Word: racketeered
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...Vaccines are no use . . . they are not worth the trouble. . . . Vitamins don't prevent colds or cure them. There's a bit of a racket there. ... If you take no drugs, your cold lasts 14 days; if you take drugs, it lasts a fortnight...
Newshawks must be alert-as courts are-to the changing meanings of words. "Racket," which once meant a mere trick-and was not libelous-now means an illegal business-and may be. The greatest danger, Wittenberg points out, is that newspapers, with no ready means of checking many of the stories they print, must rely on the accuracy of the wire services and news syndicates. Yet in 47 states (only Florida excepted), newspapers cannot avoid libel suits by blaming news services for mistakes. Wittenberg thinks a change is due, along the lines of a 1932 Florida decision, which ruled that...
...Manhattan-a town whose citizens assay high for canniness-a leisure-loving group of bums made a delightful discovery last year. They discovered that life and even love on the dole was not such a bad racket. A sharp operator could live in a good hotel room (even when travelers were being turned away) and get generous allowances for restaurant meals simply by talking fast and avoiding employment. And he could sometimes live the good, gay life for months without hindrance by welfare authorities...
...York World-Telegram printed embarrassing stories. Then New York's Republican state government, which contributes a lion's share of the relief funds dispensed by the city Democratic regime, began investigating. Last week, at a public hearing, State Department of Social Welfare Supervisor Bernard Shapiro lifted the racket...
...Wheat at $3 a bushel had sprouted a rash of "wheatleggers." Organized like racketeers, they case a remote granary, on a quiet night back their trucks up close, bore a hole, and fill up. A single haul may be worth as much as $1,300. Said Jake Sims, director of Oklahoma's Bureau of Criminal Investigation: "They've got a better racket than the bank robber. It's not only safer-there's more money...