Happy Thursday! Acting Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Billy Nolen said this week we’re experiencing the “safest period in aviation history.”

Unless, of course, you happen to be aviating an octagonal aircraft above Lake Huron. Then you’re toast.

Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories

• The Commerce Department reported Wednesday that retail sales—including spending on food and fuel—climbed 3 percent month-over-month in January, the largest monthly gain since March 2021 and nearly double economists’ expectations of 1.8 percent growth. The statistic is not adjusted for inflation, however, so higher prices likely accounted for some of the increase. Still, strong consumer spending—along with January’s blowout jobs report and cooling but still high inflation—could encourage the Federal Reserve to continue its rate hikes campaign to fight inflation.
• A Food and Drug Administration panel voted unanimously on Wednesday to recommend allowing over-the-counter sales of nasal spray naloxone—a drug that reverses opioid overdoses—clearing the way for final approval next month. The FDA isn’t bound to honor the panel’s recommendations, but typically does.
• The Congressional Budget Office projected Wednesday that, unless Congress votes to raise the debt ceiling, the federal government will run out of the ability to issue additional debt to cover its obligations sometime between July and September this year, with the exact date depending on cash flow over the next few months. Some Republicans have demanded spending cuts in exchange for voting to raise the ceiling, but President Joe Biden and Democrats insist on a so-called “clean” debt ceiling hike, and the president and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy have made little outward progress on negotiating a deal.
• Laura Rosenberger—the National Security Council’s senior director for China and Taiwan—will leave the White House next month to be replaced by the State Department’s Sarah Beran. Rosenberger’s departure was reportedly long planned, but the transition comes amid heightened tensions between Washington and Beijing over the Chinese surveillance balloon that traversed the U.S. earlier this month.
• Turkish police have detained 78 people accused of making “provocative” social media posts that spread “fear and panic” in the aftermath of earthquakes that killed more than 41,000 people in Turkey and Syria. Authorities said 46 websites had been shut down for running earthquake donation phishing scams. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has also faced criticism for his government’s initially slow response to the disaster.
• Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon unexpectedly announced Wednesday she will resign her post after leading the Scottish National Party since 2014. Sturgeon is Scotland’s longest-serving first minister and a Brexit opponent, arguing it merited another Scottish independence referendum.
• Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced Wednesday a second round of tests from five wells serving the water system of East Palestine—where a train recently derailed, spilling toxic chemicals—showed no contamination, confirming the town’s municipal water is safe to drink. The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency still recommends people in the area with private wells drink bottled water and schedule water tests.
• The white man, 19, who killed 10 black people in a 2022 “racially motivated” shooting in Buffalo, New York, received a life sentence without parole on Wednesday. He pleaded guilty to state charges including 10 counts of first-degree murder, but still faces 27 federal felony charges, to which he has pleaded not guilty. 
• The Justice Department officially notified GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida he won’t face charges in a sex trafficking investigation, the representative’s office said Wednesday, confirming previous reports that prosecutors had declined to recommend charges.

A New Sheriff in Town?

Kathleen Passidomo. Ben Albritton. Paul Renner. Michael Grant. You might not recognize these names, but the 160 senators and representatives who meet in Tallahassee are about to become some of the most closely watched state lawmakers in the country. With Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis inching closer and closer to throwing his hat in the ring for the GOP presidential nomination later this year, it’s becoming increasingly clear he plans to use the state’s upcoming legislative session—and Republicans’ supermajorities in both chambers—to lay the groundwork for a national campaign. On the docket so far? Permitless concealed carry, tort reform, and possibly tighter abortion restrictions.

Oh, and DeSantis wants to annex the Magic Kingdom.

Longtime TMD readers may remember an edition we put together nearly a year ago breaking down a protracted public spat between DeSantis and the Walt Disney Company. After Florida Republicans drafted and passed legislation prohibiting classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity for public school students in kindergarten through third grade—and for students of all ages if that instruction is judged to be “not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate” in accordance with state standards—then-Disney CEO Bob Chapek caved to pressure from LGBT activists, a vocal minority of Disney employees, and Walt Disney’s own granddaughter, releasing a statement condemning the bill and lobbying DeSantis to veto it.

Worth Your Time

• Meet Nathan Berman, 63-year-old savior of New York City property developers frantic to make use of office buildings that emptied out during the pandemic and haven’t refilled. Berman’s an expert at transforming these buildings into residential units, but it’s not as simple as it looks. For the Financial Times, Joshua Chaffin explores the nitty-gritty barriers to a profitable conversion. “In a residential building New York City requires operable windows and minimum amounts of natural light and ventilation in each habitable room,” Chaffin writes. “Many modern office buildings lack operable windows and their floor plates tend to be far larger to suit corporate tenants. The depth from the edge to the core might be 45ft or more. A crucial challenge, then, for designers is what to do with all that windowless interior space?” In one early project, Berman took drastic measures. “To solve the depth problem, Berman and his architect, Avinash Malhotra—‘we call him the rabbi of conversions’—cut a 30ft by 40ft core from the center of the building.”

Presented Without Comment

Also Presented Without Comment

Toeing the Company Line

• Our social media manager, Jonathan Chew, is out with a new YouTube explainer video today breaking down the impossible task of “fixing” Twitter. “The chaos at Twitter has provided a window into how social media companies like this actually work,” he says, “and whether their business model is sustainable in the long term.” Be sure to subscribe to The Dispatch’s YouTube page to get alerts when more videos like this are released!
• Jonah welcomes Coleman Hughes–host of the Conversations with Coleman podcast–on today’s episode of the Remnant for a lively discussion of race and religion. What’s the relationship between authenticity and identity? Is it possible to completely root out racism in American society? And what danger does audience capture pose to responsible journalism?
• On today’s episode of Advisory Opinions, Sarah and David take a look at Mike Pence’s argument for defying Special Counsel Jack Smith’s subpoena, dive into a challenge to a Connecticut school’s transgender policy, discuss more First Amendment issues plaguing social media, and much more.
• Chris Christie gets real on Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump in Wednesday’s edition of Dispatch Politics. “I’m sure as heck not going to worry about what Ron DeSantis is going to do or not do,” the former New Jersey governor tells Andrew, Audrey, and David M. Drucker. “Because none of us really know who he is outside of Tallahassee, Florida.” Plus: What’s next for embattled Sen. Rick Scott of Florida?
• In Wednesday’s Boiling Frogs (🔒), Nick argues the Democrats’ renomination of Biden and Kamala Harris might be enough to get him to look semi-seriously at a third-party ticket. “I’ll take incompetent over malevolent, but the prospect of a presidential election in which all four candidates at the top of the ballot are laughably unfit to wield power is so dark that I can scoff only half-heartedly,” he writes. “If ever there was a political moment that cried out for a bold independent alternative, a race between Biden/Harris and, say, Trump/Lake is it.”
• Everything old is new again, and the perennial push to “Buy American” is having a moment, even eliciting a bipartisan standing ovation at Biden’s recent State of the Union. Predictably, Scott isn’t a fan—and in Wednesday’s Capitolism (🔒), he gets into the weeds on the policy’s history and harms.
• Jonah also takes aim at “Buy American” in his latest G-File (🔒), along with “social justice” and a host of other catchy phrases shielding poor political decision making. “There is no universally agreed upon definition of social justice—and that’s why people use it,” he argues. “The moment you start introducing gauzy, poetic, elastically defined concepts into the decision-making process, what you are actually doing is saying the decision-maker can make the decision however they want, or close to it.”
• And on the site today, David M. Drucker covers Nikki Haley’s campaign launch from South Carolina and Kevin writes on the role of incompetence in the Michigan State shooting. Also, Charlotte reports from southern Turkey on the aftermath of last week’s twin earthquakes. “Presidential and parliamentary elections will take place in about three months,” she writes, “but Turkey’s road to recovery will last much longer than the campaign season.”

Let Us Know

Based on what we know now, do you think DeSantis “won” this altercation over the Parental Rights in Education Act? Did Disney? Should either the governor’s or the company’s handling of the situation serve as a model for other lawmakers or corporations?