#BirdOfTheDay theme today is #Winterlight 🪶 Battle!

This is VERY bad news for #mapoli Red Line riders and another example of why it is not good policy to experiment with procurements like this, or use them as political talking points for creating local jobs. www.masslive.com/business/202...

Tylenol during pregnancy is safe without increased risk of autism, ADHD, or intellectual disability of offspring A new review of the evidence just out www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Once again #mapoli Senators Collins and Brownsberger defeat property tax relief for Boston homeowners. Neither deserves reelection. www.bostonglobe.com/2026/01/15/m...

Once again #mapoli Senators Collins and Brownsberger defeat property tax relief for Boston homeowners. Neither deserves reelection. www.bostonglobe.com/2026/01/15/m...

NEW from me: Job growth has been functionally zero over the last five months, as the US sinks from a “low hire, low fire” labor market to a “no hire” one. That slowdown is hitting young & low income workers the hardest 🧵 www.apricitas.io/p/the-no-hir...

Airport authorities do spend a ton of money on this roadway infrastructure, so if they're going to charge for transit, I don't see why they shouldn't charge for using the road networks they're building and maintaining too

NOW: Crowd continues to grow in Minneapolis at a vigil where a federal agent shot and killed Renee Good this morning. “SAY HER NAME!” “RENEE GOOD!”

Warner Bros. Discovery rejects Paramount's amended takeover offer www.nbcnews.com/business/bus...

Rahm Emanuel has less than zero chance of being nominated for President or VP, but let’s spend time posting about him.

Trump's Greenland threats undermine his own efforts to secure a peace deal in Ukraine. Any US security guarantee included in such a deal would be hard to take seriously if he is willing to ignore the security guarantee the US already has with Denmark.

Senators Nick Collins & Will Brownsberger, in league w/the dark money group Boston Policy Institute, have blocked property tax relief for homeowners. Let’s be transparent about this @dotnews.bsky.social #mapoli

Sorry, but triumphant claims about autonomous vehicle safety are wildly exaggerated. It's an open question whether today’s self-driving cars are any safer than those driven by humans. And if reducing crashes is the goal, that isn’t even the right question. My deep dive, in Bloomberg 🧵

Great job, America

A lust for fossil fuels and the decision to double down on fossil fuels in the transport sector are driving a good deal of US domestic and foreign policy.

I mean, what is the point of making this a feature of your front-page digital paper?

the @nytimes.com coverage of Mayor Mamdani today is atrocious.

And just like that, New York City has a new mayor.

Leaving this here without comment

The opportunity to fashion new federal funding mechanisms in the next surface transportation bill (hopefully in 2027) could mean ending competitive grants & lengthy the transit “new starts” process while providing states w/ flexible “bloc grant” funding via formulas that are fair & predictable.

You don't know what day it is. You're eating countless meals a day with lots of snacks in between. You're napping throughout they day. Either it's the time between Christmas and New Year or you're a cat.

A reminder that Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra’s parents emigrated here during a period when Italians were considered to be a genetically inferior and criminal-minded underclass that Stephen Miller’s racist predecessors said should be excluded from America

America has 925 billionaires as of this year. Collectively they have a record $6.9 trillion in wealth. The bottom 50% of Americans control $4.2 trillion in wealth. When 925 people control more wealth than half a country’s population, we have a very serious problem.

Hope looks different to everyone 🌱 From the people I meet to the changes happening across our city, there’s plenty to feel hopeful about.

Governance structures matter. The idea that Albany is driving NYC transit fare policy should lead to serious debate about whether that model makes sense in this century.

The meditative experience of preparing stuffed squid for the Xmas Eve dinner

This reminds me of FDR’s 1936 campaign speech: “They are unanimous in their hate for me—and I welcome their hatred. I should like it said of my 1st Administration that in it the forces of selfishness & lust for power met their match.”

I took this earlier this year. It may be the best metaphor for #mapoli transportation policy I have come across:

“Gone are the days when companies like Instacart and DoorDash can bully their way into record profits on the backs of workers and consumers," said Sam Levine, the incoming head of the Dept. of Consumer and Worker Protection under Mayor Mamdani.

I just uploaded @jasonparis.bsky.social 's recording of the segment CBS News pulled from "60 Minutes" to YouTube:

I'm making my first $ contribution before the end of the calendar year #mapoli. If you want to send a message to out-of-touch state legislators, join me and support a smart young candidate who's interested in making a difference.

This is what political leadership looks like 👇

Good work here!

Yet another reminder that when billionaires take control of media, it’s not a win for free speech. It’s a win for oligarchy. The super-rich won't hesitate to sell out the American public if it means getting merger approvals or deregulation that helps their bottom line.

These are interesting observations

CBS is now the Corrupt Broadcasting System @cbsnews.com and they have themselves to blame.

CBS News chief Bari Weiss pulls 60 Minutes story Weiss said investigation had to include comments from Trump administration 60M's ⁦‪Sharyn Alfonsi‬⁩ said multiple US agencies refused to comment - and this lets WH veto coverage My NPR story www.npr.org/2025/12/22/g...

Again, from Michael Grynbaum, here is Sharyn Alfonsi's full email. It must be read:

Toyotathon and other end-of-year sales events are a bit different this year. Patrick George on why America is stuck with expensive cars for the foreseeable future:

And that’s the way it is in 2025. A legacy deeply tarnished.

Current issue of @theonion.com nails it again.

Moderating a recent panel about transportation resilience, I asked whether self-driving cars make mobility networks more fragile due to the risks of malfunctions. Anyway, this happened in San Francisco yesterday.

Point taken. The article is worth reading.

Today was a good time to bake in Boston

If we're going to talk about driving and safe streets at all, it really does need to start with the basic reality that driving is dangerous, period. Even if everybody follows "the rules," there is just a structural risk that cannot be removed, and it has to do with cars themselves.

Facts are stubborn things.

An important factor at play in the free-fares vs. reduced-fares-for-low-income-people debate: A means-tested program will inevitably result in a large share of eligible people not using it. The documentation required for NYC fair fares is a hurdle for some people, notably undocumented people.

Motivated by ignorance, cruelty and ideological blindness - www.nytimes.com/2025/12/18/h...

A new NPR poll finds that President Trump's economic approval has hit a new low at 36%. And, Congress has two days to take action on health care subsidies. n.pr/4iXmaQs