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A 2017 mass shooting at a rural Texas church revealed troubling gaps in how the military responds to violent crime, and advocates say the Pentagon still isn't doing enough to keep people with criminal backgrounds from purchasing firearms.
The gunman in the Sutherland Springs, Texas church shooting — Devin Kelley — was a former member of the Air Force who had been court-martialed in 2012 for domestic violence against his wife and 11-month-old stepson.
But the military didn’t report his conviction to NICS, an FBI system that checks the records of people buying firearms. A federal judge ruled that if the service had done so, Kelley might not have been able to purchase the weapon he used in the church shooting.
The Nov. 5, 2017 shooting killed 26 people, including an unborn child.
Congress later passed a law, the FIX NICS Act of 2018, to compel the Defense Department to improve its records submissions.
“They significantly stepped it up after the 2017 incident,” said Triana McNeil of the Government Accountability Office, which measured the Pentagon’s progress in 2020. “They know what they need to be reporting.”
But despite that surge of NICS entries in the aftermath of the shooting, it's still not clear the Pentagon is reporting everything it should. When McNeil’s report was published, the Pentagon was having trouble tracking how many convictions and other records it put into the system and how many were left out.
“During the time of our review, the Defense Department reported that it was not in compliance with the NICS records submission requirement, in part because it couldn't certify the total number of potentially prohibiting records that it possessed and submitted to databases checked by NICS,” McNeil said.
Advocates said sloppy record-keeping isn't the only challenge the military faces when it comes to keeping guns away from service members who commit domestic violence. Another has to do with how the military responds to domestic violence in the first place.
Lindsay Nichols is the federal policy director at Giffords, a public interest law center that promotes gun control. She said when service members harm their families, the military sometimes convicts them for lesser crimes and omits domestic violence details from the records.
“What came to light in the discussion about Sutherland Springs is there really is this difficulty in getting domestic violence records specifically into NICS," Nichols said. "It's often difficult to look at these records and recognize that it is domestic violence — that it's not just your everyday assault.”
Nichols said it's a complicated problem to solve and requires coordination and training at all different levels of law enforcement and the justice system.
“It requires funding to train people properly, to update protocols so officials can make distinctions [when it comes to domestic violence], to update the databases, to have a field for entering that particular information," Nichols said. "It involves record retention, so that there's actually a record somewhere that says whether or not these people were romantically involved or had a domestic relationship.”
In the military justice system, commanders, not judges, determine what qualifies as a crime under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the military’s criminal code. They also have a lot of sway over punishments.
Lisa Colella, who directs the military family support organization Healing Household 6, said the Defense Department needs to come up with better instructions for commanders and law enforcement to deal with those offenses.
“Minimal, this offense warrants inclusion in the NICS system, period,” Colella said.
Colella said she’s worried a shooting like Sutherland Springs could happen again. She described a case she worked on last year, in which a military spouse was beaten and needed significant medical attention. The woman reported it, and the Army investigated. But the husband’s charges kept getting reduced until there was no mention of spousal battery.
“By the end of the actual sentencing, it was just simple assault, and battery of a spouse wasn’t even noted,” Colella said. “He went into a pawn shop — something like that that sold weapons — and he bought three new weapons as soon as the case was closed.”
Lindsay Nichols said Defense Department officials need to do a better job looking at the facts in each case to determine if a record represents domestic violence.
“Any official who has information in those papers that says this was a domestic violence incident — that this was a husband and a wife — that official would be under an obligation under the law to make sure it gets entered into NICS,” Nichols said.
Since 2018, the Defense Department has submitted only a few thousand domestic violence records to the NICS system, which both Colella and Nichols said is a low number.
A Pentagon spokesperson said the military is trying to better track service members with a history of threatening behavior at home. She said it's also working on formal guidance to make sure all relevant records get into the NICS database. But the department said that’s not going to happen for at least another year.
Nichols said the stakes are high for the Defense Department to fix the problem. The Supreme Court has ruled that people who use physical force or threaten use of a deadly weapon against someone in their family are not allowed to have guns, no matter how their conviction is labeled.
Various studies have shown that domestic violence is often a precursor to mass shootings.
“It puts everyone at risk, especially the people who are closest to the service members who should have been reported,” Nichols said. | https://www.keranews.org/news/2022-04-20/inconsistent-military-domestic-violence-policies-allow-troops-with-criminal-histories-to-buy-guns | 2022-05-12T15:45:03Z |
Stonecipher said she felt the stickers helped empower the often-bullied LGBTQ students she worked with. She was one of several advisors for the school’s Gay-Straight Alliance and also advised students who wrote for the school newspaper.
The school removed the rainbow stickers, saying the district insisted on viewpoint-neutral classroom decorations.
At the time, Irving ISD said it feared the stickers could make straight students feel unsafe. It removed them, adding in a statement “The District’s protocols are viewpoint neutral and apply to all classroom decorations.”
Stonecipher didn’t buy the argument then or now.
“Those stickers,” she said, “were not endangering students. We have no evidence ever that they endangered or made students feel unsafe, ever. What did feel unsafe was when they came down.”
KERA repeatedly requested comment from the district and school district trustees. A statement received late Friday afternoon from the district said that the school board voted on "both renewals and terminations" of contracts at its meeting Monday.
"These Board votes impact contracts for the 2022-2023 school year. No teacher contracts were terminated with immediate effect."
Stonecipher said her current contract for the 2021-2022 school year goes through August. She said it was unclear if she would continue to be paid through August.
More than a dozen people spoke on Stonecipher's behalf at Monday's school board meeting. All the speakers demanded Stonecipher get her job back.
"Back in October, when I thought if we stick up for ourselves, maybe we can change the way things are happening. And wow, was I wrong," 15-year-old sophomore Lola Dempsey said.
Before the meeting began, more than 30 supporters rallied on her behalf in the Irving ISD administration parking lot. They held signs reading "Support inclusive teachers" and "Firing excellent teachers is the wrong lesson."
James Whitfield spoke at the rally. The former Colleyville principal, who is Black, resigned his post after he was accused of teaching critical race theory, which is not a part of any Texas high school curriculum.
He said his case and Stonecipher's were similar.
Stonecipher said she was put on leave a second time on on April 14 at the school where she'd been reassigned. She said she wasn’t told why, but was curious since she was already leaving in August. That, she said, was when her contract was supposed to end.
“I have been in touch with my lawyers,” Stonecipher said. “I believe I will bring a lawsuit on the topic of employment discrimination.”
Anticipating her departure, she has been looking for a job as a writer, because that’s one of her other loves. She’d even like to work in a school setting, in a communications department. But this time, she said, she’ll bypass K-12 education, looking instead for work in a college or university.
Got a tip? Email Reporter Bill Zeeble at bzeeble@kera.org . You can follow him on Twitter @bzeeble.
KERA News is made possible through the generosity of our members. If you find this reporting valuable, consider making a tax-deductible gift today. Thank you. | https://www.keranews.org/news/2022-04-22/embattled-irving-isd-teacher-is-permanently-out-after-rainbow-sticker-dispute | 2022-05-12T15:45:09Z |
A proposed ordinance would ban pedestrians from being on traffic medians that are less than 6 feet wide, on roads without medians at all and from so-called "clear zones" like bike lanes.
Charlie Leavitt, the executive director of Metro Relief, a nonprofit that helps people experiencing homelessness, said ticketing and fining people who can't afford to pay would create a hardship.
People who stand on medians could be issued a Class C misdemeanor citation and fined up to $500 if the ordinance is approved.
“I've seen it with other people. They have some tickets or fines for loitering... and they can't move ahead with these fines that are trying to keep the public safe,” he said.
Leavitt said he “understands where the city is coming from on safety issues,” but it’s very hard for him to reach an opinion on the proposed ordinance. He said Dallas City Council is in a very tough spot.
At a recent meeting, city transportation officials and the city attorney assured some city council members it has nothing to do with panhandling, but is for "pedestrian safety.”
Dallas police officers would handle enforcement. City officials are looking to see if city marshals also could help.
Council Member Cara Mendelsohn said case workers with the Office of Homeless Solutions would respond to people experiencing homelessness who are panhandling.
“This isn't meant to give people tickets. It isn't meant to put people in jail and further bring them down," Mendelsohn said. But, he said, it does "provide safety to the actual person in the median — as well as the drivers and clear traffic."
Council Member Tennell Atkins asked city leaders about how this ordinance would apply to school sports teams or other groups asking for donations on the street.
City staff said the ordinance would apply to everyone. Executive Assistant City Attorney Casey Burgess said people involved in fundraising may be able to get permission to seek donations from the city's medians.
Atkins asked that city staff explore educating the public on the proposed ordinance.
Council Member Omar Narvaez questioned if all medians in Dallas medians are 6 feet wide. Transportation leaders couldn’t answer that but said medians vary in size.
Narvaez said the ordinance needs some work. He wants clarification on the size of medians. He also wanted to know if someone crossing the street through a median could be cited.
There is no statewide ban against panhandling in Texas. But some cities — including Houston, Fort Worth and Austin — have passed similar ordinances.
Leavitt said if the ordinance passes, Dallas leaders should prepare to see more people in court.
“They're going to fill their own system, their own court with a bunch of tickets for a misdemeanor,” he said. “It just creates — and I'm not a lawyer or a judge — but it just adds more burden.”
The Dallas City Council is set to vote next week.
Got a tip? Alejandra Martinez is a Report For America corps member for KERA News. Email Alejandra at amartinez@kera.org. You can follow Alejandra on Twitter @alereports.
KERA News is made possible through the generosity of our members. If you find this reporting valuable, consider making a tax-deductible gift today. Thank you. | https://www.keranews.org/news/2022-04-23/dallas-may-soon-start-ticketing-panhandlers-and-pedestrians-on-street-medians | 2022-05-12T15:45:15Z |
Melissa Lucio is scheduled to be executed next week for a crime she says she didn't commit — one that may not have even occurred. She was convicted 14 years ago of murdering her 2-year-old daughter, Mariah, and a Texas jury sentenced her to death.
The state says Lucio beat her daughter to death. But as new details have emerged about her case, a growing chorus of lawmakers, faith leaders, anti-domestic violence organizations and celebrities has called for clemency. At least one juror from the trial says the jury wasn't given the full picture — and that if he had known more, he would have never voted for the death penalty.
"No court has ever considered the new evidence of Melissa Lucio's innocence," says Vanessa Potkin, director of special litigation at the Innocence Project and one of Lucio's attorneys. "So first and foremost, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals could issue a stay so that the evidence of Melissa Lucio's innocence can be fully litigated in the court. And that's what we're hoping for."
The case hinges on an interrogation of Lucio conducted two hours after Mariah died, during which officers tried to get Lucio to confess to hurting her daughter.
Lucio's attorneys say police had already decided on a narrative when they brought her in for interrogation. After five hours of questioning, during which Lucio expressed her innocence more than 100 times, she eventually said "I guess I did it" when asked if she was responsible for some of her daughter's injuries. The state called it an admission of guilt for Mariah's death.
Potkin says Lucio had inadequate defense during her trial. Witness testimony from one of Mariah's siblings about the 2-year-old's fall down an uneven staircase two days before her death never made it before the jury, and expert witnesses were not allowed to testify on reasons why Lucio might have made a false "confession."
She is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Wednesday. If she is killed, she would be the first Hispanic woman to be executed in Texas in the modern era of the death penalty, and the first woman executed in Texas since 2014.
Who is Melissa Lucio?
Lucio, 53, is a Mexican American woman who has struggled against poverty and abuse since childhood. She is the mother of 14 children, including Mariah.
According to court documents submitted by Lucio's attorneys, she was sexually abused by her mother's boyfriend starting at the age of 6 — abuse that lasted for two years. She married at age 16. According to the Innocence Project, it was an abusive marriage. Her first husband, the group says, was a violent alcoholic who left her after she gave birth to their five children.
"Her next partner continued the cycle of violence, punching her in public and beating her at home. By the time she gave birth to her twelfth child, Melissa had experienced homelessness, drug addiction, and severe mental illness," according to an amicus brief filed by former prosecutors, anti-violence organizations and others on Lucio's behalf.
Lucio was pregnant with twin boys at the time of Mariah's death and when she was interrogated. She gave birth to the twins while in jail and was forced to give them up for adoption.
In 2007, Lucio's family was living in a second-floor apartment in Harlingen, in Texas' Rio Grande Valley, and the family was preparing and packing to move to a new home.
"At some point they didn't hear Mariah playing anymore, went to check on her, and she had managed to get out of the screen door and was at the bottom of the staircase," says Potkin, the Innocence Project attorney. "Melissa didn't observe the fall herself. She saw Mariah at the bottom with a bleeding lip, but she otherwise didn't appear to be seriously injured. One of Mariah's other siblings witnessed the fall and later, when interviewed by Child Protective Services after Mariah's death, stated that he saw his sibling fall down the stairs."
Some of that evidence, says Potkin, was not disclosed to the defense as they were preparing for trial.
Why do people think she's innocent?
At Lucio's trial, expert witnesses for the defense were not allowed to testify as to why she might have given a false confession. Among the experts her attorneys sought to put on the stand was a psychologist who planned to testify that Lucio's history as a survivor of domestic and sexual abuse helped explain why she told interrogators what they wanted to hear — even if it wasn't true. But the trial judge ruled that testimony "irrelevant," according to court documents.
Potkin says it's now recognized that "having a trauma history such as Melissa had, being a survivor of sexual abuse and domestic abuse, is a risk factor and vulnerability during custodial interrogation for false confession."
False confessions are more common than you might think. More than a quarter of people exonerated by the Innocence Project in recent decades had confessed to the crime they allegedly committed, as Science reported.
There have also been questions about the testimony provided by the medical examiner alleging that injuries on Mariah's body were clear signs of abuse. But Lucio had no history of child abuse. She admitted that she had spanked Mariah on the butt, but denied abusing her. A pathologist interviewed by The Intercept says the medical examiner who conducted Mariah's autopsy jumped to conclusions and ignored evidence that Mariah died due to an accident.
There is significant evidence of her innocence that no court, no fact finder has ever considered.
"There is significant evidence of her innocence that no court, no fact finder has ever considered," Potkin says. She says that after Mariah's family discovered the child had stopped breathing, they frantically called for help — and the responding police rushed to judgment in concluding that Mariah's death had been a murder, due to profound bruising on her body.
Instead, Potkin says, the blood coagulation seen in Mariah's autopsy was the result of an accidental head injury, like a fall down stairs. It's a disorder, she says, that in other cases has been "confused for child abuse because it causes extensive bleeding and bruising throughout the body."
Lucio's supporters say many of the issues in her trial trace back to the head prosecutor in the case, Armando Villalobos. The former Cameron County district attorney recently spent several years in federal prison for bribery and extortion. At the time of Lucio's trial, Villalobos was running for reelection against a challenger who criticized him for not thoroughly investigating or prosecuting charges of child abuse. Lucio's attorneys say Villalobos wanted to make an example of Lucio to prove he was tough on crime.
Her family maintains her innocence and has pushed hard to get her off death row. Five of the trial's 12 jurors have called for her clemency.
"She is an innocent woman," John Lucio, Melissa's eldest son, told Latino USA at a protest outside the Cameron County Courthouse in February. "She is not guilty of the death of my baby sister."
What have the courts said?
Lucio and her attorneys have not had success in reversing the initial verdict. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit reviewed Lucio's case and overturned it, finding that she had been denied the opportunity to present a full defense at her trial and that a new trial was warranted.
But the state of Texas appealed the decision, and the case then went to the 17 judges that comprise the 5th Circuit. A majority of the judges said the conviction had to be upheld because they were barred by a procedural rule that limits a federal court's ability to review state court findings.
Last October, the Supreme Court declined to hear the case.
What chances does she have left?
To prevent Lucio from being executed, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott could grant her clemency. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals could also stop the execution.
Abbott's office did not respond to a request for comment, but in March the governor said he was awaiting a decision by the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. "I'll make a decision once it comes to me," Abbott told KRGV, an ABC News affiliate in the Rio Grande Valley.
Cameron County District Attorney Luis Saenz — who was not the DA at the time of Lucio's trial — told Texas lawmakers last week that he would move to delay Lucio's execution if the Board of Pardons and Paroles rejects calls for clemency and the courts don't intervene.
"If Melissa does not get a stay by a certain day, then I will do what I have to do and stop it," Saenz said, as the Austin American-Statesman reported.
Saenz's office did not respond to a request for comment on the case.
Potkin said that now is a complicated time emotionally for Lucio.
"While there is great optimism in some regards because of the support and because it seems to be resonating with so many people, that she has a compelling claim of innocence and just the injustice that would happen if this execution goes forward," Potkin said on Wednesday. "At the same time, here we are, seven days away from her execution date. And so she has to confront that reality, too, that the execution could go forward."
Lucio's thoughts are with her children, Potkin said, as she talks to friends about the roles they could play in the life of her kids if she is not alive after next week.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.keranews.org/news/2022-04-25/melissa-lucio-is-scheduled-to-be-executed-for-a-crime-that-may-not-have-occurred | 2022-05-12T15:45:22Z |
"If you want to do a pop-up as a caterer and you get a temporary event permit, you can set down a tent, a table, a refrigerator and a flat top. And that's OK,” the owner of Great Galettes Crepes & Catering said. “But [in Dallas] you can't get permitted to move your cart around the city block.”
Shewry and other local food vendors hope the Dallas City Council will change regulations that would make it easier to operate food trailers and carts, which typically are cheaper to purchase and operate than a food truck. Vendors also would like to see less-restrictive rules for food trucks. City leaders are expected to take up these issues at Wednesday’s council meeting.
Proposed ordinance changes would:
- Revise the term “mobile food establishment” to include both food trucks and food trailers.
- Allow food trucks and trailers to cook raw chicken and fish on site.
- Require weekly rather than daily “commissary visits.” Vendors must pay a fee during these visits, when their food trucks get maintenance and cleanliness checks.
Shewry said the daily commissary visits get pricy.
"It's prohibitively costly. It's $30 to 40 an hour,” he said. “And to run a successful business, you're going to need 50 to 100 hours of prep a month. And you're looking at $1,500 to $3,000 now, if not more.”
A commissary is a commercial kitchen where food trucks can prepare, cook and store their food. Food truck operators also can clean out their wastewater. Many commissaries also provide food trucks and other mobile vendors with overnight parking and equipment storage.
Shewry agrees that commissary visits are necessary. But he said they are time-consuming, expensive and faraway.
Krista Nightengale, the executive director of the nonprofit Better Block in Dallas, said most of the commissaries are in North Dallas.
“If you own a food truck in South Dallas, you have to go north every single day to return your truck and then go pick it up the next day,” she said.
Cities like Austin, Nightengale said, have commissary services that come directly to the trucks.
Dallas currently makes a distinction between motorized food trucks and trailers or carts. For example, food trucks pay an annual permit fee of $330 to operate — while food trailers may have to pay more than $250 fee per day at events they work.
Nightengale said the current rules create a burden for people who want to buy food trailers and use them to start their own businesses.
“Trailers are a lower cost of entry,” Nightengale said. "People can go out and get a trailer and test out their concept before spending two or three times that on a truck or a lot more than that on a brick and mortar.”
She said the current rules create roadblocks and limitations especially for people of color. Historically, limited financial resources and obstacles to getting loans have made it harder for many minorities interested in starting their own businesses.
Having more food trucks, trailers and carts in Dallas also could mean that residents of underserved neighborhoods — especially in so-called “food deserts” — have more options.
Better Block recently tested a temporary food park in South Dallas for food trailers, food trucks, and carts. The organization wanted “to further the conversation around permitting more affordable, rapidly deployable food vending options in the City of Dallas,” according to their website.
Some council members are in support of changes to the ordinance.
"This started with is basic equity issue,” Council Member Chad West said. “You've got food trucks that are very expensive to operate, barrier to entry for these, the smaller guys, because they haven't had the same benefits of this ordinance that the food trucks have had.”
Shewry said Austin has a vibrant mobile food scene because there are less hoops to jump through. But he believes the Dallas food scene could be a place with food truck yards and food trailer parks.
“This is an issue about being able to get this process together quickly with the least amount of sort of bureaucracy,” he said. “I just don't I don't see how giving better, more access to people with new interesting food ideas is a bad thing.”
Got a tip? Alejandra Martinez is a Report For America corps member for KERA News. Email Alejandra at amartinez@kera.org. You can follow Alejandra on Twitter @alereports.
KERA News is made possible through the generosity of our members. If you find this reporting valuable, consider making a tax-deductible gift today. Thank you. | https://www.keranews.org/news/2022-04-26/food-truck-proponents-say-rule-changes-could-make-dallas-a-more-friendly-city-for-street-cuisine | 2022-05-12T15:45:28Z |
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to answer a legal question that could open the door for DNA testing of evidence used to convict Texas death row inmate Rodney Reed.
Reed was sentenced to death more than 23 years ago for the murder of 19-year-old Stacey Stites in Bastrop County. Reed has maintained his innocence since the 1996 killing. His lawyers have brought forward evidence over the years that they say implicates Stites' fiance, Jimmy Fennell.
Crime scene evidence — including the belt used to strangle Stites and her clothing — was not tested for DNA, and Reed has unsuccessfully sought testing to help establish his innocence. Prosecutors have fought the efforts, arguing that state mishandling of the evidence means the DNA could be contaminated and testing results unreliable.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has repeatedly denied Reed’s requests, and in 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court declined an appeal from Rodney to look at the Texas courts’ decision to not review the case.
The U.S. Supreme Court has now agreed to decide when prisoners can pursue post-conviction claims for DNA testing of crime scene evidence. The court will determine whether the statute of limitations for DNA testing starts after the state trial court denies testing or after litigation, including appeals, ends. A lower court of appeals previously said Reed waited too long to seek DNA testing.
Attorneys at Innocence Project who are representing Reed said the state has refused to allow DNA testing of key crime scene evidence even though “a substantial body of evidence has emerged supporting his innocence including the ligature handled by the perpetrator in the commission of the crime.”
“When Mr. Reed sought access to DNA testing in federal court, the federal courts wrongly threw out his claims as untimely, reasoning that he could have started his federal action while the state-court proceedings were still pending,” the attorneys wrote in a statement to The Texas Tribune. “We look forward to having the Supreme Court consider our arguments."
Reed currently has no execution date. Courts halted his impending execution in 2019 after calls for further review of his conviction from a bipartisan group of Texas lawmakers, A-list celebrities and millions of people who signed online petitions.
After a lengthy hearing earlier this year, a judge recommended he not get a new trial, but the final decision will be up to the state’s Court of Criminal Appeals. It’s unclear when the court will make a decision.
In April 1996, Stites’ body was found partially unclothed in Bastrop County after she missed her shift at a grocery store, according to court records. Fennell’s truck was found abandoned in a nearby school parking lot. Pieces of Stites’ belt, which is believed to have been used to strangle her, were found at both locations.
Reed was tied to the murder about a year later when sperm cells found inside Stites’ body were matched to him. Prosecutors said the DNA match was “smoking gun” in Reed’s conviction, claiming Reed stopped Stites while she was driving to work and then sexually assaulted and killed her. Reed said that he and Stites were in a casual relationship and had consensual sex the day before her disappearance.
Both Reed and Fennell have been accused of other sexual assaults. Reed was indicted, but never convicted, in several other rape cases months before his trial in Stites’ death began in 1998. Fennell spent 10 years in prison after he kidnapped and allegedly raped a woman while on duty as a police officer in 2007. | https://www.keranews.org/news/2022-04-26/u-s-supreme-court-will-consider-appeal-for-dna-testing-in-rodney-reed-death-penalty-case | 2022-05-12T15:45:34Z |
The city council approved a resolution that establishes a 2% hotel and motel tax that will help fund the replacement of the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center with an entirely new building west of Lamar Street, as well as repairs to several buildings at Fair Park.
But Dallas residents would still need to approve that in a referendum on the November ballot. Texas law allows the City of Dallas to finance venues and specific projects by taxing hotels and motels.
“This is just a once in a lifetime opportunity that is a true investment to the south of our city,” said Council Member Adam Bazaldua. He represents South Dallas, including Fair Park.
Bazaldua said the new convention center project will include new parks where residents and tourists can explore and increase access to downtown from South Dallas.
Council Member Chad West said if you walk around the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center, "it is a sea of concrete, Frankenstein buildings, no walkability whatsoever and no sense of community.”
“This will right that wrong,” West said.
Other council members said the project will transform downtown Dallas and attract new visitors.
The resolution was approved with a 14-1 vote.
Council Member Cara Mendelsohn opposed the tax increase. She said that she couldn’t agree with the resolution without knowing the full cost of the convention center plan.
The city estimates it would generate $1.5 billion over the next 30 years. The funding will be divided between the two projects: the new convention center and Fair Park repairs.
The largest portion of the money would go to the convention center. But city leaders said they would make their “best efforts” to dedicate 20% of that funding to Fair Park for repairs and improvements to certain buildings. Those include the Automotive Building, the Band Shell, the Music Hall, the Cotton Bowl and the Coliseum.
Council Member Carolyn King Arnold wants the plan to create job opportunities for Black and brown residents “who need to be a part of the design, the engineering, not just working construction,” she said.
Several people spoke out in favor of the resolution. Those included State Representative Rafael Anchía, Former Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, as well as representatives of Downtown Dallas, Inc., the Regional Black Contractors Association, the Hotel Association of North Texas.
"These funds will directly benefit the surrounding communities. This is an investment in equity and will create impactful opportunities for South Dallas. This investment will greatly accelerate the revitalization of the campus," said Kimberly Shaw, the President of the Regional Black Contractors Association.
City officials have previously said the new building could be ready in five years.
Got a tip? Alejandra Martinez is a Report For America corps member for KERA News. Email Alejandra at amartinez@kera.org. You can follow Alejandra on Twitter @alereports.
KERA News is made possible through the generosity of our members. If you find this reporting valuable, consider making a tax-deductible gift today. Thank you. | https://www.keranews.org/news/2022-04-27/dallas-approves-a-hotel-tax-that-will-fund-a-plan-to-bridge-downtown-with-south-dallas | 2022-05-12T15:45:40Z |
Speaking at city hall Wednesday, Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson said he's looking forward to strengthening economic and cultural ties with the Mexican state of Nuevo León.
The city of Monterrey in Nuevo León is in a Sister City agreement with Dallas. Johnson told Governor Samuel Garcia that city leaders are working on a "memorandum of understanding" to further encourage commerce.
"We have a real opportunity to enhance trade and tourism between our two jurisdictions," Johnson said. "I look forward to welcoming you back when we finish our memorandum of understanding that will bring Dallas and Nuevo León even closer together."
Garcia said his visit to Dallas brought back memories of his family.
"My grandfather was born in Rosita, Texas," Garcia said, "so I know that you are a very multicultural community that is an example for the world of how we have to work together."
Earlier this month, Garcia also signed an agreement with Texas Governor Greg Abbott to enhance border security.
Got a tip? Email Solomon Wilson at swilson@kera.org. You can follow Solomon on Twitter @SolomonSeesIt. | https://www.keranews.org/news/2022-04-27/mayor-eric-johnson-welcomes-nuevo-leon-governor-to-dallas | 2022-05-12T15:45:46Z |
Trevor Reed, a former Marine from Texas who has been detained in Russia for more than two years, was freed in a prisoner swap, President Joe Biden announced Wednesday morning.
"The negotiations that allowed us to bring Trevor home required difficult decisions that I do not take lightly. His safe return is a testament to the priority my Administration places on bringing home Americans held hostage and wrongfully detained abroad," Biden said in a statement.
Reed traveled to Russia in the summer of 2019 with his Russian girlfriend to learn the language. That August, Russian police arrested him for intoxication and took him to a jail to sober up. He faced a nine-year sentence in prison.
In exchange for Reed's freedom, Americans released Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, who was serving a lengthy sentence in the United States on cocaine-trafficking charges, according to The New York Times.
For decades, the U.S. government has periodically engaged in the diplomatic dance of prisoner exchanges with Russia and the former Soviet Union. But with Russia's continued invasion of Ukraine, this swap comes at the most fraught moment between the two countries since the Cold War.
Texas Republicans have been fiercely critical of Biden for not engaging more with the Reed family. But on Wednesday, the state’s senior senator praised Biden.
“Trevor has survived a real-life nightmare, held in a Russian prison for nearly 1000 days with little to no access to badly-needed health care or communication with his family,” U.S. Sen. John Cornyn said in a statement. “I’m beyond relieved Trevor will return home to his family in Texas, who were relentless in the fight to secure his release and never gave up hope.
“I applaud the President and the State Department officials who worked behind the scenes to secure Trevor’s release, as well as Congressmen [August] Pfluger and [Mike] McCaul for their efforts to keep pressure on the Administration,” he added.
U.S. Rep. August Pfluger of San Angelo, who represents the Reed family, and U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, the top Republican on foreign affairs issues, were at the center of the diplomatic fight to bring Reed home.
“My constituent Trevor Reed has been released from Russian prison after being held for an anguishing 985 days as a political pawn," Pfluger said Wednesday. "Trevor’s parents, Paula and Joey Reed, have been tireless advocates for their son's release. I cannot imagine their relief.”
Biden made no mention Wednesday of another recently arrested Texan, WNBA star Brittney Griner, who is still detained in Russia on charges of possession of hashish oil in her luggage. He did mention in his statement another American detained in Russia.
"We won’t stop until Paul Whelan and others join Trevor in the loving arms of family and friends," he added.
Whelan is from Michigan and was arrested in Russia in 2018, accused of spying and sentenced to 17 years. Whelan is also a former Marine; however, he was discharged for bad conduct after being convicted of larceny. He and his family have said he’s not a spy but a tourist who was set up by the government. | https://www.keranews.org/news/2022-04-27/trevor-reed-former-marine-from-texas-freed-from-russia-in-prisoner-swap | 2022-05-12T15:45:52Z |
Editor’s note: This story contains explicit language.
Lenny Pozner doesn’t understand why people are surprised to learn he used to be a regular listener of Alex Jones’ show.
Pozner’s 6-year-old son, Noah, was one of the 26 children and adults who were killed during the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. Soon after the tragedy, Jones began using his Austin-based media juggernaut to spread bogus claims that the shooting was a staged government conspiracy made up of crisis actors and fake personas.
Still, for Pozner — one of the Sandy Hook parents involved in a series of defamation lawsuits that have turned into a fierce legal reckoning for Jones — the fact that he used to tune into the right-wing conspiracist’s broadcasts during long car drives is less a twist of fate and more a reflection of something obvious and unremarkable: Jones has reach.
“People repeat that as if it's a big deal. But what I've noticed is that a lot of people pretend they don't know who Alex Jones is,” he said. “That's bullshit. Everybody knows who Alex Jones is.”
At the height of his influence in 2018, Jones boasted an audience of about 1.4 million daily visits to his websites and social media accounts, according to The New York Times. And from 2015-18, Jones’ Infowars store raked in more than $50 million annually, HuffPost reported.
But while Jones built his brand and fortune on a keen and brazen use of misinformation, he has been unable to distance himself from his Sandy Hook falsehoods and his role in a rally that preceded the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Jones recently sought immunity from federal prosecutors investigating the Capitol riot and has been subpoenaed by the U.S. House committee investigating the attack.
In the past year, Jones has lost all the defamation lawsuits filed by 10 families of Sandy Hook victims, including Pozner’s. Juries in the cases still have to decide how much Jones must pay the victims, but on April 17, three of Jones’ companies — Infowars, Prison Planet TV and IW Health — filed for bankruptcy. The next day, Jones told his listeners he was “totally maxed out” financially.
While the Chapter 11 filings may be part of Jones’ legal strategy to obstruct court proceedings — he used them to delay his Austin jury trial, and Sandy Hook parents pushed to dismiss them last week — they’re also the latest development in Jones’ downswing from his spot at the top of far-right media. Along with a sweeping ban on social media, the loss of a fawning president and looming legal penalties, Jones’ troubles have weakened his once massive reach and influence. Close observers of his operations say the fate of the state’s most infamous misinformation peddler is more uncertain than ever.
Neither Jones nor his company Infowars responded to multiple requests for comment for this story.
The “Walter Cronkite” of misinformation
Jones has used Infowars — his primary media company that airs shows he claims are syndicated on radio stations across the U.S. — to share his conspiracy theories with his millions of followers. According to Jones, the U.S. government has meddled with water supplies and the weather, the COVID-19 pandemic was planned, and Bill Gates is a master eugenicist working to control world populations.
During the pandemic, Jones sold products like “Nano Silver” toothpaste and “Superblue Silver Immune Gargle” via his Infowars store, claiming they would fight COVID-19. He also sells doomsday prepper materials and dietary supplements, which he presents as antidotes to the false threats he drums up on his show.
His show usually features loud, energetic rants and appeals to save the country.
“Alex Jones is unique; he’s entertaining,” Pozner said. “A lot of people mistrust their government. People want a fresh perspective outside of the corporate media's version of news.”
Jones got his start advancing bogus theories on Austin Community Access Television and local radio in the early 1990s. From those pulpits, he spread falsehoods like claiming that the 1993 siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco was a government conspiracy, that government authorities carried out the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, and that authorities in Austin used “black helicopters” to surveil the public.
A graduate of Austin’s Anderson High School and an Austin Community College dropout, Jones was removed from his local talk radio spot in 1999 after executives said his fringe views were unsavory for advertisers.
That year, Jones founded Infowars.com. In the early years of the platform, Jones claimed the 9/11 attacks were an inside job and helped produce a feature-length film purporting to expose the tragedy as a government plot.
About a decade and a half later, Jones had attracted millions of viewers, was grossing millions in annual revenue and had captured Donald Trump’s attention.
Rachel Moran, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Washington's Center for an Informed Public who studies how disinformation and misinformation spread, said conspiracy theorists like Jones are able to build wide audiences in part because they provide their followers with a sense of community.
Jones “is very good at building a community of people who think the same things as him and providing them with what they want,” she said. “I think it's easy for us when we don't like a figure to demonize them and pretend they are not good at what they do. Actually, Alex Jones is very good at what he does.”
Moran said Jones is masterful when it comes to harnessing skepticism and deftly toes the line between information and misinformation. He often frames his bogus theories in a way that makes his viewers believe he’s engaging in healthy questioning.
“One of the things that I always hear from people who work in my field is they lament the lack of trusted news figures,” Moran said. “They always say, ‘I wish we had Walter Cronkite during these times, and then people would trust the information.’ It's not that we don't have trusted figures. It's that in the internet age, we have trusted figures like Alex Jones.”
From Sandy Hook to Trump
Trump received support from Jones during his 2016 presidential campaign.
Former Trump adviser and Republican strategist Roger Stone was a paid Infowars host in 2015, and Stone connected Jones with Trump for an Infowars interview in December that year in which the soon-to-be president lauded Jones.
“Your reputation is amazing,” Trump told Jones on his show.
Jones likely played an outsized role in Trump’s election, according to Elizabeth Williamson, author of “Sandy Hook: An American Tragedy and the Battle for Truth.” The book investigates how the shooting warped into an attack on the truth from Jones and online conspiracy theorists.
Williamson said Jones was able to foresee how disaffected individuals who were also highly distrustful of the government could propel Trump to a primary victory.
“He became something of a kingmaker in the race, and with that came a really high profile that he didn't understand completely,” Williamson said. “I think he's reaping the results of that.”
All the while, Jones continued to advance conspiracy theories and misinformation to a growing audience.
Since the day of the Sandy Hook shooting, Jones has spread bogus claims about the massacre. Like many of his other conspiracy theories, Jones falsely claimed that the government was behind the shooting. But this time the lies were different.
In one 2015 show, Jones told his listeners, “Sandy Hook is synthetic, completely fake, with actors, in my view, manufactured.” In other episodes, he mocked Sandy Hook parents weeping over the deaths of their children. Jones even shared addresses, maps and personal information associated with the families of Sandy Hook victims, including revealing information about Pozner.
Only weeks after the 2012 shooting, Pozner remembers reaching out to Infowars by email to ask the outlet to stop labeling the shooting as a government hoax to take away Americans’ guns.
“I called them out on it very early on, and I was very polite about it,” Pozner said. “I asked them to be more responsible with this particular tragedy that affects me personally. And of course, they responded and replied and said, ‘No, no, we’re not denying the tragedy,’ and totally lied, and continued to do their thing.”
Jones' Sandy Hook lies circulated online on platforms like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, and soon after, Infowars followers began harassing Pozner and other victims’ parents.
Pozner said he has had to move about a dozen times since the shooting to evade Jones' followers. In 2017, Infowars listener and Sandy Hook conspiracist Lucy Richards was sentenced to five months in prison for sending death threats to Pozner. Today, Pozner lives in hiding and goes to multiple post office boxes to receive his mail. Despite his efforts, individuals occasionally call and file false police reports on Pozner in attempts to get him in trouble with local law enforcement.
Jones' previous falsehoods “are not harmless theories, but they did not single out individual vulnerable people the way he did with Sandy Hook. That was really crossing a rubicon,” Williamson said.
In April 2018, after facing years of harassment from Jones’ fans, Pozner; Noah’s mother, Veronique De La Rosa; and Neil Heslin, the father of 6-year-old victim Jesse Lewis, filed defamation lawsuits against Jones in Austin. A lawsuit from eight other families soon followed.
Legal troubles
Jones has attempted to slow or obstruct legal proceedings in the Sandy Hook defamation suits by refusing to follow court orders to turn over documents, filing late settlement offers and, in one instance, claiming that a medical problem that included vertigo prevented him from appearing in court. On April 15, Jones and his companies were ordered to pay more than $1 million in fines for his refusal to hand over pretrial information.
In September, a Travis County judge found Jones liable for defamation in lawsuits filed by two families of Sandy Hook victims. About one month later, Jones again lost in separate suits filed by the families of eight other victims. In both instances, the court found Jones liable by default for his unwillingness to cooperate with court orders.
Jones' legal troubles also include a federal investigation into his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Jones has suggested that inquiry could damage him more than the Sandy Hook defamation suits.
Jones, who has denied without evidence President Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 elections, helped obtain at least $650,000 from Julie Fancelli, an heiress to the Publix grocery chain and Infowars fan, to pay for a pro-Trump rally that preceded the attack on the Capitol. Of that money, $200,000 was deposited into one of Jones' business accounts, according to the U.S. House’s committee to investigate the Jan. 6 attack.
On his Infowars broadcast that day, Jones told his supporters, “This is the most important call to action on domestic soil since Paul Revere and his ride in 1776.” And at the Capitol, Jones used a bullhorn to excite crowds by chanting, “Stop the steal!”
He also has strong ties to individuals arrested in the attack on the Capitol, including Joe Biggs, a former Infowars staffer and a leader of the far-right group Proud Boys.
In late January this year, Jones told Infowars listeners he was questioned in front of the House committee and said he invoked his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent “almost 100 times.”
Booted by social media
Williamson said the way Jones’ falsehoods propagate and turn into harassment in the real world speaks to his reach and influence.
“He is a salesman,” Williamson said. “And when you have millions of people watching, it only takes a small fraction of those individuals to turn it into something that really travels and disrupts people's lives.”
In 2014, Pozner founded the HONR Network, an organization that works to defend victims of tragedy from online harassment.
The group has lobbied for the removal of hundreds of thousands of pieces of harmful content on social media. It also played a role in removing Jones from many online platforms.
In July 2018, Pozner and De La Rosa wrote an open letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg calling on him to protect victims of tragedies online.
“We are unable to properly grieve for our baby or move on with our lives because you, arguably the most powerful man on the planet, have deemed that the attacks on us are immaterial, that providing assistance in removing threats is too cumbersome, and that our lives are less important than providing a safe haven for hate,” Noah’s parents wrote.
A month later, Jones' content was removed from Facebook, Apple, YouTube and Spotify.
Jones’ Infowars.com saw a drop in web traffic after the bans, though the number of visitors he receives is back to early 2020 levels, an analysis for The Texas Tribune performed by digital intelligence platform SimilarWeb shows.
Pozner said his organization has also seen a significant decrease in the harassment of victims online after social media companies changed their policies to include victims of tragedies as a protected group. The platforms now seek to prevent online harassment of victims of mass casualty events and limit the use of their names and likenesses, Pozner said.
But appealing to technology companies may not do much to stop conspiracy theories from spreading, Moran said.
While social media companies have changed policies and banned harmful content like Jones’ to address the spread of misinformation, the platforms’ profit model fundamentally relies on user engagement — and conspiracy theories, Moran said, are uniquely engaging.
“You would go into a rabbit hole just reading about them because they're interesting, and that's the bread and butter of social media,” she said.
Instead of targeting social media companies, the use of legal remedies to show how misinformation actually harms people's lives may be the best bet for holding those like Jones accountable, Moran said.
“A lot of our conversation around the spread of misinformation has been on the platform side: What can and should Facebook and Instagram and Twitter be doing?” she said. “Actually, there's a lot more legal frameworks that we have in place that haven't necessarily been tested as avenues to remedy misinformation when it has actively harmed people in real life.”
An audience still dedicated
How much damage the Sandy Hook lawsuits could do to Jones remains to be seen. He’s up against plaintiffs with a highly sympathetic story who are determined to hamstring his ability to spread misinformation. The lawsuits have drawn comparisons to the case that brought down Gawker Media, in which billionaire Peter Thiel funded Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit for invasion of privacy, earning Hogan $140 million in damages and essentially forcing the company to shut down.
But while Jones may be facing more difficulties today than at any point in his career, he has been known to use his lowest moments to rake in more money from supporters.
After his ban from social media, Jones presented himself as a martyr silenced by slanted technology companies for telling the truth. As the Sandy Hook defamation lawsuits have developed, Jones has directed fans to donate to a legal defense fund. And after filing for bankruptcy earlier this month, Jones hosted an “Emergency Blowout Sale” on his website.
Despite his diminished reach and prolonged legal battles, Jones' audience remains loyal, Williamson said.
The SimilarWeb analysis shows that since 2019, monthly web traffic to Jones’ Infowarsstore.com has soared from about 427,000 visitors in 2019 to nearly 834,000 in March. During the height of the pandemic, the store attracted even more viewers, with over 1 million visits in November 2020.
“He has a dedicated audience, and they support him not only by buying Infowars merchandise, but by actually donating to him,” Williamson said.
Pozner wonders if he would have been spared from the years of relentless harassment that followed Noah’s murder if Jones had never amassed such a following, if social media didn’t exist or if the two had not experienced a simultaneous surge in popularity.
“We would have had more private lives,” Pozner said. “It was an intersection of a terrible tragedy and the expansion of the internet.”
Disclosure: Apple, Facebook and The New York Times have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here. | https://www.keranews.org/news/2022-04-28/how-sandy-hook-lies-and-the-jan-6-inquiry-threaten-to-undo-alex-jones | 2022-05-12T15:45:58Z |
For years, fossil fuel producing states have watched investors shy away from companies causing the climate crisis. Last year, one state decided to push back.
Texas passed a law treating financial companies shunning fossil fuels the same way it treated companies that did business with Iran, or Sudan: boycott them.
"This bill sent a strong message to both Washington and Wall Street that if you boycott Texas energy, then Texas will boycott you," Texas Representative Phil King said from the floor of the Texas legislature during deliberations on the bill, SB 13, last year.
But the Lone Star state is straining to implement the law. Loopholes and exceptions written into the law could sap its impact on financial firms that have aggressive climate policies.
This March, the Texas State Comptroller began sending letters out to financial institutions, probing their climate policies. Leslie Samuelrich, president of Green Century Capital Management, a fossil fuel-free mutual fund, says her firm recently received its letter.
"It felt very politically motivated," she says. Samuelrich says she plans to ignore the one she got.
Even so, Samuelrich says the law could have a "chilling effect" on some investment firms.
Despite Texas's emerging problems in implementing the first law penalizing companies for fossil fuel divestment, the concept of boycotting green finance is spreading. At least seven other states are now considering or have passed similar legislation, raising the prospect of a coalition of fossil fuel producing states putting pressure on Wall Street.
"The state of Texas is a large state with a lot of money," says Rob Greer, associate professor in the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University. "They can certainly sort of make a difference. But when you're talking about the largest financial institutions...the global trends are going to be those that dictate a lot of this - and the state of Texas may maybe be out of sync with some of those global trends."
A popularity contest
Fossil fuels help to power the Texas economy, employing some 14% of Texas workers in 2019, according to the American Petroleum Institute. They also power the state's politics. The new law was written by Jason Isaac, a former legislator whose foundation takes money from the fossil fuel industry.
The law bars Texas's state retirement and investment funds from doing business with companies that the State Comptroller says are "boycotting" fossil fuels. The funds are worth approximately $330 billion, though it's not clear how much of them is invested in companies Texas plans to boycott. The law applies to new or existing contracts greater than $100,000.
Texas applies the term "boycott" liberally. Because of how the law is written, even firms that invest their customer money in fossil fuels but also offer fossil-fuel free financial products could be considered boycotters.
Since Texas passed its bill, at least seven other states have either considered or passed similar legislation. Last fall, a coalition of 15 treasurers from mostly Republican-led states published a letter saying they would stop banking with financial institutions engaged in "boycotting" fossil fuels.
But if the state boycotts are spreading, so too is the popularity of green investing. In 2014, there were some $52 billion dollars divested from fossil fuels worldwide, according to the Global Fossil Fuel Divestment Commitment Database. By 2022, that number stood at $40.43 trillion.
Experts are skeptical about the Texas law's chances of success. They point to gaping loopholes in the legislation. They say that the climate risks to the financial system are so huge that there's no real way to stop financial firms from pricing them in - and going greener in the process.
"I see this as just the next or one of many symbolic actions," says David Spence, a law professor at The University of Texas, Austin.
New documents obtained by the investigative reporting group Floodlight reveal just how much trouble the Lone Star State has had in trying to figure out who to stop working with.
The Comptroller's Dilemma
When the Texas state legislature originally debated its fossil fuel boycott bill, representatives from the State Comptroller's office pointed out an obvious issue: nobody had ever come up with a list of companies like this before.
"This is not obvious, you're really going to have to do a lot of research," says Sheri Greenberg, a former Democratic Texas state lawmaker who used to help oversee pension fund investments.
Texas is now learning how hard it is to sort out which financial firms are actually going green. There are no national standards for companies to report their greenhouse gas emissions.
A spokesman for the comptroller's office says the process "has proven challenging."
This spring, however, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced that it will begin standardizing how financial firms must disclose risks and opportunities from climate change.
But for now, figuring out who is really doing climate-conscious finance is actually quite tricky. So tricky, in fact, that the new law might even snare consultants the state hired to help.
Last fall,Texas hired MSCI Inc., a financial ratings firm that analyzes green investments, to provide data about financial firms, public records obtained by Floodlight show.
But there was a problem: MSCI is precisely the kind of company Texas officials are looking to boycott: it is committed to carbon neutrality before 2040.
That's the sort of thing that can now get you in trouble in Texas. In emails, a lawyer at the Comptroller's office worried the state might not be allowed to work with MSCI under the new law.
The lawyer's solution was to keep the contract cheap - under the amount at which the new law kicks in. After email negotiations on August 26th, MSCI agreed to drop its price from $100,000 to $95,000, emails show. The contract squeaked under the bar set by the new law, and was signed.
"The simple truth is that the creation of this list would present no challenge whatsoever if these companies were open, transparent and honest about their position on the fossil fuel sector," a spokesman for the comptroller's office wrote in a statement.
But the trouble with MSCI's contract is just the first hurdle the state can expect as it attempts to stem the tide of climate-conscious investing.
Loopholes and carve-outs
Because of the way that Texas has defined the term "boycott" in the law, financial companies that are merely investing in other funds that shun fossil fuels could possibly run afoul of the statute.
"Let's take Wells Fargo, for instance," says Greenberg, the former state pension overseer. "If they have any mutual funds or exchange traded funds in their portfolios that prohibit or limit investment in fossil fuels, then that is problematic." But the law also contains myriad carve-outs. For example, companies that want to work with Texas can still avoid investing in fossil fuels as long as they are doing so for strictly financial, rather than ethical or environmental, reasons.
"It's smart business to not invest in fossils," says Robert Schuwerk, executive director of the North American office of Carbon Tracker, a financial think tank that studies the green energy transition.
If a company believes that its fossil fuel assets are going to be worth less in the future because of things like carbon taxes, or more powerful natural disasters caused by climate change, then it makes sense for a company to sell those assets now, Schuwerk explains.
The Texas comptroller's office did not comment on the effect of exemptions in the law. A spokesman for the office directed questions about those exceptions to the legislature.
"We don't know what the impact will be to corporate behavior and wouldn't want to speculate on how companies will respond," the spokesman says.
Other states that have passed similar laws argue that allowing some exceptions won't weaken the effort.
"If they're making a business decision," says Riley Moore, the state treasurer of West Virginia, "somebody comes in for a loan for a coal company, and they decide that it's a big credit risk, and they don't want to do it, then that's fine."
Moore says he sees the law applying directly to companies' public statements.
"(If) they're saying we, as a financial institution, will not lend money to coal, for instance. That is a blanket statement that is a problem for the state of West Virginia," Moore says.
Samuelrich, the mutual fund manager, says that for her firm, being listed as a boycotted entity might not be such a bad thing.
"I don't think this is going to affect demand at all," she says. "In fact it might spur more people to realize that they can invest fossil fuel free."
This story is a collaboration with Floodlight, a non-profit environmental news organization.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.keranews.org/news/2022-04-29/texas-stumbles-in-its-effort-to-punish-green-financial-firms | 2022-05-12T15:46:05Z |
“I firmly believe that these actions and these laws are politically motivated, but they are harming very vulnerable trans youth and gender diverse youth and their families,” she said. “I think that it is time to stand up, to speak out, and I’m taking the opportunity … to do exactly that.”
Levine, the highest ranking trans person in government, spoke at the annual Out for Health Conference, a gathering organized by health science and medical students in Texas. It was held this year at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth. Levine originally was scheduled to speak at the conference remotely.
“What I’m asking for for medical students and physicians throughout the country is to get involved,” said Levine, who is the assistant secretary for health in the Department of Health and Human Services.
Major medical groups like the American Medical Association recognize and support evidence-based, gender-affirming care for patients under 18, and have spoken out against efforts to stop it.
“Gender affirming care is mental health care. Gender affirming care is suicide prevention care,” Levine said Saturday at TCU. “It is based on decades of study. It is a well-established medical practice.”
Over 100 anti-trans policies have been passed by states since last year.
In February, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton issued a non-binding opinion deeming some gender-affirming care “child abuse.” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott followed by ordering state investigations into reports of families who use this kind of health care.
Both men were facing far-right primary challenges for re-election at the time; Paxton is currently in a runoff that ends on May 24th.
Abbott’s investigation order was halted by a lower court. Paxton has asked the Texas Supreme Court to rule on the issue. Meanwhile, family services workers have resigned and families of trans children are leaving the state.
Vandana Garg, a TCU medical student and one of the organizers of the conference, said the point of Out for Health is to raise awareness of LGBTQI+ health “so that we can leave this conference with the knowledge of ways that we can help our patients in the future and support them in any way that we can.”
As the most prominent trans person in the federal government, Levine has become a target for Paxton on social media. He misgendered her on Twitter, prompting the social media company to label his tweet as being flagged for “hateful conduct.”
Got a tip? Email Bret Jaspers at bjaspers@kera.org. You can follow Bret on Twitter @bretjaspers.
KERA News is made possible through the generosity of our members. If you find this reporting valuable, consider making a tax-deductible gift today. Thank you. | https://www.keranews.org/news/2022-04-30/top-biden-health-official-rachel-levine-in-texas-to-warn-of-tipping-point-on-anti-trans-policies | 2022-05-12T15:46:11Z |
Sergio Martínez-Beltrán | The Texas Newsroom
Sergio Martínez-Beltrán reports on Texas politics and government for The Texas Newsroom.
Prior to moving to Austin, Sergio worked for the nonprofit news outlet Bridge Michigan, where he reported extensively on the state’s inaugural redistricting commission, campaign finance and state government. He’s won multiple accolades, including a regional Edward R. Murrow Award for a story he did on mariachi education while covering politics for Nashville Public Radio.
Sergio is a Puerto Rico native and a graduate of Michigan State University. Reach him at smb@kut.org.
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Arlington officials surveying the public about health issues, access to care to fill in gaps
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The Arlington Fire Department wants to know how people in town get medical help and advice—and what barriers may be in the way. The agency launched a survey as part of its expanded public health efforts.
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Aviation Accidents
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Robinson helicopter model in fatal Rowlett crash involved in 68 deaths since 2012
Bret Jaspers
The model of helicopter that crashed in Rowlett last month — killing a flight instructor and her student — has been involved in almost 40 fatal crashes in the past decade. | https://www.keranews.org/tags/aviation-accidents | 2022-05-12T15:46:41Z |
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chorus
Arts & Culture
Dallas Symphony takes over Children's Chorus after the singing group's staff resigns
Jerome Weeks
The new Dallas Symphony Children's Choir starts in July. Meanwhile, former staff have formed the Greater Dallas Choral Society.
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1:20 | https://www.keranews.org/tags/chorus | 2022-05-12T15:47:00Z |
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Pet stores in Dallas are now banned from selling dogs and cats after a city council vote Wednesday. The Humane Pet Ordinance is aimed at eliminating a market for commercial breeding operations like puppy mills.
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A commission redrawing city council lines in Dallas approved new boundaries on Tuesday, leaving current districts largely intact and white residents overrepresented.
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Lead contamination at Shingle Mountain site linked to old plant — and could extend into neighborhoodLead contamination blamed on a mountain of shingles at a Southeast Dallas site is actually linked to an industrial plant that operated there in the 1970s and '80s. City leaders are worried that the surrounding neighborhood may also be contaminated.
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Natural gas leaks are more prevalent in communities of color and low-income neighborhoods, according to a new report published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology,
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Southeast Dallas residents who live near the former Shingle Mountain site want the city council to approve a $2 million cleanup of toxic lead and arsenic contamination.
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Property owners and promoters who host events in Dallas without a permit could face stiff fines and could be held financially accountable for costs related to an emergency response from police or firefighters. That's if a proposed ordinance is passed.
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Debbie Orozco Solis says folks in her West Dallas neighborhood have to live with a fine dust that sometimes makes it hard to breathe. They share the neighborhood with a “concrete batch plant” that makes cement for construction projects.
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Redistricting maps for Dallas City Council races recently were updated after Black and Latino residents complained that earlier versions threatened their voting power. And that could happen again.
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This is the first story in a four-part series. Read the second, third and fourth stories. Blocked exit pathways. Leaking roofs. Decaying walls and ceilings. Faulty plumbing. These are just some of the alleged problems at two Vickery Meadow apartment complexes in Northeast Dallas, home to many refugees who have just recently arrived in the U.S.
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This is the second story in a four-part series. Read the first, third and fourth stories. Step inside Today’s Discount Food Mart near the corner of Park Lane and Fair Oaks Avenue and you’ll likely be greeted with música norteña, a type of regional Mexican music. The store is stocked with a rainbow of helados (popsicles), tortillas and an array of Mexican spices.
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This is the third story in a four-part series. Read the first, second and fourth stories.Amy Del Toro rattles balcony rails, checks the temperature coming out of hot water faucets, scans the walls for water damage and looks for evidence of six-legged residents that have no business being in the apartments she inspects.
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This is the fourth story in a four-part series. Read the first, second and third stories. Everywhere, all the time, cockroaches.Rashidah Yusof says that’s just part of life for her family in their Vickery Meadow apartment. No matter how much she cleans, the bugs are relentless. | https://www.keranews.org/tags/government-accountability | 2022-05-12T15:47:37Z |
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museum
Arts & Culture
Building three new homes for Black arts and culture in Fort Worth
Jerome Weeks
Join us for State of the Arts at the Kimbell Friday to learn more about the National Juneteenth Museum, the Fort Worth African American Museum and The Fred Rouse Center for Arts and Community Healing
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4:31 | https://www.keranews.org/tags/museum | 2022-05-12T15:47:49Z |
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Parks Mall at Arlington
Business/Economy
Arlington mall announces curfew program for minors after brawl ends in arrests
Kailey Broussard
Shoppers under 18 will need to bring a parent or guardian if they want to shop at the Parks Mall at Arlington after 2 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. | https://www.keranews.org/tags/parks-mall-at-arlington | 2022-05-12T15:48:01Z |
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This is the first story in a four-part series. Read the second, third and fourth stories. Blocked exit pathways. Leaking roofs. Decaying walls and ceilings. Faulty plumbing. These are just some of the alleged problems at two Vickery Meadow apartment complexes in Northeast Dallas, home to many refugees who have just recently arrived in the U.S.
-
This is the second story in a four-part series. Read the first, third and fourth stories. Step inside Today’s Discount Food Mart near the corner of Park Lane and Fair Oaks Avenue and you’ll likely be greeted with música norteña, a type of regional Mexican music. The store is stocked with a rainbow of helados (popsicles), tortillas and an array of Mexican spices.
-
This is the third story in a four-part series. Read the first, second and fourth stories.Amy Del Toro rattles balcony rails, checks the temperature coming out of hot water faucets, scans the walls for water damage and looks for evidence of six-legged residents that have no business being in the apartments she inspects.
-
This is the fourth story in a four-part series. Read the first, second and third stories. Everywhere, all the time, cockroaches.Rashidah Yusof says that’s just part of life for her family in their Vickery Meadow apartment. No matter how much she cleans, the bugs are relentless. | https://www.keranews.org/tags/vulnerable-in-vickery | 2022-05-12T15:48:13Z |
Gov. Greg Abbott announced a security agreement Wednesday with the governor of the Mexican state of Nuevo León that the two leaders say will return trade to normal operations after unprecedented stoppages and slowdowns at international bridges.
But the agreement will only affect Nuevo León, which shares the smallest segment of the border —about 14 kilometers — with Texas. It is home to the Colombia Solidarity Bridge, which is part of the Laredo customs district, the busiest in the county. But billions in two-way trade also cross through the ports that connect Texas with the Mexican states of Tamaulipas, Chihuahua and Coahuila.
Abbott was joined by Nuevo León Governor Samuel García to announce the agreement, which compels law enforcement in Nuevo León to increase inspections of vehicles before they arrive at the border.
Last week, Abbott ordered Texas Department of Public Safety troopers to begin enhanced inspections of commercial vehicles coming into Texas in response to the lifting next month of Title 42, a pandemic-era rule used to quickly expel migrants.
“Gov. Garcia has begun and will continue enhanced border security measures on the Nuevo León side of the border, both at ports of entry and alongside the Rio Grande River to prevent illegal immigration from Nuevo León into Texas.” Abbott said. “The increase in border security in the Nuevo León side will continue going forward.”
The enhanced inspections have led to wait times at international crossings that have reportedly exceeded 12 hours. It led Mexican truckers to block ports of entry in Tamaulipas and Chihuahua, which are not included in the agreement.
Teclo Garcia, the City of Laredo’s Economic Development Director, said as of Wednesday morning the blockades were ongoing at the Pharr port of entry. He called Wednesday’s agreement a good start but said the Colombia Solidarity Bridge does a fraction of what Laredo’s World Trade Bridge, which borders Tamaulipas, does daily.
“It’s maybe five times as much,” Garcia said. “Colombia is doing 1,000 or 1,500 trucks a day. World Trade is doing 9,000 trucks. And that’s just going one-way, northbound.”
Abbott said his office has been contacted by the governors from the other three Mexican states but doubled down on the increased inspections, saying blame should be placed on President Biden.
“The ultimate way to end the clogged border is for President Biden to do his job and to secure the border,” Abbott said. “You need to call your member of Congress and insist that they hold the Biden administration accountable.”
He also said Texans frustrated with the trade slowdown should contact Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to urge him to collaborate with Texas to end the “influx of cartel activity into Texas.”
Abbott said about 25% of commercial trucks inspected so far have been flagged as being unsafe. But he deferred questions about if contraband was found in those trucks to the Texas Department of Public Safety. Texas DPS Director Steven McCraw was at the press conference and didn’t address the question.
Abbott has faced mounting backlash from business groups for the work stoppage. Abbott said those same groups have been “shouting for the past 15 months” for Biden not to relax border restrictions.
“The people in Texas who may have suffered some hardship because it took a few extra hours to get something across the port, those are the very same Texans who agree overwhelmingly that we as a state and we as a people have suffered substantially from the open-border policies of the Biden administration,” said Abbott.
KERA News is made possible through the generosity of our members. If you find this reporting valuable, consider making a tax-deductible gift today. Thank you.
Got a tip? Email Julián Aguilar at jaguilar@kera.org.You can follow Julián on Twitter @nachoaguilar. | https://www.keranews.org/texas-news/2022-04-13/abbott-lifts-border-restrictions-on-one-part-of-border-but-says-slowdowns-will-continue-elsewhere | 2022-05-12T15:48:26Z |
The first bus carrying undocumented immigrants who crossed the border into Texas completed its trip to Washington D.C. on Wednesday as part of Gov. Greg Abbot’s expanded border-security operation.
Abbott’s office said in a statement the bus was carrying migrants from Colombia, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela. The trip is a component of Abbott’s expansion of Operation Lone Star, the state’s border-security mission, which Abbott announced last week in response to the Biden Administration’s plans to end a pandemic-era immigration rule put in place by the Trump administration in 2020.
"As the federal government continues to turn a blind eye to the border crisis, the State of Texas will remain steadfast in our efforts to fill in the gaps and keep Texans safe," Abbott said in a news release. "By busing migrants to Washington, D.C., the Biden Administration will be able to more immediately meet the needs of the people they are allowing to cross our border.”
The migrants were dropped off between Union Station and the United States Capitol, the news release said. A second bus was on the same route as of Wednesday morning.
It’s unclear where in Texas the migrants were apprehended. Unauthorized crossings have increased over the last year in every Texas sector of the U.S. Border Patrol, with the Rio Grande Valley being the busiest.
Under Abbott’s order, the Texas Division of Emergency Management is now tasked with transporting the migrants, and that office referred any questions about the operation to Abbott’s office.
Abel Nuñez, the executive director of the Central American Resource Center, told The Texas Newsroom his organization has been in touch with other refugee resettlement groups to assess the arrival of the migrants.
He said the bus coming from Texas was carrying about 15 migrants, but that most of them said they were going to Florida to stay with family or friends.
In El Paso on Monday Abbott told border sheriffs to prepare for a possibly “cataclysmic” event once the pandemic-era rule, known as Title 42, ends in May. The policy quickly expels most undocumented immigrants back to Mexico without allowing the migrants a chance to be processed by border officials and apply for asylum in the United States.
Another facet of Abbott’s expanded operation calls for the Texas Department of Public Safety to inspect commercial vehicles after they are allowed into the country by federal customs agents. That policy has led to a massive backlog at some of Texas’ busiest ports. On Monday Mexican truckers blocked some ports of entry to protest the policy. Abbott is scheduled to meet Wednesday with the governor of the Mexican border state of Nuevo Leon, which borders Texas in Webb County.
Reporter Sergio Martínez-Beltrán contributed reporting | https://www.keranews.org/texas-news/2022-04-13/first-bus-of-migrants-who-crossed-into-texas-makes-trip-to-washington-d-c | 2022-05-12T15:48:32Z |
SAN MARCOS — Ever since Juan Escalante was let go from his job at a distribution center, he and his wife, Emily, have done everything they can think of to provide for their family of five. They cobble together what they can from odd jobs and construction work while she drives for Uber when time allows.
To keep meals on the table, they’ve turned to food stamps and a government assistance program for women, infants and young children. But as inflation continues pushing up the cost of food, they’ve found themselves trying to shore up an ever-growing budgetary gap.
“What would be $100 in groceries is not roughly what was $100 maybe a few months ago,” Juan Escalante said.
To round out what’s in the pantry, the Escalantes also rely on their local food bank, where Juan Escalante heads twice a week. But as food prices rise for consumers, food banks are also dealing with their own financial squeeze caused by inflation and a decline in donations as they wait for the disbursement of already approved federal aid. That’s often leaving food banks with whatever food they can get their hands on to assist a growing number of people who need their help.
“There’s some items that are kind of odd,” Juan Escalante said. “Sometimes we’re like, ‘Well, we have never used this, maybe we can look up some recipes and stuff like that.”
Feeding Texas, a statewide nonprofit and the largest anti-hunger organization in Texas, served an average of 60,000 Central Texans across 21 counties each week before the pandemic, said Vindhya Ganhewa, volunteer ambassador and warehouse leader for the group. The number of people seeking help each week has since gone up by about 25%.
“We’re now serving an average of 75,000 people a week. So it’s definitely increased because of the pandemic and because of food scarcity issues in general,” Ganhewa said.
The share of Texas households experiencing food insecurity — homes with limited access to consistent meals and groceries — increased from 13% in December 2018 to 22% in June 2021, according to the Texas Research-to-Policy Collaboration Project.
Overall inflation has recently risen at the fastest rate in decades. The consumer price index in March was up 8.5% compared with the year prior, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That has ripple effects throughout the food supply chain. The cost of food consumed at home rose even faster — 10% — over the past 12 months. That’s the largest one-year increase since March 1981, according to the BLS.
“Consumers are seeing inflation but also producers as well with all the input prices that they’re having to pay for, whether it be fertilizer, fuel or just parts for their equipment, to make sure they can get the crop to harvest and get it to market,” said Brant Wilbourn, Texas Farm Bureau associate director of commodity and regulatory activities.
In recent days, truck drivers’ protests over Gov. Greg Abbott’s directive that state troopers increase commercial vehicle inspections at the Texas-Mexico border have spurred fears that food costs could quickly skyrocket even more.
Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller asked Monday for a halt to the inspections, which were slowing traffic before protests made matters worse.
“This policy will hurt Texas and American consumers by driving up already skyrocketing food prices, worsening ongoing supply chain disruptions, causing massive produce shortages, and saddling Texas and American companies with untold losses,” Miller said in a press release.
Higher prices in production, labor and gas work their way to the shelves of grocery stores, increasing the cost of staples like eggs and peanut butter.
“It finally gets to the store, and in that case, the jar of peanut butter may cost 6% or 7% more than it did last year,” said Gary Huddleston, the Texas Retailers Association grocery industry consultant.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that Texas cities such as Houston, Dallas and Fort Worth saw grocery prices increase between 5% and 6% last year. The U.S. Department of Agriculture predicts more increases this year.
Feeding Texas’ 21 food bank partners receive most of their food and money to operate from two sources: the USDA and donations. Feeding Texas CEO Celia Cole said USDA assistance doesn’t always provide enough money to cover the cost of getting food to people.
Texas lawmakers allocated $95 million last year from Texas’ $16 billion share of the federal American Rescue Plan Act to food banks. But food banks have waited months for the money to arrive. On March 31, Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller said in a press release that the grants were being awarded and acknowledged the need for help since the start of the pandemic.
“Multiple crises continue to strain the ability of food banks to meet increased demand, particularly in rural and other underserved communities,” Miller said in a statement. “This investment in our food bank infrastructure and distribution networks will ensure our ability to continue responding to the needs of Texans.”
The federal grant will give food banks the financial ability to store and transport food they receive — or help renovate their facilities if needed. Cole said the funding will largely go to five primary causes: facility expansion, equipment, transportation, technology for tracking inventory and giving grants to partner agencies.
To combat financial shortfalls in the meantime, food banks have tried to increase donations. But Feeding Texas saw a drop in donations at the beginning of the pandemic and is now expecting to see another decrease.
“I definitely think inflation and kind of general economic concerns and what’s going on in Ukraine, you know, it has people worried,” Cole said. “So people tend to … be more cautious about how much they donate when they’re concerned about sort of what the future holds for them economically.”
Making do with what they can
Not all Texans who seek help at food drives or food banks are homeless or living in food deserts. According to Ganhewa, about two-thirds of the households using Feeding Texas’ services have at least one working adult at home and have turned to grocery assistance due to grocery affordability or lacking funds to buy other necessities.
“About 80% of our clients have reported having to choose between paying for food or paying for medicine or medical care,” Ganhewa said. “About two-thirds of our clients have to choose between food and housing. So definitely when the prices are inflated when inflation in general rises, that definitely exacerbates the need that they experienced in terms of just not being able to feed themselves and their family.”
Juan Escalante lost his job after he didn’t renew his residency card on time. He’s still considered a permanent resident, but letting a residency card lapse can complicate — or prevent — someone’s ability to work until it is renewed. As he works to get the card renewed, he’s been able to find some construction work to help pay the bills. Emily Escalante works her ride-share job when she’s not caring for their three children.
The family’s income fluctuates related to the jobs they can take and the amount of time she can dedicate to driving for Uber each week. They estimate they currently bring in about $1,300 a month. Government-funded food programs help, but not completely.
“That only covers a certain amount, and with three growing little girls they, you know, they have a growing appetite with their growing body, and the money we get is not cutting enough to kind of feed all five of us at the moment,” Juan Escalante said.
He says his food bank helps round things out.
“We’re just pretty thankful for that, that they have that type of distribution going on throughout the week,” he said.
Meanwhile, food banks say they’re trying to provide as much as they can without knowing how long demand will remain elevated as their operating costs also rise and donations dip.
“It’s unclear how long the gas prices will be this high and how long we’ll be seeing inflation,” said Cole, the Feeding Texas CEO. “Obviously, you have different opinions from different economists, but I think [food banks] are all concerned because it’s caused a significant increase in their transportation costs, and that’s affecting their overall sort of operating budget. So they’re all sort of on the lookout for what this is going to mean in the long run.” | https://www.keranews.org/texas-news/2022-04-13/food-banks-struggle-to-help-texans-as-grocery-prices-increase | 2022-05-12T15:48:38Z |
A gimmick. Stuck on stupid. A clog in the drain.
Those are some of the phrases Republicans, Democrats and immigrant rights activists are using to describe new border security initiatives Gov. Greg Abbott announced last week, which include busing apprehended migrants to Washington, D.C.
Abbott, who is running for reelection in November, also announced last week the state would be ramping up vehicle inspections along the U.S.-Mexico border. This has already led to hours-long lines at checkpoints and protests by Mexican truckers.
Aileen Teague, an assistant professor of international affairs at Texas A&M University’s Bush School of Government and Public Service, said Abbott's latest proposals are part political theater: Politicians often use immigration issues as a bargaining chip during election years.
“What Gov. Abbott presents is just another sort of political move of kinda moving the issue to Washington’s back door,” Teague told The Texas Newsroom.
“Does it actually make the entire situation of comprehensive immigration reform, economic connections between Mexico and the United States, and the migration issue — does it make it better? I think that the answer is a resounding no,” she said.
Abbott has described his latest proposals as a response to President Joe Biden’s decision to rescind Title 42 — the pandemic-era policy that permitted the expulsion of migrants seeking asylum on public health grounds.
“This is Gov. Abbott’s way of showing that he’s discontented with losing the sort of privilege to detain migrants," Teague said.
Abbott’s mass relocation policy targets those migrants who were apprehended along the border by federal law enforcement agencies and were later released into the U.S. while their court cases move forward.
Last week, when Abbott unveiled the policy, he said Texas was going to provide "charter buses to send these illegal immigrants who have been dropped off by the Biden Administration to Washington, D.C.”
But soon after, Abbott clarified that the program was completely voluntary.
“If I were to go to Washington, D.C., and take you and put you on a bus and take you down to the Rio Grande Valley, that would be kidnapping," Abbott told Fox News.
While some in the GOP praised Abbott’s new plan, others called the governor’s proposals a political stunt.
In a Facebook post, State Rep. Matt Schaefer, R-Tyler, called Abbott’s move a "gimmick" and “a stunt to grab a 'tough on the border' headline.”
Allen West, the former chair of the Republican Party of Texas, said in a series of tweets the idea was “stuck on stupid.”
"Busses? Gas? Food? Is this what the budget surplus will be used for instead of property tax relief?" West tweeted. "You don’t stop an invasion by transporting the invading entity."
Of course, it should be noted: West ran against Abbott in last month’s Republican primary for governor.
1/Yesterday Texas Governor Greg Abbott made a huge announcement on his plan to deal with the Biden administration ending Title 42 restrictions on illegal immigrants. He is going to bus them to Washington, DC.
— Allen West (@AllenWest) April 7, 2022
So my question is simple: who pays for this "stuck on stupid" idea?
While experts such as Teague say the governor’s moves are more about politics than practical solutions, some leaders from communities along the border are welcoming Abbott’s proposal.
Don McLaughlin is the mayor of Uvalde, a town of about 25,000 people located 60 miles away from the border. McLaughlin recently told the Uvalde Leader-News that U.S. Customs and Border Protection said they would be releasing up to 150 migrants per day in Uvalde. That influx of migrants overwhelms his town, he told The Texas Newsroom last week.
“If you dump them here in Uvalde, what do we do with them?" McLaughlin said. "We don’t have a facility to house them. We don’t have a facility to feed them. We just don’t.”
“Do I think it’s a political stunt? You know, I thought about that. But at the same token, I think it’s more of a step to bring awareness to what’s going on at the Southern border."
McLaughlin, who endorsed one of Abbott’s primary challengers in the primary, said he believes the governor is genuine with his policy proposals, although he recognized there might be some strategy behind it.
“Do I think it’s a political stunt? You know, I thought about that," McLaughlin said. "But at the same token, I think it’s more of a step to bring awareness to what’s going on at the Southern border … because guess what? Every news media in the country has picked up that we are going to bus them to Washington, D.C.”
But for immigrant and civil rights groups, such as the ACLU of Texas, Abbott’s motives are clear.
“This is yet another effort by Gov. Abbott to use migrants as political pawns to further his own political ends," said Kate Huddleston, a staff attorney at the ACLU of Texas.
She said her organization is monitoring the implementation of the policy.
Right now, it’s unclear whether the state has started busing migrants to D.C.
In an email to The Texas Newsroom, Seth Christensen, the chief of media and communications at the Texas Division of Emergency Management, the agency in charge of the program, said buses have been dispatched to the communities that have "expressed concerns about the federal government dropping off migrants."
However, it seems like that hasn't gone anywhere.
"From the RGV to Terrell County, a large majority of the communities that originally reached out for support through this operation have now said that the federal government has stopped dropping migrants in their towns since the Governor’s announcement (last week)," Christensen said.
Besides the busing of migrants, Abbott's implementation of enhanced commercial vehicle inspections along the border has raised serious issues.
Since its implementation last week, the ports of entries along the southern border have experienced hours-long wait times.
In response, Mexican truckers on Monday effectively blocked multiple ports of entry to Texas in protest.
“You cannot solve a border crisis by creating another crisis at the border."
An official with CBP told The Texas Newsroom commercial traffic was halted at the Pharr International Bridge in the Rio Grande Valley due to a protest on the Reynosa side of the bridge.
In a news release Tuesday, Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, a Republican, called on Abbott to end the inspections, which he characterized as a "clog in the drain."
“You cannot solve a border crisis by creating another crisis at the border,” Miller said.
Raymond Robertson, the director of the Mosbacher Institute for Trade, Economics, and Public Policy at Texas A&M University, said the delays will significantly hurt the economy on the state and national level.
“We know that these types of delays are expensive to businesses because most of the things that we are importing from Mexico are used by businesses, either grocery stores, retailers, or other manufacturing relies on Mexican parts," Robertson said.
He added that Abbott's latest policies could also backfire by undoing some of the work he's done to improve the economy in the state.
“During Gov. Abbott's term the economy in Texas is recovering," Robertson said. "We are growing and we need workers ... so busing the workers to D.C. seems to be moving them from where they might actually be needed to where they might not be needed.”
Copyright 2022 KUT 90.5. To see more, visit KUT 90.5. | https://www.keranews.org/texas-news/2022-04-13/gov-abbotts-new-border-policies-spur-backlash-among-many-republicans-included | 2022-05-12T15:48:44Z |
Gov. Greg Abbott’s administration is transporting migrants from Texas to Washington D.C. without coordinating with federal or local officials said the commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection on Thursday.
The statement comes after two buses carrying migrants who crossed the border into Texas were sent to Washington this week as part of Abbott’s expansion of Operation Lone Star, a state border-security strategy launched last year.
“Governor Abbott is taking actions to move migrants without adequately coordinating with the federal government and local border communities. CBP has always worked closely with and supported border communities in Texas, many of which CBP personnel call home,” said CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus. “We all have a shared interest in maintaining safe, orderly, and humane immigration processes, and assistance from the state should be carefully coordinated with us.”
The statement did not include what, if anything, CBP can or would do in response, however.
Abbott’s orders for the Texas Division of Emergency Management were announced last week in response to the Biden administration’s plans to lift of Title 42, a policy that immediately expels migrants, late next month. The policy was implemented at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic by the Trump administration. Abbott said rescinding it would lead to a possible “cataclysmic” event at the southern border.
Abbott’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about CBP’s statement.
Magnus added that migrants are processed at the border according to current law.
“Individuals encountered at the border who are not subject to expulsion under Title 42 are placed into immigration enforcement proceedings according to law. As part of this process, some noncitizens are placed into expedited removal processes, while others may be issued a notice to appear at immigration proceedings and placed in Alternatives to Detention,” he said. “As individuals await the outcome of their immigration proceedings, they are legally obligated to report in for the next steps in their immigration process and permitted to travel elsewhere. CBP’s close partnerships with other government and non-governmental stakeholders are essential to this effort, and to ensuring fairness, order, and humanity in the process.”
At least two buses have been sent to Washington, D.C. as part of Abbott’s plan. The governor’s office told The Texas Newsroom that about 14 migrants were transported Thursday. They were from Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba and Colombia. That follows Wednesday’s busload of about 30 passengers.
Earlier Thursday, a groups of immigrant rights groups held a news conference to welcome the migrants, whom they called their new neighbors.
“We are eager to serve the asylum seekers that arrive from Texas and beyond,” said Gustavo Torres, the executive director of CASA, a mid-Atlantic based immigrant rights organization. “In our region, we are blessed with a forward-thinking government and a tight net of advocates, allies, and immigrant activists that lead with respect and dignity. Restoring asylum and expanding opportunities for immigrants to receive protection is what our country must do.”
The CBP statement comes two days after the agency said another one of Abbott’s new policies, increased inspections of commercial vehicles at the border, was stunting trade.
KERA News is made possible through the generosity of our members. If you find this reporting valuable, consider making a tax-deductible gift today. Thank you.
Got a tip? Email Julián Aguilar at jaguilar@kera.org.You can follow Julián on Twitter @nachoaguilar. | https://www.keranews.org/texas-news/2022-04-14/cbp-says-abbott-not-adequately-coordinating-with-feds-locals-about-migrant-busing | 2022-05-12T15:48:50Z |
Three current and former staffers of Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo have been indicted and are under investigation over allegations they unfairly awarded an $11 million COVID-19 vaccine campaign contract to a Democratic strategist. Hidalgo is defending her staff and claims the investigation is an attempt to damage her political career.
Jasper Scherer, Texas politics reporter for the Houston Chronicle, has been following the story. He tells Texas Standard that Hidalgo staffers allegedly communicated with the Houston-based consulting company, Elevate Strategies, weeks before that firm submitted its bid for the multimillion-dollar campaign it ultimately won. Listen to the interview with Scherer in the audio player above or read the transcript below to learn more.
This interview has been edited lightly for clarity.
Texas Standard: Tell us a little bit more about the allegations behind these indictments. All three apparently served on a committee that was providing recommendations for contracts during the pandemic, is that right?
Jasper Scherer: That’s right. Yeah, this is stemming from an investigation by the Texas Rangers, which is kind of a division of the state Department of Public Safety. And what the Rangers found, what they’re alleging, is that these three staffers who I would describe each as being in the judge’s inner circle – chief of staff and policy director, or some of her top aides – the investigation found that those three staffers, one of whom no longer works for her, may have inappropriately communicated with the head of this firm, Elevate Strategies, that ultimately received the outreach contract. They may have communicated with the firm weeks before it actually submitted a bid for the contract, so that’s where the official the misuse of official information charge comes in.
And then separately, each of the staffers signed written affidavits affirming that they didn’t do anything wrong, that they followed the letter of the law. And the Rangers are also charging that that’s inaccurate, that they misportrayed that, and that’s where the tampering charge comes in.
Why does Judge Hidalgo believe this is an effort to ruin her political career? Is there any evidence of that?
As far as her official involvement, there’s absolutely none. But, you know, I think it’s still fair to say that it carries quite a bit of potential to damage her, her reelection chances. Whether it ultimately prevents her from winning reelection is another thing, but she has kind of uniquely portrayed herself as sort of being above this system that she’s accused here of being tied to, and that’s in Harris County.
There’s kind of this perception, or in some cases, maybe reality depending on how you look at it, that vendors have unique access; they have kind of a wedge into the contract awarding process because they so commonly donate to the political campaigns of the commissioners, and usually the judge. But Judge Hidalgo has made a point of rejecting campaign contributions from county vendors. So that’s why this is thought to make her uniquely vulnerable in November because she’s made such a point of trying to separate herself from the system.
A lot of folks have seen her as a rising star in democratic politics beyond Harris County. What might this investigation do to her future career prospects?
I think it’s a little premature to speculate too heavily on that, but it’s absolutely true that she is viewed as someone who might run for statewide office one day.
The Texas Democrats, I think it’s well known that their their bench of potential candidates has been fairly thin for statewide offices in recent years. So, if this in some way wipes out her her chances of running statewide or prevented her from, you know, waging a serious candidacy in the future, I think that would strike a pretty significant blow for a lot of Democrats who are watching her career pretty closely. | https://www.keranews.org/texas-news/2022-04-14/houstons-rising-democratic-star-defends-staff-indicted-in-texas-rangers-investigation | 2022-05-12T15:48:56Z |
Traffic on all the bridges connecting Mexico to Texas is expected to get back to normal after Gov. Greg Abbott signed a fourth security agreement with a Mexican governor Friday afternoon.
Abbott, who is up for reelection in November, has agreed to end additional inspections on commercial vehicles crossing into Texas from Tamaulipas after that state's governor, Francisco Javier García Cabeza de Vaca, promised to increase security on the Mexican side.
Tamaulipas is the last Mexican state to sign a deal with Abbott. None of the Mexican governors implemented anything new; they had already been doing what they pledged to do to enhance security at the border.
So, Abbott’s decision, although welcomed by many, comes after the state — and the nation — lost millions of dollars due to the searches, which have clogged up the international checkpoints.
“With the volume of reduction we’ve seen, you are costing the U.S. economy in total economic impact almost a billion dollars a day,” Ray Perryman, president of the economic research firm Perryman Group, said.
The Waco-based firm has researched the economic impact of previous border slowdowns, the most recent in 2019.
Using that same model, Perryman said, his group estimates Texas has lost about $470 million a day due to the slowdowns.
“Food should not be used as a bargaining chip, especially at a time when supply chain pressures continue to be acute.”
The National Grocers Association said in a statement the inspections have affected their membership.
“We have received reports of fresh produce being lost due to the shipping delays, adding to the growing list of factors impacting the movement of goods,” Greg Ferrara, the president of the association, said. “Food should not be used as a bargaining chip, especially at a time when supply chain pressures continue to be acute.”
Consumers will feel the impact of Abbott’s inspection policies at the grocery store. They might see higher costs or even shipment delays, said Perryman.
The Fresh Produce Association of the Americas has warned “food shortages will rise as we head into Easter.”
In an interview with The Washington Post, the chief executive of the Texas International Produce Association said people headed to the grocery store this weekend should expect empty shelves in the vegetable and fruit sections.
Perryman said the economy is likely to rebound quickly, however, once the flow of traffic on the international bridges improves.
“The difficulty is even before this we already had inadequate infrastructure at the border,” he said. “So we don’t start from a place where it automatically becomes seamless, but it does go back to the way it was and we’ve managed to adapt and work with that.”
Abbott has gotten backlash for the searches from Democrats, but also from members of his own Republican Party. Leaders on both sides have said it’s all political theater.
Sid Miller, the Texas agriculture commissioner, characterized Abbott’s inspections as a “clog in the drain.
"You cannot solve a border crisis by creating another crisis at the border," he said.
Every year, billions of dollars in two-way trade passes between Texas and Mexico.
According to U.S. census data analyzed by WorldCity, in 2021 the Laredo customs district saw the highest amount of trade, with about $243 billion. Ports of entry in Pharr, Eagle Pass and Brownsville also saw billions of dollars in trade last year.
Late Friday morning, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke called the inspections nothing but a political stunt that hurt the border. He said it was time for communities along the Rio Grande to start fighting back.
“It is time that we stand up for ourselves. This is a beautiful, amazing, extraordinary community,” he said during a news conference blocks away from the Bridge of the Americas in El Paso. “We do not deserve these political stunts. We don’t deserve this abuse. We deserve so much better.”
He reiterated that the so-called agreements with the Mexican governors were over measures already in place and that Abbott is trying to take the credit.
“This fake news that he’s trafficking to the people of Texas, we are not buying it,” O'Rourke said. “We are never going to forget what he has done to us and we will remember that we can do much better.”
Copyright 2022 KUT 90.5. To see more, visit KUT 90.5. | https://www.keranews.org/texas-news/2022-04-18/abbotts-inspections-have-cost-texas-millions-consumers-could-now-see-empty-shelves | 2022-05-12T15:49:02Z |
Eviction filings in Texas’ biggest cities have surged to their highest point since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic as federal rental assistance dollars dry up and rising living expenses squeeze struggling renters.
Landlords in Houston, Dallas and Fort Worth, cities that routinely post some of the highest numbers of eviction filings in the country, together filed more than 37,000 evictions in the first three months of 2022, data from organizations that track evictions in those cities show — levels not seen since the pandemic began.
Out of the 31 cities tracked by Eviction Lab, a research center based at Princeton University that studies evictions, the Houston area saw the second-highest number of evictions filed in the country during the first week of April, second only to New York City. Dallas and Fort Worth also sat in the top five for weekly evictions, along with Phoenix.
And in Austin, the number of eviction cases has soared since a local ban on most evictions ended last year. Austin ranked eighth among the cities on Eviction Lab’s list, behind Las Vegas and Philadelphia.
The high rate of case filings comes after government bans on eviction have expired and the well of federal rent relief dollars has nearly run dry. Now, Texas tenants who have struggled to make ends meet as COVID-19 ravaged the economy must go without the safety net constructed during the pandemic to keep people housed — while rents in many major cities have risen by double digits in the past two years and growing inflation makes it harder for struggling households to also pay for expenses like groceries and gas.
“We can't say for sure, but it feels like there's kind of a perfect storm of factors that are colliding,” said Ashley Flores, senior director of the Dallas nonprofit Child Poverty Action Lab.
Until recently, Austin had some of the state’s strongest eviction bans to help the city’s poorest residents stay in their homes amid a housing market gone berserk. Austin rents have shot up more than 21% since March 2020, figures from Apartment List show — faster than any other major Texas city. Home prices there have skyrocketed amid the pandemic; the median sales price of an Austin home surpassed $600,000 last month, according to the Austin Board of Realtors.
Those protections are now gone. Since city and county emergency orders banning most evictions in Austin and Travis County expired in December, landlords there have filed more than 2,500 eviction cases in roughly four months, according to figures from Eviction Lab — more than landlords sought in the 21 months between March 2020 and the end of 2021.
“We really believe that we're going to be seeing that number increase in a really radical way because the pressure points that are existing now are way worse than they were in 2019,” said Mincho Jacob, a spokesperson for Building and Strengthening Tenant Action, or BASTA Austin. “Where you were seeing evictions, gentrification and folks struggling to survive, it is exponentially so now and there are basically zero protections.”
In many cases, landlords have waited months for tenants to come up with back rent or for rental assistance funds to come through, said David Mintz, vice president of government affairs for Texas Apartment Association, a trade group of rental property owners. With rental assistance funds drying up, landlords often have no choice but to evict tenants, he said.
“Unfortunately, from an owner’s perspective, when somebody's unable to pay their rent, depending on the circumstances, there aren't a lot of other options out there for them,” Mintz said.
Meanwhile, the state’s reserve of federal rental assistance dollars has all but emptied. Over the course of the pandemic, the U.S. Treasury Department has sent more than $3.7 billion to Texas to fund the state’s rent relief program as well as local rental assistance funds.
That money has nearly all been spent — although some of it has been reclaimed by the federal government because locals couldn’t spend the money fast enough. In March, the Treasury Department took back $10 million from rental programs in nine Texas cities and counties — including Laredo, Dallas County and Hays County.
At the same time, Treasury shoveled another $70.6 million to rent relief programs in Texas that it has deemed capable of efficiently distributing the funds —including the state program and those in Houston, San Antonio and Austin. But many of those programs, including the state’s, aren’t taking new applications as they use the new dollars to try to work through a backlog of applicants.
Even when landlords receive rent relief, it’s not a guarantee that renters will stay housed.
“Uncle Sam is out of money,” said Dana Karni, an attorney for Lone Star Legal Aid, which provides free legal services to low-income Texans including tenants facing eviction. “And so landlords have to make their decision: Will they try to work with the tenant — and some tenants, I think, are on shakier footing than others — or do they just want to move on?”
The future of the state’s remaining protections for tenants is unclear. Under an emergency order by the Texas Supreme Court, local justices of the peace must let representatives from legal aid groups or volunteer legal services into their courtroom to advise tenants facing eviction — typically tenants don’t have legal representation in eviction hearings. Often, just having a lawyer can help keep a tenant housed, legal aid lawyers say.
The same Supreme Court order requires judges to postpone eviction cases if a landlord confirms they have applied for rental assistance or joined a tenant’s application for rent relief.
That order expires in May — and it’s unclear whether the court will renew it.
Some justices of the peace have grown more deliberate during the pandemic when it comes to deciding eviction cases, said Judge Nicholas Chu, a Travis County justice of the peace. It’s common for eviction hearings to last no more than a few minutes, but some judges are now taking longer to hear cases in order to make sure they don’t throw people out of their homes if there’s a viable alternative, Chu said.
“In the future, I think courts will be more active in trying to prevent unnecessary evictions,” Chu said.
Even so, some worry that higher numbers of eviction filings are here to stay.
“I think that once we see a particular volume of eviction filings, and that the entire economy or society doesn't crash as a result, there's no reason to draw back from it,” said Karni, the Lone Star Legal Aid lawyer. “There's no reason to kind of shrink back to a smaller number, unless there is somebody else paying the bills.” | https://www.keranews.org/texas-news/2022-04-18/eviction-filings-in-texas-major-cities-reach-new-highs-since-pandemic-began | 2022-05-12T15:49:09Z |
Several hours after taking a Tuesday flight from Hawaii to Texas, Britnee Burchett stood outside the El Paso International Airport corralling her luggage and soothing her 15-month-old daughter, Iris.
Burchett’s trip began less than a full day after a federal judge in Florida ruled that facial coverings could no longer be required on airline flights and some public transportation.
But as she waited for a ride Burchett still donned the cloth mask she wore on the flight.
“I’m a little leery of (dropping the mandate), just because I have a little one. And I am a little bit of a germophobe,” she said.
Burchett was one of thousands of travelers in Texas who were still processing the ruling, which is the latest in a series of relaxed or eliminated COVID-19 mitigation policies after a slowdown in cases across the country.
Airports across Texas lifted the mask requirements after the decision, as did most public transportation entities.
Houston Airport system spokesperson Augusto Bernal said while the mandate has been lifted, other COVID-19 precautions are still in place.
"We're still cleaning more frequently. We have cleaning robots that spray the restrooms and other areas in the terminal,” he said.
Texas-based Southwest and American Airlines have also dropped masking requirements.
“We encourage individuals to make the best decision to support their personal well-being and to check local airport mask policies when traveling,” Southwest Airlines officials said in a statement. “Additionally, Southwest will continue supporting the comfort of those who travel with us by offering additional layers of protection, including sophisticated cabin air ventilation systems onboard our aircraft.”
Sandra Calhoun was waiting for a bus at Houston METRO’s downtown transit station on Tuesday and told Houston Public Media she thought a mask mandate should still apply in some instances — at least until the number of people who are vaccinated increases.
“I still think we still need it in some areas, like METRO, because not everybody's vaccinated,” she said, adding that most people will give up mask wearing entirely now that another mandate has been lifted.
“They're not going to wear them, because they were waiting on this time for it to be over with. I think they're actually rushing it," she said.
But others said it was past time to eliminate the policy.
"If you're worried about it, get your vaccination, wear your mask. If you're not worried about it, that's fine too, you have the right not to be worried about it,” said fellow bus rider Ali Muhammad on Tuesday. “I do social distance though when I'm on the bus, but I am glad I don't have to wear the mask anymore."
Cameron Kurtz, who was returning to Phoenix from El Paso on Tuesday, said that COVID is likely here to stay so people need to get used to living with it.
“COVID is probably never going to go away so eventually (the mandates) will have to be lifted,” he told The Texas Newsroom. But he appreciated that some people are still apprehensive about it, so he was willing to compromise on his upcoming flight.
“I’ll probably leave (the mask) on, just until everyone else is comfortable. But it makes no difference to me,” he said.
The Biden administration said Tuesday that it would likely appeal the ruling if the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention determine facial coverings are still necessary to the public, NPR reported.
For travelers like Burchett however, the bigger concern isn’t about mask mandates. She’s focused on children like hers who are too young for a vaccine.
“I have all my vaccines and boosters but she’s too young for that. And she’s too young for a mask, so that makes me a little apprehensive,” she said.
Houston Public Media’s Lucio Vasquez contributed to this report
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Got a tip? Email Julián Aguilar at jaguilar@kera.org.You can follow Julián on Twitter @nachoaguilar. | https://www.keranews.org/texas-news/2022-04-20/texas-travelers-greet-end-of-masking-requirements-with-a-mix-of-optimism-and-apprehension | 2022-05-12T15:49:15Z |
A few weeks ago, in the aging, sand-colored Starr County Courthouse, 12 average citizens gathered to decide whether there was reason to believe a murder may have been committed.
Grand jury proceedings are one-sided, with only the district attorney’s office permitted to offer evidence. They’re also kept secret, so it’s unknown who from the Starr County district attorney’s office handled the case and how it was presented to the jurors.
But from that hearing, the grand jury decided there was reason to charge 26-year-old Lizelle Herrera with murder for a “self-induced abortion.” Herrera was arrested on a $500,000 bond and booked into the Starr County Jail even though Texas’ murder statute explicitly prohibits bringing murder charges against a pregnant person in the “death of an unborn child.”
Three days after the initial arrest, Starr County District Attorney Gocha Ramirez said he would be exercising “prosecutorial discretion” by dropping the charges.
“In reviewing applicable Texas law, it is clear that Ms. Herrera cannot and should not be prosecuted for the allegation against her,” he wrote in a press release.
Several lawyers and advocates in Starr County — a tiny, rural county in the Rio Grande Valley — told The Texas Tribune that they believe this disastrous misstep from Ramirez’s office was born out of prosecutorial inexperience, not anti-abortion animus. Ramirez, a Democrat elected in 2020, did not respond to requests for comment.
But the case shines a light on the huge and often unchecked power that local prosecutors wield in deciding which cases to pursue, what charges to push for and what evidence to present to grand juries, a power that will become only more consequential if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns the constitutional protection for abortion this summer.
The role of district attorneys in abortion cases
Nearly 50 years after it was decided, Roe v. Wade is one of the country’s best known and most consequential Supreme Court rulings. But originally, it was just a lawsuit brought by a woman — known as Jane Roe — against a Texas district attorney, Henry Wade.
Wade was not a virulent abortion opponent; according to the Washington Post, he never even read the Supreme Court decision that bore his name.
But lawyers representing Roe needed someone to sue if they were going to get the courts to overturn Texas’ total ban on abortions.
As elected prosecutor for Dallas County, Wade had the power to bring charges against any county resident who violated the law. To block Texas’ abortion law, Roe’s lawyers would have to start by blocking Wade. So they filed a suit challenging Wade’s authority to enforce a law they alleged was overly vague and violated the right to personal privacy.
In the end, of course, this case blocked more than just one local district attorney — the U.S. Supreme Court, in a move that shocked many and stoked 50 years of controversy, ruled that there was a constitutional protection for abortion up to the point of fetal viability outside the womb, generally considered to begin at 24 weeks gestational age. No district attorney in any jurisdiction in the whole country could bring charges against someone merely because they performed or obtained a legal abortion.
But now, the U.S. Supreme Court is reconsidering that decision. If the court overturns Roe v. Wade this summer, as many believe they will, individual district attorneys may once again become responsible for deciding if and when to pursue criminal charges in abortion cases.
Texas has a “trigger” law on the books that would automatically make it a felony to “knowingly perform, induce or attempt an abortion” except to save the life of the pregnant person.
That law does not allow for the pregnant person to be prosecuted for having an abortion, but it would open up a whole world of legal questions that district attorneys, defense lawyers and medical providers would have to navigate.
“In that first, let’s say, five years of prosecution, how many mistakes get made along the way while the law is being developed?” asked Missy Owen, a North Carolina-based attorney and board member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. “And whose lives have to pay for it?”
Prosecutorial discretion
Many abortion rights advocates talk about the “two Americas” that would be created if the Supreme Court allows states to create their own abortion restrictions. About half of all states likely would ban abortion to some degree, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
But even within Texas, there may be two distinct realities. Five Texas district attorneys — from Dallas, Travis, Bexar, Nueces and Fort Bend counties — have publicly promised that they will not pursue abortion-related criminal charges if Roe v. Wade is overturned. Others are expected to quietly decline to take these cases.
Travis County District Attorney José Garza said he does not believe his office should be involved in criminalizing personal medical decisions between a pregnant person and their doctor.
“We are very focused on holding accountable people who commit acts of violence in our community,” he said. “Pulling resources away from that to focus on this kind of case would be reckless and endanger the safety of our community.”
In other jurisdictions, though, district attorneys may take an opposite approach, either due to personal anti-abortion leanings or political pressure.
Owen, who authored a report on abortion-related criminalization, said there’s a useful foreshadowing in how voter fraud cases have played out in recent years.
“These cases don’t get prosecuted evenly across the state,” she said. “They get prosecuted selectively, often in counties where there’s a district attorney’s race going on. … It’s really up to the discretion of the particular district attorney.”
Prosecutorial discretion gives district attorneys a lot of power in their own jurisdiction — power to take cases or not, to decide what charges to present and to choose how to frame evidence to the grand jury.
There’s not much oversight of how prosecutors wield that discretion, said Charles “Rocky” Rhodes, a professor at South Texas College of Law Houston.
“Except that there’s always political checks on them for failing to prosecute crimes that their citizens want prosecuted,” he said. “That’s how you get defeated next time you run for district attorney.”
But state Rep. Briscoe Cain, R-Deer Park, is planning to introduce legislation that could radically change that balance of power.
In a letter sent to abortion-funding nonprofits last month, Cain said he intends to introduce legislation that would allow district attorneys to prosecute abortion-related cases outside their home jurisdiction “when the local district attorney fails or refuses to do so.”
Garza, the Travis County district attorney, said Cain’s statements don’t change his thinking on these cases.
“All I can say is that the courts and the state constitution have been very clear that elected district attorneys have sole criminal jurisdictions in their community,” he said.
The next frontiers
But Cain’s proposition does point to a looming question: If Roe v. Wade is overturned and the trigger law goes into effect, what’s next?
If the trigger law goes into effect, Rhodes said it’s likely that abortion clinics will comply with the law, as they have since Texas passed a ban on abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy. The attention, he said, will then shift to the myriad other ways people access abortion care when clinics aren’t an option.
“There are going to be some very difficult constitutional issues that we can already see,” Rhodes said. “States may try to criminalize advocacy and [financial] assistance [for abortions] or may try to keep women from having an abortion in another state.”
District attorneys likely would end up on the front lines of test cases, legal challenges and new legislative efforts to rein in what’s left of abortion access in Texas.
And even though the trigger law prohibits prosecution of the person who got the abortion, many advocates worry most about the pregnant Texans who will get caught in these legal battles — perhaps without adequate defense.
“Most criminal defense lawyers don’t have any idea about fetal maternal medicine,” said Owen. “This is a dangerous situation that will be an added stress to public defenders’ offices, to defense bars and to prosecutors.”
While the details of the Herrera case remain murky, Owen said it’s a harbinger of what may play out over the coming months and years as the legal system navigates a brand-new set of rules.
“We see the damage that occurs, right at the moment of charging. While the law and the lawyers are figuring it all out, people’s lives will be marred forever,” she said. “We’ve seen what happens. You and I both know Lizelle Herrera’s name.” | https://www.keranews.org/texas-news/2022-04-21/if-roe-v-wade-is-overturned-texas-district-attorney-offices-would-become-a-new-battleground | 2022-05-12T15:49:21Z |
Update: 7:02 p.m. on Thursday, April 21
Texas has executed Carl Wayne Buntion, who had been the state’s oldest death row inmate.
The 78-year-old died by lethal injection on Thursday for murdering Houston police officer James Irby during a traffic stop in 1990.
Among those who went to Huntsville for the execution included Irby’s widow, Maura Irby, HPD Chief Troy Finner, and Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg.
“I hope this brings some peace to James Irby’s family,” said Ogg, in a statement.
Efforts to halt Buntion’s execution were unsuccessful. That included the U.S. Supreme Court denying his request for a stay hours before his execution.
In a statement included in the high court’s order, Justice Stephen Breyer said Buntion’s case “illustrates a serious legal and practical problem with the death penalty as it is currently administered.”
Buntion had been on death row for more than 30 years, and Breyer noted that most of that time had been in solitary confinement.
“When efforts to administer the death penalty produce results such as this, it raises serious questions about whether that practice complies with the Constitution’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment,” said Breyer.
According to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Buntion’s time of death was 6:39 p.m.
He is the first person to be executed in Texas for 2022.
Irby’s daughter, Cally, was a toddler at the time of her father’s death.
“Almost 32 years later … justice … if you can call it that,” she wrote in a post to Irby on the Officer Down Memorial Page earlier this month. “I would have much rather have had you these last 32 years but I am glad it’s going to finally be over. I am not angry anymore and I am choosing not to be sad.”
In the post, Cally also said that after the execution she’ll be ready to “close the chapter on all this hurt and loss and just finally let go.”
“I will never let your memory die,” she added. “My son will grow up knowing his grandfather was a hero.”
Attempts to halt Buntion’s execution
In a recent federal court filing, Buntion’s lawyers acknowledged he is responsible for Irby’s death and deserves to be punished. However, they still want his execution halted, stating that executing him after “such a long incarceration would violate the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment.”
Efforts to halt his execution have so far failed. Most recently, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted unanimously against a 90-day reprieve of execution or commuting Buntion’s death sentence to imprisonment for life.
“I truly hope he can live out his remaining days in prison,” said Kristin Houlé Cuellar, the Executive Director of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, who’s still holding out hope for a last-minute intervention.
While Houlé Cuellar knows his guilt is not in doubt, she told the Texas Newsroom Buntion is a frail, elderly man and should not be executed.
“There are grave concerns about the spectacle about the state executing a 78-year-old man who has numerous serious physical health ailments, who requires specialized care, including the use of a wheelchair to perform basic functions,” she added.
However, Houston Police Officers’ Union president Douglas Griffith believes Buntion should be executed because “there has to be consequences for your actions.”
“If you commit capital murder, that’s the only thing you can be put to death for — either killing a police officer, killing multiple people, or killing someone in the commission of an offense,” Griffith told the Texas Newsroom. “Those individuals that do that — that pull the trigger and take someone’s life — they must pay the ultimate sacrifice. You have to be held accountable for those actions that you make.”
Griffith described Irby as a “family man,” and said he is hopeful Irby’s family will be able to find peace.
“He [Buntion] executed Jim Irby that day, and his [Irby’s] wife had to raise two children by herself,” said Griffith. “I just hope they can get some closure out of this.”
If other attempts to stay his execution fail Thursday, Buntion will be the first death row inmate to be executed in Texas in 2022.
Recent SCOTUS decision’s influence on Buntion’s execution
Meanwhile, a Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesperson confirmed Wednesday that a spiritual advisor will be allowed inside the death chamber with Buntion.
Buntion had requested his spiritual advisor “be allowed to touch my body and pray out loud once inside the execution chamber.”
According to an email sent from the Texas Attorney General’s office last week to Jeffrey Newberry, one of Buntion’s lawyers, the spiritual advisor will also be permitted to “pray aloud at a reasonable volume.” Singing would also be allowed.
The spiritual advisor would be allowed to stand at the foot of the gurney and touch Buntion’s foot as well.
“There is no limit on the timing of that touch,” said Edward L. Marshall, the Chief of the Criminal Appeals Division at the Texas AG’s office, in the email to Newberry.
Having a spiritual advisor pray aloud and touch death row inmates had been a matter of concern for some inmates, until last month’s ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The case involved another Texas death row inmate, John Ramirez, who had wanted his pastor to pray over him and lay hands on him as he died by lethal injection. In its 8-1 opinion, the nation’s high court sided with Ramirez.
TDCJ policy only allows a spiritual advisor inside the death chamber if they don’t speak or touch the inmate.
Since the ruling, a spokesperson for the prison agency said requests for spiritual advisors to pray or touch the inmate “will now be reviewed on a case-by-case basis,” while its actual policy will not change. | https://www.keranews.org/texas-news/2022-04-21/texas-set-to-execute-the-states-oldest-death-row-inmate | 2022-05-12T15:49:27Z |
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Friday sued the Biden administration over the White House’s plan to end Title 42, the 2020 pandemic-related policy that allows federal officials to rapidly expel migrants at the border.
The Biden administration announced earlier this month it planned to end the policy May 23. Paxton also filed an emergency motion to postpone or terminate Biden’s order. The federal lawsuit was filed in the Southern District of Texas in Victoria.
“The Biden Administration’s disastrous open border policies and its confusing and haphazard COVID-19 response have combined to create a humanitarian and public safety crisis on our southern border,” Paxton’s office said in the complaint. “The Defendants now seek to eliminate their Title 42 border-control measures, which are the only rules holding back a devastating flood of illegal immigration.”
The lawsuit names as defendants Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as several officials from the Department of Homeland Security, including DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. The CDC said in an email the agency does not comment on pending litigation. DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Title 42 was implemented by the Trump administration in March 2020 as what he said was an attempt to curb the spread of COVID-19. Despite pressure from immigrant rights groups and some Democrats, Biden only announced an end to the policy earlier this month. The policy has been slammed by critics who say it strips migrants of their legal right to apply for asylum.
Paxton’s lawsuit comes after more than 20 states earlier this week asked a federal court in Louisiana to also halt Biden’s plans to end the policy.
In the suit, Paxton alleges the Biden administration violated the Administrative Procedure Act, which governs the way federal policies are crafted and how much public input goes into those policies. Paxton also says the end of Title 42 would increase the number of undocumented immigrants who use certain public-assistance programs, causing the state financial harm.
Critics of Title 42 say that aside from denying asylum seekers their rightful claim to protection, the United States is also expelling migrants to the same dangerous countries they initially fled due to violence.
“Instead of centering public health, the current policy seriously endangers the lives of those in need of protection, who are returned to abuse in their country of origin or to dangerous Mexican border cities where organized crime operatives are known to intentionally target migrants,” Human Rights Watch wrote in a 2021 report on the policy.
Paxton’s lawsuit comes after Customs and Border Protection announced earlier this week that agents encountered more than 221,000 unauthorized migrants at the southern border in March, a 33% increase compared to February. About half were expelled under Title 42, CBP said.
The Texas sectors of the U.S. Border Patrol continue to be the busiest for crossings in the country. In March in the Rio Grande Valley and Del Rio sectors, agents encountered about 44,000 and 41,600 migrants respectively, according to CBP statistics. That was followed by the Yuma and Tucson sectors with about 29,700 and 27,200 encounters. The El Paso sector, which also includes New Mexico, saw about 25,600 encounters.
The pending end to Title 42 has also spurred action by Gov. Greg Abbott, who announced earlier this month the expansion of the controversial state border-enforcement program called Operation Lone Star. Abbott ordered the state’s emergency division of management to bus migrants to D.C. and on Friday the governor’s office announced 10 buses had arrived so far.
Abbott also ordered the Texas Department of Public Safety to increase inspections of commercial vehicles after they cross into Texas from Mexico. That policy led to a backlog of imports that cost the state and companies millions of dollars in losses.
Abbott ended that policy April 15 after about a week when governors from the four Mexican states that border Texas offered reassurances that they had increased security on their side of the border. Most of those policies were in place before Abbott’s order, however.
KERA News is made possible through the generosity of our members. If you find this reporting valuable, consider making a tax-deductible gift today. Thank you.
Got a tip? Email Julián Aguilar at jaguilar@kera.org.You can follow Julián on Twitter @nachoaguilar. | https://www.keranews.org/texas-news/2022-04-22/texas-sues-biden-over-plans-to-end-pandemic-health-policy-at-the-border | 2022-05-12T15:49:33Z |
Emergency supplies worth up to $3,000 are exempt from sales tax this weekend.
The emergency preparation supplies sales tax holiday starts Saturday at 12:01 a.m. and lasts through the weekend.
In a press release, Gov. Greg Abbott said now is the time to purchase supplies for hurricane season, which starts June 1 and lasts until Nov. 30.
“Hurricane season is approaching, so I encourage Texans across the state to prepare today for a safer tomorrow,” Abbott said.
The Texas comptroller’s office released a list of items that qualify for the sales tax exemption. There’s no limit on the number of items shoppers can purchase, and there’s no need to bring an exemption certificate to be exempt from the sales tax, the comptroller’s office said.
Emergency supplies must fit under three price point categories in order to qualify for the exemption. Items that need to be under $75 include batteries, fuel containers and flashlights, and items that need to be less than $300 to qualify include hurricane shutters and emergency ladders. Portable generators need to be $3,000 or less to qualify.
The sales tax holiday isn’t just for brick and mortar stores, according to Kevin Lyons, a public accounts spokesperson for the comptroller’s office — it also applies to online purchases. However, he said if a delivery charge tips a product over the maximum price point, then the buyer will have to pay the sales tax.
“That’s just something to think about when you decide whether or not to purchase something online,” he said.
Even though hurricane season doesn’t start until June, Kent Prochazka, a meteorologist in the National Weather Service’s Houston/Galveston region, said it’s best to prepare early. He recommended having supplies available at all times and having an extra copy of important documents stored somewhere safe.
Scientists at Colorado State University are predicting an above average hurricane season this year with a potential increase in tropical storms. Prochazka said tropical storms can’t be predicted as far in advance as hurricanes, so Texans living along the coast might not always have the luxury of having a week to plan for an upcoming storm.
“Texas is prone to getting these tropical storms that form in what almost seems like a blink of an eye,” he said.
When it comes to emergency preparedness, Prochazka said rushing out to buy supplies right before a natural disaster hits is an error he’s made himself in the past. Those looking for last-minute supplies may instead find empty shelves.
“You don’t want to do that,” he said. “Don’t make my mistake. Make sure you’ve done this in advance.”
Copyright 2022 Houston Public Media News 88.7. To see more, visit Houston Public Media News 88.7. | https://www.keranews.org/texas-news/2022-04-22/the-texas-emergency-supply-tax-holiday-is-this-weekend-experts-say-now-is-the-time-to-prepare | 2022-05-12T15:49:39Z |
Texas voters will be treated to a “bonus” election in May during an election cycle that already features primary runoff elections and local ballot races.
In addition to the regular helping of local elections for city councils, school boards and other local government positions, two amendments to the Texas Constitution will also be on the ballot for the May 7 election. Then voters can return to the polls to cast their ballots in local and statewide runoff elections to determine which Democratic and Republican candidates advance to the November general election. Runoff election day is May 24 for both political parties.
This is a bit different than usual. Normally, the state constitutional amendment election would have been conducted earlier. But because Texas lawmakers met well into the summer of 2021, those initiatives were added to the May 7 ballot instead.
“The Legislature met really late last year and during those second and third special sessions of the Legislature, there were constitutional amendment propositions passed by two thirds of both houses,” said Sam Taylor, the assistant Texas Secretary of State for Communications. “So those, by default, automatically got put on the May ballot rather than the November ballot … when they usually appear.”
Taylor described this as “sort of have a bonus election that we usually don't get, which is those statewide constitutional amendment propositions in all 254 counties.”
Early voting kicked off on Monday, April 25 and runs through May 3.
What’s on the ballot on May 7?
The two constitutional amendment propositions involve property tax relief for some Texas homeowners. The first proposition, if approved, would annually decrease the amount of school district property taxes for senior citizens and disabled Texas. The second proposition, if approved, would increase a homeowner’s homestead exemption from $25,000 to $40,000.
In addition to the Constitutional amendment propositions, several local entities will have contests for municipal, school board and other positions, as well as some local propositions. The local ballot depends on where a person lives. For example, Austin residents will get a chance to weigh in on no-knock police warrants and penalties for marijuana possession, KUT reported. In North Texas, several local entities have races to decide city council and mayoral seats. And in San Antonio voters will decide the fate of several bond proposals for possible funding of roads, sidewalks, parks, recreational centers and more, Texas Public radio reported.
Taylor told The Texas Newsroom he’s hopeful turnout will be higher than usual because of the statewide initiatives on the May 7 ballot. In the past, not every county had a local election at the same time, so he thinks interest this year could increase.
“Because every single county will be voting and there are two big property tax related propositions on the ballot … I think we'll definitely have higher turnout than we usually have in a May election,” he said.
Taylor added that due to recent news about property valuation increases in some of the state’s metro areas, people will be more inclined to make their voices heard on anything related to property taxes.
“Looking at past Constitutional amendment elections that are in November, usually the turnout is in the single digits. It's somewhere between maybe five and eight percent, or sometimes even lower than five,” he said. “It really depends on what's on the ballot. But because property taxes are such a visible issue and an issue that a lot of Texans are talking about and thinking about, then I think that has the potential to drive voters to the polls.”
The May 24 runoff election
Later in May voters will return to the polls to finally set the ballot for the November general election. Several candidates for local and statewide offices failed to garner the votes needed during the March primary – 50 % plus one vote – to advance to the general election. Those races include the Republican primary for Texas Attorney General, which pits incumbent Ken Paxton against state land commissioner George P. Bush. The candidates for Texas Land Commissioner are also on the ballot, including Republicans Dawn Buckingham, a current state senator, and Tim Westley. Democrats Jay Kleberg and Sandragrace Martinez will also be on that party’s ballot.
Several local races may also be on May 24 ballot depending on where a person lives, including congressional runoffs and Texas House and Senate seats.
Early voting for the May 24 runoff election runs from Monday, May 16 to Friday, May 20.
Which primary can I vote in?
Texas law mandates that voters cast ballots in the same party election during the runoff as they did during the primary. That means a voter can only vote in the Republican runoff election if they voted in the Republican primary in March. The same goes for Texans who cast ballots in the Democratic primary.
However, if a voter didn’t cast a ballot in March, they are free to choose which party’s runoff election they participate in. Taylor said, given the way the current voting system is set up, it’s very difficult for a voter to switch parties during a runoff. But if that does happen, the voter could be charged with a Class C misdemeanor, according to state law.
“It’s highly unlikely a voter would even get that far. Since voting history, including which party’s primary a voter cast a ballot in earlier in the year, is included in a voter’s registration file, the voter would not even be able to check in at the polling place to vote in a different party’s primary runoff, nor would an election official be able to issue a mail ballot for a different party’s primary runoff,” explained Taylor. | https://www.keranews.org/texas-news/2022-04-25/cant-get-enough-of-elections-may-offers-two-opportunities-to-vote | 2022-05-12T15:49:45Z |
Updated April 25, 2022 at 3:20 p.m. CT
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted a stay of execution Monday to Melissa Lucio, who was set to be executed later this week.
The court ordered the 138th Judicial District Court of Cameron Country to reconsider Lucio's case in light of new evidence in the death of her daughter.
She was set to be the first Latina in Texas executed by lethal injection on Wednesday.
“I thank God for my life," Lucio said in a statement released by her attorneys. "I have always trusted in Him. I am grateful the court has given me the chance to live and prove my innocence. Mariah is in my heart today and always. I am grateful to have more days to be a mother to my children and a grandmother to my grandchildren. I will use my time to help bring them to Christ. I am deeply grateful to everyone who prayed for me and spoke out on my behalf."
Lucio's lawyers brought nine different claims in her clemency petition, of which the appeals court ruled four had adequate evidence. Among those were a claim that if not for false testimony, no juror would have convicted her. They also claimed that previously unavailable scientific evidence would prove her innocence, that the state withheld evidence favorable to Lucio in violation of federal law, and that she is actually innocent.
Lucio was charged with the murder of her 2-year-old daughter, Mariah Alvarez, in 2008. Her family claims Mariah accidentally fell down a flight of stairs two days prior to her death, and died from the injuries she sustained.
Her other children, family and attorneys have been fighting for her a new trial in light of evidence that was left out of her previous trial, including a psychological analysis, which revealed a history of abuse and PTSD.
Lucio’s attorneys have argued that her testimony was coerced after five hours of interrogation while pregnant with twins.
Her case sparked bipartisan support among Texas lawmakers. Nine Republicans and 12 Democrats in the Texas Senate signed a letter to Gov. Greg Abbott and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles asking for her clemency earlier this month.
State Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, was the only Democrat to not sign the letter. On Monday he sent out his own, telling Houston Public Media he made up his mind after weighing all of the information and noting that time was quickly running out.
“One thing I guess I could say that really weighed on me heavily were the five jurors that have said that they wouldn’t vote today like they did at the trial," he said. "That’s heavy and weighed on my conscience.”
The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles was set to weigh on whether to recommend clemency for Lucio on Monday afternoon. In light of the criminal appeals court ruling, the body declined to weigh the measure.
Additional reporting by Paul DeBenedetto | https://www.keranews.org/texas-news/2022-04-25/melissa-lucio-has-been-granted-a-stay-of-execution-by-texas-highest-criminal-court | 2022-05-12T15:49:51Z |
The body of a Texas Army National Guard soldier who was reported missing last week after trying to save drowning migrants has been found dead, U.S. Rep Tony Gonzalez, R-San Antonio, confirmed to The Texas Tribune on Monday.
Specialist Bishop E. Evans, a 22-year-old Texas National Guard soldier, was washed away after attempting to rescue two migrants who struggled as they tried to cross the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass, state officials said this weekend. He was assigned to Operation Lone Star, Gov. Greg Abbott’s highly touted border initiative.
"We are heartbroken to learn of the death of SPC Bishop E. Evans who was reported missing in Eagle Pass on Friday," Gov. Greg Abbott said Monday. “"Our National Guard soldiers risk their lives every day to serve and protect others and we are eternally grateful for the way SPC Evans heroically served his state and country.”
Evans was a field artilleryman from Arlington. He joined the Texas Army National Guard in 2019. He went missing at about 9:45 a.m. Friday, and an official search for him began soon after.
Though Evans removed his body armor before entering the Rio Grande, he did not resurface.
The search for Evans included parties in boats and helicopters. Efforts were stalled Saturday evening due to river conditions, but resumed on Sunday, the Texas Military Department said.
After joining the Texas Army National Guard, Evans served in Iraq and Kuwait under Operation Spartan Shield before returning to Texas in the fall of 2020.
Texas Rangers lead the search for Evans, along with the Texas Department of Public Safety, Parks and Wildlife, and Border Patrol officials.
The two migrants survived and are in custody of U.S. Customs and Border Patrol.
Texas Military Department did not immediately respond to questions on Monday morning. But in an emailed statement, the agency offered condolences to the family.
“We are devastated by the loss of a member of our Guard family,” Maj. Gen. Tom Suelzer, Adjutant General for Texas, said in a statement. “We recognize the selflessness of this heroic soldier who put his life above others in service to our state and national security. The Texas Military Department sends our deepest condolences to the family.”
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2022/04/25/texas-national-guard-drowning-found-bishop-evans/. | https://www.keranews.org/texas-news/2022-04-25/national-guard-soldier-missing-after-trying-to-save-two-migrants-in-rio-grande | 2022-05-12T15:49:58Z |
Dig World is the only construction theme park in Texas specifically targeted to young children. It aims to attract kids to an industry that desperately needs more workers.
But would anybody really pay to let their kids operate construction equipment?
That's the question Jacob Robinson asked himself. He's the co-founder of Dig World in Katy, Texas, just outside Houston.
When he first opened the park, so many people showed up that the small park was overwhelmed, and visitors waited for a long time.
Robinson realized he had to think bigger. He and his partner decided to shut down, buy more equipment and try again.
“So we made the tough decision and said, 'Hey, listen, we're going to press pause right now.' We refunded all the tickets to people that had purchased tickets already and said, 'come back at a later date.' We offered them to reschedule as well,” he said.
On opening day, Dig World had three mini excavators. They bought a dozen more.
Four years in the making, the park offers kids an opportunity to operate construction equipment like excavators, skids, steers and ATVs.
Excavators are machines with a bucket at the end of a long arm. They can dig, demolish, lift and move heavy objects and more.
It may seem dangerous to some parents to let children operate big machines like that. But, Robinson explained, Dig World's excavators, by far the most popular ride, have limited movement for safety reasons.
“They're completely stationary, and they only go certain degrees to the right and the left, certain degrees up and down," he said. "So no matter how little Timmy tries to maneuver the machine, most of it has been disengaged and so they can't move it around.”
Although kids are the primary focus, adults seem to enjoy playing on the machines as well.
“I had a grandma explicitly tell me at the front gate that she had no intention of riding the machines, and then 30 minutes later I helped her on an excavator. She had the time of her life,” he said.
But it’s all not just for fun. Dig World has teamed up with Robinson’s alma mater, Texas A&M University.
“When we have kids here for field trips and different events, we are going to be teaching them the curriculum that those students and professors at A&M (Department of Construction Science) have developed,” he said of the agreement.
“We have a development partnership with the mayor's office in Houston right now to bring in all these schools so that we can teach them this curriculum, then get them on the machines," he added. "So our park during the school year is only open on weekends so that we can be flooded with field trips during the week. The goal is to get kids excited about the construction industry."
Robinson said he wants to use the park to familiarize kids with the construction experience, to break down any stigmas about being a construction and to inspire them to explore the industry's many options to these future workers.
There is a shortage of construction workers, and Robinson said that issue even affected the building of Digg World.
“I mean, this project got delayed because we couldn’t find certain subs to do the job right. And so the irony here is we're building a construction theme park focused on construction. We had a shortage in the construction of the space, right? It's a nationwide issue,” he said.
One construction industry publication earlier this year estimated that the U.S. needs more than a half million construction workers above its current pace of hiring in order to meet demand.
Future plans for Dig World include a program with a local Caterpillar dealer where people could come and get certified on construction equipment. Dig World also has a long term goal of building ten similar parks across the country.
Robinson said he expects about 100,000 visitors in Dig World's first year of operation.
For now, Robinson said, the park's best payoff is when he sees kids' eyes light up. “Watching kids operate these machines, their eyes get big and they're really behind the controls. It's a blast,” he said.
Copyright 2022 Texas Public Radio. To see more, visit Texas Public Radio. | https://www.keranews.org/texas-news/2022-04-25/new-theme-park-wants-kids-to-visit-and-play-with-the-machines-but-then-stay-to-work-in-the-industry | 2022-05-12T15:50:04Z |
A federal judge on Monday said he will temporarily block the Biden administration’s efforts to end Title 42, a health-based policy that allows for the immediate expulsion of asylum seekers and other migrants at the southern border.
Louisiana-based U.S. District Judge Robert Summerhays said in a notice dated Monday that he intended to grant a temporary restraining order to halt the end of the program, CNN reported Monday afternoon. The Biden administration was planning to end the policy on May 23.
The notice comes in response to a lawsuit filed by more than 20 states, including Louisiana and Arizona. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a separate lawsuit last week in federal district court in Victoria, which hasn’t been decided. It’s unclear how Summerhays’ decision Monday will affect the Texas case.
Title 42 was implemented by the Trump administration in March 2020 as what he said was an attempt to curb the spread of COVID-19. Nearly 2 million migrants, including asylum seekers who have the legal right to seek protection in the United States under current law, have been turned away at the southern border under the policy, according to the Migration Policy Institute. Despite pressure from some Democrats and immigrant rights groups, the Biden Administration kept the policy in place for more than a year before trying to wind the program down. The policy was amended in March to exclude unaccompanied minors.
Texas has been the busiest among all border states for unauthorized crossings, according to the latest data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. In March, United States Border Patrol agents in the Rio Grande Valley and Del Rio sectors encountered about 44,000 and 41,600 migrants respectively, according to CBP statistics. That was followed by the Yuma and Tucson sectors with about 29,700 and 27,200 encounters. The El Paso sector, which also includes New Mexico, saw about 25,600 encounters.
In all, agents encountered more than 221,000 unauthorized migrants at the southern border in March, a 33% increase compared to February. About half were expelled under Title 42, CBP said.
KERA News is made possible through the generosity of our members. If you find this reporting valuable, consider making a tax-deductible gift today. Thank you.
Got a tip? Email Julián Aguilar at jaguilar@kera.org.You can follow Julián on Twitter @nachoaguilar. | https://www.keranews.org/texas-news/2022-04-26/federal-judge-will-temporarily-block-biden-administration-from-ending-title-42-border-policy | 2022-05-12T15:50:10Z |
Property taxes have become a hot-button issue across Texas, with recent tax appraisals giving homeowners sticker shock.
“We’ve seen rapid price appreciation in all of our metros, Austin, of course, being the leading area,” Adam Perdue, a research economist with the Texas Real Estate Research Center at the Mays Business School at Texas A&M University, said in a recent conversation with Texas Standard. “But even across every major metro in Texas where we can track valuations, we’re seeing them increase quite rapidly.”
In an election year, it’s become a political issue as well. The state’s gubernatorial candidates were quick to trade jabs about promises to provide property tax relief. And the Texas Legislature has said it plans to use $3 billion in federal relief funds to reduce the tax on homeowners.
Amid this backdrop, voters now have the opportunity to decide on two constitutional amendments which experts say could help slow property tax increases. Early voting for the May 7 election is underway now and runs through Tuesday, May 3.
“With the two constitutional amendments up for a vote, I think that probably bodes well for their fate because taxes are on everyone's minds at the moment,” said James Quintero, policy director at the conservative organization Texas Public Policy Foundation.
But this isn’t clear cut for voters. State lawmakers have admitted the two proposed amendments — Prop 1 and Prop 2 — are described on the ballot in a way most will probably find confusing.
A Texas Senate panel recently met to address the wordy language, and vowed to make sure future proposals were written in a clearer, more concise way.
The Texas Newsroom has been digging into the two proposals, and has broken down each one of them.
The first statewide proposal concerns property taxes paid by the elderly and people with disabilities.
Under current law, the taxes you pay towards public schools freeze the year you turn 65 or you become disabled.
But in 2019 the Texas Legislature passed a bill allocating money to buy down school property taxes. As a result, school districts started compressing their tax rates, and people started seeing reductions.
That is, except people 65 and older or with disabilities, whose rates were frozen.
Quintero said this constitutional amendment is designed to “cure” that discrepancy. If passed, it would adjust the taxes for those groups down to the same percentage as everyone else.
The 77-word ballot proposal has received criticism because of its length and because it’s written in a confusing way, filled with legalese.
In fact, according to Ballotpedia, it would take about 20 seconds to read the whole proposal.
“Nobody could be expected to understand what it would do from just sitting and reading it,” Dick Lavine, a senior fiscal analyst at the left-leaning think tank Every Texan, said. “It’s probably worth thinking about it before you go in there [to vote], so you don’t spend half a day staring at the election machines.”
Lavine is not completely on board with what Proposition 1 would do. He told The Texas Newsroom tax breaks should target those who need the most help, explaining not every 65-year-old necessarily needs it.
But, Lavine added, he believes it's fair to allow people with disabilities and the elderly to have access to the lower tax rates.
The second statewide proposition would raise the homestead exemption for school property taxes from $25,000 to $40,000.
A homestead exemption reduces the taxable value of your home.
So, for example, with the current exemption, a homeowner with a property valued at $500,000 would be paying taxes on $475,000.
If Proposition 2 passes, that hypothetical homeowner would instead pay taxes based on a $460,000 valuation.
Both Lavine and Quintero forecast homeowners would save somewhere between $175 to $180 a year — or about $15 dollars a month — if the measure passes.
“Hopefully that would produce some savings that the average person can use to offset the rising level of cost of living increase,” Quintero said.
Lavine also added, from Every Texan’s perspective, this proposal was crafted in an equitable way.
“We are not especially looking to cut property taxes — we think the first priority should be increasing school funding,” Lavine said. “But if you do want to cut property taxes, this is the best way to do it because it’s more fair.”
Lavine said it gives a bigger benefit in terms of percentage income to those who need it the most, like low-income residents.
For voters concerned about the impact these propositions might have on school districts, Lavine said schools won’t be affected.
“School districts lose nothing from this because the state will make up the lost tax revenue,” Lavine said. “If the amount that the school district brings in is reduced because of this increased exemption, the state will increase state aid so the school district is not worse off.”
Copyright 2022 KUT 90.5. To see more, visit KUT 90.5. | https://www.keranews.org/texas-news/2022-04-27/confused-by-the-proposed-amendments-on-the-ballot-in-texas-heres-a-translation | 2022-05-12T15:50:16Z |
Earlier this month, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ratcheted up pressure on President Joe Biden’s administration by expanding the state’s sweeping border crackdown, announcing that he would bus immigrants to Washington, D.C., after they were apprehended for illegally crossing the border, as well as search commercial trucks entering Texas from Mexico.
During an April 6 press conference launching the additional efforts, Abbott did not explain that the busing is voluntary for immigrants. Texas cities and counties where migrants seeking to stay in the country are dropped off by the federal government must also request such a transport out of state before it occurs.
Then, about a week after his directive for vehicle safety inspections drew criticism for hampering border commerce, Abbott rescinded it, saying he’d reached agreements with four Mexican governors to strengthen security south of the border. The agreements mostly included measures already in place, but the governor claimed on social media last week that they demonstrated Texas had accomplished more to secure the border in two days than Biden had done during his time in office.
The measures are the latest examples of how Abbott and other state officials have used incomplete and sometimes misleading statements when promoting the purpose and effectiveness of Operation Lone Star. Abbott launched the initiative in March 2021, stating that it would help stop drug and migrant smuggling. In the past year, the governor has deployed more than 10,000 National Guard members, along with state Department of Public Safety troopers, to patrol the border, build barriers and arrest some migrant men on state criminal trespassing charges for crossing into the U.S. through private land.
The result has been a multibillion-dollar operation that has counted arrests for crimes with no connection to the border and included tallies of drugs captured across the state in communities that received no additional resources from the initiative, ProPublica, The Texas Tribune and The Marshall Project found. The news organizations’ investigation showed that while Abbott initially said the operation would focus on targeting Mexican cartel members and smugglers, misdemeanor trespassing charges soon accounted for the largest share of arrests.
The governor’s office has hailed the operation as a success, repeatedly saying that it has captured criminals and deadly drugs.
As part of the investigation, reporters identified instances in which Abbott and DPS officials pointed to goals and accomplishments that lacked important context or did not match reality. Here’s some of what we found:
Trespassing charges against immigrants
Last May 31, Abbott signed a border disaster declaration, giving him expansive power similar to what he would have after a natural disaster. Among other things, the declaration of a disaster automatically increased penalties for trespassing to up to a year in jail. Three days later, the governor promoted the effort on Fox News during an interview with host Sean Hannity.
Statement: “I follow the law, and the law that I’m going to use will be legal ways in which Texas is going to start arresting everybody coming across the border. Not just arresting them, but because this is now going to be aggravated trespass, they’re going to be spending a half a year in jail, if not a year in jail.” — Abbott, Fox News, June 3, 2021
What happened: Texas did not, in fact, arrest everyone coming across the border. Since Abbott announced the effort, more than 2,900 people have been arrested by state police for allegedly crossing into Texas via private property. Most of the arrests occurred primarily in two rural counties in the southwest part of the state, according to DPS data. Leaders of the state’s biggest border counties have declined to participate, saying in interviews that they urged comprehensive solutions, rather than the criminalization of immigrants. The news organizations found that misdemeanor trespassing charges made up about 40% of Operation Lone Star’s arrests from July through February. Hundreds of immigrants have since had their trespassing charges dismissed or rejected. Prosecutors and judges deemed certain arrests questionable after some immigrants said DPS troopers marched them through private property. State police and Border Patrol officials have denied the allegations. Body camera footage confirmed at least one of those accounts. Other charges were dismissed because people sought asylum. Democratic elected officials and attorneys have questioned the legality of the trespassing arrests and asked the Justice Department to investigate alleged human rights violations related to Operation Lone Star. The governor’s office has maintained the arrests are “fully constitutional.”
700 gang members
DPS officials and Abbott have often insisted on social media and during interviews on Fox News that the operation targets cartels and violent gangs such as MS-13.
Statement: “The Texas Department of Public Safety, during #OperationLoneStar have encountered over 700 criminal gang members.” — Texas DPS Facebook page, Sept. 7, 2021
What happened: DPS officials have not provided any proof of the department’s citation of hundreds of gang arrests. The department denied a public records request from ProPublica, the Tribune and The Marshall Project, saying gang affiliation is not a metric that is tracked. The agency said that in some instances those people arrested have “active warrants, previous records, etc. that indicate certain gang affiliations.” The news organizations found multiple examples in arrest data and drug seizure information that raised questions about claims that the operation focused on dangerous cartels and smugglers. Among those examples were arrests with no links to the border.
Haitian immigrants
In September, up to 15,000 Haitian immigrants camped under the international bridge in Del Rio, a small border city about 150 miles west of San Antonio, to ask for asylum. Their arrival followed the assassination of Haiti’s president, an earthquake that killed thousands and economic instability in Latin American countries where some Haitians had previously migrated after a previous earthquake struck Haiti in 2010. DPS troopers and Texas National Guard members lined up vehicles along the bank of the Rio Grande and formed what officials called a “steel barrier” to stop immigrants from crossing.
Statement: “[Border Patrol agents] said the surge of migrants across the border was stopped only when the Texas Department of Public Safety and the National Guard showed up to provide a steel barrier to prevent the migrants from coming across. As soon as the National Guard and the Texas Department of Public Safety showed up, literally with hundreds, if not thousands, of vehicles, that is when the illegal migration stopped. That is exactly what the Biden administration could do if they wanted to.” — Abbott, Fox News, Sept. 26, 2021
Texas is securing the border.
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) September 26, 2021
Biden’s own Border Patrol agents said it was the Texas Dept. of Public Safety & Texas National Guard that stopped the migrant surge in Del Rio.
As Biden fails, Texas will continue stepping up. pic.twitter.com/NrBb2zfcxQ
What happened: Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement expelled or deported thousands of Haitian immigrants, clearing the bridge within a week. Mexican officials blocked others before they reached the border. The role of DPS and the National Guard in stopping the Haitian migrants is unknown. Neither Texas agency made arrests. It’s unclear how many people the agencies referred to federal officials for deportation during that period. Neither DPS or CBP responded to questions.
Spending on border security
Last year, Texas lawmakers tripled the amount the state spends on border security, with the bulk of the budget going to Operation Lone Star. The governor’s office received the largest share. The state later shifted nearly $500 million away from other agencies, including the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, to help pay for the National Guard deployment after costs exceeded what the Legislature had approved.
Statement: “Texas as a state is deploying more resources to the border than the United States of America as a country. Texas taxpayers alone, in just the next two years, we are spending $3 billion to secure a border. I think that’s far more than what the federal government is spending here in Texas, or here in the United States.” — Abbott, Fox News, Jan. 28, 2022
Because the federal government refuses to do its job, Texas will continue to respond in full force to protect our communities. pic.twitter.com/LytGiChL0p
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) January 28, 2022
What happened: CBP’s annual budget for fiscal year 2022 is more than $16 billion, compared with the more than $3 billion Texas budgeted for border security over a two-year period. The federal agency declined to provide a specific breakdown for its expenditures in Texas. As of January, CBP had more than 8,000 Border Patrol agents in Texas. The figure does not include the number of customs officers stationed at international ports of entry in the state, which CBP did not provide.
Fentanyl seized
Marijuana made up more than three-quarters of illegal drugs captured under Operation Lone Star from March 2021 to January, but Abbott has focused on fentanyl seizures while touting the initiative’s success. At a February event in Austin that featured his Democratic opponent Beto O’Rourke, staff for Abbott’s reelection campaign handed out prescription bottles with fliers stuffed inside that claimed the effectiveness of the operation in capturing fentanyl.
Statement: “Amount of fentanyl caught from Operation Lone Star: 887 lbs” — flyers stuffed into pill bottles labeled “fentanyl” and handed out by Texans for Greg Abbott at a Beto O’Rourke speaking event in Austin in February
Democrat @BetoORourke is set to speak in Austin momentarily, and @GregAbbott_TX’s campaign was on the ground distributing these *empty* pill bottles…before being escorted from the event. pic.twitter.com/1lM8hTTBni
— Madlin Mekelburg (@madlinbmek) February 10, 2022
What happened: Abbott and his reelection campaign are citing figures that reflect fentanyl seizures across the state, including those that would have occurred without the operation. Of the 887 pounds of fentanyl that Abbott credited to Operation Lone Star in February, only about 160 pounds were seized in the 63 counties that the state included as part of the initiative. El Paso County accounted for all but 12 pounds of the fentanyl captured as part of Operation Lone Star. The county was among several that declined to sign on to the governor’s border disaster declaration and, as of November, when most of the fentanyl was seized, had not received extra resources as part of the program.
Immigrant apprehensions
A year into Operation Lone Star, Abbott touted a reduction in immigrant apprehensions during an interview with the conservative news site Breitbart. He said the decrease showed that the operation was working.
Statement: “Working collaboratively with local law enforcement, we have now been able to cut in half the number of apprehensions of people coming across the border illegally in the Rio Grande Valley Sector. … The bottom line is the cartels have realized it’s a money-losing proposition for them to try to cross the border in Texas.” — Abbott, Breitbart, March 17, 2022
What happened: Abbott correctly stated that the number of immigrants caught entering the Rio Grande Valley sector, which includes 19 counties in South Texas, fell by about 46% after the start of the operation. In March 2021, Border Patrol apprehended 62,685 immigrants. A year later, the apprehension numbers in that region had dropped to 44,073. But Abbott’s statement failed to acknowledge that the number of immigrants Border Patrol agents took into custody across the state remained at its highest levels in at least two decades, averaging about 110,381 a month since the operation launched. DPS has claimed reductions in immigrant apprehensions as a sign of the operation’s success and also, at times, said such decreases were something over which the state’s efforts had little control. In November, agency officials told the news organizations that DPS defined success as fewer migrants coming across the border. They later said a decline in apprehensions is not considered a measure of success because many factors can come into play, including policy decisions in Washington or an increase in the number of immigrants seeking to surrender to Border Patrol.
Busing immigrants to Washington
Early this month, the Biden administration announced that it would discontinue Title 42, a Trump-era pandemic health order through which federal authorities turned away most immigrants at the border, even those seeking asylum. After the decision, Abbott announced a plan to bus immigrants to Washington, D.C.
Statement: “BREAKING: Governor Greg Abbott JUST ANNOUNCED that Texas is going to use charter buses to DROP OFF BIDEN’S ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS in Washington, DC. We want to MAKE SURE that Biden knows JUST HOW REAL this crisis is.” — Abbott’s campaign fundraising appeal on April 6, 2022
What happened: The busing program is optional for immigrants, and Texas cities and counties where the federal government drops off migrants seeking to stay in the country must also request the transport. The program pays for buses and chartered flights for immigrants who have been released by the federal government and want to leave the state for Washington, D.C. In a statement, Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Chris Magnus said Abbott is making CBP officials’ jobs more difficult by transporting migrants far from their immigration proceedings and not coordinating those moves with the federal government.
Our investigation into Operation Lone Star also found:
- The operation is nabbing not only immigrants, but also U.S. citizens and others with authorized status across a broad region of 63 counties, at times charging them for crimes with no connection to the border.
- After questions from the news organizations, DPS removed from its accounting more than 2,000 charges, including violent crimes as defined by the FBI, that the agency said did not reflect the operation’s mission. DPS officials said the agency is continuously improving how it collects and reports arrest data to “better reflect the mission” of securing the border.
- Texas spends more money on border security than any other state. Operation Lone Star is by far the most expensive of the state’s border operations, at a cost to taxpayers of more than $2.5 million a week and an additional estimated expense of $2 billion a year for the National Guard deployment.
- The amount of state funding legislators approved for border security grew from $110 million in 2008-09 to nearly $3 billion for the 2022-23 budget cycle. That doesn’t include nearly half a billion dollars the governor transferred from other agencies after last year’s legislative sessions. | https://www.keranews.org/texas-news/2022-04-27/fact-checking-texas-leaders-claims-about-operation-lone-star | 2022-05-12T15:50:22Z |
Susan and Brian's home in Austin is any kid's dream come true. It's teeming with toys, action figures and books.
Many of the items in the couple's home are from the 25 years Susan has lived in Austin. Graphic novels in the bookcase are from a comic book store in their old neighborhood. There are posters in the living room from a defunct video store, where Susan used to work. The library of more than 2,000 vinyl records holds memories of her favorite independent store in South Austin.
But in the current political climate, she sees no option but to give up this home and her long history in Austin.
Susan and Brian are parents of 5-year-old twins, including a transgender girl. (Sources in this story have requested we only use their first names, due to fears of being reported to state authorities and online harassment.) Over the past few years, they have been affirming their daughter's slow steps toward socially transitioning — growing out her hair, changing her pronouns and going by a feminine version of her birth name.
They are among the Texas families with a trans child who are planning to leave Texas, after recent actions from top state leaders. Susan and Brian are now looking for jobs in states with strong civil rights protections for trans people.
Two months ago, Gov. Greg Abbott called for investigations into the parents of transgender children. It was backed by a non-binding legal opinion from Attorney General Ken Paxton arguing that parents are child abusers if they allow their kids to access treatments like puberty blockers or hormone therapy. This legal argument came despite near consensusamong major medical organizationsthat such interventions are within the standards of care.
Susan is worried a complaint could be filed against her even though her daughter isn't old enough for puberty blockers. Like many Texas families with a transgender child, she’s formulated an emergency escape plan in preparation for the worst.
"Maybe my daughter and I might need to get on a Greyhound bus that night and just go directly to the nearest safe state," Susan said. "My husband and my son can follow after us after they maybe tried to pack up some of our things."
This heightened state of stress has plagued Susan for more than a year. It began last spring during the legislative session, during which several bills sought to label gender-affirming care as child abuse.
Susan imagined getting a knock on the door from child protective services. She feared her kids would be ripped away from her and end up in the foster care system. She worried about the future, and whether her daughter could be denied access to gender-affirming care she might need down the line.
Those measures ultimately failed. But in February, after Paxton released his opinion, Abbott directed the Department of Family Protective Services to investigate complaints of such care being offered to children. Soon after, Texas Children’s Hospital stopped providing hormone therapy to kids in its care. And although an injunction has now put those DFPS cases on hold, Susan believes efforts to target families of transgender children are not going away — especially as the issue gains traction in Republican-controlled state houses around the country.
"I just can’t picture a situation in which this doesn’t get worse," Susan said. "And even if it’s exactly the way it’s been for the last year, I can’t live like this."
Susan and Brian are preparing to say goodbye to Austin. She’s heartbroken to leave her sister — who they refer to as the “third parent” of the family — as well as the kids' grandparents.
"It never crossed my mind that we would go anywhere else (but Austin), but I can’t do that anymore," Susan said. "I can’t think ahead to a time when my kids are older. I can’t imagine buying a home. I don’t even feel comfortable taking a job that’s tied to this city. It’s not tolerable to picture ourselves here anymore."
Shelly Skeen, senior attorney at Lambda Legal, said they're not the only ones leaving Texas. The LGBTQ civil rights nonprofit has helped about 50 families in recent months.
"I really can’t think of any parent that I’ve talked to that hasn’t considered this," Skeen said.
Not every family has the means to move out of state. According to Skeen, some are moving to other parts of the state where district attorneys have pledged not to prosecute these kinds of child abuse cases.
“If they have a business or they have kids in school, moving from Hidalgo County to Travis County and trying to find an apartment in Travis County, that takes a pretty big toll on a family," Skeen said.
Rachel, a mother of three, feels her family is lucky to have made it out to Colorado. She has a nonbinary child, as well as a transgender teenager on hormone therapy — the exact treatment Texas is targeting.
The family had been scouting potential destinations since October. The passage of a bill banning trans kids from playing on sports teams that match their gender identity signaled to her that her kids weren't safe in Texas.
"All the time, I’m nervous for my kids," Rachel said. "I worry about them in ways I never used to. When we travel, I’m like, ‘I just need you all to go to the bathroom together.' They’re very responsible, but it’s just that added layer of protection so I know they're safe. I walk around with that (worry) all the time."
But when the governor's directive came down in February, it dawned on her that the need to move was now urgent.
Rachel moved out all of their belongings and got a few repairs done. Her house sold after just a few days on the market. Two weeks ago, she left Texas with the kids, but there’s been no instant sigh of relief.
"I definitely don’t feel like I’m on the other side of it," Rachel said. "I wish."
The family is staying with relatives until they find permanent housing. Rachel's husband, who works in information technology, is still back in North Texas.
Rachel’s paranoia is balanced by outward signs of acceptance she's seen in her new area. Her kids have seen pride flags flying in their neighborhood. The schools she's considering have accessible bathrooms and sports teams for her kids.
She's hopeful that her children now have a real shot at happy and healthy lives.
"I’ve just really tried to stay focused on the fact we’re making positive changes,” Rachel said, “and not just running away from things."
Copyright 2022 Houston Public Media News 88.7. To see more, visit Houston Public Media News 88.7. | https://www.keranews.org/texas-news/2022-04-27/trans-kids-their-families-are-leaving-texas-amid-state-efforts-to-charge-parents-with-child-abuse | 2022-05-12T15:50:23Z |
Despite some parts of Texas receiving rainfall earlier this month, it hasn’t been enough to ease concerns about a prolonged, nearly statewide drought.
More than half of Texas was in an elevated drought phase as of April 19 and conditions haven’t improved since. That’s despite recent precipitation, according to the Texas Water Development Board’s weekly update.
“Unfortunately, in areas already impacted by drought, drought intensified. The area of the state impacted by extreme or worse drought climbed to 54 percent, its largest value since February 2012,” the agency said.
State climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon said the current pattern began in September. Rainfall totals across Texas during that time were at least 50% below average.
“Almost none of the state [had] above normal rainfall over that period. In most of the state, we see less than three quarters of the normal amount. About a third of the state, or maybe 40% received, less than half,” said Nielsen-Gammon during an online presentation Wednesday. Additionally, he said large portions of West Texas “received less than a quarter of their normal amount of precipitation. When we're talking about eight months — two thirds of the year — that's a really serious drought.”[RL1]
It's not just lack of rain that’s exacerbating dry conditions, Nielsen-Gammon added.
“It's been relatively windy over the past month across Texas, which has enhanced evaporation when there's been water to evaporate,” he said. “Temperatures are also a potential concern, particularly in the area where we're seeing long-term warming temperatures.”
During the six-month period starting in November 2021, most of the state has been one to two degrees above normal. The current weather pattern is partly a result of La Niña conditions. La Niña is a weather pattern in the Pacific that impacts how wet or dry some parts of the world are. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, said La Niña causes cooler weather in the Eastern Pacific, which means fewer rain clouds and less rainfall for the southwestern United States.
“About two winters out of three, Texas is below normal precipitation during La Niña,” Nielsen-Gammon said.
Climatologists are now looking to the next few months to see what, if any, relief Texas can expect.
“These next three months — the rest of April, May and June — appear to be huge as far as us getting out of this drought,” said Victor Murphy, National Weather Service Southern Region Climate program manager. “This is when it should rain. And if you get rainfall during your wettest time of year, you’re usually in pretty good shape. So there's a lot riding, quite honestly, these next two or three months.”
But Murphy added some parts of the state typically see their wettest months a bit later in the year. Those include El Paso and other areas of West Texas, where about half all rainfall occurs in the summer. The Brownsville and Corpus Christi areas usually experience their peak rainfall from August through October.
A prolonged dry period also means Texas’ agricultural sector should brace itself for the possibility of a sustained impact.
“More than 80% percent of the winter wheat crop in the state is rated poor to very poor at this point with the normal harvest season coming in up in a few months,” said Murphy. “It’s going to be very hard to get much recovery out of that. Even irrigated crops cost money to irrigate so the drier it is the more money you end up spending and eventually it becomes a money-losing proposition.” | https://www.keranews.org/texas-news/2022-04-28/amount-of-texas-in-extreme-drought-conditions-is-the-highest-in-a-decade | 2022-05-12T15:50:29Z |
On Sunday, Gov. Greg Abbott appeared on Fox News touting a program he’s been pushing for weeks — sending migrants who enter into Texas to Washington, D.C., by charter bus.
But this time, Abbott asked Texans to personally contribute their own money to pay for the trips.
The decision to crowdfund the free bus trips for migrants is a new development from when he initially announced on April 6 that it would be paid for by Texas taxpayers. At the time, Abbott proudly presented the trips as a tough-on-immigration act of defiance against the Biden administration.
But the shift to ask private donors to pay for the charter buses comes as his plan has been increasingly praised as an act of generosity by Democrats, immigration rights groups and even the migrants who rode the buses, while those further to Abbott’s right politically have panned it as a misuse of taxpayer dollars that incentivizes migrants to cross into Texas.
“Congratulations to Governor Abbott,” Texas Rep. Gene Wu said Tuesday in a tweet. “Word will be passed from community to community that if you can just get to Texas, the Governor there will pay for your transportation anywhere in the USA.”
Abbott announced the charter bus plan early this month as a way to get President Joe Biden’s attention in response to the president’s announcement that he was lifting Title 42, a pandemic-era health order that allowed immigration authorities at the border to deny entry to migrants as a way to contain the coronavirus. Officials have said the repeal of the policy likely will be followed by a sharp increase in illegal border crossings.
“Securing the border would cost Texas nothing if the federal government was doing its job but because Joe Biden is not securing the border, the state of Texas is having to step up and spend Texas taxpayer money doing the federal government’s job,” Abbott said at the time. He clarified later that the bus trips would be entirely voluntary for migrants after they had been processed by U.S. immigration officials.
Abbott’s office did not respond to multiple questions about the policy, including why the governor is now asking for private donations, if the plan will be partially or solely funded by private donations and how much the busing program has cost so far. As of Thursday, the state-hosted website accepting funds for the transportation lists the current donation tally as $63,973.
In a statement to The Texas Tribune on Wednesday, Abbott’s press secretary Renae Eze said the idea to crowdsource came after Abbott’s office received calls from supporters wanting to contribute.
“After Governor Abbott announced his plan to bus migrants to President Biden’s backyard in Washington, D.C., we received an outpouring of support from across our state and the entire country of people wanting to help and donate to the operation,” she said. “Texas continues stepping up to help our local partners and protect Texans — it’s time for President Biden and Congress to step up and do their job to secure our border.”
Mark Jones, a political science professor at Rice University, said the governor may be trying to escape blowback.
“I think it’s a quiet way of protecting himself from criticism that he’s using taxpayer dollars to provide free transport for undocumented immigrants,” Jones said. “Many conservatives pounced on him as all hat and no cattle, in that he was talking tough but in the end all his busing was going to do was provide a free trip for undocumented migrants to the East Coast that they otherwise would have had to pay for or that liberal nonprofits would have had to pay for.”
Abbott’s office has said at least 10 buses have arrived in the nation’s capital, but his office has not provided costs for the trips or the total number of migrants who have been transported.
During the 30-some-hour coach bus ride, passengers were provided with meals, the migrants said. Many of the buses’ passengers said they had saved up thousands of dollars just to arrive at the border and had little money left by the time they arrived in Texas.
“We are very thankful for all the help that has been given to us,” Ordalis Heras, a 26-year-old Venezuelan asylum-seeker, said earlier this month to the Tribune, hours after arriving in Washington on Abbott’s first bus from Del Rio. Heras, like many other passengers, had intended to travel north of Texas anyway.
“Frankly, we did not have the money to get here otherwise, so we are very thankful for the help,” she said.
The New York Times also reported this week that Abbott’s buses are now dropping migrants off in Alabama, Georgia and North Carolina.
This isn’t the first time Abbott has looked to private contributions to bankroll his border priorities.
Last year, Abbott started a crowdsourcing effort for his multibillion-dollar plan to build a wall on the Texas-Mexico border. As of this month, the effort has raised only about $55 million, nearly all of which was from one Wyoming-based billionaire.
The Biden administration has said building the wall cost taxpayers $46 million per mile in some areas along the border.
Tony Payan, director of the Center for the United States and Mexico at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, said regardless of the motivation, Abbott’s bus program will have little overall impact on the issues plaguing migrants the the border.
“It’s a political circus,” Payan said. “It’s going to have no impact whatsoever on the conditions on the ground.”
Disclosure: Rice University, Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy and New York Times have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here. | https://www.keranews.org/texas-news/2022-04-28/gov-greg-abbott-asks-for-private-donations-to-bus-migrants-to-d-c-after-criticism-for-using-taxpayer-money | 2022-05-12T15:50:35Z |
As the state of Texas mounts yet another legal challenge to the Biden administration’s border policies, some groups say Attorney General Ken Paxton doesn’t fully understand the president’s proposed changes to the legal asylum process.
But these immigrant rights and legal groups aren’t necessarily in lockstep with the White House either and have their own concerns about the policy changes Paxton is suing to stop.
Paxton on Thursday filed a lawsuit to block a sweeping change to asylum procedures that the Biden administration announced in March and scheduled to go into effect in late May. It would allow trained asylum officers to decide some asylum cases instead of them being processed through U.S. immigration courts. The change is meant to not only expedite some cases but also reduce the record-high backlog of pending asylum cases. There are currently more than 671,000 pending asylum cases in U.S. courts, including about 67,500 in Texas, according to data compiled by researchers at Transactional Research Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.
Under the plan, some asylum seekers could be released on parole pending the outcome of their cases, a move Paxton asserts will be an incentive for people to illegally enter the United States.
“The last thing Texas needs is for this Administration to make it easier for illegal aliens to enter the U.S. and obtain asylum through false claims and less oversight,” Paxton said in a statement. “We know what’s going to happen when the rule goes into effect in May 2022: wave upon wave of illegal aliens claiming ‘asylum.’”
Paxton alleges in the lawsuit, which was filed in Amarillo, that Texas will face “irreparable harm” if this is allowed to happen.
“Texas spends significant amounts of money providing services to illegal aliens because of the United States government’s failure to enforce federal law,” the complaint states. “Those services include education services and healthcare, as well as many other social services.”
Edna Yang, co-executive director of American Gateways, a Texas-based organization that provides legal services to low-income immigrants, told The Texas Newsroom that Paxton’s “loophole” argument is somewhat off base.
“Paxton’s claim that this is a loophole that takes power and authority away from the immigration judges to grant asylum and gives it just to asylum officers is not totally correct,” said Yang. “There is authority given to the asylum officers but ultimate authority in these cases in review does rest with the immigration courts and the immigration judges.”
Yang added that under current policy, some asylum offices already accept and adjudicate applications for relief if a person is not in removal proceedings.
Though Yang credited Biden with trying to unclog the backlog in a way that still allows an asylum applicant to legally petition for relief, she said there are concerns about whether an applicant will be able to supply enough information to the government under the plan.
“What we advocate for and what I believe a lot of individuals in this country believe in is this idea of justice and the ability of individuals to efficiently access the justice system while having their rights protected. The administration is trying to do that, whether this is the most effective way is still to be seen,” she said. “I think there are some due process concerns because of the lack of an asylum application, where there are accurate interpretation issues that are going to occur, [and] the ability for individuals to get some corroborating evidence because they are detained. We have some concerns about that.”
Fernando Garcia, executive director of the El Paso-based Border Network for Human Rights, said his apprehension over the policy comes from a longstanding mistrust of border agents and enforcement officers.
“I don’t trust that they are making the decision in the best interest of the petitioner. I think they are given a powerful tool to accept or reject asylum cases,” he said. Because asylum is a detailed and complicated process, he added, he is concerned about petitioners lacking an attorney or advisor.
“Because they are trying to fast track these kinds of cases of asylum at the border, many of these petitioners will not have access to proper legal representation and proper legal advice,” he said. “We might have people going through this fast-track asylum process to be denied and be deported rapidly.”
With respect to Paxton’s lawsuit, Garcia added it was just par for the course from a politically motivated attorney general.
“Unfortunately [Paxton] has been representing a more anti-immigrant and refugee stance rather than anything else,” Garcia said.
It’s that rhetoric that leads some asylum seekers to rely on criminal elements to make their way to the United States instead of seeking help from established organizations, said Juanita Molina, the executive director of the Border Action Network.
“There is no way to ignore the criminal organizations that are moving things along the border and my belief is that our U.S. policies — and especially the increased restrictions on people crossing into the United States and the criminalization of a very human process of people seeking safety — is what creates and fortifies the cartels all throughout the border,” she told The Texas Newsroom. “It’s like putting out meat for the wolves. People know the more vulnerable that you maintain a population, the more invisible [they are].”
The Texas Newsroom's Joseph Leahy contributed to this story. | https://www.keranews.org/texas-news/2022-04-28/texas-ag-sues-biden-administration-over-proposal-that-would-revamp-the-asylum-process | 2022-05-12T15:50:41Z |
For the past two years, the federal government has turned away migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, including those who are seeking asylum, using a public emergency health order known as Title 42. It was launched by the Trump administration at the start of the pandemic and continued under the Biden administration.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently announced that it plans to end Title 42 on May 23 because COVID-19 cases have decreased and vaccines are widely available. But that date is now in question because of Republican-led lawsuits aimed at keeping the policy in place.
What started as an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19 across the border has turned into a fierce debate over whether Title 42 should be continued as an immigration tool to block migrants from claiming asylum.
Here’s what you need to know about the law:
What is Title 42?
Title 42 is part of the Public Health Service Act of 1944 aimed at preventing the spread of communicable diseases in the country. According to the law, whenever the U.S. surgeon general determines there is a communicable disease in another country, health officials have the authority, with the approval of the president, to prohibit “the introduction of persons and property from such countries or places” for as long as health officials determine the action is necessary. That authority was transferred from the U.S. surgeon general to the director of the CDC in 1966.
Congress approved a similar law in 1893 during a cholera epidemic that gave the president authority to exclude people from certain countries during a public health emergency. It was used for the first time in 1929 to bar people coming from China and the Philippines during a meningitis outbreak.
Why was it activated?
The Trump administration invoked Title 42 for the first time since its creation in March 2020 as a way to help stop the spread of COVID-19 in immigrant detention centers, where many migrants are placed after they arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border.
According to The New York Times, Stephen Miller, a senior adviser to former President Trump, had pushed the idea to invoke Title 42 at the U.S.-Mexico border as early as 2018, long before COVID-19 emerged.
As COVID-19 cases rose in the U.S., then-CDC Director Robert Redfield enacted Title 42 to seal the land borders with Canada and Mexico for migrants seeking asylum on March 20, 2020. The Associated Press reported that then-Vice President Mike Pence ordered Redfield to enact Title 42 over the objections of CDC scientists who said there was no evidence that it would slow the virus’ spread in the U.S.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, has said that immigrants are not driving up the number of COVID-19 cases.
How many migrants have been removed under Title 42?
Immigration officials have used the health order nearly 1.8 million times to expel migrants, many of whom have been removed multiple times after making repeated attempts to enter the U.S.
Under Title 42, the recidivism rate — the percentage of people apprehended more than once by a Border Patrol — has increased to 27%. Previously the rate was 7%.
During the Trump administration, immigration agents expelled all types of migrants; the Biden administration has instructed agents to exempt unaccompanied children from Title 42. When agents apprehend unaccompanied children, they are placed in a federal shelter or a state-run facility until they are reunited with a family member in the U.S. or until they find a sponsor.
While most migrants are sent across the border to Mexico under Title 42, others are returned to their home countries. Immigration officials also have the discretion to allow certain migrants to enter the country if there are “significant law enforcement, officer and public safety, humanitarian, and public health interests.”
What happens if Title 42 is ended?
Homeland Security predicts up to 18,000 daily encounters with migrants — more than double the current average — when Title 42 ends. Anticipating such an increase, the agency has released a plan that includes vaccinating migrants in U.S. Customs and Border Protection custody, adding 600 CBP agents across the southwest border, and increasing the capacity of federal holding centers from 12,000 to 18,000.
Rather than sending migrants directly to Mexico, immigration officials will process migrants arriving and determine if they have a credible asylum case or whether they qualify for any other immigration benefits that allow them to enter the country. If not, immigration agents will hold the migrants and deport them to their home countries.
Some asylum-seekers will be placed in the Migrant Protection Protocols, another Trump-era policy that forces migrants to wait in Mexico as their immigration cases make their way through U.S. courts. The Biden administration has sought to scrap the program, only to have a federal judge order it to be reinstated following a lawsuit by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
The U.S. Supreme Court recently heard arguments on whether the White House has the right to end it and is expected to issue a ruling this year.
What’s the status of the legal fights over Title 42?
The public health order has been the subject of lawsuits in federal courts across the country.
On March 4, U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman in Fort Worth ruled in favor of Texas and ordered the Biden administration to stop exempting unaccompanied children from Title 42 expulsions. That same day, a federal appellate court in Washington, D.C., reaffirmed a lower court’s ruling in a separate case that it’s illegal to expel asylum-seeking migrant families to countries where they could be persecuted or tortured.
After the CDC announced that it was letting Title 42 expire, Arizona and 21 other states filed a federal lawsuit on April 3 in the Western District of Louisiana, asking a judge to stop the government from lifting Title 42. Texas filed a separate lawsuit on April 22 seeking the same thing.
Both lawsuits argue the Biden administration violated administrative procedural laws and that if Title 42 is lifted as planned, it could lead to chaos at the border.
On Wednesday, District Judge Robert R. Summerhays, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, temporarily blocked the Biden administration from winding down the use of Title 42 and indicated that he plans to block efforts to end Title 42 altogether. | https://www.keranews.org/texas-news/2022-04-29/heres-what-you-need-to-know-about-title-42 | 2022-05-12T15:50:43Z |
At Johny Jurisich's family dock in Texas City, more than a dozen empty oyster boats with names like Sunshine and Captain Fox lazily float in the marina on a recent Monday morning – an odd sight for what is normally peak oyster harvesting season.
"On a Monday morning, this beautiful weather, they would all be out there (in the bay). This would be an empty marina," says Jurisich, whose family owns the wholesale company US Sea Products and has worked in the oyster business for generations.
Nearby at Misho's Oyster Company in San Leon, mariachi music blares into an empty shucking room, the conveyor belts at a standstill. Just a few dozen oyster sacks line what would normally be a full freezer room.
Currently, 25 of the state's 27 harvesting areas are already closed. The season normally runs from Nov. 1 through April 30, but many of the areas have been closed since mid-December – a move the state says is necessary for future sustainability.
But those in the oyster business worry about the sustainability of their industry and livelihoods — and it's set up a clash between state officials and oyster harvesters over how the resource should be managed.
"We're not making any money"
"It's taken a big toll on me actually," Jurisich says. "I started this right out of high school. So I mean, this is all I've ever done."
Alex Gutierrez, who owns a few oyster boats and has worked as an oyster fisherman for 35 years, says he usually hires between 10-15 people to work with him each season. But recently he's been dipping into his savings and doesn't think he'll be able to afford the annual maintenance on his boats.
"There's just no money to spend on the boats, we're not making any money," he says. "And you don't want to spend the little savings that you might have and then have empty pockets."
The Gulf Coast region produces 45% of the nation's $250 million oyster industry, according to NOAA fisheries. In Texas, the industry contributes an estimated $50 million to the state economy.
The Texas Parks & Wildlife Department decides when to close areas for harvesting using a traffic-light system that went into effect in 2015. If samples taken by state biologists come back with too many small oysters or too few oysters in general the agency closes the area.
Oysters prevent shoreline erosion, closing the harvesting areas are necessary to give them time to repopulate
Jurisich and others from the industry disagree with how the state takes the samples and also with the system itself. They say by closing some bays, it forces all of the boats into just a few areas, inevitably overwhelming those reefs as well.
"We feel that it's been somewhat abused, and just mishandled and the data is skewed," Jurisich says. "It forces too many boats in small areas, and then upsets the recreational fishermen."
Christopher Steffen, a natural resource specialist with Texas Parks & Wildlife, says the agency takes samples based on where harvesting happens.
"If an area's being fished quite a bit and there's a lot of fishing pressure, then we'll go back out and resample that area," he says. "If it's below the threshold, then that area can close in response to the decreased number of oysters."
Steffen says the closures are necessary to give oysters time to repopulate. Oysters prevent shoreline erosion and help filter the water, but unlike fish, they can't swim away to escape poor conditions.
While it's unusual to have so many closures, Steffen says it's also in line with the trends the agency has been seeing in oyster populations.
That's because Texas oysters have been having a rough decade, enduring hurricanes, flood events, and drought, says Jennifer Pollack with the Harte Research Institute.
Across the Gulf Coast region about 50-85% of the original oyster reefs have disappeared
"Oyster reefs really just aren't able to recover from the things that we see happening to them," Pollack says.
Across the Gulf Coast region, an estimated 50-85% of the original oyster reefs have disappeared, according to a report by the Nature Conservancy. They've been hit with hurricanes, flood events, droughts and the BP oil spill.
In Galveston, Hurricane Ike in 2008 was particularly devastating, destroying more than 6,000 acres of oyster habitat there, according to TPWD.
"We have all these disturbances that knock the reefs back, we have harvesting that continues, that probably keeps them at maybe a lower abundance level of oysters in the bay," Pollack says. "They just can never climb back out so they're a little bit less resilient next time something happens."
A lot of these conditions – droughts, heavier rainfall – are only expected to be exacerbated by climate change.
Beyond the temporary closures, Texas Parks & Wildlife is also studying the permanent closure of three bays.
Oyster fishermen like Antonio Ayala worry that would push the industry even closer to the brink.
"They're punishing us, instead of helping us," Ayala says in Spanish.
Like oysterman Alex Gutierrez, Ayala says he's also had to dip into his savings just to pay the bills. He's thought about getting another job, but after 30 years harvesting oysters, this is all he knows.
"Nobody wants to hire an old man," he says.
Copyright 2022 Houston Public Media News 88.7 | https://www.keranews.org/texas-news/2022-04-29/oyster-reefs-in-texas-are-disappearing-fishermen-there-fear-their-jobs-will-too | 2022-05-12T15:50:49Z |
Timia Cobb | The Texas Tribune Texas News Food banks struggle to help Texans as grocery prices increase Timia Cobb | The Texas Tribune The pressures pushing up costs for consumers are also hitting agencies trying to combat hunger, making it hard to keep up with rising demand for their aid. | https://www.keranews.org/timia-cobb-the-texas-tribune-2 | 2022-05-12T15:50:55Z |
AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Beatriz has limited options in her young life. Her father, a general, was arrested after the Mexican War for Independence and executed. Her house burned to the ground. She and her mother make it out just in time. Unsympathetic relatives take them in. So when the chance comes to marry a handsome, rich man, Beatriz jumps. But she never asks what really happened to his first wife. Rookie mistake. That's how the action starts in "The Hacienda," and it just doesn't stop. This is Isabel Canas's debut novel and she joins us now to talk about it. Welcome.
ISABEL CANAS: Thank you so much for having me, Ayesha.
RASCOE: Let's talk about this. It's not just the fate of the first wife that she should've asked some more questions about, but there are problems evident from the moment Beatriz arrives at Rodolfo's estate - and Rodolfo is the husband. What does she see when she gets there?
CANAS: So when Beatriz arrives at Hacienda San Isidro, Rodolfo soon goes back to Mexico City to work because he's a politician. And she's there alone, and she quickly discovers that this place is profoundly haunted. But nobody seems to believe her.
RASCOE: No.
CANAS: She's kind of gaslit by the other people who live on the hacienda, who seem very afraid of the house, who avoid certain parts of it, who don't talk about what's happening in the house at night, which is when activity really starts to kick off. And so she goes to town and finds help in the form of a young priest called Padre Andres, who has some dark secrets of his own.
RASCOE: Yeah. And see - and the thing is - here's the thing. This is essentially a haunted house story. Here's the thing that I always look out for when it comes to a house may be haunted. If you have a part of a house that you cannot go into, that house may be haunted.
CANAS: Exactly.
RASCOE: How did you come up with this idea?
CANAS: So I have always been afraid of the dark, and so I knew at one point I wanted to write a haunted house story. When I was about 5 years old - my family moved around quite a lot when I was young - and we moved into a house in the suburbs north of Chicago that was built in the 1920s. And even though I was, like, 5 years old, I knew there was something in this house, particularly in the basement...
RASCOE: Oh, wow.
CANAS: ...That just felt watchful and felt uncomfortable. And so when I misbehaved, which I often did as a mouthy 5-year-old, I got sent to the timeout corner, which, if I was very bad, was at the bottom of the basement stairs.
RASCOE: Oh, my goodness. Lord.
CANAS: And sitting down there, I had ample time to really meditate on what the hell was going on in there. It was a creepy basement. It was very scary.
RASCOE: Oh, my goodness. Did a skeleton hand come out and, like, grab you?
CANAS: No.
RASCOE: (Laughter) Did it take you?
CANAS: Although my imagination certainly ran wild.
RASCOE: Oh, my goodness (laughter).
CANAS: It really sparked those creative juices flowing. But the story for this novel in particular didn't come to me until 2019. I was on my honeymoon in Mexico City, where I lived for a while as a child. I had had an idea for a haunted house novel, but I was primarily writing young adult fantasy at the time and quite unsuccessfully. I'd had a lot of rejections and had just received one that was heartbreaking. And so I was lying awake in bed kind of thinking about, well, where should my career going next? As this thunderstorm tired itself out and rain was lashing the window and, you know, these delicious forks of lightning were just cutting through the sky overhead, I heard this voice...
RASCOE: Oh, wow. Oh, wow.
CANAS: ...Like, as clear as the toll of a church bell, narrating what I knew even then was the beginning of something new. And so I, like, snatched my phone off the nightstand and started typing as fast as I could to pin that voice to paper before it slipped away. And those words became the first chapter - the first pages of "The Hacienda."
RASCOE: And so what made you want to set this story right after the Mexican War for Independence? Why set this in that time period?
CANAS: So this is a historical time period that has fascinated me for many years. It's a period of immense change. And it's a period in which we see the seeds and saplings, honestly, of many conflicts that persist - social conflicts that persist in Mexico and in the Latin American diaspora to the present. So there's colonialism. There's colorism. There's the Casta system whereby one's social status and sometimes even legal status was determined by their racial makeup.
To be of any kind of mixed heritage in this period - it wasn't impossible to advance in society, but it was certainly more difficult. And another thing that drew me to this period, having been raised in a very Catholic household, was the syncretism between Catholicism as it came from the continent and Indigenous practices and traditions in Mexico. And we see this continuing to the present. Like, if you think about Dia de Muertos or the Day of the Dead, that is the results of Catholic missionary priests in Mexico deciding to incorporate Indigenous days of respect for the dead with the Catholic feast days of All Saints Day and All Souls Day. And I really wanted to see that reflected in characters, whether that's the person of Padre Andres, who's mestizo. His father is of European descent and his mother was Indigenous. And in the witchcraft that he practices, it's partially - he inherits it from both sides of his family, from the Indigenous part of his family and the European side of his family. And so that syncretism to me is what I am a product of. And it's something that I've never really seen reflected in genre fiction.
RASCOE: Yeah. And, I mean, you just dropped that in there, so basically, we can say that Padre Andres is a witch.
CANAS: It's on the back cover copy.
RASCOE: I didn't want to do no spoilers, but he is...
CANAS: I know. I know.
RASCOE: ...A witch.
CANAS: So I had an outline - I had, you know, classic gothic archetypes - the young wife, the mysterious husband, the suspicious family members, you know, the big house. And I thought, well, this is Mexico. Of course, there needs to be a priest. And then that priest took and turned the book on its head.
RASCOE: I do wonder about Beatriz. She is a different type of gothic heroine. She's less of a victim, more of a fighter. It seemed like in the beginning of the book, she was trying to work within the system, get her a rich husband and live a rich life. Do you think that the haunting really made her have a different view of what society could be because she realized almost, like, I am one of the people? I'm no - really no different from these villagers who work on this property. Like, we are in this together, right?
CANAS: You're right. The haunting has a way of stripping away the social differences that exist between Beatriz as the woman of the house, Juana, her sister-in-law, and the people who work on the hacienda because they're all at the mercy...
RASCOE: Yes.
CANAS: ...Of this powerful, uncontrollable, malicious presence.
RASCOE: Yes.
CANAS: And they all deal with it in certain ways. So I think the haunting really kicks Beatriz's will to survive into high gear. She's a fighter. She often says, like, she's the daughter of a general. She's not going to go down without a fight.
RASCOE: So what is next for you? First of all, I mean, you got your debut novel. You said you had dealt with a lot of rejection.
CANAS: It's a big moment for me. I'm - the day before "The Hacienda" comes out, I will be defending my Ph.D. dissertation.
RASCOE: OK. And what's your Ph.D. on?
CANAS: Near-Eastern languages and civilizations - so completely unrelated topic.
RASCOE: OK. And then you write novels on the side?
CANAS: Yeah.
RASCOE: OK.
CANAS: Everyone thinks I'm a bit crazy, but it's the way that I've managed to keep myself from going crazy.
RASCOE: (Laughter) OK. OK.
CANAS: I'm currently working on my second book. I can't say much about it yet, except that it also includes the three themes that I think make "The Hacienda" what it is - 19th century Mexican history, a real strong helping of the supernatural and of romance.
RASCOE: That's Isabel Canas. Her debut novel is "The Hacienda." Thank you so much for joining us to talk about it.
CANAS: Thank you so much for having me. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-01/a-new-bride-finds-something-supernatural-with-her-rich-husband-in-the-hacienda | 2022-05-12T15:54:24Z |
After a pandemic hiatus, the Voloshky Ukrainian Dance Ensemble is a little bit rusty.
A few times a week, around two dozen semi-professional dancers run through choreography in the basement of the Ukrainian Educational and Cultural Center in suburban Philadelphia.
Among their ranks are engineers, designers and students, brought together by common heritage. One that is now under attack.
"[Russia is] trying to rewrite our history and it's our time to say 'no.' We're fighting back," said dancer Maria Molyashcha.
An estimated 57,000 people born in Ukraine and their descendants call the Philadelphia area home, making this the second largest Ukrainian community in the United States, according to Census data.
Since the Russian invasion, this diaspora has kicked into high gear: collecting donations, lobbying the federal government to send arms, and educating an American public suddenly focused on their homeland.
The Ensemble, which turns 50 this year, sees its role in combating Russian aggression as diplomacy through dance, teaching U.S. audiences about Ukrainian history and culture.
Choreographer and executive director Taras Lewyckyj, 59, has been studying Ukrainian dance since he was around 4 years old.
"It's a very catchy way of dancing. It's kind of like breakdancing," he said, particularly the hopak, a folk dance said to have evolved from fighting moves performed by the Cossacks.
Born in Philadelphia to Ukrainian parents, Lewyckyj grew up speaking Ukrainian and studying the history and culture of his ancestral homeland.
"I have two sisters and a brother. If father came home and we were speaking English, we would have to write what he heard [in Ukrainian] 50 times on a piece of paper," he said.
While he used to chafe at such strict rules, Lewyckyj eventually came to see the U.S. Ukrainian community as "safety deposit box" for a unique culture that has been under attack for centuries.
"My father's father was shot in front of the family," said Lewyckyj, targeted for promoting Ukrainian language and culture, which was seen as a threat to Soviet control. He sees the same kind of purge happening in Ukraine now, following Vladimir Putin's insistence that Ukraine and Russia are "one people."
Some in the troupe were born in Ukraine themselves, so the war feels even more personal.
Dancer Khristina Maria Babiychuk, a 27-year-old engineer originally from western Ukraine, moved to the U.S. as a teenager. "After this [war] started, we basically don't have real sleep," she said.
Her mom recently returned to Ukraine, bringing military supplies with her. "For three people, they had like 90 suitcases for bulletproof vests and helmets, because this is something that cannot be shipped," said Babiychuk. Her grandfather and uncle still live in Ukraine.
In Philadelphia, Ukrainian and Russian immigrants share many of the same spaces. The dancers described family members' tense moments at work, and hearing anti-Ukrainian independence slurs.
"Even here in the U.S, when people have access to all the streams of information, people still choose to believe [Russian propaganda]," said dancer Dariya Medynska.
She said the Ensemble hopes they can counter disinformation by showing Ukraine in a positive light.
"We're here, it's not like we're front-line fighting, but we're fighting," said Medynska.
This year's choreography also highlights the subversive side of Ukrainian dancing. Many pieces in the group's repertoire involve characters acting out a story that seems to be about one thing, but is really about Russian oppression during tsarist or Communist times.
"Those are really great to put on right now, to show the chronic nature of this cultural identity theft," said Lewyckyj.
A few weeks later, the Voloshky Dance Ensemble got ready to perform at an International Spring Festival, held at a local high school. Hundreds of people roamed around the gymnasium or sat in front of the stage on folding chairs.
The Voloshky dancers assembled early in the locker room, steaming their costumes and practicing their moves.
When it was their turn, the Ensemble started with some lighter pieces, welcoming the audience and honoring springtime. Then, Lewyckyj introduced a political satire called The Puppet Dance.
In it, a dancer dressed in a Russian fur hat tries to come between a Ukrainian couple. It ends with them kicking him in the behind, and the Russian tumbling over.
"We can only hope for happy endings like that. And you can probably see why that dance was banned from the Soviet Union," Lewyckyj told the audience.
For a finale, the group always performs the hopak, with its acrobatic moves inspired by fighting. One man did an airborne split. Another spun on his head.
This time, the show ended on a chant that has become the battle cry for an independent Ukraine.
Lewyckyj called out in Ukrainian, "Glory to Ukraine!"
The crowd responded, "Glory to the heroes!"
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-01/a-ukrainian-dance-troupe-in-the-u-s-fights-disinformation-one-high-kick-at-a-time | 2022-05-12T15:54:24Z |
AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
As climate change has reduced sea ice in the Arctic, polar bears have been spending more time on land. That raises the chances of bear-human run-ins that are dangerous for both. Now the conservation organization Polar Bears International is testing a technology they think might help - Bear-dar. It's a radar system to clock incoming polar bears and warn people close by. Joining us now to talk about it is B.J. Kirschhoffer, director of field operations for Polar Bears International. Welcome.
BJ KIRSCHHOFFER: Thanks for having me.
RASCOE: Can you talk a little bit more about the Bear-dar? Like, how does it work?
KIRSCHHOFFER: Sure. So the technology that we're using is a motion-tracking radar. The particular device we're testing is made by SpotterRF. They do a lot of kind of security and defense sort of contracts. This particular setup comes right from them. And we're looking at using it, of course, with animals and detecting the bears as they come in to a community or other sensitive areas. The thing, really, is about the size of an iPad. It has no moving parts - pretty energy-efficient little device. And what it does is it just essentially looks for movement. If something's moving out there, especially something as big as a bear, it's pretty darn easy for this radar to see.
RASCOE: This is still in the testing phase, right? You've been testing the technology in Churchill, Manitoba. How's it working?
KIRSCHHOFFER: Yeah, so the device itself works very well. What we've found out is that the device is extremely sensitive and it sees everything - everything down to the little arctic foxes that are running around, wolverines, wolves, moose - everything. And really, if this is going to be an effective tool around a community, we don't want it alerting on the moose. We want it alerting only on polar bears. And that's where the AI component comes in. We need an accurate tool, and building AI models that can say exactly what the animal is out there is where we're headed.
RASCOE: And how much does this cost, like, for the community?
KIRSCHHOFFER: Yeah, so these things are pretty expensive. So do I think it's going to be accessible for every community? To start, probably not. But I think as technology progresses, this stuff will only get more inexpensive. We're working with a group out of Brigham Young University - a group of grad students and professors - that are actually creating a smaller device, a less-expensive device using some of the radars that are found on cars these days to help with some of the self-driving or safety features. And so once you start mass-producing parts like that, they get very, very cheap. So I think there's going to be a range of possibilities in the future. But of course, you know, the first versions off the line are definitely the most expensive.
RASCOE: So are we talking like tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands? How much are we looking at here?
KIRSCHHOFFER: Yeah, right now, I mean, I think we have something like a hundred thousand invested in the equipment itself. Yeah, so it's not inexpensive at all.
RASCOE: And so what's the next step for your organization in developing this Bear-dar?
KIRSCHHOFFER: So we've got two - kind of two things we're working on right now. Working with SpotterRF, we're working to revamp our system. And so we'll be implementing that in the next year. We're going to rebuild the AI models from scratch, and we'll test again. Simultaneously, we're looking at a more mobile platform, maybe in places where a community would say, hey, this is a high bear corridor. And so it's kind of almost like a rapid response sort of tool. So this thing will be testing in Churchill, as well, in the coming year to see how it performs and also allow it to build AI models for us.
RASCOE: That's B.J. Kirschhoffer from Polar Bears International. Thank you for joining us, B.J.
KIRSCHHOFFER: Thank you very much. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-01/bear-dar-might-help-humans-keep-their-distance-from-polar-bears | 2022-05-12T15:54:26Z |
AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
In the next half century, climate change will create many more opportunities for viruses to leap between mammal species. That's according to a new study published Thursday in the journal Nature. And the increased risk of viruses transmitting across species means a higher risk of one that infects humans or even sparks another pandemic. Here to tell us more is Colin Carlson, a biologist at Georgetown University who's one of the study's authors. Welcome.
COLIN CARLSON: Thanks so much. Thanks for having me.
RASCOE: Can you start by explaining the link between climate change and viruses hopping between species? Like, how does one affect the other?
CARLSON: Sure. So the way I like to think of this - right? - is climate change is kind of going into ecosystems and shuffling the deck, right? We're used to ecosystems looking a certain way. But species have to move to sort of safer habitats. They have to move to cooler places to keep up with climate change. And when they do that, they're going to make new friends. They're going to meet new kinds of animals they've never met before. And that is bad news when it comes to viruses because it gives viruses a chance to jump into new hosts.
RASCOE: And you and your colleagues built a computer model to project how viral jumps between species might change in a warming world. What type of information did you use to build that model, and what did your results show?
CARLSON: So we've been running simulations on and off for about three years. We take huge climate models. We project where animals can go to track their habitats, and then we use machine learning to figure out what animals might be able to share viruses with each other. What we find is that everybody's on the move. We found that most species are probably going to have at least one chance to pick up new viruses. And at a sort of global scale, this is really concerning news when it comes to human health because it means that species like bats that have coronaviruses, Ebola virus, all of these things we worry about, they're probably going to need to share some of the same places that we already live. And they're going to be sharing a ton of viruses in our backyard.
RASCOE: One of the theories about how COVID started is that it started in an animal source. And scientists have identified hundreds of other human diseases that started in animals. Can you talk more about those implications of your findings for how this could affect people and, you know, maybe even cause another pandemic?
CARLSON: So it's pretty bad news for people. When viruses move from one species to the next, it's easier to do that if those species are more similar. It's hard to do big jumps across the tree of life. And what we are looking at here essentially is a global situation where a bunch of viruses that have evolved in bats may have the opportunity to jump into primates, to jump into cats and dogs - all of the things that might make it easier for them to eventually reach us because the jump might be a little bit less far next time. And so we think that there is a very high risk that these kinds of changes will at least spark more outbreaks. Now, whether those become pandemics, that's a choice, right? We have the ability to keep disease spillover from becoming pandemics. But we didn't do it this time, and there continues to be a risk we won't do it next time.
RASCOE: You can't really say exactly what will happen because you can't predict the future. You're just saying bringing all of these factors together is a risk.
CARLSON: I think that's exactly right. The way I like to think of it is there's parts of the future we can predict and parts that we can't. Viruses are the wildcard in all of this. We don't know which virus will spill over. We definitely don't know when viruses will make the jump. But we know what the momentum is in the system. And we have the opportunity right now in this moment to look at that momentum and do something about it before all of those thousands or millions of possibilities collapse down into one very bad reality, right?
We can try to collect more data and better understand how ecosystems are changing and where viruses are showing up. We can build better health systems and try to prevent outbreaks from becoming pandemics. And then we need to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for that. What we are talking about is a global change in the risk calculus of pandemics, and that comes from the fact we have waited decades to fade out fossil fuels. So I think there has never been a better moment to act for people's health, to act for climate, to really do something about all of this.
RASCOE: That's Colin Carlson, biologist at Georgetown University. Thank you so much.
CARLSON: Thanks for having me. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-01/climate-change-may-have-one-more-side-effect-another-pandemic | 2022-05-12T15:54:27Z |
AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Country music star Naomi Judd, mother of singer Wynonna Judd and actress Ashley Judd, has died. She was 76. Announcing her death, Judd's daughters wrote on Twitter, today we sisters experienced a tragedy. We lost our beautiful mother to the disease of mental illness. We are shattered. NPR's Elizabeth Blair has this appreciation.
ELIZABETH BLAIR: The mother and daughter duo of Naomi and Wynonna Judd dazzled the music world with their red hair, glamour and harmonies.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MAMA HE'S CRAZY")
THE JUDDS: (Singing) Mama, he's crazy, crazy over me. And in my life is where he says he always wants to be.
BLAIR: In so many ways, Naomi Judd's story is uniquely American. Born in Ashland, Ky., her dad owned a gas station. Her mom was a cook on a Mississippi Riverboat. In high school, she got pregnant with Wynonna, got married and four years later had Ashley. The marriage didn't last. As a single mom, she put herself through nursing school and eventually moved with her daughters to Nashville. It was a patient who helped her and Wynonna get an audition with RCA. Soon, their harmonies were winning Grammys, scads of country awards and reaching the top of the charts.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LOVE IS ALIVE")
THE JUDDS: (Singing) Love is alive and at our breakfast table every day of the week. Love is alive, and it grows every day and night, even in our sleep.
BLAIR: Naomi and her daughter Wynonna shared a special connection, as Naomi Judd told NPR in 2004.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)
NAOMI JUDD: We're like monkeys. We're always grooming each other, always touching. We have a very, very deep psychological connection so that we finish each other's sentences. We don't even have to speak sometimes. We just nod in affirmation of knowing what the other is thinking.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LOVE CAN BUILD A BRIDGE")
THE JUDDS: (Singing) Love can build a bridge between your heart and mind.
BLAIR: In 1990, Naomi Judd was diagnosed with hepatitis C. She said doctors told her she had three years to live. The Judds went on a farewell tour. Naomi became a spokesperson for the American Liver Foundation. She wrote books, including one called "River Of Time: My Descent Into Depression And How I Emerged With Hope." She told NPR she felt that fans looked at her and her daughters Wynonna and Ashley as exemplifying enlightened imperfection.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)
JUDD: We know how flawed and how vulnerable and sometimes wounded we are, but we acknowledge that, and we just feel like we're all in this thing together.
BLAIR: The Judds, Wynonna and Naomi, are scheduled to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame later today. Elizabeth Blair, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ROCKIN' WITH THE RHYTHM OF THE RAIN")
THE JUDDS: (Singing) So let the breeze keep blowing. Rocking with the rhythm of the rain that's a'falling. Night birds a'singing, the crickets a'calling. Oh, my heart will never be the same. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-01/country-music-star-naomi-judd-dies-at-76 | 2022-05-12T15:54:30Z |
AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Now we hear from the vast open ranges of Colombia, a place where cowboys keep track of cattle through days and days of hard work, occasionally eased with some cowboy music. Like American cowboys, they're storied in the country's history, but they don't wear cowboy boots. Reporter John Otis spent some time on the Colombian range.
(SOUNDBITE OF HORSES TROTTING)
JOHN OTIS, BYLINE: Sitting atop horses, these hired ranch hands are driving cattle through the pancake-flat prairies of eastern Colombia.
(CROSSTALK)
OTIS: Known as llaneros - that's Spanish for plainsmen - the men have to cover a lot of ground. This 4,000-acre ranch stretches to the horizon and beyond. It's a gorgeous setting for work that often seems brutal.
(SOUNDBITE OF COW GRUNTING)
OTIS: Back at the corral, the llaneros mark the cattle with red-hot branding irons to identify who they belong to.
UNIDENTIFIED LLANERO #1: (Speaking Spanish).
UNIDENTIFIED LLANERO #2: (Speaking Spanish).
OTIS: Also jarring is the fact that rather than donning cowboy boots, most llaneros go barefoot. They include Antonio Cova, who's been working on ranches since he was 13 and who says his unshod feet are as leathery as animal paws.
ANTONIO COVA: (Speaking Spanish).
OTIS: "It's a tradition," he explains. "You build up calluses on your feet, so nothing hurts them."
Llaneros have been proving their toughness for centuries. Expert horsemen and marksmen, they fought alongside South American liberator Simon Bolivar in the early 1800s to help secure Colombia's independence from Spain.
(SOUNDBITE OF METAL CLANGING)
OTIS: In fact, some llaneros, like Antonio Cantor, still go around with guns.
ANTONIO CANTOR: (Speaking Spanish).
OTIS: Pulling a pistol from his holster, he says, "The revolver used to be a normal part of your wardrobe."
(SOUNDBITE OF HORSES TROTTING)
OTIS: These days, llaneros remain key to Colombia's cattle industry. Unlike the U.S., most ranchers here can't afford to send their herds to be fattened up at large commercial feedlots. However, pasture land is relatively cheap.
Abelardo Bravo, a Bogota businessman who bought this ranch 13 years ago, says he couldn't run it without his trusty llaneros.
ABELARDO BRAVO: (Speaking Spanish).
OTIS: "They're courageous people," he says. "A llanero won't back down from anything. He might weigh 150 pounds, but he'll take on a 900-pound bull."
Still, llanero life is not all muscle and machismo.
(SOUNDBITE OF MILK SLOSHING)
UNIDENTIFIED LLANERO #3: (Singing in Spanish).
OTIS: While milking the cows before dawn, one of the llaneros softly sings so the animals will relax and give more milk. Indeed, llaneros have their own genre of music and are quick to break into song.
CANTOR: (Singing in Spanish, playing cuatro).
OTIS: And Cantor, the pistol-packing llanero, plays a small four-string guitar known as the cuatro.
CANTOR: (Singing in Spanish, playing cuatro).
OTIS: He sometimes wonders whether llanero traditions will last. Ranches are gradually getting smaller and require fewer workers. Some llaneros are taking easier jobs in the cities. But after nearly 70 years of raising cattle in the countryside, Cantor says he's not budging.
CANTOR: (Speaking Spanish).
OTIS: "This is where I was born and raised," he says. "This is where I grew old, and this is where I want to die."
For NPR News, I'm John Otis in the eastern plains of Colombia. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-01/cowboys-in-colombia-are-barefoot-legends | 2022-05-12T15:54:44Z |
AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
European lawmakers are targeting Big Tech like never before. The EU recently advanced rules that would force companies like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to crack down on misinformation and hate speech or face multibillion-dollar fines. NPR tech reporter Bobby Allyn joins us to explain what the new law does and how it could eventually change how everyone uses social media. Good morning, Bobby.
BOBBY ALLYN, BYLINE: Hey, Ayesha.
RASCOE: So this is called the Digital Services Act, but it isn't the first time European lawmakers have moved to kind of rein in the tech industry, right?
ALLYN: So European regulators have already passed laws aimed at tech privacy and the dominance of Big Tech. So this is actually the third sweeping tech law in recent years. And it's looking at the societal effects of tech platforms, and it's really a huge deal. It affects social media, search engines and lots of other platforms, big and small.
RASCOE: OK, so tell us exactly what this new law calls for.
ALLYN: Sure. So let's focus on, you know, the social media companies that, you know, we all know and use every day - Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter. This law adds a new regulator that the companies will actually be paying for themselves to make sure that illegal content is taken down quickly - stuff like terrorism and hate speech. So, you know, attacking someone based on their race or religion - that's illegal in Europe. The law also makes the companies share tons of internal data with researchers, like how platforms are dealing with misinformation. It also calls for an independent auditor to do an annual review of how Big Tech is complying. But, you know, this isn't some, you know, ho-hum boring audit. If the companies are found to be dragging their feet, they could be fined up to 6% of global revenue. I mean, that's billions of dollars, enough to really hurt these companies. I talked about the new rules with Daphne Keller. She's with Stanford's Cyber Policy Center, and she previously was a top lawyer at Google.
DAPHNE KELLER: It is a very major stick. So to the extent that platforms haven't been taking European regulation seriously enough, this is a reason to take it more seriously.
RASCOE: Yeah, billions of dollars would likely do that. So these stiff penalties would be for keeping up hate speech and other content that's illegal in the EU. Like, what else does the law do?
ALLYN: Yeah, it's a really dizzying law 'cause there's just so many parts to it. But two things that were really interesting to me when I looked over some of the particulars have to do with advertising and what we're served up on social media. The law bans targeting minors with any ads at all and also prevents ads from profiling people based on gender, ethnicity or sexual orientation, which is a huge change from how targeted ads work right now. I mean, social media companies make almost all their money from advertising, so this could really cut into their profits eventually. And on the second point, what the platforms recommend to us - the law says if people want to be able to opt out of personalized feeds - you know, when you go on TikTok or Instagram or something, and you see a social media post that's, like, a little too creepy because it seems to know a little too much about us - that in Europe, people should be able to opt out of that kind of stuff. It gives people the power to say, you know what? I don't like the way that TikTok or YouTube is recommending content to me, so I want out.
RASCOE: That sounds like a pretty big change. Like, how have tech companies responded?
ALLYN: Well, lobbyists for Big Tech fought hard to have the law watered down. They were not successful. All 27 EU countries have agreed on the language of this law. And it's moving towards final approval in the European Parliament. And now the companies say they will all comply with the new rules.
RASCOE: And so here in the U.S., are lawmakers looking at this and maybe potentially thinking about following suit?
ALLYN: Oh, they're absolutely watching, but that might be about it. In Washington, it's all talk and little action when it comes to tech. I mean, consider this fact, Ayesha - in the past 25 years, Congress has passed just two very narrow tech regulations - one about children's privacy and another on sex trafficking. Lawmakers just can't seem to agree on anything else. Now, there is a chance this EU law will prompt copycat legislation in other countries and maybe eventually trigger some kind of action in the U.S. Some experts say if the tech companies are forced to make these big changes for people in Europe, then, you know, it shouldn't be that big of a deal to make it the global norm. So we'll see how that goes. But, you know, Congress may be inspired to pass a new tech regulation. But if that happens, I'll be sure to be back with an update.
RASCOE: And we'll look forward to talking to you again if that's the case. That's NPR tech reporter Bobby Allyn. Thank you so much.
ALLYN: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-01/europe-has-to-monitor-hate-speech-and-illegal-content-on-social-media-more-closely | 2022-05-12T15:54:50Z |
AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
If you have always dreamed of picking up and moving to Italy to live la dolce vita, it's about to get easier. The country is hoping to attract more than tourists, whose numbers have declined during the pandemic, and has come up with a scheme to appeal to people who don't have to work from the office anymore. Adam Raney reports from Rome.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOG WALKING)
ADAM RANEY, BYLINE: The sound of Nitro, a chocolate Doberman pinscher on his afternoon walk through the heart of Rome as street music fills the air. His loving owner, Mike LaPointe, dragged behind, happily taking in the sights as we cross the River Tiber.
MIKE LAPOINTE: It's pretty amazing. I really like going over this bridge. I think it's the fourth oldest in the world.
RANEY: LaPointe, a longtime resident of Washington, D.C., now lives along this timeless river with his wife, Gillian Kirkpatrick, and, of course, Nitro. Their apartment is a stone's throw away from the Colosseum and Circus Maximus. Lapointe and Kirkpatrick don't see themselves as tourists. They want to stay in Rome. Mid-career professionals sapped by the isolation of remote work, they came to Italy last fall on temporary student visas, which expire in a few months.
GILLIAN KIRKPATRICK: I've loved Italy since I set foot here in 1985, and I've come back as often as I can for as long as I can. And it's very hard to leave every time it's over.
RANEY: It may not have to be over for them. Italy is about to launch what it calls the digital nomad visa, geared toward remote workers who earn money abroad but want to call Italy home. LaPointe wants to be first in line to apply as soon as the visa is implemented, which could be any day now.
LAPOINTE: The U.S. is a great place to work and is a great place to make money, and Europe is a great place to live. I think that'd be the ultimate telecommute situation for us.
RANEY: The visa is expected to attract thousands of applicants in the first year, people like LaPointe and Kirkpatrick, who have realized remote work would allow them to live their dream life abroad.
LUCA CARABETTA: This kind of law allows us to attract people with no cost for our economy, but only with gains for our economy.
RANEY: That's Parliament member Luca Carabetta of the Five Star Movement. The party was one of the main backers of the new visa. Since it's aimed at relatively high-earning foreigners, supporters see it as a no-brainer. That's in contrast to Italy's strong-armed policy against migrants from Africa. Digital nomads have near universal support, especially since they won't be eligible for social welfare programs and they'll have to provide their own health insurance. Meanwhile, they could potentially pump hundreds of millions of euros into the economy.
A few hours north, Venice, the floating city with stunning plazas like Saint Mark's, was a commercial powerhouse for centuries until it went into decline. Tourism is now the mainstay of its economy. Economist Massimo Warglien from Ca' Foscari University wants to attract digital nomads to Venice to fill the gaps in a city that has lost tens of thousands of residents in recent years. He helped launch Venywhere, where a program to support international remote workers moving to Venice. He says the digital nomad scheme will stimulate innovation and an entrepreneurial spirit.
MASSIMO WARGLIEN: Well, the Venywhere program really has, as a main aim, to bring a population of workers from anywhere to Venice, to make the city a city where you can make experiments with new forms of work.
RANEY: When I asked Warglien again if this was just another way to keep Venice as a playground for the rich, he said no.
WARGLIEN: We are not trying to attract wealthy people. We are trying to attract human capital, which is missing in the city. You want people who come with the energy to do things. The city is losing many of these energies. We want to get them back.
RANEY: The head of Italy's visa unit, Stefano Bianchi, echoes this sentiment.
STEFANO BIANCHI: We need to attract people who can contribute to the relaunching of our economy and to its integration with the global economy.
RANEY: Back on that 2,000-year-old bridge over the Tiber, Gillian Kirkpatrick imagines a lot of workers like her would line up to do just that.
KIRKPATRICK: I know quite a few people who are 100% remote. And you can live anywhere you want and spend some time in Italy. I mean, what could be better than that?
RANEY: For NPR News, I'm Adam Raney in Rome.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-01/italy-is-launching-a-digital-nomad-visa | 2022-05-12T15:54:56Z |
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
A traveling exhibition opening this month in Montreal, Canada, caught our attention. It's called Techno Worlds, and it's all about the history, roots and significance of electronic techno music.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MARTIN: That's a track by Abdul Qadim Haqq, one of the artists featured in Techno Worlds. The exhibition, which will travel to several U.S. and Latin American cities later this year, is a creation of the Goethe Institute, a cultural exchange agency within the German government. One of the exhibit's curators is Mathilde Weh. She says techno became hugely popular in West Germany during the Cold War, when it was embraced by West German club culture - a feel-good music with no lyrics to translate, just beats to dance to.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MATHILDE WEH: It was a new kind of music, electronic music, and it was without words. And it was not important that there was a hero or a star on the stage. The techno music was industrial and minimalistic music and the perfect soundtrack for clubs.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MARTIN: But if you're thinking that techno is a form of music only associated with Germany in the '80s, Weh says there's more to the story than that.
WEH: Yes, as techno drew its inspiration from many different genres and regions of the world, but its birthplace, however, it was the former motor city of Detroit, where African American musicians were key contributors to the emergence of techno music.
(SOUNDBITE OF JUAN ATKINS SONG, "ALLEYS OF YOUR MIND")
MARTIN: This track is by Juan Atkins, a Detroit techno musician who is credited with helping to create the sound in the early '80s.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ALLEYS OF YOUR MIND")
JUAN ATKINS: (Singing) Alleys of your mind, of your mind, of your mind. Paranoia right behind, right behind, right behind. Alleys of your mind, of your mind, of your mind.
WEH: Techno is a sense of life and time that transcends borders - can equally well be used as a political tool.
MARTIN: Weh recalls that techno played a role in helping the world reemerge from the deep division that characterized the Cold War.
WEH: In Germany, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, techno was seen as a unifying element between east and west. It was a nonverbal language without borders and for which it doesn't matter where you come from.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MARTIN: Techno, in a sense, became the soundtrack of freedom for many eastern Europeans at the time.
WEH: It was a strong feeling of freedom at the time in the clubs, and I think that that is the fascination of it. It was a spirit of optimism and freedom.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MARTIN: That was Mathilde Weh, a German musician and one of the curators of the Techno Worlds traveling exhibition, making its way through cities across North America starting this month and then around the world.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-01/new-techno-music-exhibit-transcends-borders | 2022-05-12T15:55:02Z |
AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made a surprise visit to Ukraine Saturday, where she met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The trip is a major show of support for the country's fight against Russia. It's an issue that President Biden has also been trying to put front and center - most recently requesting $33 billion in aid to help Ukraine. But as the conflict continues, American support of Biden's actions seem to be flagging. Joining me now to discuss this and more is NPR senior political editor Domenico Montanaro. Good morning, Domenico.
DOMENICO MONTANARO, BYLINE: Hey, Ayesha.
RASCOE: Hey. So previously, the public had been more supportive of the Biden administration and what he's doing to support Ukraine. But now we're seeing those numbers start to sag. Like, you know, I mean, obviously, there's been a downward trend in Biden's poll numbers for months. Like, what's going on here?
MONTANARO: Well, yeah. I mean, we had our latest poll out this week - the NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll. We saw Biden's numbers from March until this month decline from 52 to 44% overall when it comes to his handling of Ukraine. Now, it's tough to say what's happening with Ukraine, except for the fact that you're continuing to see images over and over on television and people feeling like the West and the U.S. aren't able to do enough. You know, and that's why you have President Biden asking for so much more money to try to put arms to the country.
But the real issue here is that people's biggest concern is - are domestic issues - when you look at inflation, for example. And in our survey, with inflation being people's top concern, they trust Republicans to handle the issue of inflation by more than 20 points over Democrats. And that spells trouble in this midterm year for Democrats.
RASCOE: Are there any areas that people think Democrats would handle well?
MONTANARO: Yeah. I mean, you look at a few areas - you know, the coronavirus, education, for example, abortion, climate change - all big areas where people seem to favor Democrats more. And some of those have been obviously controversial areas. The coronavirus, you could argue, is one of the big reasons President Biden was elected in the first place, aside from the antipathy to President Trump, of course. You know, and Democrats are favored by 12 points in dealing with this. We see three-quarters of Americans now saying that they're optimistic that the end of the pandemic is nearing. So Democrats have a bit of an advantage on that.
But right now, Republicans have been able to push issues like inflation, violent crime. You know, and immigration is a place that I'm really interested to watch what's going to happen over the next few months because it's going to become a bigger issue. We're expecting a surge at the border as the summer comes up. And people are really split right now on immigration, and I think that that'll be interesting to watch.
RASCOE: Democrats are also facing a lot of pressure on the issue of student debt. Biden said last week he's considering reducing graduates' debt, at least somewhat. Like, how'd this become such an urgent issue?
MONTANARO: Well, you know, it was a big campaign promise of President Biden...
RASCOE: Well, that's true.
MONTANARO: ...To cancel out some student debt. And young voters are a huge pillar of the Democratic Party. And what we've seen is not just his overall support flagging, but his support flagging with those younger voters. We've seen a decline over the last year by double digits among younger voters. They're growing more disaffected with the president, and they're disappointed. And what a lot of Democrats are seeing right now - the clock is ticking because Republicans are favored to take back the House and possibly the Senate.
RASCOE: OK. In just the few seconds we have left, there's going to be primaries in Indiana and Ohio. The Republican Senate primary in Ohio is very contentious. What should we expect?
MONTANARO: Yeah, some huge things here, especially considering President Trump's endorsements. He endorsed J.D. Vance in this primary - a lot of Republicans in the Trump base not happy about that. And a huge fight right now between Trump and some Republican allies - the Club for Growth, for example. And we're seeing that play out across the airwaves. And Democrats are hoping that if an extreme candidate gets in, that they might have a shot at this Ohio Senate race.
RASCOE: That is NPR senior political editor Domenico Montanaro. Thank you so much for coming on.
MONTANARO: You're welcome, Ayesha. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-01/politics-chat-bidens-ratings-down-over-ukraine-midterms-begin-in-indiana-and-ohio | 2022-05-12T15:55:08Z |
AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
The 2022 primary season is kicking off in earnest this coming Tuesday with primaries in Indiana and Ohio. And while that'll have consequences for both Republicans and Democrats, we wanted to take a look at the Democratic Party in particular since it faces an uphill battle to hang on to its majority in both chambers of Congress. NPR's Juana Summers has been watching all of this and joins us now.
Hi, Juana.
JUANA SUMMERS, BYLINE: Hey, Ayesha.
RASCOE: So, Juana, we know the party in power historically loses seats during the president's first term. And among Democrats right now, there's a big debate about, you know, what direction they need to go in to keep those losses to a minimum. You've been talking to a lot of people from the party's liberal wing. How do they view it?
SUMMERS: Well, Ayesha, you know, if you ask just about any Democrat, they will acknowledge that this is going to be a rough midterm year for them. But the differences come when you ask them why that is. There are a lot of centrist lawmakers who are in competitive districts where the House majority will be decided that have been distancing themselves from some of the ideas of their colleagues on the left. And some progressive strategists that I've been speaking with - they say that Congress has failed to enact a bold agenda. Bill Neidhardt of Left Flank Strategies is someone who said that he is frustrated that the agenda in Congress reflects the priorities of moderate Democrats.
BILL NEIDHARDT: And now Democrats are in a place where voters are unhappy with what Democratic majorities have done. We're reaping what the moderates have sowed. And that's why I think working people probably aren't going to turn out at the level that Democrats need them to in order to win.
SUMMERS: And, Ayesha, despite that bleak forecast, he said that progressives are actually well-positioned to come out of the midterms with some really big victories.
RASCOE: OK. But explain that because I'm trying to follow. If the Democrats are expected to see losses and possibly lose the House, how could that also portend progressives coming out with big victories?
SUMMERS: Yeah, so I wanted to dig into that question, too, and here's what I heard. There are a lot of progressive candidates with really good chances of actually winning some House seats this cycle. And if they do and they head to Washington, that could have a meaningful impact on the type of agenda that the Democratic Party pursues even if Democrats are in the minority in 2023. And the number of people that I talked to also told me to take a look at the state of Texas as one example of what's possible for progressives this year. There were these three closely watched House seats with primaries that happened in March. And one of them we saw that Greg Casar, who's on the Austin City Council, easily won a primary in this deep-blue district that includes Austin and San Antonio. And then there are these two runoffs that are coming up on May 24. In south Texas, Jessica Cisneros is taking on a moderate incumbent, Congressman Henry Cuellar. And that is a district that is also competitive for Republicans. And I've heard from some Democrats who are worried that if Cisneros wins that runoff, it might make it harder for the party to hold the seat in the general. And then the second runoff is in Dallas, where state representative Jasmine Crockett has also advanced. And she's going up against Jane Hamilton. And Hamilton was Biden's state director in Texas in the 2020 primary.
RASCOE: So given all of that, Juana, which other primaries are you watching to see where the Democratic Party is moving?
SUMMERS: Ayesha, this calendar is getting really busy, and the first race that I'm watching is actually happening on Tuesday. There is a big rematch between Congresswoman Shontel Brown and Nina Turner, who's a former state senator and a top ally of Senator Bernie Sanders. Brown won the seat a little bit less than a year ago. It's a Cleveland area district. And Turner is taking her on again in the Democratic primary. And this is a race that President Biden actually just jumped into. He's endorsed Brown.
And if I have to think further down the calendar, another big day that I'm keeping my eye on is May 17. And there are just a ton of really interesting primaries happening then. One of those is in the state of Oregon, where Jamie McLeod-Skinner, who's a school board member, is challenging a moderate incumbent, Congressman Kurt Schrader. President Biden has backed Schrader. And I should just note here that Schrader is actually someone who in Congress has opposed some of the president's key legislative priorities.
Now, May 17 also is primary day in North Carolina, where there are a couple of competitive primaries but also in the state of Pennsylvania, where state Representative Summer Lee is running in a contested primary for a Pittsburgh area seat. Congressman Mike Doyle is retiring, and polls suggest that Summer Lee right now - she's way out front.
RASCOE: NPR's Juana Summers, thank you.
SUMMERS: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-01/primary-season-begins-with-indiana-and-ohio | 2022-05-12T15:55:14Z |
AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Now let's turn to what Russia is doing and might do in the days and weeks ahead. The Kremlin has been telling the U.S. and NATO that they are escalating the war by sending arms to Ukraine and has suggested it would retaliate. And last week, we got an idea of Russia's economic power when it cut off gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria. Agnia Grigas is a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council and author of the book "The New Geopolitics Of Natural Gas." She joins us now.
Welcome to WEEKEND EDITION.
AGNIA GRIGAS: Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here.
RASCOE: Russia said that it cut off those natural gas shipments to Poland and Bulgaria because they refused to pay for energy in rubles. Was this actually retaliation for NATO's sending all of these sophisticated weapons to Ukraine?
GRIGAS: This, you could say, is more retaliation for Western sanctions on the Russian banking system, on trade and on Russian energy trade because already, Poland had said that it will phase out the use of Russian gas and Russian oil. The United States, the United Kingdom have already stopped the use of Russian oil. So I think this message from Vladimir Putin was particularly to try to force countries to go back on the European and the Western sanctions agreements. At the same time, it's an effort for Putin to look strong for his domestic audience and to say, look, we're going to shut off the tap to these unfriendly countries. They're not going to get our gas.
RASCOE: Is it likely that Russia is going to move on to more countries that are even bigger, you know, buyers or purchasers of natural gas from Russia?
GRIGAS: Absolutely. You know, this is a complex situation because the European Union countries have been dependent on decades for Russia as their primary gas supplier. So some of them will be tigher-pinched than others. And Germany is one that comes particularly to mind because Germany is today the largest Russian gas importer within the European Union. At the same time, their policies - well, they really, I would say, made some mistakes in their diversification policies. They don't have LNG import terminals. They don't have alternative pipelines bringing gas from other regions. At the same time, they pursued a very, very aggressive policy in terms of phasing out all of their nuclear power plants, and they've stopped the use of coal. And they've done this before they really got their renewable strategies fully up and running.
RASCOE: Are there other steps that Russia could take to retaliate against countries that are sending arms to Ukraine?
GRIGAS: Today, there are a number of concerns. One, I would say primarily Victory Day coming up, which is a very important celebration, celebrating Soviet victory in World War II and Soviet victory over Nazi Germany, which holds special importance to Vladimir Putin. So on this holiday, he would like to present some sort of win for the Russian public, some sort of win for the parades that are going to be held in Moscow. Now, there has been no military victory for Russia in Ukraine. There are concerns that the Russian attack on eastern Ukraine in the Donbas could escalate dramatically. There could be bombings on Kyiv, bombings on Odesa. There are fears that Russia could use small-scale tactical nuclear or chemical weapons either against Ukraine or - I mean, even potentially, this could spread to neighboring NATO countries such as Poland, whose border is being used to transport weapons into Ukraine. So there are a number of concerns, particularly because the stakes are so high for Vladimir Putin's regime.
RASCOE: So President Biden doesn't seem to be reacting to these threats the way that Vladimir Putin seems to want him to, you know, as far as pulling back on giving funds and weapons to Ukraine. Here's Biden on Thursday proposing another $33 billion in aid to Ukraine.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: Russia is the aggressor. No ifs, ands or buts about it. Russia is the aggressor, and the world must and will hold Russia accountable.
RASCOE: Also last week, you had Biden's defense secretary saying the U.S. wanted to significantly weaken the Russian military. Like, what are the stakes here with the U.S. continuing with, you know, very strong rhetoric and continuing with significant assistance? Is this a tactic to show that the U.S. is not backing down? Or does the U.S. not have any other kind of choice here?
GRIGAS: The U.S. and its allies have correctly pursued a policy of strength and unity. In the past, Vladimir Putin has seen the West back down when they started the war in Georgia, when they first attacked and annexed Crimea in 2014 and started the conflict on the Donbas. They didn't get a full-scale response from the West. And I think the decision that Vladimir Putin had come to that, you know, the West does not - and the United States - is not prepared to face conflict with Russia or to up the stakes. And this is a type of government that does respond to strength rather than weakness. So the unity on the part of the West, on NATO has been incredibly important. And I think this has the potential to shift the tide.
RASCOE: Political scientist and risk analyst Agnia Grigas. Thank you so much for joining us.
GRIGAS: Thank you. It's been a pleasure. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-01/russia-is-starting-to-cut-natural-gas-supplies-off | 2022-05-12T15:55:21Z |
AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
It's the 1990s in Chicago, and a woman named Kirby Mazrachi is trying to solve a woman's murder that bears an uncanny resemblance to an attack she survived years earlier. That's how the drama gets going in the new Apple TV+ show "Shining Girls," adapted from the novel by Lauren Beukes. And though it may seem at first like a conventional crime drama, pretty soon things start to get weird.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "SHINING GIRLS")
ELISABETH MOSS: (As Kirby) Things aren't how they should be.
AMY BRENNEMAN: (As Rachel) You're just still working through it.
MOSS: (As Kirby) No. No, Mom. It's not that. We've talked about this. Everything is like always, and then it's not.
RASCOE: Silka Luisa is the showrunner and screenwriter of "Shining Girls" and joins us now to talk about it. Thanks for being here.
SILKA LUISA: Thank you so much for having me. It's such a pleasure.
RASCOE: We don't want to spoil too much because this - it's some twists and turns in this show. But I wonder if you could pick up the story where our introduction left off. Tell us about Kirby's journey and what's unusual about it.
LUISA: The show starts six years after she was attacked. And ever since then, her world has been changing. Her reality shifts. So it can be small things - it can be, you know, her desk moves across the room - and then, you know, big, fundamental things. There's a recent murder that she thinks is connected to what happened to her six years ago, and she begins to start investigating that murder. And so she's really solving two mysteries. One is, what's happening to me and why does my world keep changing? And also, how am I linked to these other women?
RASCOE: Yeah. And, you know, the show is based on this book called "The Shining Girls." The title refers to really bright, talented young women that the killer targets. What attracted you to this story?
LUISA: Well, it was really that. What Lauren had done so beautifully was she had really given voice to the victims and to this one survivor in particular, as opposed to just the serial killer. She'd also created this really elegant blend of genres. You know, it was, like, serial killer plus mystery plus journalism plus sci-fi. And I just - as a genre lover, I hadn't ever seen that before.
RASCOE: Yeah. I mean, you know, the thing about these types of shows that can be tricky - and I do love thrillers, and I do love shows about serial killers - but the problem is, at times, the women can become just kind of fuel for the serial killer and not actual, full, realized human beings. Having the story, like, settled on Kirby - how does that change that dynamic?
LUISA: It was really important to us that we were pulling away from the violence and not zooming in on it. And the show really lives in the space of the aftermath of violence, the aftermath of trauma. It's all about the wake. It's not about the act. That, to me, is the more interesting emotional terrain. It's more - something I haven't seen as much. It's challenging because at the same time, you have to show some violence. You don't want to completely sanitize the experience. But what was really wonderful was working with all the directors and really trying to calibrate that at a microscopic level, both in the shooting and in the editing, really going frame by frame and being like, OK, do we need this? We tried all different versions of any time we were depicting violence against women.
RASCOE: Kirby is processing her trauma and dealing with these events, but also dealing with supernatural things, and reality is shifting. And that seems to also reflect how disorienting trauma can be in real life, even when reality isn't actually shifting.
LUISA: The mythology for me was all built around really reflecting that experience of trauma, how all these years later, you feel like you can, you know, suddenly have your life back on track and then the rug's pulled out from underneath you. And you feel disoriented. You feel like people can't believe you. You feel so alone. And so all of that was built narratively to reflect trauma.
RASCOE: This book kind of turned the whole serial killer thing on its head because oftentimes, serial killers, mostly men, are portrayed - they're almost as alluring or kind of uniquely damaged in a way that kind of makes them sympathetic. There's none of that in this, right?
(LAUGHTER)
LUISA: I think there is a tendency with serial killers to have a fascination with them because they seem, you know, very smart. They're very calculated. Harper is definitely not that. He's insecure, small man who - confident women make him feel even smaller. And that, to me, felt more authentic and real.
RASCOE: You know, so much of this subject matter is - it's bleak, right? I mean, you know, you're dealing with murders. But there is this redemptive part of the show, as well. Like, it's not just darkness. Like, why was that balance important to you?
LUISA: For me, the book also had this, which is this throughline of hope and resilience. Even though Kirby's life was completely blown back by what happened to her, you still see her moving forward and you still see her trying to confront what happened to her, trying to confront who did this to her. And that resilience, for me, lifts up the entire show.
RASCOE: And I understand that the supernatural was kind of a part of your upbringing, and it continues to be a part of your writing. Tell us about how the supernatural was a part of your upbringing.
LUISA: You know, my mom was Dominican. We definitely went to a lot of psychics. I was very much in that world. That just always has been where I'm more interested. Like, I love mysteries. Things that, on the surface, seem darker, always seem to draw me more. At the same time, I do like having a hopeful ending. I think the balance between those two is really important.
RASCOE: Silka Louisa is the showrunner and screenwriter of the new show "Shining Girls" from Apple TV+. Thank you so much for being with us.
LUISA: Thank you so much for having me. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-01/shining-girls-book-becomes-an-usual-crime-drama-on-the-screen | 2022-05-12T15:55:27Z |
On-air challenge: I'm going to give you some four-letter words. Name a capital city that conceals each word in consecutive letters.
Example: THEN --> ATHENS
1. OPEN
2. QUIT
3. SINK
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Last week's challenge: Name a sound made by a certain animal. Change one letter in it to the next letter of the alphabet, and you'll get a color associated with that animal. What's the sound, and what's the color?
Challenge answer: OINK --> PINK
Winner: Pamela Bender of Boston.
This week's challenge: This week's challenge is more challenging than last week's. Write down the name of a number. Move each letter four spots later in the alphabet — so A would become E, B would become F, etc. The result will be a number that's 44 more than your first one. What numbers are these?
If you know the answer to next week's challenge, submit it here by Thursday, May 5, at 3 p.m. ET. Listeners who submit correct answers win a chance to play the on-air puzzle. Important: Include a phone number where we can reach you.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-01/sunday-puzzle-tucked-away-in-the-capital | 2022-05-12T15:55:33Z |
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Every day in the United States, about 28 people are killed in drunk driving crashes. The state of Tennessee hopes that a new set of consequences for drunk drivers might help lower that number. A bill is headed to the governor's desk which would require drunk drivers to pay child support if they are responsible for the death of a parent of a minor. We wanted to know more about how this would work, so we've called state Representative Mark Hall - he's a Republican - to tell us more. Representative Hall introduced the bill in the Tennessee House, where it passed unanimously, and he is with us now. Representative Hall, thanks so much for joining us.
MARK HALL: Hey, thanks for having me today.
MARTIN: How did the idea for this come about? Was it one particular event, or was it some series of events? I do understand that there is a grandmother in Missouri who's been advocating for this after her son and his partner and one of their children was killed in a crash and leaving behind two of their children whom she is now raising. So tell me how this came to your attention.
HALL: Right. A relative of the victim lives in my district. And she had reached out to me and, of course, a constituent of mine and asked me if I would, you know, take a second look at this or take a hard look at it to see if this is something that is doable. I met with legal to make sure that it was sort of drafted in a nice, neat little clean package. And so as it started going through the committee process, it really started to build momentum. And I knew that we had something special here.
MARTIN: So there are other states looking to implement similar bills, but it's my understanding it looks as though Tennessee is going to be the first to get it done. What made you want to be the person to carry this forward?
HALL: Fourteen other states have taken a step in this direction, and a few have sort of dipped their toe in the water. But in the state of Tennessee, if you were to get a drunk - if you were to be driving intoxicated today, if you were to get a DUI, there would only be a 17% chance of you ever getting a second DUI. But if you had a second, you would have a 70% chance of getting a third. So it was very important that I utilized every tool in the toolbox to combat drinking and driving.
MARTIN: How is the amount of child support calculated? Like, how would this actually work?
HALL: Well, that's a great question. I left the bill open-ended on purpose for the simple fact that I wanted to sort of take the shackles off the DA and the judges and allow them to use their own discretion when addressing these issues. It's my belief that in the future that there will be a formula in place, almost like a divorce settlement agreement, where the payment is based on the income of the convicted drunk driver and the needs of the child.
MARTIN: So forgive me for being sort of very clear about this, but if a person who's impaired by alcohol kills somebody who doesn't have children but who has a spouse, that's not relevant. There's no spousal support or alimony involved. It's strictly intended to pay for the future support, I assume, of minor children. Would that be accurate?
HALL: Yes, ma'am. It is - it's - 100% goes to child support until the child reaches the age of 18.
MARTIN: So I assume the idea is that this would be a deterrent for people to think twice before they get behind the wheel if they have been drinking. And I think, you know, you've been in public life for a while, so I think you were around - there's been a big pivot in our attitude about this. I mean, I can - I remember when I first got into this field, in journalism, I remember there was actually a fairly lenient attitude toward alcohol-impaired driving. I mean, people tended to be sympathetic. Like, if something happened, they'd be like, oh, well, the driver has to live with this for the rest of his or her life, you know? And then people, because of advocacy by groups like Mothers Against Drunk Driving, a lot - you know, the criminal justice system got much more tough about it, in part thinking that, you know, if there were consequences, if there were stiffer consequences - the blood alcohol limit got lowered substantially in most places. The penalties got higher. But then it seems like there's kind of been another shift where people are wondering whether criminal justice is the right response for addiction-driven behaviors, right? So what are your thoughts about that? And did you think about that while you were crafting this? What were your thoughts about that?
HALL: Well, there's two things that you - that I wanted to sort of - to address. First of all, I think you certainly want to get their attention on those that get behind the wheel while they're drinking and driving. And that was part of it. But the main motivation was I wanted to make sure that the children were in as much of a healthy financial - healthy and robust financial position if their parent of a minor child got - was killed at the hands of a drunk driver.
MARTIN: But what convinces you that this is the kind of thing that will get a person's attention who's an addict? That's my question, because the reason why I say that there's been a rethinking of some of these approaches is that some people argue that an addict, somebody who's addicted to whatever - alcohol, whether it's opioids or whatever - isn't making those kinds of calculations. So I'm just wondering, what persuades you that this would be a deterrent?
HALL: It's basically what we're doing today. It is - it's getting the message out. And I know that even though 14 other states have taken a step in this direction, the - this law has spread like wildfire across the great state of Tennessee. It has hit every media source. I've had four other states that's reached out to me. North Carolina, Wisconsin, Georgia - all of them have reached out to me, and they want the language of this law. So that tells me one thing, is that it's doing what it's supposed to do and that it's building momentum and it's getting the message out. And I'm anticipating it to be some form of this law, even though it may be watered down in some states. But I'm anticipating this law to be in every state in the U.S. And it started right here in the great state of Tennessee.
MARTIN: So before we let you go, in 2021, there were 272 alcohol-impaired driving fatalities in Tennessee. The same year, though, there were 707 deaths from gun violence, and there were more than 1,100 injuries from gun violence. Have you considered a bill that would impose similar consequences for other crimes that result in the death of a parent? I mean, given that some of these deaths are surely self-harm, but some of these deaths are surely the result of negligence - people leaving their guns unattended, people perhaps leaving their gun unlocked, things of that sort. Did you consider that?
HALL: Great question. And I've had that question asked to me several different times, whether - a lot of those that are convicted of violent crimes, intentional violent crimes, of course, serves more time. And the payment of the child support starts one year after the inmate is released from incarceration. So a lot of the offenders that are violent and commit a crime with a weapon, of course, they serve more time than a drunk driver. So, you know, I don't know if - I'm not so sure if the needle moves in a positive direction as far as having the children with someone that is incarcerated that long. So that's something that we're going to take a hard look at. That's something that we've been kicking around and bringing in data and also looking at other states and seeing how other states do the same thing. So that's a great question. That is something that we're taking a hard look at.
MARTIN: That is Tennessee state Representative Mark Hall. Representative Hall, thank you so much for speaking with us today.
HALL: Hey, thank you for having me. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-01/tennessee-rep-mark-hall-on-new-bill-that-would-make-drunk-drivers-pay-child-support | 2022-05-12T15:55:39Z |
Ayesha Rascoe is a White House correspondent for NPR. She is currently covering her third presidential administration. Rascoe's White House coverage has included a number of high profile foreign trips, including President Trump's 2019 summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi, Vietnam, and President Obama's final NATO summit in Warsaw, Poland in 2016. As a part of the White House team, she's also a regular on the NPR Politics Podcast. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-01/the-blossoms-release-new-album-ribbon-around-the-bomb | 2022-05-12T15:55:45Z |
AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Look at players' salaries, and you can see that women's sports aren't valued as much as men's. Go to a typical sports bar, and you'll see the same. It's sort of an unspoken rule that sports bars feature men's sports, but that's not the case at a new bar in Portland, Ore. Deena Prichep reports from The Sports Bra.
DEENA PRICHEP, BYLINE: It's a Thursday night, and The Sports Bra is packed.
DEB CASTEL: I walked through the door about 20 minutes ago, and I actually got some goose bumps.
PRICHEP: Deb Castel says it's not just the fact that each of the five giant televisions is tuned to women's games or the walls are plastered with women's jerseys, trophies, photos. It's also the feeling all of this creates.
CASTEL: I want to look everybody in the eye here. And I just want to be like, are you having a good time? Everybody's having a good time, right?
PRICHEP: Often at sports bars, there's a camaraderie - especially on game night - that everyone is on the same team. And here, that team is women's athletics and equality. The drinks come from women-owned breweries and distilleries, and it's all-ages until 10 p.m. so that kids can see what it looks like when women are front and center.
Over at the bar, Kathy deMartini is just thrilled this place exists.
KATHY DEMARTINI: I grew up playing sports. I grew up playing sports when I was the only girl on the team.
PRICHEP: And when she aged out of the parks and rec league, that was it.
DEMARTINI: So I really love seeing this and seeing so many people excited about it - both men and women.
PRICHEP: The Sports Bra opened last month. Owner Jenny Nguyen says she and her girlfriend spent years joking about the name - because of course - and dreaming up a sort of mythical, supportive place where you'd never have to even ask the bartender to change the channel over to a women's game. So after the pandemic, she decided to make it real. And the response has been overwhelming.
JENNY NGUYEN: Every day, I probably get a couple dozen really heartfelt messages. At the beginning, it was, like, hundreds.
PRICHEP: And not just messages.
NGUYEN: There were days where I would just get FedEx deliveries from people across the country. And it was, like, a signed pair of shoes or, like, an autographed Olympian photograph.
PRICHEP: Nguyen hears from women who had to fight to play sports as girls or helped pave the way for Title IX and from men who say they never realized that most sports bars don't have a single picture of a female athlete, and now they can't not see it. Nguyen says noticing that disparity is the first step to changing it and getting more girls on the field.
NGUYEN: There are so many statistics that show that girls that play sports have just a plethora of benefits - from positive body image to reduced rates of suicide, alcohol abuse, drug abuse. And it goes throughout their whole life.
SARAH BETH LEACH: Just, like, being here and seeing every TV screen - and, like, even walking into the bathroom and, like, seeing all my old heroes and, like, coaches I've looked up to, like, displayed on the walls - like, that's crazy.
PRICHEP: Sarah Beth Leach, who's grabbing a drink with some co-workers, coaches high school basketball. She says her school is committed to equity, but she doesn't have to look far to see teams that struggle to get equal fields and funding.
LEACH: It's great to be a part of the fight all the time, but it's also exhausting to be a female coach trying to fight the fight all the time.
PRICHEP: Leach and the rest of the folks in The Bra, as it's known, love being here because it balances that struggle with celebration and just the joy of sports and the difference it can make.
LEACH: I would not be the person I am today, the teacher I am today, the coach I am today without that experience.
PRICHEP: And the hope is that celebrating women's achievement will also help normalize it so that more girls will try sports. And someday, all sports bars might look a little bit more like The Sports Bra.
For NPR News, I'm Deena Prichep in Portland, Ore. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-01/the-sports-bra-is-the-spot-to-watch-womens-sports-in-portland | 2022-05-12T15:55:51Z |
AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
We've all felt that infamous supply chain shortage, from computer chips to refrigerators to furniture. But what happens when the thing in short supply is needed for the very survival of your child? That's what many parents are finding today with a nationwide shortage of baby formula.
SARA OWENS: My name is Sara Owens, and I live in Florence County, S.C.
RASCOE: Sara is the mother of a 6-month-old, and it's been a struggle to find the formula she needs to feed her daughter.
OWENS: It's like - it's an every-week scavenger hunt, almost, without the fun involved. It's - you know, online, it'll say it's at Walmart. And then by the time you get there, it's gone. But it's also out of stock online, so you don't really know even where to look. I hit the bottom of the can when I'm making a bottle and it's like, you know, (vocalizing) what do I do now?
RASCOE: And she's not alone. One day, she's walking down the aisle in Walmart, and she comes across a desperate father.
OWENS: He was pretty stressed out trying to get to the formula aisle. And we started looking and he was like, I drove two hours from where I live, and I get here and it's not here. And he was just crying because he's like, I can't feed my kid.
RASCOE: The supply chain shortage has forced retailers to ration their supplies, and manufacturers say they're scrambling. Sara's also noticed that prices are up.
OWENS: It's almost between 60 and $80 a week, whereas one of my friends - she is spending over a hundred dollars a week because her child has to have a very specific type, which can retail for anywhere between 40 to $50 a can.
RASCOE: After talking to Sara Owens, we wanted to know what the medical consequences of this formula shortage are and what families can do about it. So to tell us more, we've reached Dr. Magna Dias. She's a pediatrician and associate professor at Yale School of Medicine and joins us now. Welcome.
MAGNA DIAS: Thank you so much for having me.
RASCOE: Are parents able to find the formula that they need? And also - I know with my babies, they had specific formula and a specific brand that we used. And we never switched up on that because we were always concerned about, like, our baby getting, you know, an upset stomach or something from changing. So can you talk about how parents may be feeling or dealing with that?
DIAS: For parents whose babies are healthy, there's really not a lot of big difference between the different formula brands. So it is absolutely fine to change formula brands if that is what is needed.
RASCOE: OK. Well, what if you have to use one of those specialty formulas? Because there are, you know, certain things when it comes to formula where there's some for sensitive stomachs. And some of them actually have to deal with allergies.
DIAS: Yeah, so the specialized formulas is where I think, as a pediatrician, I have the most worry - that's where we're having our critical shortages in terms of supply - and also because those babies generally have been given a specific formula for a reason because they're not able to tolerate other formulas. And I would say that if you're having difficulty with finding the formula, you should definitely talk to your pediatrician about what to do. And more so than everybody else, you know, there's the importance of planning ahead when you require a specialty formula.
RASCOE: And are you worried about parents who may need this formula? Or are you worried about - some parents may even try to stretch the formula, which I understand that is what you're not supposed to do.
DIAS: Yes. So it is something that I'm worried about. We have heard stories of parents hoarding. So I'd advise parents to please not hoard because this way, everybody can have what they need. It is particularly a worry about parents doing substitutes or trying to stretch the formula out. And there's a couple of worries there. One - your baby may not be getting enough nutrition if you're not giving them all the calories that they need. And then the other thing is that babies - when they're little, their kidneys are not mature. And for that reason, they need that perfect formulation. Otherwise, it could actually cause them to get very sick and have to come to the hospital.
RASCOE: So do not water down milk.
DIAS: That's probably one of the most dangerous things that we see. We have had patients come to the emergency room seizing because they have watered down the formula for a variety of reasons.
RASCOE: Well, what advice do you have to parents who have an infant? When they're that young, you're so worried about them. You want to do everything right. And they're hearing about this shortage, and they are worried. Like, what advice do you have for them?
DIAS: Yeah, so I would say for parents of newborn babies to work with your pediatrician to get the support that you need to breastfeed if you can because that will help, as we don't know exactly what's going to be happening with this formula shortage moving forward. The other thing that I would really caution against is home-making formula. There's a lot of recipes on the internet. But the problems there are with infections that sometimes happen, and also, it's such a difficult process to get exactly that right nutrients mix, that you could be putting your baby at danger. The one other thing that I see commonly is people making the switch over to using whole cow's milk earlier. Again, while most formulas are either cow's milk-based or soy milk-based, those milks have been modified and nutrients have been added to make it specifically for infants.
RASCOE: Dr. Magna Dias is a pediatrician and associate professor at the Yale School of Medicine. Thank you so much.
DIAS: Thank you again. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-01/there-is-a-shortage-of-baby-formula | 2022-05-12T15:55:57Z |
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
We learned this morning that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi led a small group of Democratic House members on a secret trip to Ukraine's capital city Kyiv yesterday to show support for Ukraine and to meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Speaker Pelosi committed to, quote, "be there for you until the fight is done," unquote. Traveling with Speaker Pelosi was Congressman Jason Crow from Colorado. He serves on both the House Armed Services and Intelligence Committees. He is also a U.S. Army veteran, and he served in Iraq and Afghanistan. And Congressman Crow is with us now from Poland. Congressman, thank you so much for being here with us.
JASON CROW: Hi, Michel. Good to be with you.
MARTIN: So to begin, without asking you to reveal any classified information, what can you tell us about your discussions with President Zelenskyy?
CROW: Well, it was a long journey getting into Ukraine. Needless to say, United Airlines is not flying in there right now. We kept it secret for security reasons. But we had a very long discussion with President Zelenskyy. We met with him for over three hours. We talked about weapons issues, the current state of the battle in the south and the east, what weapons and equipment that they need to win. We talked about sanctions and what the next evolution of sanctions would be. And we also talked about humanitarian aid, the state of not just humanitarian issues and the crisis within Ukraine and Europe but also the famine and the hunger that could result worldwide, particularly in Africa and the Middle East if Ukraine is not able to break the Russian blockade of agricultural exports out of the Black Sea.
MARTIN: So you've been focused on getting Ukraine some of the supplies that it needs to fight this war. A month ago, you and two of your colleagues wrote a bipartisan letter to the White House asking them to send more resources. And after this meeting, after what you've seen in Kyiv, after you traveled through the country to the degree that you've been able to, do you think there's more the U.S. should be doing to support Ukraine?
CROW: Well, I think there is more that we should be doing, and, in fact, the Biden administration proposed doing it. Their $33 billion aid package request that they submitted to Congress last week is historic. It is a significant request, and it's a request that made it very clear that the United States and President Biden and this administration are in it to win it. And if we are able to draft this bill rapidly and pass this bill out of Congress, I think that this bill provides the funding and support that's necessary to help the Ukrainians win. And we - what we have to make sure is that those numbers actually do add up to the actual weapons systems that are needed. And we spoke specifically with President Zelenskyy and his senior advisers as to what are those specific weapons that are needed to help the Ukrainians repel the Russian invasion, break the naval blockade and, ultimately, help them expel the Russians from Ukraine and make sure that they can never invade again.
MARTIN: Now, obviously, you're there, and your colleagues are back home, but do you have a sense of whether this package - whether your colleagues will be receptive to this package?
CROW: I think they will. I think there remains a very broad base, bipartisan support within Congress on this because people understand that this is not just a fight for Ukrainian freedom and democracy. This is a fight for world freedom and democracy, and this is a fight against hunger and starvation. The war that Vladimir Putin is waging against Ukraine is not just a war against Ukraine. This is a war against the world's most vulnerable. And if Ukraine doesn't win this, then we are talking about hunger and starvation in vast parts of the world because Ukraine is the breadbasket of many parts of the world. But also look at the war crimes that are being committed - the systematic rape, killing, the executions, the carpet-bombing, the rocket attacks on civilian areas. The world and United States cannot and will not stand by and allow this to happen.
MARTIN: Well, speaking of bipartisanship, Congressman, I was just wondering why it is that this particular group is all Democrats. I mean, I recognize that many of you on this group have specific expertise and specific responsibilities, committee chairs, etc. But I am wondering why it is that no Republicans were invited to join, given that, as you said, that this is - should be an issue of national concern which goes beyond partisanship. Do you know?
CROW: Yeah. The speaker did invite Republicans, and they were unable to join, unfortunately. But, you know, this has been a very bipartisan effort. There was an attempt to make this trip bipartisan. Obviously, the committee chairs were important to bring along for obvious reasons. I've led a number of the efforts to make sure that the weapons and the aid packages are appropriate, given my background. Unfortunately, the Republicans were not able to join us this round.
MARTIN: Before we let you go, we have about a minute left. I mentioned that you're currently in Poland. I believe you're expected to meet with President Duda there. How concerned are people there about Russian expansion beyond Ukraine and into Poland?
CROW: They're very concerned here, and they should be. I mean, Poland is a place that - where some of the world's greatest crimes have been committed against humanity. You know, so much of the Holocaust happened here. This is a part of their history. And you have the situation where, actually, the sons and daughters of people that survived the Holocaust are actually rising up right now to prevent the Ukrainians from befalling a terrible fate at the hands of Russia. So this is a part of their history. This is a part of their ethic. They have done remarkable work here. You have - in Warsaw right now, their population has increased almost 25% in the last seven weeks by people opening up their doors. They're opening up their hearts. They're doing what's necessary to stand by their neighbors.
MARTIN: That was Congressman Jason Crow of Colorado speaking to us from Poland, where he's traveling with a group of House Democrats who recently visited Ukraine. Congressman, thank you so much for speaking with us today.
CROW: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-01/u-s-congressional-delegations-meets-with-ukrainian-leaders-in-kyiv | 2022-05-12T15:56:04Z |
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Major companies and large businesses in the United States have been on high alert in recent weeks. They've been warned by security experts that they could be targeted by a Russian cyberattack and become collateral damage in Russia's war on Ukraine. Back in 2007, the small Baltic nation of Estonia became the first to know what that's like, and lessons learned then are being applied to defend Ukraine and other nations now. NPR's cybersecurity correspondent Jenna McLaughlin has this report from Estonia.
JENNA MCLAUGHLIN, BYLINE: It all started with a statue, a Soviet war memorial in the heart of Estonia's capital city, Tallinn.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHVIED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Plans to move the Bronze Soldier in Tallinn led to riots, outrage and the first cyberattack ever attempted on an entire nation state.
LAURI ALLMAN: Looking back at those events exactly 15 years ago, I think we can say that what started to unroll in Estonia perhaps was a prequel or a rehearsal or some sort of drill for what was to follow in the world.
MCLAUGHLIN: Lauri Allman was the permanent secretary of the Estonian Ministry of Defense in 2007, when the Estonian government noticed that a Soviet World War II memorial known as the Bronze Soldier had become a focal point of Russian nationalism. Suspected Russian operatives encouraged gatherings there, planting bouquets of flowers at the monument, stirring up tensions among Estonia's large Russian-speaking population. So the government decided to relocate the Bronze Soldier from central Tallinn to what Almann said was a more appropriate place - a military cemetery. Or at least that was the plan.
ALLMAN: We put around the fence and the tent on top of the statue, and immediately the riots...
(SOUNDBITE OF RIOT)
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Speaking Russian).
MCLAUGHLIN: Russian state media seized on the symbolism of a displaced Soviet statue, evidence, they claimed, of discrimination against ethnic Russians in Estonia. Riots and looting exploded in old town Tallinn. One writer was killed. Dozens more were injured.
ALLMAN: In the first days, that was our crisis. This is what we were dealing with. Russian propaganda was already in full gear. Prime minister was speaking with Angela Merkel. It was that level of crisis.
MCLAUGHLIN: Allman's team tried to put out an official press release to counter the disinformation circulating online. The government website wouldn't load. Allman woke up the Minister of Defense with a 3 a.m. text message.
ALLMAN: Minister, I believe we are under cyberattack. Then I pushed send, and then I thought, OK, the world has definitely changed.
MCLAUGHLIN: It was a denial-of-service attack. Russia had flooded Estonian government websites with a deluge of traffic, causing the sites to crash - media sites, the biggest bank, Estonian leadership quickly saw how the disruption, coupled with the real-world riots, could breed panic and mistrust, so they shut down the internet until they got the cyberattack under control. All in all, the attack lasted 22 days.
MERLE MAIGRE: I think Estonia has been good at not letting any crisis go to waste, and Estonia has been, in that sense, privileged in a way to have had an early wakeup call.
MCLAUGHLIN: Merle Maigre is a cybersecurity expert with Estonia's e-Governance Academy. Her team has been working with the Ukrainian Ministry of Digital Transformation to help build up its digital skills, including cybersecurity. Maigre says there could be a lot of reasons we haven't seen Russia take out Ukraine's power grid, but one of them is the fact that Estonia's NATO allies learned a lot from the 2007 Bronze Soldier attack. Over the past 15 years, E-Estonia has become a global leader in cybersecurity.
MAIGRE: Russia recognizes the capacity of the Western allies to reciprocate very fast and very concretely, and they are very careful.
SIIM MARVEET: Up until now, war has been shells flying, bullets flying in every direction, and we haven't had a huge conflict where IT played a role.
MCLAUGHLIN: Private Siim Marveet was in the first grade when Russia attacked Estonian cyberspace. Today, Marveet is a conscript in Estonia's Cyber Defense Forces, one of the measures the country has taken as a result of the 2007 attack. He's training for all contingencies.
MARVEET: In wartime, we won't get the chance to sit in a nice, quiet room. We're going to have to move out into the forest, hide somewhere so that we can do our main job, which is protecting the IT systems. So if someone can imagine what a server room looks like, if we need to move that to some place in the middle of a forest, that's a whole lot of work.
MCLAUGHLIN: Estonians are confident that if a war with Russia came their way, they'd be ready. They've rebuffed recent cyberattacks since the invasion, but the impacts are barely noticeable compared to 15 years ago, in part because that attack showed Russia's cyber playbook, seen for years in Ukraine and elsewhere. But with Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Allman sees the results of Estonian patience and persistence.
ALLMAN: Years of work, years of lies, years of boilerplate denials, and now we have Ukraine, and nobody believes. And this is how we win.
MCLAUGHLIN: And as for the Bronze Soldier, the monument ringed by a dozen surveillance cameras, it now sits in a military cemetery just down the street from the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence. Jenna McLaughlin, NPR News, Tallinn, Estonia. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-01/ukraines-defense-applies-lessons-from-a-15-year-old-cyberattack-on-estonia | 2022-05-12T15:56:04Z |
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Over the years, Canadian journalist Anna Maria Tremonti has covered some of the biggest stories around the world, from intense armed conflicts to long-running social problems, eventually becoming the host of "The Current," Canada's top current affairs show. But her latest venture, a podcast called "Welcome To Paradise," isn't about her globetrotting career. It's about the secrets she carried with her around the world until now.
As a young woman in her early 20s, she fell in love with a man who seemed charming, spontaneous and fun. They eloped. But not long after they married, he became physically violent and abusive in other ways as well. Although the marriage ended after a year, Tremonti says the after effects followed her for years, and that's what she explores in "Welcome To Paradise," allowing us to listen in as she works through her motivations, feelings and reactions with her therapist, family and friends.
As you might imagine, this conversation will likely include discussions of intimate partner violence. So if this isn't the right choice for you right now, please feel free to step away for a few minutes. And with that being said, Ana Maria Tremonti is with us now to tell us more. Welcome. Thank you so much for being with us today.
ANNA MARIA TREMONTI: Oh, thank you for having me. Thank you very much.
MARTIN: And first, I just want to say I'm so sorry this happened to you. And I also want to say thank you for sharing your story with us and being willing to do that.
TREMONTI: Well, I appreciate that.
MARTIN: Can you just tell us a bit more about how and why you decided to tell your story now? It just - you are very upfront with the fact that you never talked about this. And as a journalist, you know, I certainly understand that. I mean, you and I were both trained in the manner of you don't make yourself the story. You cover the story. You don't make yourself the story. So was there a eureka moment when you said, you know what? I really need to talk about this?
TREMONTI: There was sort of a eureka moment. I had wanted to talk about this publicly on and off over time. And I just never did want to insinuate, you know, myself into a story. And I didn't know how people would react to me because this happened in the '80s, and, you know, a lot of - there are a lot of misconceptions. And I didn't want to be labeled a certain kind of journalist because I only, you know, would be seen as someone who was a, quote, unquote, "battered wife." And I thought it might hurt my career at one point.
But the other thing was that I felt that I could take what had happened to me - I remember telling myself that at least if this had to happen to you, maybe you have more empathy in dealing with other people and in helping them tell stories that they want to tell what happened to them. And so I kind of did that. But there was one interview I did on CBC Radio with a woman who had been in a terrible relationship and was talking about what it was like to get out and how it still followed her. And we were disguising her voice and her location, and it was a pre-tape. It wasn't live on the air. And I stopped. I asked to stop the recording because I felt she was being too specific and she would be identifiable.
And in the course of the conversation we had off tape, we both got a little bit weepy. And I told her a bit of my story, and I'd never done that. And then we continued with her story. But after, I thought about what I had done, and I thought, you know, like, for the longest time, I thought this gave me an opportunity to be empathetic. And now it feels like being silent is an error of omission, if not a full-blown lie. So I thought I needed to find a way to talk.
MARTIN: Do you - you know, the other thing about the series is that you have these little moments that - first of all, I mean, the telling of the physical violence I'm not going to play here because I feel like many people will have experienced this themselves, and I don't know that they need to hear this again. But let me just say, for people who need to know this for whatever reason that this man could have killed you. I just want to make that clear, that the level of physical abuse was such that he could have killed you, and you might - you and I might not be here now talking about this. So I'm very thankful that that did not happen.
But one of the things that I found really moving about the series is where you talk about these small moments of recognition. Like, you describe this moment in this grocery store when you see a woman who looks happy, but you realize from the outside it isn't - you really don't know, like, what's going on with her. You really don't know what's going on with people. And I was interested in that, too, the fact that people you were very close to didn't know. And I'm wondering how you feel about that, that - there was one instance where your neighbors called the police because they heard something was going wrong, but then you said you were mad at them for calling the police. But can I just ask you what your - what are your thoughts about that, that feeling of being alone in it or not - people not knowing, even people you're very close to?
TREMONTI: I went out of my way to hide my bruises. I went out of my way to appear - and heeded, too, by the way, like a loving couple in public. My family lived in Ontario, and I was on the east coast of Canada at the time, so it was easy to hide it from my parents. And I think the other thing that happens is we really don't know. I mean, I've always been struck as a journalist that, you know, you walk along the streets of any city, you pass people, you don't know who - you know, who was tortured five weeks ago and ends up, you know, in your country now, like, ends up somewhere else. We don't know each other's stories. And I realized that. That was my moment of recognition in the grocery line, because I was thinking about that woman who seemed to have a great life. Well, you don't know how bad mine is. And I stopped myself, and I thought, well, you don't know what her life is like. And it again is something that has kind of influenced me journalistically. Like, you know, you can't tell outwardly what's going on with someone's life. You have to kind of make space to let them tell you.
MARTIN: How - do you mind sharing - I'm trying to sort of dance around here because I'm not sure how much you want to reveal and how much you want to let the series reveal. But do you mind talking about how did you finally end it? How did you finally get out?
TREMONTI: I got out of the marriage because he threatened to kill me. He literally sat down across from me one morning with his coffee and said if I didn't leave, he would kill me. It would just be a matter of time. And I did not believe him, but I did leave. And I went crying to my friends several hours down the highway. And then I went back. And the assault when I went back made it pretty clear that I better leave. And so I did. And, you know, several months later, he wanted to get back together with me, and I actually considered it for a week. But by then, I had some distance, and I couldn't put myself through that. And it was a moment of understanding that I had agency, that I could have some control. And it was a watershed for me. And I was about to say to him, I'm not coming back. And he said to me, I don't want you to come back. So, you know, I thought, fine. Good. I don't have to go through it. That's how I got out. What I didn't understand is that that shame and all that stuff would follow me for years, you know, not always so prominently, but it would kind of always be there.
MARTIN: Talk about that. Why?
TREMONTI: Because I think that I felt - I would look at that 23-year-old in the picture of us having eloped, and I would think how naive I was. And I would be embarrassed for her, for myself. And I just felt that somehow I had played a role in it. And, you know, I had actually been through therapy before because I had tried to deal with the anger that I felt after that and managed to get rid of that. But I had never really identified that self-blame. So I could talk about shame and self-blame now. I think that for many years, when this surfaced, it didn't - it wasn't so obviously shame, self-blame. It was just this thing that made me feel I just don't talk about it.
MARTIN: Well, how do you feel now?
TREMONTI: I feel like a weight has been lifted from me.
MARTIN: Say more.
TREMONTI: Well, I think that in the course of doing this - you know, I have a close friend who said to me, if you're going to do this podcast, leave room for discovery. And I was like, oh, of course. But I was really thinking, come on. I've known my own story. What will I discover? But what I did discover was that I carried shame and self-blame, and I identified it, and I worked through it. And I finally - like, I could even picture it. And I pictured it as a braid, a braid of shame and self-blame wrapped together with pain. And as soon as I could do that, I could separate them and let them fall away. I could say, OK, the shame is not mine. The self-blame is not mine, and the pain is in my past. So whatever pain - like, the pain was legitimate. I can say that was legitimate pain, but it's in your past. It can't hurt you now.
And so in working through with talk therapy, I actually came to that place that I did not expect to come to. I thought I would tell my story. I was hopeful that by telling my story, maybe someone would see something in themselves and realize that, you know, they were worthy of not being in an abusive relationship. But I didn't think that I would come to such a great place of healing for myself.
MARTIN: That was journalist Anna Maria Tremonti. All six episodes of her podcast, "Welcome To Paradise," are out now. Ana Maria, thank you so much for talking with us today.
TREMONTI: Thank you.
MARTIN: If you or someone you know is experiencing intimate partner violence, we would like you to know that help is available. The National Domestic Violence Hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE. That's 1-800-799-7233. Or you can go to thehotline.org.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-01/welcome-to-paradise-podcast-works-through-the-lingering-pain-of-an-abusive-marriage | 2022-05-12T15:56:10Z |
AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv Saturday, reassuring him that the U.S. will back Ukraine until the war is over.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
NANCY PELOSI: Your fight is a fight for everyone. And so our commitment is to be there for you until the fight is done.
RASCOE: Meanwhile, the U.N. has begun evacuating civilians from a steel plant in the southeastern city of Mariupol. Hundreds of Ukrainians have been holed up in the plant's bunkers for weeks as Russia has bombed the area relentlessly. Still, Ukraine's army has managed to slow Russia's invasion to a crawl in the region. Both sides are trading artillery fire as ground troops fight fierce battles over small towns and villages. NPR's Brian Mann reports from southern Ukraine, where many civilians are living in the crossfire.
BRIAN MANN, BYLINE: We leave Mykolaiv mid-morning. It's the last fortified city along the Black Sea fully controlled by Ukraine. Beyond, it's contested ground. We reach a village called Lymani, where two elderly women, Olga and Helena, are sitting on a bench. They're enjoying the spring sunshine, sharing a jar of pickles. I ask why they're still here.
OLGA: (Non-English language spoken).
MANN: "What should we do? Where should we go?" Olga says.
HELENA: (Non-English language spoken).
MANN: Helena says, "Look, we're old. We don't want to leave our home and our village." But as we speak, there's a rumble of artillery fire close by.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARTILLERY BLASTING)
OLGA: (Non-English language spoken).
HELENA: (Non-English language spoken).
MANN: The women grin and say, that's our Ukrainian army saying hello to the other side. And they're right. That's the sound of Ukrainian artillery blasting at Russian positions a few miles away.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARTILLERY BLASTING)
MANN: Olga and Helena both say they're fiercely loyal to the Ukrainian side.
HELENA: (Non-English language spoken).
MANN: "The Russians are on our land. We didn't invite them here," Helena says. But the women also admit feeling frightened and lonely.
OLGA: (Non-English language spoken).
MANN: Olga says she lives alone in a war zone. Her family all passed away long ago.
We leave the women with their jar of pickles and travel with a Ukrainian military escort to a village even closer to the Russian lines called Shevchenkovo. Alexy, the Ukrainian soldier who's guiding us, leads the way inside a bomb-shattered elementary school that's been abandoned since the Russians pushed into this area.
(SOUNDBITE OF GLASS CRUNCHING)
MANN: There's broken glass and rubble everywhere.
ALEXY: Every day, this village, our neighbors, are under shelling - every day. Nobody know why - nobody know.
MANN: It's one thing to hear people talk about living under this kind of constant threat. It's another thing to experience it. The Russians attack, firing a barrage of artillery at the school.
(SOUNDBITE OF ROCKETS EXPLODING)
MANN: We run for the cellar as rockets explode in the schoolyard. It's terrifying, but no one is injured.
So far, Ukraine's army has managed to fight Russia to a standstill. But as we huddle in the dark basement, Alexy says the Russians have turned this part of his country into a killing zone.
ALEXY: It's very dangerous to stay here.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Non-English language spoken).
(SOUNDBITE OF DOG BARKING)
MANN: But people do stay here. We also visit Kotliareve, a village where Alexy shows us house after house damaged by Russian missiles.
ALEXY: One here, one there and one there.
MANN: A woman named Svetlana points to a neighbor's destroyed house. The man who lived there, she says, was killed in one of the missile strikes.
SVETLANA: (Non-English language spoken).
MANN: "Of course I knew him," she says. "It's a small village. Everyone knows everyone." Then she says, it's all frightening.
SVETLANA: (Non-English language spoken).
MANN: But one thing that's troubling here is a phrase I hear the villagers say over and over.
LEONID: After two months, it's normal situation.
MANN: That's Leonid, who runs a shop in Kotliarev. Like Olga and Helena and Svetlana, he says it already feels like this war has been going on forever, like this is the new normal. I ask Leonid if he thinks peace will return to his village anytime soon.
LEONID: I hope. I hope.
MANN: Yeah.
LEONID: We can just hope.
MANN: Good luck. I hope you stay safe.
But, of course, that's a foolish thing for me to say. The violence brought by the Russians may feel like a terrible new kind of normal, but until the fighting here ends, these villagers will never be safe.
Brian Mann, NPR News, southern Ukraine. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-01/what-its-like-living-in-ukraines-warzone | 2022-05-12T15:56:16Z |
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Meanwhile, U.N. and Ukrainian officials said today that some civilians have been able to evacuate from a steel plant in the southern city of Mariupol. Hundreds of people - many civilians but also some Ukrainian fighters - have been trapped inside the steel plant as Russian troops surrounded the facility. Most of the fighting in Ukraine is now concentrated in the east and south of the country, where a U.S. official told reporters recently that the Russians are making slow and uneven progress. But a key question about this conflict remains. Why does Russia's massive and powerful military force continue to struggle against a smaller, less well-equipped opponent? Journalist David Volodzko wrote about this in a recent piece in The Daily Beast titled "The Embarrassing Truth Behind Putin's War Failures." He says the Russians appear not to have internalized the lessons they could have learned during other conflicts, particularly the civil war in Syria, where Russia backed the government of dictator Bashar al-Assad.
DAVID VOLODZKO: Some of the lessons that they could have learned in Syria were how to better detect and destroy small fighter units. They clearly have not learned the lesson of suppression and destruction of enemy air defense, which would be negating the surface-to-air missile threats that they're facing now. They do have air superiority, but they don't have that key kinetic element of using anti-radiation missiles to hone in on the radio frequencies of air defense radars. And this has left them exposed to MANPADS, for example, which are the portable air defense surface-to-air missiles.
MARTIN: One of the points you made in your piece that I just found surprising is that they didn't - I don't know how else to describe this other than arrogance. It just seemed that they just didn't realize that fighting a neighboring - a technologically advanced neighboring power where people speak the language is different than fighting, you know, far away where people don't speak your language - I mean, even to the point of using insecure communications, like insecure cellphones to communicate. I just found that surprising. Did you?
VOLODZKO: Yeah. That's a problem that they've faced in more ways than one. And the communication situation is much like some of the other problems they've faced, which is simply a problem of corruption. So their communication technology is already somewhat dated. They've been using unencrypted high-frequency radio and even mobile phones, which is somewhat surprising. But there is evidence from what's been captured in the outskirts of Kyiv that they've been using more advanced systems like software-defined radios, SDRs, one example being the R-187-P1E Azart, which is a digital tactical SDR. That's what they should be using. That's a built-in encryption operating system, ultrahigh frequency, and one of the variants can - has a range of over 200 miles.
The problem is, in April 2021, I believe, the company that makes the Azart and its owner, Leonid Reiman, who's the former minister of communications, came under investigation for fraud. They had evidently been using cheap Chinese parts. This led to a bunch of problems, including the batteries didn't really work that well. So they've had to switch instead, and they're largely using mobile phones and things of that nature. And this is just one example of how corruption has left Putin and his army out in the open, in a sense, and exposed.
MARTIN: So given Russia's early lack of success in Ukraine, would you say that the U.S. and the West have overestimated Russia's military capabilities? Would you say that perhaps the Western allies kind of fell prey to Putin's propaganda, that they were better - that they were more able than they, in fact, are? Like, what should the takeaway be from this?
VOLODZKO: Yeah. I think that we all have overestimated Russia's military capabilities. And, I would add, I think that Putin did, too. One point that I make in the piece is that Moscow recently purged 150 Federal Security Service agents, and they sent the head of the FSB's fifth service, which handles counterinsurgency ops in Ukraine, to Lefortovo Prison. Now, there's a couple different theories as to why, and I'm inclined to go with the official explanation on this one, which is that Beseda lied to the state and stole funds.
So again, as with the radio communications issue, we see corruption coming back to bite Russia. And as a consequence of that, Putin may have gone in on bad intel, thinking that the Ukrainians were going to be waiting with flowers instead of Bandera smoothies - which is, you know, Ukraine's version of a Molotov cocktail - and going in with bad gear, thinking that he had the best and the latest. And so as much as we fell for this idea of Russia being much more powerful than they are, much more capable than they are, Putin fell for that himself.
MARTIN: That was journalist David Volodzko. His recent piece in The Daily Beast is titled "The Embarrassing Truth Behind Putin's War Failures." David Volodzko, thanks so much for speaking with us today.
VOLODZKO: Thank you very much.
(SOUNDBITE OF PHOENIX'S "NORTH") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-01/why-russias-military-appears-to-be-struggling-in-ukraine | 2022-05-12T15:56:22Z |
AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
A Trump-era public health order known as Title 42 that's been used to keep migrants out of the U.S. was supposed to end on May 23, but a federal judge has now temporarily halted those plans. And advocates are worried about what this will mean for the thousands of migrants waiting at the border. Pedro Rios is the program director for the U.S./Mexico Border Program at the American Friends Services Committee. He joins us now from San Diego. Welcome.
PEDRO RIOS: Thank you. It's a pleasure to be on the show.
RASCOE: So you cross the border often into Tijuana, Mexico, which has always been a busy region for migration and especially since President Biden got elected. What do you see when you visit?
RIOS: You know, what I see are many migrants who are confused about what the policies have meant for them. There is a lot of desperation, especially more recently with what appears to be disparate treatment with Ukrainian migrants that have arrived and have been exempted from some of the policies, especially Title 42. Many people from different parts of the world have yet to have had the opportunity to present their cases and present an asylum case.
RASCOE: So what are those conditions like? Is there enough basic necessities like food and water?
RIOS: There aren't basic necessities. In fact, most of the migrant shelters are already saturated with people that have been waiting. And in some circumstances, the pandemic made it much worse because it closed off a lot of the shelters where people would want to wait. And then there are some migrants who can't go to the shelters because there are people affiliated with cartels that are watching out to see who arrives at the shelters. So some of the conditions include kidnappings. They have included extortion by state and nonstate actors. There has been anti-Black violence for migrants that are coming from Haiti or from many of the African countries. There are some migrants that have attempted to cross into the U.S. already and have been expelled because of Title 42, and so those migrants are also much more vulnerable because the authorities might just say that they are criminals, so that might subject them to even harsher penalties by local authorities.
RASCOE: We should be clear that many people are coming to the U.S. to apply for asylum, which is legal to do outside of, you know, Title 42. It is legal to do that.
RIOS: That's correct. So it's legal under U.S. law. It's legal under obligations that the U.S. has signed with other countries that everyone has the right to apply for asylum. Now, the door for doing that has been shut closed by the U.S. government. And that forces migrants to have to cross through much more perilous journeys like the deserts or the mountains or the oceans.
RASCOE: So the Biden administration has put out a plan that they say would deal with, you know, an increase in migrants once they lift Title 42. What do you think about that plan that they have released?
RIOS: I think it's an attempt to try to allay some of the concerns that the Biden administration has not been tough on border enforcement. And I think just by - the mere application of Title 42 suggests that he is continuing some of these harsh policies. But the six-point plan does have some concerns for me, particularly the idea of expeditiously removing migrants. And I don't think that that will provide them with an opportunity to present a full case to necessitate asylum in their particular cases.
RASCOE: Everything's in limbo, but what - how would you like to see this resolved?
RIOS: There are enough cases to suggest that Title 42 was a failed policy, that President Biden should have rescinded it on his first day of the administration and that more resources should be placed to take in migrants in a humanitarian way that uplifts their dignity and that ensures that they're - they are not placed in further harm.
RASCOE: Pedro Rios is the program director for the U.S./Mexico Border Program at the American Friends Services Committee. Thank you for being with us.
RIOS: Thank you so much. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-01/with-title-42-in-flux-migrants-take-over-mexican-cities-across-the-border | 2022-05-12T15:56:24Z |
AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
If you've ever wanted to learn quickly about almost any topic, chances are you head to Wikipedia. The site has more than 6 million articles in English, and some of the topics are, well, just plain weird. There's one on how hotels fold their toilet paper - that could be useful - but there's also a list of the world's wealthiest animals, a Swiss political party that wants to end the use of PowerPoint. It's these absurd and humorous entries that have inspired Annie Rauwerda.
ANNIE RAUWERDA: It's less about, like, a haha, knee-slapper joke and more about, like, a, oh, you kind of breathe heavily out of your nostrils because this thing's kind of interesting and a little bit funny.
RASCOE: She's a student at Michigan State University and creator of a Twitter account called Depths of Wikipedia. Speaking to WKAR in East Lansing, Rauwerda says, to her, Wikipedia is the best site ever. But since anyone can edit the article, she does offer a word of warning.
RAUWERDA: So definitely don't believe every single thing you read on Wikipedia.
RASCOE: Still, if you just want a quick laugh and to learn something odd, Depths of Wikipedia might be the place to go. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-01/you-can-find-anything-on-wikipedia-even-the-weird-and-wacky | 2022-05-12T15:56:30Z |
After a breakthrough election victory at Amazon, the Amazon Labor Union fell far short of winning enough votes to unionize a second warehouse on Staten Island in New York.
The vote was 618 votes against the union to 380 votes in favor.
Roughly 1,600 workers were eligible to vote in the election, which was held in-person over four days last week. It's the second of four Amazon warehouses on Staten Island that organizers had set their sights on.
"We're glad that our team at LDJ5 were able to have their voices heard," said Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel in a statement, referring to the warehouse that voted. "We look forward to continuing to work directly together as we strive to make every day better for our employees."
The tally comes as a disappointment to the Amazon Labor Union, an upstart group founded by former warehouse supervisor Chris Smalls and his co-worker Derrick Palmer, who still works inside the massive fulfillment center that voted in favor of the union last month with 55% percent of the votes. Some 8,300 workers are employed at that warehouse.
As today's vote count was underway, the Amazon Labor Union tweeted, "No matter the outcome of the election, workers are uniting for change at LDJ5, JFK8 & around the world," referring to the two warehouses on Staten Island that have voted so far.
No matter the outcome of the election, workers are uniting for change at LDJ5, JFK8 & around the world.
— Amazon Labor Union (@amazonlabor) May 2, 2022
Mega-corporations continue to spend millions in union-busting + fear tactics & we continue to organize for a society not based on exploitation & greed. #UnionStrong
The Amazon Labor Union has been calling for higher wages, longer breaks, and better health and safety policies. Last week, Amazon met one of the union's demands by making permanent a pandemic-era policy of allowing workers to keep their cell phones with them while they work. The company had indicated it planned to roll back the policy, which was intended to give workers a way to communicate with their families around personal emergencies.
Meanwhile, Amazon has continued its anti-union messaging to workers, arguing through so-called "captive audience" meetings that they'd be better off dealing directly with Amazon rather than through a union. The company is also aggressively seeking to overturn the results of the first Staten Island election.
Within a week of that election, Amazon filed more than two dozen objections, charging, among other things, that union organizers harassed and threatened employees who weren't supporting the union and that the National Labor Relations Board's regional office in Brooklyn favored the union and facilitated its victory. The National Labor Relations Board granted Amazon's request to move the case to a different region for consideration, which is typical procedure when a region's conduct has been challenged.
In an order issued Friday, the NLRB regional director based in Phoenix, where the case has landed, ordered a hearing to be held on May 23, concluding that the evidence described by Amazon "could be grounds for overturning the election."
Support for the Amazon Labor Union grew since March, when few doubted that an upstart union led by former and current Amazon workers could defeat the e-commerce giant in a union election.
In the month since the union's win in the first election, its president Smalls has met with members of Congress, rallied with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders, appeared on The Daily Show with comedian Trevor Noah, and shared a stage with storied labor leader Delores Huerta. He's also talked with other unions, including the Teamsters, who vowed last year to organize Amazon from coast to coast, hiring a national director to spearhead the effort.
Smalls says he's heard from workers at more than 100 Amazon facilities around the country who are also interested in unionizing. Any facility seeking to hold a union election would need to gather the signatures of at least 30% of workers, an enormous challenge at Amazon given the high rates of turnover at its warehouses.
Meanwhile, there is still no outcome from the do-over union election at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama. Hundreds of contested ballots have yet to be resolved, and both Amazon and the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, which organized the Bessemer campaign, have filed objections.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-02/amazon-labor-union-fails-to-repeat-victory-in-staten-island-amazon-warehouse-election | 2022-05-12T15:56:36Z |
A MARTINEZ, HOST:
Some statehouses across the country are trying to limit conversations about sexuality and gender identity in schools or block gender-affirming care for trans children. But as the Mountain West News Bureau's Bert Johnson reports, they're inspiring some LGBTQ citizens to push back by seeking public office.
(SOUNDBITE OF FOOTSTEPS)
BERT JOHNSON, BYLINE: On a recent Sunday in Sparks, Nev., Nnedi Stephens was walking down a quiet tree-lined street, wearing bright-purple braids and a mask with their name printed on it. Spring was in full bloom, but Stephens didn't have time to savor it.
(SOUNDBITE OF KNOCKING ON DOOR)
NNEDI STEPHENS: Hi. My name's Nnedi Stephens. I'm a Democratic candidate running to be the next state senator for District 13.
JOHNSON: With Nevada's primary election coming up in June, they're trying to connect with as many voters as possible.
STEPHENS: It's incumbent upon us to be very conscientious about who is in the room, who is sitting at the table and whose perspectives are being value in this conversation.
JOHNSON: Stephens, who's nonbinary, says they're running for office to bring more representation to the Statehouse, especially for the young folks whose classrooms are on the front lines of the culture war.
STEPHENS: Being able to see themselves represented in this space is something that I want to be able to give today's students because they deserve it.
JOHNSON: More than 600 LGBTQ candidates are on ballots this year. That's according to the LGBTQ Victory Fund, a nonpartisan political action committee that supports candidates running for office. Annise Parker is the fund's president and CEO. She expects that number to grow.
ANNISE PARKER: Each two years, we're still seeing a large surge of folks from marginalized communities stepping up.
JOHNSON: And Parker says, despite stereotypes about smaller communities, running for office in a place like Sparks allows the right candidate to really connect with their neighbors.
PARKER: It is more important for a voter to know that you understand their daily life than who you go home with and may share a bed with.
JOHNSON: That's been Jacob Torgerson's experience. He's a gay man running for Montana's House of Representatives.
JACOB TORGERSON: I'm running because they passed some of the most discriminatory bills we've had, you know, ever in the state of Montana.
JOHNSON: Last year, Montana's Republican-led legislature passed a trio of anti-LGBTQ bills. Torgerson estimates he's knocked on almost 3,000 doors in his district. And he says most Montanans are really concerned about things like the high cost of housing and child care.
TORGERSON: In the session, these folks knew that these bills weren't popular, and they knew that Montanans didn't want these bills passed. And they still passed them.
JOHNSON: According to a February survey by the left-leaning firm Data for Progress, 63% of all voters they polled said the government should stay out of decisions about gender-affirming care. Back in Nevada, Kimi Cole is running to be lieutenant governor. If successful, she'd be the first trans person elected to statewide office here. Cole began her gender transition when she was 54. She says facing discrimination during that process was an eye-opening experience.
KIMI COLE: And I said, I've got a few chapters left in me; I got to do something about this. So that was what prompted me to get politically active.
JOHNSON: Cole lives in rural Carson City and says, thanks to her transition, she's able to be more authentic as a person.
COLE: It makes it very easy for me to - generally speaking - to connect with and talk with people from various different backgrounds.
JOHNSON: And connecting with different people is what she says makes her the best candidate to represent others, whether they're LGBTQ or not.
For NPR News, I'm Bert Johnson in Reno, Nev.
(SOUNDBITE OF ENDLESS DIVE'S "BLURRED") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-02/anti-lgbtq-laws-inspire-many-lgbtq-people-to-seek-public-office | 2022-05-12T15:56:42Z |
DAVE DAVIES, HOST:
This is FRESH AIR. Bonnie Raitt has just released her first album in over six years. It's called "Just Like That" and finds her working in a variety of genres, including the blues, reggae, rock and funk. In April, Raitt was honored with a lifetime achievement award at the Grammys, but rock critic Ken Tucker says her creative lifetime has been revitalized and extended by this highly eclectic new album.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MADE UP MIND")
BONNIE RAITT: (Singing) It starts out slow. Go ahead and go. Pretty soon the melody is like a rainstorm tin-roof symphony. But it starts out slow.
KEN TUCKER, BYLINE: One thing that strikes you immediately upon listening to this album, "Just Like That," is that this is Bonnie Raitt stretching out, extending the boundaries of her signature sound. Listen to her cover of a Toots and the Maytals song, "Love So Strong," a sturdy chunk of reggae that she'd planned to sing as a duet with her friend Toots Hibbert, but he died before that could happen, in 2020. In the middle of the song, she takes a slide guitar solo that is fleet and fluid, winding around the beat and the clattering drums of Ricky Fataar.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LOVE SO STRONG")
RAITT: (Singing) I said my love is so strong, and my mind is unchangeable. You take a look at my face. You will see that my future's still bright, oh, bright as the sun and the sky now, honey. You're sure to see me shine, shine as the stars in the morning that brighten up the sky.
TUCKER: With the exception of the early '90s, when the startling commercial success of her album "Nick Of Time" made her briefly ubiquitous, Raitt has always been more of what they used to call a journeyman than either a cult item or a star. Despite all that nice late-career recognition such as her recent lifetime achievement Grammy, to call Raitt an icon ignores the fact that she's never wanted to be worshipped. Her voice remains a subtle instrument, earthy with an ache around the edges, its smoothness textured by a fine grittiness. Its sly intimacy is, as always, a deep pleasure.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SOMETHING'S GOT A HOLD OF MY HEART")
RAITT: (Singing) No one drive me crazy like the crazy you drive me. Blast off planet Venus. Ain't no use to revive me. And I know just what I want to do and when I want to do it. Never knew this could feel so bad. I don't know why I waited for the love of me. Something's got a hold of my heart.
TUCKER: Raitt takes her sadness about people who've died over the past few years and transfigures that sense of loss into a roiling passion that bursts out as a rocker called "Livin' For The Ones."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LIVIN' FOR THE ONES")
RAITT: (Singing) I can barely raise my head off the pillow. Some days I never get out of bed. I start out with the best of intentions and then shuck it instead. Don't think we'll get back how we use to. No use in tryin' to measure the loss. We better start gettin' used to it and damn the cost. Go ahead and ask me how I make it through. The only way I know is keep livin' for the ones, ones who didn't make it.
TUCKER: Raitt wrote the bittersweet lyrics to "Livin' For The Ones" and this album is unusual for having four songs written by Raitt, who spent most of her career interpreting other writers' songs. She said in recent interviews that she was partially inspired to write after thinking deeply about the death of John Prine in 2020. You can hear Prine's influence in "Down The Hall," in which she plucks her guitar and sings in the character of a person tending to frail patients in a hospice.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DOWN THE HALL")
RAITT: (Singing) I had the flu in a prison infirmary. My last day, I looked up and saw a man wheeled round the corner, down to skin and bones, that's all. I asked the nurse where he was going. She said hospice down the hall. He probably won't be in there long. In a day, we'll get the call. I asked if they let family in. She said not really at the end. Truth is, a lot don't have someone, no friends or next of kin. The thought of those guys goin' out alone...
TUCKER: That is a voice of compassion and generosity, qualities many of us encounter all too rarely these days. Bonnie Raitt has always been an intriguingly complex figure, a singer-songwriter with a social conscience who's kept sloganeering out of her music, a lusty, salty, good time gal with the work ethic of a disciplined artist, a vocalist who treats romance and relationships as things that require patience and maturity. At the age of 72 and 50 years since the release of her first album, she's poured a lifetime of those attributes into this new one.
DAVIES: Ken Tucker reviewed Bonnie Raitt's new album called "Just Like That." On Monday's show, Terry talks with New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns about their new book, "This Shall Not Pass" (ph). It's already rocked the nation with revelations about the January 6 assault on the Capitol, including the fact that House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy planned to tell President Trump to resign. I hope you can join us.
FRESH AIR's executive producer is Danny Miller. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham, with additional engineering this week by Adam Staniszewski. Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Amy Salit, Phyllis Myers, Sam Briger, Lauren Krenzel, Heidi Saman, Therese Madden, Ann Marie Baldonado, Thea Chaloner, Seth Kelley and Joel Wolfram. Our digital media producer is Molly Seavy-Nesper. Roberta Shorrock directs the show. For Terry Gross, I'm Dave Davies.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BLAME IT ON ME")
RAITT: (Singing) Blame it on me. Hold up my faults for all to see. Truth is love's first first casualty. Blame it on me. Blame it on me. It's not the way love's supposed to be. How can you so casually blame it on me? Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-02/bonnie-raitt-extends-the-boundaries-of-her-signature-sound-with-just-like-that | 2022-05-12T15:56:44Z |
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Good morning. I'm Rachel Martin. The Canadian government recently proposed a change to its legal code which allows it to prosecute crimes committed in space. Yeah, it may sound a bit strange, but it's part of a larger plan. Canada has partnered with the U.S. to create the Lunar Gateway space station. The station is set to launch in 2024 and will conduct scientific experiments and prep for missions to Mars. And while crime isn't common in space, they will be ready if it does happen once in a blue moon. It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-02/canadian-lawmakers-pass-amendment-allowing-prosecution-of-crimes-on-the-moon | 2022-05-12T15:56:50Z |
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Today in southern Ukraine, an evacuation convoy took more civilians out of the battered city of Mariupol. For weeks, they've been hiding out under a massive steel plant. Hundreds of civilians are still trapped there, along with an estimated 2,000 Ukrainian fighters, and many of them are wounded. They've refused to surrender to the Russian invaders even as conditions grow worse.
NPR's Joanna Kakissis is following the story from the Ukrainian city of Dnipro and joins us now. Hi, Joanna.
JOANNA KAKISSIS, BYLINE: Hi, Ari.
SHAPIRO: First, bring us up to speed on the evacuation of civilians. What's the latest?
KAKISSIS: So the evacuees from the Azovstal plant in Mariupol were supposed to arrive today in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia. We were waiting for roughly 100 evacuees. These are mostly women and children who have not seen sunlight for a month. But the convoys are actually still making their way to safety. There's been some confusion about why. The mayor of Mariupol is really angry. He's blaming the Russians for the delay.
The U.N. and the Red Cross managed to set up these evacuations by securing a short ceasefire from Russia. But after the evacuees left, the Russians began bombing Mariupol again. And the Russians have destroyed the southern port city. Nearly all the buildings are rubble, and Ukrainian authorities say tens of thousands of people may actually still be in the city. The Azovstal plant is the only part of Mariupol that is not occupied by Russian troops.
SHAPIRO: You've been speaking with somebody who is sheltering in that plant, a soldier. What has he told you about the conditions there?
KAKISSIS: So yeah, we've been speaking with a naval border guard named Stanislav Kerod. He's a husband and a father and a native of Mariupol. And I wanted to see what life was like for him and others inside this plant, which, you know, kind of feels like a last stand of sorts. So about a week ago, NPR started exchanging voice memos with Stanislav Kerod. Iryna Matviyishyn, one of NPR's local producers in Ukraine - she sent him questions in Ukrainian and translated his answers.
SHAPIRO: OK. Let's listen.
KAKISSIS: The first message from Stanislav Kerod is grim.
STANISLAV KEROD: (Through interpreter) The situation is really catastrophic, and it's getting worse every day. We can't do anything about it because we're trapped. No one can bring us any kind of aid.
KAKISSIS: Kerod describes watching army medics dress wounds with whatever is available - water, rags, plastic bags.
KEROD: (Speaking Ukrainian).
KAKISSIS: He explains that moving around the labyrinth of tunnels under the Azovstal plant is dangerous even though the space stretches for miles. The Russians attack it repeatedly.
KEROD: (Through interpreter) How can anyone leave the plant if it's under airstrikes and shelling 24/7? If we leave this bunker, we die.
KAKISSIS: What needs to be done, above all, he says, is to take civilians out, especially those who are wounded. He assures us that the morale among the soldiers here is high, though more than 500 are injured.
KEROD: (Through interpreter) We're all together here - the fighters of the Azov regiment as well as the naval infantry, 36th brigade, the land border guards and my group, the naval border guard. The police and volunteers from the territorial defense are also here.
KAKISSIS: He says they will hold onto Mariupol as long as they are alive. A couple of days later, we receive more voice memos. There's talk of an evacuation plan, though previous ones have been blocked by the Russians.
KEROD: (Speaking Ukrainian).
KAKISSIS: He says he and the other soldiers have been doing whatever they can to help civilians, many of whom are women and children.
KEROD: (Through interpreter) We're trying to help civilians with food and medicine. We will not leave them hungry and fighting for survival, but we can only share what we have.
KAKISSIS: And that's not much. Food, water, medical supplies, hygienic products - they're all running low. In one photo released on social media, a toddler wears a plastic bag as a diaper.
Kerod's family is not under the plant or anywhere in Mariupol.
KEROD: (Through interpreter) I sent them to a safer city inside Ukraine. My family wants to stay in Ukraine, and I also think it's unacceptable for us to leave. We have to stay and do everything we can to support our country.
KAKISSIS: He has heard that there are high-level negotiations to evacuate injured soldiers, but he is staying. He says he will fight.
KEROD: (Speaking Ukrainian).
KAKISSIS: He says, "all of us soldiers who are not injured will keep defending Ukraine, and we will only leave with weapons in our hands, stepping on territory that is Ukraine's."
Joanna Kakissis, NPR News, Dnipro.
(SOUNDBITE OF HIPPIE SABOTAGE SONG, "OM") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-02/civilians-and-soldiers-remain-trapped-in-a-mariupol-steel-plant | 2022-05-12T15:56:56Z |
A MARTINEZ, HOST:
At your typical sports bar, you'll usually find only men's sports on all the flat-screens. But that's not the case at a new bar with a new mission in Portland, Ore. Deena Prichep takes us to The Sports Bra.
DEENA PRICHEP, BYLINE: It's a Thursday night, and The Sports Bra is packed.
DEB CASTEL: I walked through the door about 20 minutes ago, and I actually got some goose bumps.
PRICHEP: Deb Castel says it's not just the fact that each of the five giant televisions is tuned to women's games or the walls are plastered with women's jerseys, trophies, photos. It's also the feeling all of this creates.
CASTEL: I want to look everybody in the eye here. And I just want to be like, are you having a good time? Everybody's having a good time, right?
PRICHEP: Often at sports bars, there's a camaraderie - especially on game night - that everyone is on the same team. And here, that team is women's athletics and equality. The drinks come from women-owned breweries and distilleries, and it's all-ages until 10 p.m. so that kids can see what it looks like when women are front and center.
Over at the bar, Kathy deMartini is just thrilled this place exists.
KATHY DEMARTINI: I grew up playing sports. I grew up playing sports when I was the only girl on the team.
PRICHEP: And when she aged out of the parks and rec league, that was it.
DEMARTINI: So I really love seeing this and seeing so many people excited about it - both men and women.
PRICHEP: The Sports Bra opened last month. Owner Jenny Nguyen says she and her girlfriend spent years joking about the name - because of course - and dreaming up a sort of mythical, supportive place where you'd never have to even ask the bartender to change the channel over to a women's game. So after the pandemic, she decided to make it real. And the response has been overwhelming.
JENNY NGUYEN: Every day, I probably get a couple dozen really heartfelt messages. At the beginning, it was, like, hundreds.
PRICHEP: And not just messages.
NGUYEN: There were days where I would just get FedEx deliveries from people across the country. And it was, like, a signed pair of shoes or, like, an autographed Olympian photograph.
PRICHEP: Nguyen hears from women who had to fight to play sports as girls or helped pave the way for Title IX and from men who say they never realized that most sports bars don't have a single picture of a female athlete, and now they can't not see it. Nguyen says noticing that disparity is the first step to changing it and getting more girls on the field.
NGUYEN: There are so many statistics that show that girls that play sports have just a plethora of benefits - from positive body image to reduced rates of suicide, alcohol abuse, drug abuse. And it goes throughout their whole life.
SARAH BETH LEACH: Just, like, being here and seeing every TV screen - and, like, even walking into the bathroom and, like, seeing all my old heroes and, like, coaches I've looked up to, like, displayed on the walls - like, that's crazy.
PRICHEP: Sarah Beth Leach, who's grabbing a drink with some co-workers, coaches high school basketball. She says her school is committed to equity, but she doesn't have to look far to see teams that struggle to get equal fields and funding.
LEACH: It's great to be a part of the fight all the time, but it's also exhausting to be a female coach trying to fight the fight all the time.
PRICHEP: Leach and the rest of the folks in The Bra, as it's known, love being here because it balances that struggle with celebration and just the joy of sports and the difference it can make.
LEACH: I would not be the person I am today, the teacher I am today, the coach I am today without that experience.
PRICHEP: And the hope is that celebrating women's achievement will also help normalize it so that more girls will try sports. And someday, all sports bars might look a little bit more like The Sports Bra.
For NPR News, I'm Deena Prichep in Portland, Ore. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-02/encore-the-sports-bra-is-the-spot-to-watch-womens-sports-in-portland | 2022-05-12T15:57:02Z |
It was terrifying, but there was so much beauty and magic.
That's how the artist Guadalupe Maravilla describes much of his life. And it could also be said for his work — looming sculptures and haunting sound art — exhibitions of which are currently being shown at the Museum of Modern Art and the Brooklyn Museum in New York.
That art is deeply influenced by his childhood in El Salvador throughout the '70s and '80s, when the country was being consumed by a bloody civil war. Despite the tumult, Maravilla remembers having great fun. He was the youngest in a Menudo cover band. "I guess I was the Ricky Martin," he laughs. He also learned to draw before he learned to speak, and would draw everything.
But little by little, the civil war stripped his family away. First, his father fled the country due to political persecution. Then, his mother left, followed by his grandmother. When he was 8, his family hired coyotes, who transport people across the border. They took him to the U.S. to reunite with his family.
Maravilla says that he's still astounded at an 8-year-old traveling alone with human smugglers, for over 2 months "from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, all the way to Mexico. And eventually I made it to Tijuana. And eventually I crossed." He was one of many unaccompanied minors at the time who migrated from El Salvador to the United States, due to instability in their home country.
He says even that journey to the U.S. had its beauty. He drew a lot on the road in a notebook he's since lost. He would play a Salvadoran children's game called 'Tripa Chuca" with other migrants. Players draw lines on a paper that can never cross each other. The end result looks like a labyrinth, or an intestine (tripa).
This game has become a mainstay in Maravilla's art. As a ritual, before he opens an exhibit, he plays a giant match of Tripa Chuca with another immigrant. He says there's something therapeutic about it. "Confronting trauma", he explains, "when one is ready, is part of the healing process."
Maravilla's art is all about the trauma of displacement. At his new show at the Brooklyn Museum, there's video footage of his work with Central American undocumented minors at a detention center in upstate New York. He taught them how to make masks and led dance exercises. He says they remind him of the children he travelled to the U.S. with, who he never heard from again. "We were not allowed to exchange information."
His exhibition also includes a series of ancient Mayan sculptures that belong to the Brooklyn Museum. Maravilla decided to showcase them, he explains, because "these objects are displaced. They don't belong here, they belong in Central American museums." He says he's planning to have a cleansing ceremony led by a Central American shaman.
Also featured are his breath-taking sculptures, called "Disease Throwers": massive structures made of materials like, volcanic ash, and sea conches.
Maravilla often travels back to El Salvador and retraces the journey he made as a child, buying and gathering objects along the way. He points to a fake chicken, a rose and some corn made out of volcanic rock, all from Mexico.
The Disease Throwers look like mythological beings — and that's on purpose.
"I'm really influenced by Mayan mythology," Maravilla explains. "And if you think about it, their gods, their deities, they were very frightening looking. But in the end, they were the ancestors, the protectors."
Attached to the Disease Throwers are gongs which Maravilla pounds and scratches, making sounds that bring them, trembling, to life. It's eerie and stunning: The walls and floors vibrate, and museum-goers come to a halt.
Maravilla is perhaps best known for this work with sound and vibration, which he began exploring during his own health crisis. He says the trauma he experienced as a child had a major impact on his wellbeing: Years after arriving in the U.S., he developed a rare form of cancer. In addition to chemotherapy, he sought spiritual healers, shamans and the power of sound. "Sound as medicine is nothing new," he explains. "Tibetan throat singers, they use vibration to heal. The flutes, the singing of the shamans in South America, also use sound as medicine."
With his sculptures and other instruments, Maravilla creates "sound baths", in which people are exposed to a flood of sound. He spends a lot of time performing these rituals with undocumented communities and cancer patients.
At one of them — which I was allowed to attend but not record — people lay on the floor. The vibrations were completely overpowering. My body felt like it was levitating.
It was otherworldly.
Like much of Maravilla's life, and work, it was at times harrowing— but also breathtakingly beautiful.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-02/for-the-artist-guadalupe-maravilla-sound-is-healing | 2022-05-12T15:57:04Z |
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
When Avery Tucker and Harmony Tividad first joined forces in 2015, their music was sparse and tender.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BEFORE THE WORLD WAS BIG")
GIRLPOOL: (Singing) I just miss how it felt standing next to you, wearing matching dresses before the world was big. I just miss how it felt standing next to you...
SHAPIRO: They called themselves Girlpool, and since then, their sound has only gotten bigger and bigger. Our reviewer, Miguel Perez, says the Los Angeles band's new album, "Forgiveness," is a far cry from their debut.
MIGUEL PEREZ, BYLINE: Girlpool has undergone a profound transformation in the last seven years. Their latest work is bolder and totally electrifying.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LIE LOVE LULLABY")
GIRLPOOL: (Singing) When we sing it every night, what's a lie love lullaby when we sing it every night? What's a lie love lullaby when we sing it every night?
PEREZ: The band adds brand-new sounds to their arsenal on songs like "Lie Love Lullaby." There's industrial rock, synth and dream pop, a touch of R&B. They enlisted Yves Rothman, whose collaborators include Kim Gordon from Sonic Youth, to give the album its sleek finish. "Forgiveness" even boasts this sweeping ballad with a gorgeous arrangement of piano and strings.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LOVE333")
GIRLPOOL: (Singing) I was looking at something that looked just like love. I was looking at something that looked just like love.
PEREZ: Harmony Tividad says "Love333" started out as one of her bad demos until she and Avery Tucker tackled the song together - because while their sound has grown, they're still very much Girlpool, and their vocals play off of one another beautifully. It's always been one of their biggest strengths.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LOVE333")
GIRLPOOL: (Singing) There's a haze over my eyes. I wonder if there's any truth sometimes. I was looking at something that looked just like love. I was looking at something that looked just like love.
PEREZ: Girlpool has been through big changes outside of the studio, too. Tucker came out as trans in 2017, and what followed was a reckoning as he and Tividad worked to reconcile with an early catalog that no longer reflects who they are now. Accepting the past and embracing the present is what "Forgiveness" is all about.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SEE ME NOW")
GIRLPOOL: (Singing) Baby, what I meant is I get thoughts that make me sick.
PEREZ: On tracks like "See Me Now," Tucker tries something new. He writes about his relationship to his own self.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SEE ME NOW")
GIRLPOOL: (Singing) Talking mean about my strength, like no, I'm not enough like him, wondering if you've looked at old pictures of my band.
PEREZ: Tividad, too, explores her inner demons on the album, and sharing these painful moments is hard, but sometimes, it's the best way to let them go. The beauty of "Forgiveness" is that Girlpool manages to carve a bold new path forward without dismissing where they've been.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "JUNKIE")
GIRLPOOL: (Singing) I'm a junkie for you 'cause I'd die to love you.
SHAPIRO: The new album from Girlpool is called "Forgiveness." Our reviewer, Miguel Perez, is a reporter from KERA in Dallas.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "JUNKIE")
GIRLPOOL: (Singing) ...She's been. She's the prayer I bury, she's the prayer... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-02/girlpool-mixes-rock-synth-and-dream-pop-in-its-electrifying-new-album-forgiveness | 2022-05-12T15:57:10Z |
How do we prevent the next mass shooting before it happens? That's the question Mother Jones national affairs editor Mark Follman has been researching since 2012, when a gunman killed 12 people at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo.
Follman says the first step is recognizing the misconceptions we have about mass shootings — beginning with the notion that these massacres come out of nowhere, and that no one saw them coming. That's not the case, he says.
"This is planned violence," he says. "There is, in every one of these cases, always a trail of behavioral warning signs."
What's more, Follman says, the role of mental health is also widely misunderstood: "The general public views mass shooters as people who are totally crazy, insane. It fits with the idea of snapping, as if these people are totally detached from reality."
In actuality, Follman says, there's "a very rational thought process" that goes into planning and carrying out mass shootings. In his new book, Trigger Points, Follman writes about efforts to study the psychology and behavior of the shooters — and to deploy so-called "behavioral threat assessment" teams in schools and workplaces that work to get troubled people help before they turn to violence.
"If we study these cases and understand better what leads to them ... that gives us more knowledge to work with to prevent them," Follman says. "I think, conservatively, dozens of potential mass shootings have been stopped using this approach — perhaps even hundreds of them."
Interview highlights
On why he doesn't focus on gun regulation and background checks
That's a debate and a battle we've had for a long time in our country. I think that most people understand that making progress in that terrain has been really difficult. We have this kind of patchwork regulatory system throughout the country. In some places, it's tighter. In other places, gun regulations are much looser. And we have an enormous amount of guns. So when I began digging into the problem of mass shootings almost a decade ago now, I quickly began to wonder about other ways to think about the problem. That, for me, became an imperative, because the gun debate just seems so stuck. ...
A lot of people feel very frustrated and resigned about the political debate we have over firearms in our country. And I have felt that, too, in my reporting work on this subject for a decade. But for me, the question really became, what more can we do to solve this problem? This can't be the only way at it. And I do think that there is potential to do a lot more work of this kind to help reduce this problem.
On the basics of behavioral threat assessment and how it leads to an intervention
So most cases begin with an ordinary person sounding the alarm. ... A coworker in a workplace setting, or a peer, a classmate or a teacher in a school setting. Noticing things in a person that are disturbing or worrisome and maybe not understanding what it is, but having a feeling that something is wrong and speaking up about it, reaching out. That's how most threat cases in this field begin, and what a threat assessment team will do at that point is begin to look into the person's situation and gather information primarily by talking to people around that person, conducting interviews, looking at other information about them in terms of records that are lawfully available, if there's any kind of history of problems there in a school setting or in a work setting or otherwise. ...
The intervention is ideally intended to be constructive. You're trying to get in the way of the problem before it occurs.
Teams will often look at a social media trail or activity of a person as part of getting a holistic picture of what's going on with that person. And that allows them to do two things: First, to evaluate what the level of danger may be. Is this a person who is thinking about violence, who's focused on violence, who is perhaps planning and taking steps to prepare for it? Does this person have access to a weapon? These are all questions that they'll ask to evaluate. And then also looking at the set of information for thinking about what is the best way to intervene to step in and try to help this person? And that's a key principle of this work as well. The intervention is ideally intended to be constructive. You're trying to get in the way of the problem before it occurs. It's prevention. So the field is also learning that that's, in many cases, the most effective way to deal with somebody who is perhaps going down what the field refers to as "the pathway to violence."
On the benefit of taking action that's not not necessarily punitive
Often you're talking about situations where the person of concern has not committed any crime. They maybe haven't even broken any kind of policy. And yet they're stirring anxiety or fear in people around them. So what this method seeks to do is to step in and ... try to get a better handle on what the problem is going on with the person, what's the root concern or grievance. Often these are people who have deep grievances that they are having trouble letting go of, and they're seeking a way out of a problem that they feel stuck in. The constructive interventions may be counseling, support for education in a school setting, employment support, social services, these kinds of measures that are really intended to help a person improve their situation and thereby steer them away from thinking about potential violence.
On how the wrong kind of intervention can backfire
The case research in this field shows, over many years now, that often a punitive response to somebody who is raising concern can be ineffective and even counterproductive, it can actually exacerbate the danger. So there are many cases of mass shootings where the subject was given a restraining order or fired from a job or expelled from school — and again, that may be a necessary step in some cases — but if that's the only step, what the field has learned over the years is that it's not enough, that these people will come back, or they may go somewhere else and think about planning an act of violence and then carry it out. So by intervening constructively, there's often more hope to be effective with the work.
On how we measure a mass shooting that was prevented
It's tricky to show results, to show its effectiveness. There's a really good analogy that one threat assessment expert uses. [There's] a forensic psychologist Reid Meloy, who's a research expert in the field, as well as a practitioner, and he likes to compare it to cardiology, the practice of preventing heart disease. Doctors can't tell you how many heart attacks they prevented with the care and treatment they provide their patients. But they can do a lot to lower the risk. That's the goal of this work as well, to steer people to a healthier place, onto a better path, to move away from violent thinking.
On how media coverage and public attitudes around mass shootings have changed
If you think back just a few years ago, maybe a decade ago, mass shooter's images would be all over the place, all over news coverage on cable television. There would be quick and widespread sharing of their so-called manifestos, these documents and screeds that they would post online before committing an attack. A lot of that has gone away, because I think there has been a growing understanding that that kind of sensationalism is damaging, has some bad effects. It feeds into the desire of many perpetrators to get sensational media attention, to have notoriety, what's also known as the copycat problem. So there has been improvement with that.
I think now there's a different area where we really need to make progress in terms of our kind of broader cultural framing of this problem. ... [It's] the idea that we're so stuck with this problem that nothing ever really changes or that there's nothing we can really do about it. There's a kind of cultural resignation we have about it that I think is unhelpful. You probably know of the satirical headline from The Onion that we see after these attacks, "'No Way To Prevent This,' Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens." It's almost as if we've come to accept that. But I don't think that that's the case. I think there's potentially a lot more we can do about this problem with additional tools, including this kind of prevention work with threat assessment.
Sam Briger and Joel Wolfram produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Meghan Sullivan adapted it for the web.
Copyright 2022 Fresh Air. To see more, visit Fresh Air. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-02/how-behavioral-threat-assessment-can-stop-mass-shootings-before-they-occur | 2022-05-12T15:57:16Z |
Kaia Rolle was 6 years old when police arrested her at a Florida school in 2019. The then first-grader was accused of kicking and punching staff members while throwing a tantrum.
A police officer used zip ties to handcuff her. The video of her crying and pleading with a school resource officer not to handcuff her sparked widespread outrage at the time. It also led to changes in state law.
But Kaia is still feeling the effects of that day more than two years later, her grandmother, Meralyn Kirkland, tells NPR. Kaia's in therapy for PTSD, she says. "She also still suffers from separation anxiety."
Kaia's ordeal prompted Florida to set a minimum age for a juvenile's arrest. It was part of a wider police reform bill and says no one under 7 years of age can be arrested, charged or adjudicated unless they've committed a forcible felony. Those felonies are defined by the state.
But there's growing debate in several states about whether the minimum age should be higher, that children behaving badly shouldn't be viewed as criminal.
"There should not be any law on the book that allows a child to be arrested for being a child"
"A 6-year-old throwing a tantrum is a 6-year-old," Kirkland said during an interview with WMFE in Orlando a week after the incident. "Whether someone accidentally gets hit or not, it's a tantrum. There should not be any law on the book that allows a child to be arrested for being a child."
Mo Canady is a former police officer and the executive director of the National Association of School Resource Officers, or NASRO. He says although police officers who work in schools can make arrests, it doesn't mean they should.
"It should be the rarest of circumstances that should occur," Canady says. "Almost never."
NASRO training includes teaching officers about de-escalation, adolescent brain development and working with all types of students.
"So, when I see the image of a 5 or 6-year-old child handcuffed and law enforcement is involved, whether an SRO or not, it does make me cringe," Canady says.
Orlando authorities dropped the battery charge Kaia faced. The school said it never intended for her to be arrested. The police officer was fired.
State by state, there is little agreement on what is an appropriate minimum age for juvenile prosecutions
The push to change the minimum age is part of a wider effort to reform juvenile justice by not charging very young people with a crime unless it's a serious offense. Many states don't have any age limits at all when it comes prosecuting juveniles. Others that do are now determining what the minimum age should be for a child to be involved in the juvenile courts.
Supporters of the Florida change—setting the minimum to 7 years old—say that was only a first step; they suggested, early on, the limit be 12 years old. Alyson Clements with the National Juvenile Justice Network says because juvenile justice is handled state by state, the country has a patchwork approach to children who come into contact with the law.
"So that when we look at the minimum age of prosecution across the country, half have no minimum age of youth court jurisdiction of prosecution," Clements says, "and those that do have a minimum age — it's all over the map."
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Labeling these children as delinquent "has a profound effect on their psyche — on who they are"
Until last year, North Carolina had the lowest prosecution age for juveniles in the country among the states that legislated it. The Legislature voted to raise the age to from 6 to 10 years old, in most instances.
Democratic State Rep. Marcia Morey was a juvenile court judge for nearly two decades. She says 6 to 9-year-olds needed to be out of the system.
"These kids are too young to have any concept of what's going on in a courtroom. Plus, the fact to label them delinquent has a profound effect on their psyche — on who they are," Morey says.
The former judge was the first to propose increasing the age to 10. The amendment she offered failed but the idea was included in a subsequent measure offered by a Republican state senator.
"I think it was an important bill," she says. "We passed it. We didn't do a good enough job because we can still put 8 and 9-year-olds into the delinquency system for more serious felonies."
"You're 12 years old in the 8th grade getting walked down the hall in handcuffs. It's kind of dehumanizing"
This year, Colorado is one of five states considering raising its minimum age, increasing it to 13 years old from 10.
Phillip Roybal says he supports the measure. He's a youth justice advocate at the Denver nonprofit, Colorado Circles for Change. In his 30s now, Roybal spent years in the juvenile justice system.
He says he was first arrested at school when he was 12. He and some other kids stole baseball cards they thought would be lucrative to sell.
"School resource officers weren't a thing," Roybal says. "It was just the local police department. They got called and pulled me out of class and arrested me right then and there--which in itself was kind of like a walk of shame a little bit. You're 12 years old in the 8th grade getting walked down the hall in handcuffs. It's kind of dehumanizing."
Roybal says that type of trauma can create a whirlwind of long-term negatives for a child. He and others argue it may also lead some children to more criminal activity.
"That's exactly what happened to me, exactly what happened to me," says Roybal. "So from 1998 to 2010, I was involved in the justice system in one shape or form--probation, parole, county jail or prison."
He credits the unwavering support of his family, despite his stumbles, with helping him to turn his life around. He knows he was lucky. "I had a very good support system. A lot of our youth don't have that," Roybal says.
State analysts say about 500 kids between the ages of 10 and 12 enter Colorado's criminal justice system every year.
A bill is being considered to set up a task force to identify counseling and other services for children out of the system
Prosecutor Michael Dougherty, the head of the Colorado District Attorneys Council, says while he supports reducing the number of children in juvenile court he and the other prosecutors don't support the current bill to increase the age boundary. He says it offers no substitute for a support network that works well.
Dougherty says his office has a robust diversion program that provides medical treatment and counseling for young people and their families. He says that has kept hundreds of kids out of juvenile court. He also says 10, 11, and 12-year-olds no longer in the system would lose access to services ordered by the courts and so would victims.
"So for example, if a 12-year-old rapes a 10-year-old girl living next door," Dougherty explains, "I really believe our society owes it to respond to her and her family and support her. And we also should have a system to help the 12-year-old who committed the sex assault in order to ensure that he's provided the structure and support that he needs."
Colorado State Rep. Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez, a Democrat, is a co-sponsor of the legislation to raise the minimum age limit. She says she values the work of Dougherty and others, but adds, "If they are providing such robust diversion-type programs, why can't that be provided without the criminalization of children?"
Gonzales-Gutierrez says the bill, now in committee, includes changes that set up a task force to identify support, like counseling and other services children out of the system might need. The task force will also determine ways to fund those programs. It will have more than a year to do its work. The proposal changing the state minimum age for prosecuting juveniles is scheduled to become law in 2024.
Juvenile justice advocates say that's what needed throughout the country when it comes to rehabilitating youth who get into trouble. Plus, a continued effort to push the minimum age for prosecuting juveniles even higher. They want to match the 14-year-old age limit commonly used internationally.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-02/in-some-states-your-6-year-old-child-can-be-arrested-advocates-want-that-changed | 2022-05-12T15:57:23Z |
A MARTINEZ, HOST:
Since a restrictive abortion law went into effect in Texas last year, nonprofits have stepped in to help pregnant Texans travel out of state and pay for care there.
WENDY DAVIS: The law like this is having a disproportionate impact on people who are already marginalized.
MARTINEZ: That is Wendy Davis. She's a former state senator who became well-known nationally after a 13-hour filibuster of a 2013 abortion bill. Now she works with one of the abortion funds that's been targeted by Senate Bill 8, the near-total ban on abortion in the state of Texas. These funds are now legal targets under the new law, which allows civil lawsuits against anyone who aids or abets in an abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy. Davis is fighting back in court, suing four people, including a Republican state representative, for threatening to take legal action against abortion funds. Her case argues that the threats are a violation of the constitutional right to free speech. And as she told our colleague, Leila Fadel, the lawsuit claims the controversial law makes a mockery of the federal courts.
DAVIS: The first most important thing about our suit and other suits that have been filed against Senate Bill 8 is that we are resolved to fight. We aren't going away. And we're not going to go away no matter what happens in June of this year with the Supreme Court's ultimate decision in the Mississippi case that is before it right now. A lot of court watchers, myself included, believe that in June, we are likely to see Roe v. Wade overturned through the Mississippi case that the Supreme Court is considering right now. We are going to make sure that we do everything we can, No. 1, to create the kind of legislative statutory protections for safe abortion care that are needed, but No. 2, in the meantime, to fight with everything that we have against laws that are in violation of constitutional protections and of course, standing up to people who threaten suits for those who are doing everything they can to make access to safe abortion care possible.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
You know, when this law first passed, a lot of people talked about their concern that it encouraged distrust and spying between people, between neighbors in communities. And I just wonder what it's like right now. Has that been the case?
DAVIS: I think, right now, it's certainly had a tremendous chilling effect. As you look at the landscape in Texas, what you see is that most clinics and most clinicians have complied with this law not because they've been sued, but because they fear those suits and what the consequences of those will look like. And that's created this terrible stalemate position where the law hasn't actually been tested. We haven't seen a court actually uphold it in terms of a suit being filed and a court making a decision on whether an individual has the right to sue under this law. Instead, we are living under the threat of it, which up to this point has been enough. But now we have these individuals. And that's what this lawsuit is about, because we feel they've given us a new opening and a new opportunity to challenge the legality of Senate Bill 8 and, hopefully, to strike it down once and for all.
FADEL: Now, your lawsuit says that Senate Bill 8 makes a mockery of the federal courts. It also talks about how it violates freedom of congregation, freedom of speech. Can you talk about that?
DAVIS: Yes. You know, part of freedom of speech, of course, and our ability to express ourselves can come in the form of making monetary donations to organizations whose work we support. That is the case for those of us who donate to abortion funds and to the other practical support organizations on the ground here in Texas who are helping people access safe abortion care.
FADEL: What type of calls, what type of people are turning to abortion funds right now?
DAVIS: You know, it's no surprise at all, of course, that a law like this is having a disproportionate impact on people who are already marginalized, people of color, people living on low incomes, immigrants, young people who don't have parental support. And these are the folks who are least able to handle the consequences of an unwanted pregnancy and, unfortunately, least able to be able to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. And that's why the support of these abortion funds and practical support organizations has been so crucial.
FADEL: Come June - you talked about the dangers, the possibility that Roe v. Wade is overturned. I mean, then federal protections are gone. So what does this mean for a situation where already abortion laws are this patchwork at this point?
DAVIS: If Roe v. Wade is overturned by the Supreme Court in June, we know that there are more than 20 states that have trigger laws or a similar law on the books, which essentially will immediately and effectively overturn the legal right to access abortion care in those states. Texas is one of them. And what that means is that we're going to have states where these rights are provided and protected and states where they aren't. And we will all have to work tremendously hard to make sure that we can provide the greatest access to the greatest number of people to the states where safe, legal abortion care is assured. And then we'll have to keep fighting with everything that we have to get the statutory protections at the federal level that this moment demands and that the people of this country deserve.
FADEL: Wendy Davis, thank you so much for speaking with us.
DAVIS: Thank you for having me.
(SOUNDBITE OF INBAR FRIDMAN'S "13 DAYS")
MARTINEZ: Wendy Davis is a former Democratic state senator in Texas. She works with the Lilith Fund for Reproductive Equity, an Austin-based abortion fund. And she spoke with our co-host, Leila Fadel.
(SOUNDBITE OF INBAR FRIDMAN'S "13 DAYS") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-02/in-texas-a-former-state-senator-challenges-the-states-abortion-law-in-court | 2022-05-12T15:57:24Z |
A MARTINEZ, HOST:
Here in Los Angeles, Korean American leaders are marking 30 years since the Los Angeles race riots. Korean-run businesses were disproportionately affected during the six days of civil unrest. Josie Huang from member station KPCC reports.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
UNIDENTIFIED MUSICIAN: Let's go. Let's go. Hey, hey.
JOSIE HUANG, BYLINE: If you passed through Koreatown on Friday night, you'd think, outdoor rap concert. Except it was an event to remember some of LA's darkest days.
CONNIE CHUNG JOE: The reason we have musicians who are going to attract a younger crowd is because we wanted to do some education and awareness building.
HUANG: One of the organizers, Connie Chung Joe, is with the group Asian Americans Advancing Justice. She was 14 when a nearly all white jury in 1992 acquitted the LAPD officers who had beaten Black motorist Rodney King.
JOE: As I was taking the bus home, there were fires everywhere. And some uncles that I found out later on had also grabbed guns, went to the top of their stores in order to protect it.
HUANG: Racial tensions in LA had been mounting before that day. The same month King was beaten, a Korean American shopkeeper in South LA named Soon Ja Du had accused 15-year-old Black girl Latasha Harlins of theft and fatally shot her in the back of the head. Du was sentenced to probation but did not serve time. Connie Chung Joe says it's a history many younger Korean Americans are missing.
JOE: They don't know who Latasha Harlins is. They don't know what happened between the Korean and Black communities. They don't know about 40 to 50% of the property damage during the LA uprising being to Korean businesses.
HUANG: For today's Korean American leaders, the events of '92 established new priorities like creating greater unity, says New Jersey Congressman Andy Kim.
ANDY KIM: What happened wasn't just about Korean Americans in LA. It affected all of us around the country.
HUANG: He was in LA to show solidarity at the event, which was co-planned with Black organizations.
KIM: You got to be a friend before you need a friend, you know, this idea that you got to build those relationships and not just call upon people when you need help.
HUANG: Also at the concert was Breanna Pak (ph). She's 27 and grew up knowing little about the unrest until college. Her views are informed more by recent social movements like Black Lives Matter.
BREANNA PAK: I think it's just important to remember, like, everyone's a person. So you have to kind of, like, treat everyone with the same respect.
HUANG: Pak was here because she liked the artists. She was joined by hundreds who, like her, weren't even alive in '92. Together, they observed the past while moving to a beat.
For NPR News, I'm Josie Huang in Los Angeles. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-02/korean-american-leaders-look-back-on-the-1992-la-riots-to-create-new-priorities | 2022-05-12T15:57:30Z |
A MARTINEZ, HOST:
Holy sequels, Batman. The latest caped crusader movie is a hit; so is a video spoof of the trailer for "The Batman."
(SOUNDBITE OF YOUTUBE VIDEO)
ADAM WEST: (As Batman) To the Batmobile.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
In the mock movie promo, the most recent actor to wear the Batsuit, Robert Pattinson, is digitally replaced.
(SOUNDBITE OF YOUTUBE VIDEO)
WEST: (Singing) Adam West, Adam West, Adam West.
MARTIN: Adam West was the star of the 1960s TV series.
(SOUNDBITE OF YOUTUBE VIDEO)
WEST: (As Batman) Hello? Batman speaking.
FENNER ROCKLIFFE: We thought it would be such a funny contrast to have the old, you know, campy Adam West Batman in this world of, like, this dark, gritty Batman.
MARTINEZ: Fenner Rockliffe with the special effects company Corridor Digital is one of the screen magicians who transplanted the '60s version into the new footage. Jordan Allen is another.
JORDAN ALLEN: My favorite shot, personally, is, you know, there was this dance sequence from the original "Batman" series. (Laughter) I don't even know what the context was 100%, but it's really funny footage. And, you know, the idea was to kind of infuse that dancing as he's coming up this dark, gritty hallway full of gunmen and he's just taking them out while having the time of his life.
(SOUNDBITE OF YOUTUBE VIDEO)
WEST: (As Batman) I swear by heaven, I'll kill you all.
(SOUNDBITE OF GUNSHOTS)
MARTIN: It took three people a week and a half to make the 90-second video, which comes complete with original music and updated pows, zoks and baps to punctuate the fight sequences.
ALLEN: With the old classic na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na at the end.
MARTINEZ: Going viral reminded both Allen and Rockliffe of some wise words famously spoken to another superhero.
ALLEN: Yeah.
ROCKLIFFE: Spider-Man - with great power comes great responsibility (laughter).
ALLEN: It's so true. Yeah. Because there really are - there are - there's a duality to this. There's two sides of this coin, right? There's using it for the wrong reasons and using it to bring joy. And I think we want to live comfortably on the other side of that, to use it for the right reasons.
MARTINEZ: Batman as a bringer of joy - I think we can all get behind that. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-02/latest-caped-crusader-movie-is-a-hit-and-so-is-a-video-spoof-of-the-batman-trailer | 2022-05-12T15:57:37Z |
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
America's rail and subway systems are struggling to rebound after ridership plummeted during the pandemic. Part of riders' hesitancy is tied to safety, as they see things like open drug use and, in some cities, rising assaults and robberies on public transit. And while rare, a recent mass shooting in New York City's subway saw 10 people wounded. Now some in Congress are calling for greater security funding and oversight for America's vulnerable transit systems. Here's NPR's Eric Westervelt.
ERIC WESTERVELT, BYLINE: At a recent windswept rooftop press event, Janno Lieber, the CEO of New York City's Metropolitan Transportation Authority, praised the camera security system now in place in every subway station in North America's largest transit agency.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JANNO LIEBER: The story of the cameras at the MTA is pretty amazing. We have gone up by, like, 60% in a few short years because we decided to make it a priority. Nobody sent us a pile of additional money to do it. We made it a priority.
WESTERVELT: But those pretty amazing security cameras at both the 36th Street and 25th Street stations failed to transmit footage back to MTA and NYPD headquarters during the recent mass shooting at a Brooklyn subway station. Officials blamed a faulty internet connection. The MTA insists the camera failure rate overall is tiny and that images from other cameras that worked helped catch the suspect. But the MTA's acting inspector general recently announced she's launched a probe, saying the camera failures raise questions. And members of Congress now want to know how federal money has been spent on security cameras, how often they're checked and maintained and more.
ERIC SWALWELL: I want every dollar that we spend or invest to be used to protect people. And so we want to make sure that if we fund it, it actually functions and the money goes to keeping people safe.
WESTERVELT: That's Representative Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat who sits on the Homeland Security Committee. He was one of the signers of a recent bipartisan letter demanding answers. Congress members wrote to the MTA - given the disturbing and continued rise of subway attacks this year, we write to urge you to be more transparent in how you use federal funding. The MTA, in fact, got about $50 million over the last two years from the Department of Homeland Security's Transit Security Grant Program. Representative Swalwell is calling for an increase in that grant program and greater accountability. The increase, if approved, he says, will help agencies add detection equipment, cameras and surveillance training to help harden America's rail, bus and ferry networks.
SWALWELL: We also have to make sure that people use the systems that we fund, and if they don't feel safe, then they're not going to use them. And I don't want this to entirely fall on local, stretched police departments.
WESTERVELT: The New York City shooting raises questions about how federal money is actually being spent by cities and counties. And the Biden administration's $1 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Jobs Act will see the largest infusion of money into American rail and mass transit in a generation. That welcomed funding, says Sean Jeans-Gail, needs to come with increased monitoring of spending in New York and everywhere, whether it's for upgrading rail infrastructure or security. Jeans-Gail is the head of government affairs at the Rail Passengers Association.
SEAN JEANS-GAIL: Given the exponential increase in money going towards intercity rail specifically but also transit, there will be a need for strong congressional oversight because, otherwise, a lot of this money could get frittered away.
WESTERVELT: With transit ridership still down, absolute crime numbers on most subway and rail systems are down, too. But when adjusted for ridership, crime in many transit systems, including Chicago, New York and Philadelphia, remain well above pre-pandemic figures. Still, overall, America's transit systems have proved mostly immune from larger attacks, such as mass shootings and terrorist strikes. But they remain vulnerable, and more cameras by themselves, some argue, are not a cure-all.
ABIGAIL SPANBERGER: There has to be a person behind the camera. There has to be someone watching it, and there needs to be somebody else able to respond in the event that there is a threat.
WESTERVELT: Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger is a former CIA officer. She says for any local security monitoring to be effective, it needs to be tied into robust human intelligence and a clear plan.
SPANBERGER: Frequently, when there's any sort of concern, people automatically go towards monitoring or go towards camera systems. But that requires humans. That requires monitoring. That requires people knowing what they're looking for. That's training, training, training, and training is expensive, expensive, expensive.
WESTERVELT: No one wants to add anything like the kind of security screenings at subways and trains that we see at airports, but critics have long said that the Federal Transportation Security Administration, or TSA, focuses too much on airports. The TSA does have roving specialized security teams with the dramatic sounding acronym VIPR, for Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response. A TSA official says VIPR teams conduct thousands of operations each year in transportation systems nationwide, but the official declined to provide any details of VIPR's size and work, citing sensitive security information. But multiple Government Accountability Office reports have questioned TSA's and VIPR's effectiveness. One report in 2018 found that the TSA's performance measures for VIPR failed to show the program's usefulness and how the teams actually contribute to the TSA's larger security mission.
Eric Westervelt, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-02/lawmakers-call-for-greater-security-funding-and-oversight-for-u-s-transit-systems | 2022-05-12T15:57:43Z |
This story is part of the My Unsung Hero series from the Hidden Brain team about people whose kindness left a lasting impression on someone else.
For as long as she can remember, 13-year-old Lila Hoffa has struggled to express herself in writing.
Her handwriting is sometimes messy and disorganized, and she used to have trouble holding a pen. In her first years at school, her teachers didn't notice that anything was wrong. But that changed when she met her third-grade teacher, Valerie Holmgren.
"She realized that there was something more going on than just the typical writing problems," Lila said.
Lila was diagnosed with dysgraphia, a neurological disorder that affects fine motor skills, and impairs your ability to write legibly. So her teachers and her parents held a meeting to figure out what to do next.
"We were all sitting around a long table," Lila recalled. "And Mrs. Holmgren pulled out a computer and opened it to Google Docs, and said that there was this cool thing that she wanted to show me."
Holmgren opened up a speech-to-text program that instantly converts spoken words into typed text. For Lila, a creative student and passionate storyteller, it felt like an epiphany.
"This was just an overwhelming moment for me because I realized all of the stories and the ideas that I had stuck in my head – there was an easy way to get them down onto paper," Lila said. "And I just threw my head back and said, 'I could write a thousand stories.'"
"It was just an amazing moment. And everybody seemed to be thinking like, 'Yes, this is going to work, like we've made a difference.'"
Lila now uses speech-to-text software every day to type up emails, write essays in class, and of course, write stories. The first story she wrote with the program was called "The Girl Would Couldn't Stop Reading — AKA Me!", which was featured on the popular kid's podcast, Story Pirates.
If Holmgren were standing in front of her today, this is what Lila would say:
"Thank you for noticing my potential and noticing that there was so much more to me," she said. "You knew that there was so much inside my head that needed to get out."
My Unsung Hero is also a podcast — new episodes are released every Tuesday and Thursday. To share the story of your unsung hero with the Hidden Brain team, record a voice memo on your phone and send it to myunsunghero@hiddenbrain.org.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-02/lila-struggled-to-write-then-a-teacher-discovered-why-and-unlocked-her-creativity | 2022-05-12T15:57:49Z |
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Some of boxing's most iconic moments have happened at New York's Madison Square Garden. The fight of the century, Muhammad Ali versus Joe Frazier, was at the Garden. Rocky Marciano versus Joe Lewis was also there.
A MARTINEZ, HOST:
And this past weekend, for the first time in its history, the Garden hosted a boxing match headlined by two women, and it sold out.
MARTIN: Ireland's Katie Taylor and the USA's Amanda Serrano, known as the Pride of Puerto Rico, are the No. 1 and 2 pound-for-pound best fighters in the world, respectively. And the matchup did not disappoint.
(SOUNDBIGTE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JESSICA MCCASKILL: Katie taking some big shots here. Not...
TODD GRISHAM: But she's landing some, too.
MCCASKILL: She is. She is.
(CHEERING)
MCCASKILL: Both fighters are spent.
GRISHAM: A fight worthy of the occasion. They fought for history. And they're making history.
MCCASKILL: Katie goes down.
GRISHAM: Katie's knees buckle. Oh, my word.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL RINGING)
MARTINEZ: In the end, Taylor won a close split decision over Serrano.
MICHAEL ROTHSTEIN: When there's any event that has a lot of hype, very rarely does it live up to it. The fight not only lived up to it; it possibly exceeded it.
MARTIN: ESPN's Michael Rothstein there.
ROTHSTEIN: Women's boxing has always been not all that seen. It's been on, I wouldn't say, the outer fringes of the sport, but it definitely doesn't have the same level of attention, definitely level of pay as men who are fighting in the sport.
MARTINEZ: In time, Taylor versus Serrano at the Garden may be remembered as the night that all of that began to change. Perhaps Serrano summed it up best after the fight.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
AMANDA SERRANO: Look at this crowd. Women can sell. Women can fight. And we put on a hell of a show.
(SOUNDBITE OF SELLS BEATS' "STORMZY LONDON") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-02/madison-square-garden-hosted-a-historic-boxing-match-headlined-by-2-women | 2022-05-12T15:57:55Z |
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
The Soviet Union is long gone, but Russian troops are active throughout the former Soviet republics. In fact, Russian soldiers have been operating in five former republics this year. Russian leader Vladimir Putin sees this as a way to maintain influence beyond his country's borders. Many former republics do not share this view. For more, we're joined by NPR's Greg Myre. Hi, Greg.
GREG MYRE, BYLINE: Hi, Rachel.
MARTIN: So obviously the war in Ukraine is happening, but where else are Russian troops active right now?
MYRE: Yeah, if we start in Ukraine, we don't have to go very far to find more Russian troops. Just a few days ago, some communications towers were blown up in Moldova. Now, this is this tiny country that borders Ukraine to the southwest. Russia's had about 1,500 troops in a separatist region in eastern Moldova for the past 30 years, very much against the will of Moldova's government. We still don't know who's behind these explosions, but they do raise concerns that the war in Ukraine could spill over into Moldova.
MARTIN: I mean, the most significant support for Russia's war in Ukraine when it comes to former Soviet republics is Belarus, right?
MYRE: Yeah, absolutely true. The leader of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, is very closely tied to Putin. He allowed Russian troops into Belarus, and then they used his country as the launching pad when they invaded Ukraine. So the reasons that we see these troops in these three countries - Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova - vary widely, but there's a common theme. Vladimir Putin claims the West is trying to undermine Russia, and he wants these former Soviet republics, as well as others, to be this protective buffer for Russia. However, Andrew Weiss, a Russia expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, says a lot of these countries aren't so keen on the idea.
ANDREW WEISS: Nearly all of the post-Soviet countries have a lot of heartburn about looking to Putin as a benevolent security guarantor. Left to their own devices, none of these countries really wants to be back under the Kremlin's wing.
MARTIN: So we know Belarus obviously supports the war in Ukraine, but what about the other former Soviet republics?
MYRE: You know, we've seen quite a bit of ambivalence. To just give one example, many abstained in a U.N. resolution on the war. Now, Putin says that in Ukraine and elsewhere, he's protecting ethnic Russians who live outside Russia's borders. And that takes us to a fourth country with Russian troops - Georgia, on Russia's southwestern frontier. Now, Putin cited this rationale of safeguarding Russians when he sent troops there in 2008 for a brief, bloody conflict, and the Russian forces are still there in a conflict that's effectively frozen. Now, we should note that some of these Russian troops in Georgia were sent to help in Ukraine. This is an example of how these conflicts overlap.
MARTIN: We've also seen how Putin will use the Russian military to prop up regimes that are friendly to him, right? I mean, remind us what he did in Kazakhstan.
MYRE: Yeah. Just back in January, Putin sent Russian troops into the Central Asian nation of Kazakhstan. They helped the country's autocratic ruler put down widespread protests. The unrest was stamped out. The Russians left after just a few weeks. You might think a grateful Kazakh leadership would stand with Putin when he then turned around and invaded Ukraine a month later. Here's Andrew Weiss again.
WEISS: The Kazakh authorities are now showing that they don't support what's happening in Ukraine. They're sending humanitarian aid to Ukraine, and they're indicating that they fully support Ukraine's sovereignty and independence. So if that's what a loyal vassal looks like, it's not exactly what Vladimir Putin was hoping for.
MYRE: So we often hear this talk about Putin wanting to reconstruct the Soviet Union, but this is just another example of how big a challenge that's going to be.
MARTIN: NPR's Greg Myre. Thanks, Greg. We appreciate it.
MYRE: My pleasure. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-02/many-ex-soviet-republics-do-not-want-russian-troops-operating-in-their-country | 2022-05-12T15:58:01Z |
Clarinetist David Krakauer and pianist Kathleen Tagg were thrilled when they were invited to a chamber music retreat in rural upstate New York during the early months of the pandemic. It was an opportunity to flee their cramped Manhattan apartment and live for two weeks on a farm in the Adirondack Mountains near the Canadian border.
The couple arrived in early June 2020 but ended up staying three months, prompting their host Angela Brown to jokingly refer to them as "the squatters." Brown is the director of Hill and Hollow Music and, it turns out, an avid folk dancer. Little did she know that by introducing Krakauer and Tagg to the local folk dance scene, she had a major influence on their new musical project, pointing it in an unexpected direction.
"One of the things that I was missing and that I complained about was that the dances had all been canceled," Brown recalled. "I think they were kind of fascinated that a thriving dance culture exists here in the Adirondacks."
"When we were up in the north country in that atmosphere the seeds got planted in our head," said Krakauer. "This is very interesting. There is this little doorway here."
Brown does English Country Dancing to hornpipe, which is both a dance and music form that originated in the British Isles and dates back to the 16th Century. She played CDs of hornpipe music for Krakauer and Tagg.
During their stay in the north country, Krakauer and Tagg started writing music based on recognizable dance forms, including a square dance, a polka, a Jewish hora, a calypso and, of course, hornpipe. That music comprises the debut album of Mazel Tov Cocktail Party, their new band. It's his hope, Krakauer said, that the music itself conveys the need for "empathy and a deeper understanding of the other."
Tagg describes Mazel Tov Cocktail Party as a very diverse band, and she and Krakauer "invite people to come as they are."
"We're not asking them to be something they're not," she said. "We're not going to try and make a square dance that sounds like we are inside a square dance ourselves because we're not."
An Unexpected Band With A Mean Funk Guitar
The standout track on the new album is "North Country Square Dance," whose lyrics are rapped and manage to sound like instructions for an actual square dance. Much of the music video is old black and white archival film of people clogging.
"We hope that people will grab that track and make up some new square dances," said Krakauer, who is considered a virtuoso in klezmer, jazz and classical music.
He first burst onto the klezmer scene as a member of the Grammy Award-winning band The Klezmatics. His former bandmate Frank London, who has combined klezmer with numerous forms of world music, considers Krakauer one of the greatest clarinet players on the planet.
"When you hear David, you know it's him pretty quickly," London told NPR.
Mazel Tov Cocktail Party is reminiscent of another multi-racial band Krakauer founded, Abraham, Inc., which mixes klezmer, funk and hip-hop. Mazel Tov Cocktail Party's bassist, Jerome Harris, has performed with Abraham, Inc., as has its vocalist, Sarah MK, a Black French-Canadian soul singer and rapper. She wrote the lyrics for the band's c alypso track, an homage to Harry Belafonte. In addition to Krakauer and Tagg, the band includes percussionist Martin Shamoonpour, an Iranian immigrant, and Yoshie Fruchter, an Orthodox Jew who plays a mean funk guitar.
Krakauer's klezmer-infused clarinet playing is the musical thread that runs through these dance-inspired tunes. Combining klezmer with other ethnic dance music has a long history, says London of The Klezmatics.
"Klezmer musicians have always played a mixture of so-called Jewish particular dances like the bulgar or the sher, and co-territorial dances, the polka-mazurkas and waltzes and all these other dances of our neighbors. That's part of the tradition," London said.
After several months of working remotely, the band members met one another in the flesh and performed together for the first time in the Adirondacks last summer. Harris was eager to rehearse with Shamoonpour, who plays a Middle Eastern frame drum known as a daf.
"As a rhythm section player, you want to get a feel for your rhythm section colleagues and you do that by playing together and hearing how each of you is approaching the music and responding to each other," Harris explained. "When we finally all got together, it was really quite a rich musical homecoming."
The first performance took place at a marina parking lot in Plattsburgh, NY with much of the audience in their cars. The following day the band played at Hill and Hollow Music's farm, where Angela Brown reports, "Even the chickens were dancing!"
In late March the band's New York City debut took place in a boxing gym a day before leaving on its European tour. The band gelled in Europe, according to Tagg, where it played large auditoriums as well as small clubs. Audiences were up on their feet and dancing "from the first note," said Tagg.
The band returns to Europe for a second tour in August.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-02/mazel-tov-cocktail-party-take-an-ounce-of-hip-hop-dash-of-polka-then-square-dance | 2022-05-12T15:58:07Z |
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Need an excuse not to cut your lawn? Here's one - scientists say leaving your grass a little longer in the spring can actually help bees and other pollinators. A few dozen U.S. cities have joined a program called No Mow May Here's Chuck Quirmbach of member station WUWM in Milwaukee.
CHUCK QUIRMBACH, BYLINE: Matthew Normansell is standing in the small side yard of his house in Appleton, Wis., and he likes what he's starting to see poke through the ground.
MATTHEW NORMANSELL: You can already see the dandelions starting to pop up. You get a little bit of the creeping charlie, a few small violets, a lot of daisies as well. But they'll all be flowering kind of at some point during May and providing, you know, pollen to these pollinating insects.
QUIRMBACH: Those plants will flower in May because, Normansell says, he'll be leaving his lawn mower in the garage and joining about 500 other Appleton residents taking part in a city-backed program to not mow at all for a month. This community of 75,000 has become a U.S. leader in the No Mow May movement, which began in England and has spread to more than 30 cities, mostly in the Midwest. That's where May is considered a key time for pollinators to come out of hibernation or their winter habitat. Israel Del Toro teaches biology at Lawrence University in Appleton. He says an initial study of unmowed yards in the city shows a fivefold increase in the number of bees, and they're very hungry in the spring.
ISRAEL DEL TORO: So when we leave our weeds - or things we would normally call weeds - to grow, those are like little cheeseburgers for our pollinators, and they're able to get some cheap calories really, really fast and put on some weight that'll give them a leg up for the season.
QUIRMBACH: In many U.S. cities, not cutting your grass in May could get you a citation, but communities taking part in this initiative have agreed to waive that. Appleton Mayor Jake Woodford is taking part in the No Mow program, too.
JAKE WOODFORD: And it's, you know, not been without its hiccups or its frustrations from some community members. But by and large, there's just been incredible support for the effort, a lot of buy-in, a lot of participation.
QUIRMBACH: But hearing about increasing pollinator populations has not convinced everyone of the value of letting the lawn grow.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAWN MOWER)
QUIRMBACH: At the service area of the Northside Power Center in Appleton, Steve Schick says during a rainy springtime, the grass can grow really tall by June.
STEVE SCHICK: Now you've got to struggle getting it back under control. And a lot of people will have a problem with their mowers when they try to get it back under control. And they - a lot of times it will damage them.
QUIRMBACH: Backers of No Mow May advise raising the lawn mower blade height in June or using a string trimmer first. Appleton is one of about 150 communities with a Bee City designation under a program coordinated by the Oregon-based Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. The group's Matthew Shepherd says, while valuable, not mowing is just a first step.
MATTHEW SHEPHERD: It's not like the endpoint. You know, we can't say, gosh, we've let our lawn grow; we've saved the bees, yay.
QUIRMBACH: Shepherd and others say they hope keeping lawn mowers in storage for a month will further habitat awareness and the central role pollinators play.
For NPR News, I'm Chuck Quirmbach in Milwaukee. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-02/need-an-excuse-not-to-mow-your-lawn-join-no-mow-may-and-help-pollinators | 2022-05-12T15:58:13Z |
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
A fire east of Santa Fe, N.M., is the largest in the U.S. right now. It has burned more than 100,000 acres. Winds kicked up over the weekend in Calf Canyon and Hermit's Peak, quickly spreading the flames.
Max Trujillo is commissioner for San Miguel County in New Mexico, one of the counties that's heavily affected by the fire. Thanks for joining us.
MAX TRUJILLO: Good afternoon, Ari. Thank you for having me.
SHAPIRO: Begin by giving us a sense of what it's like to be near this fire and how many people have been affected already.
TRUJILLO: Well, you know, the whole county of Mora, the whole county of San Miguel, and, you know, communities inside (inaudible) Las Tusas, Sapello, Cleveland goes on and on - there's about 20-, 30,000 people that are affected right now by this fire.
SHAPIRO: This is an area that has experienced wildfires in the past, but a fire this big in early spring is unusual. Tell us about what led to this.
TRUJILLO: Well, the initial fire, the Hermit's Peak Fire, started by a prescribed burn that jumped the line, the control line, and created a over 10,000-acre fire, which was just about controlled. And then the Calf Canyon started - the Calf Canyon Fire started a little over maybe four miles away from the Hermit's Peak Fire. That one grew so quickly and spread so fast that, you know, that's - the two fires merged, not this past Friday but the Friday before. And, you know, right now, we're battling a 120,653-acre burn with over 200 miles of perimeter.
So - and, you know, what made this happen is, you know, we - very low snowpack, fields are - the relative humidity in fields is in single digits. So all the circumstances, all the things that lead to major fires are present in this - in our situation.
SHAPIRO: Drier, hotter, less precipitation earlier in the year - those all sound like the things that scientists say we will see more of with climate change. Do you draw a connection here?
TRUJILLO: I absolutely do. I - you know, you can't avoid what's happening on the ground. You know, we - over the past 3 to four years, we've had less and less snowpack. Winter precipitation has diminished. You know, we're getting hotter weather faster. Even when we do have snowpack, you know, by mid-May, pretty much all the snowpack has melted...
SHAPIRO: Yeah.
TRUJILLO: ...And come downstream. So, you know, this has been reoccurring over the last few years and - you know, which causes the fuel loads, which is massive in our forests...
SHAPIRO: Yeah.
TRUJILLO: ...To dry up and be primed for a fire like this.
SHAPIRO: And just in a couple sentences - as forecasters say, strong winds are likely to continue. Are you prepared for this to spread further?
TRUJILLO: Well, we've had almost 20 days in the last 25 days that have been red-flag warning days, red-flag wind days, and no end in sight for that weather pattern in our area.
SHAPIRO: All right.
TRUJILLO: Yeah.
SHAPIRO: Yeah. That is Max Trujillo, commissioner for San Miguel County in New Mexico. Thank you for your time, and good luck.
TRUJILLO: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF TRENTEMOLLER'S "MISS YOU") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-02/new-mexico-wildfire-surges-to-cover-over-100-000-acres | 2022-05-12T15:58:19Z |
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
In Ukraine, around a hundred civilians were evacuated from the bunkers beneath a steel plant in the besieged city of Mariupol. They'd been sheltered there for weeks. But reports say as soon as evacuations started, Russian shelling resumed.
A MARTINEZ, HOST:
Over the weekend, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic lawmakers in Kyiv. Colorado Congressman Jason Crow traveled with the speaker.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JASON CROW: We talked about weapons issues, the current state of the battle in the south and the east, what weapons and equipment that they need to win.
MARTIN: We're going to talk about all this with NPR's Tim Mak, who joins us now from Kyiv. Tim, let's talk about the situation in Mariupol. Did these people, a hundred civilians, did they get out of that steel plant OK?
TIM MAK, BYLINE: Yeah, well, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy announced that those 100 civilians were able to evacuate after the United Nations helped mediate an arrangement. So for days, this idea of a humanitarian corridor where civilians could safely leave, that was discussed between Ukraine and Russia, but those talks repeatedly failed. Now, the fighting has been centered around that massive steel plant, where some Ukrainian fighters still remain, along with several hundred civilians. According to the Ukrainian government, approximately 20 children remain in that steel mill. And they say that this morning, after an evacuation was completed, the Russian military began shelling their positions again. Now, the humanitarian situation in the city continues to be abysmal. Most of Mariupol has been bombed to rubble. Fighting has gone on there now for months, and people still live without running water or electricity.
MARTIN: I mean, the same can be said for several different cities, in particular in the east. You just came back, I understand, from a city in the Donbas region near the front lines. What'd you find?
MAK: Well, that city was called Kramatorsk, and it's nearly emptied out. Seventy-five percent of the pre-war population has left, the mayor's office told us, and it's immediately obvious why. All through the day, you hear the sounds of explosions and artillery. In the city, you see bombed-out buildings, and at night, you see these flashes of bombardment on the horizon, the movement of vehicles in the distance. Many of those who have stayed don't really have the means to leave. We met Ylena Dolgeg (ph) waiting in line for humanitarian aid. That was organized by local authorities. And it was a hectic scene as locals jockeyed for position outside what was once a school. They received some canned goods, a little milk, a little pasta. She needs it because most of the grocery stores in town are closed or have nothing left to sell. And she's been out of work since February 25, the day after the invasion.
YLENA DOLGEG: (Non-English language spoken).
MAK: She told us what she wanted most was peace, that she was concerned about her son, who's in the Kharkiv region, another area that's close to the front lines. She hasn't seen her son in six months, she said, and she wants her grandchildren to be able to visit.
MARTIN: I can't imagine that she's paying attention to a visit to Ukraine by Nancy Pelosi. Nevertheless, it's significant - right? - that the speaker of the House visited Kyiv.
MAK: That's right. Pelosi led this congressional delegation that met with Zelenskyy over the weekend, and that's the second senior U.S. delegation to do so after the secretaries of state and defense visited about a week ago. Now, President Biden has requested $33 billion in funding from Congress to help aid Ukraine through the end of September, and Pelosi said they were already writing legislation to reflect those initiatives. Overnight, the White House announced that first lady Jill Biden will be traveling to Romania and Slovakia to spend Mother's Day with Ukrainian refugees who have fled the country due to violence.
MARTIN: NPR's Tim Mak. Thanks so much, Tim. We appreciate your reporting, as always.
MAK: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MARTIN: So what's it like to watch Putin's war in Ukraine from another country that was also once part of the Soviet Union?
MARTINEZ: This year alone, the Russian military has been operating in five countries outside of its own borders. For Russian leader Vladimir Putin, it's a way to maintain influence beyond Russia's borders. But is it really working?
MARTIN: NPR's Greg Myre has been looking into this and joins us now. Hey, Greg.
GREG MYRE, BYLINE: Hi, Rachel.
MARTIN: Let's just establish where these Russian troops are active right now outside Ukraine.
MYRE: Right. So after that obvious one, we don't have to go very far to find more. Just a few days ago, a couple communications towers were blown up in Moldova. And this is a tiny country that borders Ukraine to the southwest. Russia has about 1,500 troops in a separatist region in the eastern part of Moldova. They've been there for the past 30 years and very much against the will of Moldova's government. It's still not clear who's behind these explosions, but they do raise concerns that the war in Ukraine could spill over into Moldova.
MARTIN: I mean, the most significant support for Russia's war when it comes to former Soviet republics is Belarus, right?
MYRE: Yes, absolutely. The leader of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, is closely tied to Putin. He's allowed Russian troops into Belarus, and then they used Belarus as a launching pad to invade Ukraine. So the specifics of the - vary widely in these three countries - Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova. But there is a common theme here. Putin says the West wants to undermine Russia, and he wants these former Soviet republics, as well as the others, to be this protective buffer for Russia. But Andrew Weiss, a Russia expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, says a lot of these countries aren't so keen on playing this role.
ANDREW WEISS: Nearly all of the post-Soviet countries have a lot of heartburn about looking to Putin as a benevolent security guarantor. Left to their own devices, none of these countries really wants to be back under the Kremlin's wing.
MARTIN: That's interesting. What about the war itself? I mean, what about people living in these countries? Do they support Putin's war?
MYRE: Well, we haven't seen a lot of that - not only from the people, but even from the leaders, there's been a lot of ambivalence. When there was a U.N. resolution, many of these former Soviet republics abstained. And Putin likes to say in Ukraine and elsewhere that he's trying to protect ethnic Russians who live outside of Russia's borders, and that takes us to a fourth country with Russian troops, which is Georgia, on Russia's southwestern frontier. Putin said he was protecting Russians when he sent troops there in 2008 for a brief, bloody conflict. Russia seized a big chunk of Georgian territory. Russian troops are still there to this day in a conflict that is effectively frozen. And we should note that some of the Russian troops in Georgia have been sent to help in Ukraine, which is an example of how these conflicts overlap.
MARTIN: Putin also sent troops to prop up friendly leaders. He's done this before - right? - when they get in trouble. Remind us of the situation in Kazakhstan.
MYRE: Yeah. Just back in January, Putin sent troops into the Central Asian nation of Kazakhstan to help the country's autocratic ruler put down these widespread protests. Now, the unrest was stamped out, and the Russian troops left after just a few weeks. So you might think that a grateful Kazakh leadership would stand with Putin when he invaded Ukraine just a month ago. But that hasn't been the case. Kazakhstan says it supports Ukraine's full sovereignty. It's sending humanitarian aid to Ukraine - certainly not the way that Putin expected to be repaid. We often hear about Putin wanting to reconstruct the Soviet Union - a Soviet reunion, if you will - but this really seems to be a challenge and a bit of a fantasy.
MARTIN: NPR's Greg Myre. Thank you so much for this, Greg.
MYRE: My pleasure.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MARTIN: Scientists at the National Institutes of Health are now recruiting about 20,000 people as part of an ongoing research project to get to the bottom of long COVID.
MARTINEZ: Yeah, since the pandemic began, many people have reported COVID symptoms weeks and months after recovering from their initial illness. Last year, the National Institutes of Health awarded 470 million to researchers all over the country to learn why, and they're looking at more than just fatigue and brain fog in the weeks after infection. They want to know why some so-called long-haulers go on to develop brain or heart problems, metabolic disorders, even autoimmune conditions.
MARTIN: NPR's Allison Aubrey is with us. Hey, Allison.
ALLISON AUBREY, BYLINE: Good morning.
MARTIN: I mean, we've been hearing about long COVID for a long time - two years after the pandemic has begun. Have most people improved or recovered from these lingering symptoms?
AUBREY: Well, there's some data to show that most people who were sick enough to be hospitalized with COVID had not fully recovered one year out, and that's concerning but not completely surprising, given many of these patients were older, had underlying conditions. But most people, Rachel, don't fall into this category, and many who experience lingering symptoms after COVID do go on to make a full recovery. Whether it's most is something this NIH study can help determine. And one of the doctors leading it, Dr. Stuart Katz at NYU, he knows firsthand the uncertainty, the fear that lingering symptoms bring. He got COVID in late 2020, and he was very spooked by what happened next.
STUART KATZ: I have to walk two flights of stairs from my apartment to the street level, and I've been doing that every day for years. It's never a problem. I'm a cyclist. I'm in good shape. I - that's never been, you know, an effort. But after COVID, every time I walk those steps, I would get to the top, and I'd be out of breath, and my heart rate would be going, like, 120 beats a minute.
AUBREY: Now, this went on for several months, and he was so surprised to be hit so hard with these post-viral symptoms.
MARTIN: I mean, that's irony, I guess.
AUBREY: Right.
MARTIN: One of the doctors leading the big NIH study ended up with long COVID himself.
AUBREY: Right?
MARTIN: I mean, how did he just keep doing his work?
AUBREY: Well, he told me for several months it was really tough. He was feeling a lot of exhaustion.
KATZ: So I would find that I would have to, you know, take a break in the mid-morning and, like, even take a nap and then maybe take another break in mid-afternoon and take another nap.
AUBREY: Now, eventually, he got his energy back, and now he tells me he has no lingering symptoms.
KATZ: In terms of my day-to-day sense of health, I do feel like I'm back to my pre-COVID baseline.
MARTIN: Which is great, right?
AUBREY: Yeah.
MARTIN: Is his experience typical, then?
AUBREY: There are lots of stories of full recovery. But for some, the symptoms just really persist. And the NIH study aims to better understand why a small fraction of people have ended up with a whole range of post-COVID symptoms - everything from the onset of diabetes, autoimmune diseases, higher risks of neurological and cardiovascular issues.
KATZ: The bottom line is that we have this huge number of Americans that were infected by COVID, and even if just a small percentage wind up with these long COVID syndromes, it's a lot of people, and this is really devastating their lives. So we have a whole spectrum, and you want to be able to help them.
AUBREY: People interested can check it out at recovercovid.org. That's the study website. Researchers are now aiming to enroll participants all over the country.
MARTIN: NPR's Allison Aubrey. Thank you, Allison.
AUBREY: Thank you, Rachel. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-02/news-brief-mariupol-evacuation-russian-troops-in-ex-soviet-republics-long-covid | 2022-05-12T15:58:25Z |
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
There's a man who is running to be the next governor of Michigan. His name is Ryan Kelley. He's a Republican. And he says, falsely, that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump. Now, Kelley is not even a leading candidate, but there is a moment during his campaign that has gone viral. Here's his advice for poll workers on Election Day.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
RYAN KELLEY: If you see something you don't like happening with the machines, if you see something going on, unplug it from the wall.
CHANG: Kelley is now promoting a Republican-led effort in the state to recruit 5,000 people to work the polls in this fall's election. So here is the concern for the government officials running elections this year - could some election-denier end up working for them on the front lines in the hyper local jobs that keep America's election machinery running? County clerks like Justin Roebuck are already preparing for that possibility.
JUSTIN ROEBUCK: This is America, and we don't stop voting for anything. COVID doesn't stop us from voting. The Civil War didn't stop us from voting. Tornadoes and floods don't stop us from voting.
CHANG: And here is Roebuck's tip for Ryan Kelley.
ROEBUCK: Unplugging the voting machine will do nothing more than activate the battery power...
CHANG: (Laughter).
ROEBUCK: ...On the voting machine. And people will keep voting.
CHANG: Like Kelley, Roebuck's a Republican. He's the guy who administers the elections here in Ottawa County, Mich. And when you walk into his office, one of the first things you will notice is all the Abraham Lincoln collectibles.
How many Abes do you have? One, two...
ROEBUCK: (Laughter).
CHANG: Maybe some volumes up there on Abe.
ROEBUCK: I am obsessed with Abe. But people give me Abe things because they know that and so, like, people, like, start collecting, like, random stuff.
(LAUGHTER)
CHANG: At least you're easy to shop for.
ROEBUCK: Right.
CHANG: Roebuck's office is neat and tidy, just like his haircut and tortoiseshell glasses. This is a man who appreciates order. And ever since the 2020 election, he has gotten frustrated with just how much his job has changed because of all the election misinformation out there.
ROEBUCK: People are calling us still. We're having conversations still about 2020. That has not gone away. I'm estimating my team is spending about 25% of their time dealing with the 2020 election.
CHANG: Still.
ROEBUCK: Today.
CHANG: But Roebuck says he is not going to turn down any of those conversations.
ROEBUCK: I'm going to tell you the truth, including things that you do not want to hear from me sometimes, right? Some - you know, I think we've had a lot of conversations with folks who do get upset when I push back and I say, that's actually a lie; you've been lied to.
CHANG: And if anyone still believes those lies and wants to be a poll worker in his county, Roebuck says he is ready for them.
ROEBUCK: Our goal tonight is to not scare you off.
CHANG: He's changing up his poll worker training sessions, teaching people what to do if a poll worker were to try to interfere with voting.
ROEBUCK: So even more recently, there was a candidate for office who was coming in and speaking to a group of these folks who were essentially being recruited to be election workers. And he - his statement on this was, if you see something fraudulent, if you see something you don't like, unplug the machine. Don't do that.
CHANG: He reminds the volunteers that their job is to make sure that voters can cast their ballots freely.
ROEBUCK: We'll get somebody in there to remove the person who unplugged the machine. The other thing that is important to note is you can call law enforcement. We have a great relationship with...
CHANG: I mean, in all your years doing this kind of work, have you ever planned to include in a poll worker training the idea of, let's say a poll worker goes rogue, what do you do in that situation?
ROEBUCK: That's very new. Yeah. I mean, we talk about a lot of safety situations and, you know, make people aware of, you know, what they need to do in the event of an emergency. This is most definitely the first time that we've talked about an election worker being the cause of something disruptive like that.
CHANG: Now, most of the people at this training are not obsessing about the rogue poll worker scenario.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: So which one are we - the next page over?
CHANG: They're here because they just want to learn how to help out with the democratic process.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: It looks like we've got lots of parts in here.
CHANG: Walking through simple things like how to put the parts of a ballot scanner together.
I can never assemble IKEA furniture, so I would be daunted by this (laughter).
But some people attending tonight have been thinking a lot about the insider threat to election systems since 2020; people like Teresa De Graaf, a Republican. She's the clerk for Port Sheldon Township here in Ottawa County. And she says she has gotten poll worker applications from people she calls radicals, people who believe the lie that the 2020 election was stolen. De Graaf says she's already turned down two of them for poll worker jobs because she got the feeling they had ulterior motives.
TERESA DE GRAAF: They come in, and they want to be part of the process. But then they start spouting their beliefs and how the election was rigged and how they want to be part of the process because of that. But you can actually tell that their ultimate goal is maybe to create some chaos and to prove their point.
CHANG: What do you do in that case as a local clerk?
DE GRAAF: I've taken everyone's applications, and usually I screen them, and I make a note on them and typically then will tell someone if they check back that we have filled the positions.
CHANG: We should be clear it is virtually impossible for a couple rogue poll workers to actually affect the outcome of an election, but Roebuck points out that even a few people can do a lot to shake public trust in the system.
ROEBUCK: I think it's massive ripple effects of distrust in the process, intimidation, misunderstanding of what the process even is. And again, I think that's why it gets back to the heart of our training is so that we project the system in a way that voters can trust and feel comfortable and feel like they can come without disruption, without intimidation and participate.
CHANG: And so every night that Roebuck is on mic in this nondescript brick building in West Olive, Mich., he is trying to preserve that trust.
ROEBUCK: I always think about this, you know, I mean, the impact that we can have with people in their experience with the voting process can really define what they think later about elections, right?
CHANG: These trainings are Roebuck's way of shoring up the system in case another president or some other candidate tries to undermine it.
ROEBUCK: I think there's a period of a few months where I was certainly questioning my career choice, but I think I've arrived at a place now where I believe strongly in what we do to the point where we can't let negative forces win. There have been, you know, lies spoken about our process that I don't want to have the final word. And I love my community, and I love my country. And I think this is where I'm supposed to be right now doing this work.
CHANG: And Roebuck says he is nowhere near quitting.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-02/preparing-the-election-system-for-poll-workers-who-think-its-rigged | 2022-05-12T15:58:31Z |
A MARTINEZ, HOST:
Scientists at the National Institutes of Health are now recruiting about 20,000 people as part of an ambitious study to get to the bottom of long COVID. They're looking at more than just fatigue and brain fog in the weeks after an infection. They want to know why some long haulers go on to develop brain or heart problems, metabolic disorders, even autoimmune conditions. NPR's Allison Aubrey joins us to discuss. Allison, we've been hearing about long COVID since early in the pandemic. Two years on, have most people improved or maybe even recovered from these lingering symptoms?
ALLISON AUBREY, BYLINE: Good morning, A. Well, there's some data to show that most people who were sick enough to be hospitalized with COVID had not fully recovered one year out. That's concerning but not completely surprising given many of these patients were older, had underlying conditions. But most people don't fall into this category, A. Many who experience lingering symptoms after COVID do go on to make a full recovery. Whether it's most is something this NIH study can help determine. And one of the doctors leading it, Dr. Stuart Katz of NYU, he knows firsthand, A, the uncertainty, the fear that lingering symptoms can bring. He got COVID in late 2020 and was very spooked by what happened next.
STUART KATZ: I have to walk two flights of stairs from my apartment to the street level. And I've been doing that every day for years. It's never a problem. I'm a cyclist. I'm in good shape (laughter). I've - that's never been, you know, an effort. But after COVID, every time I walk those steps, I would get to the top. And I'd be out of breath. And my heart rate would be going, like, 120 beats a minute.
AUBREY: And this went on for several months. So he was very concerned. His COVID infection hadn't been very severe. So he was surprised to be hit so hard with these post-viral symptoms.
MARTINEZ: Yeah. And that he's in good shape and he's out of breath, that is terrifying. So one of the doctors leading the big NIH study ended up with long COVID himself.
AUBREY: That's right.
MARTINEZ: Was he able to keep up with his work?
AUBREY: You know, he told me, for several months, it was really tough because he was feeling a lot of exhaustion.
KATZ: So I would find that I would have to, you know, take a break in the mid-morning and, like, even take a nap and then maybe take another break in mid-afternoon and take another nap.
AUBREY: Now, very gradually, he got his energy back. By about nine months out, he was still having an occasional racing heart. But now, thankfully, he tells me he is completely better. He has no lingering symptoms.
KATZ: In terms of my day-to-day sense of health, I do feel like I'm back to my pre-COVID baseline.
MARTINEZ: All right. So that's good news. But, Allison, is his experience typical that eventually symptoms just go away?
AUBREY: For many people, yes. There are lots of stories of people who make a full recovery. But for some, the symptoms persist. And that's what this NIH study is trying to better understand. Why do a small fraction of people end up with a whole range of what can be chronic conditions after COVID, everything from reports of the onset of diabetes, autoimmune diseases, higher risks of neurological and heart issues after COVID? A recent study found an increased incident of cardiovascular events, including clots and arrhythmias among people who had COVID.
KATZ: The bottom line is that we have this huge number of Americans that were infected by COVID. And even if just a small percentage wind up with these long COVID syndromes, it's a lot of people. And this is really devastating their lives. So we have a whole spectrum. And you want to be able to help them.
MARTINEZ: And I know you've been talking to people who fall into this category. What can you tell us?
AUBREY: Well, I'm going to focus on one woman in particular because she really represents, I'd say, the frustrations of a lot of people with persistent symptoms. Over the last year or so, I've been talking to Jennifer Minhas. She's a nurse. She lives in San Diego. She's 55. She got COVID early in the pandemic and ended up with a lot of brain fog, fatigue, circulation issues, a racing heart, a whole range of problems. She had to stop working since being a nurse is so physically demanding.
JENNIFER MINHAS: Because it's fast-paced, constantly on your feet with competing demands on your attention, lots of multitasking. I still have trouble with some of those things. And beyond that, I still get chest pain. And I have neuropathy in my hands. So it's really hard to do even basic tasks sometimes.
MARTINEZ: Yeah. It sounds like her condition has been disabling. Was she healthy before COVID?
AUBREY: Yes. Before COVID, Minhas was very active. She played tennis, went to the gym. But now it's been nearly two years. She was diagnosed with an autoimmune condition called POTS, suggesting the virus set off some kind of change in her immune system. But she says the diagnosis doesn't seem to explain all of her symptoms. She says the neuropathy in her hands has gotten worse.
MINHAS: It's tingling. It's numbness. It's pain in the joints. It's pain outside of the joints. And it can rapidly progress into so much pain that I can't even touch the sheets. I can't touch my steering wheel of my car.
MARTINEZ: Yeah. It sounds like she's still struggling.
AUBREY: You know, the way she describes it is that she has made some progress. She's able to go out for walks, to be social with friends. But she has persistent symptoms that she's constantly trying to manage. She's seen many different doctors. They're still trying to get to the bottom of it. And some have pointed to the overlap with chronic fatigue syndrome, which is another syndrome that has never fully been explained.
MINHAS: I had fatigue for the first, say, 11 months. So there is definitely some overlap. And it's really important to look at all of these syndromes because they haven't been studied in the past as much as they should have been. We're going to have more viruses in the future, I think, that will also be causing post-viral issues. So it's worth the time to get this right now.
AUBREY: So this is one of the reasons why all of this research on long COVID is so important, including this nearly half-billion-dollar NIH study. The study is called RECOVER. Researchers are now aiming to enroll participants all over the country. People can check it out at recovercovid.org for more information on the study.
MARTINEZ: NPR's Allison Aubrey, thanks a lot.
AUBREY: Thank you, A.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARMS AND SLEEPERS' "UNSHIELD") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-02/scientists-explore-why-some-covid-long-haulers-develop-multiple-health-issues | 2022-05-12T15:58:38Z |
A MARTINEZ, HOST:
Shanghai residents have been unusually outspoken about their anger and worries over China's zero COVID strategy. An almost-total lockdown is now stretching into its second month there. And it's something Don Weinland is navigating. He's the China business and finance editor for The Economist.
Don, welcome.
DON WEINLAND: Hello.
MARTINEZ: Can you describe what you're experiencing in Shanghai right now?
WEINLAND: Yeah, sure. So I've been locked inside my hotel room for, I guess, approaching about 50 days now. And, you know, a lot of the city is shut in their homes. It's been difficult to get food at times, especially during the beginning. But yeah - and we still don't know when this is going to end.
MARTINEZ: Have you been alone in your room all this time?
WEINLAND: No. Fortunately, my wife is here with me.
MARTINEZ: OK. How has this lockdown changed daily life for people there in Shanghai?
WEINLAND: Well, I mean, as you can imagine, you know, this is one of the world's biggest cities. And basically, everybody has been locked inside for at least a month. So yeah - I mean, the streets are very empty. Restaurants and shops are closed. You know, all the large buildings in the city are, you know, not active. So yeah - I mean, it's a huge change to normal life.
MARTINEZ: How often do you get to go outside, if at all?
WEINLAND: I go outside about once a day - downstairs to take a PCR test. But that's about it.
MARTINEZ: Now, does that mean you're leaving your hotel or just leaving your room?
WEINLAND: Leaving the hotel.
MARTINEZ: OK.
WEINLAND: So the PCR test is done next door. And I walk downstairs, do the test. I can kind of sneak around and stroll around on a neighboring street and then head back to my hotel.
MARTINEZ: So in those instances when you have been able to sneak out, what's some of the weirdest or most unusual things you've seen?
WEINLAND: Well, I mean - so the health workers here generally dress in white hazmat suits. So, you know, as you're strolling around here, you know, the streets are empty, except for often long lines of these workers in white. So yeah, that's a very odd thing to see coming down the street - you know, a line of 20 people in white hazmat suits.
MARTINEZ: And what about cars on the road? Is it one of those things where it feels deserted, like it's some kind of apocalypse movie or something like that?
WEINLAND: It does feel like that sometimes. Looking out my window, I can see a freeway. And the traffic on the freeway has picked up recently. But if you're on - if you're downstairs on a normal road - I mean, they are very, very empty right now. So it does feel very strange.
MARTINEZ: Some footage out of Shanghai has included images of people pushing back on these measures and literally kicking at barriers. I mean, is that surprising to you? Have you seen any of that?
WEINLAND: I haven't seen any of that with my own eyes. I've seen plenty of footage of it on social media. I'm not really that surprised, to be honest. I mean, I - you know, people have their limits here, just like anywhere else. And yeah, I mean, when somebody gets boxed in to their home with a, you know, a metal gate or a fence, I'm not terribly surprised to see people kicking them down.
MARTINEZ: And how is this lockdown, you think, maybe fueling dissent there in Shanghai? I mean, I can imagine just that eventually people break. I mean, they have to, right?
WEINLAND: Yes. I mean, a lot of the anger has been over, you know, mistakes that the government has made. In the early days, it was very hard to get food. And I think a lot of people in the city were struggling to get even basic vegetables. So yeah, people were very angry about that. There's been a lot of, you know, stuff circulating online where you have these health workers sometimes beating people up. And yeah, that has made people very angry as well.
MARTINEZ: Do you have any sense, Don, of what overall impact the COVID crisis in China is having on government authority there?
WEINLAND: Well, you know, it's - the way that the system is built - I mean, I think there's certainly - this problem is undermining the local government here in Shanghai, without a doubt. So, you know, we'll see over the next month or so whether or not any officials here get punished for what's going on. In terms of the, you know, the central government, I don't think it's going to have much of an impact on those people in Beijing.
MARTINEZ: And is it actually working? Is this lockdown actually working? Is Shanghai seeing a drop in cases?
WEINLAND: It is, actually. Cases have come down quite significantly just over the past couple days. Hopefully, we'll be out soon.
MARTINEZ: And Shanghai's a major city. I mean, how do you think it comes back from being locked down for so long, even economically?
WEINLAND: Yeah, it's an interesting question. I mean, if you just think about, you know, say, all the small businesses and restaurants around the city, you know, their staff have been out of work for weeks. The owners have - you know, maybe they've not been able to pay the rent. You know, there's kind of a chain effect of payments that will ripple across the city - really already is. So yeah, that's a huge problem.
MARTINEZ: Don Weinland is the China business and finance editor for The Economist.
Don, thanks a lot.
WEINLAND: Thanks. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-02/shanghai-residents-speak-out-against-chinas-zero-covid-strategy | 2022-05-12T15:58:44Z |
A MARTINEZ, HOST:
For some South Asian Americans, moving to the U.S. meant leaving behind the discriminatory caste system in their home country. But in California, accusations of caste-based prejudice at the workplace and on college campuses are growing louder. NPR's Sandhya Dirks explores how South Asian Americans are reconciling past and present.
SANDHYA DIRKS, BYLINE: Prem Pariyar grew up in Nepal.
PREM PARIYAR: I belong to the untouchable community.
DIRKS: Thenmozhi Soundararajan grew up in California.
THENMOZHI SOUNDARARAJAN: We were seen as untouchable because we were seen as being spiritually defiling towards God.
DIRKS: Both of them come from the lowest caste - people who used to be called untouchables.
SOUNDARARAJAN: We reject that, and we call ourselves Dalit, which means those who have been broken but are resilient.
DIRKS: Both Pariyar and Soundararajan are American Dalits. Pariyar says he left Nepal because of caste violence.
PARIYAR: My whole family was brutally attacked.
DIRKS: He says when local police did nothing, he started to speak out, which put him at even more risk. So in 2015, he came to the United States seeking asylum. Soundararajan's parents also left India, hoping to leave caste behind.
SOUNDARARAJAN: What they saw was that the more South Asians came here, especially within their immigrant networks, the more people started to rebuild caste.
DIRKS: Caste is a pervasive system of power in religions and cultures across South Asia. It's not exactly like race. It's not directly written on the skin. A last name can give it away. Sometimes it's revealed by the place your family comes from. There's all these subtle cues. So it is possible to change your name, lie about your family and pass. That's what Soundararajan's parents did.
SOUNDARARAJAN: I was actually one of the first Dalit people to be out in the country.
DIRKS: Soundararajan went on to found a Dalit civil rights organization, Equality Labs. It's at the center of this growing conversation about caste in America. When Pariyar came here, he enrolled in school at Cal State, East Bay in the Bay Area. He also didn't want to hide his identity.
PARIYAR: Changing my surname is not the solution.
DIRKS: He felt like people were constantly trying to figure out his caste status.
PARIYAR: We need to change the mindset.
DIRKS: When he did say his last name, he says he was treated differently. Fellow students' facial expressions changed, they looked him up and down - dinner parties where he was asked not to touch the food. Pariyar embarked on a mission to make caste a protected category.
PARIYAR: Same like race, same like gender, class and sexuality. It must be the protected category. That advocacy, I started, like, in every classroom.
DIRKS: It spread to his whole school and then in January, the entire Cal State University system, joining Harvard Student Union, UC Davis, Brandeis. Soundararajan and Equality Labs - they've been involved in all these fights. But some South Asian teachers oppose adding caste as a protected category.
PRAVEEN SINHA: It's discriminatory towards us and not anybody else.
DIRKS: Praveen Sinha is a professor at Cal State, Long Beach. He says adding caste puts a target on South Asians. And he says there's no evidence that caste is an issue in the states. He says he's heard Prem Pariyar's story.
SINHA: That was his perceived discrimination - that when he said his name was this, people looked him up, top to bottom. That is not a classic definition of discrimination.
DIRKS: Sinha says if there are cases of caste discrimination, they're already covered. That's also the argument of the Hindu American Foundation, known as HAF, and its CEO, Suhag Shukla.
SUHAG SHUKLA: I didn't even know the word caste until my ninth grade history teacher asked me about.
DIRKS: HAF and Shukla argue that caste is irrelevant in America. She says when South Asians migrated here, they did leave caste behind.
SHUKLA: It was not a part of my reality. It's even less so for my children.
DIRKS: This isn't the first time HAF and Shukla have pushed back concerning conversations around caste. HAF also argued caste shouldn't be connected to Hinduism in some California school textbooks, claiming that Hindu students were getting bullied as a result. Now she worries it'll be the same at the college level.
SHUKLA: I'm scared for my nieces and nephews who live in California.
DIRKS: South Asians have faced very real and harmful racism in America, says Rohit Chopra, a professor of communications at Santa Clara University. But he says the idea that they are post-caste is a myth.
ROHIT CHOPRA: We don't recognize caste. Our children don't know what their caste is. But that is a luxury that privileged castes only have.
DIRKS: It's not a luxury people who come from oppressed castes have, says Thenmozhi Soundararajan.
SOUNDARARAJAN: We are a joyful, loving, empathetic movement for caste abolition. And let's put into practice in our movement what it looks like to be a South Asian community that has reckoned with our historical harm and is moving forward to build a caste-equitable future.
DIRKS: Soundararajan says if South Asian Americans can come together to do that, then maybe they really can leave caste behind.
Sandhya Dirks, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-02/some-south-asian-americans-believe-caste-based-prejudices-exist-in-the-u-s | 2022-05-12T15:58:50Z |
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday that the city of Boston must let a Christian group fly its flag over city hall, but the decision was sufficiently narrow that other cities, indeed Boston itself, could construct rules that would limit flag flying to government-approved messages.
Just outside Boston's city hall, once named "the world's ugliest building," are three flagpoles. One flies the American Flag, the second flies the state flag, and the third usually flies the city's flag. Usually — because Boston has, for years, allowed the hoisting of other flags on the third pole when groups get permission to hold ceremonies on the city plaza. Between 2005 and 2017, Boston approved the raising of 50 such flags, most of them marking the national holidays of other countries.
Still, a few of the flags were associated with other groups or causes—national Pride Week, emergency medical service workers, and a community bank. In fact, the city had never rejected a flag-raising request until 2017 when Harold Shurtleff, the director of an organization called Camp Constitution, asked to hold a flag raising ceremony for a "Christian Flag."
The city, fearing that a Christian flag would be viewed as an unconstitutional government endorsement of a particular religion, rejected the application, and Shurtleff challenged the rejection, losing in two lower courts but winning in the Supreme Court on Monday.
The decision, written by Justice Stephen Breyer, managed to navigate a clash involving both religion and politics, without wreaking havoc. As Yale law professor Akhil Amar put it in an NPR interview, Breyer "found the sweet spot." He was able to "take a complicated fact pattern and find the common denominator,"—namely that Boston had a "come one, come all" policy that didn't apply to this Christian group.
"The key," wrote Breyer, was to what extent Boston actually controlled the messages on the flags. And the answer, he said, was not at all. The city's lack of meaningful involvement, he said, led the court to conclude that these flag raisings were not government speech—where the government can control its message—but private speech, in fact religious speech, that cannot be regulated by the government.
But, in a nod to the city, Breyer noted that nothing prevents Boston from changing its policies to exclude private speech going forward. It could—like San Jose, Calif.—explicitly say that flags are the city's speech and not intended to serve as a forum for free expression by the public. It could even require that a city council member sponsor a flag before it can be raised.
In fact, Boston suspended its policy last fall when the Supreme Court agreed to review the current policy, so all of these options are on the table now.
Three justices—Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas—agreed with the result in the case, but rejected Breyer's reasoning. They wrote 30 pages worth of concurring opinions. In contrast, the 13-page majority opinion was classic Breyer, managing to achieve consensus in a restrained opinion that left both sides with a clearer idea of what is and is not permissible.
It is an approach that, as University of Georgia Law Professor Sonja West observes, "frustrates" some of Breyer's conservative colleagues "who are eager to push the court further and faster, particularly on issues affecting religious speakers." But on a court that has been deeply divided along liberal/conservative lines of late, Breyer's skill in bridging that divide will likely be sorely missed when he retires at the end of the term this summer.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-02/supreme-court-says-boston-unconstitutionally-barred-christian-flag-from-city-hall | 2022-05-12T15:58:56Z |
ADRIAN FLORIDO, HOST:
Actors Johnny Depp and Amber Heard ended their marriage in 2018, but their story didn't end there. Heard said in a newspaper column that she was a victim of domestic abuse. That led Depp to sue her for defamation. Heard is countersuing. The trial has been playing out in a Virginia courtroom. The court of public opinion, so far, seems to be weighing in favor of the bigger star, Johnny Depp. But domestic violence experts say this is a complex case.
Kellie Lynch researches intimate partner violence and domestic violence at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Welcome.
KELLIE LYNCH: Thank you for having me.
FLORIDO: What so far has caught your attention in what's been said in the courtroom?
LYNCH: So one thing that's caught my attention, and it seems to be being picked up a lot, is this idea of throwing around terms of abuse and abusers versus violence. And that plays into our idea that there is a real abuser or a real victim and a real perpetrator in this relationship. But it's just that's - violence we think of as intentional harm toward the other. That may or may not be abusive. There might be bidirectional violence or they're both violent towards one another. That doesn't mean the same thing as mutual abuse.
FLORIDO: You mentioned bidirectional violence. What do you mean by that?
LYNCH: Why it's important to maybe use that term and not necessarily mutual abuse is that just because someone might be violent towards the other person in the relationship doesn't mean that they were necessarily the primary abuser or aggressor. And an example of why that might occur - if someone who was physically violent towards their abuser in self-defense or if they were triggered by something, the abuse that occurred in the relationship - so there are reasons why someone might be physically violent, but not necessarily an abuser in the relationship. And it's why it's important to - until you maybe necessarily know the full dynamics of something, definitely not to use the term mutual abuse.
FLORIDO: Worth noting, perhaps, that a British court found overwhelming evidence that Johnny Depp may have abused Amber Heard.
LYNCH: What's interesting to me in this trial is seeing the level of support behind Johnny Depp right now, when not that long ago it was kind of - seemed to be the other direction in the libel suit in the U.K., that the judge found evidence for the incidents that Amber Heard alleged that he abused her. So I think it's important for people to keep in mind there is a history here of at least some burden of proof that she has some legitimate side to this story.
These trials are also odd because we're talking about domestic violence. We're talking about something we typically see in criminal court. We don't usually see it being played out in these big civil suits, and especially, too, no one's actually suing someone for abuse. They're suing - you know, these are defamation suits. So we're talking about a criminal and public health problem of abuse and domestic violence. But these are civil suits for defamation.
FLORIDO: We see in so many of these high-profile trials likeability being such an important factor. Is there pressure for both her and Depp to be liked in this trial? And how do you think that that pressure looks different for each of them?
LYNCH: Yes, I'm sure there's enormous pressure to be liked. And there's financial reasons, and that seems to be, you know, Johnny Depp's lawsuit. And of course, he's also seeking to clear his name and things like that. But obviously, at the crux of all of this or with this specific trial is that this has hindered his career and his earnings in a substantial way. So I think there is absolutely pressure for both, as public figures, to be liked.
However, any time, regardless of if you take abuse or domestic violence out of this, any time you have men versus women, you might see double standards. You might see biases. You're going to see, definitely, differences in how behavior is interpreted.
FLORIDO: We've been speaking with Kellie Lynch, associate professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Thank you.
LYNCH: Thank you for having me.
FLORIDO: If you or someone you know is a victim of domestic abuse, you can reach the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-02/the-depp-heard-trial-is-bringing-attention-to-intimate-partner-violence | 2022-05-12T15:59:02Z |
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Countries in the Middle East import a lot of their food from Ukraine and Russia. The cost of that food has been rising. And now with the war in Ukraine, inflation has gotten even worse. NPR's Peter Granitz reports people in the Mideast and their leaders are anxious about how high prices could go and the problems that could bring.
PETER GRANITZ, BYLINE: Waddah Chehade's family's business runs four grocery store brands in Lebanon and has more than a thousand employees. Before Russia's February attack in Ukraine, paying those workers was his highest expense. That has changed, he said when we called him.
WADDAH CHEHADE: The expense of diesel jumped from 3% of sales to 9% of our sales.
GRANITZ: Now it costs 30% more for the generator power that keeps the lights on and produce fresh. That and the increased cost of shipping has forced Chehade to raise prices between 5- and 10%. He says his stores see the same amount of shoppers, but they're spending about 10% less. They're cutting back on extras and the unnecessary items and buying up staples, like cooking oil.
CHEHADE: Today, the supplies are so limited, the demand is getting higher. Because people are afraid to lose these main commodities, they are stocking in their houses. And I am afraid that if we continue, the supply will go down more and more and the demand will go up more and more, which for sure will make the prices go crazy.
GRANITZ: Lebanon, like Turkey and Egypt, imports more than 70% of its wheat from Ukraine and Russia, says Dina Saleh, with the U.N.'s International Fund for Agricultural Development. She says global food prices could rise as much as 20% because of the invasion.
DINA SALEH: Ending the conflict now is the only solution to avert a global food crisis, and a protracted conflict will be catastrophic for the world's poorest people.
GRANITZ: In Egypt, the government is trying to fight inflation by raising interest rates, just like in the United States. The government has also devalued its currency and ordered local wheat growers to sell inside the country before exporting, says Mirette Mabrouk, an analyst at the Middle East Institute in Washington.
MIRETTE MABROUK: The government I think is bending over backwards to try and make sure that consumers don't really get it in the neck because if that happens, then you're looking at unrest. There's a difference between being deeply unhappy and being so unhappy that you're going to march out and say, we've had enough.
GRANITZ: Bread has a special place in Egyptian life. Indeed, the word for bread in the local Arabic is life. For more than three decades, the government has subsidized it for tens of millions of people.
MABROUK: To the poorest people, bread makes a difference between starving and not. So bread is a political litmus test, if you like.
GRANITZ: But the subsidies cost a lot of money, says Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank chief economist Monica Malik. And weaker governments, such as those in Yemen or Syria, don't have those options. Malik says the invasion poses a problem many governments have rarely dealt with.
MONICA MALIK: It's not so easy for governments to deal with this inflationary spike up because it is as a result of supply shortages. It's not so much demand-led.
GRANITZ: Malik expects it'll take years to recover from the price spikes throughout the economy. And the longer the crisis drags on, the more worried she is about hunger because Ukraine and Russia will be unable to export the food the world needs.
MALIK: The harvests for next year are not going to be planted, or a small amount is going to be planted. Global demand is just not going to be fully met. Countries like Egypt are looking more and more to India, Europe, et cetera. All the countries that depended on Russian and Ukrainian wheat are going to look elsewhere.
GRANITZ: But those new sources are more expensive.
Peter Granitz, NPR News, Amman. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-05-02/the-war-in-ukraine-has-the-cost-of-bread-skyrocketing-in-places-like-the-middle-east | 2022-05-12T15:59:08Z |
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