DoGE, alligators, public land and Mamdani mania

Daddy DoGE

Despite Elon Musk and Donald Trump’s continued public fallout, DoGE is still slashing away at the federal workforce. From a peak of 3,015,000 employees on federal payroll in January, job cuts per month are as follows:

February 13,000

March 11,000

April 13,000

May 25,000

June 7,000

Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics

See ya later, alligator

Would migrants at Florida’s “alligator Alcatraz” detention center be eaten by the surrounding wildlife if they managed to escape? “I guess that’s the concept,” said Trump. But which species would do the snacking? There are around 1.25 million American alligators in Florida which are native to the state. Invasive species of alligator from South America include the spectacled caiman of which there are several hundred in the Everglades, possibly descending from escaped pets. There have also been several sightings of Nile crocodiles, which are thought to have been illegally imported and dumped.

This land is your land

Utah Senator Mike Lee withdrew his provision to Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” to allow for the sale of hundreds of thousands of acres of public land. Which states have the highest and lowest proportion of federal- and state-owned land?

Most                                 Least

Alaska 89%      Kansas 0.9%

Nevada 81%      Iowa 1%

Utah 70%      Nebraska 1.6%

Idaho 67%      Texas 1.9%

Wyoming 55%      Indiana 2.3%

Source: Natural Resources Council of Maine

Mamdani mania

Zohran Mamdani beat Andrew Cuomo to become the Democrat candidate for the New York Mayoral election by 7 points. But which precincts voted (or didn’t vote) for him?

                                           Mamdani lead

Higher income (>$118k). +13pts

Middle income  (>$63k) +10pts

Asian majority +15pts

Hispanic majority +6pts

White majority +5pts

Lower income (<$63k) -13pts

Black majority -18pts

Source: New York Times