NEW: The “centrist” Abundance think tank pushing Democrats toward deregulation is run by a registered corporate lobbyist for OpenAI, Larry Ellison’s Oracle, and a crypto think tank.

🚨 In a landmark antitrust case, Michigan alleges oil companies colluded to “capture and kill” clean-energy and electric-vehicle efforts.

Good news to start the week: Congress changed how prescription drug middlemen get paid. They used to earn more when prices were higher, pushing expensive meds. Now they’ll get flat fees, which could make cheaper prescriptions easier to access.

One small piece of good news in the otherwise depressing world of campaign finance. Read: www.levernews.com/its-the-mone...

Tactics include misleading borrowers through “membership” fees, embedding offers in rental-payment portals to entice renters at checkout, and partnering with existing “buy now, pay later” apps.

🚨 NEW: A top AI CEO says superintelligence could “destroy all life on Earth.” Meanwhile, Silicon Valley is spending big to weaken AI rules ahead of the 2026 elections. 🎧 Today on Lever Time – What Tech Wants: God In The Machine www.youtube.com/shorts/jqGwQ...

🚨 Commercial passengers are helping to foot the bill for billionaires’ private jet mania.

🚨 NEW: The final episode of our three part series on what happens when the richest industry in history decides democracy is just another system to hack. www.youtube.com/shorts/60QG2...

Silicon Valley isn’t just building AI. They’re trying to build superintelligence at any cost, and reshaping elections so no one can slow them down. This week on Lever Time: the billionaires chasing “God in the machine.” ⚡🎧

A tax on $5M+ property sales raised $1B for housing. Now the anti-tax machine is moving to roll it back. This is exactly the kind of story you only get in Lever Daily.

Millions of complaints about credit report errors Credit bureaus: “Have we tried simply hiding the complaints?”

🚨The Lever is hiring🚨 Our newsroom won the 2025 National Press Club Award - and now we're expanding. We're looking for an experienced and ambitious Senior Investigative Reporter to join our remote team. Interested? Email a cover letter, resume, and 3 clips to [email protected]

Bitcoin might be heading into another crash – and it’s not just “crypto people” who’d feel it. Retirement money, banks, and dollar-linked stablecoins are pulling more people into the risk. ⬇️ youtube.com/shorts/NlYyq...

⚠️ This is what happens when essential news institutions are owned by billionaires and run like corporate assets — not public trusts.

🚨 NEW: Michigan says Big Oil didn’t just lie about climate change, but illegally teamed up to kill electric vehicles and clean energy for decades. A literal “capture-and-kill” strategy.

Bluesky – Have you noticed that the “news” is now almost 100 percent anything other than the unprecedented financial pillaging of the entire country, at every single minute of every single day?

🚨 NEW: Wall Street is reviving the same mortgage securities that fueled the 2008 crash, while pushing regulators to weaken disclosure rules. We have seen how this ends.

Three years after the Ohio train derailment in East Palestine, residents say they still haven’t received the settlement money they were promised. @katyaschwenk.bsky.social travelled to the town. Here's what she found ⬇️

🚨 Before Citizens United, there was another Supreme Court decision that opened the door to this. That ruling opened the door. It armed billionaires and corporate power brokers with the constitutional cover they still use to shape elections.

🚨 Before Citizens United, there was another Supreme Court decision that opened the door to this. That ruling armed billionaires and corporate power brokers with the constitutional cover they still use to shape elections. @davidsirota.com

This is what life looks like for some families in East Palestine, years after the toxic train derailment. Our investigation by Katya Schwenk examines what happened to the $600 million settlement meant to help residents recover.

A $600 million settlement was meant to help East Palestine residents rebuild after a toxic train derailed in their town. But many say they’re still waiting for the relief they were promised. Katya Schwenk investigates ⬇️

Trump’s reported Fed chair pick Kevin Warsh isn’t just a former central banker. He’s married into the family of Ronald Lauder – longtime Trump ally, donor, and occasional policy whisperer, including on Greenland. It’s a small room.

🚨 SCOOP: Three years after a train full of toxic chemicals derailed in East Palestine, the lawyers have been paid. The company hired to run the settlement has taken its fees. But many of the people who were told relief was coming are still waiting.

🚨 In 2024, the cryptocurrency industry spent more than $130 million to influence elections nationwide. Their donations and lobbying efforts turned the tables for their risky boom-and-bust business, which is now poised to overtake our entire financial system.

🚨 Jared Kushner is involved in plans for a U.S.-backed governing authority over “New Gaza.” Oh, and he’s also tied to finance firms invested in regional real estate.

Much of detainee medical care is handled by private contractors. Investigators have documented repeated failures to meet medical standards. But federal spending on detention keeps rising.

🚨 NEW: Trump’s Wall Street regulators just made shareholder communication harder for ordinary investors, while the richest still have clear channels. Less coordination for the many, more power for the few.

🚨 ICE agents have a legal shield that makes it incredibly hard to sue them, even in deadly cases. A bill to end that protection already exists — and Democrats now have the leverage to force a vote by tying it to DHS funding. Here’s how. ⬇️

🚨 NEW: Lawmakers just pushed a bill to make taxpayers pay for a new committee of corporate executives to advise the SEC (the Wall Street regulator). The people who get hurt by corporate abuse aren’t included. The corporations are.

We are being medically looted, insurers are raking in billions, and a senior Democrat went to Congress to tell their CEOs “this isn’t your fault” — after taking their money. This is corruption in plain sight.

🚨 NEW: TikTok’s new owners just expanded surveillance on Americans. After the Trump-backed sale, the app reversed location data protections and widened AI data collection. Some top creators are now exiting, pointing to censorship of political coverage.

To know that it doesn’t have to be this way, just consider how Republicans would be acting in the counterfactual. As Matt Stoller reminds us:

🚨 ICE is killing people. A tycoon-funded Democratic think tank is attacking calls to cut its funding, while Democrats provide the votes to keep the agency funded.

As ICE terrorizes cities and murders people, a tycoon-funded Democratic think tank is criticizing those saying lawmakers should reduce the agency’s funding — all while Democrats provide enough congressional votes to keep ICE flush with cash. www.levernews.com/how-democrat...

Full reporting ⬇️ www.levernews.com/how-democrat...

It's so infuriating to have such a notable reason to reshare this today.

Here’s a fun one: What new thing did Google’s AI just learn about you? A. When you’re ready to buy B. How much you’ll pay C. Whether clothes look good on you D. Which influencers you trust

🚨 Industry-backed Democrats helped Republicans turn proposed ICE reforms into a $20 million windfall for the body-camera industry.

🚨Democrats say ICE body cameras improve oversight. But the provision largely benefits Axon, a law-enforcement contractor that spends spends hundreds of thousands of dollars a year lobbying the government.

🚨 BREAKING: The Supreme Court doesn’t normally get involved in foreign policy. But this time, it is. At Trump’s urging, the Court is hearing cases that could allow corporations to profit from regime change in Cuba.

⚠️ NEW: Trump frames Greenland as a national security issue. But Silicon Valley’s broligarchy sees something else: a chance to push “network states,” where investors run territory like a startup. ⬇️ www.youtube.com/shorts/8FSVn...

🚨 NEW: Banks pay savers almost nothing. Crypto wants to do the same, but without the regulations.

⚠️ ICE k!lls a legal observer. Public support for abolition surges. Congress answers with a bipartisan bill that keeps ICE whole and quietly k!lls reforms to stop deporting U.S. citizens.

🚨 NEW: Google just made it clear how Gemini will make money: by deciding what you pay and hiding it behind “AI recommendations.” That should scare everyone. New piece from Matt Stoller ⬇️

🚨 NEW: Trump says he wants to cap credit card interest rates. His regulators are in court fighting states that try to do exactly that.

🚨 Why does Trump keep attacking the Fed? David Sirota breaks down the real reason behind Trump’s escalating attacks — and what’s at stake if the Fed loses its independence. www.youtube.com/shorts/yRIlb... @davidsirota.com

🚨 NEW: Obama-era Democrats sold a myth of presidential powerlessness to excuse inaction. Trump is now demonstrating, in real time, how false that myth was.

⚠️The real reason Trump wants Greenland isn’t national security — it’s minerals. As ice melts, Greenland’s rare earths, lithium, copper, and oil are becoming easier to extract. Trump’s billionaire allies are invested in mining projects there — and they want to profit.