Despite the strangeness of this Freedom 250 fiasco, America is turning 250 years old on Saturday and that’s a birthday worth celebrating. Of course, any Fourth of July is cause for celebration and that those good times are usually capped off with a night sky set ablaze with fireworks.

But as cities compete for bigger, brighter anniversary displays, smaller municipalities are getting priced out—or learning there simply aren’t enough crews or equipment to go around. Blown away by the costs of competing with larger cities, some have canceled shows, including Hinesburg, Vermont, where officials budgeted around $13,000 for fireworks, but were gobsmacked when they were told they’d need to pay a minimum of $20,000 this year just to get things started.

Axios reports that fireworks shows vary widely in cost depending on distance, shell size and display design, but most run about $1,000 to $1,500 per minute. “Every town wants the oohs and aahs. They all just can’t pay for the boom.” Some municipalities are turning to drone shows as an alternative, but drones “end up actually costing about the same, if not more than firework shows.”

For those looking to avoid crowds all together, fireworks stands across the midwest are reporting strong sales this week. Overall costs have increased this year (thanks to tariffs that the Trump administration slapped on Chinese-made fireworks) but many companies are not passing those increases on to customers. Of course, prices will vary from item to item and from stand to stand.

The Supreme Court struck down President Trump's executive order restricting birthright citizenship on Tuesday, reaffirming the long-held belief that any person born on American soil is a citizen. The decision is a definitive blow to Trump, who sought to limit who is eligible for American citizenship as part of his widespread immigration crackdown.

In a 6-3 decision, the justices upheld a 150-year-old precedent giving automatic American citizenship to all babies born on U.S. soil. Trump’s earlier executive order had aimed to prevent those born to undocumented immigrants and temporary foreign residents from automatically becoming Americans. But Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., writing for the majority, explained that such an order violated the 14th Amendment of the Constitution.

If the administration had succeeded in its arguments, millions of babies would no longer be eligible for citizenship, losing their rights to work authorization, safety net provisions, voting and more. Later the president asserted that lawmakers could “easily” address the issue through legislation—a claim The Washington Post says runs counter to decades of precedent, given Congress’s enduring gridlock on immigration, and some legal experts’ comments that a constitutional amendment would be necessary.

Manhattan’s private-club scene has experienced vertiginous growth. Mario Carbone launched a Hudson Yards joint, ZZ’s Club, in 2023; chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten descended upon the Meatpacking District to open a point-one-percent-filled catacomb, Chez Margaux; and Sunset Tower proprietor Jeff Klein descended upon the city last year to open one of his San Vicente clubs in the former Jane Hotel. As the new guard of hospitality impresarios dot the Big Apple with high-priced venues and piles of zucchini chips, blueblooded New York institutions such as the Union Club, the University Club, the Knickerbocker Club, and the Racquet & Tennis Club haven’t ceded their ground. A growing number of the city’s twenty- and thirty-something men are flocking to the old-world clubs, joining the older guard in the locker rooms.

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The draw of our phone’s promise of constant news, updates, images and distractions can be very powerful. But if you can’t fight it, you might need this seemingly simple Bick. It’s a gray plastic cube, about 2 inches on each side, lighter than a deck of cards, and its Gen Z inventors say it’s here to solve our screen-time crisis.

The small, $60 device connects to an app that blocks distracting apps on a user’s phone. Users stay “bricked” until they tap the phone against the cube. (I could maybe use this while I’m focusing on writing this newsletter.) Using NFC technology, the physical device connects with the app and restores access. TechCrunch says Brick stands apart from your standard screen-time app because it takes things a step further into the physical world.

It’s been out for a few months and already, influencers including Brett Chody are extolling its benefits. Lorde, Bowen Yang, Mandy Moore and Conan O’Brien are among its famous adopters. On a recent episode of his podcast, O’Brien said that he has friends who get frustrated by his delayed text responses when he’s Bricked.