Reading archive 2026-09-14

Dead malls dot America. Why not get rid of them?: Across the country, dead malls remain locked up by decades-old agreements with former anchor tenants.

GOP secretaries of state ask Supreme Court to block Trump mail-in ballot rule: The proposed change would significantly increase the likelihood of midterm election issues, they warned. - "The officials in Kentucky, North Dakota, South Dakota, Georgia, New Hampshire and Kansas warned in an amicus curiae letter to the Supreme Court on Wednesday that late implementation of the rule could disrupt the midterms."

Facing historic White House pressure, Smithsonian tells the history of 9/11: Twenty-five years after the attacks, the Smithsonian is preserving the objects and memories of Sept. 11, 2001 for generations who weren’t there — as the White House challenges how it tells American history.

Discovery of a new OpenAI agent message board

Retail Vacancies Downtown Are Still High, and Some Landlords Are to Blame: A quarter of downtown retail space sits empty, and some landlords are keeping it that way to forgo paying for upgrades or to avoid lowering property value. - "Leinberger believes the biggest obstacle for downtown D.C. is that it has too much office space, and not enough other offerings. About 85% of real estate downtown is office space, with only 7.5% for apartments or condos and 7.5% for entertainment, such as theaters, museums and music venues, according to a report he did with commercial real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield. He said the optimal environment for economic development is having a healthy blend of 'work, play and live.'

...

"For some landlords, an empty storefront isn't neglect, but a symptom of a loan condition, Price said. Many building owners are locked into agreements with their lenders that bar them from signing a lease below a certain rent, or from letting a building's income fall under a set threshold. Renting the space out at a discount, in other words, could put them in violation of their own loan or impact its overall market value."