Today marks 20 years since Hurricane Katrina, one of the most devastating natural disasters in US history, first made landfall in New Orleans and continued on to batter the surrounding Gulf Coast.

The storm killed over 1,400 people and displaced roughly 1 million residents. Hurricane Katrina’s damage to New Orleans was so massive that lawmakers at the time debated whether the city, in a precarious environmental spot to start with, was worth rebuilding. In the end, the federal government spent over $125 billion on recovery efforts to rebuild and reinforce flood infrastructure, making Katrina the country’s costliest storm.

Plenty of setbacks

In the present day, New Orleans is one of the weakest employment markets in the country. Its three main industries—tourism, shipping, and oil and gas production—have been hemorrhaging jobs. More residents are leaving the city for opportunities elsewhere. The population of New Orleans has declined by 23% since 2000, the fastest loss of residents of any US city of its size.

And it gets worse for its Black residents: New Orleans is now the most income-unequal major city in the US. Despite the median household income in the city moving up just 12% from 2000 to 2020, Black families experienced no income growth during that period.

• Even though some spots primed for tourism have received facelifts, a number of areas for residents, predominantly neighborhoods that used to be home to large middle-class Black populations, were completely wiped out and never rebuilt.

In 2005, the response to Hurricane Katrina was so botched that it led to the head of FEMA resigning and local and federal politicians receiving massive criticism. Some experts argue that the city’s and state’s uses of federal funds have been just as mismanaged, with little thought going into how to actually future-proof power grids and flood systems.

Looking ahead…storms, supercharged by climate change, are only getting worse, and the $14 billion revamped levee system in the city is not only sinking faster than engineers predicted, but at risk of massive federal and state budget cuts.—MM

Fed Governor Lisa Cook sued President Trump over her firing. Cook filed the lawsuit yesterday in Washington, DC, federal court, calling Trump’s efforts to remove her illegal and kicking off a fight over the Fed’s independence. The suit focused on the Federal Reserve Act, which dictates that she could only be removed for “cause”—the parameters of which will likely ultimately be determined by the Supreme Court. The suit also claims Cook’s due process was violated, as she was not given an opportunity to respond to the mortgage fraud accusations that Trump said her termination was based on before he announced it. Cook’s filing suggested the mortgage application in question contained a “clerical error.”

US GDP growth got revised upward. The second of three estimates for Q2 GDP data was released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis yesterday, showing that the US gross domestic product increased by 3.3% on an annual basis during that time. That’s higher than the 3% estimate released last month, and the data will be revised one more time before it’s finalized. Growth is good, but it complicates the Federal Reserve’s job of making an interest rate decision in a couple of weeks. If the economy is trending up and to the right, it has less reason to cut interest rates.

Fallout from Monarez’s firing besieges CDC. Following President Trump’s firing of the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Susan Monarez, on Wednesday night, three senior CDC leaders resigned in protest yesterday morning. Monarez was a longtime scientist for the federal government whom Trump nominated for the role. Her attorneys said she was fired for refusing to follow “unscientific, reckless directives.” One of the leaders who resigned said she did so because Monarez’s firing makes it easier for a CDC committee to change vaccine recommendations. That panel is scheduled to meet on Sept. 18, the Department of Health and Human Services announced yesterday.—HVL

A revolt is growing among some of the top tech talent in the US: Yesterday, Microsoft fired two employees who joined others in barricading themselves inside the company president’s office this week, in the latest escalation of protests against Microsoft’s business dealings with Israel.

The protesters are affiliated with No Azure for Apartheid, a group led by current and former Microsoft workers that’s been demanding the company end its contracts with the Israeli military and government since last May.

Demonstrations ramped up in recent weeks, with protests outside executives’ homes and an encampment at Microsoft HQ, where police arrested 20 people. The actions followed an investigation from The Guardian and the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine, which reportedly found that Israel uses Microsoft Azure to store recordings of phone calls by Palestinians that it then uses to select bombing targets in Gaza.

Microsoft launched an investigation into these allegations earlier this month, reopening a chapter it recently tried to close—Microsoft said in May that it found no evidence of Azure being used to “target civilians or cause harm” in Gaza after an earlier report on the IDF’s ties with the company.

Meanwhile…Microsoft asked the FBI for help tracking protesters, Bloomberg reported this week.

Zoom out: Last year, Google fired 50+ employees following protests against a joint $1.2 billion cloud contract between Amazon, Google, and Israel.—ML

Yesterday was Christmas for railfans and people in suits as Amtrak launched a souped-up version of its high-speed Acela train that connects Washington, DC, and Boston.

New and improved: The NextGen Acela hits a top speed of 160 mph, compared to 150 mph for current Acelas, which until now were the fastest passenger rail option in the US. The upgraded trains can fit 27% more passengers while offering more frequent service, free high-speed wi-fi onboard, and a tilt system for a smoother ride. Five trains are launching initially, with 23 more set to hit the rails by 2027.

But Amtrak is off track

The NextGen Acelas were more delayed than a Greyhound due to the pandemic and infrastructure challenges that derailed the plan of launching in 2021.

Meanwhile, Amtrak has been losing money: It spent $4.3 billion on operations during the last fiscal year but brought in just $3.6 billion in revenue.

The White House is pressuring the Uncle Sam-backed corporation to strive for profitability, and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy praised the new Acelas for moving it closer to that goal.

Looking ahead…after reducing its manager headcount by 10% earlier this year, Amtrak says it aims to achieve an operational profit by FY 2028.—SK

The Honey Deuce, the signature drink of the US Open, is back for this year’s tournament at $23 a pop, and that’s not slowing down sales. One drink is sold every 1.5 seconds, according to Front Office Sports. Last year, 556,782 Honey Deuces were sold at the US Open, making $12.8 million. Both numbers are expected to increase this year, if the Open’s supply order is anything to go by.

The 2025 cocktails require 7,700 cases of King of the West honeydew melons from which the 2.3 million balls will be formed—by a “small group” of Baldor Specialty Foods employees, the NYT reports, as there is no industrial melon baller machine. That’s up from 1.9 million melon balls last year.—HVL

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