If you’re reading The Solomon Scandals in ePub or Kindle format, you can click on direct links to external Web pages If you’re reading a print edition, you instead can use the links below.
Please do not confuse the links with the book’s endnotes.
The links go to sources, while the endnotes offer explanations and brief commentaries on various topics.
BOOK LINK
The site you’re on now. Covers political topics and others beyond the novel.
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MAIN TEXT
History of the General Services Administration Building mentioned in Chapter 3’s endnotes:
The FBI’s war against LGBT people:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Special_Agent
The agency now hires them.
AUTHOR’S NOTE: ODDS AND ENDS
Encyclopedia Britannica
Reliability of Wikipedia: Not the final word
Like traditional encyclopaedias, Wikipedia is not gospel, but if nothing else, the links to source items there should be useful.
Joel W. (Jay) Solomon, Carter-era administrator of the General Services Administration (not to be confused with the antagonist of the novel–which I started before I heard of him):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Solomon
My Washington Post article on Solomon’s potential conflicts and precautions against them:
Solomon’s obituary with mention of his aggressive anti-corruption efforts at GSA:
His battles with the GSA old guard:
More on the resistance Solomon encountered in his efforts to clean up GSA:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1978/07/27/gsa-chief-ready-to-ask-top-aide-for-resignation/47787425-e429-45ff-bd7d-5176ac52729f/
Lease of the Old Post Office Building:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Post_Office_(Washington,_D.C.)#Trump_International_Hotel_Washington,_D.C.
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SCANDALS’S ORIGINS
Charles E. Smith, builder-developer and philanthropist:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Smith_(developer)
Senator Abraham Ribicoff’s obituary in the New York Times:
Justice William J. Brennan, Jr.—a Wikipedia overview:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J._Brennan_Jr.
Justice Clarence Thomas:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarence_Thomas
My States News Service article on Senator Ribicoff’s investment in a Smith-linked high-rise:
https://www.solomonscandals.com/sen-ribicoffs-spookish-investment/
General Services Administration, the government’s business and housekeeping agency—handling real estate matters among others:
The lunchroom photo with Smith and Ribicoff sitting next to each other:
https://capitaljewishmuseum.org/food-for-thought-power-lunches-with-milton-kronheim/
Milton Kronheim, once Washington’s most famous and powerful liquor dealer:
Former Justice Arthur Goldberg:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Goldberg
Judge J. Skelly Wright:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Skelly_Wright
A New York Times feature on Milton Kronheim’s power lunches:
Judge David L. Bazelon:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_L._Bazelon
Robert H. Smith, Charles’s son:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_H._Smith_(philanthropist)
Robert P. Kogod, the son-in-law:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_P._Kogod
Charles Smith’s Washington Post obituary:
Crystal City:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_City,_Arlington,_Virginia
The origins of Crystal City’s name, as reported in Washingtonian Magazine:
https://www.washingtonian.com/2019/11/14/crystal-city-was-not-named-for-a-chandelier/
1996 Washington Post article on the Smith empire:
13 Young Men: How Charles E. Smith Influenced a Community: A book on Smith’s major role in the Jewish Community Center in Rockville, Maryland—an example of his prominence in Jewish philanthropy:
https://books.google.com/books?id=-M8cQn2ec1sC&printsec=copyright#v=onepage&q&f=false
Conversations with Papa Charlie:
David Bruce Smith, the grandson who wrote Papa Charlie:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Bruce_Smith
The Institute for Psychobiology in Israel, cofounded by Charles Smith:
https://psychobiology.org.il/history.php#a2
Discussion of David Bruce Smith’s “Grateful American” history project:
https://www.neh.gov/article/grateful-americans
Clarice Smith, the late artist and widow of Robert Smith:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarice_Smith
Michelle Smith, her late daughter the Smith executive and philanthropist:
Ban on Senators and other Members of Congress benefiting from partnerships leasing to the government:
https://www.solomonscandals.com/gsaRibicoffNoMemberOfCongress.jpg
The law behind the ban, Section 431 of Title 18 of the U.S. Code:
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/431
Part of the federal lease for the high-rise in Arlington, Virginia—without all the partners listed as required:
https://www.solomonscandals.com/GSAleasekeybuildingribicoffcharlessmith.pdf
The General Services Administration’s requirement that leases name “partners composing the firm”:
https://www.solomonscandals.com/gsabuildingpartnership.jpg
Jim Polk, the NBC reporter who earlier worked for the Washington Star and the Associated Press:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Polk_(journalist)
Charles S. Bresler:
https://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc3500/sc3520/013200/013229/html/13229bio.html
Transcript of Congressional hearing on the Case of the Missing Cafeteria, with my Federal Times stories included:
Senator Edward Kennedy:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Kennedy
Freedom of Information Act:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_Information_Act_(United_States)
Front-page New York Times story reporting on my battle to see a shareholders list for Madison National Bank:
Skyline collapse—Wikipedia overview:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skyline_Towers_collapse
Collapse as recalled by a firefighter through a colleague:
Mike Buchanan’s memorable video report on the Skyline collapse for Channel Nine in Washington, D.C.:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98Rd1v1pOrQ
Cleveland State University analysis of the collapse:
Ben Bradlee, Washington Post executive editor:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Bradlee
Bradlee obituary on National Public Radio:
https://www.npr.org/2014/10/21/352758758/ben-bradlee-who-led-the-washington-post-to-new-heights-dies
Lorain, Ohio:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorain,_Ohio
Irving Leibowitz, Lorain Journal editor:
https://indyencyclopedia.org/irving-leibo-leibowitz/
Alden Global Capital, current owner of the Journal via the MediaNews Group subsidiary:
Alden’s ban on newspapers endorsing major political candidates:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/06/business/media/alden-newspaper-candidate-endorsements.html
TeleRead site:
Archives:
E Ink explained:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_paper
ePub ebook format:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPUB
Sally Quinn, Washington Post reporter:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally_Quinn
Christine Chubbuck, who killed herself on live television:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christine_Chubbuck
Quinn on the Chubbuck suicide (might not include entire article):
Former Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Laura Foreman’s obituary in the New York Times:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/23/business/media/laura-foreman-dead.html
Madison National Bank:
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Protocols_of_the_Elders_of_Zion
Anti-Jewish incidents at record highs:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/23/us/antisemitism-anti-defamation-league-report.html
Shoah (the Holocaust—where six million Jews perished):
https://www.memorialdelashoah.org/en/archives-and-documentation/what-is-the-shoah.html
Praise of Hitler by the rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/12/01/kanye-west-alex-jones-hilter-interview/
Students at Harvard rooting for Hamas:
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2023/10/10/psc-statement-backlash/
Hamas’s anti-Semitism:
Note: The Israeli government’s human rights record is hardly exemplary. But the Hamas terrorists were killing Jews at least partly for being Jews.
Mayor Richard Daley’s obscenity during the Democratic Convention:
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/09/02/how-fake-news-was-born-at-the-1968-dnc-219627/
Miami Herald clip saying Smith was “the only witness” when Senator Ribicoff remarried a second time on August 5, 1972:
https://www.newspapers.com/image/625347555/?terms=ribicoff%20%22charles%20e.%20smith%22&match=1.
The Herald described Smith as Ribicoff’s “very close friend.”
Scripps-Howard article by Dan Thomasson and Nicholas Horrock, reporting on investments by Justice Brennan, Abraham Ribicoff, and other officials in the Concord Village apartments in Arlington:
https://www.newspapers.com/image/799744579/?terms=%22charles%20e.%20smith%22%20ribicoff&match=1
Dan Thomasson, Scripps Howard reporter:
https://www.swtimes.com/story/opinion/2018/04/02/columnist-washington-bureau-chief-dan/12841574007/
Nicholas Horrock, Scripps Howard:
Summary of Times vs. Sullivan:
https://www.oyez.org/cases/1963/39
Justice William Brennan’s New York Times obituary:
https://www.nytimes.com/1997/07/25/us/william-brennan-91-dies-gave-court-liberal-vision.html
Justice Brennan: Liberal Champion:
Seth Stern, coauthor of the Brennan biography:
https://stockton.edu/holocaust-resource/documents/Stern_Flyer_Stockton_2023.pdf
Stephen Wermiel, coauthor
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Wermiel
Edward Bennett Williams, Washington super lawyer:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bennett_Williams
Washington Star clip reproduced in Congressional Record—discussing Ribicoff, Brennan and others’ financial ties with Smith companies:
Judge Simon E. Sobeloff:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Sobeloff
Former Justice Abe Fortas’s obituary in the New York Times:
Justice Arthur Goldberg:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Goldberg
Ruth Marcus, Washington Post columnist and associate editor:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Marcus_(journalist)#
Marcus’s Washington Post report of gifts from Charles Smith to Justice Brennan (including the forgiving of one hundred twenty thousand dollars on Brennan’s mortgage):
Associated Press article in the New York Times on Smith’s Brennan gifts:
https://www.nytimes.com/1991/05/18/us/ex-justice-brennan-acknowledges-cash-gifts.html
American Bar Association rules on acceptance and reporting of gifts:
Stephen Gillers, legal ethics expert:
https://its.law.nyu.edu/facultyprofiles/index.cfm?fuseaction=profile.overview&personid=19943
Steven Lubet, another expert:
https://www.law.northwestern.edu/faculty/profiles/stevenlubet/
Marcus’s May 2023 criticism of the Brennan-Smith relationship in an article on current conflicts of interest at the Supreme Court:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/05/04/clarence-thomas-tuition-payments-harlan-crow/
Mortgage on America, by Leonard Downie Jr.:
https://books.google.com/books?id=BhZPAAAAMAAJ&dq=editions:LCCN73018751
Leonard Downie, Jr., Bradlee’s successor as Washington Post executive editor:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Downie_Jr.
Dan Morgan, Washington Post:
https://www.businessinsider.com/author/dan-morgan
Dominick Antonelli, Jr., parking baron and developer:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominic_F._Antonelli_Jr.
Kingdom Gould, Jr., an Antonelli partner:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdon_Gould_Jr.
Jay Gould, the robber baron:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Gould
Harlan Crow, real estate magnate and ever-generous friend of Justice Clarence Thomas:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_Crow
Joshua Kaplan of ProPublica:
https://www.propublica.org/people/joshua-kaplan
ProPublica’s Justin Elliott:
https://www.propublica.org/people/justin-elliott
Alex Mierjeski of ProPublica:
https://www.propublica.org/people/alex-mierjeski
ProPublica article on hundreds of thousands of dollars in undisclosed gifts and favors from Harlan Crow to Justice Clarence Thomas:
https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-scotus-undisclosed-luxury-travel-gifts-crow
Harlan Crow’s purchase of the house of Justice Thomas’s mother:
https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-harlan-crow-real-estate-scotus
Crow’s payment of tuition for Thomas’s grandnephew:
https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-harlan-crow-private-school-tuition-scotus#
A follow-up ProPublica article reporting that the value of Thomas’s undisclosed trips probably totaled in the millions:
The Federalist Society:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federalist_Society
The New York Times report of the Fortas resignation:
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1969/05/16/90105708.html?pageNumber=1
Paul Singer, the hedge fund manager:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Singer_(businessman)
Justice Samuel Alito:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Alito
ProPublic on the Alito’s fishing trip:
https://www.propublica.org/article/samuel-alito-luxury-fishing-trip-paul-singer-scotus-supreme-court
Leonard Leo, a top Federalist Society Leader:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Leo
Singer’s fight with the government of Argentina:
Justice Alito’s reply to ProPublica—appearing even before the article did:
New York Times article mentioning that Singer’s connection with the Argentina-related case was “widely reported”:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/21/us/politics/justice-alito-luxury-travel-fishing-trip.html
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheldon_Whitehouse
SCERT Act:
https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/325/text
Analysis of the Supreme Court’s namby-pamby ethics code:
https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-supreme-courts-self-excusing-ethics-code
The New York Times on Congressional stock trading:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/09/13/us/politics/congress-stock-trading-investigation.html
The ETHICS bill:
GSA employees receiving bribes as high as a quarter of a million dollars for certifying imaginary repair work:
The number federal workers accused of ethics violations in 2015:
https://money.cnn.com/2017/02/12/news/ethical-violation-penalties/index.html
Ron DeSantis, Trump rival:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_DeSantis
Plans to destroy the Civil Service as we know it:
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/06/trump-and-desantis-want-to-destroy-the-civil-service.html
Whether Joe Biden was involved in Hunter Biden’s shady dealings:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/04/us/politics/biden-devon-archer-testimony.html
Senator Robert Menendez–accused of bribery:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Menendez
Accusations:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/22/nyregion/robert-menendez-indicted.html
A DISCUSSION GUIDE
Janet Malcolm, New Yorker writer:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janet_Malcolm
Her article mentioning the perils of talking to the press:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1989/03/13/the-journalist-and-the-murderer-i
Civic journalism:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civic_journalism
James Fallows, author, journalist and former White House speechwriter
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Fallows
Fallows’s Breaking the News:
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/47836/breaking-the-news-by-james-fallows/
Citizen journalism:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_journalism
Steven Waldman, president, Report for America:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Waldman
His Politico article on funding local news:
ProPublica:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ProPublica
Americans’ distrust of the media:
https://knightfoundation.org/reports/american-views-2023-part-2/
SCANDALS’S CHARACTERS LIST
Baruch Spinoza, the seventeenth-century philosopher: