Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 Robert Stewart Jr. was hired by the Department of Veterans Affairs to produce 6 million N95 respirators, medical-grade masks, which were in short supply. #2 Stewart’s aura seemed to be everything you’d want in a contractor handling a government contract. But his story was that he had 6 million N95 masks, which he claimed were stored in a Los Angeles warehouse with his name on them. #3 Stewart was given the contract to provide the government with N95 masks, which were the best available defense against the virus. He was given a 350 percent markup, which he planned to use to buy his own private jet. #4 I was to meet Stewart in Birmingham, where he was to deliver 6 million N95s by Sunday at midnight. But when I looked out the window as the plane ascended over my broken country, I thought of the devastation coming for it, and I knew the projections were correct.

“This startling, vital book deserves our attention.” —San Francisco Chronicle For fans of War Dogs and Bad Blood, an explosive look inside the rush to profit from the COVID-19 pandemic, from the award-winning ProPublica reporter who saw it firsthand. The United States federal government spent over $10 billion on medical protective wear and emergency supplies, yet as COVID-19 swept the nation, life-saving equipment such as masks, gloves, and ventilators was nearly impossible to find. In this brilliant nonfiction thriller, called “revelatory” by The Washington Post, award-winning investigative reporter J. David McSwane takes us behind the scenes to reveal how traders, contractors, and healthcare companies used one of the darkest moments in American history to fill their pockets. Determined to uncover how this was possible, he spent over a year on private jets and in secret warehouses, traveling from California to Chicago to Washington, DC, to interview both the most treacherous of profiteers and the victims of their crimes. Pandemic, Inc. is the story of the fraudster who signed a multi-million-dollar contract with the government to provide lifesaving PPE, and yet never came up with a single mask. The Navy admiral at the helm of the national hunt for additional medical resources. The Department of Health whistleblower who championed masks early on and was silenced by the government and conservative media. And the politician who callously slashed federal emergency funding and gutted the federal PPE stockpile. Winner of the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting, McSwane connects the dots between backdoor deals and the spoils systems to provide the definitive account of how this pandemic was so catastrophically mishandled. Shocking and monumental, Pandemic, Inc. exposes a system that is both deeply rigged, and singularly American.

This book provides an accessible overview of US defense politics for upper-level students. This new edition has been updated and revised, with new material on the Trump Administration and Space Force. Analyzing the ways in which the United States prepares for war, the authors demonstrate how political and organizational interests determine US defense policy and warn against over-emphasis on planning, centralization, and technocracy. Focusing on the process of defense policy-making rather than just the outcomes of that process, US Defense Politics departs from the traditional style of many textbooks. Designed to help students understand the practical side of American national security policy, the book examines the following key themes: US grand strategy; the roles of the president and the Congress in controlling the military; organizational interests and civil-military relations; who joins America's military; what happens to veterans after wars; how and why weapons are bought; the management of defense and intra- and inter-service relations; public attitudes toward the military; homeland security and the intelligence community. The fourth edition will be essential reading for students of US defense politics, national security policy, and homeland security, and highly recommended for students of US foreign policy, public policy, and public administration.

“A provocative examination of our health care delivery for the poor. . . . Such an honest and candid account is essential.” —Alex Kotlowitz, national bestselling author of There Are No Children Here Mama Might Be Better Off Dead immerses readers in the lives of four generations of a poor, African-American family from North Lawndale, Chicago, who are beset with the devastating illnesses that are all too common in America’s inner-cities. Headed by Jackie Banes, who oversees the care of a diabetic grandmother, a husband on kidney dialysis, an ailing father, and three children, the Banes family contends with countless medical crises. From visits to emergency rooms and dialysis units, to trials with home care, to struggles for Medicaid eligibility, Laurie Kaye Abraham chronicles their access—or lack thereof—to medical care. Their story reveals an inadequate health care system that is further undermined by the effects of poverty. Mama Might Be Better Off Dead is an unsettling, profound look at the human face of health care in America. This new edition includes an incisive foreword by David Ansell, a physician who worked at Mt. Sinai Hospital, where much of the Banes family’s narrative unfolds. “Goes to the heart of today’s problem. Powerful . . . deeply searching.” —Washington Post “A powerful indictment of the big business of medicine.” —Los Angeles Times “Abraham . . . illuminates the problems with passion and skill.” —Kirkus Reviews “This personally observed, lucid chronicle and call for reform of our ailing health system covers all levels of responsibility in the medical establishment.” —Publishers Weekly “Clearly identifies in human and policy terms how [healthcare] programs have failed a population desperately in need of help.” —Library Journal

To view or download the 2017 supplement to this book, click here. Restaurant law encompasses many different areas of the law in addition to the regulation of food and alcohol--contract law, tort law, labor law, and environmental law, to name just a few. The Essential Guide to California Restaurant Law is the very first book to gather together and analyze the vast swath of laws pertinent to restaurants in California. Through familiarity with the issues and applicable law discussed in this book, attorneys representing restaurant clients will be prepared to recognize potential problems, to devise strategies for compliance, and to reduce the risks of liability. Given the breadth and depth of the legal issues pertinent to restaurants in California, this book is a singularly effective tool for legal practitioners. "The authors ... offer valuable general discussions of the many areas of concern to restaurant operators, including food handling and health inspections, labor laws, federal and state regulations, service of alcoholic beverages, and theories of liability to customers. ... [T]his book is a great start for any lawyer or restaurant owner who needs a ready reference on the legal aspects of running a restaurant." -- Los Angeles Lawyer

Instant #1 New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller From the Washington Post journalists Yasmeen Abutaleb and Damian Paletta—the definitive account of the Trump administration’s tragic mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the chaos, incompetence, and craven politicization that has led to more than a half million American deaths and counting. Since the day Donald Trump was elected, his critics warned that an unexpected crisis would test the former reality-television host—and they predicted that the president would prove unable to meet the moment. In 2020, that crisis came to pass, with the outcomes more devastating and consequential than anyone dared to imagine. Nightmare Scenario is the complete story of Donald Trump’s handling—and mishandling—of the COVID-19 catastrophe, during the period of January 2020 up to Election Day that year. Yasmeen Abutaleb and Damian Paletta take us deep inside the White House, from the Situation Room to the Oval Office, to show how the members of the administration launched an all-out war against the health agencies, doctors, and scientific communities, all in their futile attempts to wish away the worst global pandemic in a century. From the initial discovery of this new coronavirus, President Trump refused to take responsibility, disputed the recommendations of his own pandemic task force, claimed the virus would “just disappear,” mocked advocates for safe-health practices, and encouraged his base and the entire GOP to ignore or rescind public health safety measures. Abutaleb and Paletta reveal the numerous times officials tried to dissuade Trump from following his worst impulses as he defied recommendations from the experts and even members of his own administration. And they show how the petty backstabbing and rivalries among cabinet members, staff, and aides created a toxic environment of blame, sycophancy, and political pressure that did profound damage to the public health institutions that Americans needed the most during this time. Even after an outbreak in the fall that swept through the White House and infected Trump himself, he remained defiant in his approach to the virus, very likely costing him his own reelection. Based on exhaustive reporting and hundreds of hours of interviews from inside the disaster zone at all levels of authority, Nightmare Scenario is a riveting account of how the United States government failed its people as never before, a tragedy whose devastating aftershocks will linger and be felt by generations to come.