The US will soon learn how bad its PFAS crisis is. But Maine has already begun to look—and is waking up to a nightmare. For The Atlantic I spoke to a family realizing they drank toxic water for 30 years, and what it may have cost them. Maine is a warning: theatlantic.com/science/archiv…

NEW: my column this week is about the coming vibe shift, from Boomers vs Millennials to huge wealth inequality *between* Millennials.

Current discourse centres on how the average Millennial is worse-off than the average Boomer was, but the richest millennials are loaded 💸🚀

“Antarctic sea ice is ‘behaving strangely’ and might have entered a ‘new regime,’ the director of the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC) tells Carbon Brief.” carbonbrief.org/antarctic-sea-…

Lordy. This is a fairly massive deal. 'A top US consumer watchdog is considering whether to bar mortgage bankers from charging homebuyers for title insurance that protects the lenders.'

New York Democratic State lawmakers are introducing a bill today that will “crack down on squatters”

“Will make it crystal clear that squatters do not have any rights in New York State Housing Law,” Senator John C. Liu says

Surreal but true: Soon owners of every NYC residence of <10 apartments will have to buy trash bins from this one North Carolina company, and only from this one company. Gabriel Poblete & katie honan have the details. thecity.nyc/2024/04/09/gar…

It's hard to overstate what a crisis the surge in car insurance and car repair is.

Over 90% of US households own a car.

Vehicle insurance is up +22.2% in the past year -->The largest jump since 1976

Vehicle repair is up +11.6%

Inflation was 3.5% in the past year --> highest since September.

Here are key items really driving inflation now
Car insurance +22% in past year
Car repair +12%
Baby formula +10%
Veterinarian +10%
Rent +5.9%
Electricity +5%
Restaurants +4.2%
(Gas up 1.3% in past year)

A study on what many of us already know: over 75% of internal service work in academia is done by women. “We were surprised by how brazenly the male researchers described their priorities, for example that they actively didn’t respond to emails”

kifinfo.no/en/2024/03/wom…

Excellent investigation from Chris Hamby showing how health insurers and MultiPlan $MPLN reap massive fees by low-balling payments to out-of-network doctors and hospitals. Another example of patients (and employers) getting hosed. nytimes.com/2024/04/07/us/…

East Antarctica 38.5C above seasonal average on March 18th.

Biggest jump in temperature ever recorded at a met station - anywhere on Earth.

Just staggering.

Make no mistake.

Anything is now possible. And I mean anything.

theguardian.com/environment/20…

“A striking share of renters and homeowners across the U.S. are skipping essentials like meals and medical care to keep a roof over their head” (via Axios)

New: This letter was just formally released with 37 additional Democratic signers including Nancy Pelosi.

Geologist on The Brian Lehrer Show and A Daily Politics Podcast says this is the biggest earthquake ever recorded in NJ.

If you like experiencing emergency events not historically common to your geographic area then I have great news for you about the rest of the 21st century

Felt the #earthquake ?

Earthquakes in the eastern U.S. are felt over a MUCH bigger area than the West Coast.

Why?

Eastern U.S. has older rocks. They were subject to extreme pressures and temperatures. They’re denser and so shaking travels much farther.

Example:

it's nice to live with someone who's a scientist that works at one of the biggest scientific publications. according to that work slack, there are 'old faults' around here that, i guess, can sometimes do this? also this is the biggest quake in nyc since the 1800s

it’s incredible New Yorkers experience an earthquake and everyone is like “was that a train?” “did our laundry machine break?” “is that a truck passing by?” and now I realize we hAVE NEVER KNOWN A MOMENT OF PEACE

An emergency alert just went out for people who aren’t on social or in group chats

congrats to NJ for officially being referred to as west of Manhattan by the Gov