News Blog

Grim new economic numbers highlight how Trump is losing leverage against Iran – CNN

“The economic news Friday was especially grim for Trump’s ability to keep prosecuting this war and drive a hard bargain with Iran in upcoming negotiations. Let’s briefly recap:

  • The oil shock created by the ongoing logjam in the Strait of Hormuz pushed inflation up 0.9% in March alone, which was the highest one-month jump in nearly four years.
  • Inflation is now at 3.3% on an annualized basis, which is the highest rate since Trump became president.
  • The price of gasoline rose 21.2% in March, which was a record.
  • The much-watched University of Michigan consumer sentiment index — a measure of how confident Americans are in the economy — just hit a record low, in data stretching back to 1952.”

CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asks MTG if she ‘genuinely believed’ Trump wanted to wipe out all of Iran – msn/MEAWW

“Blitzer opened the segment by reminding viewers and Greene that she had recently called for Trump to be removed from office under the 25th Amendment following his threat…”

Is Israel already sabotaging a chance for peace? – Responsible Statecraft

“This brings us to the conclusion that, for Netanyahu and his coalition, the forever war and escalation are in themselves the strategy. The longer the fighting goes on, the less likely he’ll be held accountable for his catastrophic miscalculations in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran…”

Dear Trump Administration:  Forgive our asking, but isn’t it time you considered getting out of bed with the homicidal Netanyahu regime, which continues slaughtering civilians by the thousands — recklessly and with intent — in Gaza, Lebanon, Iran or wherever else instincts and strategy take them?  Or, dear hearts, if you can’t bear the thought of a Bibi break up, at least begin asserting yourselves in the Israel-US relationship?  Would equal consideration be too much to ask for?  Alas, American voters are losing patience with your supine posture in this oily love affair.  Establishing some boundaries won’t be the end of the world. You all can still be friends.

Hezbollah pauses attacks, sources say, Israel says operations in Lebanon continue – Reuters

“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said overnight that the ceasefire suspending the six-week-old U.S.-Israeli war against Iran did not apply to Lebanon, and the Israeli military said it was continuing its operations against Hezbollah there.”

Opinion: Palestine is Trump’s leverage to end the Iran war – Ehud Shapiro/The Hill

Details on Iran’s 10-point proposal at center of 2-week ceasefire – CBS

‘Netanyahu failed’: Israeli opposition leaders say Iran cease-fire ‘a disaster – msn/Haaretz

“From Netanyahu’s left, Yair Lapid said the PM had ‘failed diplomatically and strategically,’ while Yair Golan said Israel’s war objectives had not been achieved. From the far right, a Ben-Gvir MK wrote of Trump: ‘Donald, you came out a duck!’…”

…”MK Ahmad Tibi responded with irony: ‘Wow, the Strait of Hormuz is open. A huge, historic achievement by the Trump-Netanyahu duo. It was open before the war and is open again now – with a bonus: Iran will charge transit fees from every ship. For this alone, Trump will demand a Nobel Prize for Hormuz.’ MK Ayman Odeh wrote: ‘Three main lessons from this war and its end: recognize the limits of force; there is no regional stability without Israeli-Palestinian peace; Netanyahu is a liar and an international arsonist.'”

Trump has his deal. But this senseless episode has caused him incalculable damage – i Paper

Comment: Shame on critics who can’t appreciate just how much the World’s Greatest Negotiator – would-be Emperor Donald Trump – is winning. Winning like never before. There’s too much winning here. (More winning than Marcus Licinius Crassus had with the Parthians maybe?)

Income!

“We are nearing a century low of how much money is going to workers.”

We’re ignoring a key factor in the cost of living crisis, economist says — Americans won’t get ahead until it’s fixed – msn

“A 2025 Wall Street Journal poll showed only 25% of Americans — the lowest number in the survey’s 38-year history — believe they have a good chance of improving their standard of living. Nearly 70% say the American dream of working hard and getting ahead is either dead or never existed (1)…”

Qs for the American “middle class”: If you work hard and save, is your risk of ending up in the ‘bottom 50%’ greater than the likelihood of finishing in the ‘top 20%’? Depending on what your gut tells you, which policies concerning taxes, spending, and the distribution of income will you support?

BTW:

How does income level influence Trump voter demographics 2024? – factually

What’s changed? What hasn’t?

Millions of Americans paid billions in tariffs later ruled illegal — and they won’t see a dime back – Fortune

“Low- and Middle-Income American families, and small businesses, accounting for well over half of our country’s population, paid out a disproportionate share of their incomes to the government due to IEEPA Tariffs recently struck down by the Supreme Court. Total payments amounted to roughly $175 billion. Now these families and small businesses face the prospect of receiving no rebates. Thus, the system is regressive for them on both the front and back ends — the burden of the original high tariffs and now the denial of rebates to compensate them…”

‘We Just Want Life to Be Sustainable’: LAUSD Workers Near Strike in Contract Fight – Capital & Main

“…when Wirt leaves school each day, she returns home to a studio apartment that she shares with her 22-year-old daughter — what she can afford, Wirt says. By her account, she’s had two raises in more than a decade. She earns less than $23 an hour, well below the estimated $50.23 an hour that an adult with one dependent and a fulltime job needs to make in order to meet the basic cost of living in Los Angeles…”

Monopoly Round-Up: Lina Khan Is Back – Matt Stoller/BIG

Former FTC Chair Lina Khan is co-founding a new academic institute, the Center for Law and Economy, at Columbia University, which will focus on the way “law and legal institutions structure the economy.”

Hospitals & Monopoly – Open Markets Institute

What They Are Saying: Hospital Monopolies and Rising Prices Make Care Less Affordable – AHIP

American hospitals wield monopoly power. Decades of experience demonstrate that employers, insurance companies, and patients paying them lack the bargaining power to check ever rising costs. In many areas, hospitals are natural monopolies that cannot be broken up to increase competition. In large metro areas with two or three health systems, corporations can work together to keep hospital prices high – even as their emergency rooms overflow with unmet demand.

Federal and state government agencies operating as purchasers, and price setters, may be the country’s last hope in getting hospital and health care costs under control. It remains to be seen whether the American political system has the capacity to push back against hospital monopoly power.

1 big thing: How higher oil prices drive up food costs – Axios

Income and costs affect you and your neighbors differently – Sam Ro/TKer

“‘For low-income consumers, spending on essentials, including energy and food, is a larger share of both their total spending and their income,’ Morgan Stanley economists wrote last month. ‘As of the most recent Consumer Expenditure Survey from 2024, energy spend made up 8.2% of total spending for the bottom 20% income cohort compared to 4.8% for the top. Limiting to just gasoline, gas made up 3.6% for the bottom cohort versus 2.6% for the top.’

“Furthermore, fiscal policy affects consumers differently depending on their income level. It usually benefits those at the bottom — but that is not currently happening…

“An incremental dollar of earnings can improve a low-income person’s standard of living materially, whereas that same dollar may do little for someone whose living standards are already high. So, the low-income person is more likely to spend that dollar instead of saving it. This is why economists often argue that fiscal policy favoring low-income folks can have a more immediate stimulative effect on the economy…”

War-driven energy crisis boosts China’s sales pitch for renewable tech – msn/WaPost

Q: Are Chinese capitalists operating under the aegis of a communist party outperforming their US competitors and a Trump Administration now flailing a geopolitical ‘tar baby’ in the Persian Gulf?

Chinese chipmakers claim nearly half of local market as Nvidia’s lead shrinks – Business Times

“Beijing pushes domestic chips over foreign tech to cut dependence and bolster local alternatives”

How one factory in China learned to live with Trump, tariffs and turmoil – Reuters

‘Unhinged madman’: MTG, Schumer, Sanders react to President Trump’s expletive-laced Iran threat – msn/MEAWW

Former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene – X

“…On Easter morning, this is what President Trump posted. Everyone in his administration that claims to be a Christian needs to fall on their knees and beg forgiveness from God and stop worshipping the President and intervene in Trump’s madness. I know all of you and him and he has gone insane, and all of you are complicit…”

Diaspora Jews, if you care about Israel – fight Jewish terrorism – Yiftah Elazar/Haaretz 

“…Joint Israeli and international action is needed because the role Netanyahu’s government plays in facilitating settler violence makes it unwilling and unlikely to take meaningful action. Jewish terrorism is not a bug but a feature of this government, which is ideologically committed to settlement expansion, de facto annexation of the West Bank, and displacement of Palestinian communities in pursuit of these goals. Jewish terrorism functions as part of its toolkit, with some of its supporters serving as ministers in the government.

“Accordingly, state authorities provide violent settlers with infrastructure and logistical support, while allowing them to act with impunity. Although some officials have recently begun to pay lip service to curbing such violence, meaningful action is likely to emerge only under extreme pressure.”

How many meetings and webinars have you sat through in which AI experts generalize in abstractions and metaphors about how AI is revolutionizing work without giving examples or case studies of exactly how AI works? These articles offer concrete examples of AI impacting the legal workforce:

Meet the early-adopter judges using AI – MIT Technology Review

“As the line between helping and judging blurs, the cost of errors is steep.”

Judges are increasingly using AI to draft rulings and prepare for hearings- msn/WaPost

“…Before a hearing, Rodriguez might also ask AI to suggest questions to ask an attorney or identify weaknesses in a plaintiff’s argument. In an area of law in which he feels particularly well-versed, Rodriguez sometimes — after deciding on his judgment — uses AI to draft the ruling he will issue. ‘I’m doing my own preparation,’ said Rodriguez, who has served for over 20 years in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas. ‘I’m not strictly relying on an AI tool. … It’s just an extra set of eyes.’…”

Some Qs: An extra “set of eyes”? Or authorship? Should judges be required to document sequentially 1) their initial outlines or drafts, 2) suggestions by AI tools, and 3) final drafts incorporating AI suggestions? It looks like there is an AI tool that can do this (see end of article below):

Plagiarism vs. AI Plagiarism: What’s the Difference (and Why It Matters) – Adele Barlow/GPTZero

BTW, we just asked the internet (poor man’s AI) a couple background Qs that AI, and lawyers, should know about:

These are results from a google search responding to:  Is publishing writing composed by ai plagiarism? (When you click on this, the answer may vary from what we read at the time of this writing.)

These are results for is a browser or a search engine a form of AI? (same caveat).