What The Lever Published This Week:
• Battle Of The Hollywood Censors — While politicians, military brass, and Chinese officials jockey to control the content of Hollywood blockbusters, experts say no one is looking out for the filmmakers themselves.
• Wall Street’s New Prison Scam — As states crack down on prison-phone price gouging and resulting government kickbacks, telecom companies and their private equity backers have new ways to game the system.
• Introducing Sirota’s Signals — Paid subscribers get a new weekly dose of must-read stories, missed nuggets, and fun-but-worthwhile distractions.
• YOU LOVE TO SEE IT: People With Disabilities Score Equal Pay — Plus, funding arrives for cleaner energy technologies, insurers’ care-denial bots are put on notice, and regulators tackle an airborne killer.
Stuff To Listen To:
• LEVER TIME: Amazon Is Afraid Of Its New Union Organizers — The Lever speaks with two organizers involved in unionizing one of Amazon’s biggest warehouses.
• MVC: 27 Dresses (with Erica Bitton) — The MVC team explores the wedding-industrial complex in celebration of Valentine’s Day.
The Lever In The News:
• MN Prisons Pocketed $274K In Telecom Kickbacks Last Year — Journalist Katya Schwenk reflects on her reporting about a prison telecom scam.
• Movies vs. Capitalism Podcast Nominated for an Ambie Award! — Our podcast exploring the ideologies baked into your favorite movies was nominated for a prestigious award from the Podcast Academy, a major professional podcasting organization.
