| | | | | Lake Mary Jane, in central Florida, could be harmed by development. A first-of-its-kind lawsuit asks whether nature should have legal rights.  Illustration by Marion Fayolle In the center of Florida, about a half-hour drive from Disney World, the shallow, irregularly shaped Lake Mary Jane—frequented by swimmers, boaters, and, of course, alligators—is quietly making history. As developers plan to convert hundreds of acres of wetlands and forest north of the lake into homes and office buildings, Mary Jane—together with another lake, a marsh, and two boggy streams—is suing. Elizabeth Kolbert writes, in this week’s issue, “Never before has an inanimate slice of nature tried to defend its rights in an American courtroom. Depending on your perspective, the lake’s case is either borderline delusional or way overdue.” Follow Kolbert as she visits Mary Jane and the boggy streams, interviews central Florida’s “local Lorax,” and takes us on a voyage through history, back to the seventies, when a Supreme Court case about the building of a Disney ski resort near Yosemite culminated in one of the “most famous and passionate dissents” in the Court’s history. What would it mean for a piece of nature to be given standing? In the words of one skeptical attorney, “How can I rest beneath a tree / If it may soon be suing me?” —Jessie Li, newsletter editor | | | | From the News Desk |  As Told To “The Longest Thirty Seconds of My Absolute Life”: A Survivor’s Account of the Brooklyn Subway ShootingKenneth Foote-Smith, recounting the agony, courage, and paralysis on the N train, said, “It just screams negligence.” By Stephania Taladrid | | | | | Persons of Interest The First Defense Against Trump’s Assault on DemocracyWhen the former President tried to overturn the last election, Marc Elias led a successful legal response—but some critics believe that his fight for voting rights could backfire. By Sue Halpern | | News Desk An Uncertain Future for a Chinese Scientist Accused of EspionageThe China Initiative is over, but the trial of Franklin Tao shows that the D.O.J. project’s chilling effects persist. By Han Zhang | | | | | | | Q. & A. | John Cassidy has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1995, writing extensively about economics and politics. This week, we caught up with him to talk about the latest inflation numbers and other risks facing the economy. The headlines generated by Tuesday’s Consumer Price Index (C.P.I.) report for March highlighted that inflation is at a forty-plus-year high. What does a deeper dive into the numbers tell you? Is there any good news? Inflation is a composite figure—an index—that is put together from countless transactions across the economy. It’s only when you start to disaggregate the index that you see what is really going on. Last month, the most noticeable developments were the big jumps in the price of energy and food, both of which can be traced, to a greater or lesser extent, to disruptions caused by the war in Ukraine. Also, on the negative side, there were some signs of higher energy prices feeding into price rises in other parts of the economy, including the huge service sector. Take delivery services and laundry/dry cleaning, both of which use a lot of energy, where prices have risen by double digits in the past twelve months. Because of developments like these, the C.P.I. over all rose by 1.2 per cent in March, and by 8.5 per cent in the previous twelve months. But, if you exclude the food and energy components, you find that prices rose by 0.3 per cent in March, which was less than the 0.5-per-cent rise in February. So there was a bit of good news in there, which is consistent with the projection that over-all inflation is approaching its peak or has already done so. On Tuesday, most of the news headlines ignored this angle, but investors on Wall Street didn’t. The yield on ten-year Treasury notes, which reflects expectations of longer-term inflation, actually fell a bit. The economist Larry Summers, who warned early on about the dangers of inflation—and whose arguments you explored in depth last week—has written that a recession is now likely. How would we get from here to there? What other outcomes are possible? Rising inflation itself doesn’t cause a recession. In fact, it is often seen as an indication that an economy is growing too rapidly relative to the supply of labor and other resources. The danger is that rapidly rising prices can prompt policymakers, particularly those at the Federal Reserve, to slam the brakes on the economy. Summers is highlighting the danger that the Fed, if it doesn’t quickly get inflation under control, could be forced into taking really drastic actions—that means really big interest-rate hikes—which would not merely slow down the economy but plunge it into a deep recession. That’s what happened in the early nineteen-eighties. Defenders of the Fed say that it still has a decent chance of cooling down the economy and bringing down inflation without causing a recession—that’s the scenario known as a soft landing. Read more of the interview with Cassidy, and find out why he says that Joe Biden “is getting something of a raw deal.” | | | | Editor’s Pick |  Rabbit Holes The Most Popular Chess Streamer on TwitchThe former chess prodigy Hikaru Nakamura was widely disliked on the professional circuit. Then he started streaming. By Jacob Sweet | | | | | Culture Dept. | On Television “Rothaniel,” Reviewed: Jerrod Carmichael’s Vital Coming Out“I’m hiding nothing from you guys,” the comedian tells his audience in a new HBO special. By Bryan Washington | | Musical Events The L.A. Master Chorale’s Pyramids of SoundThe adventurous vocal ensemble turns precision into wonder. By Alex Ross | | | | | Annals of Law |  A Reporter at Large The Elephant in the CourtroomIf you enjoyed the story of Lake Mary Jane, we think you’ll also like the one about Happy the elephant and the struggle to decide whether animals should be legally recognized as people. By Lawrence Wright | | | | | Fun & Games Dept. |  Name Drop Play Today’s Quiz Can you guess the notable person in six clues or fewer? By Will Nediger |  Daily Shouts Delivering During the Pandemic “For the most part, folks are understanding and nice!” By Trinidad Escobar | |  Crossword A Lightly Challenging Puzzle Lovelace with a namesake programming language: three letters. By Patrick Berry |  Daily Cartoon Wednesday, April 13th By Ali Solomon | | | | | | P.S. The Irish writer Seamus Heaney was born on this day in 1939. When he died, in 2013, he left behind more than a dozen collections of poetry, essays, and translations. Stephanie Burt explores the evolution of his poetry, focussing on the “later, happier Heaney,” who was “almost buoyant” and “surprised by himself at least as often as he surprised readers.” Heaney’s sonnet “Fosterling” ends: Me waiting until I was nearly fifty
To credit marvels. Like the tree-clock of tin cans
The tinkers made. So long for air to brighten,
Time to be dazzled and the heart to lighten. | | | | Today’s newsletter was written by Jessie Li and Ian Crouch. | | | | | | | |
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