Sheldon Adelson's Gift in the Govt. Shutdown
This week I published a story in The Intercept looking at a recent decision by the Department of Justice to reverse its previous stance on the legality of online gambling, something billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson has pushed financially for years. Adelson swears his opposition to online gambling is purely altruistic—driven by concern for the poor and vulnerable—and certainly has nothing at all to do with the profit margins of his brick-and-mortar casinos.
You can read the story here.
I don’t think this is the last we’ll be hearing of this story. A few hours after it was published, Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Congressman from Maryland, grilled Matt Whitaker, the acting U.S. attorney general, in a hearing about whether his previous employer ever received money from Sheldon Adelson. Whitaker’s answer was “I don’t know.”
I also published a story recently in Washington City Paper looking at the salaries of charter school teachers in D.C. as compared to teachers in traditional D.C. schools, and to D.C. charter school executives.
The piece generated some good local discussion, and I was actually invited on a local radio show to talk about more about it. On the show the guests and I explored the topic of charter school transparency—an area I’ve done a lot of reporting on over the last 18 months. I am heartened to say momentum around this issue has increased a lot recently.