NEW: How a loose network of online "sedition hunters" -- an out-of-work actor in Canada, a stay-at-home mom in the Pacific Northwest -- are helping identify Capitol riot suspects and create a historical record of the Jan. 6. siege.
I spoke to SBF for over an hour. I asked about investigations, potential jail time and missing customer funds. He didn't have satisfying answers, but it was a rare chance to see what he's thinking at an insane time. Here's a free link to read it in full:
Lawyers on an internal Jones Day conference call this morning said the firm's work for the PA Republican Party was "deligitimizing the election." w/
@ChrisOpfer
@samskolnik
Farmers are dumping millions of gallons of milk. Burying thousands of onions. Plowing vegetables back into the soil.
The pandemic has created staggering amounts of food waste, even as people struggle financially. It's tragic and dystopian. w/
@mcorkery5
:
The coronavirus outbreak is a disaster for independent restaurants: Analysts are saying it could put 75 percent of them out of business. Permanently. The entire industry could lose a quarter of a trillion dollars (with a "t"). via
@kimseverson
and me:
NEW: I spent six months exploring the strange, ethically dubious child abduction industry — a network of ex-cops and PIs that desperate parents can hire to re-abduct children who’ve been spirited overseas, usually by the other parent.
NEW: The Justice Department is investigating Sam Bankman-Fried for market manipulation -- focused on whether trading by Sam Bankman-Fried's crypto hedge fund helped trigger the Luna collapse in May. w/
@FlitterOnFraud
@MattGoldstein26
NEW: Elliott Broidy, the Trump and GOP fundraiser, will plead guilty to illegal foreign lobbying and cooperate with investigators in the case, a source tells
@business
@davidvoreacos
:
Some sage advice for bean novices who don't what to do with their stockpiles: “There are a lot of new people who are kind of freaked out,” one bean supplier said. “It’s pretty easy. You cook them till they’re done.”
post-strike FTX scoop: Just before the bankruptcy,
@cz_binance
accused
@SBF_FTX
of trying to drive down the price of Tether. They traded barbs in a group chat with other crypto execs. “The more damage you do now, the more jail time," CZ said.
Clean the digital kiosks each time a customer orders. Place “closed” signs on certain tables to promote social-distancing. Scrub the bathrooms every half-hour.
These are some of the rules McDonald's is instituting as its restaurants prepare to reopen:
NEW: The crypto exchange Kraken is under federal investigation for possible sanctions violations linked to accounts in Iran and other countries. w/
@RMac18
:
This is the deep-dive you've all been waiting for: A behind-the-scenes account of what went down at Popeyes HQ as the "chicken sandwich wars" created a nationwide chicken sandwich shortage. w/
@matthewsedacca
:
NEW: Criminal charges stemming from the Capitol riot are starting to roll in. Federal prosecutors in DC have charged a man who identified himself as Mark Leffingwell with assaulting an officer as he invaded the Capitol.
Arby's is trolling fans of plant-based meat with a carrot made out of turkey. (They're calling it "the marrot.") What this stunt reveals about the state of the meatless meat movement:
Here's what we know about SBF's arrest:
-taken into custody at the Albany resort, where he lives
-U.S. has charged him with wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, securities fraud, securities fraud conspiracy and money laundering
-being held overnight in Bahamian police cell
I spent some time in Texas with
@ben_mckenzie
and
@SilvermanJacob
, who are writing an anti-crypto book. We discussed important question such as:
-Is crypto speculation a threat to the world economy?
-Would Seth Cohen be into NFTs?
The rapid mainstream acceptance of crypto has given rise to a strange new political breed: crypto mayors. They're accepting paychecks in Bitcoin and attempting to use buzzy new technologies to raise public funds.
A growing number of crypto entrepreneurs conduct business via mysterious internet avatars scrubbed of identifying information. Some VCs invest in them anyway. But there's now a reckoning in the crypto world over whether anonymity undermines accountability:
That pizza you got on Uber Eats? It might not have come from an actual restaurant.
Delivery apps are transforming the restaurant industry -- for good and ill. As some restaurants struggle, delivery-only "ghost kitchens" are on the rise. w/
@MikeIsaac
:
The inside story of how SBF built an influence empire -- making strategic donations that burnished his reputation, pushing lawmakers and regulators to adopt crypto-friendly positions. w/
@kenvogel
and
@FlitterOnFraud
:
NEW: He's facing an FBI investigation, accusations of bribery, a securities fraud indictment and two GOP primary challengers. But Texas AG Ken Paxton is betting that fealty to Trump can help him survive the biggest crisis of his career. My profile for
@BW
:
The NYT is reporting on the human consequences of the recent crypto market meltdown. And we want to speak with investors about their experiences! If you own crypto, please get in touch and fill out our survey:
NEW: Alex Mashinsky has a plan to revive Celsius. He's calling it "Kelvin" and comparing it to corporate turnarounds at major brands.
“Delta filed for bankruptcy," he told employees last week. "Do you not fly Delta because they filed for bankruptcy?”
After a year,
@yaffebellany
finishes his
@nytimes
fellowship today. He’s been a terrific colleague and a tireless reporter and I will probably be working for him some day. In the meantime, a look back!
The Yale psychiatrist who questioned Trump's sanity in a meeting with congressmen is standing her ground despite death threats from the president's supporters,
@Hailey_Fuchs
and
@AddyFeibel
report:
In state capitols across the U.S., crypto executives and lobbyists are drafting bills to benefit the industry, then pushing lawmakers to adopt these made-to-order laws, before moving rapidly to profit from the legislative victories. w/
@EricLiptonNYT
:
Lydia Burns, a college senior, got an internship offer in late March, just as the pandemic was disrupting everything. It was the first good news in weeks.
Days later, the program was canceled. Here's how the virus has upended summer internships:
The soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo was accused of rape in September. But in Italy (where he plays for one of the biggest teams in the country) and the US (where he’s under investigation), nobody seems to care. My story w/
@jdkstern13
in the
@newrepublic
:
A year and a half ago, FreshDirect faced a crisis — an automated system was creating confusion in its new warehouse, resulting in canceled orders, missing items and long wait times.
Now it's staging a comeback. But plenty of damage has already been done.
Also a special shout-out to
@Handlebrody
and
@JoshSchwartz76
for workshopping a potential crypto-themed reboot of "The O.C." Here's a snippet from a group chat I made where they debate the Seth Cohen/NFT question:
Went to the Bahamas to follow Sam Bankman-Fried, one of the most powerful people in crypto. He’s trying to write the rules for the industry as its risks grow increasingly stark.
Come for that important stuff, and stay for the crypto-themed condoms.
NEW in
@BW
: A deep look at the broken economics and divisive politics of pro tennis, a sport in which the stars make millions while lowlier players take side jobs to pay the bills.
"Everyone distrusts everyone," one executive told me. "It's a ratfuck."
The food system is under increasing strain. Meat plants are closing. Grocery workers are falling ill.
“Consumers like to have a lot of different choices," one analyst told us. "We just don’t have the labor to make that happen.” w/
@mcorkery5
:
Equinox has become the nation’s premier gym chain by selling itself as a luxury product: juice bars, boxing studios, eucalyptus steam rooms.
But for trainers, working there is a grueling ordeal that some compare to the Hunger Games. Story for
@nytimes
:
The crypto crash has entered a crucial new phase: A frenzied effort to recover funds. Customers of Celsius and other failed crypto projects are mobilizing online, filing lawsuits and intervening in the bankruptcy process.
Just heard that
@yaledailynews
and
@ydnmag
took home best all-around awards from
@spj_tweets
. (Hooray!) And wanted to take the opportunity to send a big congrats to
@thecrimson
for their second-place finish!
The CEO of Kraken, a major crypto exchange, has incited a full-blown culture war at his company. He questioned the use of preferred pronouns and wondered whether people can choose their race.
And he told any employees who disagreed to quit. w/
@RMac18
My final
@TexasTribune
dispatch from the border is about a single mother from Guatemala I met on the bridge between Brownsville and Matamoros. “My biggest fear is that they'll separate me from my daughter," she says. "She's all that I have."
NEW: The feds have charged SBF with wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, securities fraud, securities fraud conspiracy and money laundering, via
@WRashbaum
:
"I never went to war for my country," she said. "This is my — safe — version of that."
Citing a "war on science," STEM professionals in Texas and across the country are running for office in record numbers.
our latest on the collapse of FTX:
-hole could be as much as $8 billion (via
@LaurenSHirsch
)
-in note to staff, Sam says he was blindsided by Binance backing out of the deal and apologizes again
-CFTC looking into collapse as regulatory scrutiny grows
I walked into one of the Texas facilities that hold immigrant children. Then I attended a church service next door, where congregants defended family separations, saying “the law is the law.”
@TexasTribune
:
Huge
@yaledailynews
scoop: Rudy Meredith, the crooked women's soccer coach at the heart of the college admissions bribery scandal, pressured his players to write essays for him as he pursued a master's degree in sports science.
A common narrative has emerged to explain the struggles of America's dairy farmers: declining milk consumption, the trade war with China.
But this is also a story about the anti-competitive practices of a huge co-op ostensibly designed to help farmers:
SBF arrested in the Bahamas after criminal charges filed by SDNY. He was supposed to testify in Congress tomorrow. Lawyers involved in the case say they were shocked at the suddenness of the news:
Kavanaugh was a nice guy at Yale Law, his friends say. But he did have one significant failing: He put ketchup on his pasta. The latest from
@Hailey_Fuchs
and
@AddyFeibel
:
~an election night memory thread~
Four years ago, I was a 20 y/o reporter for the
@yaledailynews
. Somehow
@Amy_23_Cheng
and I had gotten credentials to Hillary HQ in New York for election night. This felt like a good excuse to skip class for a day. (1/6)
In 2017, the immigrant legal aid group RAICES raised around $400,000. They just made 40x that amount in two weeks, with a viral Facebook campaign tied to the family separations at the border. Read my story in
@TexasTribune
:
latest on Sam, FTX, the hack. some new details:
-Sam was warned in recent months that he was over-extending himself, but reacted defensively.
-Bonus payments to FTX employees were scheduled for mid-year but then delayed by months. w/
@eringriffith
I recently visited the English town of Crawley, where American crypto investors are trying to turn the local lower-league soccer club into “the internet’s team,” with a global following of crypto enthusiasts.
It was about as strange as you’d expect!
Remember when the heroes of Toy Story 3 narrowly escaped a fiery death in a trash incinerator? Now Burger King has an alternative ending -- and it involves a lot of melted plastic:
A month after zero tolerance, the Trump administration is back where it started: running a so-called “catch-and-release” immigration enforcement system.
My story (the first in a new partnership) is in
@TIME
and
@TexasTribune
:
Yale sent a graduation "save the date" flyer to the father of a student in the class of 2018 who killed himself a year and a half ago. Read Jack Ross' essay about his son Hale in
@ydnmag
:
At Yale Law, students and professors held a silent sit-in to show solidarity with Brett Kavanaugh's accusers. My story w/
@jdkstern13
in
@TheAtlantic
:
I spent a couple of weeks immersed in the world of branded podcasts. Some of the shows were tedious (OK, most of them were tedious). But some were actually kinda fun. Here's what I learned:
NEW: A former chief of staff to ousted WeWork CEO Adam Neumann says she was subjected to gender and pregnancy discrimination, according to a complaint filed today. She says Neumann referred to her maternity leave as "vacation" and "retirement."
Hey
@Arbys
, I heard about your "marrot"—or mock carrot made of meat. Since consumers are flocking toward plant-based alternatives, we thought we'd help you out and pass out "mock marrots" near your restaurants!
For people who think student journalism doesn’t matter: Yale just opened an investigation into DKE three days after an
@yaledailynews
investigation about the frat’s toxic sexual climate.
“Is there nothing more important to Yale Law School than its proximity to power and prestige?”
175 Yale law students/alumni sign an open letter condemning Kavanaugh's record and Yale's public embrace of his nomination, write
@Hailey_Fuchs
and
@AddyFeibel
:
This is a wild tale. It’s got abductions, failed abductions, illegal border crossings, arrests, scuffles, petty online feuds, bribes. And not one mention of the coronavirus, I promise.
Scoop: The men accused of engineering Carlos Ghosn’s escape from Japan have embarked on a wide-ranging lobbying campaign in Washington to obtain bail and avoid extradition to Japan.
In Texas, gender disparities are as endemic to politics as outdoor barbecues and invocations of the Alamo. These women are trying to change that. Read my story in
@TexasTribune
:
A surge of Texas Democrats are running for office this year. But there aren’t enough qualified staffers in the state to keep up with the demand. My latest for
@TexasTribune
:
For your close-reading pleasure, we've republished a few of Kavanaugh's sports stories from his time at the
@yaledailynews
. First prize goes to the person who deduce his views on Roe v. Wade based on his coverage of Yale's underperforming basketball team.
NEW feature in
@BW
: inside a pandemic legal battle that could determine the survival of thousands of U.S. businesses.
This is a story about insurance. But it also features: Darth Vader, Louis XV, a large collection of Lamborghinis and, um, cat urine.
When it takes the field against Harvard this weekend, the Yale football team will do so without its former captain: He left school earlier this year after being accused of sexual assault.
@yaledailynews
reports:
At the end of her military career, the Democrat running for Texas agriculture commissioner was investigated by the Pentagon for ethics violations. "I'm not running to be a nun," she says. "That ship has long sailed."
Jesse Powell has stepped down as CEO of Kraken after a conflict with employees. He posted inflammatory messages about race and gender, and urged staffers who disagreed with him to quit. w/
@RMac18
As the market collapsed and retail investors lost everything, a pair of crypto billionaires were moonlighting as rockers. There's no more vivid illustration of the yawning divide between the industry's winners and losers.
In the 1930s, the government stopped farmers destroying crops by creating a food stamp program.
Today, the country's relying on a patchwork of small government initiatives, plucky undergrads and a woman in Wyoming with a pickup truck. w/
@mcorkery5
:
But the risks are enormous. There's the possibility of jail time. And there's the cost: One mother had to sell her house to afford the $60,000 price tag. When she got her children back, she was homeless.