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- The biggest names missing from the list of America’s top philanthropists
MacKenzie Scott and many of America's richest are absent from the latest Philanthropy 50 ranking. [TheTopNews] Read More.4 hours ago - Utah Moves to Rein In Its Runaway Private Adoption Industry
For years, Utah has been a hub of the private adoption industry, drawing pregnant women and prospective adoptive parents from across the country thanks to its notoriously permissive laws and thriving network of agencies. But the practice can become exploitative, as I reported in an investigation for Mother Jones and PBS News Hour last year, with some expecting mothers feeling pressured or rushed into relinquishing their babies after being enticed to Utah by promises of cash stipends and free lodging. Now, Utah lawmakers are dramatically reining in how adoption agencies operate in the state. The state legislature passed a bill late last month with a veto-proof supermajority that will increase oversight and transparency of the industry and introduce protections for birth parents. Gov. Spencer Cox is expected to sign the legislation into law this month. “We need to take care of them, and it didn’t seem like these women were being taken care of.” The legislation introduces a 72-hour revocation period after adoption papers are signed, during which a birth mother can change her mind for any reason; prohibits agencies from advertising financial incentives to expecting mothers; bans lump sums paid out to birth mothers; requires adoption agencies be registered as nonprofits by 2027; and creates a consortium of adoption agencies, run by the state’s Department of Health and Human Services, to oversee the implementation of the new guardrails and collect data on the industry. Republican state Rep. Katy Hall, the bill’s sponsor and a nurse who worked for years in postpartum care, knows that birth mothers are in a fragile place. “We need to take care of them, and it didn’t seem like these women were being taken care of,” she says. She’s not sure she was aware of the state’s reputation as a hub for adoption tourism until watching the News Hour investigation. The video tells the story of Tia Goins, a mother who was flown from Detroit to Salt Lake City by adoption agency Brighter Adoptions and, she says, pressured to give up her child. Only after she relinquished her child did agency owner Sandi Quick coordinate Goins’ flight home. On the way to the airport, Quick—who now goes by Sandi Benson—gave Goins $4,000 in cash. (Benson said last year that she had always centered the needs of birth mothers and that she ensures that mothers “fully understand the implications of adoption.” The adoptive mother said… [TheTopNews] Read More.4 hours ago - I Analyzed 1,500 “Pizza” Mentions in the Epstein Files. Here’s What I Foun...Less than two months before his arrest on sex-trafficking charges in 2019, Jeffrey Epstein was on top of the world—at least going by his iMessages. Over the course of three days in May, he fired off more than 60 texts to his powerful besties. A self-appointed expert on any topic, Epstein sparred with a cocky Steve Bannon over Trump’s first-term trade war with China and discussed Bannon’s recent trip to Norway. For reasons we’ll perhaps never know—Bannon didn’t get back to me—their banter turned to the political leanings of a mass killer. “Did you tell Norwegians that the child murderer was a lefty radical?” Epstein asked Bannon—presumably a reference to Anders Breivik, the far-right extremist who killed 77 people in the country in 2011, most of them teenagers. “Yes yes yes,” Bannon replied. “Went over well!!!” Epstein noted the killer “gave a Nazi salute” and claimed he’d also made an antisemitic crack comparing Jews and pizza: “The pizza doesn’t scream when you throw it in the oven.” This joke, if you can call it that, isn’t about pizza, not really. But it is one of nearly 1,500 mentions of “pizza”—literal, figurative, or just plain strange—across more than 10,600 pages culled from the Epstein files that are breathing new life to an old conspiracy. Internet sleuths have seized on the appearance of the word “pizza” in the files as code for children, just as they did during Pizzagate, the thoroughly debunked conspiracy theory that spun the WikiLeaks release of Hillary Clinton aide John Podesta’s emails into false claims that Democrats ran a child-sex ring out of Comet Ping Pong, a D.C. pizzeria. The use of “cheese pizza” in those emails was first suggested by a 4chan user to be coded language for “C.P.” or “child porn,” while “pizza” itself was used to mean girls, alongside other supposed shorthand terms tied to pedophilia. “What the fuck is pizza? How far does this go? How come this never got released before? What is happening?” This has convinced some readers of the Epstein files that Pizzagate was “right this whole time” and that Epstein was involved. Tucker Carlson tweeted that “it looks like Pizzagate is basically real.” Talking about the Epstein files, the world’s biggest podcaster, Joe Rogan, complained: “What the fuck is pizza? How far does this go? How come this never got released before? What is happening?” Meanwhile, Congresswoman Lauren… [TheTopNews] Read More.4 hours ago
- ASL Interpreters Are Unionizing—And They Say They’re Getting Fired For ItOn a quick break between calls, Kathleen’s coworker asked her where she could learn more about unionization efforts at their company. Check Instagram, she replied. Kathleen’s manager quickly came over to reprimand her; two days later, she was fired. Workplace crackdowns on union activity are a familiar story; most go unchecked. But Kathleen’s employer has drawn fire repeatedly from members of Congress. Kathleen worked for ZP Better Together, one of the two major American video relay service providers. Together with Sorenson Communications—owned by private equity—they provide most video relay services for Deaf people making phone calls in the United States. ZP Better Together was private equity–owned until its 2025 acquisition by France’s Teleperformance SE, a public corporation that has acquired multiple other private equity–owned firms. ZP Better Together and Sorenson are in the midst of a unionization effort for ASL interpreters; workers at both companies have alleged efforts to stop the union drive. (ZP has also been under fire for allegedly subjecting Colombian workers to a traumatic work environment.) “I was fired for misuse of company time, misuse of company technology, misuse of company resources and solicitation,” Kathleen told me. She had been with the company since July 2024 and believes her termination came in direct response to her unionization efforts. (ZP Better Together did not respond directly to questions regarding Kathleen’s employment and termination, but a spokesperson for the company said that it “respects the legal rights of its employees.”) For Deaf people, video relay services are essential to connect to the world. Through the work of ASL interpreters on video relay services, Deaf people call doctors’ offices, speak to service providers, chat with friends, and complain to their elected officials. If the ASL interpreters serving them are burned out, then Deaf people suffer. The Federal Communications Commission is supposed to oversee video relay services, and the firms that provide them, under the Americans with Disabilities Act. But workers are arguing that the agency, particularly under Trump appointee and political hatchetman Brendan Carr, is not doing a good enough job. Kathleen started to get more deeply involved in union organizing efforts in the fall of 2025, she said, because she was so frustrated by how she was treated as an employee with disabilities—not an unusual factor in union drives, but especially ironic for an organization that serves disabled people. Management at the firm didn’t allow her to wear… [TheTopNews] Read More.4 hours ago
- Kevin Warsh’s Dilemma as Fed Chair Nominee Amid Iran War
President Trump’s pick to lead the Federal Reserve could faces a tough road to confirmation if he seeks quick interest rate cuts. The war in Iran doesn’t help. [TheTopNews] Read More.4 hours ago
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MacKenzie Scott and many of America's richest are absent from the latest Philanthropy 50 ranking. [TheTopNews] Read More.
4 hours ago
For years, Utah has been a hub of the private adoption industry, drawing pregnant women and prospective adoptive parents from across the country thanks to its notoriously permissive laws and thriving network of agencies. But the practice can become exploitative, as I reported in an investigation for Mother Jones and PBS News Hour last year, with some expecting mothers feeling pressured or rushed into relinquishing their babies after being enticed to Utah by promises of cash stipends and free lodging. Now, Utah lawmakers are dramatically reining in how adoption agencies operate in the state. The state legislature passed a bill late last month with a veto-proof supermajority that will increase oversight and transparency of the industry and introduce protections for birth parents. Gov. Spencer Cox is expected to sign the legislation into law this month. “We need to take care of them, and it didn’t seem like these women were being taken care of.” The legislation introduces a 72-hour revocation period after adoption papers are signed, during which a birth mother can change her mind for any reason; prohibits agencies from advertising financial incentives to expecting mothers; bans lump sums paid out to birth mothers; requires adoption agencies be registered as nonprofits by 2027; and creates a consortium of adoption agencies, run by the state’s Department of Health and Human Services, to oversee the implementation of the new guardrails and collect data on the industry. Republican state Rep. Katy Hall, the bill’s sponsor and a nurse who worked for years in postpartum care, knows that birth mothers are in a fragile place. “We need to take care of them, and it didn’t seem like these women were being taken care of,” she says. She’s not sure she was aware of the state’s reputation as a hub for adoption tourism until watching the News Hour investigation. The video tells the story of Tia Goins, a mother who was flown from Detroit to Salt Lake City by adoption agency Brighter Adoptions and, she says, pressured to give up her child. Only after she relinquished her child did agency owner Sandi Quick coordinate Goins’ flight home. On the way to the airport, Quick—who now goes by Sandi Benson—gave Goins $4,000 in cash. (Benson said last year that she had always centered the needs of birth mothers and that she ensures that mothers “fully understand the implications of adoption.” The adoptive mother said… [TheTopNews] Read More.
4 hours ago
Less than two months before his arrest on sex-trafficking charges in 2019, Jeffrey Epstein was on top of the world—at least going by his iMessages. Over the course of three days in May, he fired off more than 60 texts to his powerful besties. A self-appointed expert on any topic, Epstein sparred with a cocky Steve Bannon over Trump’s first-term trade war with China and discussed Bannon’s recent trip to Norway. For reasons we’ll perhaps never know—Bannon didn’t get back to me—their banter turned to the political leanings of a mass killer. “Did you tell Norwegians that the child murderer was a lefty radical?” Epstein asked Bannon—presumably a reference to Anders Breivik, the far-right extremist who killed 77 people in the country in 2011, most of them teenagers. “Yes yes yes,” Bannon replied. “Went over well!!!” Epstein noted the killer “gave a Nazi salute” and claimed he’d also made an antisemitic crack comparing Jews and pizza: “The pizza doesn’t scream when you throw it in the oven.” This joke, if you can call it that, isn’t about pizza, not really. But it is one of nearly 1,500 mentions of “pizza”—literal, figurative, or just plain strange—across more than 10,600 pages culled from the Epstein files that are breathing new life to an old conspiracy. Internet sleuths have seized on the appearance of the word “pizza” in the files as code for children, just as they did during Pizzagate, the thoroughly debunked conspiracy theory that spun the WikiLeaks release of Hillary Clinton aide John Podesta’s emails into false claims that Democrats ran a child-sex ring out of Comet Ping Pong, a D.C. pizzeria. The use of “cheese pizza” in those emails was first suggested by a 4chan user to be coded language for “C.P.” or “child porn,” while “pizza” itself was used to mean girls, alongside other supposed shorthand terms tied to pedophilia. “What the fuck is pizza? How far does this go? How come this never got released before? What is happening?” This has convinced some readers of the Epstein files that Pizzagate was “right this whole time” and that Epstein was involved. Tucker Carlson tweeted that “it looks like Pizzagate is basically real.” Talking about the Epstein files, the world’s biggest podcaster, Joe Rogan, complained: “What the fuck is pizza? How far does this go? How come this never got released before? What is happening?” Meanwhile, Congresswoman Lauren… [TheTopNews] Read More.
4 hours ago
On a quick break between calls, Kathleen’s coworker asked her where she could learn more about unionization efforts at their company. Check Instagram, she replied. Kathleen’s manager quickly came over to reprimand her; two days later, she was fired. Workplace crackdowns on union activity are a familiar story; most go unchecked. But Kathleen’s employer has drawn fire repeatedly from members of Congress. Kathleen worked for ZP Better Together, one of the two major American video relay service providers. Together with Sorenson Communications—owned by private equity—they provide most video relay services for Deaf people making phone calls in the United States. ZP Better Together was private equity–owned until its 2025 acquisition by France’s Teleperformance SE, a public corporation that has acquired multiple other private equity–owned firms. ZP Better Together and Sorenson are in the midst of a unionization effort for ASL interpreters; workers at both companies have alleged efforts to stop the union drive. (ZP has also been under fire for allegedly subjecting Colombian workers to a traumatic work environment.) “I was fired for misuse of company time, misuse of company technology, misuse of company resources and solicitation,” Kathleen told me. She had been with the company since July 2024 and believes her termination came in direct response to her unionization efforts. (ZP Better Together did not respond directly to questions regarding Kathleen’s employment and termination, but a spokesperson for the company said that it “respects the legal rights of its employees.”) For Deaf people, video relay services are essential to connect to the world. Through the work of ASL interpreters on video relay services, Deaf people call doctors’ offices, speak to service providers, chat with friends, and complain to their elected officials. If the ASL interpreters serving them are burned out, then Deaf people suffer. The Federal Communications Commission is supposed to oversee video relay services, and the firms that provide them, under the Americans with Disabilities Act. But workers are arguing that the agency, particularly under Trump appointee and political hatchetman Brendan Carr, is not doing a good enough job. Kathleen started to get more deeply involved in union organizing efforts in the fall of 2025, she said, because she was so frustrated by how she was treated as an employee with disabilities—not an unusual factor in union drives, but especially ironic for an organization that serves disabled people. Management at the firm didn’t allow her to wear… [TheTopNews] Read More.
4 hours ago
President Trump’s pick to lead the Federal Reserve could faces a tough road to confirmation if he seeks quick interest rate cuts. The war in Iran doesn’t help. [TheTopNews] Read More.
4 hours ago
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