This week’s guide to government and politics in under 10 minutes

Happy Monday. On this day in 1790, the U.S. capital moved from New York City to Philadelphia. It would be another 10 years before it ended up in today’s permanent home of Washington, D.C. 🗽➡️💘 

Voters in Alaska, Florida, and Wyoming have primaries tomorrow. 

I FAA LAUNCHES STUDY ON MARIJUANA AND PILOTS

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)’s Office of Aerospace Medicine is holding a series of meetings to study cannabis use among pilots and air traffic controllers. The FAA is focused on determining how long after consumption a pilot or air traffic controller must wait before it is safe for them to do their job. The four meetings, scheduled for this year and next year, will focus on ways to determine whether someone is fit for duty. The move comes in response to the Trump administration’s plan to reclassify marijuana from Schedule I, meaning completely illegal, to Schedule III, meaning legal but regulated. 

>> Get the details here.

I HOLD ON NYC SECOND HOME TAX LIFTED

A Brooklyn Appellate court ruled that New York City can continue rolling out Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s pied-à-terre tax while the case goes through the courts. The tax would require anyone who owns a second home worth more than $5 million in the Big Apple to pay an annual surcharge. A Staten Island judge previously blocked the plan after a lawsuit by a group of homeowners who argue the city erred in rolling out the tax. 

>> Dig deeper into the pied-à-terre tax and the arguments for and against it here.

 I GUN, SILENCER RESTRICTIONS LAPSE

The Justice Department (DOJ) allowed longstanding restrictions on owning suppressors, often called silencers, and short-barreled shotguns and rifles, to lapse last week. The lapse followed a missed deadline for the DOJ to appeal a decision by a federal judge in Texas that ruled the restrictions unconstitutional. The judge put their ruling on hold to allow the administration to appeal, but established a deadline. The Trump administration failed to appeal by the 12:01 am Thursday deadline. The restrictions in question had been in place since the National Firearms Act of 1934. Buyers will still need to complete a standard background check, and state restrictions will still apply under the current ruling. 

>> Get a bipartisan look at gun control measures here.

I TRUMP’S VACCINE ORDER

President Donald Trump signed an executive order last week recommending a childhood vaccine schedule with 11 vaccinations instead of 18, and encouraging the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine to be spaced out as three separate shots administered at different medical visits. President Trump framed the change as necessary to support parents’ and religious rights and said it brings the U.S. recommendations more in-line with “peer countries.” Public health experts, including the American Academy of Pediatrics and lawmakers including Senator Dr. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), have pushed back against the MMR plan, pointing out that the author of the original study criticizing the three-in-one shot admitted to falsifying the results and has been widely discredited. They warn that spacing out the shots could lead to an increased risk of children becoming infected before returning for another medical visit. The order also directs the nation’s health agencies to improve vaccine research and present a plan to offer separate measles, mumps, and rubella vaccines for children in the U.S., since that is not currently an option. The recommendation is not an official change, and individual states set their own vaccine policies. 

>> Discover how state governments approach childhood vaccine standards here.

I U.S. WILL ALLOW PRIVATE COMPANIES TO HACK CYBERCRIMINALS

The Trump administration is encouraging select U.S. companies to launch cyberattacks against hackers and cybercriminals through a national security memorandum issued late last Wednesday. The White House says the policy change will help fight against cybercrimes such as ransomware. Critics argue it could create more confusion during a cyberattack against the U.S., particularly if companies take actions that exceed the authority granted to the government’s own security agencies. They also point to the challenge of determining who is actually behind a cyberattack, raising the risk that companies could retaliate against the wrong group. 

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We sent our intern into a field so you can understand what corn sweat is and why it’s making the weather muggier. Give him a watch. 

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