The Tia Clinic, a members-only doctor’s office that recently opened its first location in New York City, describes itself on Instagram as “part gyno’s office,” “part wellness center,” and “part lady fort.” Its office, near Madison Square Park, is rosy and speckled. Books by Simone de Beauvoir and Joan Didion are…

It was a pretty small amount of money Sharon Davis lost, which is typical. Davis is a professor of sociology at the University of La Verne in California, and as with many American workers who go to an office and sit at a desk as a member of the professional class, her employer-sponsored benefits included the chance to…

On Sunday, the website Anti-Fascist Nebraska published evidence that Bennett Bressman, 22, a former statewide field director for Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts, has been particularly active in white nationalist chat rooms, musing about the ease of entry into the GOP and encouraging other members to “take this whole…

Along with all the other horrors a person endures while attempting to navigate America’s healthcare system—surprise medical bills, incomprehensible insurance claims, administrative misunderstandings, inadequate care—the last decade has thrown a new one onto the pile: a consumer choice model that pushes patients to…

On Tuesday, the people of the Des Moines, Iowa metro area are headed to the polls to vote on whether to raise the sales tax in their neighborhoods by a penny. The vote, if approved in the six individual neighborhoods voting, would help offset property taxes and fund various quality-of-life initiatives. Supporters of…

Cecilia Gentili, originally from Argentina, was undocumented for much of her time in the United States. She’s been incarcerated for substance use and trading sex, hassled by immigration agents at Rikers, and struggled for years to find access to unbiased medical care. Like many sex workers, when she was in unsafe…

On Monday, the Truth and Transparency Foundation, a nonprofit focused on abuse within religious institutions, published records relating to a 1993 assault of a then-13-year-old boy by Sterling Van Wagenen, a prominent producer and film lecturer as well as the co-founder of the Sundance Film Festival.

Welcome back to the Billionaire’s Inbox, where we get a chance to hear from the other half, in its own words. Today we’re looking at how racist conspiracy theories have the potential to influence policy, as they’re read, shared, and internalized by a wildly influential class of political donors.

Of all the assets Joe Ricketts has secured in his 77 years—and there are many—a ranch in Wyoming is particularly close to his heart. He refers to it as Yellowstone without the crowds: A band of property nearly the size of Manhattan, running straight through two alpine-covered mountain ranges, along a wide river.

On Tuesday, Karen Pence’s office announced the second lady would return to a part-time gig at Immanuel Christian School, where she taught during her husband’s Congressional tenure. Pence, a noted watercolor enthusiast, will be teaching art in the academy’s elementary school. The school’s rules, as codified in a couple…

Late last summer Seema Verma, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, announced that beginning in 2019 most American hospitals would be required to post their full lists of “standard charges” for services rendered. You can now find many of these spreadsheets online, and they list medical…

In the nine years since Monopoly-man-come-to-life Joe Ricketts and his cartoonishly wealthy progeny purchased the Chicago Cubs from the Tribune Company, the Ricketts dynasty—publicly represented by 55-year-old investment banker and public transit enthusiast Tom—have found themselves in repeated disagreement with the…

Welcome back to The Billionaire’s Inbox, a series in which we get to hear from the other half, in its own words. Today we’re looking at how the influential Ricketts family—patriarch Joe Ricketts, Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts, Republican National Committee finance chairman Todd Ricketts, Chicago Cubs chairman Tom…

Welcome back to The Billionaire’s Inbox, where we hear from the other half, in its own words. Today we’re looking at the Ricketts family’s political attitudes and influences. You can read the previous installments of the series, and some of Joe Ricketts’ thoughts on unions, here:

Joe Ricketts, personal net worth $2.2 billion, is a private man. With less name recognition than some dark money donors, yet a comparable interest in trading wealth for political influence, the 77-year-old conservative takes great pains to keep himself out of the press. He does not grant many interviews, preferring to…

On Wednesday Jezebel wrote about a viral story, written by the James Beard-award winning food critic Kevin Alexander in Thrillist, that appeared to be either an act of shoddy journalism or a self-serving acceptance of a single unreliable narrator’s statement of fact. The truth, Jezebel has learned, is that it was a…

Earlier this month, the James Beard-award-winning food critic Kevin Alexander wrote a long and very well-received story for Thrillist, framed as something between an act of contrition and a cautionary tale. Last year Alexander had named a Portland, Oregon burger joint called Stanich’s the “best burger in America.”…

Brookhaven Academy, in Mississippi, is a “non-sectarian school based on Christian principles” with a footbridge spanning a stream in its “outdoor classroom” and an impressive carved wooden cougar greeting visitors at its front door. The dining hall serves rib sandwiches and hushpuppies; parents purchase school…

To a lot of people, and a number of its own employees, Simple Health looked like your average insurance purveyor, albeit one that was doing particularly well for itself. There were yearly company-wide barbecues and team-building exercises in its corporate office. The firm’s CEO, Steve Dorfman, a 2015 South Florida…