Trimming the Times: Hello Debt Deal; Goodbye Chelsea

The Atlantic Wire / Cyril Bosselut's Flickr
Adam Martin 942 Views Aug 1, 2011

Now that the New York Times pay wall is live, you only get 20 free clicks a month. For those worried about hitting their limit, we're taking a look through the paper each morning to find the stories that can make your clicks count.

The big news on the home page today, obviously, is the report from Washington that President Barack Obama and leaders in Congress have worked out a deal on raising the national debt ceiling. Nearly as prominent, and definitely worth a read, is the news analysis on what the deal means to each party. But our top pick, for pure nostalgia, is the report on New York's Chelsea Hotel closing to guests on Sunday night.

World: One of the best reads here is the report from Benghazi, where fresh fighting has revealed cracks within the Libyan rebel organization. There's also an interesting report on people in Japan who have taken radiation checks into their own hands. And the report of a drug kingpin arrested in Mexico is quite interesting, if not exclusive.

U.S.: Much of the national news focuses on Washington, naturally, but the states have some interesting stories as well, including Florida, where Gov. Rick Scott and the state legislature have turned away millions of federal healthcare dollars on principle. And there's a great Out Here report from Atlanta, where Robbie Brown explores the hidden side of the city.

New York: Music fans and history buffs will want to take a minute's pause with the news that the Chelsea Hotel has closed for guests, possibly forever.

Business: The focus here is on the recently announced budget bill, with a look at the government's move from spending to cuts, and a report on a global stock bounce. But some of the better reads come from elsewhere in the section, especially David Carr's review of Lucky Peach, the new magazine from chef David Chang and publisher McSweeny's.

Technology: You can decide for yourself whether it's positive or negative news, but a new study found data centers used less power than had been expected between 2005 and 2010, thanks to a combination of energy-saving techniques and the recession.

Science: Computer hardware fans will be interested to hear that the exponential increases in power and decreases in size of microchips may be closing in on their physical limits

Sports: Check out this lengthy examination of various new golf instruction videos.

Opinion: In the lead op-ed, Jacob Hacker and Oona Hathaway argue that the newly announced debt deal signifies a corruption of the constitutional ideal of checks and balances.

Arts: A sobering report on dwindling state artistic funding illustrates how some very cool and quirky projects are coming into danger.

Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments or send an email to the author at amartin at theatlantic dot com. You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire.

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