This Kirsten Soltis Anderson phrase will stick with me: swapping "McDonald’s Drive-Thru Guy for Golden Ballroom Guy" www.nytimes.com/2025/11/07/o...

Smart Eliza Shapiro story about the six-figure economic precarity in New York that has helped fuel Mamdani's rise: www.nytimes.com/2025/11/07/n...

There are now cement trucks entering the White House construction site, which is not what you'd expect for a project that hasn't been reviewed by anyone yet. The White House has previously said no NCPC approvals are needed yet because they're just doing demo, not construction.

Good morning. We crunched 4.6GB of trade data to find out how much of U.S. imports are getting tariffed (quite a bit) www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Zohran Mamdani's focus on public transportation - and on affordability in general - paid off in a big way. Lots of fascinating insights in this map (free link) www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

NJ election is the first real measure of Latino support since last year. A test of whether the Trump discontent in polls is re-shaping behavior heading into '26: will Sherrill come in closer to '21 or '24 in Hispanic bellwethers? Here are cities to watch. Note '24 vs. prior.

A federal judge ruled today that the U.S. DOT violated the constitution by trying to coerce states to cooperate with ICE if they want federal transportation dollars.

DOJ lawyers have told two federal judges the government will make partial SNAP payments this month. Then Trump said today the government won't pay anything until the shutdown ends: www.nytimes.com/2025/11/04/u...

The One Big Beautiful Bill ratchets up work requirements for Medicaid. In the process it will force states to pay millions more to Equifax to verify that residents qualify for the program. Wild story by @sangerkatz.bsky.social @asmaaelk.bsky.social and Sarah Kliff www.nytimes.com/2025/11/03/h...

Unlike other projects the Trump administration has canceled during the shutdown to punish Democratic-leaning places, disruption to SNAP will touch every corner of the country, including many communities that support the president. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/31/u...

The Trump Administration has rearranged funds to pay for the parts of government it values most during the shutdown. In court, it is now saying it won't do that for food assistance. via @tonyromm.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2025/10/30/u...

A US Drug Enforcement Administration agent said the DEA made “high-level arrests” of 171 Sinaloa Cartel members across New England in August. A Globe investigation found that many of the DEA’s targets were addicts, low-level dealers, shoplifters, and homeless people.

“Kids dressed in Halloween costumes walking to a parade do not pose an immediate threat to the safety of a law enforcement officer. They just don’t. And you can’t use riot control weapons against them.” www.nytimes.com/2025/10/28/u...

Can fast buses in New York actually be free? @stefanoschen.bsky.social + Larry Buchanan and I take a close look at an idea that has helped propel Zohran Mamdani's campaign for mayor. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Picture of the East Wing demolition of the White House taken on my flight out of DCA.

Counterpoint: One of the more endearing things about the White House is that it's small. You walk up to it, and it's just... a startlingly modest building in scale... where a real-life family actually lives. You can get close to them, peer into their back yard, see them as human.

One of the potential upsides of autonomous cars is that they could drive *better* and more safely than humans do. What's the point of programming them to have human-like sloppiness, making rolling stops and disobeying traffic laws? www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

Remarkable photo via @washingtonpost.com of the White House undergoing demolition, after the president vowed that his new ballroom would leave the existing building untouched. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Portland leaders are trying to push back against ICE by targeting its... conditional use permit. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/20/u...

A video the White House circulated to portray Chicago as violent and chaotic used footage of drug busts, arrests and deportation raids in Florida, Texas, South Carolina and Nebraska, via the AFP. factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com....

If Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act falls, Democrats might need to win the national popular vote by 5 to 6 points to take control of the House, via Nate Cohn www.nytimes.com/2025/10/15/u...

Landmark SCOTUS cases often have a public face, a plaintiff whose name and story become known to us all. Smart @abbievansickle.bsky.social story on how that is not true of the 12 "non-African-American” voters nominally behind the VRA case before the court today: www.nytimes.com/2025/10/12/u...

We thought about trying to quantify DOGE's effect at the end of the fiscal year — Musk’s own deadline for finding $1T — and realized it was impossible. That’s the larger story: No one, even Congressional appropriators, can follow what’s happened to federal spending. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/u...

For perspective in Portland: Former mayor Charlie Hales points out that the city is composed of about 25,000 blocks. Fewer than 5 of them are touched by the ICE protests Trump has used to portray the city as "on fire" and in need of federal troops.

Really helpful initial @jeffasher.bsky.social look at crime trends in D.C. during the federal law enforcement surge: jasher.substack.com/p/re-evaluat...

DC folks! Come have a conversation with us about Home Rule at Solid State on H Street tomorrow night. Historian George Derek Musgrove will join us at 7 p.m. to talk about the epic DC history "Chocolate City."

Shutdown contingency plans give us perhaps our clearest look yet at the workforce reductions across federal agencies: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

WSJ on ICE activity in and around Boston finds, among other things, 95 instances of ICE activity within a mile of a school. www.wsj.com/us-news/ice-...

Bloomberg: To understand why residents of New York City, the epicenter of American capitalism, are supporting a democratic socialist candidate for mayor, look no further than its warped rental market. www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...

Crime has fallen in D.C. during the federal law enforcement surge, faster than it was already dropping this year. But the show of force appears to have deterred other activity too: foot traffic, dining out, visits by immigrants to food pantries and health clinics. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/11/u...

If the federal show of force in Washington has had a deterrent effect on crime, it appears to have deterred entirely normal aspects of city life, too. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/11/u...

A news tidbit: The D.C. Council has hired a lobbying firm to help fight off the growing interference coming from Republicans in Congress. @chmnmendelson.bsky.social has a dedicated staffer for congressional relations, but the council will now have a much more dedicated presence on the Hill.

Apropos of nothing for D.C. folks, we're shuffling the upcoming titles at the Reading the City book club at Solid State. In October, George Musgrove will join us to talk about "Chocolate City" and home rule. www.solidstatebooksdc.com/ssb-read-the...

"The pattern of failure — in what was now three separate cases — suggested that something extraordinary was taking place in the city’s federal courts." www.nytimes.com/2025/08/29/u...

A review of about a thousand arrests made in the first two weeks of the federal law enforcement surge in DC suggests that the operation has been more of a sprawling dragnet than a targeted crime-fighting operation: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/29/u...

In detailed budget logs it tried to keep from public view, the White House is trying to wrest more control over spending from Congress. (and this was *before* last night's pocket recision) www.nytimes.com/2025/08/29/u...

"I have determined the business need is higher than the security risk associated with this implementation and I accept all risks,” said the DOGE worker who uploaded everyone's Social Security information to the cloud: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/u...

Been thinking about this graphic we published last fall after the election. Most large, diverse cities shifted toward Trump, one of the major stories of 2024. D.C. notably broke that pattern. It barely shifted at all. People knew the stakes.

Strange, I was told congestion pricing would turn Manhattan into a ghost town

The excellent Amy Fan map of the federal footprint in this story is now interactive! Some of the details in it are so weird. Look around.

Spot on. I would note that there are 43 law enforcement agencies operating in Washington, the majority of which are federal. The Capitol Hill police alone have a force about the size of Cleveland's municipal police.

The president wants to “take back” DC, but the federal government never really let it go. It touches nearly every aspect of life in the city, making it harder for local officials to manage even the things Trump cares most about. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/14/u...

“Official statistics, government statistics are a mirror that society holds up to itself." www.nytimes.com/2025/08/03/b...

Today Gov Hochul announced new details on the IBX, a 14-mile light-rail line that will connect Brooklyn and Queens directly. Take a ride on the future line with us! Free link: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

States know even more about you than the federal government does. The Trump administration is now trying to access that data, too: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/01/u...

Good news www.nytimes.com/2025/07/24/u...

Wild that the National Capital Planning Commission now sits at the center of Trump's campaign to pressure the Fed chair to lower interest rates: www.nytimes.com/2025/07/18/u...

New: I teamed up with @elenashao.bsky.social and nytgraphics to map more than 100 public TV and radio stations that are at risk of closing as a result of tonight's vote: www.nytimes.com/interactive/... This is a time bomb that will go off in the fall, when the last federal grants run out.

The Trump admin would like to put a 2-year time limit on federal housing assistance for the non-elderly or disabled. 70% of such households now in subsidized housing have already been there that long: apnews.com/article/hud-...

"It was an exercise of power, not reason." Helpful @adamliptak.bsky.social context on recent SCOTUS moves: www.nytimes.com/2025/07/16/u...