How an Adoption Broker Cashed In on Prospective Parents’ Dreams

Plus: Colin Powell’s faith in America; a vision of the N.Y.P.D. in the seventies; and the story behind Trader Joe’s. View in browser | Update your preferences Wednesday, October 20, 2021 In today’s newsletter: Robin Wright remembers Colin Powell; a vision of the N.Y.P.D. in the seventies; and how Trader Joe’s began its empire with some extra-large eggs. Photograph by Alec Soth / Magnum for The New Yorker Adoption is a deeply emotional undertaking for those involved—from potential adoptive parents to birth parents to children adopted in the process. But it is also a business. “Adoptions are brokered by entrepreneurs offering a service that has life-changing consequences,” Sheelah Kolhatkar writes, in her piece from this week’s issue about an alleged “adoption scam” based in Michigan that ensnared hundreds of victims. “Babies tend to move from the poor to the wealthier, and large sums of money change hands.” Adoption is part of a multi-billion-dollar-a-year industry, and for newborns, she notes, “according to one estimate, up to two million families may be looking to adopt, but only about twenty thousand women a year decide to relinquish their babies.” This misalignment of demand and supply leaves room, despite improved regulations in recent years, for bad actors. Enter Tara Lee, a woman with a “taste for luxury fashion” who, while falsely claiming to be a licensed adoption worker and social worker, allegedly defrauded a hundred and sixty families and seventy birth mothers—and earned more than two million dollars along the way. For those who were caught up in the scheme, though, the damage is more than just financial. The judge in the case against Lee said that she had “ruined people’s lives for generations.” As one of the women who had been persuaded to give her baby up for adoption says, “Something put her on this earth to be the best manipulator and liar you have ever seen.” —Ian Crouch, newsletter editor Read more of “How an Adoption Broker Cashed In on Prospective Parents’ Dreams.” Sheelah Kolhatkar has also written about how the Robinhood app aims to change investing and what happens when investment firms acquire trailer parks. From the News Desk Postscript Colin Powell, the Humble American He broke racial barriers under four Presidents and called America “the last best hope of earth,” but also admitted to failing his country in selling the Iraq War. By Robin Wright Editor’s Pick Under Review Searching for Coherence in Asian America In “The Loneliest Americans,” Jay Caspian Kang asks whether Asian American identity can be rescued from people like him. By Marella Gayla On October 26th, the Momofuku founder, David Chang, will discuss the future of food with Larissa MacFarquhar, exclusively for subscribers. Culture Dept. Photograph by John Blackmer / Orange County Register / Getty Trader Joe wrote a memoir: Carrie Battan reviews “an unusually colorful and sensible business guide” by the Trader Joe’s founder, Joe Coulombe, who died last February: “In the age of Jeff Bezos and an endless stream of news about worker exploitation and corporate imperialism, it’s nice to go behind the scenes of a beloved national chain without uncovering insidious forces at work.” New late-night political “edutainment” shows from Charlamagne tha God and Jon Stewart show the limits of the form, Doreen St. Félix writes. Of Charlamagne’s “Tha God’s Honest Truth,” she asks, “How does a shock jock come to host a semi-serious race-reckoning pageant?” “How to make something new out of the classics?” Daniel Mendelsohn explores why it is so hard for modern writers to successfully reinterpret the Greeks. In Pablo de la Chica’s “Mama,” part of the New Yorker Documentary series, a survivor of sexual abuse named Mama Zawadi di Balanza finds an unusual place of refuge at a Congolese chimpanzee sanctuary. “These chimps are victims, like me,” Mama Zawadi says in the film. “They need love so that they can forget what they’ve been through, like me.” (Filmmakers are invited to submit projects to the documentary series here.) Photo Dept. Photo Booth Four Years Embedded with the N.Y.P.D. In the late seventies, Jill Freedman set out to create a clear-eyed portrait of New York City police. What she made was something more complicated. By Vince Aletti Fun & Games Dept. Name Drop Play Today’s Quiz The fewer clues you need, the more points you receive. By Liz Maynes-Aminzade Daily Cartoon Wednesday, October 20th By Kim Warp Crossword A Moderately Challenging Puzzle Smoky salsa ingredient: eight letters. By Patrick Berry Daily Shouts Life in the Facebook Metaverse Nazi propaganda, fraud, visible female nipple—there was danger around every corner. By Charlie Dektar 💨 P.S. Snoop Dogg turns fifty today. He rose to fame fully formed at just twenty-two on the strength of “Doggystyle,” his major-label début, in 1993, and went on to become a singular modern multi-hyphenate—actor, reality star, youth-football patron, weed icon, and, through it all, singer. A few years ago, on the occasion of a Snoop gospel album, the music critic Amanda Petrusich wrote, “Snoop is certainly a savvy performer and businessman, but his trajectory has always felt honest, a product of his time, place, and stature. That he is now looking for new ways to be grateful feels both decent and real.” Today’s newsletter was written by Ian Crouch. Thanks for reading. Let us know your thoughts about today’s edition. Plus, browse more newsletters and invite a friend to sign up for The Daily. You’re receiving this e-mail because you signed up for The Daily from The New Yorker. Manage your preferences | View our Privacy Policy | Unsubscribe Copyright © Condé Nast 2021. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.