Life is like riding in a taxi: expensive. Editor’s note: mentions of transphobia and hate speech. 

Happening in the World: Author JK Rowling challenged Scotland’s new law against hate crimes after posting a series of Tweets in which she referred to many transgender men as women, including incarcerated people and trans activists. The new Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 designates “stirring up hatred” related to age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity, or intersex identity as a crime. In her tweets, JK Rowling invited the Scottish government to come and arrest her under the new law. (BBC)

Happening in the US: On Monday, Donald Trump secured a bond sparing him from paying a $454 million judgment in a civil fraud case. The court ruled in favor of Letitia James, New York’s attorney general, who accused Trump of fraudulently inflating his net worth as much as $2 billion. Without the bond, the attorney general would have begun seizing Trump’s assets and freezing his bank accounts this week. Knight Specialty Insurance Company paid the $175 million bond. (NYT)

Happening in NYC: A group of taxi dispatchers working at JFK Airport were charged with taking bribes from cabbies amounting to more than $12,000 over two years. Cabs going to JFK for pickups usually need to wait in a central area while dispatchers guide them to terminals in the order in which they arrive. However, a group of dispatchers allowed cabbies to skip the line if they slipped them five dollars. The dispatchers face up to four years in prison if convicted. (The Gothamist)

Happening in Our Community: On Tuesday, April 2, from 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm, the Maison Français, the Department of Music, and the Alliance Program are co-hosting Sound Design Anthropology and Ecosound. The lecture panel and discussion will feature Frank Pecquet, George Lewis, Seth Cluett, and Miya Masaoka. Go to Columbia University Events for more information and to RSVP. 

Cabs via Wikimedia Commons