New York security blitz

A New York moment:

On Sunday night I was walking on the eastern side of Midtown near Trump Tower, and noticed police everywhere with checkpoints and dogs. But my mind didn’t put two and two together, and I asked a police officer what was going on.

“Trump,” he said.

New Yorkers have nearly forgotten what it’s like to have President Donald Trump in town. Since his move to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue nearly three years ago, Trump has rarely returned to his hometown, and now he has moved his residency to Florida.

Back in 2016, concrete barriers and security tents surrounded the Fifth Avenue skyscraper where Donald Trump and his family lived. Police coated the streets below, adding an oddly martial air to nearby luxury stores like Tiffany’s. During protests after Trump’s election, New York police officers stationed themselves around various Trump buildings in the city, prompting city officials to ask the federal government to foot the $146,000-per-day bill.

This past weekend, Trump and first lady Melania Trump returned to New York for the Veterans Day parade. According to the White House schedule I received, he arrived in New York at 10:20 p.m. on Saturday, had a Sunday with no events, and then on Monday departed with the first lady from Trump Tower at 10:05 a.m. for Madison Square Park. He spoke behind bulletproof plexiglass and then returned to Trump Tower at 11:10 a.m. So he had about an hour outside of his apartment, out on the town.

Despite the recent barbs Trump traded with New York officials over his change of residency, everyone was cordial about the parade visit. “If he’s really coming here to truly honor veterans, God bless him,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. And Trump himself said it was “truly an honor to come back to New York City.” But it’s nice for New Yorkers, already packed in and salted like sardines, not to have the extra security shutting down streets on a regular basis.

Worth your time:

A new Pew Research Center study shows that more American adults under age 45 have lived with a romantic partner than have ever been married. Time has further analysis of the research, chiefly showing that despite this new cultural acceptance of cohabitation, married couples trust each other more than cohabitating couples do.

“Two-thirds of the married individuals trusted their partners to tell them the truth; only half of the unmarried did,” Time’s Belinda Luscombe writes. “About three-quarters of married folks trusted their partner to act in their best interest; fewer than 60% of the unmarried felt the same way. And while 56% of married partners believed their partners could be trusted to handle money responsibly, only 40% of cohabiters felt the same way.”

This week I learned:

Android users can print out a “paper phone”—sheets with all the info you need from your phone so you can take a break from your screen. This is one of Google’s “Digital Wellbeing” experiments.

Personally, I like the idea of taking a day away from screens here and there, but I think maps would be the biggest feature I couldn’t live without.

A court case you might not know about:

A man serving a life prison sentence tried a creative way out of jail: He argued to a court that his life sentence technically ended when medical staff resuscitated him after his heart stopped. The judges didn’t buy the argument.

The prisoner “is either alive, in which case he must remain in prison, or he is dead, in which case this appeal is moot,” wrote the Iowa Court of Appeals.

Culture I am consuming:

The podcast Dolly Parton’s America. I grew up in Dolly country, but a lot of her remarkable story is new information to me.

Email me with tips, story ideas, and feedback at ebelz@wng.org