2) Employers are trying to TRAP (Training Repayment Agreement Provision) employees by making them pay for any training they received if the employee leaves their job early. @jacobinmag.bsky.social @lukewgoldstein.bsky.social

jacobin.com/2025/08/corp...

The Lever's @lukewgoldstein.bsky.social and @freddy-brewster.bsky.social are out with a devastating piece on the ways the crypto industry is absolutely pulling the strings of pro-crypto Democrats. ‪Trump's corruption? Who cares. Financial stability? Fuck it. They want a payoff. Now.

Ahhhhh…

www.levernews.com/trump-alread...

two of the cases ban Scott Sheffield and John Hess from joining the boards of Exxon and Chevron respectively b/c of alleged collusion. The third involves an order placed on two oil companies that colluded before their merger was approved

The FTC now has 3 cases open to lift regulatory restrictions put on oil executives for illegal coordination and colluding with OPEC.

This comes after the oil/gas industry + those very executives contributed millions to Trump PACs and petitioned for regulatory relief

Texas lawmakers are now trying to change their state laws to empower Elon Musk to sue you into the ground and bankrupt you and your family if you criticize him.

The group spearheading the lobbying campaign for the legislation is bankrolled by...Elon Musk.

For more on the backstory, read @lukewgoldstein.bsky.social's previous reporting on Sheffield in @prospect.org.

🚨THIS JUST HAPPENED: Last year, two oil CEOs were busted for conspiring with foreign governments to raise Americans' gas prices.

Then the pair of oil CEOs funneled cash to Trump's political machine.

Now Trump's regulators are ending their punishment. www.levernews.com/they-inflate...

The Khan-led FTC showed that U.S. fossil fuel execs conspired w/ OPEC to limit global oil supply, so they could raise prices & boost profits.

Biden did not use this scandal—Trump mega-donors making your life more expensive!—to his full advantage. Dems now have a second chance.

It’s extremely understaffed and has been unwilling to use its full authority

It’s a division of the department of labor. In theory, the office is supposed to protect your retirement savings from the kind of looting this guy’s company helps facilitate

Trump’s pick for retirement czar is an avid blogger…(if that weren’t bad enough) he specifically blogs about his disdain for pensioners who, in his view, are bullying Wall St with “frivolous” lawsuits for looting their nest eggs. He happens to run a company profiting from said looting.

The CFPB continues to survive, as a second attempt to fire approx. 90% of the workers has failed. But the details of the effort is broadly applicable to DOGE's tactics, showing their contempt for and ignorance of the law, along with what it actually takes to run a federal agency.

Exposing the “Biden age coverup” is not Watergate despite how much the DC press corps wants to act like it is and pat themselves on the back

NEW: a hidden class of consultants are helping companies use tariffs as a pretext to impose lasting price hikes, as they did during inflation.

These very practices were under scrutiny by the FTC before the Trump admin ended the probe, giving companies a “green light” to gouge

INVESTIGATION: Trump’s administration halted a probe of surveillance pricing — now “price optimization” consultants are helping corporations weaponize Trump’s tariffs to jack up prices on consumers.

“Now is the time to take advantage,” said one consultant www.levernews.com/how-trump-is...

Politico ran a paid sponsorship yesterday by "Make America Affordable Again," run by Trump campaign top strategists Chris LaCivita and Tony Fabrizio. It has nothing to do with affordability. Their sole advocacy is for "loser pays" lawsuit reform to dissuade people from suing corporations for damages

During yesterday's Facebook antitrust trial, evidence emerged showing Mark Zuckerberg admitting that Big Tech is deliberately worsening users' online experience. www.levernews.com/zuckerberg-a...

This week, Senators on the Finance Committee called for a criminal probe into a fraudulent “tribal tax credit” scheme peddled by financial advisors who Trump’s IRS pick Billy Long worked for.

Those same firms just paid off Long's outstanding debt from his failed Senate bid:

🚨BREAKING: Trump's IRS nominee Billy Long just had his personal debt paid off by donors whose firms have business before the tax agency he’d lead, according to documents reviewed by The Lever.

If confirmed, Long would be able to do favors for the donors. www.levernews.com/trump-irs-pi...

Lutnick starts out by claiming the trade war will bring back manufacturing, but there won't be jobs - just robots

As @samseder.bsky.social @ddayen.bsky.social noted, he realized he made an error, and tried to pivot to claiming we'll need workers to repair the robots.
www.foxnews.com/video/637101...

INVESTIGATION: Hospital chains are buying up billions of dollars of real estate, milking them for income while using charity status to avoid taxes that fund schools & emergency departments. Some are now using taxpayer-subsidized fortunes to buy elections.

wow, new bombshell reporting from @lukewgoldstein.bsky.social reveals:

- in 2023, Corey O'Connor strongly supported Ed Gainey's legal challenges to UPMC's property tax exemptions.

- in 2025, O'Connor's mayoral campaign received $25k from the UPMC Board.

- he now opposes the legal challenges.

🤔

My colleague @lukewgoldstein.bsky.social & I examined how UPMC is abusing its tax-exempt status by buying up properties, not paying taxes, & influencing the Pittsburgh mayoral election. UPMC is an exemplar of a wider issue with hundreds of nonprofit hospitals abusing their generous tax breaks.