'Telemarketers' duo saw debauchery at NJ company — and found an industry full of graft

We are supported by our readers. Consider donating to fund the local reporting you rely on. [View in Browser]( Friday September 1, 2023 [Donate now]( ADVERTISEMENT [NYC’s first African worker-owned language cooperative is open for business]( [Photo of migrants on the sidewalk outside the Roosevelt Hotel.]( ['Afrilingual' aims to serve the needs of the city's growing African community from within.]( ADVERTISEMENT More Stories From Today [Sam Lipman-Stern points at a camera in a video still from the docuseries 'Telemarketers.']( ['Telemarketers' duo saw debauchery at NJ company — and found an industry full of graft]( [Sam Lipman-Stern and Pat Pespas met in New Brunswick, working for a company that paid a record-breaking FTC fine for its telemarketing scam. They reunited and found the corruption went much deeper.]( [A photo of someone surfing]( [Warm temps and sunshine on tap in NYC for Labor Day weekend]( [And next week is going to be a hot one.]( [A New York City police officer stands at a busy street corner in New York, New York.]( [Former NYPD officer testifies that he punched homeless woman because he was ‘angry’]( [Luis Marte said he repeatedly hit the woman after she spit on him.]( [Photo of West Indian Day Parade]( [NYC's West Indian Day Parade 2023: What you need to know]( [J'Ouvert and the annual parade, which is one of the largest in New York City and beyond, celebrates Caribbean culture, music and history.]( [A view of waves at Rockaway Beach.]( [Extra Extra: Not so shore about the beach]( [Because Labor Day Weekend is a great time to check out the city's new cocktail bars, here are your afternoon links: the Uncrustable craze, Taylor Swift breaking movie records, Howdy Doody the bull, and more.]( [High-rise brick apartment buildings in lower Manhattan.]( [More than 13K rent-stabilized units in NYC are sitting empty for multiple years, report finds]( [A city Independent Budget Office report examines vacancy data from the state’s housing agency amid concerns of "warehousing."]( [An MTA bus rolls on a New York City street]( [Free ride: MTA to nix fares on 5 NYC bus routes by late September]( [The MTA is making five bus routes free through a pilot program mandated by state lawmakers.]( [Bryant Park on a majestic summer day.]( [They tried to stop New York City rats from having babies. They failed.]( [A pilot program in Bryant Park that laced rat bait with contraceptives to stamp out future generations of rodents was “unsuccessful,” officials said.]( [Colorized scanning electron micrograph of a cell (red) infected with the omicron strain of SARS-CoV-2 virus particles (blue), isolated from a patient sample.]( [New COVID variant detected in NYC wastewater: What is BA.2.86?]( [BA.2.86 has caught scientists’ attention due to several mutations appearing on the part of the virus that infects human cells — similar to what happened with omicron two years ago.]( ADVERTISEMENT [Support Us]( Follow Gothamist on [Gothamist on Facebook]( [Gothamist on Twitter]( NYPR Network [WNYC]( [Gothamist]( [WNYC Studios]( [NJPR]( [WQXR]( [New Sounds]( Copyright © New York Public Radio, 160 Varick St., New York, NY 10013. All rights reserved. [Terms of Use]( Want to change how you receive these emails? You can [update your preferences]( or [unsubscribe]( from this list.