We’re back. Our weekly roundup of the news, some trends, and our thoughts — plus a reading list for the weekend.
The Border: Last Tuesday, Joe Biden announced an executive order to “shut down” the border to asylum seekers. The order relies on section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act — a provision from the Immigration and Nationality Act (1952) which empowers the president to “suspend” or restrict the entry of migrants into the country when deemed necessary. On Tuesday of this week, the ACLU announced that they were suing Biden. Gelernt, the ACLU attorney who is leading the case said, “There is no legal daylight between this asylum ban and the Trump ban the courts struck down. The law is flatly illegal, period.”
New York Politics: Last week, a congestion pricing plan in New York, which had been in the works since 2019, was halted last minute by the governor. The plan was scheduled to go into effect at the end of the month and would have charged a fine ranging from $1.50 - $36 (depending on the type of vehicle) when they entered lower Manhattan. The revenue, estimated by the MTA to be about $1 billion, was going to be spent on public transportation improvements. This week, Politico reported that New York City transit advocates and left-leaning politicians are looking to sue over the delay. Meanwhile, in Brooklyn, there was a contentious hearing over Councilmember Chi Osse’s bill that looks to reform New York’s broker fee system. Curbed reported, “The Real Estate Board of New York had threatened that 1,500 brokers would show up to rally against City Councilmember Chi Ossé’s broker’s fee bill and sure enough, they did, turning City Hall Park into a sea of blazers and Corcoran pullovers on Wednesday morning.”
And in Hollywood News (as reported by the Hollywood Reporter): “In a groundbreaking moment, Sony Pictures Entertainment has acquired Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in a deal that puts a major Hollywood studio back in the business of owning a movie theater for the first time in more than 75 years with certain exceptions. From 1948 until 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice prohibited film distributors from owning an exhibition company under what was known as the Paramount Consent Decrees, which arose from a 1948 U.S. Supreme Court ruling. Sony is the first major Hollywood studio to step forward and test the waters since the Paramount Decrees were officially rescinded in 2020.”
A few other things on our reading list this week:
This essay in the New Yorker on how liberals talk about children: “The thought of having children, in these mostly progressive circles, is often weighed against rising existential risk, whether stemming from climate change, the emergence of the far right, or even artificial intelligence. This, the authors point out, is a weird way to talk about kids.”
This essay in The Paris Review on fighting at dinner parties: “I think most people like to walk away from a dinner party saying, “What a lovely evening.” I do. But I don’t feel compelled to do that. I know it’s not always possible. Also, I prefer people who don’t necessarily regard the warm glow of candlelight or the sound of a thirty-seven-dollar bottle of listán negro being poured into a glass as an automatic call for politeness, regardless of what is being said, or happening in the world.”
Lana Del Rey interviewing Billie Eilish for Interview Magazine: “Usually, I tell people that they broke up with me, because essentially, they did. Because they made me do that.”