Let’s Tear Down the Ivory Tower of News
The two of us came of age in newsrooms at the cusp of the digital age—late enough that you could tell everything was about to change, but early enough that old habits still held unquestioned sway. Some of these (like smoking at your desk) were soon to vanish, but others have been stubbornly hanging around.…
Trump to Payday Lenders: Let’s Rip America Off Again
A cash advance provider in Orpington, Kent, UKGrant Falvey/London News Pictures/Zuma When South Dakotans voted 3–to–1 to ban payday loans, they must have hoped it would stick. Interest on the predatory cash advances averaged an eye-popping 652 percent—borrow a dollar, owe $6.50—until the state axed them in 2016, capping rates at a fraction of that in…
Billionaire Oil Magnate Funded Travel by Lev Parnas
Lev Parnas arrives at federal court in New York on December 2, 2019.Scott Heins/Getty Images A billionaire Republican donor helped to bankroll travel by Lev Parnas, the indicted associate of Rudy Giuliani, as Parnas maneuvered to press the Ukrainian government to announce investigations that would help President Donald Trump politically. House Democrats on Wednesday released…
These Emails Show a Trump Official Helping Her Former Chemical Industry Colleagues
The Department of Agriculture building in Washington, DC.Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call/AP Images This story was published originally by ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for ProPublica’s Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox as soon as they are published. In 2017, Dow Chemical scored a long-sought-after…
The Wine Wars Continue: Warren Had a Winery Fundraiser in 2018
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) speaks as South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg listens during the Democratic presidential primary debate at Loyola Marymount University on December 19, 2019 in Los Angeles.Justin Sullivan/Getty Images It wasn’t in wine cave. But in June 2018 Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren had a fundraiser at the City Winery Boston, where guests…
Duncan Hunter Is Quitting Congress. Let’s Remember Some Corruption.
Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) carrying a cup of coffee that he hopefully paid for with his own money.Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-golf course), a man so flagrantly crooked that his admission that he may have committed war crimes in Iraq was only a secondary political scandal, said Friday night that…