Carl Levin, a liberal Michigan Democrat who served 36 years in the Senate and scared the wits out of America’s biggest C.E.O.s by demanding explanations for shadowy schemes that hid billions in profits overseas and avoided vast corporate taxes at home, died on Thursday in Detroit. His death was confirmed by the Levin Center at Wayne State University. Mr. Levin had disclosed in March that he had lung cancer, Jim Townsend, a spokesman for the family, said. The longest-serving senator in Michigan history — from 1979 to 2015 — Mr. Levin was regarded by Senate colleagues and Washington observers as a paragon of probity as the chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. He wielded subpoena power, huge briefing books, a big gavel and an unquenchable zeal for grilling high-profile witnesses at public hearings.

Source: New York Times July 30, 2021 02:26 UTC