lee Zeldin took the helm at the Environmental Protection Agency, over 150 staffers privately accused him of partisanship and ignoring scientific evidence, prompting a bruising response: 144 signatories were promptly benched. Zeldin, championed…
A Pew survey finds that 63% of Latinos in America now label their finances as poor or middling, despite a modest 5.5% bump in median income and a dip in poverty rates. Living costs, especially for housing, food, and healthcare, have surged by $1,300 a month since 2020—debt and job fears abound, as salaries fail to keep pace. It seems inflation always skips the siesta.
New York has sued the U.S. Department of Transportation after it withheld $73.5 million in highway funds over the state’s refusal to revoke some 33,000 commercial driver’s licenses issued to immigrants, arguing it followed federal rules at the time. California already lost $200 million in a similar row; other states are nervously checking their spreadsheets before the next audit rolls through.
Despite New York State’s fresh strategy on halting utilities’ summer shutoffs during heat waves, city dwellers find themselves with less robust protection than upstate neighbors, just as New York City breaks heat records. Regulators, eager for uniform policy, handed utilities such as Con Edison more leeway to suspend power over unpaid bills. Evidently, cooler heads did not prevail—except perhaps in boardrooms rather than Brooklyn apartments.
New York's Mayor, undeterred by the city’s trashy reputation, plans to extend full rubbish containerization to six more Community Districts—including more of Harlem—by late next year, with a lofty citywide target set for 2032. Sanitation chief Gregory Anderson is touting Empire Bins and their ilk as our future, though rats and resident cynics may still give the scheme two paws down—for now.
The United States’ 988 hotline, introduced as a suicide prevention lifeline, now fields calls for issues ranging from stress to breakups, with operators ready for anything from anxious teens to lonely retirees. Though the government touts its broad remit, neither algorithms nor counsellors can yet resolve the root cause of modern malaise—though we’re reassured that talking to a stranger is sometimes a perfectly rational first step.
Governor Kathy Hochul’s plan to trim New York auto insurance costs by axing the so-called “90/180” injury rule is earning disapproval from those who, like one single father, relied on it to take their case to court after an accident derailed their working life. While Hochul touts potential “affordability,” claimants and consumer advocates suspect the savings might be available only to insurers with a flair for fine print.
Banks in the United States are increasingly using the Expedited Funds Availability Act to delay releasing deposits—sometimes for up to five business days—in a bid to fight digital fraud, leaving customers in the odd position of seeing their money but being unable to spend it. One can plan ahead using faster (and pricier) wire transfers, but the price of security, it seems, is measured in patience.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s new pied-à-terre tax, targeting about 13,000 mostly absentee owners of second homes worth over $5 million, hopes to fill a $5.4 billion budget hole while extracting a little more from the city’s rarefied air. Critics warn of potential investor flight à la London, but as experiments go, this one spares no billionaire—philanthropists and oligarchs equally may soon be feeling more civic.
