7 Apr 2025

Trump digs in his heels as global markets keep dropping over tariffs

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By CHRIS MEGERIAN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump remained defiant on Monday as global markets continued plunging and fears of a recession grew after his tariff announcement last week.

He said other countries had been “taking advantage of the Good OL’ USA!” in a post on Truth Social, his social media platform.

“Our past ‘leaders’ are to blame for allowing this, and so much else, to happen to our Country,” Trump wrote. “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

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Trump has insisted his tariffs are necessary to rebalance global trade and rebuild domestic manufacturing. He has singled out China as “the biggest abuser of them all” and criticized Beijing for increasing its own tariffs in retaliation.

The Republican president also called on the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates. On Friday, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell warned that the tariffs could increase inflation, and he said “there’s a lot of waiting and seeing going on, including by us,” before any decisions would be made.

Trump spent the weekend in Florida, arriving on Thursday night to attend a Saudi-funded tournament at his Miami golf course. He stayed at Mar-a-Lago, his private club in Palm Beach, and golfed at two of his properties nearby.

On Sunday, he posted a video of himself hitting a drive, and he told reporters aboard Air Force One that evening that he won a club championship.

“It’s good to win,” Trump said. “You heard I won, right?”

He also said that he wouldn’t back down from his tariffs despite the turmoil in the global markets.

“Sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something,” Trump said.

Goldman Sachs issued a new forecast saying a recession has become more likely even if Trump backtracks from his tariffs. The financial firm said economic growth would slow dramatically “following a sharp tightening in financial conditions, foreign consumer boycotts, and a continued spike in policy uncertainty that is likely to depress capital spending by more than we had previously assumed.”

On Monday, the president is scheduled to welcome the Los Angeles Dodgers to the White House to celebrate their World Series victory. He’s also meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and they’re expected to hold a joint press conference in the afternoon.

Trump has strived for a united front after the chaotic infighting of his first term. However, the economic turbulence has exposed some fractures within his disparate coalition of supporters.

Bill Ackman, a hedge fund manager, lashed out at Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Sunday as “indifferent to the stock market and the economy crashing.” He said Cantor Fitzgerald, the financial firm led by Lutnick before he joined the Trump administration, stood to profit because of bond investments.

On Monday, Ackman apologized for his criticism but reiterated his concerns about Trump’s tariffs.

“I am just frustrated watching what I believe to be a major policy error occur after our country and the president have been making huge economic progress that is now at risk due to the tariffs,” he wrote on X.

Top White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett told Fox News Channel that Ackman should “ease off the rhetoric a little bit.”

He insisted that other countries, not the United States, are “going to bear the brunt of the tariffs.”

Billionaire Elon Musk, a top adviser to Trump on overhauling the federal government, expressed skepticism about tariffs over the weekend. Musk has said that tariffs would drive up costs for Tesla, his electric automaker.

“I hope it is agreed that both Europe and the United States should move ideally in my view to a zero tariff situation, effectively creating a free trade zone between Europe and North America,” Musk said in a video conference with Italian politicians.

He added, “That certainly has been my advice to the president.”

Peter Navarro, a Trump trade adviser and tariff proponent, later told Fox News that Musk “doesn’t understand” the situation.

“He sells cars,” Navarro said. “That’s what he does.” He added that, “He’s simply protecting his own interests as any business person would do.”

7 Apr 2025

Texas’ First Black Woman Poet Laureate Spreads Poems of Praise

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Amanda Johnston learned she would become the 2024 Texas poet laureate via an afternoon cell phone call on an otherwise typical workday in her home office. She’d been told that she was among 10 finalists, but she’d forsworn any hope of victory. 

After all, in the 92 years since Texas first bestowed that honorific, no other Black woman had ever made the cut. She sat stunned at her familiar writing table surrounded by shelves of her favorite books. She immediately phoned her husband, her partner in all things. He swore in surprise.

“You did it,” he said. “You are part of history.” Next, she called her mama, the woman who’d long ago, in 1981, brought her girl to Austin, making Johnston a Texan.

But the fancy new title alone wasn’t enough for Johnston, who has long been an entrepreneur as well as a poet. She’s dedicated much of her writing career to helping build community, as a member of Affrilachian Poets, the co-founder of Black Poets Speak Out, and the founder of the Austin nonprofit publishing company, Torch Literary Arts. 

“I wanted to do something that would amplify and support poets across the state and amplify and uplift poetry for everyone,” she told the Texas Observer.

She had an idea of how to use her unpaid platform to build something bigger: “Praisesong for the People,”  a project through which she would recruit 70 poets statewide and pay them to write about unsung Texas heroes. In 2023, she obtained an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship (with funding from the Mellon Foundation). She then forged a partnership with the Writers League of Texas (WLT) to coordinate events, curate a website, and spread the word. 

“AMANDA EXEMPLIFIES THE TRUE MEANING OF A POET LAUREATE.”

Becka Oliver had known other state poets laureate in a decade as WLT’s executive director, but she’d never before gotten an invitation like this. “Amanda knows everybody—she’s such a huge literary force in Texas,” she recalls. “And when Amanda Johnston calls you, you say ‘Yes.’ Whatever she wants.” 

Praisesongs are already spreading: More than 30 poems populate the web page, though Johnston continues to recruit contributors.

“The strongest and most meaningful part of my poet practice is community,” she said. “There are poets who are doing fantastic work everywhere, and this gives them an opportunity to give people their flowers through their poetry.”

During a brief visit to Houston in November, Johnston settled into an easy chair, cup of java in hand, to talk poetry with the Observer. She was in her element inside Day 6 Coffee Shop, a busy downtown cafe run by Black entrepreneurs who keep their cozy backroom loaded with books. As we spoke, her sharp thoughts were trained on her vision of a collective positive poetic project. She wore a thick navy sweater to dispel a very slight chill, but the warmth of her personality radiated. 

She focused on works shared aloud in a recent Praisesong event at Dallas’ Wild Detectives indie bookstore, recalling Sebastian Páramo’s poem about his mother, who also happened to be a school lunch lady, which includes the line “She taught me to season myself.” 

April Sojourner Truth Walker, another Dallas poet, wrote about a kind cleaning lady who, in a moment of urgent need, guided her to a quiet place in a busy museum where she could privately nurse her newborn.

“She who says

you in there honey? 

I wanna make sure you ok.” 

As Johnston spoke of those praise poems, her thick head of curls often shook with enthusiasm. But her green eyes shone with tears when she recalled the work of Dallas’ second poet laureate Mag Gabbert, who praised someone she’d prefer never to have needed—the oncologist treating her mother for cancer. 

“It’s praising specifically this doctor by name, Dr. Luu,” Johnston explained. “And in the poem she describes him writing the treatment plan up on the board in the hospital room and explaining what they’re going to do to fight for her mother’s life. And then he goes from room to room in this hospital doing that over and over again. And so what he’s doing is carrying hope into each of these family’s lives.”

Johnston remains grateful to her own mother who brought her on a Greyhound bus from her native East St. Louis to Austin when she was only 3. She retains sketchy memories from that long ride south. She’d been entrusted with a sack of apples, which fell from her hands at one point, sending the fruit rolling down the aisles and under the seats toward the front. Later she awoke to find the bus empty and looked around to see her mother beside the driver, pointing the way to the city’s bus station.

Johnston grew up in Texas, but she first began writing poetry after moving away to Kentucky. She earned an MFA in Maine before returning to Austin, where she and her husband raised two daughters.

As a Texas poet, Johnston has confronted hard truths, writing about officer-involved shootings, her own daughter’s fear of being pulled over as a Black woman, and the enduring pain that even pro-choice advocates can feel before, during, and after an abortion.

Johnston knew that her dream to collect an outpouring of praise composed by 70 Texas poets—straight or LBGTQ+, ethnically and racially diverse—could prove problematic in a troubled time filled with war, climate change, and growing divisions. Indeed, some poets she invited to participate turned her down, saying they couldn’t summon much to be grateful for. Still, she’s already managed to collect dozens of praise poems about inspiring people.

Starting in September, Johnston and the WLT began organizing events to present poems aloud. She encourages contributors to share praise poems privately or publicly with the people who inspired them. At the Dallas event, Logen Cure read a poem in the form of a thank you note to a revered teacher who had opened her eyes to a world of queer writers. 

“Dear Dr. May, 

I never asked you exactly how hard it was 

convincing the English department to offer a queer lit course during the Bush years, 

but I can tell you my life was radically changed 

when you gave me the gift of my own context.”

In an email to the Observer, Cure praised Johnston. “Amanda exemplifies the true meaning of a poet laureate; she fosters collaboration and celebration, and she makes poetry accessible for everyone.”

The true power of poems, Johnston believes, comes from reading and hearing them aloud. The poet brings 50 percent, and the listener brings the rest—making it a shared experience both can enter.

At events, already held in Austin, McAllen, and Dallas with more planned, Johnston puts her own skin in the game, composing a poem spontaneously on each celebration day. One describes a young woman who greeted her at the counter of a Taco Bell on a particularly rough day with unexpected kindness. (These are drafts, though she promises to complete her own praisesong before the project concludes in May 2025.)

In the next phase, praise poems will be passed down to the next generation—in the form of a curriculum for Texas school children. 

Johnston believes that some of our society’s deepest troubles are generational, passed down in our DNA. Yet she believes that hope can also be passed down. To her, the act of writing and reading poems is a survival skill, one that can help anyone touched by the words.

The post Texas’ First Black Woman Poet Laureate Spreads Poems of Praise appeared first on The Texas Observer.

7 Apr 2025

NYC Housing Calendar, April 7-14

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City Limits rounds up the latest housing and land use-related events, public hearings and affordable housing lotteries that are ending soon.

A Rent Guidelines Board meeting in 2023. The board will meet Thursday morning. (Adi Talwar)

Welcome to City Limits’ NYC Housing Calendar, a weekly feature where we round up the latest housing and land use-related events and hearings, as well as upcoming affordable housing lotteries that are ending soon.

Know of an event we should include in next week’s calendar? Email us.

Upcoming Housing and Land Use-Related Events:

Monday, April 7 at 1 p.m.: The City Planning Commission will hold a public review session regarding the following land use applications: 515 7th Avenue, Ikos Senior Living, 78-01 Queens Boulevard Rezoning, JFK Conduit Logistics Center Demapping, Station Plaza Jamaica City Map Changes, 535 Morgan Avenue Rezoning, 5 Times Square, 132 E. 125th Street Transit Easement, 1919 Hylan Boulevard. More here.

Monday, April 7 at 3 p.m.: The NYS Senate’s Housing, Construction and Community Development Committee will meet. More here.

Tuesday, April 8 at 11 a.m.: The NYC Council’s Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises will meet regarding the 2510 Coney Island Avenue Rezoning, 457 Nostrand Avenue Article XI Disposition, and 1134-1142 Pacific Street Article XI Disposition. More here.

Tuesday, April 8 at 12 p.m.: The NYS Senate’s Cities 1 Committee will meet regarding bills related to the city’s Department of Homeless Services and Department of Buildings. More here.

Tuesday, April 8, 2 to 7 p.m.: Architects Council of NYC will hold a seminar on the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity. More here.

Wednesday, April 9 at 10 a.m.: The City Planning Commission will hold a public meeting to vote on the following land use applications: 19 Maspeth Avenue Rezoning, 2201-2227 Neptune Avenue Rezoning, Western Rail Yard Modifications, 47 Terrace Court, 59 Sherman Avenue. More here.

Wednesday, April 9 at 10:30 a.m.: The NYC Public Housing Preservation Trust will have its quarterly board meeting. More here.

Wednesday, April 9 at 11 a.m.:The NYC Council’s Subcommittee on Landmarks, Public Sitings and Dispositions will meet regarding the land use application for the Brownsville NCP, Brooklyn. More here.

Wednesday, April 9 at 1 p.m. The NYC Council’s Committee on Land Use will meet regarding the land use application for the Brownsville NCP, Brooklyn. More here.

Wednesday, April 9 at 5 to 8 p.m.: The City’s Charter Revision Commission, which is considering city government changes around housing and land use, will hold a public input hearing on Staten Island. More here.

Wednesday, April 9 at 6 to 8 p.m.: CAMBA HomeBase and other partners will hold a housing rights forum for immigrant households. More here.

Thursday, April 10 at 9:30 a.m.:The NYC Rent Guidelines Board will hold the second in a series of public meetings this spring which on potential rent adjustments for tenants in rent-stabilized apartments across the city, culminating in a final vote in June. More here.

Friday, April 11 at 3:30 p.m.:  The Entertainment Community Fund will hold seminar on applying for affordable housing at the New York Public Library’s Columbus branch. More here.

NYC Affordable Housing Lotteries Ending Soon: The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) are closing lotteries on the following subsidized buildings over the next week.

Geel Webster Avenue Apartments, Bronx, for households earning between $26,229 – $100,620

Whitlock Point Phase I, Bronx, for households earning between $19,372 – $154,080

5714A & 5714B Granger Street Apartments, Queens, for households earning between $85,715 – $181,740

40 Bruckner Boulevard Apartments, Bronx, for households earning between $125,795 – $218,010

268 Sullivan Place Apartments, Brooklyn, for households earning between $123,258 – $218,010

2423 Barker Avenue Apartments, Bronx, for households earning between $81,943 – $250,380

2428 Bronx Park East Apartments, Bronx, for households earning between $88,800 – $218,010

25-01 Queens Plaza North Apartments, Queens, for households earning between $117,120 – $218,010

265 Ocean Parkway Apartments, Brooklyn, for households earning between $87,635 – $218,010

88-11 179th Place Apartments, Queens, for households earning between $69,875 – $218,010

The post NYC Housing Calendar, April 7-14 appeared first on City Limits.

7 Apr 2025

Swollen rivers flood towns in US South after dayslong deluge of rain

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By JON CHERRY, KIMBERLEE KRUESI and ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE, Associated Press

FRANKFORT, Kentucky (AP) — Days of unrelenting heavy rain and storms that killed at least 18 people worsened flooding as some rivers rose to near-record levels and inundated towns across an already saturated U.S. South and parts of the Midwest.

Cities ordered evacuations and rescue crews in inflatable boats checked on residents in Kentucky and Tennessee, while utilities shut off power and gas in a region stretching from Texas to Ohio.

“As long as I’ve been alive — and I’m 52 — this is the worst I’ve ever seen it,” said Wendy Quire, the general manager at the Brown Barrel restaurant in downtown Frankfort, Kentucky, the state capital built around the swollen Kentucky River.

Abner Wagers, right, and Brayden Baker, both with the Monterey Volunteer Fire Department, walk in the rising waters of the Kentucky River near a flooded home in Monterey, Ky., Sunday, April 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

“The rain just won’t stop,” Quire said Sunday. “It’s been nonstop for days and days.”

Officials diverted traffic and turned off utilities to businesses in the city as the river was expected to crest above 49 feet Monday to a record-setting level, said Frankfort Mayor Layne Wilkerson. The city’s flood wall system is designed to withstand 51 feet of water.

For many, there was a sense of dread that the worst was still to come.

“This flooding is an act of God,” said Kevin Gordon, a front desk clerk at the Ashbrook Hotel in downtown Frankfort. The hotel was offering discounted stays to affected locals.

Storms leaving devastating impact

The 18 reported deaths since the storms began on Wednesday included 10 in Tennessee. A 9-year-old boy in Kentucky was caught up in floodwaters while walking to catch his school bus. A 5-year-old boy in Arkansas died after a tree fell on his family’s home, police said. A 16-year-old volunteer Missouri firefighter died in a crash while seeking to rescue people caught in the storm.

A group of people survey damage at Pounders Mobile Home Park following a strong line of storms in the area in Muscle Shoals, Ala, Sunday, April 6, 2025. (Dan Busey/The TimesDaily via AP)

The National Weather Service warned Sunday that dozens of locations in multiple states were expected to reach a “major flood stage,” with extensive flooding of structures, roads, bridges and other critical infrastructure possible.

In north-central Kentucky, emergency officials ordered a mandatory evacuation for Falmouth and Butler, towns near the bend of the rising Licking River. Thirty years ago, the river reached a record 50 feet, resulting in five deaths and 1,000 homes destroyed.

The storms come after the Trump administration cut jobs at NWS forecast offices, leaving half of them with vacancy rates of about 20%, or double the level of a decade ago.

Why so much nasty weather?

Forecasters attributed the violent weather to warm temperatures, an unstable atmosphere, strong winds and abundant moisture streaming from the Gulf.

The NWS said 5.06 inches of rain fell Saturday in Jonesboro, Arkansas — making it the wettest day ever recorded in April in the city. Memphis, Tennessee, received 14 inches of rain from Wednesday to Sunday, the NWS said.

Rives, a northwestern Tennessee town of about 200 people, was almost entirely underwater after the Obion River overflowed.

Domanic Scott went to check on his father in Rives after not hearing from him in a house where water reached the doorstep.

“It’s the first house we’ve ever paid off. The insurance companies around here won’t give flood insurance to anyone who lives in Rives because we’re too close to the river and the levees. So if we lose it, we’re kind of screwed without a house,” Scott said.

In Dyersburg, Tennessee, dozens of people arrived over the weekend at a storm shelter near a public school clutching blankets, pillows and other necessities. Just days earlier the city was hit by a tornado that caused millions of dollars in damage.

Among them was George Manns, 77, who said he was in his apartment when he heard a tornado warning and decided to head to the shelter. Just days earlier the city was hit by a tornado that caused millions of dollars in damage.

“I grabbed all my stuff and came here,” said Mann, who brought a folding chair, two bags of toiletries, laptops, iPads and medications: “I don’t leave them in my apartment in case my apartment is destroyed.”

For others, grabbing the essentials also meant taking a closer look at the liquor cabinet.

In Frankfort, with water rising up to his window sills, resident Bill Jones fled his home in a boat, which he loaded with several boxes of bottles of bourbon.

Izaguirre reported from New York. Kruesi reported from Nashville. Associated Press writers Bruce Schreiner in Shelbyville, Kentucky; Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Arkansas; Adrian Sainz in Memphis; Tennessee; Sarah Raza in Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Obed Lamy in Rives, Tennessee; and Sophia Tareen in Chicago contributed to this report.