New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority aims to award the third contract for the $7 billion Second Avenue Subway extension to East Harlem this week, even as its lawsuit against the federal government over a withheld $60 million reimbursemen…
Democrats in the Senate have spurned the latest Republican attempt—cheered on by Donald Trump—to reopen most of the Department of Homeland Security, insisting instead on reforms reining in ICE, whose tactics they find overzealous. Both sides propose funding, but the blue camp demands agent warrants for home entry and no masks on raids; meanwhile, airports stew and the shutdown, now 39 days old, creaks on—proof compromise is always just one negotiation away.
Donald Trump, prompted by a reporter, voiced support—if foggy recollection—for finishing New York’s perpetually incomplete Second Avenue Subway, just as a federal judge scheduled a hearing on the MTA’s lawsuit seeking $60 million in withheld funds. Construction began in the 1970s and now grinds along over rule-change disputes, federal torpor, and subway folklore. After half a century, we may yet see a train or two—if only in the courts.
The IRS reminds us that tax refunds don’t age like fine wine: Americans have exactly three years to claim their due, after which unclaimed sums—currently over $1.2 billion for the 2021 fiscal year—slip imperceptibly into the U.S. Treasury’s coffers. Late filers (some 1.3 million this cycle) risk forfeiting an average refund of $781, proving government patience lasts only slightly longer than our paperwork.
New York City’s Department of Transportation plans to convert a northbound bike lane from Union Square to Prince Street into a two-way protected route, finally bridging a perilous gap for southbound cyclists in Greenwich Village ahead of the World Cup crowds. With DOT data showing redesigns like this cutting road deaths by nearly a third, some locals may even swap lane-dodging for leisurely rides—provided the city’s famed gridlock doesn’t claim the cycle lanes, too.
Americans may want to keep an extra eye on the checkbook: researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York say financial bungling often surfaces up to five years before a dementia diagnosis, with credit scores tumbling and bills going unpaid. Relatives from Indiana to Canada report tidy spenders morphing into scattershot shoppers, sometimes falling prey to scams—a sign, perhaps, that the first numbers to slip are those in the bank account.
Gale Brewer, Upper West Side council member and serial officeholder, has thrown her weight behind a protected bike lane along Central Park’s 79th Street Transverse, hoping safer passage will coax more cyclists across Manhattan and ease the park’s crowded drives. The city’s transport department says it’s “very interested,” while a recent study—partly crafted by its own incoming commissioner—suggests the idea could finally outrun the classic New York inertia.
Full-time faculty at New York University, members of the UAW, have begun striking after talks with administrators broke down over pay, job security, and workloads. While NYU insists its offer is generous and kept classes running with substitutes, the unionists claim the walkout addresses “unfair labor practices.” We’ve yet to see if learned minds outside classrooms will spark a teaching moment inside the boardroom.
The US Supreme Court is weighing whether asylum seekers must physically cross into America to apply, revisiting a “metering” policy credited to Donald Trump but born under Barack Obama and shelved by Joe Biden. With government lawyers parsing the phrase “arriving in the US,” justices sounded less than persuaded by semantic gymnastics—a reminder that in Washington, borders are easier to debate than to define.
