LEVER WEEKLY: Who’s Censoring Your Favorite Movies?

What The Lever Published This Week:

• Battle Of The Hollywood Censors — While politicians, military brass, and Chinese officials jockey to control the content of Hollywood blockbusters, experts say no one is looking out for the filmmakers themselves.

• Wall Street’s New Prison Scam — As states crack down on prison-phone price gouging and resulting government kickbacks, telecom companies and their private equity backers have new ways to game the system.

• Introducing Sirota’s Signals — Paid subscribers get a new weekly dose of must-read stories, missed nuggets, and fun-but-worthwhile distractions.

• YOU LOVE TO SEE IT: People With Disabilities Score Equal Pay — Plus, funding arrives for cleaner energy technologies, insurers’ care-denial bots are put on notice, and regulators tackle an airborne killer.

Stuff To Listen To:

• LEVER TIME: Amazon Is Afraid Of Its New Union Organizers — The Lever speaks with two organizers involved in unionizing one of Amazon’s biggest warehouses.

• MVC: 27 Dresses (with Erica Bitton) — The MVC team explores the wedding-industrial complex in celebration of Valentine’s Day.

The Lever In The News:

• MN Prisons Pocketed $274K In Telecom Kickbacks Last Year — Journalist Katya Schwenk reflects on her reporting about a prison telecom scam. 

• Movies vs. Capitalism Podcast Nominated for an Ambie Award! — Our podcast exploring the ideologies baked into your favorite movies was nominated for a prestigious award from the Podcast Academy, a major professional podcasting organization.