U.S. News

Flint, Mich. – A decade after lead contaminated water was found in Flint, Michigan’s water system, the legal battle to replace lead water pipes is finished, a landmark milestone for a city defined by its dangerous water. Today the State of Michigan submitted a progress report to a federal court confirming that, more than eight years after a court-ordered settlement required Flint officials to replace pipes and restore property damaged in the process, nearly 11,000 lead pipes were replaced and more than 28,000 properties were restored. There is no safe level of lead exposure.

“Thanks to the persistence of the people of Flint and our partners, we are finally at the end of the lead pipe replacement project. While this milestone is not all the justice our community deserves, it is a huge achievement,” said Pastor Allen C. Overton of the Concerned Pastors for Social Action. “We would not have reached this day without the work of so many Flint residents who worked to hold our leaders accountable. I have never been prouder to be a member of the Flint community.”

In the 2008 best seller Nudge, the legal scholar Cass R. Sunstein and the economist Richard H. Thaler marshaled behavioral-science research to show how small tweaks could help us make better choices. An updated version of the book includes a section on what they called “sludge”—tortuous administrative demands, endless wait times, and excessive procedural fuss that impede us in our lives.

The whole idea of sludge struck a chord. In the past several years, the topic has attracted a growing body of work. Researchers have shown how sludge leads people to forgo essential benefits and quietly accept outcomes they never would have otherwise chosen. Sunstein had encountered plenty of the stuff working with the Department of Homeland Security and, before that, as administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. “People might want to sign their child up for some beneficial program, such as free transportation or free school meals, but the sludge might defeat them,” he wrote in the Duke Law Journal.

The defeat part rang darkly to me. When I started talking with people about their sludge stories, I noticed that almost all ended the same way—with a weary, bedraggled Fuck it. Beholding the sheer unaccountability of the system, they’d pay that erroneous medical bill or give up on contesting that ticket. And this isn’t happening just here and there. Instead, I came to see this as a permanent condition. We are living in the state of Fuck it.

Some of the sludge we submit to is unavoidable—the simple consequence of living in a big, digitized world. But some of it is by design. ProPublica showed in 2023 how Cigna saved millions of dollars by rejecting claims without having doctors read them, knowing that a limited number of customers would endure the process of appeal. (Cigna told ProPublica that its description was “incorrect.”) Later that same year, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ordered Toyota’s motor-financing arm to pay $60 million for alleged misdeeds that included thwarting refunds and deliberately setting up a dead-end hotline for canceling products and services. (The now-diminished bureau canceled the order in May.) As one Harvard Business Review article put it, “Some companies may actually find it profitable to create hassles for complaining customers.”

Sludge can also reduce participation in government programs. According to Stephanie Thum, an adjunct faculty member at the Indiana Institute of Technology who researches and writes about bureaucracy, agencies may use this fact to their advantage. “If you bury a fee waiver or publish a website in legalese rather than plain language, research shows people might stay away,” Thum told me. “If you’re a leader, you might use that knowledge to get rid of administrative friction—or put it in place.”

Fee waivers, rejected claims—sludge pales compared with other global crises, of course. But that might just be its cruelest trick. There was a time when systemic dysfunction felt bold and italicized, and so did our response: We were mad as hell and we weren’t going to take it anymore! Now something more insidious and mundane is at work. The system chips away as much as it crushes, all while reassuring us that that’s just how things go.

The result: We’re exhausted as hell and we’re probably going to keep taking it.

Women in Wisconsin will continue to have access to abortion services under a new ruling from the state's highest court that invalidates a 176-year-old state law that had banned abortions in nearly every situation.

In a 4-3 ruling July 2, the liberal-controlled Wisconsin Supreme Court affirmed a lower court's previous decision that overturned the 19th Century law.

The decision ends three years of tumult over the issue following the 2022 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that overturned Roe v. Wade, which had provided women nationwide with a constitutional right to abortion.

Writing for the court's liberal majority, Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Dallet said the Wisconsin state Legislature had effectively repealed the 1849 law when it enacted additional laws regulating access to abortion.

"... this case is about giving effect to 50 years’ worth of laws passed by the legislature about virtually every aspect of abortion including where, when, and how health-care providers may lawfully perform abortions," Dallet wrote. "The legislature, as the people’s representatives, remains free to change the laws with respect to abortion in the future."

In a welcome sign that sky-high egg prices are coming home to roost, Waffle House is dropping its 50 cent per egg surcharge.

Government price-checkers monitor prices around the country every month to compile the government's cost-of-living index. Staffing shortages have recently forced the Labor Department to scale back that data gathering.

"Egg-cellent news," the chain announced Tuesday in a social media post. "The egg surcharge is officially off the menu. Thanks for understanding."

Waffle House had added the surcharge in February as an outbreak of avian flu forced the culling of tens of millions of egg-laying chickens, sending prices to record highs. Since then, both wholesale and retail prices have begun to normalize, although retail egg prices in May were still up more than 40% from a year ago.

I can't say that lede actually makes sense. "Coming home to roost" does not idiomatically mean what is clearly intended here. Were this a story about Waffle House going out of business because of the egg surcharge, then, by all means, go with that.

It isn't, so ...

A local diner chain had the same surcharge for a while and dropped it last month. I'm just glad they didn't print new menus and make it permanent in either case.

In reference to former TV anchor Kari Lake, who, since she can't win an election, has been tapped to run the US Agency for Global Media.

She suggested folding VOA’s remaining functions back into the state department, where it operated in the 1940s and early 1950s during what she called its “glory days” when there were “guardrails on what the story of America was being told” and it wasn’t “anti-American”.

As a public resource, Scientific American has created graphics outlining the vaccines recommended by ACIP [the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices] as of its final meeting in 2024.

Vaccine recommendations have always been in flux as new products have been developed and continuing research has suggested better practices: The COVID pandemic required brand-new vaccines for a novel virus, for example. And in the U.S., the stunning success of the HPV (human papillomavirus) vaccine led to its recommendation for everyone aged 26 or younger, meanwhile the oral polio vaccine was discontinued in favor of the inactivated injected vaccine.

But traditionally, these decisions have been made by scientists based on solid research done within the confines of accepted ethical practices. These principles mean, for example, that a vaccine’s side effects are carefully monitored and evaluated against its immune benefit and that potential replacement vaccines are tested against their predecessors, not—as Kennedy has proposed—an inert placebo that would leave people vulnerable to an infection that doctors already have the tools to combat.

Kennedy’s decision to replace ACIP wholesale and the comments he has made about deviating from standard vaccine policymaking practice suggest that new recommendations won’t be backed by established vaccine science—hence our reproduction of the vaccine recommendations as of the end of 2024.

I wouldn't normally do this, but I can't subject anyone to this horrific formatting. Full story:

Two major fast food chains are pulling the plug on dozens of locations across the U.S. as tough economic conditions and industry-wide challenges take their toll.

Burger King and Jack in the Box are shutting down underperforming restaurants in key regions, with some areas set to lose all local branches.

In Florida and Georgia, a major Burger King franchisee has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and already closed 18 locations ahead of the filing. Consolidated Burger Holdings, based in Destin, Florida, now operates 57 Burger King restaurants after making the closures. The company cited significant financial hardship brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, falling customer numbers, and increasing operating costs.

“Over the past several years, and particularly as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Debtors’ business suffered significantly from loss of foot traffic,” Consolidated Burger said in its court filings.

The franchisee reported a dramatic drop in revenue, with sales falling from $76.6 million in 2023 to $67 million last year. Operating losses also widened, going from $6.3 million to $12.5 million in the same period.

The business is hoping to remain operational throughout the bankruptcy proceedings and is actively looking for a buyer. It listed its assets at $78 million, according to documents filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Florida.

While Burger King’s overall brand is faring better, as same-store sales rose 1.5% in the final quarter of last year, franchisees like Consolidated Burger are facing mounting pressure.

Parent company Restaurant Brands International is investing heavily in remodeling thousands of Burger King outlets across the US and Canada, aiming to upgrade 85-90% of stores by 2028.

Meanwhile, Jack in the Box has announced plans to close between 150 and 200 underperforming stores across its 22-state network.

Around 80 to 120 of these locations are expected to close before the end of the year, with the remainder shuttering later, depending on individual franchise agreements.

Jack in the Box CEO Lance Tucker said the closures are part of an aggressive strategy called “JACK on Track,” aimed at cutting debt and accelerating cash flow.

The company is targeting $300 million in debt reduction over the next two years and expects the store closures to lead to “consistent, net positive unit growth” moving forward.

Tucker also revealed the company is weighing “strategic alternatives” for Del Taco, the Mexican-inspired fast food chain it acquired for $585 million in 2022. Options could include selling off the brand or closing more locations, though no specific details have been confirmed.

Full lists of which Burger King and Jack in the Box locations are closing have not yet been released.

Well, yeah, when you start charging $3.89 for a fountain drink, the value proposition tends to fade. I can get a double cheeseburger from a local place for under $5, and they bake their own buns around much juicier patties.

The closest fast food to me is Jack in the Box, but after getting hit with the soda costing 11 cents less than the two breakfast items I came in for, along with a long wait at the counter to even be acknowledged ... if you're not fast and cheap, what's your target demo?

And the best part? He's headed to confirmation hearings to be on the 3rd Circuit.

Emil Bove, the Department of Justice’s principal associate deputy attorney general, who Donald Trump nominated for the US court of appeals for the third circuit, reportedly said the department “would need to consider telling the courts ‘fuck you’” when it came to orders blocking the deportation of undocumented people.

Former attorney at the justice department, Erez Reuveni, claimed Bove said the agency should violate court orders. In a whistleblower letter to members of Congress first obtained by the New York Times, Reuveni painted the scene of a lawless justice department willingly to defy the courts and fire the people who stood in their way.

“Mr. Reuveni was stunned by Bove’s statement because, to Mr. Reuveni’s knowledge, no one in DOJ leadership - in any Administration – had ever suggested the Department of Justice could blatantly ignore court orders, especially with a ‘fuck you,’” says the letter, written by his lawyers at the Government Accountability Project.

Whole lot of fucks flying around of late. If only Trump had wings ... but he prefers bronzer over lipstick.

After news exploded across social media and beyond that Zohran Mamdani, the 33-year-old democratic socialist who would become New York’s first Muslim mayor if elected, was on track to win the city’s Democratic primary on Tuesday night, reactions from supporters poured in to offer their well-wishes and thoughts.

While it could still be several days before the final result is known, Mamdani nabbed more than 43.5% of the vote with 93% of the votes counted while his biggest competitor, Andrew Cuomo, the former New York governor and previous favorite, was at 36.4%

Mamdani declared victory late on Tuesday, telling supporters “I will be your Democratic nominee for the mayor of New York City.”

What's most striking about this piece is the art. These are people overjoyed. We had people pouring into the streets the night Biden won all over the place, but it was more ... festive relief.

For a general election. This is round one of a ranked-choice primary.

Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist who ran a grassroots campaign that inspired younger voters through a relentless focus on making New York City more affordable, was set to win the Democratic primary for mayor Tuesday, toppling former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and nine other candidates in a political earthquake that will reverberate throughout the country.

With 93% of scanners reporting, Mamdani, a state assemblymember from Queens, garnered 44% of ballots to Cuomo’s 36% in the first round of counting in the ranked-choice vote, all but guaranteeing a major upset of the Democratic Party establishment in the nation’s most populous city.

Without a majority of votes, the contest will technically be decided by the ranked-choice tally on July 1. But Cuomo, apparently anticipating the outcome, conceded the primary race, telling his supporters at a somber rally that he’d called Mamdani to congratulate him on his victory.

Mamdani declared victory just after midnight, taking to the stage at his Long Island City watch party as a raucous crowd of supporters chanted his name.

Time to get together and get some dumb Dems voted out of their seats!

When asked how much she pays for childcare, Leah Freeman chuckles and says she isn’t sure. “It’s like C$93 (about $67) every two weeks or something. I barely see it leaving my bank account,” she said.

To most parents in the US, where the average cost of childcare is $1,000 per month and can reach more than $2,000 a month in some states, the idea of paying so little sounds impossible. But it’s happening – north of the US border in Quebec, Canada, where Freeman’s three-year-old daughter, Grace, attends a subsidized early childhood education center (centres de la petite enfance, known by its acronym CPE), for C$9.35, or less than $7 a day.

As soon as she found out that she was pregnant, Freeman, a social worker, placed her daughter on a handful of waiting lists through a government website. Now she can drop her daughter off for up to 10 hours a day, between 6am and 6pm, five days a week, all year round. In addition to childcare, Grace sees a speech therapist at the CPE. A daily menu of the home-cooked meals and snacks is posted at the building’s entrance every morning; meals are on a monthly rotation with seasonal changes and locally sourced produce when available.

The irony being this system was created because of U.S. research into the benefits of early-childhood education.

On Monday afternoon, the U.S. Supreme Court’s Republican appointees — with no reasoning — issued an order allowing the Trump administration to provide no notice to people it is deporting to a country with which the person has no connection and where the person could face great danger.

Justice Sonia Sotamayor, writing for herself and Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, issued a damning dissent.

“In matters of life and death, it is best to proceed with caution. In this case, the Government took the opposite approach,“ Sotomayor wrote, noting people who were wrongly deported to third countries — even in violation of the district court’s injunction in the case before the justices, Department of Homeland Security v. D.V.D. “Rather than allowing our lower court colleagues to manage this high-stakes litigation with the care and attention it plainly requires, this Court now intervenes to grant the Government emergency relief from an order it has repeatedly defied. I cannot join so gross an abuse of the Court’s equitable discretion.“

The Supreme Court’s order in D.V.D. is technically issued on the emergency, or shadow, docket as a stay of the district court’s injunction as the litigation proceeds. As such, it is not to be taken as a decision on the merits of the lawsuit — although the “likelihood” of success is supposed to be the key factor in granting a stay.

In practice, however, Monday’s order means the administration can send anyone who is deportable — meaning there is an order of removal in place as to them — anywhere that the government decides it wants to sent them, regardless of the dangers that a person might face if sent there and without any right to challenge that decision.

The US supreme court cleared the way on Monday for Donald Trump’s administration to resume deporting migrants to countries other than their own without offering them a chance to show harms they could face, handing him another victory in his aggressive pursuit of mass deportations.

The justices lifted a judicial order that required the government to give migrants set for deportation to so-called “third countries” a “meaningful opportunity” to tell officials they are at risk of torture at their new destination, while a legal challenge plays out.

Boston-based US district judge Brian Murphy had issued the order on 18 April.

The court’s three liberal justices – Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson – dissented from the decision.

They're not even pretending anymore.

Intimidation certainly seems to be going swimmingly.

Increasing immigrant arrests in California have begun to gut-punch the economy and wallets of immigrant families and beyond. In some cases, immigrants with legal status and even US citizens have been swept into Donald Trump’s dragnet.

The 2004 fantasy film A Day Without a Mexican – chronicling what would happen to California if Mexican immigrants disappeared – is fast becoming a reality, weeks without Mexicans and many other immigrants. The implications are stark for many, both economically and personally.

“We are now seeing a very significant shift toward enforcement at labor sites where people are working,’ said Andrew Selee, president of the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute. “Not a focus on people with criminal records, but a focus on people who are deeply integrated in the American economy.”

On the plus side, Sept. 1 implementation is out the window -- you can't regulate that fast. I'm not sure what the endgame is here, but even a blind squirrel, usw.

Gov. Greg Abbott on Sunday vetoed a contentious state ban on THC products, keeping the Texas hemp industry alive while spiking a top priority of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.

Senate Bill 3 would have banned consumable hemp products that contained any THC, including delta-8 and delta-9.

Abbott, who had remained quiet about the issue throughout the legislative session, rejected the measure just minutes before the veto deadline amid immense political pressure from both sides of the aisle, including from hardline conservatives typically supportive of Patrick’s priorities.

Minutes later, Abbott indicated on social media that he planned to call a special session. Though he did not officially declare a special session nor announce the topics to be covered, legislation to address consumable hemp products could land on the agenda.

Abbott’s veto puts him directly at odds with Patrick, the powerful head of the Senate, who had called the THC ban among his “top five” bills during his 17 years in the Legislature and threatened in February to force a special session if he did not get his way.

Patrick excoriated the veto on social media Sunday, saying Abbott’s “late-night veto” would leave law enforcement and families whose loved ones have been harmed by high-potency products “feeling abandoned.”

Meanwhile, Paxton was too stoned to comment.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. has approved the world's only twice-a-year shot to prevent HIV, maker Gilead Sciences announced Wednesday. It's the first step in an anticipated global rollout that could protect millions – although it's unclear how many in the U.S. and abroad will get access to the powerful new option.

While a vaccine to prevent HIV still is needed, some experts say the shot — a drug called lenacapvir — could be the next best thing. It nearly eliminated new infections in two groundbreaking studies of people at high risk, better than daily preventive pills they can forget to take.

"This really has the possibility of ending HIV transmission," said Greg Millett, public policy director at amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research.

If FEMA is "phased out” as President Trump plans, states that don't have other resources to draw on will be scrambling to fill gaps. Given the massive costs involved in repairing or replacing infrastructure, states will be highly likely to continue to rebuild exactly what's been knocked down, according to Gaughan, rather than investing in structures built to withstand future climate effects—like roads on higher ground, or more substantial culverts, or new communities away from floodplains.

What's a local government looking for abundant, inexpensive capital supposed to do? Well, federal government assistance aimed at climate adaptation may be a thing of the past, but the municipal bond market (which includes state bonds, despite the name) remains highly attractive to investors—thanks to an apparent Congressional inclination to keep the exemption of bond interest from federal taxation in place. Record-breaking numbers of muni bonds are being issued these days. And Gaughan wants everyone to consider what state-level public finance agencies can do for local governments when it comes to adapting to the ferocious physical effects of climate change.

"Bond banks have the back of local governments as they face ongoing climate challenges," Gaughan says. "At the end of the day, we want our cities, towns, and villages to be successful," he adds. "So that's why we're so vested in trying to figure this thing out." He's implying that relying on individual towns to figure out adaptation, each on their own, won't work.

Let that headline sink in:

Arthur Jackman, an open white supremacist was just filmed throwing a Nazi salute at a No Kings protest and saying:

“Being racist is intelligence. It’s called pattern recognition. Black people commit more violent crime.”

He didn’t say this anonymously online. He said it on the street, proudly, on video.

This is not just some lone lunatic. This is a man who:

Helped storm the U.S. Capitol on January 6 Pled guilty to federal crimes Got personally pardoned by Donald Trump And is married to an active Orange County sheriff’s deputy

Guilty plea confirmed (Fox 35) Trump pardon (Orlando Sentinel) This is not “free speech.” This is Nazi ideology, under police protection.

Arthur Jackman is not a man who regrets anything. He’s a man who’s been emboldened and he’s making it clear:

Racism is not a bug, it’s his belief system Fascism is not a fringe idea, it’s his goal And he’s not alone he’s married to law enforcement

Sarah Jackman cleared by internal review (WFTV) His "Black crime stats" claim? Pure white nationalist propaganda:

Arthur said racism is “pattern recognition” because Black people commit more violent crimes.

That’s not data. That’s eugenics in a trench coat.

The Brennan Center – Debunking the myth of Black criminality Brookings – How racism warps justice NAACP – Criminal justice system racism

What Jackman pushes is the same logic that justified lynchings, stop-and-frisk, and segregation. It’s not a theory, it’s a blueprint for domestic terrorism. Orange County: your badge is stained by this silence.

This man:

Attacked the U.S. Capitol Openly worships fascism Gets legal immunity Sleeps next to a deputy sheriff every night

And your department cleared her like nothing’s wrong?

This is the direct pipeline from white supremacist hate to police protection. This is what fascism looks like in 2025. We should demand:

Sarah Jackman’s immediate suspension An independent investigation into white nationalist infiltration in OCSO Public condemnation of Arthur Jackman’s conduct Federal review of Jackman’s pardon and its consequences

This is not about political disagreement.

This is about a convicted Capitol attacker throwing a Nazi salute and calling himself a racist genius, while being protected by a cop’s badge.

You don’t get to wave the Constitution while stomping on the people it protects.

You don’t get to hide behind “free speech” while planning race war.

And if you wear a badge and sleep beside this man you’re not innocent. You’re involved.

#FireSarahJackman #JackmanIsARacist #FascistsWearBadgesNow #OrangeCountyCoversNazis #ThisIsHowItStarts

Local news stations identified the victims as state senator John Hoffman and state representative Melissa Hortman. Both are members of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party. There is little information on the suspect at this time.

Kennedy named microbiologist Robert Malone to the reconstituted advisory committee. Malone contributed to research that eventually would pave the way for the development of mRNA vaccines. He claims—falsely, experts say—to be the creator of the RNA technology at the heart of prominent COVID-19 vaccines. During the pandemic he became a leading voice against that technology, a star on right-wing media platforms who spread false claims alleging, for one example, that mRNA COVID vaccine maker Moderna had admitted that its vaccines can insert DNA into genomes and cause cancer. According to Factcheck.org, the claim led to social media posts saying the shots could cause “turbo cancer.”

Another appointee, Vicky Pebsworth, a registered nurse and PhD, is a board member of the anti-vaccine advocacy organization National Vaccine Information Center, described in the Washington Post as “the oldest anti-vaccine advocacy group” in the United States. The group has advocated for expanded exemptions from school vaccine requirements; has made anti-influenza vaccine advertisements; and, according to a 2019 Post report, was at the “forefront of a movement that has led some parents to forgo or delay immunizing their children against vaccine-preventable diseases.” Pebsworth’s bio on the center’s website claims that her son was injured by vaccines he received when he was 15 months old.

Kennedy also appointed Martin Kulldorf, an epidemiologist, who claims he was fired from a position at Harvard for his opposition to COVID measures like lockdowns and vaccination requirements. He is one of the authors of a controversial manifesto, published in the fall of 2020, which called for sequestering the elderly and immunocompromised from COVID, a strategy the authors called “focused protection,” while opening society for other demographic groups. Critics said this would allow the virus to spread widely without the protection that vaccines would be able to offer.

On a glimmering May morning, Tom Briggs pilots a 45ft aluminium barge through the waters of Casco Bay for one of the final days of the annual kelp harvest. Motoring past Clapboard Island, he points to a floating wooden platform where mussels have been seeded alongside ribbons of edible seaweed.

“This is our most productive mussel site,” says Briggs, the farm manager for Bangs Island Mussels, a Portland sea farm that grows, harvests and sells hundreds of thousands of pounds of shellfish and seaweed each year. “When we come here, we get the biggest, fastest-growing mussels with the thickest shells and the best quality. To my mind, unscientifically, it’s because of the kelp.”

A growing body of science supports Briggs’s intuition. The Gulf of Maine is uniquely vulnerable to ocean acidification, which can impede shell development in mussels, clams, oysters and lobster, threatening an industry that employs hundreds of people and generates $85m to $100m (£63m to £74m) annually.

Atmospheric carbon dioxide from fossil fuels is the main driver of declining ocean pH, increasing the acidity of the world’s oceans by more than 40% since the preindustrial era and by more than 15% since 1985. Add carbon runoff from growing coastal communities, regular inflows of colder, more acidic water from Canada, and intense thermal stress – the Gulf of Maine is warming three times faster than the global average – and you’re left with a delicate marine ecosystem and key economic resource under threat.

Enter kelp. The streams of glistening, brownish-green seaweed that Bangs Island seeds on lines under frigid November skies and harvests in late spring are a natural answer to ocean acidification because they devour carbon dioxide. Sensors placed near kelp lines in Casco Bay over the past decade have shown that growing seaweed changes water chemistry enough to lower the levels of carbon dioxide in the immediate vicinity, nourishing nearby molluscs.

In a bid to confront mounting food insecurity, the City of Chicago announced last year that it was exploring the creation of a municipally-owned grocery store, an unprecedented move for a major American city. The proposal was a response to the persistent exodus of private grocers from the city’s South and West Sides, where decades of disinvestment have left entire neighborhoods with few reliable options for fresh, affordable food.

But by February, the city shifted course. Citing difficulties in securing a qualified operator, a requirement for state funding, officials under Mayor Brandon Johnson revealed that the city will instead pursue a public market. The new plan envisions a space that provides basic groceries while supporting local farmers and small vendors.

For now, it is grassroots, community-driven markets that are filling the void. Often under-resourced but deeply embedded in their neighborhoods, these efforts have proved to be among the most nimble and enduring responses to a crisis that large grocery chains have repeatedly failed to address.

This is why we can't have nice things.