Bad Boy for Life. A six-month investigation by Rolling Stone.

For decades, Sean “Diddy” Combs was hip-hop’s boisterous showman. Now, dozens of former friends, employees, and Bad Boy artists allege an abusive, violent figure behind the facade.

Read: rollingstone.com/music/music-fe…

For those thinking SenatorJoeAddabbo would pick up the Steven Cohen casino project and sponsor park alienation in the Senate, they are wrong. The senator just told me, he WILL NOT sponsor a bill for park alienation.

The last time I wrote about casinos...
thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/…

Steve Cohen, the owner of the Mets, put together a murders' row of lobbyists and operatives to get his casino done. Then Cohen and his deputy pitted those politicos against one another, multiple sources tell me. More than one described it as a 'Lord of the Flies' situation.

NEW:

There is a bunch of asphalt in Queens where there used to be a stadium which is technically parkland.

A really, really rich guy wants it to be a casino (Why? Unclear. He does love poker though!)

Today his dream took a possibly lethal blow.

hellgatenyc.com/cohens-casino-…

Such a fascinating piece about how NYC actually works. Not a feel good story, but an important one!

Fascinating. Also Jay-Z and Nas being involved in competing casino bids in their hometown is something I didn’t know about

Great article about how things work in this city

Eric Hoffer’s great observation is that that totalitarian movements, regardless of their political alignment, are ultimately the same b/c the people they attract are the same.
The Nazis and fascists recruited much of their base straight from the Stalin-aligned communist parties

I've been doing a bunch of reporting on New York City politics and power since I left Rolling Stone. This is the first of several stories to come out of that reporting. Hope you like.

State Senator Opposes Casino Proposal in Queens, Rebuffing Mets Owner, with Dana Rubinstein: rb.gy/unq6ky

It's true that Adams isn't 'putting (his) fingers on the scale' for any particular casino bid. But the mayor has people on every major team. And he has been pro-casino for 15 years.

I'm sure they won't give up their $8B casino project without another fight. But FWIW, two Democratic senators told me there was 'no chance' that NYS Senate leadership would allow an end-run. We'll see...

“Wait Till Next Year,” says Team Steve Cohen/New Green Willets - they’re not giving up the casino fight yet.

Eleven rivals. Countless billions. One big prize: the right to build a casino in the heart of New York. trib.al/t17T23n

And in 1979, when Jimmy Carter installed solar panels on the White House, marking the beginning of the clean energy revolution, China was basically an agrarian society. This is what decades of obscene fossil fuel subsidies and weak political leadership has done for the US.

.Queens Borough President Donovan Richards supports casinos in his borough. He was also refreshingly honest with me about the harm they can cause. He's appealing to the governor to save a $8B casino bid by Citi Field after my story.

x.com/QnsBPRichards/…

.⁦Jessica Ramos⁩ makes her parkland alienation bill for Citi Field casino plans official in ⁦New York Magazine⁩ — no.

“The people who are here, they’re hoping to build generational wealth. And I just don’t see how a casino helps us meet that goal.”
nymag.com/intelligencer/…

NEW: In New York Magazine this morning, Jessica Ramos makes it official — she will not be backing the Metropolitan Park plan / introducing legislation to alienate the Citi Field parking lot for a casino.