“Wednesday’s confirmation hearing for three of President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees may lack the intrigue of James Comey’s blockbuster testimony,” wrote Politico‘s Kyle Barry, “but for anyone who cares about the integrity and independence of America’s courts, the stakes could hardly be higher.”
“Trump has gotten one supreme court appointment, he may well get more, and he’s moved more quickly on lower-court appointments than Obama did,” Robin wrote. “The legal arm of the conservative movement is probably the best organized, most far-reaching and far-seeing sector of the right. They truly are playing—and have been playing—the long game.”
If progressives don’t respond quickly with a similarly organized and long-term approach, Robin warned, the results could be disastrous, potentially hindering civil rights and dealing a vicious blow to workers and the environment.
“Control the Supreme Court, stack the judiciary, and you can stop the progressive movement, no matter how popular it is, no matter how much legislative power it has, for decades.”
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Republicans want to slash the nation’s social safety net, but that’s apparently okay by some top Republicans because “poverty” is just in the minds of the nation’s poor.
Offering the latest evidence that the individual President Donald Trump chose to lead one of the nation’s largest anti-poverty programs has little but contempt for the low-income people he was appointed to serve, Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Ben Carson says that being poor, really, is mostly a “state of mind.”
According to clips from an interview that will air on SiriusXM radio on Wednesday evening, Carson has done a lot of thinking about what makes poverty tick.
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“I think poverty to a large extent is also a state of mind. You take somebody that has the right mindset, you can take everything from them and put them on the street and I guarantee in a little while they’ll be right back up there,” he said during the interview with radio host Armstrong Williams, who the Washington Post reports is a longtime friend of the secretary.
“And you take somebody with the wrong mindset, you can give them everything in the world, they’ll work their way right back down to the bottom,” Carson said.
At least based on the available clips, Carson did not mention pervasive wage stagnation, dismal job opportunities, or the lack of affordable healthcare and quality education opportunities as other possible sources of inter-generational poverty. When it comes to public policy impacts on poverty, the Trump budget released this week would slash the HUD budget by $6 billion and take a chainsaw to other safety-net programs like food assistance, early education programs, and Medicaid.
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Many reacting to Carson’s latest comments were not impressed:
It’s not the first time Carson has made controversial statements about the poor.
Earlier this month, Carson took heat for suggesting that public housing for low-income families and homeless shelters should not be too “comfortable”—suggesting that poor people and those otherwise vulnerable would somehow take advantage if that was the case. In March, he likened aspiring immigrants to those “who came here in the bottom of slave ships.”
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Sen. Bernie Sanders delivered the commencement address at Brooklyn College on Tuesday and told graduating students that entering an “oligarchic” society, like one the United States is fast becoming, will demand vigilance and perseverance on their parts but that it was because of determined young people that he has “enormous confidence” in the country’s ultimate future.
Sanders recounted learning about “oligarchic societies” when he was a high school student in Brooklyn. Described to him as “small developing countries” in which the “economic and political life of the nation were controlled by a handful of very wealthy people,” Sanders admitted it “never occurred to me as a kid in Brooklyn that the United States of America, our great nation, could move in that direction.” But, he added, “that is precisely… what is happening today.”
“The truth is that the only rational choice we have, the only real response we can make is to stand up and fight back.”
—Sen. Bernie SandersWhile commending graduating students and their parents for often working multiple jobs in order to make ends meet, Sanders lamented that more than fifty percent of all new income now “goes to the top 1 percent” of earners.
And in order to disrupt and combat such a system, Sanders said that throwing up your hands and giving up was simply not a viable option.
“The truth is that the only rational choice we have, the only real response we can make is to stand up and fight back — reclaim American democracy and create a government that works for all of us, not just the 1%,” he said. “And for us to do that it is necessary that we fight for a vision of a new America. An America based on progressive, humane values, not the values of the oligarchy.”
As he railed against economic inequality and a system rigged in favor of the wealthy and powerful, Sanders told students that unity would be key in order to defeat the destructive forces represented by President Donald Trump.
Sanders referenced his Jewish heritage and his family’s experience with the Holocaust in Europe, which he said offered important lessons for “tough times” like these.
“From that experience, what was indelibly stamped on my mind was the understanding that we must never allow demagogues to divide us up by race, by religion, by national origin, by gender or sexual orientation,” Sanders said to wide applause. “Black, white, Latino, Asian American, Native American, Christian, Jew, Muslim and every religion, straight or gay, male or female—we must stand together. This country belongs to all of us.”
Sanders concluded on a message of hope, telling the graduates that Americans are “prepared to stand together; if we take on greed and selfishness; if we refuse to allow demagogues to divide us up there is no end to what the great people of our nation can accomplish.”
Watch the full commencement address:
The full transcript of Sanders remarks follow:
You know and I know that these are tough times for our country. But I do want to say that standing up here and looking out at the beautiful people in front of me, I have enormous confidence in the future of our country.
Let me begin by congratulating the graduating class of 2017. Today is an important day in your lives, something that I know you have worked very hard to achieve, and I want to wish all of you the very best of luck in your future endeavors.
I do want, on behalf of my wife, Jane, and myself, to pray that you all live healthy and happy lives, doing the work you enjoy surrounded in love by family and friends.
Let me thank President Michelle Anderson, Nicole Haas, the Brooklyn College Administration, faculty and staff and all of you for inviting Jane and me back to Brooklyn where we were both born and raised. I am greatly honored of the honorary degree you have given me.
I grew up in Flatbush and, like Senator Schumer, graduated from James Madison High School. My wife, Jane, was also raised Flatbush and Bedford-Stuyvesant, and graduated from St. Savior’s High School a few miles away from here.
In 1959, as a first-generation college student I attended Brooklyn College for a year — a year which had a major impact in my life. After that year I left for the University of Chicago, where I eventually graduated. My mom had died the previous year and I felt it was time to leave the neighborhood and see what the rest of the world looked like.
My childhood in Brooklyn was shaped by two profound realities. First, my mom, dad and older brother, who graduated from Brooklyn College, lived in a 3 1/2 room rent-controlled apartment. As with many of your families who don’t have a lot of money, financial pressures caused friction and tension within our household. From those experiences of growing up without a lot of money, I have never forgotten that there are millions of people throughout this country who struggle to put food on the table, pay the electric bill, try to save for their kids’ education or for retirement — people who against great odds are fighting today to live in dignity.
The second reality that impacted my life was that my father left Poland at the age of 17 from a community which was not only very poor, but from a country where anti-Semitism, pogroms and attacks on Jews were not uncommon. While my father emigrated to the United States, and escaped Hitler and the Holocaust, many in his family did not. For them, racism, right-wing extremism and ultra-nationalism were not “political issues.” They were issues of life and death — and some of them died horrific deaths
From that experience, what was indelibly stamped on my mind was the understanding that we must never allow demagogues to divide us up by race, by religion, by national origin, by gender or sexual orientation. Black, white, Latino, Asian American, Native American, Christian, Jew, Muslim and every religion, straight or gay, male or female, we must stand together. This country belongs to all of us.
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As a United States senator from Vermont let me give you a very brief overview of some of the serious crises we currently face — crises which do not often get attention they deserve.
As a student at James Madison High School, many years ago, I recall my social studies teacher talking about how there were small developing countries around the world that were “oligarchic” societies —places where the economic and political life of the nation were controlled by a handful of very wealthy people. It never occurred to me as a kid in Brooklyn that the United States of America, our great nation, could move in that direction. But that is precisely, in my view, what is happening today.
Today, the top one-tenth of 1% now owns almost as much wealth as the bottom 90%. Twenty Americans now own as much wealth as the bottom half of America and one family now owns more wealth than the bottom 42 percent of our people. In the last 17 years, while the middle class continues to decline, we have seen a tenfold increase in the number of billionaires. Today in America CEOs are earning almost 350 times more than the average worker makes. In terms of income, while you and your parents are working in some cases two or three jobs, 52 % of all new income goes to the top 1%.
At the same time as we have more income and wealth inequality than any other major nation, 43 million Americans live in poverty, we have the highest rate of childhood poverty of almost any major country in earth, half of older workers have nothing in the bank as they approach retirement and in some inner cities and rural communities, youth unemployment is 20, 30, 40%. Unbelievably, in our country today as a result of hopelessness and despair we are seeing a decline in life expectancy. People are giving up. And they’re turning to drugs, to alcohol, and even to suicide. And because of poverty, racism today in a broken criminal justice system we have more people in jail than any other country on Earth. Those people are disproportionately black, Latino and Native American.
Directly related to the oligarchic economy that we currently have is corrupt political system which is undermining American democracy and it’s important we talk about that and understand that. As a result of the disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court decision, corporations and billionaires are able to spend unlimited sums of money on elections. The result is that today a handful of billionaires are spending hundreds of millions of dollars every single year, often on ugly 30-second TV adds, helping to elect candidates who represent the rich and the powerful get elected.
And we are seeing the results of how oligarchy functions right now in Congress where the Republican leadership wants to throw 23 million American off of health insurance, cut Medicaid by over $800 billion, defund Planned Parenthood, cut food stamps and other nutrition programs by over $200 billion, cut Head Start and after school programs, and by the way, make drastic cuts in Pell grants and other programs that help working class kids be able to go to college.
And, unbelievably, at exactly the same time that they are throwing people off health care, making it harder to people to go to college, they have the chutzpah to provide the $300 billion in tax breaks to the top 1%. In other words, the very, very rich are getting richer and they get huge tax cuts. The working class and the middle class are struggling and they are seeing drastic cuts in life or death programs that could mean survival or not for those families.
Now, in response to these very serious crises it seems to me that we have two choices. First we can throw up our hands in despair. We can say, “I am not going to get involved.”
That is understandable. But it is wrong.
Because the issues that we deal with today — the economic issues, the social issues, the racial issues, the environmental issues — not only impact your lives, they impact the lives of future generations and you do not have the moral right to turn your back on saving this planet and saving future generations.
The truth is that the only rational choice we have, the only real response we can make is to stand up and fight back — reclaim American democracy and create a government that works for all of us, not just the 1%.
And for us to do that it is necessary that we fight for a vision of a new America. An America based on progressive, humane values, not the values of the oligarchy.
And what does that mean, briefly in concrete terms?
It means that, no, we are not going to throw 23 million Americans off the health care they have. We are going to bring about health care for all as a right, not a privilege.
It means that, no, we are not, as the current administration does, deny the reality of climate change. We are going to take on the fossil fuel industry, transform our energy system away from fossil fuels to energy efficiency and sustainable energy.
It means no we are not going to cut Pell grants and other student assistance. We are going to do what Germany, what Scandinavia, what countries all over the world do. And that is to make certain the public colleges and universities are tuition-free and we’re going to significantly lower student debt because we believe that anyone in America who has the ability and the desire to be able to get a higher education regardless of his or her income.
And no we’re not going to do what the attorney general of the United States now wants. We’re not going to put more people in jail. We’re going to fix a broken criminal justice system and invest in education and jobs for our young people, not more jails and incarceration.
No, we’re not going to defund Planned Parenthood. We’re going to vigorously defend a woman’s right to choose.
My friends, let me conclude by saying this. We live in the wealthiest country in the history of the world. We are seeing exploding technology, which if used well, has extraordinary potential to improve life. We are an intelligent and hardworking people. If we are prepared to stand together; if we take on greed and selfishness; if we refuse to allow demagogues to divide us up there is no end to what the great people of our nation can accomplish.
So today as you graduate Brooklyn College, my message to you is very simple. Think big, not small, and help us create the nation that we all know we can become. Thank you all very much.
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In a speech during the National Education Association’s (NEA) annual meeting in Boston over the weekend, Lily Eskelsen García—the organization’s president—delivered a searing rebuke to President Donald Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who she accused of pushing a “profoundly disturbing” agenda that could have devastating effects on children.
“We will not find common ground with an administration that is cruel and callous to our children and their families.”
—Lily Eskelsen García, president of the National Education Association
Addressing 7,500 educators, Garcia declared that the NEA, the nation’s largest labor union, will not cooperate with the White House. She also implicitly criticized union leaders who have been persuaded by Trump’s seemingly pro-worker, pro-union rhetoric.
“I will not allow the National Education Association to be used by Donald Trump or Betsy DeVos,” García said.
She continued:
García went on to denounce DeVos for making a “career trying to destroy neighborhood public schools, the very cornerstone of what’s made our nation so strong.”
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“We stand between a profiteer and his profits,” García said. “They’re going to hit us with everything they’ve got because we are a threat to them. They will try to take away your freedom to organize. They will try to take away your freedom to negotiate with a collective voice. They will try to silence us because when we win, the entire community wins.”
García’s speech was delivered on the heels of several moves by DeVos and the Trump administration that have deeply alarmed teachers and civil rights groups.
- According to an internal Education Department memo, DeVos is aiming to significantly roll back efforts to enforce Obama-era civil rights provisions aimed at preventing systemic discrimination in public schools.
- The department has indicated it will similarly scale back investigations into discrimination against transgender students.
- As Common Dreams has reported, the education budget released by the Trump administration would inflict “manifestly cruel” cuts to public schools.
- Science teachers have recently raised concern about DeVos’s commitment to science, specifically climate change.
In the face of these developments, García concluded, teachers must be prepared to fight back to rescue public schools from DeVos’s right-wing agenda.
“This is not a drill. We will be fearless. We will hold strong,” García said. “We will focus on growing even stronger—defending our students, our families, and our communities.”
Watch the full speech:
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After two consecutive races where he failed to finish, Max Verstappen was finally back on the podium where he belongs at the end of the Russian Grand Prix on Sunday.
Having unexpectedly deprived Mercedes of a front row lock-out in yesterday’s qualifying session, the Red Bull driver once again managed to split the two Silver Arrows contenders in the race.
While he lost out to Valtteri Bottas at the start, Lewis Hamilton’s time penalties meant that Verstappen was soon back up into second place. where he finished after 53 laps.
- Read also: Bottas takes second win at Sochi as Hamilton penalised
The 22-year-old Dutch racer admitted that was a result as good as he could reasonably have been hoping for in the circumstances.
“To be able to split the Mercedes cars again, we have to be happy with that,” he told Johnny Herbert after the finish. “I just tried to do my own race. I’m very happy with second, especially after two DNFs.”
He explained that his poor start when the light went out was due to low grip levels that caused him to run wide at turn 2. He briefly dropped behind Daniel Ricciardo, but quickly took back the lost position over the first lap.
“There was very low grip on the inside of the grid at the start, which cost us a bit and the first few corners were pretty interesting, but we stayed calm and I quickly moved past Daniel again.”
The race was briefly put behind a safety car after multiple accidents needed time for the marshals to clear up the track. Afterwards, Verstappen admitted that he had struggled on the medium compound tyres that he had started the race on.
“After the restart we were a little bit slower on the medium,” he explained. “I was having a little bit of problem with the balance, but once we went onto that hard tyre we were a little bit more competitive.”
“I struggled to follow the Mercedes cars on the medium tyre as I had a lot of oversteer but once I pitted on to the hard we were more competitive and I focused on my own race which we managed well.
“It’s good to be back on the podium and we can definitely be pleased to finish within eight seconds of Bottas on this track,” he said. “We can be very happy with second place today, especially on a track where we know that we aren’t normally so competitive.
“It is a good amount of points for the Team and what we needed after the last few races.”
Team principal Christian Horner said that it was a “fantastic result for Max today”, adding: “Once again he extracted everything he could out of the car with a quality drive. Second was the optimum we could have hoped for.”
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Verstappen’s team mate Alex Albon also just managed to finish in the points. He was tenth, despite a five place grid penalty for a new gearbox and a five second in-race penalty for not following the race director’s instructions about how to return to the track after running wide.
“Today was a lot of work for one point and it wasn’t an easy race,” sighed Albon. “It was difficult out there and a frustrating race. We were just in traffic the whole time without any clean air so we couldn’t put down any really good laps.
“After the gearbox penalty, today was about damage limitation and now I’m already focusing on Germany and having a cleaner weekend in two weeks’ time.”
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Mitt RomneyWillard (Mitt) Mitt RomneyMilley discussed resigning from post after Trump photo-op: report Trump on collision course with Congress over bases with Confederate names Attorney says 75-year-old man shoved by Buffalo police suffered brain injury MORE has informed a top businessman in Utah that he is running for the Senate seat held by retiring Sen. Orrin HatchOrrin Grant HatchBottom line Bottom line Bottom line MORE (R-Utah), The New York Times reports.
The local business leader, Kem Gardner, phoned Utah Gov. Gary Herbert (R) to inform him of a text message he received from Romney, the 2012 GOP presidential nominee, according to the newspaper.
“I’m running,” the text read.
The call reportedly came after Herbert told Gardner he was anxious about finding a candidate for Hatch’s seat in the event Romney decided not to run.
“Let’s not be coy about this,” Herbert said he told Gardner, according to the Times. “If he’s going to run, let’s go. If not, we need to find somebody else to run, and there’s people that have been trying to queue up for the opportunity.”
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The former Massachusetts governor is reportedly the favored candidate of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnellAddison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellSenate advances public lands bill in late-night vote GOP senator to try to reverse requirement that Pentagon remove Confederate names from bases No, ‘blue states’ do not bail out ‘red states’ MORE, and has spoken to the Kentucky Republican in past months about running.
Romney, who has positioned himself as an anti-Trump conservative, urged Republicans to reject President TrumpDonald John TrumpSenate advances public lands bill in late-night vote Warren, Democrats urge Trump to back down from veto threat over changing Confederate-named bases Esper orders ‘After Action Review’ of National Guard’s role in protests MORE during the 2016 GOP primary.
Trump had reportedly urged Hatch to seek another term in 2018 as a way to block Romney from running.
But Herbert dismissed tensions between Trump and Romney.
“I think there is a willingness on both sides to say, ‘Look, we may disagree on stuff, we may have problems from our past, but what we ought to be looking toward is our future,’ ” Herbert told the Times.
Romney was under consideration last year to be Trump’s secretary of State and dined with Trump before the job eventually went to Rex TillersonRex Wayne TillersonDeadline for Kansas Senate race passes without Pompeo filing Democrats launch probe into Trump’s firing of State Department watchdog, Pompeo The Memo: Fauci at odds with Trump on virus MORE.
The 2012 GOP nominee will also likely be boosted by the support of Hatch, who pointed to Romney as his favored replacement last year.
“I’ve expressed interest to him,” Hatch said last year. “I can see why he might not want to do it, but I can also see why if he did it, it would be a great thing for America.”
Hatch has served as Utah’s senator since 1977. The state last elected a Democrat to the Senate in 1959.
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Hulk Hogan says he’s “thought about” a potential Florida Senate run, but his answer is “a flat-out no” at the moment.
“I’ve thought about it — as of late, people calling my phone, driving me crazy about running for Senate. They want me to run for governor, they want me to run for mayor,” the former professional wrestling star, whose real name is Terry Bollea, told TMZ’s Harvey Levin in a Thursday interview, when asked if he’d ever consider running for Senate in the Sunshine State.
“At the end of the day, I’m just so confused because it’s like watching the politicians — the Democrats and the Republicans — it’s like nobody wants to work together,” Hogan added. “It’s like a wrestling match, with two wrestlers that are supposed to work together and paint this beautiful wrestling picture, the Republicans and Democrats act like they hate each other and they don’t want to do anything except create chaos. So I really don’t want to be any part of that.”
Earlier this week, Roger StoneRoger Jason StoneGOP votes to give Graham broad subpoena power in Obama-era probe Will the ‘law and order’ president pardon Roger Stone? Trump retweets message calling for Roger Stone pardon: ‘He can sleep well at night!’ MORE, a former adviser to President TrumpDonald John TrumpSenate advances public lands bill in late-night vote Warren, Democrats urge Trump to back down from veto threat over changing Confederate-named bases Esper orders ‘After Action Review’ of National Guard’s role in protests MORE, said in an interview with Patrick Slevin that he was “focused on persuading” Hogan to challenge Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) in a hypothetical Republican Senate primary.
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“At a minimum, I hope to convince Hogan to body slam Scott in every debate,” Stone said.
Scott hasn’t yet announced whether he’ll challenge Sen. Bill NelsonClarence (Bill) William NelsonNASA, SpaceX and the private-public partnership that caused the flight of the Crew Dragon Lobbying world The most expensive congressional races of the last decade MORE’s (D-Fla.) reelection bid, though Trump has publicly urged Scott to mount a bid.
“I have to say, what do I know, but I hope this man right here, Rick Scott, runs for the Senate,” Trump said in Florida last year.
Hogan, 64, said Thursday that despite supporting then-Sen. Barack ObamaBarack Hussein ObamaHarris grapples with defund the police movement amid veep talk Five ways America would take a hard left under Joe Biden Valerie Jarrett: ‘Democracy depends upon having law enforcement’ MORE (D-Ill.) in the 2008 election, he would potentially run as a Republican. But he downplayed any immediate political ambitions, saying, “Right now, at this moment, it’s a flat-out no.”
The ex-WWE star could face an uphill battle with any Senate bid. Hogan was heard in a leaked 2015 sex tape using a racial epithet to refer to his daughter’s then-boyfriend. The wrestler later said in a 2016 interview that he’s “not a racist,” calling the remark “the stupidest thing I ever said.”
In 2016, Hogan reached a settlement with Gawker Media after the company’s now-defunct website, Gawker, posted portions of the sex tape.
The lawsuit, which bankrupted Gawker, was funded by Peter Thiel, the rare Silicon Valley billionaire who openly supports Trump. Thiel has acknowledged his grudge with Gawker began when it outed him as gay.
Hogan expressed confidence on Thursday about his chances if he were to dive into politics.
“After seeing Donald Trump’s fanbase and watching what [former wrestler-turned-Minnesota Gov.] Jesse Ventura did, in the state of Florida, I got a feeling it wouldn’t be that hard,” Hogan said. “I really do.”
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The Nevada Gaming Control Board is opening an investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against casino mogul Steve Wynn, the former finance chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC).
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported Tuesday that state gaming regulators are pursuing an investigation into allegations against Wynn, the CEO of Wynn Resorts, detailed in a Wall Street Journal report last week.
“After completing our review, the Nevada Gaming Control Board is conducting an investigation with regard to the allegations of sexual misconduct involving Steve Wynn,” Becky Harris, the chair of the Gaming Control Board, said in a statement reported by the Review-Journal.
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“The Nevada Gaming Control Board will conduct its investigation in a thorough and judicious manner,” she added.
According to the Review-Journal, Wynn could face a six- or seven-figure fine or a revocation of his gaming license if the Gaming Control Board were to find cause for discipline.
Gaming regulators in Massachusetts have already launched a review into Wynn Resorts following the Wall Street Journal report last week, which detailed allegations of sexual misconduct spanning decades.
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According to that report, Wynn agreed to pay a $7.5 million settlement to a manicurist at one of his resorts over an accusation that Wynn pressured her into sex with him.
Wynn has denied the allegations and has claimed that they were instigated by his ex-wife.
He resigned as RNC finance chair the day after the Journal published its story.
Democrats have called on Republicans to return or donate any funds from Wynn.
Stock prices for Wynn Resorts plummeted after the allegations emerged. Hours after the Wall Street Journal report was published on Friday, Wynn Resorts’ board of directors launched an investigation into Wynn’s alleged behavior.