Washington froze $10B in child care funds. Three Democratic governors went the other way: New Mexico: universal child care, ~$12K saved per kid New York: free 2-K for toddlers Virginia: the South’s first paid leave law Part 4 of our State of Affordability series 👇

Democrats aren't running on techlash. They're running on costs. In one week of Democratic House ads, health care aired about 15,000 times. AI aired 523. Voters want lower bills. Winning on that isn't a mandate to bash tech.

The last inflation report before the midterms, in three numbers: Prices: +3.7% over the year Energy: +20.4% Wages: +3.0% Paychecks are losing ground to prices, and energy is driving it. @TahraHoops breaks down the week in affordability ⬇️

30% of people killed on NJ roads last year were pedestrians. Self-driving cars don’t drive drunk, distracted or tired. A carefully tested AV pilot with strong safety rules could help make every walk to school safer.

Fifteen cents a box adds up fast. Mayor Johnson’s budget would tax every qualifying package delivered to a Chicago address, and the people who rely on delivery most would pay the most. There are better ways to cut packaging waste.

Without data centers, Loudoun County homeowners' property tax rate would jump 91%, from $0.805 to $1.537 per $100. That's more than $5,000 a year on the median home. Data centers have let Loudoun cut its property tax rate 10 years in a row while still funding some of Northern Virginia's best schools, libraries, and public safety. Memphis, Tenn., and Clackamas County, Ore., paused new data centers this week. Loudoun County, Va., takes up its own pause on Nov. 17.

Publishers have now sued three times claiming Google's AI Overviews break antitrust law. Judge Amit Mehta tossed all three. Answering a user's question is a better product, not a monopoly. Lost clicks aren't antitrust injury. Yelp's pending case should meet the same end.

What everyone's missing about "surveillance pricing" bans: most of what they'd hit are discounts. Bread marked down near its sell-by date. A loyalty coupon. A "we miss you" offer. Target says Circle saved customers nearly $2B in year one. Ban the markup, not the discount.