1/ I’ve spent the last year talking to a group of Brooklyn residents who are fighting their new landlord: a private equity-backed firm that bought up > 100 apartments buildings in the borough and kicked out tenants as Covid raged in NYC. motherjones.com/politics/2022/… 2/ In March 2021, the tenants of 70 Prospect Park West got notices that many of their leases wouldn’t be renewed by their new owners, a mysterious LLC. Some people in the building had lived there for more than 40 years.

1/ Last fall, I pitched my bosses @MotherJones on a project that would try to illustrate the depth of private equity’s investment in our daily lives, and its real-life impact. That package, with contributions from much of our newsroom, is out today: motherjones.com/privateequity 2/ Private equity firms control assets worth roughly the value of Amazon, Apple, Tesla, & Microsoft *combined,* finding ways to profit off ever more aspects of Americans' lives while often making them worse. I delved into how we got here: motherjones.com/politics/2022/…

I'm on the hill today for House Financial Services Committee's first hearing overseeing Wall Street watchdog CFPB, now led by Kathy Kraninger, who took over late last year from Trump-appointed Mick Mulvaney. First line of questions from Chairwoman Waters is about the CFPB office in charge of weeding out lending discrimination, and which won some of the bureau's biggest victories for consumers. Mulvaney stripped the office of enforcement powers: bit.ly/2nxlhUy

ORR head Scott Lloyd was in charge of reunifying migrant kids. He bungled the job, was put under review by his own agency, and then mysteriously reassigned. Today he’s testifying on the Hill about what happened. For more, read my profile of Lloyd: bit.ly/2Q3lP3V It's an hour and a half into this House Judiciary Committee hearing about family separations. So far, the questioning has been a little light. Few questions about ORR's reunification efforts. Now Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee zeroing in on specifics:

.@markfollman and I uncovered evidence that Russian agent Maria Butina worked to arm violent anti-American groups abroad—all while she was entering into the NRA’s fold. bit.ly/2GuXvma @markfollman Much of this happened in spring 2014, weeks after Putin annexed Crimea. Butina travelled there to lend a hand to the newly Russian citizenry, including by teaching violent militants how to legally acquire guns. She gave a whole press conference about it: bit.ly/2SiPoQG

The Senate just completed a procedural vote that brings Kathy Kraninger one step closer to a five-year term leading the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Wall Street watchdog created after the financial crisis./1 Kraninger has no background in consumer finance or banking. She’s widely expected to continue the deregulatory legacy of interim CFPB head Mick Mulvaney, who’s gutted a number of consumer protections since taking charge. bit.ly/2qo77GJ /2

I spent months digging into the backstory of Scott Lloyd, the Trump appointee in charge of reunifying migrant kids. Lloyd has been under review by his agency for bungling reunifications; today he was reassigned to a cush new gig. My profile & some thoughts bit.ly/2Q3lP3V Lloyd, you might remember, first gained attention a year ago, when the ACLU sued him over a policy he created requiring all abortion requests from migrant girls to get his approval. He denied all of them, including at least one from a rape victim.
bit.ly/2BhkwWG

Just got out of a 2.5 hr court hearing for Garza v Azar, case abt abortion access for migrant girls that's also the only case where Kavanaugh has issued an opinion on abortion. In that opinion he said it's ok for a US govt agency to hinder abortion access for undocumented girls. If this case makes it up to the Supreme Court—which it very well could, and soon—Brett Kavanaugh, if confirmed, would help decide it, unless forced to recuse himself, as one of the judges in today’s DC Circuit hearing pointed out.

A bit ago, Sen. Durbin asked Brett Kavanaugh about his legal reasoning in the only abortion ruling he's ever issued: His dissent in Garza v. Hargan, (bit.ly/2oKhvay), where Kavanaugh argued for further delay of the abortion sought by a detained undocumented minor. That minor, Jane Doe, obtained private funding and a judicial bypass (court order) allowing her to get an abortion. But Kavanaugh today said his dissent considered parental consent laws intended to help minors make their abortion decisions.