Steve Koff

McKinley Dixon, “Magic, Alive!” The rapper takes his melancholic storytelling in fantastical, ultra-animated directions.

Album of the day

daily.bandcamp.com/album-of-the...

Asking again because no one else is: How much $ could be saved if Congress would end ACA subsidies for millionaires? This is a popular entitlement for affluent early retirees. Advisers talk it up. Press is blind to it, missing a damn good story that could spark outrage.

Tanook33 Era Transmissions Skoff · Album · 2025 · 16 songs

Sam Koff (SKOFF) has some new and rearranged electronica, house & jazzy music out today, a side project with friends. I haven’t had a chance to listen fully but I hear I’m on it. open.spotify.com/album/0Cp7Nq...

@williamsburgindie.bsky.social
2. I appreciate what you do. But I find no one is putting this all in terms that are clear: What did it cost me, & what’s it gonna cost me with the newly approved budget? Show me over 3 or so years. That would be a big public service.

@williamsburgindie.bsky.social 1. Can you put numbers to the rising JCC property tax load, using average or median home prices, so we better understand the changes? Take a home valued at X. What did owner pay before new assessments? (Back out the reassessment.) After? And now with new budget?

Have the big Cleveland law firms steered clear of backing Perkins Coie? Looks like it.

www.mto.com/wp-content/u...

House votes to censure Rep. Al Green with Democrats' help Green is the first member of Congress censured for heckling a presidential speech to Congress.

Et tu, @repmarcykaptur.bsky.social?

YouTube video by McKinley Dixon McKinley Dixon - Sugar Water (feat. Quelle Chris & Anjimile) (Official Lyric Video)

McKinley Dixon - "Sugar Water"

McKinley Dixon is the best rapper you've never heard of. I had the pleasure of seeing him twice at Mile of Music 4-5 years ago, and he was a expert mc then. Since then, he has become a master.

McKinley Dixon Shares New Song "Sugar Water" Feat. Quelle Chris & Anjimile: Listen Chicago-based rapper McKinley Dixon has announced a guest-stacked new album called Magic, Alive! coming in June via City Slang. Its lead single “Sugar Water” (out now) features Quelle Chris and Anjimi...

Take a short break and listen to this. (Yeah, that co-producer is related.)

www.stereogum.com/2297685/mcki...

Talk about an album that stands the test of time. Simple, understated playing (except the orchestral stuff) and production, brilliant songs. And “Alabama” is a masterpiece protest song that works on every level, from lyrics to vocals to guitar.

youtu.be/d1neNOmxGAc?...

If you're inclined to write "far from the stereotypical..." and then some ethnic group -- literally any ethnic group -- maybe rethink that

Trump’s Blow to Tiny But Powerful Contractor Watchdog: Explained President Donald Trump last week gutted the core enforcement power of the US Department of Labor watchdog that polices federal contractors for anti-discrimination and affirmative violations, leaving c...

Great analysis from Bloomberg Law of a Trump action that has to thrill large companies. They disdain this agency & have tried for years to declaw it.

news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-...

Trump kicks off potentially messy fight over Biden’s infrastructure money One of Trump's executive orders could imperil billions in funding for projects that states have already begun working on, some experts said.

Does anyone know whether/how this will affect the Brent Spence Bridge, tying Cincinnati to Kentucky? Took a long time to get this funded. Kentucky voted hugely for Trump, so if you’re looking for irony, there’s that.

www.politico.com/news/2025/01...

Sure with more reporters would catch up with this. I know the sheer number of EOs is overwhelming, but this, too, deserves coverage.

Semafor Business: No time for subtlety | Semafor | Semafor In today’s edition, scoops on Trump’s Davos plans and the US Steel takeover fight, plus Bill Ackman chases his idol, Warren Buffett — again.

An open-air bazaar has replaced a black market of influence-peddling. It’s unsettling to reporters who are used to having to dig around for evidence of pay-to-play, but it’s fascinating to watch everyone say the quiet part out loud.

www.semafor.com/newsletter/0...

YouTube video by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon Michael Shannon and Jason Narducy: Driver 8 | The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon

Driver 8, REM. Best cover of it ever, last night, and I can’t stop playing now.

youtu.be/6DK-w2GdV6I?...

Florida marijuana case could change police searches of vehicles A judge wrote that “dogs trained to alert on cannabis can no longer provide the sole basis for a stop or search.”

In a first-of-its-kind ruling in #Florida, an appeals court said a drug-sniffing dog’s alert did not justify police searching a car because the dog could not differentiate between medical marijuana and illegal pot. www.tampabay.com/news/crime/2...

A perfect Costco boycott would be when too few do it to hurt Costco financially, but enough do it so that crowds thin out and you never have to wait in line again for more roasting chickens ($4.99) to finish.

2. Having been in all those roles, I never read those stories because I see the cynicism behind them. Telling reporters to go find a good evergreen is more rewarding for all, especially the readers.

1 Not such a secret, but these year-end stories recapping big stories of the year? They’re assigned in advance so editors have stuff to run. Newer reporters are OK with it, but editors want everyone to participate, & veteran reporters sigh & say Oh, crap, a made-up story for when we’re out of news.

A perfect New Year’s Eve-morning album to end any year, especially this one.

Played music tonight and came home to catch up on news. Bad, sad, contentious stuff was happening. But then I turned on Austin City Limits and Lucius was on. So glorious that none of this other sh*t mattered.

Me, around 1988, phoning mid-level Herald editor: Hey, we hear you had a story on a St. Pete weirdo but I can’t find it.

Mid-level Herald editor: Why would we care about your weirdo? We have our own surplus of them here.

For those who don’t keep up daily, when will you get to your absolute, #1 favorite?

In case you can’t read it, the 1st
graf, condensed:

If you’re over 60, chances are you’ve spent at least a few chapters of your life tangled up in Bob…..A life story of the man born Robert Zimmerman has got to serve somebody, but who? …Not everybody must get stoned.

Review | ‘A Complete Unknown’ leaves Dylan’s mystery blowing in the wind Timothée Chalamet as a young Dylan is excellent, but it’s Edward Norton as Pete Seeger who really steals the show.

I have failed to stop anyone from writing “long, strange trip” in Dead stories — as a device, it lost its cleverness long ago — & recent weeks were insufferable. But speaking of lyrics in stories, the lede in this Dylan biopic review is a doozy.

wapo.st/3Du5Dmp

Local paper broke George Santos scandal before November election — why didn't the rest of the news media? An important lesson in media literacy, politics and power

Sure is. But let’s not forget how a winning candidate duped people in one of the world’s top media markets because the press there failed to do its job.

www.pbs.org/newshour/cla...

Went I open email each morning & see all the Substack notifications & teases, I think this, too.

Government shutdowns (and then, reopenings) are expensive for taxpayers. You'd think the head of the new govt efficiency commission would know this