LEVER WEEKLY: No Sanctuary On The Streets

This is Lever Weekly, a recap of our work from the past week. If you only read one email from us all week, this should be it.

Here’s what The Lever published this week:

Amid Trump’s Immigration Onslaught, There Is No Sanctuary. Amid the fear, chaos, and violence playing out on the streets, the protections promised by neoliberalism are nowhere to be found.

Whistleblower Lawsuit Exposes Trump’s Secret ICE Plot. The complaint by Gov. Jared Polis’ labor official also accuses the governor of illegally ordering state officials to aid the immigration crackdown.

The Trump Era’s Trade-Offs. This week’s deportation raids and plane crash followed the Republican administration’s moves to change the government’s focus.

Wall Street To Insurers: Keep Denying Care. UnitedHealth Group’s investors were profiting from its high denial rates. Now, they’re suing to ensure that doesn’t change.

War Is Peace, Gas Is Now “Clean Energy.” Secretive dark money groups are pushing states to redefine methane gas, undermining renewable energy initiatives.

For Wall Street, Gentrification Is Tax Deferred. A 2017 tax break designed to help struggling communities has become yet another profit scheme for venture capitalists.

Trump Just Quietly Teed Up $20 Billion In Starlink Contracts. A new carveout could redirect billions in funding for rural broadband construction to Elon Musk’s satellite company.

Waymo On The Way Out. A robotaxi has become a symbol for the public’s frustration with both Big Tech and law enforcement.

Campaign Finance Reform May Save Us From Cuomo 2.0. Thanks to small-dollar donors and a public election fund, New York City’s mayoral race is actually competitive.

🔒 Everything You Think About The Deficit Is Wrong. Every major agency has downgraded America’s credit rating. Economist Stephanie Kelton explains why it matters — but not for the reasons you think.

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Not yet reading Lever Daily? You’re missing out on news like this:

📉 Diminishing returns. You’re better off investing in the stock market. New analysis confirms private equity funds returned just 7 percent to investors in 2024, compared to the S&P 500’s return of 25 percent. And it’s not just last year: In the long term, the stock market has outperformed private equity on a one-, three-, five-, and 10-year basis. Investors, nonetheless, have poured trillions of dollars into the opaque and high-risk industry, whose buy-and-burn model of roll-up acquisitions has created an economic time bomb set to blow any moment.

🏠 Airbnb has entered the chat. Amid reporting that billionaire investor and Airbnb cofounder Joseph Gebbia is part of a new leadership team taking the helm at DOGE, the booking platform just spent $1 million on attack ads targeting New York City mayoral candidates who support the city’s crackdown on short-term rentals. Research shows that when Airbnb comes to town, communities see reduced housing supply and higher rents, which led NYC to effectively ban rentals shorter than 30 days in 2023. The move cost Airbnb 80 percent of its listings in the city within a year. The New York Times reports that Airbnb will spend approximately $5 million in New York to support industry-friendly lawmakers in the coming years after spending $1 million in the state in the first 10 months of 2024. Already, they’re seeing results: The NYC council may soon reopen the Airbnb market to single and two-family homes.

💸 Oh, you wanted a tax cut, too? GOP lawmakers have promised that their shrinkage of social services like Medicaid, Medicare, and SNAP in the big beautiful bill is necessary to pay for tax cuts for the working class — but now those breaks are also on the chopping block. According to Politico, Senate Republicans want to make the budget’s new tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy permanent, and to achieve that they plan to slash about $230 billion in cuts for the middle class that aren’t “as pro-growth,” including Trump’s campaign trail-touted no taxes on tips and overtime.

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WIRED/404 MEDIA — The tech publications co-published an article building on our discovery that airlines are sharing passenger information with various government agencies, including ICE.

• This work was also spotlighted by the Turkish publication FTN News and the UK-based publication The Independent.

Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting — Katya Schwenk joined the organization’s CounterSpin podcast to discuss her coverage of Boeing’s sweetheart deal with the Trump Administration.

TruthOut — The publication featured our investigation on Trump’s workplace safety pick’s worrisome track record on heat protections.

Tampa Free Press —  The local publication referenced our reporting on a new crypto bill that could endanger traditional depositors’ savings.

Rocky Mountain PBS — The Colorado public news program referenced our coverage of Gov. Jared Polis’ cooperation with ICE agents.

Daily Kos — The news site featured our reporting on how California could soon hand over its power grid to Trump.

Project On Government Oversight — The watchdog group featured our major investigation on the FDA’s drug approval process.

The Open Notebook — The science-focused publication also featured our investigation into the FDA’s laissez-faire drug approval process