Articles by Michael R. Sisak

Alex Jones’ $49.3M Verdict and the Future of Misinformation

Alex Jones is facing a hefty price tag for his lies about the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre – $49.3 million in damages, and counting, for claiming the nation’s deadliest school shooting was a hoax – a punishing salvo in …

Judge Rejects New York’s Bid to Dissolve NRA But Allows Lawsuit to Proceed

A judge has rejected an effort by New York’s attorney general to put the National Rifle Association out of business, but will allow her lawsuit accusing top executives of illegally diverting tens of millions of dollars from the powerful gun …

Accounting Firm Cuts Ties With Trump, Says Financial Statements Are Unreliable

The accounting firm that prepared former President Donald Trump’s annual financial statements says the documents, used to secure lucrative loans and burnish Trump’s image as a wealthy businessman, “should no longer be relied upon” after New York’s attorney general said …

Safety Doors Failed in New York City High-Rise Apartment Fire That Killed 17

Investigators sought answers Monday for why safety doors failed to close when fire broke out in a New York high-rise, allowing thick smoke to rise through the tower and kill 17 people, including eight children, in the city’s deadliest blaze …

New York City Sued Over Clashes with Floyd Protesters

Two civil rights organizations are suing New York City on behalf of protesters who say they were assaulted and abused by police officers because they expressed anti-police views during nightly demonstrations in the spring in the wake of George Floyd’s …

Recovered from COVID-19, Wary First Responders Back on Job

The new coronavirus doesn’t care about a blue uniform or a shiny badge. Police, firefighters, paramedics and corrections officers are just a 911 call away from contracting COVID-19 and spreading it. With N95 masks hanging off their duty belts and …

Indictment Alleges New York Pharma Ex-CEO Ignored Red Flags as Opioid Crisis Raged

The pharmaceutical industry executive hit Tuesday with criminal charges stemming from the opioid crisis doesn’t have his name on a museum wing, and his company isn’t within earshot of Apple or anyone else on the Fortune 500. Even his $1.5 …

New York Transformer Explosion Lights Sky, Causes Power Outages

A transformer explosion at an electrical plant set the skies above New York City ablaze in an eerie, pulsing blue light Thursday night, causing scattered power outages, delaying flights and sparking a social media storm of jokes about an alien …

Investigators Probe Cause of New Jersey School Bus Crash That Killed Two

First, a scraping sound. Then, chaos and panic as a bus taking a group of fifth-graders on a field trip collided with a dump truck and toppled over on a busy highway, killing a student and a teacher and injuring …

NTSB: Amtrak’s Lax Safety Led to Penn. Crash That Killed Two Workers

Two maintenance workers who were struck and killed by a speeding Amtrak train near Philadelphia last year were the victims of a lax safety culture that had permeated the government-owned railroad, federal investigators said Tuesday. The National Transportation Safety Board …