In the early ’90s, Dara Michelle Luster, a 28-year-old mother of three, was struggling with a cocaine addiction, and state prosecutors decided to make an example out of her. This was 1991 when the “crack baby” panic, based on a handful of flawed studies, had become the central vehicle for many Americans’ racial…

Obria, if you’ll recall, is the network of Christian anti-abortion clinics that is currently trying to position itself as a “holistic” alternative to Planned Parenthood while publicly glossing over the fact that it does not offer abortion or contraception services. The nonprofit, after expanding some of its medical…

Last week, the Rumsey Hall School, a coed K-9 boarding and day school in Connecticut, became the most recent private school to disclose the findings of a wide-ranging sexual misconduct investigation. In a letter sent to alumni, parents, and other affiliates, the school’s current leadership described corroborated…

If you’re a politically powerful person in America, there are a number of levers you can pull to help your disappointment of a kid stumble through life—you can bribe college administrators to get them into a school that they have no business attending, for instance, or get them a cush job they are categorically unable…

A few weeks ago, Jezebel published a story about Tia, a boutique members-only gynecology and wellness practice that recently opened in New York. The company, which is expanding from its origins as a cycle-tracking app to open a network of doctor’s office, offered same-day appointments and personalized follow-ups for…

On Friday, the federal government granted the California-based Obria Group $5.1 million in Title X funding over the next three years, the first fulfillment of what the Catholic nonprofit hopes will be a major source of funding for its ambitious national expansion.

On March 23, the Associated Press reported that three Texas healthcare providers had applied for tens of millions of dollars of federal Title X funding from the Department of Health and Human Services. Like other organizations that receive such funding, the centers, which are affiliated with Obria Medical Clinics,…

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…