The federal government shutdown is setting a new record, with negotiations still at a standstill—and fresh calls to end filibuster are resurfacing. But America keeps moving while the shutdown persists. Many voters across the nation participated in several important contests, including the New York City mayoral race, which has captured national attention, along with the Virginia gubernatorial election and California’s Proposition 50.

This week, Ivan Eland writes about how Trump’s Western Hemisphere strategy smartly shifts focus from Europe but veers into counterproductive imperialism through militarized drug policy and aggressive posturing.

Sam Jenson recounts how government-led urban renewal and highway projects devastated West Oakland’s once-thriving black cultural hub, erasing its soul in the name of “progress.”

I criticize Proposition 50 as a retaliatory bid to counter Texas’s partisan gerrymandering that risks a nationwide degradation of electoral fairness.

Finally, Elen Irazabal Arana and Nikolai G. Wenzel dissect California’s new AI law, which prioritizes regulatory compliance over genuine safety, risking a shift from expert-led risk management to bureaucratic box-checking.

Happy reading.

Jonathan Hofer
Managing Editor