@NYTimes metro investigative reporter. Human. Hoosier. Wildcat. Alum of @SeattleTimes/@HoustonChron. On board of directors of @IRE_NICAR.
Sep 11, 2022 • 7 tweets • 5 min read
NEW: The Hasidic Jewish community runs scores of private boys’ schools that have gotten over $1 billion in public money. But a NYT investigation found they are denying students a basic education, trapping generations of kids in poverty. With @ElizaShapiro: nytimes.com/2022/09/11/nyr…
Three years ago, NYC officials announced they had looked at a group of Hasidic schools and found most weren’t providing an adequate education. Then the city shelved the investigation amid the pandemic. We picked up where it left off. Here’s what we found: nytimes.com/2022/09/11/nyr…
Dec 5, 2019 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
NEW: He was a New York celebrity with $525M, Ferraris & villas in the French Riviera. But he got it by helping create a bubble that ruined thousands of immigrant cabbies. The story of the Taxi King and how he embodies the rise & fall of an iconic industry: nytimes.com/2019/12/05/nyr…
Gene Freidman, son of a respected fleet owner, developed some of the tactics that caused NYC's taxi medallion bubble. He made millions & put it in offshore trusts. And then, tax fraud
“Your headline could be: ‘The man who brought down the taxi industry’”
NEW: Over the past year, a spate of suicides has revealed a financial crisis in New York's cab industry. Officials have blamed Uber, but much of the crisis can be traced to a handful of taxi tycoons. Here’s the real story, based on 10 months of reporting: nytimes.com/2019/05/19/nyr…
From 2002 to 2014, the price of the permit that lets a driver own a cab (a “medallion”) rose from $200K to $1M
It wasn’t by accident
Some of NY's biggest taxi leaders artificially inflated the price, and made millions by issuing reckless loans to buyers
