Ted Alcorn

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I'm sorry the guy changing the rules on the fly is named what

For the World’s Food Supply, Federal Funding Cuts Have Long-Term Impacts

The world's food supply depends on agriculture science to protect crops & livestock from disease, of which the USA was a major supporter—until the dismantling of USAID last year. My story in @nytimes.com about how wavering US support could imperil what we eat. nytimes.com/2026/01/15/s...

finally, we're living through precedented times

Kristen Stewart Wants to Blow Up the Myth of the Brilliant Male Actor

The movie star I most want to hear speak at length. David Marchese and Kristen Stewart out on the wire. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/06/m...

Strong contender for fav. headline of the year @emilyanthes.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/s...

Vital City | New Mexico: Surprising Proving Ground for Two Big Mamdani Ideas? What the mayor-elect can learn from the Southwest state

Read @tedalcorn.bsky.social on how two big @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social ideas have gotten a test run in New Mexico, of all places — with lessons worth learning being surfaced along the way. www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/dep...

Albuquerque police make front-page news with successful hoof-chase.

Full footage: www.facebook.com/reel/1590537...

New Yorkers Fill Gun Classes as Concealed Carry Applications Surge Would-be gun owners seeking a concealed carry permit are required to take a safety training course, but with few rules on how they are taught, gun aficionados have stepped in to run them.

GUN CITY: there’s been a nearly ten-fold uptick in New Yorkers seeking concealed carry permits since 2022, per a new analysis of NYPD data. I tracked down the city’s most prolific instructor to see what it's all about. Today in @thecity.nyc& @thetrace.org. www.thecity.nyc/2025/11/12/n...

I've always sensed NYC is advantaged in citywide statistics by its scale: violence in the city's disenfranchised areas is severe, but they're bundled in with huge areas of the city that are prosperous & well cared for. Would need to disentangle that before reading too far into its laws/enforcement.

Vital City | Crime Victims Can Help Point the Way Forward In New York City, learning more about victims’ needs and experiences is an essential step toward achieving justice.

Would be great if we had a city-version of the National Crime Victimization Survey so we could see what share of various crimes (robberies, etc) involved firearms, to see if it is lower than elsewhere. (Shout out to the people who had this good idea: www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/cri...)

NYPD supplementary homicide reports show a higher share of non-firearm homicides than firearm are domestic (38% v. 26%). 86% of white victims, 71% of Asian victims, 76% of women are killed w non-firearm. Whereas gang, robbery, drug-related are disproportionately w guns. www.nyc.gov/site/nypd/st...

Gun violence rate varies a lot between cities; non-gun violence rate less so. What we think of as a "safer" city is less gun violence where de facto, non-gun homicides make up a larger share. Chart/data from vintage @everytown.bsky.social report: centerforimprovinginvestigations.org/wp-content/u...

Smart take: Mamdani met voters where they were at, listened to them, centered them. To the extent he had social media “magic,” it was his “understanding that the masses are the message.”

NYCHA Boiler That Exploded Was One of Dozens With Expired Permits Machinery at The Bronx’s Mitchel Houses did not get inspected for 17 years, despite a pact to get all public housing heating plants checked for environmental safety.

I am looking forward to being done with an election and a lame duck disgraced mayor so that city government can get to fixing big problems out there, including this one exposed by my colleague @gregbsmithnyc.bsky.social.

Most memorably, in final remarks the bill's co-sponsor Rep. Micaela Lara Cadena responded to Muñoz:

"It was shared today that the alcohol industry made clear what they're willing to settle on. For me as a policymaker, that's not what I come to Santa Fe for."

Next up, Rep. Patricia Lundstrom, who helped kill the bill in committee last year, reiterated her opposition. "I'm not going to add more taxes onto McKinley County if I don't see a clear path, I'm just going to say that now."

After House legislators with alcohol-ties snuff out tax hike, Senators sub an industry-approved bill - New Mexico In Depth New Mexico’s alcohol industry is raising a glass to a proposed liquor tax hike — because it’s so slight, most drinkers won’t even feel it. A multi-year effort to meaningfully raise alcohol taxes hit a...

He added that last year, after alcohol-friendly legislators killed the bill and subbed a much smaller penny-a-drink increase, that "was kind of a message that's the middle ground that the alcohol companies will will settle on."

My coverage at the time: nmindepth.com/2025/after-h...

In response to the presenters, Sen. George Muñoz said the local alcohol tax in his county of McKinley "hasn't changed behavior." Then, somewhat contradictorily, he said he supported allowing other localities to levy their own. "Why aren't we giving the excise tax option to every city and county?"

New Mexico legislators float alcohol tax reform proposals for 2026 session • Source New Mexico As New Mexico maintains the highest rate of deaths from alcohol misuse, lawmakers are again considering changes to state liquor tax policy.

In New Mexico at an interim committee on Monday, lawmakers reviewed their three-year-push to raise alcohol taxes — good coverage by @sourcenm.com.

sourcenm.com/2025/10/28/n...

Just a few additional observations threaded below 👇

DOJ altered the Biden admin's signature gun violence prevention grant program for "Community Based" interventions to make it inaccessible to...communities.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Glock to Redesign Pistols as Lawsuits and Legislation Pile Up One of the country’s most popular handgun makers will soon entirely overhaul its commercial lineup of iconic pistols.

A gunmaker redesigning its products to address safety concerns does not happen even in a blue moon. The power of legal and commercial pressure:

thereload.com/glock-to-red... @thereloadteam.bsky.social

Inside the alcohol industry’s global campaign to delay Ireland’s world-first health labels New documents reveal an organised effort by alcohol giants to pressure the Irish government into delaying landmark cancer warnings.

Inside the alcohol industry’s global campaign to delay Ireland’s world-first health labels

New documents reveal an organised effort by alcohol giants to pressure the Irish government into delaying landmark cancer warnings.

In East Timor, U.S. Retreats From Plan To Build ‘Lifesaving’ Sewage Plant A U.S. aid agency had committed hundreds of millions of dollars to the project, which could help provide clean water. Now its board wants to pull out of the agreement. Ravaged by a brutal military...

Millennium Challenge Corporation, a U.S. aid agency, committed $420 million to provide clean water in East Timor.

Now, M.C.C.’s board wants to pull out of the agreement, with the project already underway.

Story by grantee @tedalcorn.bsky.social for @nytimes.com. bit.ly/4oqA9zX

it is ALWAYS worth pointing out who gets to be just a helpless little innocent precious baby boy at the age of 34, vs. who is framed by the cops as a big scary dangerous man whose candy bar might be a gun when he's barely in middle school, or described as a "13-year-old woman" by her predator

google reviews for a tailor in my neighborhood are something else

In Albuquerque, where @mayorkeller.bsky.social is cruising towards re-election, his 1st TV ad gives top-billing to his non-police emergency response dept, what @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social is promising for NYC. Just to say, it's possible to run on community safety. www.facebook.com/reel/1486960...

Today’s insane stat about Chinese renewable energy installation: “Every three weeks.” 🤯 www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/b...

In East Timor, U.S. Retreats From Plan to Build ‘Lifesaving’ Sewage Plant

Much hue & cry at the end of USAID but Trump admin is also quietly terminating half the grants of Millennium Challenge Corp including $420 million for a water treatment system in East Timor, where nearly half of kids are stunted from waterborne illness. My latest: www.nytimes.com/2025/10/01/w...

remember when we had the hatch act