A New Election System in New York?

New York City currently uses ranked-choice voting—where voters rank candidates by preference—in party primaries, and a single-vote system in general elections.  

But last week, the New York City Charter Review Commission announced that it was considering a “top-two” system for mayoral elections, which would make two key changes: it would replace party primaries with a nonpartisan winnowing round using ranked-choice voting, and it would advance only the top-two candidates to the general election.  

“As a political scientist, I don’t love the proposal, but it could work—if parties retain control of which candidates use their labels,” Jack Santucci writes. He unpacks the pros and cons of pivoting to such a system, which you can read more about here.

For over a year now, the UAW has been faced with allegations of financial misconduct and retaliation. Now an independent monitor’s recently released report contains revelations of internal strife, and it could spell trouble for the union’s president, Shawn Fain. 

Read Jake Altman’s take on the report, and what it could mean for Fain’s future at the union.

Last year, a federal jury delivered a nearly $5 billion verdict against the NFL, finding that the league’s Sunday Ticket package—which lets fans stream every out-of-market game through YouTube TV—harmed consumers due to its bundling and exclusive-distribution features. The lawsuit sought to break up the package and force the NFL to sell the games individually.  

A federal judge later overturned the verdict, but the plaintiffs have challenged that decision. 

“Despite plaintiffs’ claims to the contrary, bundling games is good for fans—and essential to maintaining the league’s competitive balance,” economist Brian Albrecht writes. “Instead of charging Cowboys fans a premium for each Cowboys game, the NFL sets one price for all nonlocal games. The result enlarges the market: a Bengals fan in Indiana might not pay $20 for a single game but will pay $300 for access to every Bengals game, plus occasional marquee matchups.” 

Read Albrecht’s take on the economic benefits of bundling here.

The brothers behind Atelier Missor, a foundry based in France, plan to create a titanium statue of Prometheus. Driven by their interest in American dynamism and frustration with European bureaucracy, they view the monument as a tribute to technological progress. Their plans for its home? SpaceX’s Starbase, “the launch site of humanity’s most ambitious effort to become a multiplanetary species,” Sanjana Friedman writes.

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