Rescinding the E.P.A.’s 2009 “endangerment finding,” Doug Burgum and friends in Washington now claim carbon dioxide is mere plant food, not pollutant—even as global scientific consensus warns of imminent climate peril. This policy shift delights fossil-fuel lobbyists and their cheerleaders, such as Myron Ebell and Marc Morano, but leaves America out of step with data, precedent, and perhaps the rest of the sentient biosphere.
New York City in brief
Top five stories in the five boroughs today
After a brief stoppage, work on the Gateway tunnel under the Hudson will restart next week, as the Trump administration finally released $205 million once frozen over fears of “financial catastrophe” (and rumors of a Penn Station name change). Legal squabbles between New York, New Jersey, and Washington ended with the funds freed, putting 1,000 union workers back on track—until the next curveball, presumably, arrives before 2035.
New York’s new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, has reshuffled the Rent Guidelines Board, appointing five fresh faces—including Chantella Mitchell as chair and a slate of public members with solid data and advocacy credentials—in hopes of delivering his vow to freeze rents for the city’s one million rent-stabilized apartments. Whether this majoritarian math will actually lower the heat remains to be tested—politics, it seems, still trumps thermostats.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani floated a 9.5% property tax hike to plug a $5.4 billion budget gap, framing the move as either that or state tax rises on the wealthy—a choice his critics, from the Citizens Budget Commission to fellow Democrats like Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, dismiss as alarmist theatre. The deficit seems to shrink by the press release, if not by sleight of hand.
New York’s Mayor Mamdani has unveiled a budget that, watchdogs note, underestimates the city’s bill to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority by some $621 million for 2027—even as he vows to make buses free, a promise running to $800 million. The numbers keep climbing while Mamdani holds Fair Fares spending flat and the MTA plugs fiscal leaks, sometimes with another round of fare hikes for garnish.