Michael Kink

ED @strongforall. Fighting Wall Street greed @popdemoc @GoHedgeClippers. Dad, public-interest attorney, organizer, advisor to leading labor & community groups.

[NYS Senator Julia Salazar @SalazarSenate]

Today, New York became the first state in the country to pass a data moratorium.

Championed by @SenGonzalezNY, this pause allows us to ensure we put our local communities and our environment ahead of big tech profits.

[Michael Kink @mkink]

Time for a lawsuit and an injunction @NewYorkStateAG

[Gothamist @Gothamist]

NYC parents say Mount Sinai plans to share trans children's records with Trump administration

https://t.co/tCPwJ4ttcE

[Rob Galbraith @RobCGalbraith]

Will Hochul sign the data center moratorium?

The AI industry has turned on the fundraising spigot for Hochul’s 2026 campaign, as I reported for @twittlesis in March:

https://t.co/Xe44bS080p

[Melinda Person 🍎✌🌈 @MelindaJPerson]

Today, New York turned the page on book bans. 📖 The Freedom to Read Act has passed both houses — because every student deserves the freedom to read, and every educator deserves the freedom to teach. Thank you @tonysimone & @RachelMayNY — we are closing the chapter on censorship.

[Zephyr Teachout @ZephyrTeachout]

An initial look at the surveillance pricing bill passed last night and it looks like the Uber/Instacart corporate lobby won on ripping out the ability of people to sue if they are harmed (the private right of action is gone.)

But I'll go deeper after I come to my desk and come back with more.

[Rebecca C. Lewis @_rebeccaclewis]

State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins seemed to blame Gov. Hochul for lack of action to help 450k NYers set to lose Essential Plan health insurance in July.
"We did try. We suggested different ways," she said. "The governor, you know, was frankly not a supporter."

[Marie French @m_jfrench]

New York lawmakers pass potential first-in-nation data center moratorium

https://t.co/EPOqv3yV9m

[Rebecca C. Lewis @_rebeccaclewis]

Around 1 am, the state Senate wrapped up its legislative business for the year. The Assembly will finish later today, do a few things are still up in the air.
@KaitlynnLisa and I stayed up till the wee hours to see how things (most things) landed https://t.co/lfsDgcOC0K

[Michael Kink @mkink]

Today! Times Square! 10AM!

Tell NASDAQ: “No Nazis in the NASDAQ Index”!!!

https://t.co/sUwBFSEdyu

[Sawyer Merritt @SawyerMerritt]

Wow, the S&P Dow Jones Indices has just officially announced that they will NOT be changing their inclusion rules to make it easier for “MegaCap” companies (such as @SpaceX) to be fast-tracked into the S&P 500.

Their reasoning:
"S&P DJI determined that exceptions to the financial viability, seasoning, and IWF requirements should not be granted solely based on market capitalization. The decision not to adopt the proposed exceptions preserves core index principles by maintaining consistent application of these key requirements. Although there may be trade-offs between strict adherence to these eligibility requirements and broad representativeness, the current methodology provides substantial market coverage and sector balance. As a result, the indices can continue to meet their stated objectives while preserving their role as representative and investable benchmarks for the U.S. equity market.

No changes will be made to the eligibility criteria including financial viability screens, seasoning period, or minimum IWF, for the S&P 500, S&P MidCap 400, or S&P SmallCap 600 as a result of the S&P Dow Jones Indices consultation on the treatment of MegaCap companies. Accordingly, there will be no changes to existing methodology for this index family."

This means that the earliest @SpaceX could be eligible to be added to the S&P 500 would now be June 2027.

The requirements that will now remain in place are:
• No changes to S&P 500 eligibility rules for mega-cap companies.
• Mega-cap companies will still need to wait 12 months after their IPO before being considered for S&P 500 inclusion.
• S&P will not waive profitability requirements for mega-cap companies. The company must have positive GAAP net income in the most recent quarter, and the sum of the most recent four consecutive quarters.
• S&P will not waive minimum public float requirements for mega-cap companies. At least 10% of a company's shares must be publicly tradable ("free float").

The S&P rejected proposals that would have:
• Reduced the IPO seasoning period from 12 months to 6 months
• Waived profitability requirements
• Waived minimum public float requirements

[Ryan Grim @ryangrim]

It's kind of wild to find out that the Republican in the NYT story that says she had a toxic relationship with Graham Platner is Lyndsey Fifield. Having been in DC for too long, I know a decent number of people who know her quite well. For a long time she was the co-host of a podcast with her best friend Bethany Mandel, called Ladybrains, though she has also worked for multiple super PACs, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Heritage Foundation.

Some background, presented without judgment: In 2014, Fifield began work as digital director for American Action Network, a Republican Super PAC that oversees House races. The next year she became social media manager for the Heritage Foundation, where she stayed for the next seven years.

In 2022, she joined the Super PAC backing Nikki Haley for president, switching to the official campaign side the next year, and staying until the campaign flamed out. She now lists herself as a visiting fellow at the Independent Women’s Forum, a prominent dark money group that is best known for helping usher Brett Kavanaugh on to the Supreme Court and giving Susan Collins the talking points she needed to make her decisive speech in his favor.

The NYT breezed past all this, saying she was "a Virginia conservative who has worked for right-leaning groups and Republican campaigns."

In an interview for a news outlet called Red Alert Politics that named her to a “30 under 30” list back in 2016, she said that she wanted to “emulate the late conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart’s approach to online activism.” Breitbart, known for pushing the boundaries when it came to political combat, is perhaps best remembered for having exposed Anthony Weiner’s penchant for sending nudes to young girls, and for his work elevating James O’Keefe.

That she worked for Independent Women's Forum recently is even wilder since IWF played a critical role in Kavanaugh's confirmation and in persuading Collins to support it.

Heather Higgins, chair of IWF, laid out the group’s role in a talk several years ago. “We wrote a memo. It was used by a lot of members of the Senate and the House, Fox News, and elsewhere. Most important, Susan Collins told me that without that memo, she would not see how to support him,” Higgins said. “And if you look at the speech she gave on the Senate floor, it’s entirely the playing out and architecture of how we said to structure the argument — what to say and how to say it, which is just so gratifying. We’re watching TV and we’re like, ‘That’s ours! That’s ours!’”

Meanwhile, the timeline Fifield gives of their relationship is confusing, because during at least some of that time she was actually dating a different person, her longterm boyfriend who became her fiancee before she called off the wedding in 2018. We all know this because she and Mandel did a podcast episode on it that went mega-viral in Republican circles back then. Apparently this is the kind of thing the NYT thinks is important now, so I guess it requires more reporting. I'll report back.

Here is Heather Higgins celebrating IWF's role in getting Susan Collins to confirm Kavanaugh:

[Dan Ancona @DanAncona]

Try to imagine what would happen if someone stood on the stage at an R convention and said "only hit other Republicans that are further to your right"

[Michael Kink @mkink]

@NYCMayor @ideologicalized Never was a thing, but lobbyists for the rich like @cbcny and insufficiently attention journalists will always try to make it a thing

[Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @NYCMayor]

Millionaire migration? Not according to the data...

https://t.co/kW7HkAMCad

[DREAM for NYC @dreamfornyc]

We made @GovKathyHochul tax the rich's second homes, and stopped her from devastating NYC with cuts.

But she still got away with murder, stripping 450,000 New Yorkers of healthcare, ravaging the climate, and finalizing Trump's tax cuts for billionaires.

This fight is not over.

[Emma G. Fitzsimmons @emmagf]

Here is Zohran Mamdani's 100-page housing plan. His goal is build 200,000 affordable homes over the next decade while preserving and stabilizing 200,000 existing homes: https://t.co/SSuAImmWVI

[Claire Valdez @claireforny]

It would be a cruel and deliberate *choice* to do nothing while the feds kicks hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers off of healthcare and the richest in our state pocket a $12 billion tax cut.

[Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @NYCMayor]

Amazon is worth $2 trillion. But it didn't deign to pay the millions of dollars it racked up in unpaid fines as its’ trucks illegally polluted our air and forced New Yorkers to breathe in their exhaust. 

We collected every dollar they owe the people of this city — and will continue to hold them accountable. In New York, corporations are held to the same standard as everyone else. 

No company — no matter how large or powerful — is above the law.

[DOCS @solidaritydept]

✨Billionaires aren’t people✨