Weather Report #26: The novel that gave this newsletter its name, and an underrated, nearly forgotten neo-noir film that inspired The Matrix and Inception.

Good morning, dear reader! Welcome to your Weather Report, a weekly column where I recommend a book, a movie, some possibly underlooked articles, and music for paying subscribers.

Here's what you're getting this week:

1. Go read my newsletter about FOIA headaches.
2. U.S. government wants to "confine" Puerto Rico tax break holder until he gives the IRS tax documents.
3. The sci-fi novel that gave this newsletter its name.
4. Essays, articles, and columns about: bribes in potato chip bags, the death of the alt-weekly, the rot in streamer culture, and the brutal consequences of getting DOGE'd.
5. A paranoid neo-noir sci-fi film that remains severely underrated even though it inspired The Matrix and Inception.
6. I did not listen to a lot of music this week, and this one song is one of the best I heard.

If you're interested in seeing the recommendations – and supporting Heavy Weather's quest to keep tabs on collapse – you can become a paid subscriber by clicking the button below. Paid subscribers get access to the MEDIA LIST, a comprehensive list of every book, movie, and video game I've ever recommended. If you're already a paid subscriber, thank you very much! This newsletter would literally not be possible without your support.

What I Did This Week:

Plugging my newsletter about FOIA headaches here in case you didn't see it when I uploaded (I gotta start scheduling things to go out in the mornings). It was pretty fun to write if I'm being honest. Got to look at some documents that I've had on the backburner for a while, and decide what I could talk about publicly without getting scooped or anything like that. I did bury the lede quite a bit, though. That email from the fiscal control board seemingly shows the FOMB wasn't really paying attention to the review and approval of a multi-million dollar purchase by the Puerto Rican government.

FOIA Headaches

The kids are saying that filling a records request with a government agency is the new “getting yourself a sweet treat.”

Heavy WeatherCarlos Berríos Polanco

U.S. Government Requests Act 22 Beneficiary be "Confined" Until He Complies with Court Order

On August 19, the U.S. government asked the court for Justin Ederle, a beneficiary of Puerto Rico's Act 22 tax break, to be "confined" until he gives the IRS documents they requested nearly a year ago. A judge scheduled a hearing for Ederle to explain why he should not be held in contempt of court and "confined" for Halloween (October 31).

As I've previously reported, the IRS issued a summons to Ederle to assess his tax liability from 2018 to 2019. According to court documents, he has been "evading" IRS agents and U.S. Marshals trying to get him to hand over the requested documents.

You can find the contempt motion here and the judge's order here.

That's it for this week's free stuff. If you want to see the media recommendations and the link roundup, you can become a paid subscriber today.