Bill de Blasio’s Administration Is Under a Mysterious Federal Investigation

J.K. Trotter · 04/11/16 08:40AM

William K. Rashbaum and Al Baker of The New York Times have a deep dive into the ongoing and increasingly complex federal investigation of two fundraisers associated with a non-profit called the Campaign for One New York, which supported the election of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio in 2013. Investigators are apparently trying to figure out whether those fundraisers, a real estate executive named Jona Rechnitz and a consultant Jeremy Reichberg, obtained favorable treatment from de Blasio’s administration in exchange for monetary support of the Democrat’s campaign. The problem, though, is that....nobody seems to know what prompted the investigation in the first place:

CIA Says It Won't Waterboard Anymore, No Matter What Donald Trump Says

Gabrielle Bluestone · 04/11/16 08:25AM

Donald Trump’s rallies generally boil down to three main points: He’s going to build a wall, Mexico’s going to pay for it, and he’s going to waterboard a bunch of terrorists. It’s hard to imagine any of those things actually happening, but the CIA says the waterboarding plan is 100 percent off the table.

210 Days and a Wake Up

J.K. Trotter · 04/11/16 07:56AM

A “wake up,” for the unfamiliar, is a term used by soldiers and prisoners in the U.S. when discussing the remainder of their service or sentence. Or, per a user in this Yahoo! Answers thread: “It’s a way of counting how many more days there is left until something happens.”

Hamilton Nolan · 04/11/16 07:40AM

Perpetually enraged sex columnist Andrea Peyser declares (Jewish) Bernie Sanders “Anti-Semitic,” and contrasts him with Ivanka Trump, who “has given birth to three Jewish children, delighting the tykes’ grandfather.” But is Hillary Clinton a slut? We anxiously await Andrea’s ruling.

Trump Has Been Donating Free Rounds of Golf to Charities Instead of Cash

Helen Holmes · 04/10/16 10:30PM

Although for years Donald Trump has staked much of his philanthropic reputation on the claim that he has donated hundreds of millions of dollars of his personal wealth to charity, a recent investigation by The Washington Post reveals that this is far from the case. In fact, many of the gifts that Trump had claimed were simply cash turned out to be free rounds of golf, land-conservation agreements, and actual small parcels of land.

Report: Persistent Sexual Harassment Goes Unpunished at UC Berkeley 

Helen Holmes · 04/10/16 09:00PM

For Kathleen Gutierrez, what was supposed to be a graduate-level education in Tamil literature has turned into a nightmare. She and fellow UC Berkeley student Erin Bennett allege that they have been the targets of persistent sexual harassment from Blake Wentworth, a professor in the department of South and Southeast Asian studies at Berkeley. Tomorrow, the two students intend to file a formal complaint against Wentworth with the state of California. According to The Guardian:

Brendan O'Connor · 04/10/16 06:51PM

“Last night, a patron came to me to complain about being hit by the stage blood. Not only was her sweater stained, but also her Burberry cashmere scarf and more importantly (she cried when she showed it to me) her leather Louis Vuitton bag. I told her that we will pay for the cleaning of her items.”