Donald Trump’s revived plan to slap a 10% tariff on all US imports, circumventing Congress via a 1974 law, could, according to the Peterson Institute, nudge household budgets up by $2,500 a year as prices ripple through everything from groceries to …
New York’s city government has renewed its entente with the Hotel Association, signing a $1.86bn deal to shelter homeless families in hotel rooms through 2027—a lifeline for some 85,000 nightly seekers. While officials tout flexibility and readiness in emergencies, critics such as Nicole Gelinas of the Manhattan Institute grumble that the no-bid contract isn’t much competition—except, perhaps, for tourists seeking a decent rate in Manhattan.
New York’s annual budget melodrama resumes as the Assembly and Senate advance counteroffers to Governor Kathy Hochul’s $263bn proposal, demanding higher taxes for millionaires and corporations, plus extra largesse for cities like Buffalo and Rochester. The governor banks on buoyant Wall Street returns to avoid tax hikes, while lawmakers double down on spending. With both sides still playing hardball, compromise may prove the budget’s rarest asset.
Fleeing the scene has become a national pastime for American drivers: a AAA study found 919,000 hit-and-runs reported in 2023—leaving 242,000 injured and nearly 3,000 dead, with New York and its neighbours faring little better than the rest. The unlicensed and the nameless predominate among culprits, but the AAA’s faith in smarter roads and watchful cameras suggests even escape artists may soon have their day in court.
A sprawling storm set to barrel across the United States on Sunday is expected to pelt around 200 million people with blizzards and severe thunderstorms, a feat meteorologists rank as among 2024’s more memorable American weather theatrics. As we brace for an atmospheric juggling act from coast to coast, the mercurial mood of spring once again reminds us which player gets last word: the climate.
After President Donald Trump’s administration scrapped curbs on immigration enforcement at “sensitive locations” like hospitals in 2025, New York’s healthcare workers braced for the worst, but U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has largely stuck to other battlegrounds. Still, stray ICE sightings and data-sharing worries keep local doctors and nurses on high alert—suggesting that, for now, the city’s white coats remain warier than its federal agents.
New York’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, hopes to find a “czar” to shepherd the much-delayed closure of Rikers Island jail by 2027, honouring city law and perhaps quieting mounting lawsuits over squalid conditions. The appointee, tasked with wrangling new borough jails and a tangle of deadlines, will earn up to $180,000—and, if truly heroic, a modest spot in the city’s long list of unlikely reformers.
New York City, home to nearly 100,000 people in shelters, continues to wrestle with getting housing vouchers actually used—some 80% of eligible families remain stuck in limbo by bureaucratic gridlock or landlords’ cold feet. Pilot programmes like Anthos|Home claim faster results, but more nimble coordination is now the city’s best hope of making generous subsidies do more than just gather dust—apart from providing job security for paperwork aficionados.
After Iran blockaded the Strait of Hormuz in late February—a bustling artery for one-fifth of the world’s oil—New York drivers now find themselves wincing at $3.58 a gallon, with $4 looming at some pumps. President Trump’s record release of 172 million barrels from reserves offers a fleeting cushion amid refinery switchovers and spiking crude, but pumping optimism proves even costlier than regular unleaded these days.
